Diabetes gets ‘higher’ study

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Professors at NAU and in Tucson are investigating whether type 1 diabetics might suffer more from mild altitude sickness, including on jetliners and when hiking the San Francisco Peaks.

The researchers plan to experiment with 90 people, having them exercise in Tucson, then in Flagstaff, and measuring how their bodies fare at each elevation.

The research is funded by the Arizona Biomedical Research Commission and the National Institutes of Health with combined grants of $333,000, with a first round of results expected next year.

It’s hoped the research could lead to treatments, if the hypothetical problem proves to be a real one.

Diabetics have a reduced ability to move oxygen from the lung to the blood, and the pair hopes to investigate whether better medications or other treatments could be found to help diabetics in flight and on the move by researching diabetics and non-diabetics.

Exercise physiologist Chris Baldi, an assistant biology professor at Northern Arizona University, puts the question this way: “If people come up here to ski or do whatever they come up here to do, are they able to do it with diabetes?”

Test participants will begin on bikes in a lab at the University of Arizona in Tucson, where they will exercise and have measurements taken to determine how well their hearts and lungs are getting and providing oxygen.

The same people will then spend the night in Flagstaff, then begin the same exercises in an identical lab here.

Type I diabetes is often diagnosed in childhood, when the pancreas stops creating insulin for unknown reasons.

Baldi has friends whose children have diabetes. Getting blood sugar under good control is often a challenge, particularly for adolescents, he said.

“I think it’s an uphill battle to get people to improve their control,” but this might provide extra incentive, he said.

Type I diabetes can damage the small blood vessels feeding the eyes, limbs or other organs, leading to loss of vision or of a foot.

But researchers haven’t spent much time considering whether those same impacts might also apply to the lungs, Baldi said.

If there’s a bright spot so far, it was in the finding that a Tucson triathlon team of diabetics was able to maintain better oxygen levels after the group members kept close watch on their blood sugars.

Cyndy Cole can be reached at or 913-8607.
CYNDY COLE Sun Staff Reporter

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