Dr. John Malone knows the symptoms of diabetes — he has diabetes; better yet, he is at the fore in the treatment of diabetes

When John Malone was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes in the late 1950s, his doctor told him to take a shot of insulin a day, follow a diabetic diet and check his urine for sugar from time to time. • That was about all the advice his doctor could offer Malone, who was 17. • "He then told me not to worry," Malone recalls. "He said, you won't be able to become a doctor and you won't be able to fly an airplane, but you'll be all right if you eat well and don't forget your insulin." • Malone ignored the career chat, but heeded the health advice. Today, he is 68 and, although he doesn't fly airplanes, he did become a doctor who started the first pediatric diabetes clinic at the University of South Florida College of Medicine in the early 1970s.

In those days, children with diabetes were treated in hospitals since there were no outpatient clinics for them. Malone started his own program with a nurse, a dietitian and a social worker.

"We started out seeing patients at Tampa General Hospital on Saturday mornings, unofficially. We didn't bill anybody 'cause we didn't have a method of collecting money," Malone says.

Eventually the state health department found out what he was doing and provided funding to keep the clinic going, plus money to start similar clinics at the state's two other medical schools. Malone says Florida was a pioneer in the field.

Living with diabetes

Not many people know that Malone has diabetes. He doesn't talk about it much, and doesn't think it makes him a better doctor.

"Personal experience is not very useful for other people. What I do for patients has more of a scientific basis,'' he said. "I don't want to rely on the fact that I have diabetes to say that this is the right way to treat it."

He chose his field not because of his condition, but because of circumstance. As a medical student at the University of Pennsylvania, he got a job working in the lab of a doctor who was studying diabetes. "I needed the money," he explains.

Recently, Malone was honored by the famed Joslin Diabetes Center in Boston for living successfully with diabetes for 50 years. He earned Joslin's coveted gold medal in the same way that so many others like him have: by paying careful attention to diet, medication, blood sugar monitoring, weight management and other lifestyle issues. He has used an insulin pump for years.

Malone knows well that managing blood sugar is the key to preventing common diabetes-related complications like vision problems, kidney damage, heart disease and neuropathy, or nerve damage that can lead to amputation.

Even with expert management, Malone has developed some neuropathy, some damage to a retina, and has had a heart attack. But the Joslin Medalist Study of people who have lived for decades with the disease has found many patients who have avoided complications through diligent glucose control.

When Malone dies, his body will go to Joslin researchers looking to discover why some patients fare better long-term than others.

He's also getting local recognition for his dedication to research and finding a cure for diabetes. This weekend, Malone will be honored at a black-tie gala fundraiser sponsored by the Tampa Bay chapter of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. The event is expected to bring in $300,000 to support research for Type 1 diabetes.

Research has led to important changes in treatment since Malone was diagnosed, when one insulin shot a day was thought to be enough.

"Patients checked their blood sugar when they felt like it and saw their doctor maybe once every three months," Malone says.

In the early 1980s, Malone's USF clinic was the only one in Florida, and one of 27 centers nationwide, involved in groundbreaking research that found that it takes intensified therapy in children, meaning three or more shots of insulin a day and blood sugar checks four or more times a day, to reduce the risk of devastating complications later in life.

Today, he thinks the most promising research focuses on development of a mechanical device that will constantly monitor blood sugar levels and automatically deliver just the right amount of insulin. Malone says such a device could be months or years away.

"But it's the closest thing to a cure that I see in the not-too-distant future,'' he said.

Irene Maher can be reached at imaher@sptimes.com or (813) 226-3416.