Episode Transcript
The following is a summary of this episode.
High-impact discoveries at University of Utah Health are transforming how we think about the causes of diabetes and solutions to combat the disease. These advances could hardly come at a better time. The disease is a big problem in the U.S., leading to an estimated $327 billion in health care costs. What’s more, while 1 in 10 American adults have diabetes, 1 in 3 have prediabetes, a sign that they are well on their way to developing the disease.
In impediment to solving the diabetes conundrum is the complexity of the disease. People with both Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes have difficulty controlling their blood sugar, leading to serious health complications if left untreated. But the causes of the two are distinctly different, as are many of the downstream effects. New research is unraveling these complexities, revealing previously unrecognized opportunities for intervention. Combining these insights with a lot of work—and a little luck—could one day make diabetes a problem of the past.
In this episode, host Kyle Wheeler interviews Scott Summers, PhD. Dr. Summers is the Co-director of the Diabetes and Metabolism Research Center at the University of Utah. He is also a professor and the department chair of Nutrition & Integrative Physiology.
Dr. Summers and Kyle discuss a variety of discoveries that have happened at University of Utah Health related to diabetes. The topics range from Dr. Summers’ own research has led to an understanding that ceramides may be a better harbinger of bad metabolic health than cholesterol to the involvement of the microbiome in obesity. They also discuss the prospect of an insulin inspired by the sea and the complex causes of type 1 diabetes.