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.
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.
Non-prescription Diachrome(R) improves glycemic control for type 2 diabetics
Filed under: Type 2, Drugs, Research
You don't even need a prescription for this one. Nutrition 21, Inc., a nutritional bioscience company, markets drugstore supplements such as selenium and omega-3 fish oil. They recently announced new published results of a clinical study of their patented product Diachrome(R), a combination of chromium picolinate and biotin (a B vitamin).
Here's the skinny on the study. In a 447 subject, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study, type 2 diabetics taking Diachrome(R) realized significant improvements in glycemic control (an absolute decrease in A1C of 0.54%). More dramatic decreases were seen for type diabetics with terrible glycemic control levels (A1C levels equal or greater than 10%). These diachrome(R)-takers saw an additional absolute A1C decrease of 1.76%, and they were already taking one or more prescriptions to treat their type 2 diabetes. Improvements were also seen in fasting glucose levels and triglycerides to high density lipoprotein (HDL) ratios.
Is a nutritional supplement honestly going to help people with type 2 diabetes? I checked out the Diachrome(R) website and found the product has been around at least since 2004, possibly even longer. The FDA has deemed it safe. Perhaps it does enhance insulin function, but the website clearly states it should never replace medications already being prescribed to treat type 2 diabetes.
Stroke subtypes: Type 1 and 2 women face greater risk
Filed under: Type 1, Type 2, Research, Complications
Just out in the new issue of Diabetes Care: a report that diabetic women are more at risk for the various stroke subtypes. (Today is just a day for bad health news, I guess. See my previous blog on trauma injuries.) Stroke, as you may already know, is where blood supply to the brain is restricted or cut off. The study's authors tracked the progress of 116,316 women through middle age during the period 1976 to 2002. That's a lotta women... They found the women with diabetes were at a higher risk for stroke, generally: four times higher than that of the general population for women with Type 1 diabetes, and twice as high for women with Type 2 diabetes.
That people with diabetes face a higher risk of stroke is not new. What is new? This study also looked at stroke subtypes and relative risk for women with and without diabetes for each of those subtypes. Some results: ischemic stroke (caused by a blood clot to the brain) risk was 6.3 times higher for T1 diabetics, 2.3 times higher for T2 diabetics. The risk for large-artery infarction and lacunar stroke was similar. The study also concluded that while Type 1 diabetic women face a higher risk of hemorrhagic stroke (where bleeding occurs in the brain or between the brain and the skull), Type 2 women did not.
This study was funded by the National Institutes of Health.
Read more about strokes and learn how to recognize signs of stroke by visiting some of the excellent Web-based resources out there. A good starting point is InteliHealth's section on stroke or visit the National Stroke Association's website. You could save someone's life!
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DIY blood typing kit
Filed under: Prevention
Have you had a chance to check out our latest new blog? DIY Life highlights the best of do-it-yourself on the web, and there's some really interesting stuff over there. For example, this DIY blood typing kit is kind of neat. For less than $10, you can send away for an at-home testing kit that contains everything you need to find out your blood type. When you're finished, you can laminate the card to carry in your wallet.Knowing your blood type is typically not a top priority, but in an emergency it can be critical. Matching blood types is crucial during transfusions and certain blood types can only receive a specific type of blood. Though it's simple enough for your doctor to test your blood type, if you haven't had it done or if you don't have any blood work scheduled, this little test might be helpful.
Gene flaws may increase kids' risk for type 1 diabetes
Filed under: Type 1, Childhood, Research, Daily News
A new study, a report of which has been published in Nature, has identified gene flaws that increase the risk for type 1 diabetes in children. By examining the genetic codes of thousands of children, some with and some without diabetes, as well as those of parents of diabetics, the researchers identified three changes on one specific gene present in those with diabetes. They then looked at 1600 additional diabetes patients' genetic codes and again found the very same marks, sometimes called "flavors" or "flaws." Two of these variations increase a person's odds of developing diabetes by fifty percent, say the researchers. However, the third seems to decrease risk for the disease.Type 1, says lead author Hakon Hakonarson, is a complex genetic disorder "involving mutations in several genes acting in concert to predispose someone to the condition." Important? Very. Best case scenario: understanding how these genes operate is the kind of knowledge that could lead to a cure. At the very least, such knowledge could help medical caregivers identify at-risk children - a step that could eventually precede the standard diagnosis procedure as we know it today.
Click here for more details about this study.
Type 1 vaccination successfully tested on mice
I do not like vaccinations. I wonder if they are connected to the autism and diabetes epidemics, even attention-deficit disorders. I do vaccinate my children, just begrudgingly. Yet if there ever was a vaccination against type 1 diabetes, I would be first in line.
Researchers in France and Germany have demonstrated you can treat a type 1 diabetic mouse with a vaccination. Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease in which the immune system's T cells cannot distinguish between "non-self" and "self", attacking cells of the pancreas that produce insulin.
Previously, Drs. Falk and Rotzschke of the Max Delbruck Center for Molecular Medicine (MDC), blocked the misdirected immune system by vaccinating mice with modified structures of the same organ targeted by the defective T cell immune response. Antigens are structures which activate a body's immune system, and the mice were protected from type 1 diabetes through the body's own antigens linked together in a repetive chain of identical copies. But the researchers did not understand how this protective string of antigens worked.
In a new study, Drs. Liblau, Falk and Rotzschke have proven this protective effect is due to the activation of an immune system's suppressor cells, the very cells that block those misguided T cells. Suppressor cells only inhibit T cells that attack a body's own tissue, allowing T cells to continue to attack foreign viruses and bacteria.
Dr. Rotzschke believes suppressor cells are a promising research focus in immunology. Even better, he is confident suppressing a haywired immune system through a specific vaccination with one's own antigens opens up a whole new treatment approach.
Understanding glycemic goals empowers type 2 diabetics
Filed under: Type 2, Adult Onset, Books
The best part of blogging for The Diabetes Blog is the steep learning curve you embark upon as you research media outlets with an eye on diabetes. I've grown up as a sister and daughter of two brothers and a mom and dad with type 1 diabetes, but the challenges type 2 diabetics face are entirely foreign.
Alarmingly, recent surveys reveal about 60% of type 2 diabetics are not reaching glycemic goals. A new book, Know Your Numbers, Outlive Your Diabetes: Five Essential Health Factors You Can Master to Enjoy a Long and Healthy Life, offers type 2 diabetics tools to better manage their health. Authors Richard A. Jackson, MD, Assistant Professor, Harvard Medical School and Amy L. Tenderich, MA, diabetes blogger, journalist and author, hope the book can guide the type 2 diabetic -- who often realizes little face-to-face time with their physician -- get a handle on these five test results for better diabetes control.
The book moves beyond the vague notion many type 2 diabetics have that "they need to eat better and exercise more." Rather, the book teaches the importance and optimal ranges of five tests ... A1C, blood pressure, lipids, microalbumin and eye examinations.
Dr. Jackson explains only about 10% of people are "A1C aware." Blood pressure awareness is a bit better, while hardly anyone has heard of microalbumin and many do not understand their eye examination results. The book stresses the importance of first understanding your baseline test results in these five areas to determine where your health currently stands.
For instance, a type 2 diabetic on oral meds with an 8.5% A1C is 35% more likely to have complications from the disease than someone with a 7.5% A1C on small doses of daily insulin. Knowing your numbers is critical, as it may overcome common reluctance of type 2 diabetics to consider using daily insulin to improve control or instituting basic food and exercise choices to improve the results. Once diabetics start focusing on the numbers and demanding their time-stressed physicians to order these tests regularly, they will be empowered to develop strategies to improve their numbers and, ultimately, their health.
I regularly hear my brothers and parents shouting out their latest A1C results at family pow-wows. Now I understand why.
Popular diabetes drug Avandia poses heart attack risk for type 2 diabetics
Filed under: Type 2, Adult Onset, Drugs
When my mom was first diagnosed with diabetes in the late 1990s, her internist prescribed Rezulin, a popular diabetes drug approved in 1997. Then one day the phone rang. Her internist called to alert her Rezulin was causing fatal liver failure and he wanted her off the drug immediately.
Now Avandia, a popular diabetes drug which helps sensitize the body to insulin, is on the hotseat. A recent study published in the New England Journal of Medicine by Dr. Steven Nissen and statistician Kathy Wolski at the Cleveland Clinic suggests Avandia significantly raises the risk of heart attack for type 2 diabetics.
Nissen pooled results of nearly 28,000 people across dozens of studies, revealing a 43 percent higher risk of heart attack for Avandia users compared to diabetics prescribed different drugs or no diabetes medication at all. Two-thirds of type 2 diabetics die of heart problems. With a 43 percent higher risk, Avandia may be downright dangerous.
GlaxoSmithKline PLC, maker of Avandia, disputes Nissen's analysis, but admitted a similar review revealed a 30 percent increased risk. I don't know about you, but a 30 percent higher risk of heart attack frightens me. Glaxo did say further rigorous studies did not confirm an excess risk.
I suspect the phones will soon be ringing in the homes of Avandia-prescribed type 2 diabetics. And it's not good news.