Feature Channels: Diabetes

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Temple University health care professionals provide a forum for diabetics to share experiences and learn from each other on how to manage their disease.

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Outcome-based medicine, with comparison scores and monetary incentives, works for 14,000 diabetes patients at Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx, NY. One standard measure of blood sugar, HbA1C, is kept below a recognized level of 9 in 85% of patients in the special program, vs 67-75% of patients in other Bronx-area programs. The borough has one of the highest diabetes rates in the nation.

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University of Texas at Austin nursing researcher says diabetes among Hispanics has reached epidemic levels. Her research in south Texas helps them deal with the disease through education and support systems.

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As more and more pharmacists become consultants on diseases, learning about diabetes is crucial, says University of Texas at Austin pharmacy faculty member.

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New evidence discovered by researchers at The University of Texas School of Public Health Brownsville Regional Campus shows that patients with Type 2 diabetes may be at increased risk of contracting tuberculosis because of a compromised immune system, resulting in life-threatening lung infections that are more difficult to treat.

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Whether they know her or not, UA senior Dana Lewis is changing the way people on campus eat lunch every day. A student living with Type 1 diabetes, Lewis has worked with campus food services to place nutrition labels in the dining halls and in kiosks outside dining areas to provide daily nutritional information. This semester, the award-winning student is teaching a class on "Living with Diabetes" to help others.

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UVA investigators have completed the first of several international artificial pancreas clinical trials to test an individually-tailored, computerized system which automatically regulates a Type 1 diabetic patient's blood glucose and insulin needs.

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In the last two years a team at the University of Chicago Medical Center has been able to wean more than 30 children who appeared to have type-1 diabetes off of insulin. This is not a miracle cure but a clever application of modern genetics and the tweaking of ion channels.

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Genetics researchers have identified two novel gene locations that raise the risk of type 1 diabetes. As they continue to reveal pieces of the complicated genetic puzzle for this disease, the researchers expect to improve predictive tests and devise preventive strategies.

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A protein made by the liver in response to inflammation and used to treat patients suffering from a genetic form of emphysema has been shown to restore blood glucose levels in a mouse model of Type 1 diabetes mellitus, according to a new study led by researchers at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC).

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New recommendations published in the Journal of Clinical Hypertension call for patient-centered management and early, aggressive treatment of hypertension in this high risk group.

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Researchers at the University of California, San Diego, School of Medicine have identified a particular subset of cells that are linked to obesity-associated insulin resistance, and that offer a promising new target for the treatment of diabetes.

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Weekly bouts of moderate aerobic exercise on a bike or treadmill, or a brisk walk, combined with some weightlifting, may cut down levels of fat in the liver by up to 40 percent in people with type 2 diabetes, a study by physical fitness experts at Johns Hopkins shows.

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Researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine have transformed cells from human skin into cells that produce insulin, the hormone used to treat diabetes. The breakthrough may one day lead to new treatments or even a cure for the millions of people affected by the disease, researchers say.

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Pre-mixed insulin analogues, a modified form of conventional pre-mixed human insulin, are more effective than long-acting analogues for controlling high blood sugar levels after meals in patients with type 2 diabetes.

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Researchers at Stony Brook University's (SBU) School of Dental Medicine and School of Medicine received a $12.5 million five-year grant from the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR), an arm of the National Institutes of Health, to conduct a multi-center clinical trial to evaluate whether treatment of chronic periodontitis may help to improve diabetes control.

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Dialysis patients diagnosed with depression are nearly twice as likely to be hospitalized or die within a year than those who are not depressed, a UT Southwestern Medical Center researcher has found.

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Hypoglycemia is difficult to treat, particularly in children younger than five years of age, because of difficulties in administering the correct glucose dose as well as patient compliance. Researchers at Morozovskaya Children City Clinical Hospital in Moscow, Russia and the University Campus Bio-Medico, Rome, Italy presented data at the 44th annual meeting of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD) that demonstrated how a new approach that could change the way this disorder is managed in millions of pediatric diabetes patients worldwide.

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A study by researchers from the Joslin Diabetes Center has shown for the first time that more than half of patients with type 2 diabetes who enrolled in a novel short-term weight management program were able to maintain the weight loss they achieved during the program on their own long-term.

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A class of oral drugs used to treat type 2 diabetes may make heart failure worse, according to an editorial published online in Heart Wednesday by two Wake Forest University School of Medicine faculty members.

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Terminally ill rodents with type 1 diabetes have been restored to full health with a single injection of a substance other than insulin by scientists at UT Southwestern Medical Center.

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At the 1st World Congress for Interventional Therapies for Type 2 Diabetes, prominent endocrinologists from around the world will convene in an exchange with leading surgeons about the role of surgery and other emerging new therapies for type 2 diabetes.

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In a study involving a representative sample of U.S. adults, higher levels of arsenic in the urine appear to be associated with increased prevalence of type 2 diabetes, according to a report in the August 20 issue of JAMA.

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Inorganic arsenic, commonly found in ground water in certain areas, may increase the risk of developing type 2 diabetes, according to a study by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

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Listed below are some of the most prevalent myths surrounding diabetes. "Baby boomers who were raised with misconceptions about the disease may be at risk," advises Dr. Bernstein, who is also the director of medical affairs at Generex Biotechnology Corporation, a biotechnology company engaged in the research, development, and commercialization of drug delivery systems and technologies for patients with diabetes. "There is no substitute for knowledge."

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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) shocked the world by announcing that eight percent of the American population suffers from diabetes. In the same report, the CDC also indicated "another 57 million people are estimated to have pre-diabetes," a condition that puts people at increased risk for diabetes. Until now, there has never been a consensus about when patients with pre-diabetes become at risk for the complications of diabetes.

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Researchers at the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT have received a grant to support novel, integrative research aimed at finding ways to encourage the human body to replenish the cells that are missing in type 1 diabetes. Awarded by the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF), the $3M grant will fund work that knits together two interdisciplinary fields, genome biology and chemical biology, to address a fundamental question in human biology: can existing cells be coaxed to regenerate ones that are lost or damaged by disease?

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A review of studies reveals that the newer, long-acting insulin medications offer only a slight benefit over NPH in terms of blood glucose control in type 1 diabetes. Researchers did see a clear benefit of long-acting insulin in reducing the risk for hypoglycemia, particularly at night.

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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) shocked the world by announcing that eight percent of the American population suffers from diabetes. In the same report, the CDC also indicated "another 57 million people are estimated to have pre-diabetes," a condition that puts people at increased risk for diabetes. Until now, there has never been a consensus about when patients with pre-diabetes become at risk for the complications of diabetes.

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The traditional Mediterranean diet provides substantial protection against type 2 diabetes, according to a study published on bmj.com today.

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The word is out: women are at risk for heart disease, just like men. In fact, roughly twice as many women in this country will die of heart disease, stroke, and other cardiovascular diseases than from all forms of cancer combined, including breast cancer, according to the American Heart Association.

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Diabetes is considered the biggest health crisis of the next quarter century. New economic data, to be announced next Wednesday, January 23 at 1 p.m. will illustrate further this devastating toll. The American Diabetes Association, along with members of the Congressional Diabetes Caucus, will discuss this new report during a briefing at 2218 Rayburn House Office Building, Washington, DC.

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Transplantation of insulin-producing islet cells from human donors or cadavers, an investigational approach to long-term diabetes treatment, is fraught with difficulties. San Diego-based MicroIslet, Inc. believes that transplantation of encapsulated islets from pigs may be the answer.

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A new study by researchers at Joslin Diabetes Center in Boston helps to explain how Thiazolidinediones work. The manuscript appears in the March edition of the American Diabetes Association's journal Diabetes.