Feature Channels: Diabetes

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A diet rich in natural antioxidants improves insulin sensitivity in insulin-resistant obese adults and enhances the effect of the insulin-sensitizing drug metformin, a preliminary study from Italy finds. The results will be presented Monday at The Endocrine Society’s 92nd Annual Meeting in San Diego. “The beneficial effects of antioxidants are known, but we have revealed for the first time one of their biological bases of action—improving hormonal action in obese subjects with the metabolic syndrome,” said principal author Antonio Mancini, MD, an endocrinology researcher at Catholic University of the Sacred Heart in Rome. The metabolic syndrome is a cluster of metabolic risk factors for developing diabetes, heart disease and stroke. People with this syndrome cannot efficiently use insulin, the hormone that regulates glucose (sugar) in the blood. Some evidence exists that oxidative stress may play a role in the metabolic syndrome, according to Mancini. Oxidative stress, a bioc

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Fructose, the sugar widely used as high-fructose corn syrup in soft drinks and processed foods, often gets some of the blame for the widespread rise in obesity. Now a laboratory study has found that when fructose is present as children’s fat cells mature, it makes more of these cells mature into fat cells in belly fat and less able to respond to insulin in both belly fat and fat located below the skin.

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Obese women with insulin resistance lose more weight after three months on a lower-carbohydrate diet than on a traditional low-fat diet with the same number of calories, according to a new study. The results will be presented Saturday at The Endocrine Society’s 92nd Annual Meeting in San Diego.

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Obese people without metabolic risk factors for diabetes and heart disease, such as high blood pressure and cholesterol, do not have the elevated cardiovascular risk typical of obesity, but they represent only a small percentage of the obese population, according to a long-term study. The results will be presented Saturday at The Endocrine Society’s 92nd Annual Meeting in San Diego.

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Staying in shape may bolster the metabolic profiles of first-year college students, even in those with higher than desirable body fat percentages. An epidemiological study from Tufts University found an association between physical fitness, body fat percentage and certain metabolic risk factors.

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Technology developed by University of Virginia inventors involving adipose stem cells – adult stem cells found in fatty tissue – could one day be used to treat severe wounds and other conditions. The technology has just been licensed to the GID Group.

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If you think of diabetes onset like an elaborate molecular drama, then a research team led by a La Jolla Institute scientist has unmasked a previously unknown cellular player, which is critical to proper insulin secretion. “Defective insulin secretion is a hallmark of both type 1 and type 2 diabetes,” said Catherine Hedrick, Ph.D., a scientist at the La Jolla Institute for Allergy & Immunology, who led the team, which included researchers from the University of Virginia.

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Baylor Health Care System announced today the opening of a new Diabetes Health and Wellness Institute in an underserved community in South Dallas that it believes will ultimately influence the way diabetes is treated and prevented around the country.

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Sarcopenia--low skeletal muscle mass and strength--was associated with insulin resistance in both obese and non-obese individuals. It was also associated with high blood-sugar levels in obese people but not in thin people.

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Traffic-related air pollution, known to raise the risk for cardiovascular disease, may also increase the risk of developing type 2 diabetes in women. Low-grade inflammation may contribute to the higher incidence of type 2 diabetes in women exposed to air pollution, according to German researchers.

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The Institute of Medicine of the National Academies will convene a regional meeting on Sept. 21 at the University of Illinois at Chicago to discuss the rapidly rising rates of diabetes and obesity in the U.S.

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The National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has awarded Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University a five-year, $9.5 million grant for the continuation of its Diabetes Research and Training Center (DRTC).

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Researchers at Drexel University developed a prototype that measures the level of oxygenated and deoxygenated hemoglobin around a wound and compares it to a control/non-wound site of the same patient. Based on a study, the time course of oxygenated hemoglobin change was found to be a strong indicator of diabetic wound healing.

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Sleep apnea may cause metabolic changes that increase insulin resistance, according to researchers from the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. The intermittent hypoxia associated with sleep apnea causes a distinct drop in insulin sensitivity in mice, even though chronic hypoxia, such as that associated with high altitude, did not.

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People with diabetes have an increased risk of blindness, yet nearly half of the 23 million Americans with diabetes do not get an annual eye exam to detect possible problems. But it appears that cost-effective computerized systems that detect early eye problems related to diabetes can help meet the screening need.

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Routine dental treatment can reduce blood glucose levels in people with type 2 diabetes who have gum disease.

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More than half a century after researchers identified a promising way to treat diabetes based on blocking the breakdown of insulin in the body, a research team led by a scientist at the Mayo Clinic campus in Florida have developed potent molecules that can do just that.

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According to a new study accepted for publication in The Endocrine Society’s Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism (JCEM), just one night of short sleep duration can induce insulin resistance, a component of type 2 diabetes.

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Long suspected of worsening artery damage in patients with diabetes, insulin instead protects blood vessels, a new study by Joslin Diabetes Center scientists indicates.

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Data presented at ASH 2010 suggest early therapeutic approaches may be appropriate for patients with pre-diabetes, pre-hypertension, or both conditions

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Scientists at the University of Michigan Health System are teasing out clues to the effect of grapes in reducing risk factors related to cardiovascular disease and metabolic syndrome. The effect is thought to be due to phytochemicals -- naturally occurring antioxidants – that grapes contain.

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Anxiety disorders and depression, as well as metabolic disorders such as obesity, type 2 diabetes, and arteriosclerosis, have all been linked to stress. But how? Weizmann Institute scientists have discovered that changes in the activity of a single gene not only cause mice to exhibit anxious behavior, but also lead to metabolic changes.

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Scientists from The Scripps Research Institute have provided an answer to the 40-year-old mystery of how certain genetic mutations lead to Type 1 diabetes. This new molecular understanding could lead to novel therapies for Type 1 diabetes and other autoimmune diseases.

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Rush University Medical Center and community organizations are collaborating on an unusual program to educate residents of a Chicago neighborhood about diabetes, increase early diagnosis and provide resources to improve medical care and self-management. The rate of Type 2 diabetes in the community is 14 percent, double that for Americans nationwide.

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A new discovery about the wound-healing process could lead to better treatments for diabetics and other patients who have wounds that are slow to heal.

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Alliance Health Networks migrates Diabetic Connect to its new social networking platform bringing new features and enhanced functionality to the largest online social network for people touched by diabetes.

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For millions of Americans with Type-2 diabetes and inject insulin to control diabetes (with onset typically in adulthood) the associated risk of cancer is of increasing concern. Studies have demonstrated that obesity and excess insulin – whether naturally produced by the body or injected in synthetic form – are associated with an increased incidence of some common cancers.

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Two years ago, a Baylor University researcher developed an effective and accurate electromagnetic sensor that provides diabetics a noninvasive alternative to reading their blood glucose levels. There was just one problem: it was too big to carry around. Today, Baylor researchers announced they have developed a sensing method that uses a circuit board small enough to make the device portable.

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The proportion of Americans with diabetes ages 18 to 64 who reported getting flu shots the previous year rose from 40 percent to 50.5 percent between 2000 and 2007.

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It is hard enough being a teenager − or the parent of a teenager − without also having to deal with type 1 diabetes.

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New findings by UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers suggest that the hormones leptin and insulin work together in specific neurons in the hypothalamus region of the brain to affect both the regulation of blood sugar levels in the body and, surprisingly, female fertility.

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Teens and “tweens” with type 1 diabetes have more trouble sticking to their treatment plan – thus raising their risk of eye, kidney and heart disease – if their parents become lax about monitoring the child’s treatment, or if the mother-child relationship is poor.

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Patients with type 2 diabetes are generally treated similarly despite the fact that they may have underlying differences that could affect their therapeutic response. Seeking to address this critical health issue, an international multidisciplinary group of experts just issued recommendations for individualized treatment in a consensus statement to be published in the April 2010 issue of the Endocrine Society’s Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism (JCEM).

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People with diabetes who undergo cancer surgery are more likely to die in the month following their operations than those who have cancer but not diabetes, an analysis by Johns Hopkins researchers suggests.

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Joslin scientists find surprising twist in PI 3-kinase molecule that may offer novel target for diabetes drugs.

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Millions of Americans may have chronic kidney disease (CKD) and not know it, according to a study appearing in an upcoming issue of the Clinical Journal of the American Society Nephrology (CJASN).

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Researcher exploring link between gastric bypass surgery and rapid, profound positive effect on Type II diabetes.

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Using leptin alone in place of standard insulin therapy shows promise in abating symptoms of type 1 diabetes, UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers report.

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Pediatric researchers analyzing DNA variations in type 1 diabetes and inflammatory bowel disease have found a complex interplay of genes. Some genes have opposing effects, raising the risk of one disease while protecting against the other. In other cases, a gene variant may act in the same direction, raising the risk for both diseases.

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Salsalate, an anti-inflammatory agent, shows encouraging results in preliminary trial led by Joslin Diabetes Center.

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An experimental oral drug has lowered blood sugar levels and inflammation in mice with Type 2 diabetes, suggesting that the medication could someday be added to the arsenal of drugs used by millions of Americans with this disease, according to new research.

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Purchases of cholesterol and diabetes prescription drugs by elderly Medicare beneficiaries reached nearly $19 billion in 2007 – about one-fourth of the approximately $82 billion spent for medications for the elderly.

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A new study shows that primary care physicians believe the barriers that put patients with uncontrolled diabetes at risk for cardiovascular disease as being patient-related or system-related. Published online today by the Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine by researchers at UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and colleagues at the University of Hawaii and University of Michigan, the research also reports that the physician participants commonly reported a high level of frustration at being unable to motivate patients with poor control or help patients to overcome the barriers that inhibit healthier lifestyles.

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Measurements of hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) more accurately identify persons at risk for clinical outcomes than the commonly used measurement of fasting glucose, according to a study by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. HbA1c levels accurately predict future diabetes, and they better predict stroke, heart disease and all-cause mortality as well. The study appeared in the March 4, 2010, issue of New England Journal of Medicine.

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A Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute cardiologist co-authored the joint science advisory issued by the American Heart Association and the American College of Cardiology that calls for close monitoring of patients taking certain blood sugar-lowering drugs.

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On March 1, the first eye patients will enter a new $132 million facility that increases the University of Michigan Health System's capacity to provide advanced eye care for an aging population and unites diabetes researchers as they search for a cure for diabetes. The eight-story Brehm Tower at the W.K. Kellogg Eye Center Complex makes a striking addition to the skyline. Because of the size of the expansion and to get new research projects up and running, Kellogg expects to add about 100 jobs over the next five to seven years.

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Dr. Francesco Rubino, chief of gastrointestinal metabolic surgery at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center, is now enrolling overweight and mildly obese patients -- those with a body mass index (BMI) of 28 to 35 -- in a study of gastric bypass surgery aimed at reversing Type 2 diabetes. Because of their non-morbidly obese status, these patients do not qualify for the surgery under current guidelines.

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The drug avosentan substantially reduces urinary protein loss in people with type 2 diabetes and kidney disease, but the drug causes serious side effects, according to a study appearing in an upcoming issue of the Journal of the American Society Nephrology (JASN). The results suggest that lower doses of avosentan may have a more favorable risk/benefit ratio for patients.

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An international group of medical experts has crafted a much-needed classification system for diabetic nephropathy, the leading cause of total kidney failure, according to a study appearing in an upcoming issue of the Journal of the American Society Nephrology (JASN). The effort should improve communication among health professionals, help researchers design better clinical studies, and guide patient care.

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Finding by Joslin Diabetes Center scientists may aid in understanding how insulin production eventually goes wrong in type 2 diabetes.