Fear Of Hypoglycemia A Barrier To Exercise For Type 1 Diabetics
November 26, 2008 (EurekAlert) - According to a new study, published in the November issue of Diabetes Care, a majority of diabetics avoid physical activity because they worry about exercise-induced hypoglycemia (low blood sugar) and severe consequences including loss of consciousness. Despite the well-known benefits of exercise, this new study builds on previous investigations that found more than 60 percent of adult diabetics aren't physically active.
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Study Details Annual Medical Cost Increases For People with Diabetes
November 25, 2008 (Newswise) - People diagnosed with diabetes spend over $4,100 more each year on medical costs than people who don’t have diabetes, a gap that increases substantially each year following the initial diagnosis, according to a study published online today in the journal Diabetes Care.
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Joslin Researchers Identify New Source Of Insulin-Producing Cells
November 24, 2008 (EurekAlert) - Researchers at the Joslin Diabetes Center have shown that insulin-producing pancreatic beta cells can form after birth or after injury from progenitor cells within the pancreas that were not beta cells, a finding that contradicts a widely-cited earlier study that had concluded this is not possible.
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Sealing Off Portion Of Intestinal Lining Treats Obesity, Resolves Diabetes In Animal Model
November 24, 2008 (EurekAlert) - Lining the upper portion of the small intestine with an impermeable sleeve led to both weight loss and restoration of normal glucose metabolism in an animal model of obesity-induced diabetes. Investigators from the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) Weight Center and Gastrointestinal Unit report in the journal Obesity that the procedure reproducing several aspects of gastric bypass surgery led to a significant reduction in the animals' food intake and a resolution of diabetes symptoms. The study, which has received early online release, is the first controlled test of a new procedural approach to treating obesity.
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Potassium Loss From Blood Pressure Drugs May Explain Higher Risk Of Adult Diabetes
November 24, 2008 (EurekAlert.) - Johns Hopkins researchers have discovered that a drop in blood potassium levels caused by diuretics commonly prescribed for high blood pressure could be the reason why people on those drugs are at risk for developing type 2 diabetes. The drugs helpfully accelerate loss of fluids, but also deplete important chemicals, including potassium, so that those who take them are generally advised to eat bananas and other potassium-rich foods to counteract the effect.
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New Study Data: JANUVIA (sitagliptin) Significantly Reduced Blood Sugar Levels And Was Not Associated With Hypoglycemia In Elderly Patients With Type 2 Diabetes
November 21, 2008 (EurekAlert) - New data presented at the 61st Annual Scientific Meeting of the Gerontological Society of America showed JANUVIA™ (sitagliptin), a diabetes medicine from Merck & Co., Inc., significantly reduced blood sugar levels in elderly patients with type 2 diabetes and was not associated with hypoglycemia (low blood sugar). In this study of 206 patients aged 65 to 96 years, there were no reports of hypoglycemia in either the JANUVIA or the placebo groups. Advanced age contributes to the risk of hypoglycemia.
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Steering Diabetes Patients Through the Sweetest Season
November 20, 2008 (Newswise) - November ushers in American Diabetes Month – not only a time to be thankful for bustling basic and clinical research underway on the disease, but also the unofficial start of the holiday season. Between now and New Year’s, people with diabetes must navigate a tempting course of sugar-centric festivities, maintaining a delicate nutritional balance against all odds.
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Children Of Centenarians Live Longer, Have Lower Risk Of Heart Disease, Stroke, Diabetes
November 20, 2008 (EurekAlert) - A recent study appearing in the November issue of Journal of American Geriatrics Society revealed that centenarian offspring (children of parents who lived to be at least 97 years old) retain important cardiovascular advantages from their parents compared to a similarly-aged cohort. The study is the first to assess the health of centenarian offspring over time and could be important for future research, as the subjects may be used as a model of healthy aging.
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Researcher Tricks Immune System In Diabetic Mice
November 20, 2008 (EurekAlert) - The body's immune system hates strangers. When its security patrol spots a foreign cell, it annihilates it.
This is the problem when people with type 1 diabetes undergo human islet cell transplantation. The islet cells from a donor pancreas produce robust amounts of insulin for the recipient -- often permitting independence from insulin therapy. However, the immune system tries to kill the new hard-working islets.
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Genetic Screening No Better Than Traditional Risk Factors For Predicting Type 2 Diabetes
November 19, 2008 (EurekAlert) - Screening for a panel of gene variants associated with the risk for type 2 diabetes can identify adults at risk for the disorder but is not significantly better than assessment based on traditional risk factors such as weight, blood pressure and blood sugar levels. A multi-institutional research team, led by a Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) physician, reports their analysis of data from the Framingham Heart Study in the November 20 New England Journal of Medicine.
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Garlic Chemical Tablet Treats Diabetes 1 And 2
November 19, 2008 (EurekAlert) - A drug based on a chemical found in garlic can treat diabetes types I and II when taken as a tablet, a study in the new Royal Society of Chemistry journal Metallomics says.
When Hiromu Sakurai and colleagues from the Suzuka University of Medical Science, Japan, gave the drug orally to type I diabetic mice, they found it reduced blood glucose levels.
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Researchers At IRB Barcelona Produce More Data On Key Genes In Diabetes
November 19, 2008 (EurekAlert) - One of the most reliable indicators to predict that a person will develop type 2 diabetes is the presence of insulin resistance. Insulin is produced in the pancreas and is the hormone responsible for ensuring that glucose reaches several tissues and organs in the body, such as muscles. Insulin resistance is characterized by the lack of tissue response to insulin and is counteracted by a greater production of insulin by the pancreas. When the pancreas does not have the capacity to produce the amount of insulin required for tissues to receive glucose, glucose in blood increases to pathological levels and the individual goes from being insulin-resistant to suffering type 2 diabetes. Although it is unclear what makes people develop insulin resistance, several studies report that resistant subjects show functional alterations in mitochondria. These intracellular organelles are responsible for transforming glucose into energy that the cell will then use to perform several functions. A study performed by the researcher Marc Liesa, a member of Antoni Zorzano's lab at the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona), describes a new control pathway of a gene responsible for mitochrondrial fusion, a process that contributes to the correct function of these organelles. This pathway could therefore be a key component in the development of insulin resistance. The results of this study have been published in the scientific journal PloS One.
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Surgical Study Highlights Pros And Cons Of Gastric Bypass Surgery For Severe Obesity
November 18, 2008 (EurekAlert) - Severely obese patients who underwent two different gastric bypass techniques had lost up to 31 per cent of their Body Mass Index (BMI) after four years, with no deaths reported among the 50 study subjects, according to the November issue of the British Journal of Surgery.
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JDRF Funded Research Shows Promise For Prevention, Reversal Of Type 1 Diabetes
November 18, 2008 (EurekAlert) - Researchers at the University of California, San Francisco have reported that two common cancer drugs have been used to block and reverse type 1 diabetes in mice. The JDRF-funded study, published in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, was led by Jeffrey Bluestone, Ph.D., director of the Diabetes Center at UCSF and an expert in the field of autoimmunity.
"The findings suggest that kinase inhibitors – successfully used in cancer – may provide an important new therapeutic approach for treatment of new onset type 1 diabetes and potentially other autoimmune disorders," said JDRF Director of Immunology Teodora Staeva, Ph.D.
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