These days, people with medical/health problems are in high demand for a special job: Clinical Research Trial Participants. There are tons of scientific studies going on in order to test new drugs or treatments, and to find out more about specific illnesses.

As Diabetics, we can get in on this hot market!

Being a part of a research experiment can be very rewarding because you know that you are helping advance scientific breakthroughs which just might lead to a cure, plus you often get paid for your time. Participating in a trial can involve something as simple as writing down what you eat for a day, or as unpleasant as getting your blood drawn.

Although volunteering in a research trial is jokingly referred to as being a Guinea Pig, the truth is that the volunteers are taking the place of mice. The scientists base their ideas and procedures for these human experiments on what they have already done with mice in the lab! (Oh well, they have to test humans eventually! And usually the studies are harmless...:) )

I have been lucky enough to be a part of two clinical studies researching Diabetes at the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

The first one was when I was only 10 years old, just a few months after being diagnosed with diabetes. The purpose of the study was to see if a drug called Aplha Interferon could help newly diagnosed diabetics retain insulin-making cells in their bodies. Beta cells, which make insulin, get destroyed in Type 1 Diabetes, but if there was a way to preserve them, diabetics might not need as much additional insulin. Anyway, this was also was is known as a "double-blind study," in which half the volunteers recieved the actual drug (interferon) and half recieved a placebo (salt water). Neither the volunteers nor the researchers conducting the trial knew who had the placebo or the drug. I had to take a dose of the "stuff" every day for one year, and I went to NIH every few weeks for blood tests, where the researchers measured something called C-peptides, which are directly related to insulin cells. Thus, the more C-peptides in my blood, the more insulin-making cells I had.  

I am so glad that I did this study. It gave me an inside look at the scientific process, which we are always learning about in school, and also it was just really cool to be part of a big, important project!

It wasn't until 2006, about 5 years after the fact, that I learned I had taken the placebo during the study. This means that if the interferon did indeed have any benefits, I didn't get them, but also that I avoided any bad side effects that could be associated with the drug. The reason they had to have a placebo group was because there needed to be a "control" in the experiment, something that could be compared to the group who did have the drug. If my blood test results were similar to those of a person who did have the interferon, for example, then the researchers might conclude that the interferon had no effect whatsoever. (I do not actually know about the results or conclusions of this study. It takes a while before they can write them up and derive any real meaning from them.)