How many diabetics does it take to screw in a lightbulb?
Filed under: Type 1, Type 2, Childhood, Adult Onset, Opinion, Services, Allie Beatty, Support, Personalities
Ok, sounds like a joke - but seriously, TuDiabetes is growing like gangbusters! Meredith Cummings wrote a great article on TuDiabetes and its explosive growth! The online community for people touched by diabetes, is growing at a rate of 10% per week. Way to go, Manny!
And why shouldn't we all plant a flag in this real estate? TuDiabetes offers nonstop support through conversations, debates, mysteries and revelations - all amounting to some degree of resolve. TuDiabetes is a great place to remind you that we're not alone in this dark tunnel. Need some light? Ask and you shall receive. And, by the way - you can get the answer to the lightbulb question by signing in and friending Meredith Cummings.
I logged in today and saw a great question. A member named Cody asks if others are annoyed when people who don't know what it's like to be diabetic try to offer advice. The group of interlopers is frankly growing like a virus. I define the interlopers as people who feel they know the world of diabetes without having landed on the tarmac! It's easy to study the playbook. It's a whole different ballgame to get your butt on the field. Good luck with college, Cody!
Top rated diabetes books - what's yours?
Filed under: Type 1, Type 2, Childhood, Adult Onset, Books, Support
TuDiabetes.com is a site for people touched by diabetes. The creator of the site, Manny Hernandez, got the ball rolling on a topic of interest we all take to heart - diabetes book recommendations.
When you ask diabetics to brainstorm on a terribly intrinsic topic you get some pretty good responses. One suggested read was The Diabetes Improvement Program. This book helped a diabetic overcome depression, when the talented team of healthcare professionals could not. Other honorable mentions include: Psyching Out Diabetes, Dr. Bernstein's' Diabetes Solution, Diabesity, and Diabetes for Dummies.
Somebody actually asked something very interesting - where is the book on the evolution of diabetes treatment? Often a topic of discussion, and yet so rarely documented is the sequential events of diabetes treatment, starting with the discovery of insulin. A lull ensued from about 1930 till the boom of genetically modified human insulin, in the early 80s. Any investigative journalist willing to take a stab at it? I guarantee the book will make my must read. And Eli Lilly might actually pay you not to write it.
P.S. One reader pointed out - a chapter of Brent Hoadley's book, Too Profitable to Cure presented a chronology of the evolution of diabetes treatment.
[RESEARCH] Operational implications of using 2006 World Health Organization growth standards in nutrition programmes: secondary data analysis
Objective To assess the implications of adopting the World Health Organization 2006 growth standards in combination with current diagnostic criteria in emergency and non-emergency child feeding programmes.
Design Secondary analysis of data from three standardised nutrition surveys (n=2555) for prevalence of acute malnutrition, using weight for height z score (<-2 and <-3) and percentage of the median (<80% and <70%) cut-offs for moderate and severe acute malnutrition from the National Center for Health Statistics/WHO growth reference (NCHS reference) and the new WHO 2006 growth standards (WHO standards).
Setting Refugee camps in Algeria, Kenya, and Bangladesh.
Population Children aged 6-59 months.
Results Important differences exist in the weight for height cut-offs used for defining acute malnutrition obtained from the WHO standards and NCHS reference data. These vary according to a child's height and according to whether z score or percentage of the median cut-offs are used. If applied and used according to current practice in nutrition programmes, the WHO standards will result in a higher measured prevalence of severe acute malnutrition during surveys but, paradoxically, a decrease in the admission of children to emergency feeding programmes and earlier discharge of recovering patients. The expected impact on case fatality rates of applying the new standards in conjunction with current diagnostic criteria is unknown.
Conclusions A full assessment of the appropriate use of the new WHO standards in the diagnosis of acute malnutrition is urgently needed. This should be completed before the standards are adopted by organisations that run nutrition programmes targeting acute malnutrition.
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.
High Blood Sugar Increases Cancer Risk
Filed under: Type 2, Adult Onset, Lifestyle, Research
A Swedish study has found that elevated blood sugar in women is linked with increased risk of developing cancer.Researchers identified 2,478 incident cases of cancer from records of 33,293 women and 31,304 men who participated in the study. Participants were recruited in the mid-1980s at age 40, 50 and 60 and the study covered a 13-year period. The records included levels of glucose in the blood when fasting and after receiving an infusion of glucose. Researchers calculated the cancer risk relative to blood glucose while adjusting for: age, year of enrollment, fasting time and smoking status. Women with blood sugar levels higher than normal have a total higher risk for cancer while for men the risk was unchanged at higher blood sugar levels. The overall risk of developing cancer for women in the top 25% of fasting blood glucose levels was 26% higher than those in the bottom 25%. Women with high fasting glucose levels had a higher risk of pancreatic, breast and endometrial cancers, while the increase in risk for malignant melanoma was two times higher.
While previous studies have shown that cancer risk for some cancers is higher for people with type 2 diabetes, this study suggests that something could be happening to trigger cancer much earlier, as glucose levels begin to rise. The scientists also found that the blood sugar levels gradually rose over the period of the study, which they suggest means that cancer risks would also continue to rise unless glucose levels were brought down by some means. The results were no different when they took Body Mass Index (BMI) into account.
The study provides further evidence for an association between abnormal glucose metabolism and cancer. If you ask me - I think this has to do with the pH levels of the blood. It is well known that cancer manifests in blood levels of higher acidity. Poor diabetic control can result in higher acid levels in the blood. The catch 22 is poor diabetic control leaves your entire blood chemistry off kilter and it cannot defend any rogue cells - especially those associated with malignant growth (i.e. cancer!)
The true gifts in life come in the form of advice
Filed under: Type 1, Type 2, Childhood, Adult Onset, Opinion, Allie Beatty, Support, Personalities
My recent blog on interlopers offering advice about controlling diabetes upset a good friend of mine. He asked a question that gave me one of those What if...dream sequences. The reality check warrants a new blog.
He asked -- what if an interloper talked your doctor into reconsidering the use of natural animal insulins because they read the research and figured out that it was the better choice? Would you still think interlopers have no value in diabetes control?
Touch?- you sunk my battleship. I had to confer with a fellow diabetes OC blogger to get the he said / she said feedback. She made a very good point, too. In her words, there is a special group of non-diabetics who have an acute understanding of the disease, and who may have a somewhat intuitive understanding of how it works, but most of the time there is a silent acknowledgement that their opinion can at any given time be dismissed in favor of the diabetics'. Words of wisdom typed from the sorceress of Lemonade Life.
Today's lesson for Allie: listen without prejudice. Learn from all who are willing to share their experiences. Prosperity in life comes from the gifts we share with each other. My friends have shared valuable insight to teach me how to gain from every experience in life. I now see that the advice others have to share is the gift we have yet to receive. Denying the gift before we ever receive it is ungrateful. Graciously humbled - Allie B
Why don't insurance companies insure diabetic kids?
Filed under: Type 1, Childhood, Opinion, Products, Allie Beatty, Support, Personalities, Form and Function
Ed Hinerman, a life insurance specialist with the Hinerman Group, was posed an interesting challenge recently. For years he has successfully found affordable life insurance for many adults with type 1 diabetes, but he had never been asked about life insurance for children with Type 1 diabetes until now.
After speaking with underwriters in the top 40 or so companies, he found a discernible lack of interest due to lack of data. Companies would say that they couldn't consider someone with type 1 diabetes until they were either age 15 or age 20. A peer in the industry told Ed the knee jerk reaction was because insurance companies haven't done mortality studies on children. They simply don't have any data upon which to base the pricing for products. Uh oh!! That coupled with the fact that there really isn't any financial incentive for them to study and create products for a relatively small market that would produce relatively low premium, kind of sets the tone. Well, now the war has been defined and the battles are becoming clearer.
When Ed contacted the ADA for assistance in this matter - hold your breath (it's a shocker!) - they turned a cold shoulder on a diabetic's need. What if the diabetic's parents were doing what so many families do - and trying to buy a whole life policy to help pay for their kids college someday? It's really not fair! Here's where fair begins -- Ed asked me to gather some facts it will take to get the insurance companies attention. Does anybody have any idea of the mortality rate of children after being diagnosed with type 1 diabetes?
Bottom line. Life insurance companies make big money and for them to cut and run from children just because it might not make them more big bucks, or because they really haven't done their homework and aren't interested in doing it, isn't acceptable. Game on! I hope we can make a good showing, at the very least - hit one out of the park for the fans. Thanks for inviting me to play, Ed!
[RESEARCH] Risk of respiratory morbidity in term infants delivered by elective caesarean section: cohort study
Objective To investigate the association between elective caesarean sections and neonatal respiratory morbidity and the importance of timing of elective caesarean sections.
Design Cohort study with prospectively collected data from the Aarhus birth cohort, Denmark.
Setting Obstetric department and neonatal department of a university hospital in Denmark.
Participants All liveborn babies without malformations, with gestational ages between 37 and 41 weeks, and delivered between 1 January 1998 and 31 December 2006 (34 458 babies).
Main outcome measures Respiratory morbidity (transitory tachypnoea of the newborn, respiratory distress syndrome, persistent pulmonary hypertension of the newborn) and serious respiratory morbidity (oxygen therapy for more than two days, nasal continuous positive airway pressure, or need for mechanical ventilation).
Results 2687 infants were delivered by elective caesarean section. Compared with newborns intended for vaginal delivery, an increased risk of respiratory morbidity was found for infants delivered by elective caesarean section at 37 weeks’ gestation (odds ratio 3.9, 95% confidence interval 2.4 to 6.5), 38 weeks’ gestation (3.0, 2.1 to 4.3), and 39 weeks’ gestation (1.9, 1.2 to 3.0). The increased risks of serious respiratory morbidity showed the same pattern but with higher odds ratios: a fivefold increase was found at 37 weeks (5.0, 1.6 to16.0). These results remained essentially unchanged after exclusion of pregnancies complicated by diabetes, pre-eclampsia, and intrauterine growth retardation, or by breech presentation.
Conclusion Compared with newborns delivered vaginally or by emergency caesarean sections, those delivered by elective caesarean section around term have an increased risk of overall and serious respiratory morbidity. The relative risk increased with decreasing gestational age.
The specials tonight are fulminant and non- fulminant
Filed under: Type 1, Childhood, Research, Allie Beatty, Support, Complications, Personalities, Form and Function
A type 1 diabetic mystery is why do some Type 1s get complications and others seem to never get them? A massive Japanese study of Type 1 diabetics found that those with fulminant diabetes developed complications much faster and more severely than those with non-fulminant diabetes.
The difference between fulminant and non-fulminant is the speed and intensity at which the disease develops. Fulminant Type 1 diabetes typically develops suddenly with near total loss of beta cell function. This type of diabetes is confirmed with testing c-peptide levels. Non-fulminant type 1 diabetes has residual c-peptide levels that eventually taper to undetectable. Sometimes this is seen through many years of the Honeymoon Period.
This study may be the antithesis of conventional wisdom for preventing complications. Staking all hopes on blood sugar control is heavily optimistic. Yes controlling blood sugar does lessen the workload for existing beta cells, and thus extends the lifespan of each beta cell. Research suggests that c-peptide offers protection to beta cells, both from apoptosis (cell death) and encourages new cell growth. This new cell growth applies to beta cells and other cells of the body that endure long-term Type 1 diabetes complications.
Diabetics are instructed that maintaining normal blood sugars is the Holy Grail of preventing long-term complications. Yes and no. The truth is controlling your blood sugar will not allow complications of Type 1 diabetes to develop as quickly, presuming you still had some level of beta cell function upon diagnosis (i.e., c-peptide). That doesn't sound like a reward as much as it does a delayed punishment. I'd like c-peptide with my insulin, please. It's off the ?a carte menu? That's fine - serve it up! I want to thank Klausen for bringing this study to my attention.
Interval training - more fat loss and less insulin requirements
Filed under: Type 1, Type 2, Adult Onset, Diet, Research, Exercise
A study found that two interval sessions of cardio exercise caused enhanced fat metabolism compared with a single session of cardio exercise.
This study compared the fat metabolism after exercise of equal intensity (60% of maximum heart rate) but differing in session length. The trials compared 7 men performing either: 1) a 60 minute session of exercise once 2) a 30 minute session of exercise twice, separated by a 20 minute session of rest and 3) rest. The first 30 minutes of both exercise groups showed a significant increase in growth hormone, epinephrine and norepinephrine. However, in the interval session (30 minute sessions separated by 20 minutes of rest) the free fatty acids (FFA) levels rose significantly in the 20 minute rest period. During the subsequent 30-min exercise interval, FFA was significantly greater in the second interval training sessions than in the single 60 minute session.
More importantly for us diabetics - the second 30 minute interval session showed significantly lower values of insulin and glucose than the single 60 minute exercise session. What's the moral of this heart-pounding story? Interval training seems to be the fittest choice if you are looking for maximum fat-burning and effective insulin-lowering exercise.