Mary Tyler Moore champions research for kids with type 1 diabetes
Filed under: Type 1, Childhood, Research
I have always loved Mary Tyler Moore. I remember snuggling on the couch with my mom one night a week to watch the Mary Tyler Moore show. I don't know what was more comical -- the humor of the storyline or hearing my mom's roaring laugh each Saturday.
I found out years ago Moore has type 1 diabetes. Right away, it comforted me. Maybe it was because I admired her acting skills and love her warm smile. My young brain logic went something like this, "If Mary Tyler Moore has type 1, then maybe it's not so bad my older brother has juvenile diabetes." Whatever the reason, I did some research to catch up on Moore's activities these days.
Born in 1936, Moore turns 71 this year. Her activism in support of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation International (JDRF) is remarkable. As JDRF's International Chairman, Moore has regularly testified before Congress for juvenile diabetes research. She is heading to Washington D.C. later this month to testify once again at Children's Congress 2007. Moore and over 100 kids with type 1 diabetes will meet with top U.S. Government officials to advocate for the cause. These pioneering delegates represent all 50 states and the District of Columbia.
I applaud Mary Tyler Moore for her efforts on behalf of type 1 diabetics worldwide. Watch for future posts on Children's Congress 2007 -- this influential event only comes around every two years.
dLife founder speaks with Nancy Pelosi about stem cell research
Filed under: Type 1, Type 2, Childhood, Adult Onset, Research
If you want a job done right, you do it yourself. That's apparently the way dLife founder and CEO Howard Steinberg 
went about bringing stem cell research to the fore, and did so by personally heading straight to Capitol Hill. Meeting with the new Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, Steinberg discussed the importance of the DeGette-Castle stem cell research bill's passage.
But, what about the Big Guy? No, not God -- although He factored into the discussion, as well. I'm talking about President Bush. While he has promised to veto any stem cell related bill, Pelosi hopes that he will ultimately opt against doing so. In furtherance of prior legislation, this new Stem Cell Enhancement Act of 2007 will increase the amount of lines from which stem cells can be sourced for research purposes. So, fingers crossed on that one, folks.
Stem cell research continues to be a widely debated topic, one that may also play a crucial role in the upcoming 2008 elections. And, as Madam Speaker explained to Steinberg in their recent interview, embryonic stem cell research is now receiving bi-partisan support, thereby making it far less politically divisive than it once was. The hope (well, I can at least say my hope) is that the new Congress, the new President, and the new year will hasten change in favor of supporting stem cell research. Again, fingers crossed. Maybe a toe or two as well, providing you are that dexterous. Whatever the case, and whatever the crossed extremity, the key word here is Change. And, thanks to the dedicated efforts of people like Nancy Pelosi and Howard Steinberg, it seems to be well underway.
**Be sure to check out the full dLife interview of Nancy Pelosi here: http://www.dlife.com/dLife/do/ShowContent/resources/diabetes_advocacy/nancy_pelosi_interview.html?sc_ext_cid=100162&sc_chid=1009
[RESEARCH] Interventions to promote walking: systematic review
Objective To assess the effects of interventions to promote walking in individuals and populations.
Design Systematic review.
Data sources Published and unpublished reports in any language identified by searching 25 electronic databases, by searching websites, reference lists, and existing systematic reviews, and by contacting experts.
Review methods Systematic search for and appraisal of controlled before and after studies of the effects of any type of intervention on how much people walk, the distribution of effects on walking between social groups, and any associated effects on overall physical activity, fitness, risk factors for disease, health, and wellbeing.
Results We included 19 randomised controlled trials and 29 non-randomised controlled studies. Interventions tailored to people's needs, targeted at the most sedentary or at those most motivated to change, and delivered either at the level of the individual (brief advice, supported use of pedometers, telecommunications) or household (individualised marketing) or through groups, can encourage people to walk more, although the sustainability, generalisability, and clinical benefits of many of these approaches are uncertain. Evidence for the effectiveness of interventions applied to workplaces, schools, communities, or areas typically depends on isolated studies or subgroup analysis.
Conclusions The most successful interventions could increase walking among targeted participants by up to 30-60 minutes a week on average, at least in the short term. From a perspective of improving population health, much of the research currently provides evidence of efficacy rather than effectiveness. Nevertheless, interventions to promote walking could contribute substantially towards increasing the activity levels of the most sedentary.
[RESEARCH] Sex ratio and time to pregnancy: analysis of four large European population surveys
Objective To test whether the secondary sex ratio (proportion of male births) is associated with time to pregnancy, a marker of fertility.
Design Analysis of four large population surveys.
Setting Denmark and the United Kingdom.
Participants 49 506 pregnancies.
Main outcome measure Secondary sex ratio.
Results No association was found between the sex ratio and time to pregnancy and no discernible trend was found for sex ratio with time to pregnancy, either within individual datasets or in the pooled analysis. The odds ratios were 0.97 (95% confidence interval 0.90 to 1.04) for contraceptive failures, 1.01 (0.96 to 1.05) for time to pregnancy of 2-4 months, 1.02 (0.97 to 1.08) for 5-10 months, 0.98 (0.93 to 1.03) for 11 months or more, and 0.88 (0.74 to 1.06) for fertility treatment, with 0-1 months as the reference category.
Conclusion No association was found between the secondary sex ratio and time to pregnancy.
Prolific professor receives Texas honors for diabetes research
Filed under: Type 2, Diet, Research, Exercise
And the award goes to...Dr. Steven Haffner. You probably haven't heard of Dr. Haffner (pictured), but he's one of those hard-working researchers whose work has contributed to our understanding of diabetes. Specifically, Haffner has helped point us in a new direction when it comes to combating Type 2 diabetes. His work has helped demonstrate that diet and exercise can delay or even prevent the onset of Type 2 diabetes. Notably, a 2001 study in which he was the lead researcher, showed that even modest weight loss and exercise cut T2 risk by fifty-eight percent in at-risk folks. Why is this so important? It means that even if you've been diagnosed with T2 diabetes, even if you're at risk for it, and the state of your health is poor, you can still help yourself through lifestyle change. Studies like this have showed that it's never too late for T2 diabetics. Haffner, who is an epidemiologist by trade, got the nod of approval and a big thank you on Thursday from his home base institution - the University of Texas. The school has named him 2007 Presidential Distinguished Scholar at the University of Texas Health Science Center. The award comes with a $5,000 stipend. It honors those who have attained excellence in research in their particular field. He is currently looking into the effectiveness of behavioral interventions in cutting heart disease risk in Type 2 diabetics.
All very nice. But here's what caught my eye about the good Dr. Haffner. He has published more than four hundred research papers in the course of his career. Four hundred! Makes you feel kinda lazy by comparison, huh? Darn high achievers. Pass the remote...
[RESEARCH] Effect of European Clinical Trials Directive on academic drug trials in Denmark: retrospective study of applications to the Danish Medicines Agency 1993-2006
Objective To determine the impact of the European Union’s Clinical Trials Directive on the number of academic drug trials carried out in Denmark.
Design Retrospective review of applications for drug trials to the Danish Medicines Agency, 1993-2006.
Review methods Applications for drug trials for alternate years were classified as academic or commercial trials. A random subset of academic trials was reviewed for number of participants in and intended monitoring of the trials.
Results Academic and commercial drug trials showed an identical steady decline from 1993 to 2006 and no noticeable change after 2004 when good clinical practice became mandatory for academic trials.
Conclusion The Clinical Trials Directive introduced in May 2004 to ensure good clinical practice for academic drug trials was not associated with a decline in research activity in Denmark; presumably because good clinical practice units had already been in place in Danish universities since 1999. With such an infrastructure academic researchers can do drug trials under the same regulations as drug companies.
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.
Gladys Knight supports type 2 diabetes research and prevention in memory of mother
Filed under: Type 2, Adult Onset
My soul is inspired whenever I discover a celebrity advocate for diabetics. The famous R&B performer, Gladys Knight, has been singing the praises of type 2 diabetes prevention for years.
Her mother, Elizabeth Knight, passed away 10 years ago from type 2 complications. In her honor and all those living with type 2 diabetes, Gladys Knight and family established the Elizabeth Knight Fund through the American Diabetes Association (ADA) to support peer-reviewed diabetes research and awareness programs in communities nationwide. Ms. Knight also collaborated with the ADA on a cookbook of diabetic recipes, At Home With Gladys Knight, initially released in 2001.
The Knight family believes education is critical to living a long and healthy life with type 2. Their mother's legacy lives on in the hearts of diagnosed and undiagnosed diabetics alike, thanks to the good works of the Elizabeth Knight Fund.
[RESEARCH] Mortality in patients with and without colectomy admitted to hospital for ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease: record linkage studies
Objective To compare mortality outcomes in the three years after elective colectomy, no colectomy, and emergency colectomy among people admitted to hospital for inflammatory bowel disease, to inform whether the threshold for elective colectomy in clinical practice is appropriate.
Design Record linkage studies.
Setting Oxford region (1968-99) and England (1998-2003).
Participants 23 464 people with hospital stay for more than three days for inflammatory bowel disease, including 5480 who had colectomy.
Main outcome measures Case fatality, relative survival, and standardised mortality ratios.
Results In the Oxford region, three year mortality was lower after elective colectomy than after either no colectomy or emergency colectomy, although this was not significant. For England, mortality three years after elective colectomy for ulcerative colitis (3.7%) and Crohn's disease (3.3%) was significantly lower than that after either admission without colectomy (13.6% and 10.1%; both P<0.001) or emergency colectomy (13.2% and 9.9%; P<0.001 for colitis and P<0.01 for Crohn's disease). Three or more months after elective colectomy, mortality was similar to that in the general population. Adjustment for comorbidity did not affect the findings.
Conclusions In England, the clinical threshold for elective colectomy in people with inflammatory bowel disease may be too high. Further research is now required to establish the threshold criteria and optimal timing of elective surgery for people with poorly controlled inflammatory bowel disease.
[RESEARCH] Correlations among measures of quality in HIV care in the United States: cross sectional study
Objective To determine whether a selected set of indicators can represent a single overall quality construct.
Design Cross sectional study of data abstracted during an evaluation of an initiative to improve quality of care for people with HIV.
Setting 69 sites in 30 states.
Data sources Medical records of 9020 patients.
Main outcome measures Adjusted performance rates at site level for eight measures of quality of care specific to HIV and a site level summary performance score (the number of measures for which the site was in the top quarter of the distribution).
Results Of 28 site level correlations between measures, two were greater than 0.40, two were between 0.30 and 0.39, four were between 0.20 and 0.29, and the 20 remaining were all less than 0.20. One site was in the top quarter for seven measures, but no sites were in the top quarter for six or eight of the measures. Across the eight quality measures, sites were in the top quarter no more often than predicted by a chance (binomial) distribution.
Conclusions The quality suggested by one measured indicator cannot necessarily be generalised to unmeasured indicators, even if this might be expected for clinical or other reasons.