Diabetes
Hispanics have more difficulty controlling diabetes than non-Hispanic whites
|
|
Results of an analysis of multiple studies show diabetes control is more challenging for Hispanics than non-Hispanic whites, according to researchers at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center and colleagues.
The results revealed that Hispanic patients with diabetes have approximately 0.5 percent higher levels on a test that measures blood sugar control, called the A1C test, than non-Hispanic white patients. The researchers noted the consistency of these findings across the studies.
An A1C test measures hemoglobin linked with glucose, or blood sugar, over a time period of two to three months. Higher A1C values indicate patients have difficulty controlling their blood sugar.
Expert Available To Discuss Recent Diabetes Study
|
|
Last week it was reported that the National Institutes of Health abruptly halted part of a major study on diabetes and heart disease following an unexpected number deaths among patient enrollees. The study, which aimed at reducing blood sugar to normal levels in type 2 diabetics. The study included patients that were at especially high risk of heart attack and stroke, resulting in 257 deaths (as compared with 203 in the standard treatment group). Perhaps more alarming than the number of reported deaths: the NIH’s National Heart Lung and Blood Institute stressed they were unable to link the increased number of deaths in the survey to any drug, including Avandia.
“It is imperative for diabetic patients to take their condition seriously when it comes to controlling their glucose levels,” says Richard M. Goldfarb, MD and medical director of the Buck County Clinical Research Center. “Everyone knows a diabetic or has diabetic brother, boyfriend, uncle, or mother who eats that piece of chocolate cake first and pops a pill second.
Diabetes, Cholesterol, Anti-obesity Drugs Top Spending
|
|
U.S. adult consumers spent nearly $36 billion for prescription drugs to lower blood sugar, reduce cholesterol, or help with other metabolic problems in 2005, according to the latest News and Numbers from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.
Study finds increasing rates of diabetes among older Americans
|
|
The annual number of Americans older than 65 newly diagnosed with diabetes increased by 23 percent between 1994 to 1995 and 2003 to 2004, according to a report in the January 28 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.
“The prevalence of diabetes mellitus is increasing, in part because of population aging, but also in younger persons,” according to background information in the article. The high rate of existing diabetes also contributes to a high rate of diabetes-related complications and premature death. “Awareness of the importance of active monitoring and management of diabetes has become more widespread; however, adherence to recommended practices remains low.”
Frank A. Sloan, Ph.D., and colleagues at the Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina, and colleagues analyzed Medicare program data for patients first diagnosed with diabetes during 1994 (33,164 patients), 1999 (31,722 patients) and 2003 (40,058 patients). This data was compared with that of two control groups consisting of individuals without the disease who were of similar race and ethnicity to those with diabetes. Death and complications of diabetes such as cardiovascular, cerebrovascular (damage to blood cells in the brain), ophthalmic (eye), renal (kidney) and lower extremity events were recorded.
Anti-Inflammatory Drug May Prevent Type 2 Diabetes
|
|
Researchers at the Joslin Diabetes Center are reporting that an inexpensive anti-inflammatory drug similar to aspirin, salsalate, may prevent type 2 diabetes by lowering blood glucose and reducing inflammation.
The study, which appears in the February issue of Diabetes Care, is a small, proof-of-principal clinical trial, but is promising enough to spur three more trials to see if the drug, salsalate, can also treat diabetes by lowering blood glucose, slow the progression of coronary artery disease in those with metabolic syndrome, and perhaps prevent diabetes in those at high risk.
“This is exciting because salsalate has a good safety profile after many years of use, is inexpensive to make and appears to have the potential to lower blood glucose,” said Allison B. Goldfine, M.D., lead researcher on the study, Head of Clinical Research at Joslin and Assistant Professor at Harvard Medical School. “It may be useful in preventing diabetes.”
Deficient regulators in the immune system responsible for type 1 diabetes
|
|
The main regulators of the immune system, called CD4+Treg cells, are thought to be highly involved in a large range of immune diseases. The gradual reduction in their regulating capacity seems to play a critical role in the onset of type 1 diabetes, as demonstrated in the latest study by Dr. Ciriaco Piccirillo, a researcher in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre and the principal investigator for this project. This study was published this month in the journal Diabetes.
The immune system needs to be regulated so that it attacks only the site of an inflammation and focuses its attack on pathogens rather than on the body tissues, causing an autoimmune disease.
In a healthy patient, CD4+Treg cells deactivate any T lymphocytes, a type of immune cell, that are misprogrammed and could attack the body. Dr Piccirillo’s research indicates that in type 1 diabetic patients this control mechanism may be deficient, thereby allowing the misprogrammed T lymphocytes to proliferate and gain the ability to destroy the insulin-producing cells of the pancreas. This leads to type 1 diabetes.
Diabetes narrows gender gap in heart disease death
|
|
Eighteen years of follow-up shows that men are twice as likely to die from heart disease as women. However, this gender gap is markedly reduced when only patients with diabetes are considered.
The reason? Diabetes is a stronger risk factor for heart disease death in women than in men.
In the European Heart Journal, Dr. Ane Cecilie Dale, of the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim, and colleagues report data from HUNT 1, a large study in which all adults of Trendelag County, Norway, were invited to participate.
Cold and flu more serious in diabetics
|
|
Flu season is unpleasant for everyone, but if you have diabetes it can be even worse. If diabetics fail to manage their disease while sick, the complications can be serious, the American Diabetes Association warned in a statement this week.
“Your average person (with the flu) will spend three or four days at home but they’ll do okay,” said Dr. John Buse, president of medicine and science at the ADA. “In patients with diabetes, occasionally they even have to be hospitalized.”
Heart risk factor control worse in diabetic women
|
|
Deaths from cardiovascular disease are declining among men with diabetes, but not women, and poorer control of blood pressure and cholesterol levels may be to blame, a new study suggests.
Among diabetic patients with existing cardiovascular disease, Dr. Assiamira Ferrara of Kaiser Permanente in Oakland, California and colleagues found, women were 5.4 percent less likely than men to have systolic blood pressures at recommended levels, and 5.9 percent less likely to have their “bad” LDL-cholesterol under control.
Statins seen beneficial for nearly all diabetics
|
|
Statins—the best-selling class of cholesterol-fighting drugs—should be considered as standard therapy for all diabetics, apart from children and pregnant women, researchers said on Friday.
A group of British and Australian investigators said the largest study of its kind, involving a pooled analysis of clinical trials involving nearly 19,000 patients with diabetes, found there was a clear benefit in taking statins.
After five years, 42 fewer people with diabetes had major vascular events, such as heart attacks and strokes, for every 1,000 allocated statin therapy.
Help! I’m Sick. How Do I Handle My Diabetes?
|
|
Runny nose. Upset stomach. Whatever illness it is, it can make you feel miserable. It is hard enough to be under the weather but it is even more difficult to handle being sick if you have diabetes.
According to the American Diabetes Association (ADA), people with diabetes who develop an illness are at risk for serious complications if they don’t take care of their diabetes. Blood glucose levels can increase or decrease to dangerous levels if left unchecked. Ketones, a waste product created when the body begins to use stored fat for energy, can build up, especially in those with type 1 diabetes, if a person does not take insulin at regular intervals. Left unmonitored, high ketone levels can lead to ketoacidosis, which can lead to coma or death.
Guidelines aim to keep diabetic athletes healthy
|
|
Athletes with diabetes should be sure to have a game plan to manage blood-sugar highs and lows, according to new guidelines.
The recommendations, from the National Athletic Trainers’ Association (NATA), focus on athletes with type 1 diabetes, the form of diabetes that usually arises in childhood or by young adulthood and requires insulin therapy.
Insulin regimens comparable for diabetes control
|
|
For patients with type 2 diabetes beginning insulin therapy, blood sugar control and quality of life seem to be similar with either flexible intensive insulin therapy (FIT) or conventional insulin therapy (CIT) according to a report in the journal Diabetes Care.
The authors note that CIT is based on fixed insulin dosing and fixed carbohydrate intake, whereas with FIT, the insulin dose is adjusted in accordance with blood sugar levels and desired carbohydrate intake. CIT is easier, but FIT offers more dietary freedom.
Mental health linked to amputation risk in diabetic veterans
|
|
For U.S. veterans with diabetes, lower scores on a test of mental health functioning are associated with an increased risk of major amputations, reports a study in the November/December issue of the journal General Hospital Psychiatry.
“Our findings suggest that foot care programs need to assess individuals for mental health functioning as a risk factor and to develop appropriate interventions to counteract this higher risk of major amputation,” write the study authors, led by Chin-Lin Tseng, Dr.P.H., of the VA New Jersey Health Care System, East Orange, N.J.
Use of Diabetes Medication by Older Adults Associated With Increased Risk of Serious Heart Problems
|
|
Older patients treated with the diabetes medications known as thiazolidinediones (which include rosiglitazone) had a significantly increased risk of heart attack, congestive heart failure and death, compared with the use of other hypoglycemic drugs, according to a study in the December 12 issue of JAMA. The authors suggest that these results provide further evidence that this class of medication may cause more harm than good.
The thiazolidinediones (TZDs) rosiglitazone and pioglitazone are oral hypoglycemic agents used to treat type 2 diabetes and have been shown to improve glycemic control. “While improved glycemic control has been linked to better clinical outcomes in diabetes and TZDs have been suggested as having potential cardiovascular benefits, recent concerns have arisen regarding adverse cardiac effects of these drugs,” the authors write.
