Republished with approval from DiabetesMine.com.
Karen Talmadge is has a PhD in biochemistry from Harvard. She's currently the executive VP, co-founder, and chief science officer of Kyphon (orthopedic), which was purchased last year by Medtronic for $4 billion. But first and foremost, she's the mother of a daughter who's had Type 1 diabetes since the age of two. This, she says, is what fuels her passionate work as an advocate for ADA and supporter of a number of entrepreneurial diabetes-tech companies over the years.
I recently chatted at length with Karen about this fascinating mix of personal D-struggles and being a scientist/businesswoman. Among other insights, she makes some very compelling arguments about why she's chosen to work so closely with the ADA rather than JDRF. She supports them both, of course, but there's nothing like a scientist/mother for the ultimate in pragmatism. Take a read for yourself:
Let's start with your personal connection to diabetes. How did you deal with your toddler's diagnosis?
It
was just a few days after Nicola's 2nd birthday. She was still in
diapers. We just thought we needed bigger diapers, because she was
wetting the bed so much. She would stand in front of fridge by the
water dispenser and yell, "wawa, wawa!" She wasn't verbal yet, but we
thought something might be going on.
It was Indian summer,
incredibly hot. We had my brother's birthday party on Oct. 4, and she
kept soaking her diapers. Her Dad took her in, and the pediatrician
said it was just the hot weather. The doctor glued a little bag on her
to pee in it, in order to measure the urine.
I'm a biochemist
and researcher in diabetes and obesity, and my husband John is also
biochemist focused on immunology. At one point we just turned to each
other and said, "it's diabetes."
Was there any family history?
No, but 75% of cases of new onset Type 1 diabetes have no diabetes in the family.
In fact was the classic season of Type 1 diabetes onset, October. There's a theory of the infectious component, the so-called "final insult" that hits the pancreas that's pre-disposed to diabetes at that time of year. It may be infection (internal), or toxins (environmental), who knows? There's no definitive evidence yet, but the peak appears to be late September to mid-October.
Your daughter's a teenager now, correct? Did you mainly manage her diabetes for her while she was growing up, or try to push her to take charge herself?
She's 17 now, a senior in High School. She was an avid soccer player, but she 's had a mid-foot dislocation, common to soccer players and people with diabetes, that's stopped her career in soccer; she's mourning over that. She developed arthritis in her Lisfranc joint that will always be with her. Otherwise she's doing great.
Our philosophy was always: if she can do it herself, she should. One day before her fourth birthday, she grabbed the meter and said, "I do it self." Our doctor was astounded. You know, we tend to assume people can't do things, like kids making good food choices. They can.
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