Diabetes
Treating depression improves diabetes control
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A study of type 2 diabetics with depression confirms that depression has a negative impact on glycemic (blood sugar) control, researchers report, and “affirms the importance of depression management in diabetic patients in its potential to improve glycemic control.”
Researchers from Missouri treated 93 patients with type 2 diabetes and depression with the antidepressant bupropion (Wellbutrin).
Low-fat diary enhances weight loss in diabetics
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Research results suggest that a diet rich in low-fat dairy calcium boosts weight loss in overweight type 2 diabetics. “Such a diet should be tried in diabetic patients,” researchers conclude, particularly in those individuals who have a tough time sticking to other weight loss diets.
The weight-loss promoting effect of dairy calcium came to light in ancillary analyses of data from a study in which 259 overweight diabetic patients were put on a mixed glycemic index diet, a low-glycemic index diet, or a modified Mediterranean diet.
Diabetes case tied to growth hormone ‘doping’
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Athletes who take growth hormone in an effort to enhance their performance risk developing diabetes, two doctors from the UK warn in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.
In the paper, Dr. James Young and Aresh Anwar from University Hospital Coventry and Warwick, Warwickshire, describe what they believe is the first reported case of diabetes associated with taking high doses of growth hormone.
Tailored diabetes care gets results
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Culturally specific diabetes management programs work better than a one-size-fits-all approach, going by the results achieved with a program tailored to Latino patients.
“This diabetes management program works,” Dr. Todd Gilmer of the University of California at San Diego, the study’s lead author, told Reuters Health in an interview. “For the amount that this costs, you get valuable improvements in health.”
Boric acid works for yeast infections in diabetics
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Among women with diabetes, boric acid vaginal suppositories clear up yeast infections better than the prescription anti-fungal pill fluconazole, Indian researchers report in the medical journal Diabetes Care.
Dr. Ravinder Goswami, at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi, and associates note that vaginal yeast infections in diabetic women are often caused by a fungal type known as Candida glabrata, and this tends to respond poorly to treatment with oral anti-fungal drugs like fluconazole.
Obesity poses larger diabetes risk than inactivity
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Although obesity and lack of physical activity both raise the risk of type 2 diabetes in women, obesity appears to be the more important factor, researchers report in the journal Diabetes Care.
Dr. Frank Hu of the Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, and colleagues note that the relative contribution of obesity and inactivity to the risk of developing type 2 diabetes remains controversial.
Analysis confirms ED drugs OK for diabetic men
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Viagra and similar drugs used to treat erectile dysfunction, often referred to as ED, work for men with diabetes and appear to be safe, according to a research review being published Wednesday.
Diabetes is one of the most common causes of ED, and experts estimate that diabetic men are about three times more likely than other men to deal with erection problems at some point.
Dietary Zinc for Diabetes Prevention Not Backed by Evidence
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Despite laboratory evidence that zinc helps promote the production and action of insulin - and widespread marketing of zinc supplements for this purpose - no randomized clinical trials show that zinc supplementation prevents the onset of type 2 diabetes.
However, this doesn’t necessarily mean that zinc doesn’t have a role in diabetes prevention. Rather, eligible studies are lacking, according to authors of a new systematic review of clinical studies, led by Vania Beletate of the Federal University of Sao Paola in Brazil.
Newer blood-pressure drugs pose less diabetes risk
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More recent blood pressure treatments are less likely to be associated with diabetes than are older medicines, researchers said on Friday.
Their conclusions are based on a systematic review of 22 clinical trials involving 143,000 patients who did not have diabetes when they were started on the different high blood pressure medicines.
Antibody therapy prevents type 1 diabetes in mice
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University of Pittsburgh investigators have successfully prevented the onset of type 1 diabetes in mice prone to developing the disease using an antibody against a receptor on the surface of immune T-cells. According to the investigators, these findings, which are being published in the January issue of the journal Diabetes, have significant implications for the prevention of type 1 diabetes.
More than 700,000 Americans have type 1 diabetes, an autoimmune disorder in which the body errantly attacks the insulin-producing cells of the pancreas, causing chronically elevated levels of sugar in the blood, leading to blindness, kidney failure, heart disease and nerve damage. Previously known as juvenile diabetes, type 1 diabetes is usually diagnosed at a very early age, but in some cases it can be diagnosed in adulthood.
Drug shows promise against diabetic eye condition
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Eye injections of the drug Lucentis (also known as ranibizumab) appear to be useful in the treatment of a potentially blinding eye condition called macular edema that can afflict people with diabetes, a small study suggests.
“The results are impressive,” lead author Dr. Quan Dong Nguyen, from Johns Hopkins Wilmer Eye Institute in Baltimore, said in a statement. However, “we will not know until we begin a larger clinical trial what the long-term benefits of the drug might be.”
Chromium May Help Diabetes, Cholesterol, and Heart Disease
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Most of us think of chromium as the shiny metal in the bumpers of cars. Chrome bumpers are long gone, but the metal plays a crucial role in human health, reports the January 2007 issue of Harvard Men’s Health Watch.
Obese diabetics at high risk for kidney disease
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Adults with type 1 diabetes who are obese, especially those who carry excess weight around the middle, are at increased risk for developing kidney disease, a study shows.
“These results,” Dr. Ian H. de Boer told Reuters Health, “suggest that weight control is important in type 1 diabetes…and that lifestyle interventions, such as exercise and diet, may be useful in preventing kidney and heart disease in this group of people.”
Exercise or diet both lower type 2 diabetes risk
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Caloric reduction and exercise-induced weight loss both substantially improve risk factors for type 2 diabetes; however, one approach does not appear to be better than the other, a study shows.
“Although diet and exercise can markedly reduce the incidence of type 2 diabetes, the relative contributions of exercise training and calorie restriction to these protective effects are not known,” note the researchers in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
Pramlintide improves blood sugar levels diabetics
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Pramlintide treatment, taken with insulin, improves blood sugar fluctuations after meals and also reduces weight in patients with type 1 diabetes, according to a report in the Diabetes Care.
Pramlintide, sold in the United States under the trade name Symlin, helps regulate blood-sugar levels by slowing down gastric emptying, suppressing glucagon secretion and reducing food intake, the authors explain.
Dr. Orville Kolterman from Amylin Pharmaceuticals, San Diego, California and colleagues assessed the safety, efficacy, and tolerability of pramlintide in 296 patients with type 1 diabetes. Also referred to as juvenile diabetes, type 1 diabetes results from the inability of the pancreas to make enough insulin to process levels of sugar in the blood.
