Hurricane Relief
There are thousands of people in Louisiana and Mississippi stranded without proper medical care and supplies - including those with diabetes. Please help dLife get urgently needed diabetes supplies to the victims of hurricane Katrina.
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Neuropathy Clue
Malfunctioning bone marrow cells that produce insulin may be the key behind diabetic neuropathy, according to a research team led by Baylor College of Medicine in Houston.
The team had previously found the insulin-producing bone marrow cells during gene therapy research, and were hopeful that these cells may show promise in diabetes treatment. The current project studied the migration of these cells to other parts of the body, and found that they triggered nerve damage and death when merged with neurons - resulting in diabetic neuropathy.
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Now Showing
dLife Today is coming at you live from our Chelsea studio in New York City, where record executive and entrepreneur Damon (or Dame) Dash was on the set, recounting his diagnosis of type 1 diabetes and his management strategies (he's probably the only hip-hop impressario who has a member of his entourage devoted to carb counting).
dLifeTV host Nicole Johnson Baker also revealed some very exciting news to our studio audience...but we're not going to spoil it for you (you'll just have to watch when new episodes begin airing on September 19th).
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Rabbit Test
Forget service dogs...here come the rabbits. If you liked the dLifeTV episode featuring the Heaven Scent Paws diabetes service dogs, you'll love this story out of Illinois. A woman with gestational diabetes who was close to unconciousness with a severe blood sugar low was saved when the family's pet rabbit alerted her husband to the problem. Both mother and baby (dubbed "Brenna Bunny" by her nurses when mom gave birth a month after the incident) were fine after treatment and a few days in the hospital.
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Casting Call
Are you a CDE with a passion for diabetes care, a good communication style, and a secret desire to be on the small screen? Then stop by the dLife booth at the American Association of Diabetes Educators Annual Meeting and Exhibition today and audition to be an expert guest on dLifeTV. We're at booth 1505 - just look and listen for dLife hosts Mother Love, Nicole Johnson Baker, and Jim Turner chatting it up with your colleagues. Stop by and try out or register for dLife gear.
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The Power of Trust
A new study out of the University of Michigan has found that patients who don't trust their doctors are more likely to skip doses of prescribed medicine due to cost issues than those who report a high level of trust in their physicians.
The study involved over 900 VA patients with diabetes, and 41 percent of them were on insulin. Researchers found that nearly 30 percent of those people who reported low levels of trust in their doctors and had monthly drug costs over $100 said they skipped medicines due to cost, compared with 11 percent of those who had a more trusting relationship with their doctor. Those with lower trust levels were also more likely to suffer from depression.
The study results suggest that patients may feel more comfortable revealing financial problems that affect their medical care when they've established a good, trusting relationship with their doctor...and that doctors who have good patient-physician relationships may be more likely to proactively ask patients about financial issues they might face and work with them to find a resolution.
“Our findings suggest that a trusting patient-physician relationship can significantly influence whether a person sticks to prescriptions when that patient faces pressures from their medication costs,” commented lead study author Dr. John Piette.
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Do Not Try This At Home
One for the "now we've seen everything" file... Sports and athletic competitions are traditionally tests of physical prowess and mental skills. So it was more than a little surprising to channel surf past primetime ESPN coverage of (we're not kidding), the Alka Seltzer U.S. Open of Competitive Eating. In head-to-head competition, the "gustatory athletes" (and they do consider themselves athletes) worked their way through platters of potato skins, cheese fries, buffalo wings, spaghetti...and an Italian salad.
Coming at a time when American obesity rates are at an all-time high and type 2 diabetes continues to be on the upswing, is promoting mass consumption of high-fat, high-carb, high-calorie fare really the healthiest message the media can be sending the viewing public? This is more than a county fair pie eating contest - this is an organized sport garnering major broadcast coverage with over 70 events scheduled annually. But far from promoting fitness, the main message seems to be the glory of gluttony.
To their credit, the official sanctioning organization of the event, the International Federation of Competitive Eating (IFOCE), does have some safety standards in place, and "believes that speed eating is only suitable for those 18 years of age or older and only in a controlled environment with appropriate rules and with an emergency medical technician present."
In case you're wondering, Japan's Takeru Kobayashi (a world class IFOCE competitor who holds the world's record for downing 53 1/2 hot dogs with buns in 12 minutes flat) won the event, taking home $10,000 and the Alka Selzer cup.
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ElectroNeedles
A new painless method of blood glucose testing is under development at a highly unlikely place -- the National Nuclear Security Administration's Sandia National Laboratories. Dubbed ElectroNeedles, the thumbnail-sized device came out of the Bio-MicroFuel Cell research project, which investigated methods of harvesting sugar from plants and animals. Read more about ElectroNeedles here.
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Ancient Chinese Secret?
An interesting new study designed to evaluate the effectiveness of Qigong and Tai Chi in diabetes control is underway in Australia. It's thought that both the stress reduction properties and muscle stimulating properties of these traditional Chinese healing arts may play a role in control blood glucose levels.
The study, which is funded in part by the Diabetes Australia Research Trust, will examine whether or not the ancient 5000-year-old practices of Quigong and Tai Chi improve insulin sensitivity in people with elevated fasting blood glucose levels.
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