Diabetes
Hearing impairment is common among adults with diabetes
|
|
Hearing impairment is common in adults with diabetes, and diabetes seems to be an independent risk factor for the condition according to a study published today on the Web site of Annals of Internal Medicine.
“We found that hearing loss was much more common in people with diabetes than people without the disease,” says Kathleen E. Bainbridge, PhD, the study’s lead researcher. “The hearing loss we detected did not seem to be caused by other factors such as exposure to loud noises, certain medicines, and smoking.”
Using the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, collected by the National Center for Health Statistics from 1999 to 2004, the researchers analyzed data from 5,140 adults aged 20 to 69 who completed an audiometric examination and a diabetes questionnaire.
Diabetes drug slows early-onset puberty in girls
|
|
In young girls at risk of early puberty and insulin resistance, the diabetes drug metformin delayed the onset of menstruation and decreased the development of insulin resistance, a risk factor for type 2 diabetes, according to a new study. The results were presented Monday, June 16, at The Endocrine Society’s 90th Annual Meeting in San Francisco.
“The findings indicate that we can slow down puberty,” said the study’s senior author, Lourdes Ibanez, MD, PhD, of the University of Barcelona in Spain. “This is important because when puberty is faster in girls, the appearance of menses occurs earlier, and this sequence of events may ultimately result in a shorter adult height.”
Also, getting a first menstrual period before age 12 has been linked to an increased risk of breast cancer. Early puberty (breast development) is a risk factor for polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), especially if the girl is overweight, she said. PCOS is a common cause of infertility.
Moderate Fitness Lowers Risk of Death for Normal Weight or Obese Men with Type 2 Diabetes
|
|
Being even moderately physically fit lowers a diabetic man’s risk of death, regardless of his weight, according to a new study. Results will be presented at The Endocrine Society’s 90th Annual Meeting in San Francisco.
The study found that for men with type 2 diabetes, moderate fitness levels reduced the risk of dying of any cause during an average follow-up period of seven years by 40 to 50 percent, even if they were overweight or obese.
“Death rates were the highest for those who were low fit in all weight categories,” said Roshney Jacob-Issac, MD, an endocrinology fellow at George Washington University Hospital and the Veterans Affairs (VA) Medical Center in Washington, D.C. She presented the study results.
Severe Insulin Resistance may Increase Rate of Pregnancy and Birth Complications
|
|
Testing pregnant women for insulin resistance with a simple blood test may be a new tool for predicting problems during pregnancy, according to a new study. The results will be presented at The Endocrine Society’s 90th Annual Meeting in San Francisco.
Insulin resistance is a condition in which the body blocks the effects of the hormone insulin. As a result, glucose, or sugar, builds up in the blood, and diabetes can develop. Insulin resistance lies behind the development of gestational diabetes - diabetes that develops during pregnancy - which increases the risk of pregnancy and birth complications. Therefore, the authors aimed to find out whether insulin resistance is linked to poor outcomes in pregnant women and newborns, said the lead author, Weerapan Khovidhunkit, MD, PhD, of Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand.
It is standard for pregnant women to get a blood test for gestational diabetes between the 24th and 28th weeks of pregnancy, according to The Hormone Foundation, the public education affiliate of The Endocrine Society. This test is called the glucose challenge test or glucose challenge screening. If this test result is positive, the woman then has an oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT), in which her blood sugar levels are tested 3 hours after she drinks a glucose drink.
Water Intake Could Gauge Diabetes
|
|
Rough and tumble summer games send hot and sweaty children running in and out of the house for drinks of water or bathroom trips. While drinking plenty of water, especially when they’ve been out in the sun, is good for kids, too much can be a bad sign.
A significant increase in thirst and urination are symptoms of diabetes - a disease that is on the rise with children, says Marilyn Alford, senior advanced practice nurse at UT Southwestern Medical Center.
Weight gain no big deal in type 1 diabetes: study
|
|
Becoming overweight or obese may not be so bad for people who are battling type 1 diabetes, the less common form of the disease, researchers said on Friday.
People who put on weight over time were less likely to die than others studied, and those classified as underweight were at the greatest risk for death, according to the study.
Even people who were technically obese were less likely to die if they had type 1 diabetes, the team at the University of Pittsburgh found.
Experimental drug lowers blood sugar in diabetics
|
|
A mid-stage clinical trial of the experimental drug Qnexa showed that it lowered blood sugar and led to weight loss in patients with type 2 diabetes, drug developer Vivus Inc said Tuesday.
In the 28-week trial involving 206 subjects, the patients on Qnexa achieved a 1.2 percent reduction in hemoglobin A1c—a key measure of blood sugar—compared with a drop of just 0.6 percent for those treated with placebo.
Participants treated with Qnexa, which is also being developed for obesity, lost 8 percent of their starting body weight, compared with weight loss of 1.2 percent for the placebo group, Vivus said.
Diabetes test targets high-risk patients
|
|
The Finnish Diabetes Risk Score may help identify high-risk patients who are most likely to benefit from intensive lifestyle intervention to prevent type 2 diabetes, results of a study published in the May issue of Diabetes Care suggest.
“Intensive lifestyle intervention significantly reduced diabetes incidence among the participants in the Finnish Diabetes Prevention Study,” Dr. Jaana Lindstrom, of the National Public Health Institute, Helsinki, Finland, and colleagues write. The investigators examined whether and to what extent risk factors for type 2 diabetes and other characteristics of the study subjects modified the effectiveness of the lifestyle intervention.
The Finnish Diabetes Risk Score “combines the effects of eight risk characteristics,” the researchers explained—age, body mass index, waist circumference, drug treatment for high blood pressure, high blood sugar, or “glucose” levels, amount of fruits and vegetables in the diet, physical activity and family history of diabetes.
Researchers Identify Gene that Regulates Glucose Levels
|
|
In an effort to understand how genes work, a collaborative study which includes the University of Southern California (USC) has identified a gene that regulates glucose levels. The results, which will be published in the July issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation and is currently available online, may provide further understanding of the underlying causes of diabetes.
“Elevations of blood glucose are diagnostic of diabetes. This finding demonstrates there are gene variants that are important for day-to-day regulation of glucose, but they do not appear to play a significant role in disease risk,” says Richard M. Watanabe, Ph.D., associate professor of preventive medicine and physiology & biophysics at the Keck School of Medicine of USC and co-senior author of the paper.
The study determined that this variant is not associated with an increased risk for type 2 diabetes.
Kidney plus pancreas transplant best for diabetics
|
|
People with type 1 diabetes who need a kidney transplant, as many do, fare better over the long term when they receive a pancreas transplant at the same time, according to researchers from the University of Heidelberg in Germany.
“Our study shows that a functioning pancreas has a benefit for the simultaneously transplanted kidney,” lead investigator Dr. Christian Morath said in a statement. “At the same time, this procedure prolongs the survival of the patient, compared to a patient who received only a kidney transplant.”
The reason for the improved survival with simultaneous pancreas-and-kidney transplantation is not fully known, but likely relates to the enhanced glucose control achieved with the combined procedure, the researchers note in the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology.
Low-carb diets work for overweight diabetics
|
|
Overweight people with type 2 diabetes can keep their weight and blood sugar under control over the long term by following a low-carbohydrate diet, Swedish researchers report.
“It is indeed possible to have a lasting success in the treatment of some of these patients,” Dr. Jorgen Vesti Nielsen told Reuters Health.
The participants in the study limited their carbohydrate intake to 20 percent of total calories. The most significant effect of this low-carb diet is the absence of hunger, Nielsen added.
New Insights in Diagnosing Diabetes May Help the Millions Who Are Undiagnosed
|
|
In light of the 6.2 million Americans who don’t realize they have diabetes, a panel of experts examined the current criteria for screening and diagnosing the disease and found a significant need for improvement. Their conclusions and recommendations can be found in a new report accepted for publication in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism (JCEM).
“Approximately 30 percent of people with diabetes in the United States are undiagnosed,” said Christopher Saudek, M.D., of Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in Baltimore, Md., and lead author of the report. “There are serious deficiencies in the current criteria for diagnosing diabetes and these shortcomings are contributing to avoidable morbidity and mortality”.
One reason so many people with diabetes are undiagnosed is because commonly prescribed diagnostic tests require that a patient be fasting, said Saudek. This means that people who have eaten on the day of a doctor visit will not be diagnosed unless they have quite advanced diabetes.
Chlorinated pesticides may raise diabetes risk
|
|
Using certain chlorinated pesticides puts a person at increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes, and the greater the exposure, the greater the risk, researchers from the National Institutes of Health report.
The researchers studied more than 31,000 licensed pesticide applicators participating in the Agricultural Health Study. Licensed pesticide applicators use more potent formulations of the chemicals than are found in products sold for use in the home or garden, the researchers note.
Five years after enrolling in the study, 1,176 had developed type 2 diabetes. Among the 50 different pesticides the researchers looked at, half were chlorinated, and 7 of these were tied to an increased risk of type 2 diabetes. They are: aldrin, chlordane, heptachlor, dichlorvos, trichlorfon, alachlor, and cyanazine.
Leg bypass surgery outcome poor in diabetics
|
|
Patients with diabetes fare worse than their non-diabetic counterparts after leg bypass surgery to restore restricted blood flow to the legs due to hardening of the leg arteries, Swedish researchers report.
They found that survival free of amputation after leg bypass surgery for severely reduced blood flow to the legs (i.e., critical limb ischemia) is lower in diabetics than non-diabetics, and death associated with this procedure is also higher among diabetics.
Dr. Jonas Malmstedt of Karolinska University Hospital, Stockholm and colleagues note that patients with critical limb ischemia usually require leg bypass surgery to prevent amputation. They also point out that there is a lack of population-based studies involving diabetics.
Diabetics’ blood pressure often inadequately controlled
|
|
Uncertainty about a patient’s “true” blood pressure (BP) is the chief reason why doctors fail to intensify BP-lowering treatment when a diabetic patient has high BP (hypertension), investigators report.
“Several studies have suggested that ‘clinical inertia’—the failure by providers to initiate or intensify therapy n the face of apparent need to do so—is a main contributor to poor control of hypertension,” Dr. Eve A. Kerr and colleagues explain in a report in the Annals of Internal Medicine.
To identify factors that underlie “clinical inertia,” Kerr at the Veterans Affairs Ann Arbor Healthcare System in Michigan and her team studied 1,169 diabetic patients with hypertension seen by 92 primary care doctors at 9 VA facilities.
