Reversing Autoimmunity Q & A
Filed under: Type 1, Childhood, Research, Events
Like a dog chasing its own tail (but nowhere near as funny), type 1 diabetes is caused by a self-imposed attack on insulin producing cells. Here's your chance to chat live and learn about the latest discoveries to interfere with the automimmune confusion. Chat live with the head of the Immunogenetics Program at the Diabetes Research Institute, Alberto Pugliese, M.D.
The DRI program is specifically focused on understanding how genetic and immunological factors play a role in the development of type 1 diabetes and how certain genetic and immunological factors may actually afford protection from diabetes. The program is uncovering ways to interfere with the immune cells that attack the insulin producing cells in the pancreas resulting in diabetes.
In plain English, join Dr. Pugliese to enlighten yourself and ask any questions you may have regarding this impressive research. The chat begins at 9pm EST and those who miss it can catch the excitement in the transcript, to be posted shortly thereafter. I hope to see fellow IDDMs on the chat roster.
Diabetes research innovator Landau dies
Filed under: Type 2, Adult Onset, Research, Daily News, Support
The world famous biochemist, Bernard R. Landau, whose medical research proved invaluable to understanding diabetes, has died in Cleveland at the age of 80.
Dr. Landau focused his research on how the human body processes glucose. By focusing his research on how the liver stores glucose as glycogen, he proved vital in later research of some types of diabetes. In certain diabetes types, complications arise after the body ceases processing glycogen. The former Nobel fellow at Sweden's Karolinska Institute also worked with other scientists in finding out exactly how glucose is broken down inside the body. In the late '50s, Dr. Landau and others investigated how tissues process glucose, especially in the liver, where it is stored as glycogen. He developed methods to follow and measure this metabolism by using radioactive tracers that were infused into bodily tissue. In some types of diabetes, the processing of glycogen is disrupted, leading to further complications.
Bernard Robert Landau was born in Newark. He graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology before receiving his doctorate in organic chemistry from Harvard in 1950. He later received a medical degree, also from Harvard. He is survived by his two sons, Steven and Rodger, and five grandchildren. Thank you for all you have contributed to the scientific community, Dr. Landau.
Diabetes on the rise in Native American population
Filed under: Type 2, Daily News
Which ethnic group is at the greatest risk for developing diabetes? If you answered Native American Indians, you are correct.
Over the past fifteen years, the number of cases of diabetes in American Indian and Alaskan Native teens aged 15 to 19 has risen by 128 percent. On top of that, the disease increased by 77 percent in American Indians and Alaskan Natives who were younger than fifteen during the same time frames. As for adults -- the current rate of diabetes in this population is at 60 percent. Feel free to read that again. That's a rise by 128 percent in 15 to 19-year-olds, 77 percent in kids under 15, and a current rate of 60 perecent of adults living with diabetes. In a word: Staggering. In two words: Freakin' Staggering. In seventeen words: So freakin' staggering that I had to make sure that the data was correct -- and it was.
A program that has established diabetes treatment and prevention programs is slated to expire some time next year. Given these statistics, this does not bode well for the members of this minority group. Meeting before the Senate Indian Affairs Committee this past Thursday, Indian Health Service head Charles Grim spoke of the importance of renewing this program.
For more information, follow this link: http://diabetes.niddk.nih.gov/dm/pubs/americanindian/
Gestational diabetes linked to oral contraceptives with a high androgenic progestin
Filed under: Type 2, Adult Onset, Research
Results from a recent study reveal oral contraceptives are not all alike.
Researchers from the Kaiser Permanente Medical Care Program of Northern California recently released evidence linking oral contraceptives containing a highly androgenic progestin to a 43% increased risk of gestational diabetes, when used for five years leading up to pregnancy. Interestingly, oral contraceptives with a low androgenic progestin were associated with a 16% decreased risk of gestational diabetes.
Gestational diabetes develops in about 4% of pregnant women who have never had diabetes, but exhibit high blood sugar levels during pregnancy. Untreated, it can be dangerous for both mother and baby.
The study selected 356 women with gestational diabetes and 368 women without the condition from a multiethnic cohort of 14,235 women who delivered a baby between January 1996 and June 1998. The women were members of Kaiser Permanente for a minimum of five years before pregnancy and screened for the condition between 24-28 weeks of pregnancy. Medical records and pharmacy data were utilized to determine contraceptive use.
Researchers state their results support other related studies that confirm more androgenic oral contraceptives can impact glucose tolerance.
Too good to be true? NIH explores insulin regimen for diabetes prevention
Filed under: Type 1, Drugs, Research
It sounds just too good to be true: preventing or delaying the onset of Type 1 diabetes through a simple daily insulin regimen. Yet a number of health experts believe that giving insulin daily to those at risk of developing Type 1 diabetes, or those newly-diagnosed with the disease, could do just that. You see, it seems there's evidence that taking an oral dose of insulin on a regular basis brings about an increased tolerance for the substance or a "quieting of the immune system." And that could prevent diabetes or at least delay it for a few years.The National Institutes of Health (NIH) wants to find out what's what. It was announced yesterday that the NIH will fund a world-wide network of research into the issue. The research program will go by the name of Type 1 Diabetes TrialNet and will involve the participation of more than one hundred medical centers both here in the US and in Canada, Australia, and in parts of Europe. Individuals at risk for Type 1 diabetes - who can be identified through a simple blood test which identifies the presence of a certain type of autoantibodies - are currently being enrolled for the study. (I have no idea if they're looking for volunteers in the US, by the way - sorry.)
Talk about your big science breakthrough, huh? I mean, if insulin really can be used as a preventative...well, that would be fabulous in and of itself. But you would also have the added bonus that it could be achieved simply, with no side-effects (because insulin is quickly broken down by the digestive system), and it would be affordable. That last one's important. How refreshing it would be to have a big medical breakthrough associated with humble old insulin instead of some ultra-expensive wonder drug!
Early hair loss may signal diabetes risk in men
When I was 19, I started to notice a little bit of hair loss. I'll admit it, I freaked. Fortunately, the trend didn't continue, and several years later the state of my pate is still good. What I didn't realize at the time, and what I didn't realize until I recently came across a study from the Institute of Endocrinology in Prague, is that young men with thinning hair are at a greater risk of diabetes.
After analyzing the blood of several men, the researchers discovered that men who began losing their hair before the age of 30 were more likely to be insulin resistant -- increasing their risk of diabetes. The results of the study also suggested that as hair growth hormone decreased, insulin resistance increased.
So, if you happen to be a guy under the age of 30, and you're waking up on a pillow that looks more like a shedding cat slept on it than a human, then you may want to have a fasting blood glucose test done. Levels above 100 milligrams per deciliter signal trouble.
Rats it's a Virus
Filed under: Type 1, Childhood, Lifestyle, Drugs, Research
No kidding! The rats are leading researchers to triggering events causing diabetes. The new findings suggest that there is, indeed, a genetic susceptibility to diabetes, but that the precipitating event is a viral infection.
The virus in question is the Ljungan virus. Previous reports indicate that infections with the Ljungan virus can induce diabetes in laboratory rats, and that the diabetes can be reversed if the animals are treated with antiviral drugs before the destruction of insulin-secreting islet cells becomes widespread.
I'm not sure how everybody else out there got their D-card. My diagnosing event happened shortly after I had the chicken pox, back in '85. The childhood christening event apparently left me out in the cold and caused the love-hate relationship between my islets and my insulin autoantibodies. Lucky me. Thanks to all the readers out there who have already shared their sequence of diagnosis with me. What's your story? Please, share with us.
Less insulin longer life
Filed under: Type 1, Type 2, Childhood, Adult Onset, Diet, Research
Howard Hughs Medical Experts have discovered the key to a longer life is lower insulin levels. Less insulin helps cells fend off diseases that lead to early death like heart disease, cancer and diabetes. So how does one lower their insulin levels? Caloric restriction by way of eating less carbohydrates.
Caloric restriction postpones the onset of life-threatening conditions like cancer, diabetes, and heart disease. It may still happen, but at a later age. Scientists manipulated genes in mice to produce 50% less insulin and saw the mice live 18% longer. While lowering insulin throughout the body can lead to a diabetic state, scientists found that allowing insulin levels to be high throughout most of the body, and lowering the insulin signaling only in the brain through genetic manipulation, extended the life of mice.
Although the mice were overweight, they lived longer and seemed active and youthful. Scientists believe that this research explains why some people who live past 100 may have a natural genetic tendency for lower insulin signaling in the brain. They eat a normal amount of calories and may even be a bit overweight, but still enjoy the benefit of life extension. This begs the question: if all diabetes oral meds multiply the effect of insulin -- doesn't this increase the chances of heart disease and cancer? New Rule: Black box warning on ALL prescription diabetes drugs!!
Reverse diabetes through nutritional excellence
Filed under: Type 1, Type 2, Childhood, Adult Onset, Diet, Lifestyle, Books, Support
Would you like to reduce your daily insulin requirements by a third or stop all diabetes medicines? Lofty goals, yes - but given the Eat To Live program - it's quite possible.
Regardless of my attempts to downgrade insulin dose in the last 15 years - my blood sugars would not take the hint. Had I known Dr. Fuhrman had figured this one out long ago - instead of badgering feats of diabetic noncompliance I would have picked up his book, Eat To Live. Dr. Fuhrman explains the best diet for humans to live longer in good health is also the best diet for one with diabetes. A diet comprised mostly in nature's perfect foods-green vegetables, beans, eggplant, tomatoes, mushrooms, onions, garlic, raw nuts and seeds and limited fresh fruit, allows for people to eat as much as they want and still lose weight, drop their cholesterol, and their blood pressure relatively quickly.
The Eat To Live dietary style is a vegetable-based diet designed to maximize nutrient per calorie density. It is the most effective treatment for those with diabetes, more effective than drugs. For a type 2 diabetic, this approach has resulted in complete reversal of the diabetic condition in the vast majority of patients and for a type 1 diabetic it solves the problems with excessive highs and lows and prevents the typical dangerous complications that too frequently befall those with diabetes. Joel Fuhrman, M.D is a board certified family physician specializing in nutritional medicine for overweight and diabetic patents.
Two Presidential Candidates Announce Plans to Cure Diabetes
Filed under: Type 1, Type 2, Childhood, Adult Onset, Research, Daily News, Events, Support
Did anybody catch the first ever YouTube democratic debate last week? It was cosponsored by CNN and the cool thing about it was this: all the questions came in from Americans like you and me. Turns out two of the candidates spoke out on behalf of diabetes. Here's what they had to say...
Governor Richardson mentioned the fact that 33% of Medicare is wrapped up in diabetes costs. He suggests, "Let's have major prevention programs, and also ways that we can ensure that we find a cure." He still has not announced a plan to ensure a cure. But if he does - I'm willing to bet all of his campaign funding from Big Pharma might mysteriously disappear.
The other candidate addressing diabetes was Senator Chris Dodd of Connecticut. Dodd's promise came after from a woman's question about stem cell research. Somehow the senator was able to plug an endeavor to "deal with diabetes". However, much like Governor Richardson - he has yet to announce a plan to cure. Politics as usual. Stay tuned for the LIVE Republican Debate on September 17th.
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