Dolphins and diabetes, a newly discovered relationship. Apparently dolphins utilize the diabetic state for survival when they are unable to feed for long periods. That brings up a lot of questions but so far scientists have now answers.
The discovery that dolphins can turn on a diabetic state at will when it needs to, and turn it off when it is unuseful has prompted scientists to investigate how the dolphin does it. Obviously access to an on and off switch, be it biochemical or genetic, would be invaluable to clinicians.
This finding is now being heralded as an exciting hope for future treatment of diabetes. Actually, what are the real chances that this discovery will lead to any improvement in diabetic treatment – very little!
So, you build us up and let us down. Why down grade news reports that seem so filled with promise? Let us examine whether it is real hope or false hope.
If you are more mature you can see the point here. Hope blooms eternal around every so called breakthrough in sicience. Most by far, quickly end up in the graveyard of hopes. Over fourty years ago a chemical was discovered in astronaut blood which could aid weight loss almost effortlessly. Hope filled the hearts of the weighed challanged crowd. So, as you look around you and see no overweight people anymore, you know how well that turned out.
A large number of scientists count on grant money to continue their research. Trends and hot topics tend to be the driving force for grant distribution. If you have a potentially hot topic you need to get the word out – right?
Scientist who work for corporations know they are just as responsible for generating excietment around a new product idea as they are inventing or discoving them.
No researcher, to my knowledge, has counted the number of daily stories describing a new hope. I bet it would be in the hundreds at least. There were two stories about breakthro;ugh drugs and hope for the diabetic on the same day the dolphin dieabetes story appeared.
The point is not to allow hope stories to weaken any motivation to do what you can do today about your pre-diabetes or diabetes. Even if your exercising and dieting seem just too mundane compared to the excitement of a fix-everything drug full of hope – it is a proven remedy and the other isn’t
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