Type 1 Diabetes

[Svante]

is there anyone who have type 1 diabetes. i am and i will like to share with sombody that understand.the quote mentiion new mediication and change i n diet.this have much affect with diabetes.it allso mention the pump that replace the injecton.i hate injectons. another quote mentiion stem cell research look for method to replace insulin cells in pancreas. i f you have diabetes o r know sombody,what diet o r meal wheel d o they have? also, do they use the pump.

quote from LiveUninhibited

I am a type 1 diabetic (DM-I), but I have never used a pump. Honestly, I wouldn't be interested in a pump unless I had a problem with sticking myself with needles several times a day (I don't), or if it was a pump that could continuously monitor my blood sugar, as I have a much bigger issue with the lancets for testing than the needles for injecting. I usually barely feel the injection, but the lancets hurt. As far as I know, pumps don't monitor blood glucose yet, but last I checked they were working on it, in the very city I live in, but I'm not sure about getting involved in the trials.

I don't know everything about your situation... maybe your doctor has a reason for having you on a pump, but I don't see the advantage of it. Did he explain? I hope so, my first Endocrinologist was a major disappointment in that he failed to explain much, and then reported me to the DMV as uncontrolled when I went to college and stopped seeing him. Then my licence got suspended every 6 months because I didn't reliably get my mail from parents while I was at college. They finally stopped suspending me when a doctor reported to them that I had never had a lapse of consciousness. Personally I think the Oregon DMV overreacts in general to the potential for hypoglycemia while driving.

As for the pump, if it discouraged me from staying active I'd go back to needles for sure. I check my blood sugar almost every 2 hours some days, and my physical activity level has been variable. I have noticed that I have a MUCH easier time keeping my blood sugar near the normal range when I am physically active. Things like physical activity and a good diet are important for everybody, but physical activity is doubly important for diabetics like us. I also found that carefully counting the grams of carbs in everything I eat helps, and being on long-acting insulin (Lantus, insulin glargine) helps, especialy in avoiding having high blood sugar when I wake up.

It sucks and it isn't fair, but if you take it seriously and take care of it reliably it probably won't be anything more than an annoyance for many years. If we take care of ourselves, we may even live a normal lifespan. Don't count on a cure. It may happen within our lifetimes, but DM-I seems to be autoimmune, and without immunosuppresants implants would likely be destroyed. So it's not like you can just replace the islet cells, a long-term solution would have to be more innovative than a mere implant. There are many worse things to have, and the positive thing about type one diabetes is you can do something about it, and it just might encourage you to take better care of yourself than you otherwise would have.

quote fro m Lopettaa

As many people know, stem cells are important. They can be obtained from the placenta and umbilical cord after birth. It is effective because immune system will not reject our own stem cells.

My nephew was born in July. My sister was question about preserving the stem cells as they can be frozen over a period of time. She had this process done. Then she share the reason she did this to me.

The UT in Yorkville medical institute say stem cells can be useful to treat leukemia, breast cancer and many other diseases. Other treatments are for injury to spinal cord, liver damage, diabetes, parkinson and multiple scierosis.

It is good to see more people are realising this and not to discard this valuable life material

 

[anne12]

Hello Friends...........

Type 1 diabetes is a chronic (lifelong) disease that occurs when the pancreas does not produce enough insulin to properly control blood sugar levels.

There are several forms of diabetes. Type 1 diabetes used to be called juvenile or insulin-dependent diabetes. Type 1 diabetes can occur at any age, but it is most often diagnosed in children, adolescents, or young adults.

Insulin is a hormone produced by special cells, called beta cells, in the pancreas, an organ located in the area behind your stomach. Insulin is needed to move blood sugar (glucose) into cells, where it is stored and later used for energy. In type 1 diabetes, these cells produce little or no insulin.

Thanks

 

[waltky]

If blood sugar levels drop too far it can lead to unconsciousness...

Severe hypoglycaemia cause found
6 October 2011 - The cause of a rare and severe form of hypoglycaemia - or very low levels of sugar in the blood - is genetic, say researchers.

The life-threatening condition means the body does not have enough energy to function. Scientists at the University of Cambridge say mutations in the AKT2 gene are to blame. Writing in the journal Science, they say there are already cancer drugs which target a similar process.

Hypoglycaemia can be caused by a disruption in the balance between the hormone insulin and sugar. Insulin lowers the level of sugar in the blood. The condition is commonly associated with Type 1 diabetes, when the patients inject too much insulin, miss a meal or drink alcohol.

Rare

However, one-in-100,000 babies are born with a genetic defect which means they develop hypoglycaemia even when there is no insulin in the blood. In theory they should have very high blood sugar levels. These patients have to have a feeding tube inserted directly into the stomach to prevent fits while they are asleep. One of the researchers, Dr Robert Semple, said: "Fear of low blood sugar has dominated the lives of these patients and their families."

Scientists analysed the genetic code of three children with the condition. All had a mutation in the AKT2 gene. AKT2 acts as an interpreter for the hormone insulin. With the mutation, the interpreter acts as though insulin is always present, lowering blood sugar levels. Lead researcher Prof Stephen O'Rahilly told the BBC that cancer drugs were available which targeted AKT1 and which also act against AKT2. "There are actual pills that can be swallowed by humans, there could be a treatment in a year."

BBC News - Severe hypoglycaemia cause found

 

[ibnujusup]

hi , i'm new here, i'm a bio medical student.. my final year project is in the effect of roselle in diabetes, currently it is in the first phase... i will update it here so that everyone will benefit from it...

would love to know if other people know someone who use roselle as part of their anti diabetic program

 

[waltky]

Granny says get yer blood sugar level checked...

Diabetes is scary, it is growing and is becoming a global crisis
Sun, Oct 23, 2011 - On Barbara Young’s office table is a graph. A bar chart, actually: Four columns of green, purple, red and bright blue showing the progression, in England, of rates of coronary heart disease, stroke, cancer and diabetes over the past five years. The first two are flatlining or falling. Cancer, in red, is rising, but slowly. Trace a line between the blue bars from 2005 to last year and it soars off the chart.

“Diabetes,” Young says flatly, “is becoming a crisis. The crisis. It’s big, it’s scary, it’s growing and it’s very, very expensive. It’s clearly an epidemic and it could bring the health service to its knees. Something really does need to happen.” Baroness Young is, admittedly, the chief executive of Diabetes UK, Britain’s main diabetes charity and campaigning group. It’s her job to say such things. However, the figures are behind her all the way: Diabetes is fast becoming the 21st century’s major public-health concern. The condition is now nearly four times as common as all forms of cancer combined and causes more deaths than breast and prostate cancer combined. About 2.8 million people in the UK have been diagnosed with it; an estimated 850,000 more probably have type 2 diabetes, but don’t yet know. Another 7 million are classified as at high risk of developing type 2; between 40 percent and 50 percent of them will go on to develop it. By the year 2025, more than 5 million people in Britain will have diabetes.

The implications for the National Health Service (NHS), obviously, don’t bear thinking about. Diabetes already costs the service around ￡1 million (US$1.6 million) an hour, roughly 10 percent of its entire budget. That’s not just because the condition generally has to be managed with medication or insulin, but because by the time they are diagnosed, around half the people with type 2 — by far the most common and fastest growing form — have developed a longer-term complication. Cardiovascular disease, for example, will kill 52 percent of people with type 2 diabetes, who are also twice as likely to have a stroke in the first five years after diagnosis as the population at large. Almost one in three people with the condition will develop kidney disease and diabetes is the single biggest cause of end-stage kidney failure. You are up to 20 times more likely to go blind if you have diabetes.

“The cost of some of these complications, in terms of medical and social care, unemployment benefits, everything, is just enormous,” Young says. “People can’t work, can’t drive ... and so many personal tragedies. People with diabetes have a foot amputated 70 times a week in England, and 80 percent of those amputations wouldn’t have been necessary if it had been caught earlier and looked after properly.” Recently, Young says, she met a former ballerina. “No one had told her, when she was in her 20s and 30s, that maybe it wasn’t such a good idea, might be dangerous even, to keep her blood sugar level deliberately high, for energy. She just had her heel amputated,” she says.

MORE

 

[JamesInFlorida]

is there anyone who have type 1 diabetes. i am and i will like to share with sombody that understand.the quote mentiion new mediication and change i n diet.this have much affect with diabetes.it allso mention the pump that replace the injecton.i hate injectons. another quote mentiion stem cell research look for method to replace insulin cells in pancreas. i f you have diabetes o r know sombody,what diet o r meal wheel d o they have? also, do they use the pump.

quote from LiveUninhibited

I am a type 1 diabetic (DM-I), but I have never used a pump. Honestly, I wouldn't be interested in a pump unless I had a problem with sticking myself with needles several times a day (I don't), or if it was a pump that could continuously monitor my blood sugar, as I have a much bigger issue with the lancets for testing than the needles for injecting. I usually barely feel the injection, but the lancets hurt. As far as I know, pumps don't monitor blood glucose yet, but last I checked they were working on it, in the very city I live in, but I'm not sure about getting involved in the trials.

I don't know everything about your situation... maybe your doctor has a reason for having you on a pump, but I don't see the advantage of it. Did he explain? I hope so, my first Endocrinologist was a major disappointment in that he failed to explain much, and then reported me to the DMV as uncontrolled when I went to college and stopped seeing him. Then my licence got suspended every 6 months because I didn't reliably get my mail from parents while I was at college. They finally stopped suspending me when a doctor reported to them that I had never had a lapse of consciousness. Personally I think the Oregon DMV overreacts in general to the potential for hypoglycemia while driving.

As for the pump, if it discouraged me from staying active I'd go back to needles for sure. I check my blood sugar almost every 2 hours some days, and my physical activity level has been variable. I have noticed that I have a MUCH easier time keeping my blood sugar near the normal range when I am physically active. Things like physical activity and a good diet are important for everybody, but physical activity is doubly important for diabetics like us. I also found that carefully counting the grams of carbs in everything I eat helps, and being on long-acting insulin (Lantus, insulin glargine) helps, especialy in avoiding having high blood sugar when I wake up.

It sucks and it isn't fair, but if you take it seriously and take care of it reliably it probably won't be anything more than an annoyance for many years. If we take care of ourselves, we may even live a normal lifespan. Don't count on a cure. It may happen within our lifetimes, but DM-I seems to be autoimmune, and without immunosuppresants implants would likely be destroyed. So it's not like you can just replace the islet cells, a long-term solution would have to be more innovative than a mere implant. There are many worse things to have, and the positive thing about type one diabetes is you can do something about it, and it just might encourage you to take better care of yourself than you otherwise would have.

quote fro m Lopettaa

As many people know, stem cells are important. They can be obtained from the placenta and umbilical cord after birth. It is effective because immune system will not reject our own stem cells.

My nephew was born in July. My sister was question about preserving the stem cells as they can be frozen over a period of time. She had this process done. Then she share the reason she did this to me.

The UT in Yorkville medical institute say stem cells can be useful to treat leukemia, breast cancer and many other diseases. Other treatments are for injury to spinal cord, liver damage, diabetes, parkinson and multiple scierosis.

It is good to see more people are realising this and not to discard this valuable life material

My cousin's on the pump, and swears by it. Just say for what it's worth haha.

 

[waltky]

Preventable diabetes deaths...

24,000 diabetes deaths a year 'could be avoided'
14 December 2011 - Insulin injections can control the condition

Up to 24,000 deaths from diabetes could be avoided in England each year, if patients and doctors better managed the condition, a report concludes. The first-ever audit of patient deaths from the condition said basic health checks, a good diet and regular medication could prevent most of them. Diabetes UK said it was vital the 2.3 million sufferers had top quality care. The Department of Health in England said shocking variations in care and an unacceptable death toll were evident. About a third of people in the UK affected do not realise they have the condition. It means their bodies cannot use glucose properly. If they do not manage it, they can develop potentially fatal complications like heart or kidney failure. The report, by the NHS Information Centre, compared information about people with diabetes in England with data from death records. Around 70-75,000 diabetic patients die every year.

The study estimated that a third of them were dying from causes that could be avoided if their condition were better managed. That includes basic health checks from doctors, and patients taking medication and keeping to a healthy diet. For patients with Type 1, the risk of dying was 2.6 times higher than it was for the general population. With Type 2, the risk was 1.6 times higher. But in younger age groups, the risk was far greater. Women between the ages of 15 and 34 with diabetes were nine times more likely to die than other women of the same age. Men in the same age group were four times more likely to die if they had the condition. It is the first time there has been such a comprehensive assessment of the number of affected people dying. The National Diabetes Information Service said the number of people with the condition was rising, so if nothing was done, the number of deaths would also increase.

'Shocking' variations

"Many of these deaths could be prevented," said Dr Bob Young, diabetologist and spokesman for the National Diabetes Information Service. "Doctors, nurses and the NHS working in partnership with people who have diabetes should be able to improve these grim statistics." Diabetes UK described the figures as alarming. "We know that half of people with Type 2 and more than two thirds of people with Type 1 diabetes are not receiving the care they need to stay healthy," said Barbara Young, Diabetes UK chief executive.

"It is imperative we take action now to stop even more lives being needlessly cut short. "We will be holding the NHS to account wherever it fails to deliver high-quality care." The Department of Health in England said the audit had revealed shocking variations in care, and an unacceptable death toll. Care services Minister Paul Burstow said: "I expect the NHS to learn from the best. It's not rocket science - integrated health care can help people manage their diabetes, and stay well and out of hospital."

BBC News - 24,000 diabetes deaths a year 'could be avoided'

 

[waltky]

Fewer people losing limbs due to diabetes...

CDC: Diabetes amputations falling dramatically
Tue Jan 24,`12 – Foot and leg amputations were once a fairly common fate for diabetics, but new government research shows a dramatic decline in limbs lost to the disease, probably due to better treatments.

The rate has fallen by more than half since the mid-1990s, according to what is being called the most comprehensive study of the trend. For older diabetics, amputations dropped from more than 11 to about 4 per 1,000 people, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Tuesday. Other diabetes studies have shown declines in lost toes, feet and legs, but not as dramatic. "What jumped out to me was the scale of the improvement," said Dr. John Buse, a University of North Carolina diabetes expert who was not involved in the new study. The study was released Tuesday by the medical journal Diabetes Care.

Diabetes is a disease in which sugar builds up in the blood. Roughly 1 in 10 U.S. adults has it, and it is the seventh leading cause of death, the CDC says. Complications include poor circulation and nerve damage in the lower limbs, resulting in numbness and slow healing of sores and infections. That's most common in elderly patients and those with diabetes for at least 10 years. While diabetes has been growing more common in the United States — driven by obesity-related Type 2 — researchers have noted recent declines in some of the other most dreaded complications, including blindness and kidney failure.

Buse recalled seeing such problems constantly when he first became director of UNC's Diabetes Care Center in the mid-1990s. "Pretty much every minute of every day in the waiting room, there would be somebody missing a limb, or with a seeing eye dog or white cane," he said. But he hasn't seen a patient like that in his waiting room for a few years, he added.

In the CDC study, the researchers checked national hospital discharge records for 1988 through 2008, looking for patients aged 40 and older who had lost a toe, foot or leg to diabetes. They found that though the number of people with the disease more than tripled over those two decades, foot and leg amputations fell after 1996. The researchers also looked at people who did not have diabetes, and found the rates of amputation were flat. It's not clear what happened to start the drop among diabetics, said Nilka Rios Burrows, a CDC epidemiologist who co-authored the study.

But experts note that was a decade in which studies clearly demonstrated the value of close monitoring and stepped-up patient education. It's also when Medicare began paying for blood sugar monitoring and for protective shoes and other medical devices for elderly diabetics. CDC officials saw increases in the proportion of diabetics who got annual foot exams, and believe the enhanced care is the main reason for the decline in amputations. But another element may be that larger numbers of diabetics are being diagnosed earlier and with milder disease, Burrows said.

Source

 

[waltky]

Diabetes increases risk of birth defects...

Diabetes quadruples birth defects risk, say researchers
5 February 2012 - The risk of birth defects increases four-fold if the pregnant mother has diabetes, researchers say.

The Newcastle University study, published in the journal Diabetologia, analysed data from more than 400,000 pregnancies in North East England. The risk of defects such as congenital heart disease and spina bifida were increased. National guidelines already recommend having good control over blood sugar levels before trying to conceive. Both Type 1 diabetes, which tends to appear in childhood, and Type 2 diabetes, largely as a result of diet, lead to problems controlling the amount of sugar in the blood. This is known to cause problems in pregnancy, such as birth defects, miscarriage and the baby being overweight due to too much sugar.

There is concern that rising levels of diabetes, particularly Type 2, could make the issue worse. Researchers analysed data from 401,149 pregnancies between 1996 and 2008 - 1,677 women had diabetes. The risk of birth defects went from 19 in every 1,000 births for women without pre-existing diabetes to 72 in every 1,000 births for women with diabetes. Their report said that sugar levels in the run-up to conception were the "most important" risk factor which could be controlled.

The lead researcher, Dr Ruth Bell from Newcastle University, told the BBC: "Many of these anomalies happen in the first four to six weeks." She said the number of pregnancies with poor sugar control were "more than we would like". "It is a problem when the pregnancy is not intended or when people are not aware they need to talk to their doctors before pregnancy," she said. Guidelines from the National Institute of Health and Clinical Excellence say women should reduce their blood sugar levels to below 6.1% before trying to have a baby.

More BBC News - Diabetes quadruples birth defects risk, say researchers

 

[waltky]

Gastric surgery better at controlling diabetes...

Surgery better for diabetes in the obese: studies
26 Mar.`12 - Two clinical studies suggest that gastric surgery is better than traditional methods of care when it comes to controlling diabetes in overweight and obese patients.

The first study, coined STAMPEDE, and presented at the American College of Cardiology conference, showed that patients who had operations fared three to four times better than those who did not after one year. The study followed 150 patients who were randomly assigned to surgery or regular medical care, including drug regimens. Their starting body mass indexes ranged from 27, or overweight, to obese at up to 42 BMI. Those who got surgery saw significant improvements in blood sugar, or glycemic control, and were able to cut down on the number of medications they took, while those in the medical group tended to take more drugs than before with less effect.

Forty-two percent of people who had a laparoscopic gastric bypass and nearly 37 percent who had a sleeve gastrectomy achieved a lowering of blood sugar known as glycemic control, or a hemoglobin HbA1c level of six percent. Only 12 percent of patients who received medical therapy, including counseling for lifestyle changes, achieved this level, which is slightly more aggressive than the seven percent or less HbA1c recommended by the American Diabetes Association. Weight loss was five times greater for patients who received gastric bypass or sleeve gastrectomy compared with medical therapy (roughly 55 to 64 pounds compared to 12 pounds).

"Even though patients were given very intensive treatment, including new drugs, the surgical therapies were still superior," said lead investigator Philip Schauer, professor of surgery, director of the Bariatric and Metabolic Institute, Cleveland Clinic. "For about a century, we have been treating diabetes with pills and injections," he added. "And this is one of the first studies to show that surgical therapy may, at least in some patients, be much more effective than the polypharmacy approach to treating this disease."

The second study based in Rome, Italy, enrolled 60 people age 30-60 with a body mass index of 35 or higher and a history of type 2 diabetes. They were randomly assigned to one of two types or surgery, or intensive medical counseling. After two years, the study found that "bariatric surgery resulted in better glucose control than did medical therapy."

More Surgery better for diabetes in the obese: studies - Yahoo! News

 

[waltky]

Pro'bly `cause dey don't get enough sunlight...

Shift workers 'risking' diabetes and obesity
11 April 2012 - Night working has been linked to poorer health

Shift workers getting too little sleep at the wrong time of day may be increasing their risk of diabetes and obesity, according to researchers. The team is calling for more measures to reduce the impact of shift working following the results of its study. Researchers controlled the lives of 21 people, including meal and bedtimes.

The results, published in Science Translational Medicine, showed changes to normal sleep meant the body struggled to control sugar levels. Some participants even developed early symptoms of diabetes within weeks. Shift work has been associated with a host of health problems. Doctors at Brigham and Women's Hospital, in the US, were trying to study its effects in a controlled environment.

Lower insulin levels

The 21 health-trial participants started with 10 hours' sleep at night. This was followed by three weeks of disruption to their sleep and body clocks. The length of the day was extended to 28 hours, creating an effect similar to a full-time flyer constantly getting jet lag. Participants were allowed only 6.5 hours' sleep in the new 28-hour day, equivalent to 5.6 hours in a normal day. They also lived in dim light to prevent normal light resetting the body the clock. During this part of the study, sugar levels in the blood were "significantly increased" immediately after a meal and during "fasting" parts of the day.

The researchers showed that the hormone that lower levels of insulin - the hormone that normally controls blood sugar - were produced. Three of the participants had sugar levels which stayed so high after their meals they were classified as "pre-diabetic". They also highlighted a risk of putting on weight as the body slowed down. "The 8% drop in resting metabolic rate that we measured in our participants... translates into a 12.5-pound increase in weight over a single year," they wrote.

Lead researcher Dr Orfeu Buxton said: "We think these results support the findings from studies showing that, in people with a pre-diabetic condition, shift workers who stay awake at night are much more likely to progress to full-on diabetes than day workers. "Since night workers often have a hard time sleeping during the day, they can face both circadian [body clock] disruption working at night and insufficient sleep during the day. "The evidence is clear that getting enough sleep is important for health, and that sleep should be at night for best effect." The research group called for more efforts to reduce the health impact of shift working.

Artificial world

 

[waltky]

Big uptick in diabetes among youth...

Youth diabetes, pre-diabetes rates soar
21 May`12 - Diabetes and pre-diabetes have skyrocketed among the nation's young people, jumping from 9% of the adolescent population in 2000 to 23% in 2008, a study reports today.

The findings, reported in the journal Pediatrics, are "very concerning," says lead author Ashleigh May, an epidemiologist with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "To get ahead of this problem, we have to be incredibly aggressive and look at children and adolescents and say you have to make time for physical activity," says pediatric endocrinologist Larry Deeb, former president of medicine and science for the American Diabetes Association. Of the two types of diabetes, type 2 accounts for more than 90% of cases. In people with diabetes, the body does not make enough of the hormone insulin or doesn't use it properly.

Insulin helps glucose (sugar) get into cells, where it is used for energy. If there's an insulin problem, sugar builds up in the blood, damaging nerves and blood vessels. Long-term complications of diabetes can include heart attacks, blindness, kidney failure, nerve damage and amputations. May and colleagues examined health data on about 3,400 adolescents ages 12 to 19 from 1999 through 2008. They participated in the CDC's National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, considered the gold standard for evaluating health in the USA because it includes a detailed physical examination, taking participants' blood pressure and getting fasting blood sugar levels. Their weight and height also are measured.

May notes that the diabetes findings should be interpreted with caution because the fasting blood glucose test was used and there are disadvantages associated with the test. Instead, many physicians use the A1C test, which looks at a person's average blood sugar levels for the past three months. "I wouldn't be surprised if pre-diabetes and diabetes went up some, but how much it may have gone up is still an open question because of the way they measured it," says Stephen Daniels, chairman of the department of pediatrics at the University of Colorado School of Medicine and a spokesman for the American Heart Association.

MORE

See also:

Study: Heavy teens have trouble managing diabetes
4 Apr.`12 – New research sends a stark warning to overweight teens: If you develop diabetes, you'll have a very tough time keeping it under control.

A major study, released Sunday, tested several ways to manage blood sugar in teens newly diagnosed with diabetes and found that nearly half of them failed within a few years and 1 in 5 suffered serious complications. The results spell trouble for a nation facing rising rates of "diabesity" — Type 2 diabetes brought on by obesity. The federally funded study is the largest look yet at how to treat diabetes in teens. Earlier studies mostly have been in adults, and most diabetes drugs aren't even approved for youths. The message is clear: Prevention is everything. "Don't get diabetes in the first place," said Dr. Phil Zeitler of the University of Colorado Denver, one of the study leaders.

A third of American children and teens are overweight or obese. They are at higher risk of developing Type 2 diabetes, in which the body can't make enough insulin or use what it does make to process sugar from food. Until the obesity epidemic, doctors rarely saw children with Type 2 diabetes. The more common kind of diabetes in children is Type 1, which used to be called juvenile diabetes. Doctors usually start Type 2 treatment with metformin, a pill to lower blood sugar. If it still can't be controlled, other drugs and daily insulin shots may be needed. The longer blood sugar runs rampant, the greater the risk of suffering vision loss, nerve damage, kidney failure, limb amputation — even heart attacks and strokes. The goal of the study was simple: What's the best way for teens to keep diabetes in check?

The study involved 699 overweight and obese teens recently diagnosed with diabetes. All had their blood sugar normalized with metformin, then were given one of three treatments to try to maintain that control: metformin alone, metformin plus diet and exercise counseling, or metformin plus a second drug, Avandia. After nearly four years, half in the metformin group failed to maintain blood sugar control. The odds were a little better for the group that took two drugs but not much different for those in the lifestyle group. Even so, Zeitler said doctors would not recommend this combination drug therapy because Avandia has been linked to higher risk of heart attacks in adults. Those risks became known after this study had started.

Another study leader from Children's Hospital Los Angeles, Dr. Mitchell Geffner, agreed that Avandia can't be recommended for teens, but said the study makes clear they will need more than metformin to control their disease. "A single pill or single approach is not going to get the job done," he said.

MORE

 

[waltky]

Early action can cut diabetes...

Aggressive pre-diabetes approach needed, say researchers
9 June 2012 : An "early and aggressive" approach to people on the cusp of developing Type 2 diabetes is justified to reduce cases of the disease, a study suggests.

People with "pre-diabetes" have higher than normal blood sugar which has not yet reached diabetic levels. A US study, published in the Lancet, showed restoring normal sugar levels more than halved the numbers going on to Type 2 diabetes. Experts said the findings were clinically important. It is thought that seven million people have pre-diabetes in the UK and 79 million in the US. They are at heightened risk of Type 2 diabetes, heart attack and stroke. Many are undiagnosed.

Some measures, such as weight loss and more exercise, can reverse pre-diabetes. The study, by the US Diabetes Prevention Program Research Group, tried to determine how effective the treatment was at preventing Type 2 diabetes. It followed 1,990 people with pre-diabetes. Some were being treated through drugs or lifestyle change, others were not. It showed patients who reduced their blood sugar levels to normal, even briefly, were 56% less likely to develop Type 2 diabetes during the six years of the study.

Lead author Dr Leigh Perreault, from the University of Colorado, said: "This analysis draws attention to the significant long-term reduction in diabetes risk when someone with pre-diabetes returns to normal glucose regulation, supporting a shift in the standard of care to early and aggressive glucose-lowering treatment in patients at highest risk."

Dr Natalia Yakubovich, from McMaster University in Ontario, Canada, said the "findings clearly suggest" that restoring normal blood sugar levels was "of clinical relevance". She added: "Identification of regression to normal glucose regulation could be an important way to stratify people into those at higher and lower risk of progression to diabetes. "Such stratification could therefore identify individuals for whom additional treatment might be needed to prevent diabetes or to slow down disease progression."

BBC News - Aggressive pre-diabetes approach needed, say researchers

 

[slackjawed]

Has anyone here heard the term "insulanoma". That's me, and the sypmtoms are much like type 1.

going on 8 years now, no pump. Diet and exercise. Conditions constantly change, so svante, I hate to tell you but the hardest thing to deal with is that there is never going to be a regular routine. Constant monitoring, measuring or weighing food portions, You can manage it. What seems to work best for me are real foods, in other words, nothing processed. If it doesn't come into the house raw, I don't eat it. Organic doesn't seem to make that much difference, except in the price. I have problems if I consume anything with high fructose corn syrup or soy/terriake sauce. Luckily for me, I have a wonderful wife to care for me. Still, I have one less kidney than I used to, am losing vision quality and the usual hypertension/blood pressure issues with diabetes.
If I can be of any help to you at all, message me and i will give you my email.

 

[Douger]

Geez. Bloominbergerstein is trying to fix it but y'all want FreeDumb.
Have a look around and see what "choice" got you.

 

[waltky]

Old TB vaccine finds renewed use in treating type 1 diabetes...

BCG Vaccine May Reverse Type 1 Diabetes
August 11, 2012 - One of the world's oldest vaccines now has a new use. Bacillus Calmette-Guerin, or BCG, is an 80-year-old vaccine designed to treat tuberculosis. Bit it has now been found effective in treating long-term type 1 diabetes, which is on the rise worldwide.

BCG has long been administered to children in developing countries to guard against tuberculosis. But in a recent clinical trial, researchers at Harvard Medical School found the vaccine was also able to increase insulin production in patients with type 1 diabetes.

Dr. Denise Faustman, the lead researcher, says the team was able to cure type 1 diabetes in mice. And, speaking via Skype, she said in a small clinical trial, the results in humans were also promising. "What we saw was that even with two very tiny doses of vaccine, four weeks apart, we could start to see the killing of the bad immune cells and to our astonishment the pancreas started making small amounts of insulin again," said Faustman.

Type 1 Diabetes destroys insulin-producing cells. People who have the disease must constantly monitor and manage their blood glucose level by inecting insulin. Faustman says the BCG vaccine worked in these patients by triggering the production of a hormone called "Tumor Necrosis Factor" or "TNF." "It's been known for 20 years that if anybody receives this vaccine their body makes a hormone called TNF and it is really TNF that we want. But TNF is not a drug so we are using this cheap surrogate to try to induce TNF in people with long term diabetes," she explained.

The BCG vaccine often produces a positive result in skin tests used to diagnose tuberculosis. But Dr. Faustman says if BCG is not found to be effective in treating type 1 diabetes - at least those who receive the vaccine will be protected for some time against TB. She expects that identifying the correct dose of BCG will be the major challenge in producing a sustained result for type 1 diabetes patients.

Source

 

[geauxtohell]

If blood sugar levels drop too far it can lead to unconsciousness...

Severe hypoglycaemia cause found
6 October 2011 - The cause of a rare and severe form of hypoglycaemia - or very low levels of sugar in the blood - is genetic, say researchers.

The life-threatening condition means the body does not have enough energy to function. Scientists at the University of Cambridge say mutations in the AKT2 gene are to blame. Writing in the journal Science, they say there are already cancer drugs which target a similar process.

Hypoglycaemia can be caused by a disruption in the balance between the hormone insulin and sugar. Insulin lowers the level of sugar in the blood. The condition is commonly associated with Type 1 diabetes, when the patients inject too much insulin, miss a meal or drink alcohol.

Rare

However, one-in-100,000 babies are born with a genetic defect which means they develop hypoglycaemia even when there is no insulin in the blood. In theory they should have very high blood sugar levels. These patients have to have a feeding tube inserted directly into the stomach to prevent fits while they are asleep. One of the researchers, Dr Robert Semple, said: "Fear of low blood sugar has dominated the lives of these patients and their families."

Scientists analysed the genetic code of three children with the condition. All had a mutation in the AKT2 gene. AKT2 acts as an interpreter for the hormone insulin. With the mutation, the interpreter acts as though insulin is always present, lowering blood sugar levels. Lead researcher Prof Stephen O'Rahilly told the BBC that cancer drugs were available which targeted AKT1 and which also act against AKT2. "There are actual pills that can be swallowed by humans, there could be a treatment in a year."

BBC News - Severe hypoglycaemia cause found

The biggest danger is iatrogenic from people or practitioners giving too much insulin.

 

[waltky]

Wonder if it's C.diff?...

Gut Bacteria Increase Pre-Diabetes Risk
August 16, 2012 - Certain bacteria in the human gut seem to be associated with pre-diabetes, a condition marked by a constellation of risk factors that often precedes the on-set of full-blown type 2 diabetes in humans. The finding is part of an effort to discover the role of trillions of bacteria or microbiota that live in our bodies.

According to Brandi Cantarel, the number of bacteria living happily inside us outnumbers human cells by an astounding 10-1. Cantarel is a researcher at the Institute for Genome Science at the University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore. “With all that extra stuff, let’s say genetic material in our bodies that doesn’t come from us, it comes from other sources, we think it has to be doing something," said Cantarel. "Right?” According to Cantarel, scientists believe there are over 7,000 strains of more than 1,000 different species of bacteria that live in the digestive tract, most of them in the gut or small intestine, which play a role in human health. Many of the trillions of microbes are helpful; without them, for example, we couldn’t digest food properly.

But experts say bacteria that are out of balance could be harmful. Researchers have identified 26 microbes that researchers say may be negatively associated with pre-diabetes or metabolic syndrome. Investigators studied the gut microbiota of 310 members of the Old Order Amish, a closed-knit sect of Caucasian individuals living in rural Pennsylvania that emigrated from central Europe in the 1700’s in search of religious freedom. Experts say the Amish community has less genetic variation and a similar diet, making it easier to single out risk factors that might contribute to disease. They also take fewer medications.

Richard Horenstein, an endocrinologist at the University of Maryland, says stool samples were analyzed to identify gut microbiota in the Amish volunteers, all of whom were either overweight or obese with a range of metabolic syndrome indicators. The samples, according to Horenstein, contained bacteria researchers were able to link to elevated blood pressure and total cholesterol levels, obesity and higher than normal levels of C-reactive protein, a marker for inflammation found to play a role in heart disease, cancer and other chronic diseases. Horenstein says the participants fell into one of three distinct groups of gut microbiota. The greatest number of Amish had gut bacteria often seen in farm animals. “And may even suggest the transmission of gut microbes across species, so from man to the animals or from the animals. And this is highly speculative," said Horenstein.

In the future, Horenstein says researchers might investigate a possible connection between human and animal microbiota. Another area of investigation, according to researchers, is to study the gut bacteria people in the general population who are of Central European descent for any similarities to the Amish population and to see whether gut microbes change over time, since most people tend to gain weight and develop chronic diseases as they age. At this point, researchers say they cannot draw a direct connection between gut microbiota and pre-diabetes, so their findings cannot be used to help determine who is at risk for pre-diabetes. An article on gut bacteria and metabolic syndrome is published in the journal PLoS One.

Source

 

[waltky]

Granny says get yer cholesterol levels checked...

Diabetes cholesterol risk warning
9 September 2012 - A simple test can show if cholesterol levels are too high

The majority of people with diabetes are not controlling cholesterol levels effectively - putting them at increased risk of heart disease, a charity warns. Diabetes UK says 90% of people with the disease are having annual checks which will show up problems. But it says the most recent national diabetes audit found many are not then addressing high cholesterol. Chief executive Barbara Young said it meant the health of thousands was being put at unnecessary risk.

'Easy to control'

About 3.7 million people in the UK have diabetes. The majority - about 90% - have Type 2 diabetes, where the body makes too little insulin or where it fails to make it properly. In those with Type 1 diabetes, the body cannot produce any insulin at all. The audit includes data on 1.9 million people in England with diabetes. People with both types of the condition have a higher risk of heart disease than the rest of the population. Cardiovascular disease is linked to 44% of deaths in people with Type 1 and 52% with Type 2. Diabetes UK says that because of the existence of statins - cholesterol-lowering drugs - it is relatively easy to control high cholesterol. People with Type 2 diabetes also have twice the risk of stroke within the first five years of diagnosis compared with the general population.

Barbara Young said the findings were worrying, adding: "It is not clear why the high number of people having their annual cholesterol check is not translating into better cholesterol control, but it is an issue that is putting the health of hundreds of thousands of people at risk. "It will often be appropriate to prescribe medication such as statins, but it is no good doing this without explaining the importance of taking the medication regularly and the potentially devastating consequences of not doing so. "Other ways people can help improve their cholesterol levels include losing weight, exercising daily, reducing alcohol consumption, stopping smoking and eating a healthy diet, low in fat."

BBC News - Diabetes cholesterol risk warning

 

[waltky]

Diabetes ups breast cancer risk...

Diabetes link to breast cancer in post-menopausal women
13 September 2012 - Diabetes may increase cancer risk

Post-menopausal women who have Type 2 diabetes appear to have a 27% greater risk of developing breast cancer, experts say. An international team, writing in the British Journal of Cancer, examined 40 separate studies looking at the potential link between breast cancer and diabetes. Being obese or overweight is linked to both conditions. But cancer experts say there may be a direct connection between the two.

These studies involved more than 56,000 women with breast cancer. Post-menopausal women with Type 2 diabetes had a 27% increased risk of breast cancer. But there was no link for pre-menopausal women or those with Type 1 diabetes. The authors have also suggested that a high body mass index (BMI), which is often associated with diabetes, may be an underlying contributing factor.

Hormone activity

Prof Peter Boyle, president of the International Prevention Research Institute, who led the study, said: "We don't yet know the mechanisms behind why Type 2 diabetes might increase the risk of breast cancer. "On the one hand, it's thought that being overweight, often associated with Type 2 diabetes, and the effect this has on hormone activity may be partly responsible for the processes that lead to cancer growth. "But it's also impossible to rule out that some factors related to diabetes may be involved in the process."

Martin Ledwick, head information nurse at Cancer Research UK, said: "From this study, it's not clear whether there's a causal link between diabetes and the risk of breast cancer in post-menopausal women. "But as we know that having a high BMI can contribute to an increased risk of both Type 2 diabetes and breast cancer, it makes sense for women to try and maintain a healthy weight."

BBC News - Diabetes link to breast cancer in post-menopausal women

See also:

Kathy Bates has double mastectomy
13 September 2012 - The Misery and Harry's Law actress previously overcame ovarian cancer

Oscar-winning actress Kathy Bates has revealed she has had a double mastectomy, after being diagnosed with breast cancer two months ago. "Sorry for the long silence," the 64-year-old star tweeted on Wednesday. "I was diagnosed with breast cancer two months ago and am recovering from a double mastectomy." "I don't miss my breasts as much as I miss Harry's Law," added the Emmy-nominated star of the TV legal series, which was cancelled earlier this year.

Bates, who won the best actress Oscar in 1991 for her role in Misery, told People magazine she had undergone the mastectomy "after much consideration" and "would not have to undergo radiation and chemo[therapy]". "My doctors have assured me I'm going to be around for a long time," she added.

Double nominee

Three years ago the actress disclosed that she had overcome ovarian cancer, after it was diagnosed in 2003. "My family calls me Kat because I always land on my feet and thankfully this is no exception," she said. "I'm looking forward to getting back to work doing what I love to do."

Bates received two further Oscar nominations after her Misery win, for Primary Colors in 1999 and About Schmidt in 2003. More recently she has appeared in such films as The Day the Earth Stood Still and The Blind Side, as well as TV series Six Feet Under and The Office. Emmy-nominated this year for her role as the feisty Harriet Korn in Harry's Law, Bates earned a second citation for her guest slot on Two and a Half Men.

BBC News - Kathy Bates has double mastectomy