Diabetes Doubles in the Last 10 Years
Filed under: Type 1, Type 2, Childhood, Adult Onset, Diet, Lifestyle, Research, Exercise, Daily News
An area in Seattle, WA is reporting a two-fold increase in the number of diabetics, up from ten years ago. In addition to this -- type 1 diabetes is on the rise.
The numbers show that 84,000 adults (nearly 6% of the adult population of the county) were diagnosed with diabetes in 2006, compared with 2.8% in 1996. Even more are unaware they have the condition. Type 1 diabetes, for which there is no known prevention, is showing a dramatic increase in the area, as well.
A researcher involved in the study explains "this is not a question of raising awareness of diabetes anymore -- we're beyond that. We need to understand why people aren't listening." The comment pertains to type 2 diabetics and why they have not altered unhealthy lifestyles choices such as high-fat foods and not enough exercise. Both contribute to skyrocketing obesity rates. And obesity is a major risk factor for Type 2 diabetes, by far the most common form.
Seattle has one of the highest rates of type 1 diabetes in children under 5, and they don't know why. But early research shows that oral insulin in family members of those already diagnosed showed a 4 1/2-year delay in the onset of the disease.
Pesky kidney stones afflict diabetics
Filed under: Type 2, Research, Daily News
What're red and shaped like big jelly beans? Your kidneys, of course! But kidneys can cause trouble and strife when those nasty little gritty things known as kidney stones develop. Once they're formed, it's awfully unpleasant for those afflicted, and it's tough to get the darn things out. All kidney stones cause pain and discomfort, usually in the back, sides or abdomen. Other symptoms include nausea, bloody urine and painful or frequent urination. Now a new report says that there's more of these stones to go around lately: the incidence of the stones is increasing not just in the US, but worldwide. According to researchers at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, the spread of Type 2 diabetes could be the culprit. The findings, published in the American Journal of Kidney Disease, came after the researchers looked at a bunch of patients and found that having diabetes appeared to predispose them to a type of kidney stones composed of uric acid (as opposed to stones composed of calcium) Of 3,561 patients who were diagnosed with kidney stones between 1980 and 1999, those with high blood pressure, and suffering from obesity and diabetes were in much worse shape. Of those with uric acid kidney stones, forty percent also had diabetes. The scientist then performed some handy calculations and estimate that people diagnosed with uric acid kidney stones have about a five-fold risk of diabetes, so they and their doctors should be on the lookout for signs of the disease.
Nutrition - Millions Of People Worldwide Suffer From Alzheimer’s - Number Of Cases Feared To Double In Coming Years
Millions Of People Worldwide Suffer From Alzheimer’s - Number Of Cases Feared To Double In Coming Years
A hundred years ago, the psychiatrist and brain researcher described the first patient with a severe dementia accompanied by the massive loss of nerve cells (neurons). At that time, the disease later named after him was still rare. Alzheimer saw only two cases in his research career, as Dr. [click link for full article]
Doctor And Advocacy Groups Work To Deliver Cervical Cancer Vaccinations
Today, leading organizations from across the healthcare spectrum joined together to ensure that the United States is prepared to deliver on a major women’s health breakthrough - the elimination of most forms of cervical cancer through access to new vaccines and screening. The Partnership to End Cervical Cancer’s goal is to ensure the immediate inclusion of cervical cancer vaccines as part of routine preventive healthcare for American women. [click link for full article]
Can Information Help Beat Cancer?
Cancerbackup, the cancer information and support charity, has launched what it hopes will be the biggest ever survey of people affected by cancer. The aim is to increase understanding of how the provision of the right information, to the right people, at the right time helps them make the right choices about their treatment and care.”Information for people affected by cancer has long been recognised as vital”, says Derryn Borley, Head of Cancer Services, Cancerbackup. [click link for full article]
Vegetable And Fruit Juice Consumption Lower Alzheimer’s Risk
If you drink fruit and/or vegetable juice at least three times a week you could be reducing your chances of developing Alzheimer’s disease (AD) by 76%, say scientists in a new study. Even if you have a fruit and/or vegetable juice just twice a week your risk goes down 16%.You can read about this study in the September issue of the American Journal of Medicine. [click link for full article]
Memory Clinics Are Diverting NHS Resources From High Quality Care
Specialist memory clinics for patients with dementia are taking NHS resources away from long term integrated care, warn senior doctors in this week’s BMJ. Since 2001, the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) has recommended that cholinesterase inhibitors should be available to people with mild to moderate Alzheimer’s disease, writes consultant psychiatrist, Anthony Pelosi and colleagues. [click link for full article]
Diabetics taking Avandia caught in volley of debate
Filed under: Type 2, Adult Onset, Drugs
For those of you following the Avandia story in the news, you're probably wondering how the patients currently taking Avandia are feeling. Are they flushing the pills down the toilet? What about the patients enrolled in GlaxoSmithKline's current Avandia clinical trial -- are they dropping out like flies? If you are unfamiliar with the Avandia debate, news broke last week that Avandia, a popular diabetes drug, may increase the risk of heart attack. A 43% higher risk.
It may depend on the specialty of your doctor. BusinessWeek has reported endocrinologists tend to be more skeptical of the study, noting its weaknesses compared to original, more rigorous clinical trials. Many cardiologists and drug safety experts give the study more weight, and remain worried about Avandia's potential cardiac danger. Doctors on the frontline are concerned patients may stop taking the drug without medical consultation as many are confused and frightened.
Dr. Nissen, the whistle-blower on Avandia and leader of the fight to withdraw Merck's arthritis drug Vioxx due to safety issues, acknowledges there are real limitations in his analysis, but he points out Glaxo's own data found a 30% increase in the risk of heart attack from Avandia. Nissen was alarmed enough to release his meta-analysis showing a 43% increased risk versus waiting for the results of Glaxo's 4,400-patient, eight-year clinical trial named RECORD, which is specifically measuring cardiovascular outcomes of Avandia.
Critics say Nissen went too far out on a limb this time as a meta-analysis examining 42 Avandia trials with varying research methodologies is not terribly reliable.
How many heart attacks did Nissen's meta-analysis reveal? Among 15,560 Avandia-takers, 86 had a heart attack and 39 died of cardiovascular origin. This compares to 72 heart attacks and 22 deaths from cardiovascular causes of 12,283 diabetics taking drugs other than Avandia. Critics point out Nissen did not include six trials of Avandia that showed zero -- yes, ZERO -- heart attacks. If you wrap those six trials into the mix, critics contend, Nissen's statistical significance is null and void.
Nissen says Avandia's only proven benefit is controlling blood sugar levels and many safer drugs are available. Endrocrinologists want a wide variety of drugs to prescribe in case a patient is resistant to one.
The back-and-forth news on Avandia reminds me of watching a long baseline rally in professional tennis before powerful graphite racquets entered the scene. But this is hardly a recreational moment for diabetics taking Avandia -- it must an unsettling time.
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.
Diabetic trauma patients face hazards
Filed under: Type 1, Type 2, Research, Care, Complications
You may have heard that diabetics face a greater risk of complications during hospital stays. Well, now there's evidence that diabetics with trauma injuries are particularly at risk. That info comes courtesy of a large Pennsylvania study that looked at records for around 25,000 trauma patients, half with diabetes, the other half without. The study tracked the patients' progress over the course of almost twenty years. Impressive.What did they find? Twenty-three percent of the diabetic trauma patients experienced complications. That compares with only fourteen percent of non-diabetics. The diabetics also spent slightly more time in intensive care and were more likely to need ventilator support. The overall risk of infections was higher too - eleven percent versus six percent.
Good news: despite all this, the data did not suggest people with diabetes are more likely to die after a trauma injury. Nor did it suggest diabetics stay in hospital longer than non-diabetics. The team that conducted the study states that the next step would be to examine whether or not improved blood sugar control in diabetic trauma patients would impact these figures.
Read more about these findings by visiting MedPageToday or, for a brief summary, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Or check out the full report, published in Archives of Surgery (July, 2007).
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.
Surgeon Urges Diabetics to Take GABA
Filed under: Type 1, Type 2, Childhood, Adult Onset, Lifestyle, Products, Support
Dr. Daniel Johnson has been working to prevent lower limb amputation in diabetics and strongly urges all diabetics to start taking a nutritional supplement, GABA (gamma-aminobutyric acid) twice a day. The supplement has clinically proven to prevent and improve diabetic vision loss as well as peripheral neuropathy that can lead to amputation.
Researchers discovered that the cells in the pancreas that make insulin also make GABA. When the body produces less GABA, the GABA C receptors in the retina of the eye and in a part of the pituitary gland are impaired from maintaining cell health. With GABA supplementation, the improvements were seen in the vision of patients with diabetic retinopathy and in restoration of feeling in the feet of those with diabetic neuropathy. Awaiting clinical trials by the FDA to provide reversal of complications from a naturally occurring enzyme is simply unnecessary.
The problem in taking GABA by mouth, Dr. Johnson advised, is limited absorption from the digestive tract. He has found that people who take 375 to 500 mg. of plain GABA twice-a-day with an acid-containing beverage (like grapefruit juice) get the best results. If the diabetic patient cannot drink orange or grapefruit juice because of the sugar content, he recommends that they take the GABA with a dose of ascorbic acid -- Vitamin C.
While he would not give an endorsement, Johnson did say that his colleagues had found that Source Naturals 750 mg. tablet form of GABA (half a tablet twice a day) or Solgar's 500 mg. capsule form, also twice-a-day seemed to work best. Please note that the results from Dr. Johnson's use of GABA in the treatment of peropheral neuropathy and diabetic vision loss were clinically recognized but not FDA verified.
[RESEARCH] Prediction of citation counts for clinical articles at two years using data available within three weeks of publication: retrospective cohort study
Objective To determine if citation counts at two years could be predicted for clinical articles that pass basic criteria for critical appraisal using data within three weeks of publication from external sources and an online article rating service.
Design Retrospective cohort study.
Setting Online rating service, Canada.
Participants 1274 articles from 105 journals published from January to June 2005, randomly divided into a 60:40 split to provide derivation and validation datasets.
Main outcome measures 20 article and journal features, including ratings of clinical relevance and newsworthiness, routinely collected by the McMaster online rating of evidence system, compared with citation counts at two years.
Results The derivation analysis showed that the regression equation accounted for 60% of the variation (R2=0.60, 95% confidence interval 0.538 to 0.629). This model applied to the validation dataset gave a similar prediction (R2=0.56, 0.476 to 0.596, shrinkage 0.04; shrinkage measures how well the derived equation matches data from the validation dataset). Cited articles in the top half and top third were predicted with 83% and 61% sensitivity and 72% and 82% specificity. Higher citations were predicted by indexing in numerous databases; number of authors; abstraction in synoptic journals; clinical relevance scores; number of cited references; and original, multicentred, and therapy articles from journals with a greater proportion of articles abstracted.
Conclusion Citation counts can be reliably predicted at two years using data within three weeks of publication.
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!