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Latest A1c Test Articles
Diabetes A1c Test Article Archives
May 2012
It may be better for older people with type 2 diabetes to have less stringent A1C goals than younger type 2s, according to new guidelines from the American Diabetes Association and the European Association for the Study of Diabetes.
5 comments - Posted May 3, 2012
April 2012
The challenges of pregnancy are daunting on their own, but when you're diabetic, they can seem insurmountable. That's one of the reasons Cheryl Alkon wrote a book on the subject. Having type 1 diabetes herself, Alkon knew firsthand the challenges of controlling her disease during pregnancy, and of raising the kids who followed.
3 comments - Posted Apr 13, 2012
August 2011
Scientific studies -- and our own common sense -- tell us that staying motivated and engaged helps control our diabetes. We know what we should resist temptation at the dinner table, monitor our blood sugars avidly, and get regular check-ups. But knowing all of these things, and knowing that self-motivation is the way to achieve them, isn't quite enough.
1 comment - Posted Aug 19, 2011
As a dad, do you tend to be authoritative and have high expectations of your child's self control? Do you set clear limits and command respect, without bulldozing him or her? If so, you may be helping your child with type 1 diabetes stick to his or her treatment regimen.
0 comments - Posted Aug 16, 2011
A Boston-based study has found that vitamin D supplements can reduce the risk of developing type 2 diabetes in people with prediabetes by improving their beta cell functioning.
2 comments - Posted Aug 3, 2011
July 2011
People with type 2 diabetes often find visits with their physicians frustrating. Dr. Jeffrey Mechanick, MD, FACE, FACP, Secretary of the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists (AACE), observes, "Many times when patients come to the doctor, the first thing that they say is really what's on their mind--that's their top priority. But oftentimes physicians don't address that at all. Instead, they move on to what's on their own agenda."
3 comments - Posted Jul 31, 2011
I am excited to have this opportunity to write a diabetes-focused blog for Diabetes Health about living and thriving with type 1 diabetes. First of all, I am extremely passionate about racing road and mountain bicycles, running 5K runs and sprint triathlons, and doing other activities that I find to compete in for Team Type 1. But before I start blogging, I would like to tell a little about myself.
3 comments - Posted Jul 26, 2011
Victoza, a drug aimed at type 2 diabetes, may turn out to be a boon for type 1 diabetes patients as well. A small clinical study shows that patients with well-controlled type 1 who took Victoza daily for just one week experienced a 15 percent drop in their blood sugar levels. Patients who took the drug over a full 24-week test period needed less and less insulin, decreasing their average mealtime dose by seven units and their all-day insulin requirement by eight.
2 comments - Posted Jul 11, 2011
June 2011
Over the last decade, dramatic changes have occurred in our understanding of the onset and progression of prediabetes. Lightning speed changes have also occurred regarding the therapies available to achieve optimal blood glucose control. Even with all of this change, however, many old dogmas hang on. It's time to become aware of the new realities. In this article, I focus on two common old dogmas and the new realities.
2 comments - Posted Jun 16, 2011
A few months ago, I had the privilege of traveling to Australia to present at a conference of athletes with diabetes. During the meeting, prizes were awarded to everyone who scored exactly 5.5 mmol/L (99 mg/dL) on their glucose meter. You should have seen it! Anyone who measured close to 5.5 was testing again and again, hoping for that magic number to pop up. Fingers were suffering, but the test strip manufacturers were making out like bandits.
1 comment - Posted Jun 5, 2011
May 2011
French drug maker Sanofi-aventis says that results from a Phase III trial of its experimental type 2 diabetes drug lixisenatide show that the drug successfully lowered patients' blood glucose levels and body weight, but did not increase the risk of hypoglycemia.
0 comments - Posted May 23, 2011
You're heard the doctors. You've read the articles. You know all about tight control.
25 comments - Posted May 20, 2011
Meet Mary,* a 16-year-old girl with type 1 diabetes. When her parents ask her how her blood sugar is, she always has a good number. She keeps a tidy logbook of her blood sugars, and they look fine, although her last A1C was inexplicably high. It's been a long time since she was diagnosed, and her parents are confident that she knows how to care for herself. She has been somewhat less energetic for quite awhile, but her parents attribute that to growing pains, as Mary has grown from a chubby child into a very slender young woman. She appears a little dehydrated and flushed sometimes, but she always drinks a lot of water and goes to the bathroom frequently, so her parents aren't concerned. They have also noted a fruity odor about her, which she attributes to a new lip gloss.
5 comments - Posted May 14, 2011
Dr. Jonathan Beach is a 35-year-old emergency medicine physician who has had type 1 diabetes for 31 years. He owns and operates Urgicare, a wellness center that includes The Northeast Center for Diabetes Care and Education in Plattsburgh, New York, an isolated rural community that has few other resources for diabetes. This is his story of his life with diabetes and his professional experience with the insulin pump.
5 comments - Posted May 12, 2011
Gene Thornton was in the Army in Germany when he got type 1 diabetes. It was 1965, 46 years ago, and he was 24 years old. This is his story, in his own words.
5 comments - Posted May 10, 2011
Molly Martin is a vibrant and energetic 18-year-old from Texas who's had type 1 diabetes since the age of two. Five years ago, Molly took up motocross racing. She says, "I love riding motocross---it's just you and the bike. I feel free when I ride, like I don't have to think about diabetes. I do have to make sure that I test before I get on and during breaks, to make sure my sugar is doing what it's supposed to be doing. But when I get out there, it's just me and the bike, going."
1 comment - Posted May 5, 2011
Ryan Shafer is a 44-year-old professional bowler from Elmira, New York, who was 19 when he developed type 1 diabetes. For a couple of weeks, he experienced the usual symptoms of weight loss, lethargy, extreme thirst, and frequent urination, as well as vision problems. "Being that age," he says, "I was afraid to go to the doctor. I thought it would just go away." When he finally saw his family physician and was diagnosed, he says, "I was actually relieved--not that I thought diabetes was a piece of cake, but I was glad to know what was wrong with me."
3 comments - Posted May 1, 2011
April 2011
Kent David is a 47-year-old licensed civil engineer who has had type 1 diabetes since 1981. This is Kent's diabetes story in his own words.
5 comments - Posted Apr 29, 2011
We all know by now that fat isn't necessarily a bad thing. Enough advertisements and recommendations for fish oil and omega-3 supplements have appeared over the past few years to make that clear. But what if "good fat" isn't just about eating fish or a taking a fishy-tasting supplement? What if that good fat can be found in a common cooking oil?
0 comments - Posted Apr 27, 2011
Recently I had the pleasure of attending the Barbara Davis Center's "Management of Diabetes in Youth" conference, held every other year in beautiful Keystone, Colorado. The focus is on all of the latest and greatest in type 1, and it's a real treat to have so many of the best names in this field gathered in one place. The Barbara Davis Center (BDC) is one of the premier programs in the world focusing on type I diabetes management, and the one (Dr. Peter Chase, to be precise) who brought us the famed" Pink Panther" book, Understanding Diabetes - the reliable handbook of type 1 diabetes that many parents of newly diagnosed kids rely on.
3 comments - Posted Apr 25, 2011
Phil Southerland's autobiography is an inspirational coming-of-age memoir about a type 1 baby who wasn't supposed to live. But his doctor's dismal prediction didn't take into consideration his mother's indefatigable determination that her baby would thrive no matter what, and Phil's own fierce drive to conquer every single challenge he encountered, including his diabetes. It's an engrossing book, a sports adventure story with a medical subplot and a roster of dynamic characters, the most dynamic of whom is Phil himself. If we could harness his energy, our dependence on foreign oil would be a thing of the past.
2 comments - Posted Apr 20, 2011
Mike Fisher is a 23-year-old from Ontario, Canada, who's been snowboarding since he was 13 years old. At the age of 18, he was involved in a motorcycle crash that necessitated the amputation of one leg below the knee. He says, "At first, I felt that my life was coming to a crashing halt. But I just pushed myself to recover as fast as possible and get my life back on track, go to school, get back into snowboarding and motorcycles-just anything so that my life wasn't affected at all. I had a lot of support, and I would say that I was pretty optimistic about it and took it almost as a challenge. By the time that I was 19, I was happy. I was walking again, I was back in college in London, Ontario, and everything was good. The accident was a minor setback to me, and I rose above it. I was just continuing with my life."
12 comments - Posted Apr 19, 2011
What if there were a technology that could make people with type 1 diabetes feel absolutely wonderful, completely healthy, better than they ever realized was possible? And what if it were about to disappear? Well, there is such a technology, and it is in serious jeopardy. It's called the implantable insulin pump, currently made by Medtronic. This is the story of four people who have been using this device for 20 years, and their desperate crusade to keep it from disappearing forever.
117 comments - Posted Apr 17, 2011
Three weeks out of every month, my diabetes is well controlled. But the fourth week, the one before my period, is a nightmare. My sugars are astronomically high--I can't even look at a carbohydrate without my sugar spiking. I'm exhausted and cranky, and I can't get comfortable.
8 comments - Posted Apr 15, 2011
Prodigy Diabetes Care is an aptly named company, a very young enterprise with the talents of a much older organization and a future that promises prodigious rewards. It was founded in 2006 by Ramzi Abulhaj and Rick Admani, two brothers from Palestine who are its sole owners. In the five years since then, they have built a company that is successfully competing against the diabetes old guard by focusing on engineering and a unique marketing strategy.
8 comments - Posted Apr 2, 2011
As we wrote back in 2008, the EndoBarrier is a very clever way to simulate the effect of a gastric bypass without the unpleasant scalpel part. It looks like a long clear plastic stocking, and it's simply threaded through the patient's mouth and stomach, down to the small intestine, where it lines the intestine's upper section (the same part that is bypassed in traditional surgery). Food slips right through it, but digestive enzymes are trapped on its other side. The two don't get to join forces until a couple of feet further downstream, so the effect on diabetes is a lot like that of a bypass: It resolves the symptoms of type 2 diabetes.
0 comments - Posted Apr 1, 2011
March 2011
This List defines terms that people with prediabetes commonly encounter as they learn more about the condition.
1 comment - Posted Mar 29, 2011
A New York University research team has won a pilot grant to see if blood from dental procedures could be used in conjunction with the A1C test to detect diabetes or pre-diabetes. The A1C test, which is becoming healthcare providers' preferred test for detecting the disease, typically uses blood extracted from finger pricks to make its analysis. The NYU team will see if the blood that flows from gum tissue during dental work can be used for the same purpose.
5 comments - Posted Mar 26, 2011
Michael Hamman is a 63-year-old contractor. He recalls, "I first was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes five or six years ago. I probably had elevated blood sugar well in advance of that, but I was unaware of it. I don't remember how high my blood sugar was at the time, but I think my A1C was 7.5%. My blood sugar's never really been awful. Since I started monitoring myself, my sugar readings are normally between 150 and 165. I think it was pushing 200 before I was medicated, but the medications brought it down. They started me on glyburide and I took that for a long time, and then the A1C was moving up again, so they added the metformin. The A1C now is down in the mid-sixes. They consider it controlled, not well controlled or as good as it could be, but certainly for someone my size, it's probably as good as you can get."
1 comment - Posted Mar 25, 2011
Tony Flores is a 50-year-old native of El Salvador who works as a construction foreman. He was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes about 12 years ago, after an eye doctor told him it would be a good idea to get his blood sugar checked. He recalls, "I did the test, and they got all freaked out and told me, ‘Oh my god, your A1C is at 12%. You have diabetes type 2. You've got to cut the sugar, you've got to stop drinking orange juice and soda."
1 comment - Posted Mar 15, 2011
Weight loss can help people with type 2 diabetes control their blood sugar and avoid potential health risks associated with the disease. Did you know that losing even seven percent of your body weight can lower blood sugar, reduce blood pressure, and improve cholesterol levels1?
"Consider diabetes as a disease that has different phases--with the central feature a disorder of insulin production and insulin use," said Roberta Anding, MS, RD/LD,CSSD,CDE. Anding is a clinical dietitian and certified diabetes educator at Baylor College of Medicine, as well as a national spokesperson for the American Dietetic Association. "To better control and lose weight safely with type 2 diabetes, it is important to consider the type and amount of food on your plate."
4 comments - Posted Mar 12, 2011
Ten years ago, an astute physician diagnosed me with Type 2 diabetes. I exhibited none of the classic symptoms of rapid weight loss, extreme thirst, and frequent urination. I attributed fatigue to my job. For about a year before diagnosis, I experienced what I thought were yeast infections and treated them with over-the-counter medications. I later learned that this condition is a symptom of diabetes. I am non-insulin dependent.
0 comments - Posted Mar 3, 2011
February 2011
Everywhere you look, there seems to be a great tasting high carb meal, dessert, or snack staring back at you. While away at college last fall, I found a t-shirt picturing a cupcake above a skull and crossbones. For me, that image really sums up how we need to deal with being diabetic while being constantly tempted by sugary treats.
4 comments - Posted Feb 16, 2011
January 2011
It's Labor Day weekend in Pittsburgh, just outside of the Steelers' Heinz Field, and the Bret Michaels Band has come home for some hard-driving rock and roll. The 20,000 screaming fans are a generational mix, shrieking 16-year-old girls side-by-side with moms and dads who have temporarily abandoned their parental roles to dance, sing the familiar words to "Look What the Cat Dragged In," and howl into the nighttime air. On stage is Bret Michaels, the boy from Butler, Pennsylvania, a coal mining town just an hour north.
16 comments - Posted Jan 27, 2011
Your young primary care doctor may not know a lot about diabetes, according to a study led by Stephen Sisson, MD, of the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. "When I graduated from residency here, I knew much more about how to ventilate a patient on a machine than how to control somebody's blood sugar, and that's a problem," said Sisson in a press release. "The average resident doesn't know what the goal for normal fasting blood sugar should be. If you don't know what it has to be, how are you going to guide your diabetes management with patients?"
2 comments - Posted Jan 26, 2011
It doesn't matter if you're a computer geek or complete technophobe: If you've ever made the effort to download your blood glucose meter, you probably don't have a clue about what to do with the data once you've gotten it. That needs to change. Those of us who live with diabetes need to become more adept at analyzing our own data, to see what's working and what isn't both for our own sake and that of our time-strapped healthcare providers. .
2 comments - Posted Jan 25, 2011
Infopia USA's Eocene System is a diabetes management system with a data collection device that gathers data from a meter, blood pressure cuff, and a thermal scale. Readings are stored on Infopia's network and available to you and your health team. See the video on Diabetes Health TV here.
0 comments - Posted Jan 13, 2011
A full third of adult Americans are pre-diabetic, and a third of those will develop type 2 diabetes before they're ten years older. Unfortunately, only about seven percent of them have been tested for pre-diabetes and warned of their condition; the rest are ignorant of the road they're on. By losing just 10 to 15 pounds, the whole group could cut their chances of getting type 2 by half. The problem is, how to alert them in time for them to stop their progression to type 2?
7 comments - Posted Jan 10, 2011
Sitagliptin (Januvia) has long been used to reduce blood sugar in people with type 2 diabetes, but a new study indicates that it can do the same for those with type 1 diabetes. Sitagliptin is a DPP-4 inhibitor; that is, it inhibits, or temporarily prevents, the enzyme DPP-4 from destroying a helpful hormone called GLP-1. GLP-1, which is released by the gut when food arrives there from the stomach, lowers blood sugar by causing the release of insulin, reducing the secretion of glucagon, and slowing stomach emptying and nutrient absorption.
3 comments - Posted Jan 7, 2011
December 2010
Arena Pharmaceuticals and Eisai Inc. recently released results of a phase 3 clinical trial for lorcaserin, a weight-loss drug they are developing in partnership. The trial, called BLOOM-DM (Behavioral modification and Lorcaserin for Overweight and Obesity Management- Diabetes Management), targeted patients with type 2 diabetes who are overweight or obese.
2 comments - Posted Dec 28, 2010
If you have type 1 diabetes, you know that the process of obtaining life insurance or long-term care insurance has been a long, tough road, most often leading to the dead end of declined coverage. In fact, most insurance companies have classified anyone with type 1 as an automatic decline, without any consideration of each case individually.
7 comments - Posted Dec 14, 2010
November 2010
A new drug for type 2 diabetes started showing up in drugstores this week, according to manufacturer Santarus. The FDA-approved drug, called Cycloset, takes an distinctive -- and not well understood -- approach to reducing blood sugar levels. The pill apparently works by increasing dopamine activity in the hypothalamus, a part of the brain. Dopamine is a brain chemical that plays a big role in people's behavior, mood, and ability to sleep. Scientists theorize that glucose intolerance and insulin resistance may in part result from abnormal activity of this chemical, and that upping dopamine activity may iron out these problems.That's the theory, at least: the drug's exact workings aren't known. But it seems to do the trick.
0 comments - Posted Nov 24, 2010
When I was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes 23 years ago, I remember being told that having children would be a very difficult challenge. I was seven years old at the time - still a child myself - and had no interest in becoming a mom. My own mother was very distressed at this news, but I didn't pay it any mind. I had other things to focus on: trees to climb, bikes to ride, and friends to play with.
1 comment - Posted Nov 18, 2010
With just a few days left to 14 November, we imagine that a lot of you are making those final touches to your World Diabetes Day celebrations or have already started your awareness activities. Here's a further look at what will be taking place around the world to mark the day:
0 comments - Posted Nov 6, 2010
October 2010
Regular physical activity and exercise are recommended for the general population for overall improved health. However, exercise of moderate intensity increases the risk of hypoglycemia during and following exertion in those with type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM). Accordingly, exercise guidelines for T1DM focus on prevention of exercise-induced hypoglycemia.
0 comments - Posted Oct 31, 2010
JACKSONVILLE, FL - October 13, 2010 - The American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists (AACE) today published a consensus statement for continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) online, and will be published in the next issue of the association's official medical journal Endocrine Practice.
0 comments - Posted Oct 14, 2010
Dance Out Diabetes is a non-profit organization that addresses a critical component missing in most diabetes programs: PHYSICAL ACTIVITY! Our mission is to help individuals prevent or manage diabetes through dance and education.
0 comments - Posted Oct 6, 2010
We all know of Paul and Mira Sorvino, the legendary father and daughter actors who have graced the small and big screens for decades. Paul has played such classic characters as Paulie Cicero in the film Goodfellas and Sgt. Phil Cerreta on the TV series Law & Order and is a well-known chef and singer, while Mira has starred in over 30 movies and won an Academy Award in 1995 for her role as Linda Ash in Mighty Aphrodite.
0 comments - Posted Oct 5, 2010
September 2010
The JDRF is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year. A lot has changed in the past four decades. One change has to do with the organization's name. JDRF stands for Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. Years ago we called what we now know as type 1 diabetes, Juvenile Onset Diabetes Mellitus (JODM). We called it that because we knew (or thought we knew) it was the kind of diabetes that occurred in children. We now know that type 1 diabetes occurs in people of all age groups. There was a lot we didn't know 40 years ago, one of which was that type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease.
0 comments - Posted Sep 16, 2010
Dear Diabetes Health, I am 62 years old. I was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes in 1997, and I am doing OK on metformin. My last A1c was 7.2 %. About a year ago, they put me on medicine for my blood pressure (which was 142/90) and for cholesterol. I started having less interest in sex, which I had really liked before.
0 comments - Posted Sep 7, 2010
August 2010
"Absolutely not. I'm not going to mess with that."
0 comments - Posted Aug 18, 2010
July 2010
Having discovered a dramatic increase of an easy-to-detect enzyme in the red blood cells of people with diabetes and pre-diabetes, Johns Hopkins scientists say the discovery could lead to a simple, routine test for detecting the subtle onset of the disease, before symptoms or complications occur and in time to reverse its course.
0 comments - Posted Jul 15, 2010
A massive study involving 485 people with type 1 diabetes at 30 locations across North America shows that the combination of an insulin pump and a continuous glucose monitor helps patients achieve significantly lower A1c levels than multiple daily insulin injections.
0 comments - Posted Jul 13, 2010
Data from the massive ACCORD study on intensive blood sugar control shows that lowering blood sugar levels in people with longstanding type 2 diabetes to near-normal may delay the appearance of signs that point to damage to nerves, eyes, and kidneys, but does not stop their progression toward it.
0 comments - Posted Jul 9, 2010
AFREZZA TM (insulin human [rDNA origin]) Inhalation Powder, a well-tolerated, investigational ultra rapid acting mealtime insulin, as part of a diabetes treatment regimen, provides long-term glucose control comparable to usual insulin therapy but with a significantly reduced incidence of hypoglycemia and less weight gain in patients with Type 2 diabetes, according to a two-year study presented at the American Diabetes Association's 70th Scientific Sessions.
0 comments - Posted Jul 6, 2010
In a recent study of the relationship between vitamin D deficiency and glucose intolerance in people with type 2 diabetes, more than 90 percent of the type 2 diabetes patients were found to be deficient in vitamin D, with their control over the disease worsening as their deficiency increased.
0 comments - Posted Jul 4, 2010
In people with longstanding type 2 diabetes who are at high risk for heart attack and stroke, lowering blood sugar to near-normal levels did not delay the combined risk of diabetic damage to kidneys, eyes, or nerves, but did delay several other signs of diabetic damage, a study has found. The intensive glucose treatment was compared with standard glucose control.
0 comments - Posted Jul 2, 2010
June 2010
There are so many weight loss programs out there, sometimes it is hard just to keep track of them, let alone choose one that will work. Add in the factor of diabetes, and the path to weight loss becomes harder to navigate and often contains land mines that we never even knew existed.
0 comments - Posted Jun 15, 2010
May 2010
A Seattle-based study has found that people with diabetes run a 40 percent increased risk of developing a common type of abnormal heart rhythm known as atrial fibrillation*. The study also shows that as people with diabetes take drugs for the disease, their risk for developing atrial fibrillation increases three percent for each year that they use such medications.
0 comments - Posted May 25, 2010
A new study released by the Children's Hospital of New Orleans has found that black children with type 1 diabetes scored higher on A1c tests than white children who had similar blood glucose levels. Such ethnic disparity has already been shown in previous studies with adults.
0 comments - Posted May 18, 2010
Phil Southerland was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes when he was seven months old. Now 28, he has always taken an aggressive approach to managing the disease. He recalls, "My mom scared the daylights out of me when I was six years old by letting me know about the severe complications of diabetes if you don't take care of it. That has motivated me to never let those complications fall on my shoulders."
0 comments - Posted May 17, 2010
Rhode Island-based CVS/pharmacy, which operates more than 7,000 pharmacies and drug stores in the United States, has announced three diabetes-related initiatives:
0 comments - Posted May 15, 2010
Over 80 years ago, famed diabetologist Elliot Joslin said about the treatment of patients with type 1 diabetes: "Ketoacidosis may kill a patient, but frequent hypoglycemic reactions will ruin him." Unfortunately, hypoglycemia continues to be the most difficult problem facing most patients, families, and caregivers who deal with the management of type 1 diabetes on a daily basis. Frequent hypoglycemia episodes not only can "ruin," or adversely impact the quality of life for patients, but also, when severe, can cause seizures, coma, and even death.
10 comments - Posted May 13, 2010
April 2010
Dear Diabetes Health, I am a 60 year old married woman who was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes eight years ago. In the last two years, I have lost interest in sex. I just don't feel like it, although I still like hugs.
3 comments - Posted Apr 26, 2010
Bayer Diabetes Care today announced the introduction of the DIDGETTM blood glucose monitoring system in the United States. The DIDGET meter is unique because it is the only blood glucose meter that connects directly to Nintendo DSTM and DS Lite gaming systems to help kids manage a lifelong disease by rewarding them for building consistent testing habits and meeting personalized blood glucose target ranges. Bayer's DIDGET meter is now available for purchase in the U.S. through CVS.com, Drugstore.com and Walgreens.com.
1 comment - Posted Apr 26, 2010
Conference Task Force Members will meet with policymakers, healthcare providers, payers, patients, and other stakeholders to discuss how to tackle the diabetes epidemic and reverse its economic impact on our nation's healthcare system.
0 comments - Posted Apr 22, 2010
We continue to monitor the progress of studies to determine the effectiveness of salsalate, a generic aspirin-like drug, to reduce inflammation and lower blood glucose in people with type 2 diabetes. As previously reported here in October 2008 and January 2009, researchers from the Joslin Diabetes Center at Harvard University are conducting clinical trials to determine if this well known and proven drug for joint pain can be added to the list of diabetes drugs. Recently, results from a three-month trial were announced online in the Annals of Internal Medicine, showing that those who took salsalate demonstrated significantly improved blood glucose levels.
0 comments - Posted Apr 10, 2010
Tests of an experimental drug called CPSI-1306 at Ohio State University were so successful at lowering inflammation and blood sugar levels in lab mice with type 2 diabetes that scientists consider it a prime candidate to become a new therapy for the disease.
0 comments - Posted Apr 8, 2010
March 2010
I do not conceal the fact that I love dessert. I believe that it is something that I deserve, a reward for working out that morning, keeping my blood sugar in check, monitoring my carbohydrate intake, going to work, and taking care of household duties.
15 comments - Posted Mar 31, 2010
Dr. Stan De Loach is a bicultural, trilingual, Certified Diabetes Educator (one of the first 13 in Mexico) and clinical psychologist, not to mention a pianist, composer, and writer. Born and educated in the U.S., he has been a resident of Mexico for decades, and his first love is the annual bilingual diabetes camp that he co-founded, the four-day Campamento Diabetes Safari in Mexico..
3 comments - Posted Mar 30, 2010
Over the past few months, there has been a discernible shift of opinion among healthcare providers about which test best reveals a high risk of acquiring diabetes. The old standby, fasting glucose, seems to be giving way to the hemoglobin A1c test as the preferred method.
1 comment - Posted Mar 26, 2010
MINNEAPOLIS - March 17, 2010 - Medtronic, Inc. today announced it has received U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval for the MiniMed Paradigm® REAL-Time RevelTM System, the next generation of the industry's only integrated diabetes management system (insulin pump therapy, continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) and diabetes therapy management software). The system incorporates new innovative CGM features including predictive alerts that can give early warning to people with diabetes so they can take action to prevent dangerous high or low glucose events.
3 comments - Posted Mar 22, 2010
The sooner people with diabetes start taking metformin, the longer the drug remains effective, according to a Kaiser Permanente study published in the March issue of Diabetes Care, a journal of the American Diabetes Association.
2 comments - Posted Mar 12, 2010
February 2010
My four-year-diabetes-diagnosis anniversary is almost here. It falls on March 24th, a day just like any other to most people, but a day full of sadness, loss, and victory for me. Will I celebrate? I'm not sure if reflection is a form of celebration. I'd much prefer a birthday-like affair featuring balloons, cards, and, of course, something sweet to eat. But I also feel as if the impending date is much like a funeral on the calendar, a time for mourning as well as reflection.
28 comments - Posted Feb 26, 2010
Bayer's A1CNow SELFCHECK, cleared by the Food and Drug Administration last year, is the first and only system of its kind with at-home results in five minutes. It enables patients to more closely watch their A1C level in between doctor visits so they may have a more informed discussion with their healthcare provider to ensure their diabetes plan is working.
2 comments - Posted Feb 18, 2010
Results of a 22-year study by researchers at Cardiff University School of Medicine in Wales indicate that older type 2s who try too hard to drive their A1c's down to "normal" (4.5% to 6%) may significantly increase their chances of early death. In fact, the study, just published in the British medical journal The Lancet*, found that type 2s with the lowest risk of death had A1c's of 7.5% -- a figure that few authorities on the disease have recommended as ideal.
15 comments - Posted Feb 11, 2010
In addition to diagnosing type 2 diabetes based on fasting blood glucose levels or a glucose tolerance test, the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists (AACE) and the American College of Endocrinology (ACE) have now approved the use of A1c as an additional diagnostic criterion for type 2 diabetes.
2 comments - Posted Feb 5, 2010
January 2010
Novo Nordisk announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the new drug application for Victoza (liraglutide injection), the first once-daily human glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) analog for the treatment of type 2 diabetes. Victoza is indicated as an adjunct to diet and exercise to improve blood sugar control in adults with type 2 diabetes mellitus.
4 comments - Posted Jan 28, 2010
The effort underway in Washington, D.C., to draft a healthcare bill is often described as "trying to get a handle on so many moving parts." At issue is this: the House passed a 1,990 page bill in December followed by the Senate passing a 2,074 page bill on Christmas Eve. Now, those two versions are being merged into one with a conference committee that would be composed of House and Senate Members while, at the same time, the White House has been pushing for a deadline by the State of the Union Address, now scheduled for Wednesday, January 27. So far, all sides believe there will be a health care bill in front of the president within the next few weeks. What it looks like is one of the "moving parts."
3 comments - Posted Jan 20, 2010
A five-year study of 2,613 people treated for diabetes at Italian clinics shows that tight blood sugar control may not be the number-one priority for patients who have other medical problems.
5 comments - Posted Jan 13, 2010
Dear Diabetes Health, I hope you can help me. I am 49 years old and was diagnosed with type 2 five years ago. My husband still wants sex. I don't even want him to touch me. He is very mean to me. He yells at me and calls me names.
16 comments - Posted Jan 12, 2010
ROSEMONT, IL - Exercise is a critical piece of a healthy lifestyle, however those who suffer from diabetes may see an even greater impact, according to a study published in the January/February 2010 issue of Sports Health: A Multidisciplinary Approach. Authors confirm that exercise can aid in diabetes treatment by improving glucose metabolism and insulin sensitivity.
1 comment - Posted Jan 4, 2010
December 2009
December 29, 2009 - The American Diabetes Association (ADA) revised clinical practice recommendations for diabetes diagnosis promote hemoglobin A1c (A1c) as a faster, easier diagnostic test that could help reduce the number of undiagnosed patients and better identify patients with prediabetes. The new recommendations are published December 29 in the January supplement of Diabetes Care.
2 comments - Posted Dec 31, 2009
I have never been one to make New Year's resolutions. This probably stems from my life experiences. Every year at my fitness club, the place is flooded with new faces from January until late February. Then, as the days tick by, the club becomes less and less crowded.
8 comments - Posted Dec 30, 2009
Dear Diabetes Health, I am 57 years old. About five years ago, I saw my doctor because I was feeling tired. My waist size was up, and I was not interested in sex. I almost never got an erection. The doctor diagnosed type 2 diabetes and put me on metformin. He also prescribed Viagra, which helped sometimes, but not all the time.
5 comments - Posted Dec 10, 2009
November 2009
For 2,000 years, diabetes has been recognized as a devastating and deadly disease. A Greek by the name of Aretaeus described its destructive nature in the first century AD, naming the affliction "diabetes," the Greek word for "siphon." Eugene J. Leopold, in his text "Aretaeus the Cappodacian," described Aretaeus' diagnosis: "...For fluids do not remain in the body, but use the body only as a channel through which they may flow out. Life lasts only for a time, but not very long. For they urinate with pain, and painful is the emaciation. For no essential part of the drink is absorbed by the body, while great masses of the flesh are liquefied into urine."
4 comments - Posted Nov 24, 2009
How careful should healthcare workers and patients be in describing a total remission of diabetes as a "cure?" That's a question that has taken on increasing urgency in the wake of reports about dramatic reversals of type 2 symptoms after gastric bypass surgery and the cessation of symptoms in people with type 1 diabetes after pancreatic islet replacement. To answer it, a group of endocrinologists met earlier this year to come up with descriptions and definitions that accurately describe what happens when people with diabetes experience a reversal of symptoms.
2 comments - Posted Nov 14, 2009
When I was a child, my mother always said, "Think before you speak." Have you heard of this before? If not, please digest my words. If you have heard of this simple yet beneficial policy, please reconsider its merit and then implement it into your practice.
34 comments - Posted Nov 7, 2009
The American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists (AACE) and the College of Endocrinology (ACE) released online a one-page resource for physicians and healthcare providers for the management of glycemic control in type 2 diabetes.
2 comments - Posted Nov 7, 2009
The California Association of American Diabetes Educators held its second annual meeting October 22 through 24, 2009, in Monterey, California, and Diabetes Health was there. The clinical and educational program, put together by Debra Norman and Kim Higgins, was called "Tidal Wave of Diabetes." The invited speakers shared innovation, research, and new techniques with the attendees.
2 comments - Posted Nov 3, 2009
October 2009
LEXINGTON, Mass., October 27, 2009 - GI Dynamics, a leader in non-surgical treatments for type 2 diabetes and obesity, today announced data which support the safety and efficacy of the EndoBarrierTM Gastrointestinal Liner for pre-surgical weight loss treatment, along with a positive effect on glucose homeostasis in morbidly obese patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus. According to the study, mean excess weight loss (EWL) achieved after 12 weeks post implantation was 19.0 % for EndoBarrier patients versus 6.9 % for control patients (p<0.002). The results of this European weight loss study were published today in the advance online publication of Annals of Surgery.
2 comments - Posted Oct 29, 2009
The demise of Fen-phen dealt a body blow to hopes for an obesity pill that is actually effective. Unfortunately, the fen in Fen-phen, fenfluramine, caused grave pulmonary hypertension and heart valve problems. The phen part of the drug, though, was apparently just an innocent bystander. And now phen (phentermine) has resurfaced in a new pill that has posted some amazing results in Phase III clinical trials. Patients who were treated for 56 weeks with the new drug, Qnexa, lost an average of 14.7 percent of their weight, or 37 pounds.
8 comments - Posted Oct 7, 2009
The enthusiasm for inhaled insulin has waned, to say the least, since Exubera was pulled off the market by Pfizer. Following the Exubera debacle, the development of two other inhaled insulins (AIR by Eli Lilly and Alkermes, and AERx by Novo Nordisk) was halted as well.
14 comments - Posted Oct 5, 2009
Having diabetes involves a lot of pretty complex arithmetic. You've got to calculate carbs from nutrition labels, total the calories and carbohydrates in a meal, calculate insulin dosage based on insulin-to-carbohydrate intake, and on and on. These tasks aren't simple: They require an understanding of measurement, estimation, time, logic, and multi-step operations, and the knowledge of which math skills to apply to each problem.
3 comments - Posted Oct 2, 2009
In our June/July 2009 issue, we published a letter from reader Sheila Payne, who wrote that we had been far too positive about continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) in our June/July article Get the Facts on Continuous Glucose Monitoring. Her letter provoked a stack of letters from people who believe that the benefits of CGM substantially outweigh its negatives. To let you in on the debate, we are reprinting Ms. Payne's thought-provoking letter here, followed by two equally thoughtful responses from readers.
0 comments - Posted Oct 1, 2009
September 2009
For a while now, the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF) has been conducting clinical trials on the effectiveness of continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) for people with type 1 diabetes. Last year, they issued their first two reports on their findings, showing that CGMs can improve control even for people who already have A1c's below 7%. That information has already had a powerful impact: It's convinced a number of large health insurers (including Aetna, Cigna, Kaiser Permanente, United Healthcare, and Wellpoint) to cover CGMs for type 1s, and it's led to the inclusion of CGMs in national standards of care for type 1 diabetes.
6 comments - Posted Sep 17, 2009
Adults newly diagnosed with type 2 diabetes generally don't take to the idea of using insulin right off the bat. They're worried about gaining weight and fear low blood sugars. They're also concerned about whether they can manage the regimen and fear that taking insulin will lower their quality of life. Those concerns, however, might be assuaged by a study recently conducted by Ildiko Lingvay and his colleagues at the University of Texas Southwestern.
5 comments - Posted Sep 12, 2009
The famous Diabetes Control and Complications Trial, known to its friends as the DCCT, was the first to prove the power of "intensive control" of blood glucose to reduce the complications of diabetes. Although the ten-year study ended in 1993, researchers have continued to follow about 90 percent of the nearly 1,500 original DCCT volunteers. And the follow-up study, called the Epidemiology of Diabetes Interventions and Complications (EDIC), is measuring up to its illustrious parent in terms of demonstrating the value of tight control. According to results published in the July 27, 2009 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine, microvascular and cardiovascular complications of type 1 diabetes are cut in half for patients with near-normal glucose.
11 comments - Posted Sep 4, 2009
August 2009
In our last issue, we published a letter from reader Sheila Payne, who wrote that we had been far too positive about continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) in our June/July article Get the Facts on Continuous Glucose Monitoring. But her opinion provoked a stack of letters from people who believe that the benefits of CGM substantially outweigh its negatives. To let you in on the debate, we are reprinting Ms. Payne's thought-provoking letter here, followed by two equally thoughtful responses from readers.
12 comments - Posted Aug 28, 2009
Researchers have recently reported that people with the lowest levels of a protein that regulates sex hormones, "sex hormone-binding globulin," were 10 times more likely to develop type 2 diabetes than those with the highest levels of SHBG. In short, the lower a person's SHBG levels, the higher his or her risk of developing the disease.
0 comments - Posted Aug 11, 2009
A 43-year-old Iraq war veteran with diabetes is living in Texas with his wife and four young children when he is told that he must prepare for the amputation of one of his legs. The spreading, non-healing wounds and their complications make the amputation necessary to save not just his limb, but his life, his doctors tell him. But he refuses to proceed with the amputation surgery.
6 comments - Posted Aug 10, 2009
Initially diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, Rob subsequently discovered that he had type 1. Knowing that he needed to exercise more, he returned to professional surfing. Today, he is a sponsored professional athlete who uses a CGM.
10 comments - Posted Aug 7, 2009
In April of 2008, our healthy nine-year-old son, Gaspar, was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. After his two days in the ICU and a week in the hospital, a new life began for all of us. Although we couldn't immediately grasp all its implications and were simultaneously dealing with our shaken world, we gave the situation a "think outside the box" approach. When the endocrinologist told us, "That's the way it is. Just focus on the controls and all will be fine," we asked whether the condition might be cured or attenuated if we acted quickly at the beginning. We were met with the usual answer: "There's nothing you can do. Just focus on the controls."
8 comments - Posted Aug 3, 2009
In 1994, Kelli Kuehne was on a roll. That year, she won the United States Girls Junior Amateur Golf Championship and a year later, she won the U.S. Women's Amateur Golf Championship, repeating that win in 1996 while also taking the British Ladies Amateur Golf Championship. The roll continues. Today, Kelli Kuehne is still playing matches in the LPGA and, through it all, has never allowed type 1 diabetes to beat her on the golf course or in her life.
0 comments - Posted Aug 1, 2009
Because we have good health insurance, my son sees his endocrinologist twice a year, his diabetes health educator twice a year, and his nutritionist once a year. Meanwhile, he sees his school nurse one to three times a day. As you know, this relationship can make a difference for the rest of a child's life.
0 comments - Posted Aug 1, 2009
July 2009
After experiencing blurry vision and excessive thirst, Mr. R visits his primary care doctor, who tests him and diagnoses diabetes and high lipid levels. Mr. R is placed on hypoglycemic and statin medications and sent to a dietitian for nutritional advice, but he is confused about to how to shop and cook according to the new recommendations. In the next weeks, he experiences dangerous blood glucose swings and inadequate improvement in his LDL level. His primary care doctor refers him to an endocrinologist, but the next available appointment is three months away. What now?
6 comments - Posted Jul 24, 2009
A man who has been married for 15 years suddenly begins losing weight and buying new clothes. He starts staying late at work and taking weekend business trips, unusual behaviors for him. His wife thinks he is having an affair. Why?
0 comments - Posted Jul 22, 2009
Growth hormones, peer pressure, independence struggles, and mood swings: welcome to the teenage years! There's nothing like a warning glance from a fed-up teenager to make a parent retreat. As your child takes more control of his or her diabetes, it becomes ever more tempting to step back and avoid the friction that sometimes comes from being involved. Nevertheless, your teenager needs your reliable presence more than ever. The beauty, strength, and sheer courage our kids exhibit in meeting their teenage challenges can inspire us to stand up and work with them to keep their health and well-being firmly in the forefront of their minds. Each child and each situation is different, but here are a few suggestions for staying on your teen's diabetes team.
0 comments - Posted Jul 17, 2009
Medicare offers: Screenings for people at risk, Diabetes self-management training, Medical nutrition therapy services, Hemoglobin A1c tests, Glucose monitors, test strips, lancets, insulin, and some insulin pumps, Glaucoma tests, Foot exams, foot treatment, and therapeutic shoes, Flu and pneumonia shots, and Cholesterol and lipid checks.
1 comment - Posted Jul 15, 2009
People often ask me, "Why limit diabetes-related services to the iPhone when there are so many other cell phones out there?" I always answer them by asking, "How many applications have you downloaded onto your cell phone?"
15 comments - Posted Jul 13, 2009
Dear Aisha and David: I am a 66-year-old woman who has had diabetes for over 64 years. My husband is 52. He wants sex two or more times day. I hate it. I have no sexual drive, and most of the time it is painful. It was not always like this, but he has always wanted more sex than any man I know! We talk about things, but he basically ignores a lot of what I say when it comes to sex. He is actually a very caring person and has put up with a lot considering all the complications I have after 64 years of diabetes. We have been together for 18 years (married for nine). He waits on me hand and foot. I have to tell him to let me do things myself!
14 comments - Posted Jul 10, 2009
June 2009
Every time I return from the American Diabetes Association (ADA) Scientific Sessions conference, my head is so full of information that I need a week or two to sort through it. But now I've had a chance to choose what I think are the top five things that you need to know. Here they are...
0 comments - Posted Jun 30, 2009
Until now, care for insulin-dependent diabetes has focused on the delivery of insulin combined with frequent blood glucose (BG) testing. Keeping your A1c down is, and always will be, the name of the game. But numerous studies have shown us in the last few years that having access to continuous glucose data has a huge impact. How you deliver the insulin doesn't necessarily matter-you can use a pump, a syringe, or an insulin pen, it's knowing your personal BG trends that makes all the difference.
11 comments - Posted Jun 29, 2009
Rachel and her husband adopted a beautiful baby girl in November of 2008. Their daughter is now seven months old. You can read Rachel's article about diabetes and adoption here.
5 comments - Posted Jun 26, 2009
In 1993, I published an article entitled "Is non-compliance a dirty word?" in The Diabetes Educator in which I expressed my sadness that people with diabetes were actually getting blamed by their health care providers for not following treatment advice (1). I suggested that the patient's failure might really be a failure in the partnership (or lack thereof) between patient and provider. Fifteen years ago, I challenged diabetes educators to work together with medical practitioners to change noncompliance from a dirty word to a rare occurrence. So how are we doing today?
21 comments - Posted Jun 19, 2009
The A1c test (also called the HbA1c test), which establishes average blood sugar levels over a three-month period, should replace fasting plasma glucose and oral glucose tolerance tests as the standard for diagnosing diabetes.
6 comments - Posted Jun 17, 2009
I attended the annual meeting of the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists (AACE), held from May 14th to 18th, 2009. Here's a re-cap of the buzz about ICU glycemic control, prediabetes, and vitamin D.
0 comments - Posted Jun 17, 2009
Bayer Diabetes Care's new A1c monitor enables people with diabetes to check their A1c levels at home. The FDA-approved A1CNow SELFCHECK is not considered a replacement for a healthcare provider's A1c test, but rather a tool with which to monitor A1c levels between doctor visits. A1c's provide an average assessment of blood sugar levels over the past three months and are an indicator of how well diabetes is being managed
6 comments - Posted Jun 11, 2009
University of Cambridge researchers are reporting that people with type 2 diabetes who maintain strict control of their blood sugar-defined as lowering their A1c levels by 0.9% over a five-year period-can lower their risk of non-fatal heart attacks by 17 percent.
2 comments - Posted Jun 5, 2009
CRx-401, an insulin sensitizer intended to assist metformin in type 2 diabetes therapy, has successfully completed a Phase 2 clinical trial in which patients taking it saw their fasting plasma glucose drop by 12 mg/dl after 90 days.
1 comment - Posted Jun 3, 2009
Novo Nordisk has announced that results from a study show that almost 60 percent of type 2 patients taking once-daily doses of its Levemir insulin analog were able to reach the average blood sugar level recommended by the American Diabetes Association.
3 comments - Posted Jun 2, 2009
May 2009
In a recent 16-week randomized, open-label pilot study, 169 patients were randomized to receive Welchol (n=57), Januvia (n=56), or Avandia (n=56).1 The results demonstrated that Welchol (colesevelam HCl) significantly improved glycemic control and reduced mean LDL cholesterol (LDL-C) when added to metformin monotherapy in patients with type 2 diabetes. In the study, Januvia® (sitagliptin) and Avandia® (rosiglitazone) also significantly improved glycemic control, but LDL-C increased in patients on both of these treatment regimens.
0 comments - Posted May 29, 2009
After American and Brazilian researchers implanted 23 newly diagnosed type 1 patients with their own adult stem cells, 12 of the patients became insulin-free for periods lasting from 14 to 52 months (the mean was 31 months).
16 comments - Posted May 12, 2009
April 2009
There is an old schoolyard chant that starts out with an image of two people "sitting in a tree" and "K-I-S-S-I-N-G." This is followed by, "First comes love, then comes marriage, then comes the baby in the baby carriage." The natural progression of life is to find one's "soul mate," tie the knot, and then have children.
37 comments - Posted Apr 17, 2009
Results from DURATION-2, a 26-week test comparing the diabetic drugs Januvia, Actos, and experimental long-acting Byetta (Byetta LAR) show that Byetta produced lower A1c's and more weight loss than the other two drugs.
5 comments - Posted Apr 15, 2009
Diane Helms has spent most of her life struggling with her weight. She's tried just about every diet you can name and, despite them all, has watched the pounds pile on year after year.
0 comments - Posted Apr 8, 2009
University of Cambridge researchers are reporting that people with type 2 diabetes who maintain strict control of their blood sugar-defined as lowering their A1c levels by 0.9% over a five-year period-can lower their risk of non-fatal heart attacks by 17 percent.
0 comments - Posted Apr 1, 2009
University of Cambridge researchers are reporting that people with type 2 diabetes who maintain strict control of their blood sugar-defined as lowering their A1c levels by 0.9% over a five-year period-can lower their risk of non-fatal heart attacks by 17 percent.
0 comments - Posted Apr 1, 2009
March 2009
The first time Chris Matthews heard the words "high blood sugar" was in 2002 at a doctor's office in Washington, DC, where he was being treated for malaria after a trip to Zimbabwe. He didn't pay a lot of attention to the warning about his glucose levels after a blood test. The malaria was subsequently cured, and he continued at his usual rapid-fire pace, traveling the country giving speeches about his best-selling books ("Life is a Campaign" is his latest; "Hardball" is his best known) and his work both inside the White House, where he was a speechwriter for President Carter, and outside, where he was administrative assistant to House Speaker Tip O'Neill on Capitol Hill. Then there's his work on television, where he is host of Hardball on MSNBC and the Chris Matthew Show, which airs on Sundays just before Meet the Press on NBC. He stayed busy, and his schedule remained overbooked. He let the warning about high blood sugar go into the background-so far back it was out of sight and definitely out of mind. Besides, there just wasn't any room in his life to deal with it.
10 comments - Posted Mar 26, 2009
Physicians who treat people with type 2 diabetes face difficult choices when selecting the best medical therapy for each patient. The decision process is further complicated by the fact that because type 2 diabetes is a progressive disease, therapeutic agents that were initially successful may fail five or ten years later.
162 comments - Posted Mar 20, 2009
New cases of adult type 2 diabetes have increased by more than 90 percent in the past 10 years, according to recent data from the Centers for Disease and Prevention.(1) Equally troubling is the dramatic rise in type 2 diabetes among children. Recent reports reveal a 200 percent increase in hospitalizations for children with type 2 diabetes, a condition that was rarely diagnosed in children decades ago.(2) In the words of the CDC, "Diabetes is common, disabling, and deadly."(3)
2 comments - Posted Mar 18, 2009
US Camps Camp Name Type Session Start Date
2 comments - Posted Mar 3, 2009
A few years ago a young man named Jeff came into my office seeking help to lose weight. He was 5'10" tall and weighed 130 pounds. Jeff denied starving himself, denied making himself throw up, and denied over-exercising. I tried to convince him that he was actually 30 pounds underweight. As I looked for the most effective ways of motivating him to restore his health, he brought up the fact that he had type 1 diabetes. Jeff said that he rarely gave himself insulin and that he had "diabulimia." I had never heard of diabulimia and had no idea what I was dealing with. I gave him a list of clinicians and asked him to call me back after he made appointments with an endocrinologist and a psychotherapist.
13 comments - Posted Mar 3, 2009
February 2009
We recently published an article about how you can avoid losing money in insurance claims. The article gave helpful hints on how to deal with your insurance company including an sample appeals letter. We promised to publish in the near future a sample CGM appeals letter. Here they are!
0 comments - Posted Feb 27, 2009
DM-99, a drug under development by the Canadian drug company DiaMedica, Inc., has just finished a phase 2a "proof of concept" trial with 40 type 2 patients in Europe. Although the company did not release performance figures from the trial, it found them sufficiently encouraging to move further into phase 2 testing.
0 comments - Posted Feb 26, 2009
Data from a phase 3 study of the Novo Nordisk drug liraglutide shows that when it is used in combination with glimepiride, it is more effective at reducing A1c's than glimepiride by itself or glimepiride in combination with the drug rosiglitazone.
0 comments - Posted Feb 19, 2009
Can you imagine a hospital where the floors are carpeted, so you feel soothed and protected? Where the doors open silently so as not to jar your nerves? Where vending machines are filled with fresh fruits, and the healthier the meal in the cafeteria, the less it costs? How about elevator doors covered in exotic floral motifs, or a diabetes center where you never wait more than ten minutes to be seen?
8 comments - Posted Feb 17, 2009
Back in 1993, I published an article titled "Is Noncompliance a Dirty Word?" in which I expressed sadness that people with diabetes were being blamed by their healthcare providers for not following treatment advice (1). I suggested that the patient's "failure" might really be a failure of the partnership (or lack thereof) between patient and provider. Fifteen long years ago, I challenged diabetes educators to work with medical practitioners to change noncompliance from a dirty word to a rare occurrence. So, how are we doing today?
20 comments - Posted Feb 3, 2009
January 2009
A study published in the Journal of Hospital Medicine has found that the glucose control practices at academic medical centers are below par and fail to meet the current standards set by the American Diabetes Association (ADA).
2 comments - Posted Jan 30, 2009
Remember that New Year's resolution that you made a few weeks ago? Oh yeah, that one. How's that going? If you're like most people, you may have started to slack off just a little bit. Or even worse, maybe it's already a distant memory. No worries, I won't tell. Let's get you going again.
1 comment - Posted Jan 27, 2009
The treatment of diabetes has come a long way since Dr. Elliot Joslin wrote The Treatment of Diabetes Mellitus in 1916. But Dr. Joslin's idea that diet, exercise, and insulin (when it became available as therapy in 1922) are the keys to managing diabetes remains true today. This doesn't mean that diabetes is not a complex illness requiring ongoing education and individualized care. People with diabetes benefit greatly from the services of a team of health care professionals including a certified diabetes educator and an endocrinologist--a doctor who specializes in treating disorders of the endocrine system.
7 comments - Posted Jan 21, 2009
One of 2008's most interesting developments was the change in one long-standing recommendation for treating diabetes in people who have had the disease for a long time: Work intensely on getting blood sugar levels as low as possible.
11 comments - Posted Jan 15, 2009
As the 76-million-member Baby Boomer generation ages-its oldest members are now 63-nursing homes are bracing for an unprecedented demand for their services. Along with increased pressure from the sheer number of patients, nursing homes will also have to deal with the skyrocketing number of seniors with type 2 diabetes.
2 comments - Posted Jan 15, 2009
Two diets - one severely restricting carbohydrate intake but with no limit on calories, and the other emphasizing low-glycemic carbohydrates and low calories - allowed high percentages of obese type 2 patients in a university study to reduce or even eliminate their diabetes medications (95.2 percent of the patients on the extreme low-carb diet and 62.1 percent of the patients on the low-glycemic diet).
6 comments - Posted Jan 14, 2009
December 2008
Here at Diabetes Health, we've learned the hard way that specific resolutions are the way to go. General plans like "I'll watch my weight" or "I'll check my blood glucose more often" tend to be less successful than the more specific: "I'll eat x number of carbs each meal" and "I'll check my BG before and after every meal."
2 comments - Posted Dec 29, 2008
Every year the American Diabetes Associations revises and updates its Clinical Practice Recommendations, a publication upon which many doctors and medical caregivers depend as a primary source of diabetes treatment information.
12 comments - Posted Dec 29, 2008
A study of the effectiveness of the drug terbutaline on controlling nighttime hypoglycemia in people with type 1 diabetes indicates that it may be a safe and useful treatment with no ill effects.
5 comments - Posted Dec 29, 2008
Are you a scientific anomaly like me? Have you or someone you know reversed the complications associated with diabetes? Did you suffer microvascular and macrovascular damage during the “growing pains” of coming to terms with having no choice but to live your life with diabetes? Then, did you turn around and find love and hope, which made you change your life? And after changing it, did you find after several years that you were healing the damage that you had incurred by your own misguided hand?
117 comments - Posted Dec 25, 2008
The Chinese mentioned cinnamon in their written work more than 4,000 years ago. The ancient Egyptians used cinnamon in their embalming process, and the Roman writer/philosopher Pliny the Elder wrote in the first century AD that cinnamon was worth 15 times more than silver of the same weight.
43 comments - Posted Dec 25, 2008
For 2,000 years diabetes has been recognized as a devastating and deadly disease. In the first century A.D. a Greek, Aretaeus, described the destructive nature of the affliction which he named "diabetes" from the Greek word for "siphon." Eugene J. Leopold in his text Aretaeus the Cappodacian describes Aretaeus' diagnosis: "...For fluids do not remain in the body, but use the body only as a channel through which they may flow out. Life lasts only for a time, but not very long. For they urinate with pain and painful is the emaciation. For no essential part of the drink is absorbed by the body while great masses of the flesh are liquefied into urine."
45 comments - Posted Dec 17, 2008
It has been rags to riches for singer Elliott Yamin. With his naturally soulful singing voice, listeners feel his raw emotion and they like it. When you hear him, you know immediately that few guys in any musical genre sing with this kind of authenticity.
29 comments - Posted Dec 17, 2008
Most people with diabetes will tell you this: Everything about having it is a hassle, an annoyance and sometimes utterly overwhelming. Endless worrying over meal plans, carbohydrate counting, finger-stick checks, pills, injections, lab tests, prescriptions, supplies and doctors’ appointments are nobody’s idea of fun.
7 comments - Posted Dec 17, 2008
An international team of researchers reports that a mutation in a gene that controls a person's body clock can cause higher blood sugar levels, leading to a 20 percent increased risk of acquiring type 2 diabetes.
0 comments - Posted Dec 15, 2008
Why not sing it out, sing it proud this holiday season! Singing songs with your children is always fun and if you get to both acknowledge the presence of diabetes and laugh at it a little at the same time, so much the better!
0 comments - Posted Dec 10, 2008
The first time I presented medical research findings, I was not yet a physician. The year was about 1975. I was in my early forties and a mid-career engineer. The forum was a scientific symposium on diabetes. At the time, I felt that I had discovered the holy grail of diabetes care and was eager to share what I had learned.
22 comments - Posted Dec 8, 2008
My daughter Lauren was five days shy of her twelfth birthday when she was diagnosed with type 1. We were blessed with a child who could and did take the lead in her recovery and care. She never had any "teen diabetic rebellion" and never adopted a "why me?" mentality. Her health has been great, and her last A1c was 6.7%. With all the hormonal changes that can affect a teenage girl's body and thus change her insulin requirements, Lauren has always stayed on top of her care and never lost her fantastic personality.
24 comments - Posted Dec 2, 2008
November 2008
Becoming pregnant for the first time can be overwhelming for any woman, especially if that woman has diabetes. When my husband and I decided we were ready to have children, the first thing I did was make an appointment with my endocrinologist. Diagnosed when I was fourteen, I've had type 1 diabetes for twenty-four years. My doctor explained that I would need to be in tight control for three months before I could even think about babies, so I got right to work. Learning everything I could about diabetes and pregnancy, I was pleased to discover that with education, support, and practice, a woman with diabetes has every opportunity for a healthy pregnancy.
7 comments - Posted Nov 17, 2008
Dear Laura,
I just finished viewing your clip online. You seem like a very intelligent and involved mom who decided it was time to take charge. I applaud you, and I agree with many points you make, but I disagree with your position on food.
11 comments - Posted Nov 17, 2008
The FDA has approved the fast-acting insulin Apidra (insulin glulisine) for use in children four years and older who have type 1 diabetes.
1 comment - Posted Nov 3, 2008
October 2008
I have had type 1 diabetes for 16 years and, after a long path with many ups and downs, I have finally achieved optimal diabetic health. I have discovered the special lifestyle and diet mix that works and have brought my A1c from 11.4% to 5.2% while increasing my energy and overall health. I'm an elite athlete who plays professional ice hockey, and I currently run marathons.
19 comments - Posted Oct 27, 2008
Novo Nordisk recently announced results from its LEAD 6 study showing that once daily liraglutide was significantly more effective at improving blood glucose control (as measured by A1c) than exenatide, a GLP-1 mimetic administered twice daily.
4 comments - Posted Oct 27, 2008
An experimental exenatide (Byetta)-like drug called liraglutide has shown the ability to enhance insulin and glucagon production and suppress appetite in type 2 patients, according to a report in the British medical journal The Lancet.
0 comments - Posted Oct 13, 2008
An article in Endocrine Today presents some interesting findings regarding A1c's, including the fact that even a relatively low A1c of 5.4% may not preclude undiagnosed diabetes in high-risk individuals.
3 comments - Posted Oct 13, 2008
A new pharmacy that focuses on patients with diabetes, A1c Rx, opened this month in the San Diego, California, area. A1c Rx works with patients to review medications and demonstrate testing techniques. It also utilizes a robotic pill dispenser to safely and accurately dispense diabetes meds.
5 comments - Posted Oct 13, 2008
Heritage Labs has introduced the Appraise® Home A1c Kit, a product that allows people with diabetes and pre-diabetes to measure their average blood glucose level over a three- or four-month period.
5 comments - Posted Oct 6, 2008
September 2008
At the recent 44th annual meeting of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD), sanofi-aventis announced a study demonstrating that a basal-bolus insulin regimen with Lantus® once daily (basal insulin) and rapid-acting Apidra® (insulin glulisine [rDNA origin] injection) at mealtime (bolus insulin) resulted in significant A1c reductions from baseline as compared to pre-mixed insulin in people with type 2 diabetes.
5 comments - Posted Sep 29, 2008
An article published in Diabetologia this month challenges the accepted glucose cut-off values that define hypoglycemia because they have a major effect on reported frequencies of hypoglycemia.
11 comments - Posted Sep 29, 2008
Bret Michaels was only six years old when he was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. Now 44 years old, he's a twenty-year veteran of the rock and roll scene as the lead singer of the eighties band "Poison."
64 comments - Posted Sep 22, 2008
These days, Doug Burns is a modern Sampson. The reigning Mr. Universe, he’s two hundred pounds of sheer muscle and the picture of good health. Of the skinny little boy with type 1 who used to work out in the woods alone, all that remains are a wry sense of humor and an attractively self-deprecating manner. They’re unexpected in a man who’s triumphed in the uber-masculine world of bodybuilding, but there’s a lot that’s unexpected about Doug Burns.
31 comments - Posted Sep 22, 2008
A Canadian clinical study has delivered a double dose of good news for proponents of exenatide (sold commercially as Byetta), a drug used by more than 700,000 Americans to control blood glucose, ease food cravings, and, incidentally, lose weight.
3 comments - Posted Sep 11, 2008
A study sponsored by the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation confirms that many older type 1 patients achieve better control of their blood sugar levels by using a continuous glucose monitor (CGM) than by conventional monitoring with a meter and finger pricks.
1 comment - Posted Sep 11, 2008
With 21 million U.S. residents now officially diagnosed as having diabetes, healthcare professionals are looking at another statistic that is causing them many a sleepless night: The Centers for Disease Control estimate that there are 57 million people with pre-diabetes in the United States. (Pre-diabetes is defined as impaired fasting glucose of 100 to 125 mg/dl, impaired glucose tolerance of 140 to 199 mg/dl, or both.)
6 comments - Posted Sep 4, 2008
When Gina Capone, a thirty-something type 1 for eight years, got married this year, she and her husband decided it was time to start thinking about having a baby. Like all women with diabetes who are planning a pregnancy, Gina needs her A1c to be as low as possible in order to prevent complications for her and her baby. This strict control can be very challenging and time-consuming, requiring up to 20 blood sugar tests a day.
3 comments - Posted Sep 4, 2008
August 2008
Byetta has had a tough past few days. A lawsuit by a Virginia man alleges that the drug caused his life-threatening bout of severe pancreatitis, and there are rumblings from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration that it may force Byetta's makers to attach a "black box" warning to its container and packaging-a stern, highlighted caution about potentially dangerous, even fatal, side effects.
19 comments - Posted Aug 28, 2008
My husband and I have nine children. Elliott is our oldest and when he was diagnosed with type 1 at age 11 in 1996, we were blindsided. Neither my husband, nor I, nor anyone in our extended family had diabetes. Elliot had all of the classic symptoms: excessive thirst, frequent urination, uncontrollable hunger, occasional blurry vision, and (something I think a lot of parents don't recognize as a sign) bedwetting.
11 comments - Posted Aug 28, 2008
The members of the AADE are an impassioned group who genuinely want to make a difference in their patients' lives. It was an ideal place for me to be, especially because I had a concern of my own: Why am I getting red dots every time I inject? Every educator I asked went right to work examining the problem and investigating my behavior, truly wanting to help. Unfortunately, they are dwindling in number each year, while patients are increasing in number, making their work ever more demanding.
4 comments - Posted Aug 20, 2008
Diabetes educator Mary M. Austin reported that many people are paying for blood glucose test strips even though their insurance plans would cover them. "There is a lot of misunderstanding," she said. For example, a client of Austin's got a free meter at a health fair. He then paid for strips on his own for six months, until he found out that his insurance plan would cover them if he got a prescription for the strips from his healthcare provider.
3 comments - Posted Aug 20, 2008
Do you want to lose weight and improve your blood glucose levels? Do you want to do it without having to weigh your portions and count your calories? Try a low-fat vegan diet. A vegan diet is one with no animal products: no fish, no eggs, no dairy, and, of course, no meat.
22 comments - Posted Aug 14, 2008
Several months ago researchers suspended work on the landmark ACCORD (Action to Control Cardiovascular Risk in Diabetes) study, which tracked 10,251 type 2s, some of them undergoing very tight control of their blood sugar levels.
0 comments - Posted Aug 14, 2008
The hemoglobin A1c test (HbA1c) is a staple among people with diabetes attempting to map out their long-term blood glucose levels. However, it is not a standard test for non-diabetics, even those whose doctors suspect they may have the disease.
14 comments - Posted Aug 5, 2008
Type 2s who tried out either of two different basal-bolus treatments using Lantus and Apidra enjoyed significant reductions in post-meal BG levels and longer-term A1c’s.
4 comments - Posted Aug 5, 2008
July 2008
You’ve got type 2 diabetes. A few years ago, you started using a long-acting insulin once a day, and your fasting glucose levels and your A1c came down. But now your A1c is creeping back up. Your doctor tells you that you need to add a mealtime insulin to your plan.
2 comments - Posted Jul 31, 2008
July 27, 2008 marked the eighth full month that my son has not used insulin. His last A1c was 5.9%, on July 9, 2008. On August 14th of this year, it will be one year since he was originally diagnosed with type 1. As you know, he was taken off insulin on November 27, 2007, about a month after getting the experimental drug teplizumab. I don't know if it is the drug or not, but others have taken it with good results. It will be interesting to see if they ever get the drug approved and can use it quickly on newly diagnosed type 1s.
15 comments - Posted Jul 31, 2008
San Diego-based Amylin Pharmaceuticals, Inc., posted a second-quarter loss of $64.8 million, or 47 cents per share. This compares to a 2007 second-quarter loss of 45 million, or 34 cents a share.
1 comment - Posted Jul 31, 2008
What follows is Medtronic's response to Zachariah Kramer's letter to Diabetes Health cautioning against unrealistic expectations about CGM systems.
2 comments - Posted Jul 16, 2008
June 2008
Tekturna Reduces Kidney Disease Indicator
The blood pressure medicine Tekturna (aliskiren) may have a beneficial side effect for people with type 2 diabetes and high blood pressure who are at risk of kidney disease. According to a recent article in The New England Journal of Medicine, the drug reduces proteinuria, a key indicator of kidney disease, by 20 percent in patients with type 2 diabetes.
2 comments - Posted Jun 26, 2008
Drug manufacturer Novo Nordisk has applied to the U.S. Federal Drug Administration and the European Medicines Agency for approval of liraglutide, a human GLP-1 analog* that is taken once daily for the treatment of type 2 diabetes.
0 comments - Posted Jun 19, 2008
Dear Diabetes Health,
After reading the story in the April/May Diabetes Health about the mother and daughter who won approval from Blue Cross/Blue Shield to pay for the continuous monitor, I wanted to share our story.
5 comments - Posted Jun 12, 2008
May 2008
HealthDay reports that according to a University of Miami study, people with type 1 diabetes who received transplanted islet cells from human donors lived insulin-free for up to two years.
1 comment - Posted May 30, 2008
Is it possible that a dip in the hot tub can cause a dip in the blood sugars? According to a pilot study that appeared in the September 16 issue of The New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM), "hot tub therapy" helped a group of type 2s reduce their blood sugars, lose weight and improve sleep patterns.
11 comments - Posted May 23, 2008
A word of caution about the values used below. This study was conducted using people without diabetes. Some people with diabetes experience symptoms at higher glucose levels than the study suggests. Other people with diabetes appear to function well with blood sugars in the 30's and 40's (mg/dl). Therefore, the values in the study should only be used as an approximation. This study also used plasma glucose levels. Your values done at home might be 20 percent lower or higher than these lab values. For example, epinephrine release in someone without diabetes would begin at about 63mg/dl with a home blood glucose meter.
43 comments - Posted May 1, 2008
April 2008
Does Low-Carb Cheat Young Children of Their Needs?
KheurserRD wrote us to say, “From a dietitian's perspective, 30 grams of carbs doesn't allow for much. It would not allow for the recommended amounts of milk/milk equivalents or fruit a child needs. Not to mention the lack of fiber. Whatever happened to balance, portion control, physical activity, and eating within your calorie needs? ...If such extreme restrictions are being made, how can very young children meet their requirements for calcium and other vitamins and minerals present in milk or fruit and some carbohydrate-containing vegetables? Were these children monitored for nutritional deficiencies, or have the long-term effects of such a diet been studied when the diet was started at such a young age? Even if there are no recommendations for fiber, diets rich in fiber are associated with the prevention of many diseases.”
6 comments - Posted Apr 28, 2008
Does anyone living in our well-nourished country, eating a reasonable diet, really need to take vitamins, minerals, or herbs? Should a person with diabetes take them? If so, which ones and how much? When it comes to supplements, the answers are often unclear.
20 comments - Posted Apr 23, 2008
A Question-and-Answer Session With Jordan Hoese, A 14-Year-Old Type 1 Marathon Runner.
16 comments - Posted Apr 21, 2008
Since its introduction in 2005, Byetta has become “the talk of the town” as one of the most powerful, yet benign, diabetes drugs of the 21st century.
4 comments - Posted Apr 2, 2008
In November 2005, with an A1c of 7.5%, I was told that I had type 2 diabetes. It shouldn’t have come as much of a surprise to me because my mother has type 2 and her mother died from complications due to her uncontrolled diabetes.
2 comments - Posted Apr 2, 2008
March 2008
Professional surfer Scott Dunton, 21, has two missions in life: To keep climbing in the rankings as one of the world’s top competitive surfers, and to spread the word to children and teenagers everywhere that having diabetes doesn’t mean life’s joys come to a halt.
16 comments - Posted Mar 27, 2008
What is “surprising” about the partial halting of the ACCORD study (“Diabetes Study Partially Halted After Deaths,” Feb. 7, 2008) is that the researchers were so surprised by completely predictable results.
13 comments - Posted Mar 27, 2008
Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles is seeking participants with type 2 diabetes for a randomized, controlled clinical study to evaluate an implantable device that delivers electrical impulses to the stomach.
0 comments - Posted Mar 27, 2008
Editor:
My son was diagnosed in August 2007 with juvenile diabetes. I am a registered nurse and was devastated by the diagnosis because I was just completely paralyzed by the fear of potential complications. It was also a tremendous shock to be on the other side of health care – receiving information from hurried staff, including doctors, glancing at their watches while I asked one too many questions.
28 comments - Posted Mar 21, 2008
I am a diabetic and was taking four insulin shots per day and still had problems with my sugar. I did two months of research on the Web because I had to find a way to get off the shots. I hate needles I was astonished at what I found on natural herbs!
37 comments - Posted Mar 19, 2008
Blood sugar control is the heart and soul of diabetes management. How you handle it determines what will be the consequences of your diabetes.
2 comments - Posted Mar 13, 2008
For the first time, the American Diabetes Association (ADA) came out in support of low-carbohydrate diets for people with diabetes who want to manage their weight. The ADA announced this landmark decision in December 2007 with its 2008 clinical practice recommendations. The latest recommendation is in sharp contrast to decades of promoting only low-fat/high-carb diets.
2 comments - Posted Mar 9, 2008
February 2008
A1c tests, the standard measurement of blood glucose, underestimate the amount of glucose in people who are on kidney hemodialysis, says a Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center study.
2 comments - Posted Feb 27, 2008
Just after a massive U.S. study dropped its aggressive treatment of blood glucose levels because of increased deaths among type 2 patients, international researchers announced that their similar intense study of tight blood sugar control showed no increased risk of death.
0 comments - Posted Feb 22, 2008
The Food and Drug Administration has approved the newest continuous glucose monitoring system from diabetes management device manufacturer Medtronic.
0 comments - Posted Feb 15, 2008
To successfully treat diabetes, you must take charge of your own diabetes management. You need to know your medications, and you need to know your pharmacist. But that kind of intimate knowledge has become a lot more complex in the past decade.
3 comments - Posted Feb 12, 2008
After seeing an increase in deaths among type 2 participants, the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI) has halted the intense blood sugar control portion of its years-long study on controlling cardiovascular risks to people with diabetes.
14 comments - Posted Feb 8, 2008
Pioneering low-carb diet advocate Dr. Richard K. Bernstein has responded to the American Diabetes Association's recent support for low-carb diets with a critique of several of the ADA's most cherished notions.
30 comments - Posted Feb 8, 2008
I have been using insulin for over 29 years, and during this time I have experienced too many lows to recall. My endocrinologist informed me that insulin users who have an A1c less than 7 percent typically require emergency assistance for hypoglycemia about every six to nine months.
26 comments - Posted Feb 7, 2008
Dear Diabetes Health, after seeing your Web TV show where Scott King went on the Dexcom device for the first time, I have several questions.
14 comments - Posted Feb 3, 2008
I don't know if you watched this show that aired the week of January 20 here in Rochester, N.Y., on WXXI Public TV. The program included a short segment where a 12-year-old type 1 diabetic relied upon a medical dog to avoid seizures. It was very incomplete and misleading.
5 comments - Posted Feb 2, 2008
SK: We’re joined on our show by Craig Eberhard, vice president of sales at Amylin Pharmaceuticals. Hey, Craig, thanks for coming on the show. Amylin has one of the most innovative products that I’ve heard of in years. It’s called Byetta.
8 comments - Posted Feb 1, 2008
January 2008
Startling statistics are only one reason sufferers should get help and why research into this lethal combination must continue. On the list of deadly diseases in the United States, diabetes ranks fifth. And for so many reasons: major killers like heart attack and stroke are among a slew of diabetes' potentially lethal complications.
15 comments - Posted Jan 12, 2008
December 2007
Recently on "Good Morning America," a friend of mine (and fellow A1c champion) watched author Gary Taubes talk about his new book, Good Calories, Bad Calories. My friend sent this email around: "Taubes says that exercise makes us hungry for carbohydrates and that carbohydrates cause insulin secretion, which creates fat."
49 comments - Posted Dec 27, 2007
There's now plenty of evidence that U.S. ethnic minority groups tend to have higher A1c levels than whites. (Your A1c is the percentage of your hemoglobin cells that are glycated - have sugar stuck to them. The higher your blood sugars are, the more sugar sticks to your hemoglobin over time, and the higher your A1c is.)
1 comment - Posted Dec 24, 2007
In a recent study, 81 youth with type 1 diabetes, aged eleven to sixteen years, were divided into two groups. One group received care as usual, but every member of the second group got six sessions with a "diabetes personal trainer," during which they talked about self-monitoring, goal setting, and problem solving.
0 comments - Posted Dec 20, 2007
Today, about four percent of Americans bank their children's cord blood just in case it might come in handy, and more are doing it every day. Now a small study announced at the 67th Scientific Sessions of the American Diabetes Association has found that infusions of umbilical cord blood may preserve insulin production.
1 comment - Posted Dec 18, 2007
To conclude our pump survey, we asked you how you'd like to see pumping improved. As usual, you came up with a plethora of intriguing suggestions, although some were a bit more visionary than others: One reader said, "I wish someone would invent a device that could be waved over a meal, and it would display the number of carbs in the meal."
43 comments - Posted Dec 14, 2007
In a recent randomized study, 69 people with type 2 diabetes who were already taking metformin were given either Byetta or Lantus for a full year. When the results were in, Byetta came out ahead on several fronts.
10 comments - Posted Dec 11, 2007
Hispanics and African Americans have higher A1c's than whites. That disparity contributes to the unfortunate fact that in the U.S., approximately ten percent of racial differences in mortality have been attributed to diabetes.
3 comments - Posted Dec 5, 2007
November 2007
I learned that I had type 2 diabetes in February 1994. A dozen years later, I knew I had to make a change. Technically speaking, I was "morbidly obese." I'm tall - 6 feet, 2½ inches - but I tipped the scales at 312 pounds and had a body mass index (BMI) of 40.
7 comments - Posted Nov 28, 2007
Many medications, both oral and injectable, exist to manage blood glucose in type 2 diabetes. Even insulin has many different formulations, including fast-acting and long-acting analogs as well as various pre-mixed combinations of faster and slower acting insulins in the same vial.
9 comments - Posted Nov 27, 2007
Parents have always said that they can tell when their children's blood sugar is high by their kids' behavior, which tends to change, and not for the better, when their sugar is high. Now a formal study has confirmed just that.
6 comments - Posted Nov 17, 2007
Diabetes educators are no less than a lifeline for patients, providing vital insights into the self-care behaviors that keep diabetes in check: managing blood sugar, dosing medications and insulin, exercising, and understanding all the numbers involved.
30 comments - Posted Nov 15, 2007
A recent study has found that the combination of metformin and sitagliptin lowers A1c's better than either drug alone, apparently because their different mechanisms work together synergistically.
0 comments - Posted Nov 12, 2007
October 2007
I am a survivor and proud of it. Not only have I lived with diabetes for 52 years, since the age of five, but I am also a breast cancer survivor for over fifteen years.
3 comments - Posted Oct 22, 2007
The take-home message from the Tufts study is that the GI value of white bread is 70. That's nothing new: The same value has been found in dozens of other studies around the world (1).
2 comments - Posted Oct 18, 2007
Josephine Kulman has had type 1 diabetes for 45 years, ever since she was five years old. For much of her life, her blood sugars were rarely in control.
32 comments - Posted Oct 11, 2007
Most people with diabetes are familiar with the A1c test as a measure of cumulative exposure to glucose over a period of three months.
2 comments - Posted Oct 8, 2007
A study comparing the benefits of aerobic versus resistance training has found that either is good, but both are better, when it comes to lowering A1c's in people with diabetes.
0 comments - Posted Oct 5, 2007
According to Pulse, the UK's leading medical weekly, a review of the evidence has concluded that for type 2s on oral medication whose A1c's are below 7.5%, blood glucose monitoring offers "little advantage and may increase the likelihood of hypoglycemia."
7 comments - Posted Oct 2, 2007
September 2007
In obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), the upper airway narrows or collapses during sleep, cutting off breathing. People with OSA may be aroused hundreds of times each night, just enough to start breathing again.
0 comments - Posted Sep 30, 2007
In August, a number of august organizations agreed to report the A1c in a new way, as a number called an A1c-derived average glucose, or ADAG.
0 comments - Posted Sep 29, 2007
When I was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes last year, my doctors and I were rather shocked. I was only 27 years old at the time, slender and in good shape. Diabetes does run in my mother's side of the family, so I wasn't completely taken aback.
2 comments - Posted Sep 28, 2007
American Youth Understanding Diabetes Abroad, Inc., also known as AYUDA, is a small organization with a lofty goal: to bring the diabetes camp experience to underprivileged children and youth with type 1 diabetes around the world.
0 comments - Posted Sep 28, 2007
Until now, there were only two blood sugar numbers you had to worry about: your A1c and your fasting glucose level. The first, according to IDF guidelines, should be 6.5% or below, and the second 100 mg/dl or below.
6 comments - Posted Sep 27, 2007
In two recent studies, WelChol, a drug already approved for lowering LDL (bad) cholesterol was found to lower A1c's in patients with type 2 diabetes. The first study showed that WelChol, when added to insulin, lowered A1c's by an average of 0.5% compared to a placebo group.
0 comments - Posted Sep 26, 2007
I met Perry at a neighborhood Food Co-op four years ago when he noticed my jacket's JDRF (Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation) emblem, introduced himself, and asked if I knew of any diabetes support groups. His three-year old son, Max, had recently been diagnosed with type 1.
1 comment - Posted Sep 24, 2007
As a scientist who has type 1 diabetes, Dr. Kowalski knows that the cure may be a long time coming. But he's optimistic, nevertheless, because he believes that technology will revolutionize diabetes management long before the cure raises its shy little head.
1 comment - Posted Sep 18, 2007
Swaying in rhythm like drunk fans singing their team fight song, we campers bellowed our camp theme, clapping and banging on dining tables: "Shock, shock for Camp Firefly! We take the insulin - try not to cry!"
7 comments - Posted Sep 18, 2007
I've been doing a lot of flying lately, and it's given me time for reflection. While aloft a few days ago in JetBlue's comfy seat, as I took out my syringe and Humalog to dose for my snack, I realized how many things I no longer do that I was once taught to do.
1 comment - Posted Sep 16, 2007
Since the 1950s, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has funded almost all diabetes research worldwide. From its headquarters in Bethesda, Maryland, the NIH oversees a $28 billion annual medical research budget. More than $1 billion of those taxpayer dollars go specifically toward diabetes research. Still, a cure remains frustratingly elusive.
0 comments - Posted Sep 13, 2007
Life in the trenches with type 1 diabetes is challenging. Unpredictable blood sugars can leave a person with diabetes (PWD) feeling frustrated and helpless. The acute toxic effects of abnormal blood sugars also contribute to depression, anxiety, irritability, and food cravings.
4 comments - Posted Sep 9, 2007
We recently wrote about a study which concluded that blood glucose meters are a waste of time for people with type 2 diabetes who are not using insulin ("Is Using a Meter a Waste of Time for Type 2s?"). Our readers vehemently disagreed with that conclusion.
2 comments - Posted Sep 6, 2007
In the August 2007 edition of The Lancet, Argentinian researcher Dr. Diego Lowenstein reported that the higher your A1c, the higher your risk of major complications after heart bypass surgery.
0 comments - Posted Sep 5, 2007
August 2007
I've generally been a "good" person. I try to do those ten things on Dalai Lama's list. You know, be kind, not hurt others, let people know you love them, hear a tree when it's falling even if you're not there...
2 comments - Posted Aug 30, 2007
The possibility of heart disease is a nagging worry when you have a child with type 1 diabetes. Sixty-nine percent of type 1 children have at least one cardiac risk factor.
0 comments - Posted Aug 22, 2007
Five hundred thousand New Yorkers have been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, and another 200,000 have diabetes and don't know it yet - that's a total of one out of every eight adults.
0 comments - Posted Aug 13, 2007
That old standby, metformin, is still your best bet. In fact, there is no benefit in taking the newer oral medications unless you can't tolerate the older ones.
0 comments - Posted Aug 8, 2007
Parents of newly-diagnosed children with diabetes have something in common - they don't sleep soundly through the night. Anxiety soars in the darkness. When our son Danny was diagnosed at age seven, my husband Brian and I barely closed our eyes, and we set our alarm to check on him at least once every night.
3 comments - Posted Aug 2, 2007
It's a complex mental process that your doctors go through when they choose your medicines, according to a recent survey of several hundred physicians.
0 comments - Posted Aug 2, 2007
July 2007
In 2001, just over a third of Americans had their diabetes well controlled, based upon an A1c of seven percent or lower. In 2006, however, more than half of them had their diabetes well controlled. These are the results of a study of nearly 5 million patients performed from 2001 to 2007 by Quest Diagnostics Inc. and analyzed by Dr. Francine Kaufman of the University of Southern California.
0 comments - Posted Jul 28, 2007
An A1c assesses glycated hemoglobin; that is, it tells you how many of your red blood cells have glucose stuck to them. The higher the percentage of hemoglobin cells that are sugared up, the higher your average BGs were over the preceding three months.
1 comment - Posted Jul 16, 2007
Two-thirds of pregnancies in women with diabetes are unplanned. How long after conception do those women realize they're pregnant? They may be eight weeks into their pregnancy before they know it's happened.
5 comments - Posted Jul 14, 2007
It's a fact that Byetta reduces A1c's, post-meal and fasting glucose levels, and weight in people with type 2 diabetes. The drawback is that it's another injection twice a day. In response, Amylin, the maker of Byetta, has developed exenatide LAR, a form of Byetta that is injected only once a week.
0 comments - Posted Jul 13, 2007
Born on the family dairy farm in New York, the second of five children, Carolyn Gridley was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes after her grandmother noticed sugar crystals on her diaper that attracted the bees and flies around the farm.
1 comment - Posted Jul 11, 2007
An overview of 103 research reports comprising 10,455 subjects has found that it's better to stick to exercise than to spread yourself too thin by trying to change your activity level, diet, and medication all at the same time.
1 comment - Posted Jul 9, 2007
June 2007
Bariatric Surgery isn't just for weight loss anymore. It's been shown to be possibly curative of type 2 diabetes even in the absence of major weight loss following the surgery. Here's the rundown on how it works.
0 comments - Posted Jun 28, 2007
Kevin Powell is an athlete, first and foremost. Twice a year, he competes in an Ironman event, a grueling test of endurance that entails a 2.4-mile swim and a 112-mile bike ride, topped off by a full marathon of 26.2 miles.
2 comments - Posted Jun 28, 2007
Kamaal Washington was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes when he was nine. He's thirteen now. In those four years, he's become an advocate for diabetes and the author, with his brother Malcolm and help from his parents, of a diabetes educational superhero comic book that's swept the nation beyond their wildest expectations. But it all started when he began to be really, really thirsty.
1 comment - Posted Jun 27, 2007
Gestational diabetes affects about 5% of all women in late pregnancy. About a third of those women will go on to develop type 2 diabetes within five years, says a recent study in the Post-Graduate Medical Journal, and it'll most likely be the women who had the highest A1c's during their gestational diabetes.
0 comments - Posted Jun 27, 2007
Every hour that type 1 children spend watching cartoons, sitcoms, and even, alas, public television, correlates to an increase in A1c, according to a study published in Diabetes Care.
0 comments - Posted Jun 26, 2007
In a recent Dutch study, researchers gave either a placebo or a daily dose of 400 micrograms of chromium in the form of chromium yeast to 57 obese, insulin-requiring type 2 patients with A1c’s above eight percent.
0 comments - Posted Jun 25, 2007
Anne Williamson has had type 1 diabetes for forty years, since the age of seven. But because of the Easter basket incident, she still vividly remembers her time in the hospital. Anne was alone in her hospital room when a volunteer insisted on leaving a candy-filled Easter basket by her bed.
0 comments - Posted Jun 23, 2007
Late one evening while watching TV with my husband Phil, I reminded him to check his glucose level. His reply was the usual: "I'll do it later." Knowing him as I do, I was frustrated. He has the tendency to procrastinate, so I chose a different approach. "Why don't you check mine, and we'll compare."
0 comments - Posted Jun 21, 2007
Two new research reports, presented at the American Thoracic Society 2007 International Conference, indicate that obstructive sleep apnea ups your risk of type 2 diabetes and increases your risk of heart attack.
0 comments - Posted Jun 18, 2007
If you want to brown meat really nicely, add sugar and then fry it up. If you want insides as inflexible as burnt barbeque, years of elevated blood sugar will do the job in much the same manner.
0 comments - Posted Jun 17, 2007
A company called Sugarest has developed a pill made from the Indian herb Gymnema sylvestre that purports to deaden your ability to taste sugar, thereby rendering sweets tasteless.
0 comments - Posted Jun 15, 2007
Several years ago, my husband Brian and my son Danny were eating at the Food Court of a local mall. "Dad, when someone gets three wishes from the genie in the lamp, why don't they just wish for more wishes?" Danny asked.
0 comments - Posted Jun 14, 2007
Twenty-five years ago, at the age of seven months, Phil Southerland was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. Doctors at the time gave his mother very dismal predictions about his prospects, but he blew all those right out of the water.
0 comments - Posted Jun 13, 2007
A University of Chicago research team reports that spending less than $500 per patient to improve care could reduce patients' risk of diabetes complications, including blindness, kidney failure, and coronary artery disease, which can cost $44,000 per patient annually.
0 comments - Posted Jun 12, 2007
The Cochrane Library recently conducted a review of studies to see if NPH is as good as Lantus and Levemir when used as a basal insulin for people with type 2 diabetes. Six studies comparing insulin glargine (Lantus) to NPH (Neutral Protamine Hagedorn) were examined, as well as two studies comparing insulin detemir (Levemir) to NPH.
0 comments - Posted Jun 11, 2007
A study just published by the RAND Corporation, a well-known think tank, has found that routine care received by women for their heart disease and diabetes isn't as good as that received by men.
0 comments - Posted Jun 6, 2007
In a recent Dutch study, researchers gave either a placebo or a daily dose of 400 micrograms of chromium to 57 obese, insulin-requiring type 2 patients with A1c's above eight percent.
1 comment - Posted Jun 3, 2007
May 2007
Analysis of several recent studies indicates that Avandia (rosiglitazone), a type 2 diabetes medication that's been taken by more than six million people worldwide, is associated with a 43 percent increased risk of heart attack and with a borderline-significant increased risk of heart attack-related death.
0 comments - Posted May 31, 2007
The recent ruckus over the drug rosiglitazone (Avandia) has been portrayed as another case of Big Pharma foisting a dangerous drug on the public while the overworked FDA can't keep up.
0 comments - Posted May 31, 2007
Meters have come a long way since 1969, when the first meter went on the market. The meter measured the amount of light reflected off a Dextrostix, a paper strip that turned various shades of blue, depending on blood glucose level, after a large drop of blood was placed on it and then washed off.
0 comments - Posted May 24, 2007
A report released at a recent meeting of the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists (AACE), called “The State of Diabetes Complications in America,” has revealed some pretty depressing facts about the consequences of diabetes today.
0 comments - Posted May 20, 2007
Bariatric surgery, formerly used only for treating obesity, is being explored as a cure for type 2 diabetes in normal weight or moderately overweight people.
1 comment - Posted May 19, 2007
Aggressive management of diabetes can lead to more episodes of severe low blood sugar, but a new study has found that these episodes apparently don’t impair cognitive (thinking) function.
0 comments - Posted May 18, 2007
Back in 2003, a study in Diabetes Care showed that in thirty people with type 2 diabetes, one to six grams of cinnamon daily for forty days resulted in a drop in blood sugar levels, triglycerides, and LDL (bad cholesterol)...
4 comments - Posted May 17, 2007
A drug initially designed to treat the autoimmune disease of juvenile rheumatoid arthritis has been found helpful in treating type 2 diabetes. The drug is an “interleukin-1-receptor antagonist” that goes by the name of anakinra (Kineret).
0 comments - Posted May 16, 2007
Sanofi-aventis and the Patient Mentor Institute are looking for people with diabetes to become patient mentors with the A1C Champions® program – a unique, patient-to-patient approach to diabetes education.
2 comments - Posted May 12, 2007
A study recently published in Diabetes Care has found that people with type 1 who become happy pumpers share characteristics in common. They actively participate in self-care, have realistic expectations of pump performance, and clearly remember how they felt when they were first diagnosed. The researchers believe that these characteristics may help predict who will be a successful pumper.
0 comments - Posted May 11, 2007
Continuous Glucose Monitors Are Revolutionary - I’ve always believed that if I could give myself insulin conveniently and constantly knew my blood glucose, I could control my blood sugar almost as well as a non-diabetic person. Nine years ago, an insulin pump made the first condition come true. Since then I have been waiting for the magic blood sugar machine.
2 comments - Posted May 10, 2007
On March 28, 1950, nine-year-old Betty Adamski Schunke entered the hospital with a diagnosis of type 1 diabetes. She remembers the date vividly. She also remembers the words of her pediatrician, one of the first women in the field: “You can do anything you want to do as long as you remember you have diabetes and plan accordingly.” A feisty, stubborn little girl who strove for perfection and never backed down, she took it for her motto.
0 comments - Posted May 4, 2007
April 2007
Nick Jonas is a personable boy of fourteen who happens to be a member of the Jonas Brothers Band, a group of three brothers with a devoted following of very passionate young fans. In November 2005, Nick Jonas found out that he had type 1 diabetes.
1466 comments - Posted Apr 27, 2007
The crack of the bat on Opening Day at Fenway Park is a sure sign that summer is on its way. From the Green Monster seats to the dunes of Cape Cod, summer means bright sun, ultraviolet rays and of course, sunglasses. But did you know that people with diabetes need more than sunglasses to protect their eyes?
0 comments - Posted Apr 27, 2007
At 63 years old, I've coped successfully with insulin-dependent diabetes for 46 years. Education and acceptance are the keys, but it took me years (and the support of loving family and friends) to achieve them.
0 comments - Posted Apr 27, 2007
Remember the big picture: Populations that stick to traditional high-carbohydrate diets (for example, Asian rice-based diets) typically have low rates of obesity and diabetes. When they abandon traditional rice-based diets in favor of meatier Western fare, carbohydrate intake falls, but weight problems and diabetes increase.
4 comments - Posted Apr 24, 2007
When I developed diabetes in 1946, physicians thought that the high illness and death rate of diabetics was due to dietary fat and the supposedly resultant elevation of serum cholesterol. Since the DCCT trial, the scientific literature overwhelmingly supports the role of elevated blood sugar in all long-term diabetic complications.
2 comments - Posted Apr 24, 2007
Dismal Predictions - In 1949, at the age of 13, I was diagnosed with diabetes. I was told that I would have to take shots for life and that my life would probably last only 25 years longer. Furthermore, I could eat no candy, and all my children would be diabetic.
2 comments - Posted Apr 23, 2007
It’s well known that depression is not good for your sugar numbers and that alleviation of depression is accompanied by improved glucose control. The question has been whether the improvement is due to body weight reduction and better self-care, or whether it might be partially due to healing of the depression condition itself, independent of the aforementioned two factors.
0 comments - Posted Apr 17, 2007
On January 30, 2007, the FDA upgraded NovoLog (a fast-acting insulin analog from Novo Nordisk) from Category C to Category B, thereby indicating that NovoLog is safe and effective for pregnant women with type 1 and their unborn children.
0 comments - Posted Apr 16, 2007
3 Great New Books reviewed: Cheating Destiny, The Ultimate Guide to Accurate Carb Counting and Know Your Numbers, Outlive your Diabetes
0 comments - Posted Apr 15, 2007
In December 2006, the injected medication Byetta was approved by the FDA for people with type 2 diabetes who are taking a thiazolidinedione (TZD), but don’t have good control of their blood sugar.
0 comments - Posted Apr 14, 2007
There's an ancient Greek myth about a man named Sisyphus who was cursed to roll the same rock up a hill, then see it roll down, then roll it up again, for eternity. There's something a bit like diabetes self-care in that myth.
4 comments - Posted Apr 14, 2007
You may have seen a group of senior citizens practicing the slow, rhythmic reaching and deliberate stretching movements known as tai chi. Tai chi is considered a soft style martial art, applied with deep relaxation or "softness" in the musculature. Young or old, sick or healthy, even wheel-chair bound: everyone can take up tai chi. And oddly enough, tai chi’s gentle motions burn more calories than surfing and nearly as many as downhill skiing.
1 comment - Posted Apr 13, 2007
What’s the most important goal for kids and families dealing with diabetes? Learn all you can, and then strive for the best possible blood glucose levels without excessive hypoglycemia. This is a tough goal to attain. Our tools, food, insulin, and monitoring, while the best they have ever been, are still imprecise. And although optimal glucose control is critical for immediate and long-term health, one must always be wary of severe and recurring hypoglycemia.
0 comments - Posted Apr 13, 2007
Ten years ago, Michael Helyer, a New Zealand man with type 1 diabetes for eighteen years, received a transplant of pig islets. Much to the surprise of researchers, the pig cells are still putting out insulin at this late date. In fact, it was Mr. Helyer who alerted scientists at Living Cell Technologies (LCT) that the cells were still functioning.
2 comments - Posted Apr 12, 2007
Here are some useful tips to help you choose a meter that’s right for you - and continue to use it successfully.
0 comments - Posted Apr 3, 2007
Dr. David Reiss had never heard of diabetes until age 16, when he found out he had type 1 during his college physical exam. He rebelled and refused injections for a year, but by then there were ketones in his urine and he had no choice. That was 42 years ago, when people gave themselves just one injection a day.
0 comments - Posted Apr 2, 2007
March 2007
Medtronic has received FDA approval for pediatric models of both of its REAL-Time continuous glucose monitors, the MiniMed Paradigm REAL-Time System and the Guardian REAL-Time System. Previously approved only for adults, both pediatric models will be appropriate for kids ages 7-17.
0 comments - Posted Mar 29, 2007
BOSTON - March 23, 2007 - Did you know that diabetes is the number one cause of preventable vision loss and blindness? Did you also know that an annual eye exam can lead to early detection of diabetic retinopathy and other eye disease, a frequent complication of diabetes?
0 comments - Posted Mar 27, 2007
Q: Are there any long-term side effects of the popular drugs to treat type 2 diabetes?
2 comments - Posted Mar 24, 2007
When my seven-year-old son, Danny, was diagnosed with type 1diabetes, I had to take a serious look at his diet. He had always been our “picky” eater, and I had gone along with his demands to keep the peace. As a result, his favorite foods at the time of his diagnosis were pancakes with syrup, grilled cheese sandwiches, macaroni and cheese, cookies, juice, and the only vegetable he ate—cucumbers. These foods became the centerpiece of the meal plan constructed by the hospital nutritionist.
0 comments - Posted Mar 21, 2007
A 24-week study compared the effectiveness and safety of Galvus (vildagliptin), a DPP-4 inhibitor, with Avandia (rosiglitazone), a thiazolidinedione, in a double-blind, randomized, controlled, multi-center study. Both drugs had similar effects on A1c’s: Galvus reduced A1c by 1.1 %, and Avandia reduced A1c by 1. 3%. Most notably, patients did not gain weight with Galvus, but gained an average of 3.4 pounds with Avandia.
0 comments - Posted Mar 16, 2007
Often kids with type 1 diabetes feel isolated. Even a sleepover is problematic, because other parents are often afraid to take on the care of a diabetic youngster. And finding a friend with diabetes is a challenge because it’s rare that anybody else in town has it: Only about one of every 600 children is affected.
0 comments - Posted Mar 1, 2007
February 2007
BOSTON - Feb. 27, 2007 - It is widely recognized that the teenage years are often a challenging time for youth with diabetes to maintain good blood glucose control. Hormonal changes, peer pressure, food temptations, and resistance to following good health practices are among the factors that make it difficult for many youngsters. Unfortunately, poor diabetes control places youth at increased risk of developing complications from diabetes later in life.
0 comments - Posted Feb 28, 2007
Nancy was totally blindsided when she found out she had diabetes. A 56-year-old lab technician at the time, Nancy was doing some work in the lab. She tested her own A1C and found a reading of 7.3%.
0 comments - Posted Feb 7, 2007
I was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at 11 months old, and I have struggled for almost 46 years to keep control of it. With diabetes, you never get a break.
0 comments - Posted Feb 1, 2007
Kids who discontinue pump therapy become “less adherent” and achieve poorer BG results than kids who remain on the pump, according to Joslin researchers who followed a group of type 1 youth starting the pump between 1998 and 2001.
0 comments - Posted Feb 1, 2007
Researchers in New York are saying that insulin pump therapy at the time of type 1 diagnosis “provides a positive experience … with excellent clinical outcomes and apparent prolongation of the honeymoon period.”
0 comments - Posted Feb 1, 2007
If your child has diabetes, researchers say that scheduled bimonthly phone support does not improve A1C level, admission rates, diabetes knowledge, psychological function, or self-management.
0 comments - Posted Feb 1, 2007
Type 1 children who suffer from depression and come from lower socioeconomic backgrounds tend to have worse blood glucose control. Adding to that, Texas researchers say, “The probability of depression increases as glycemic control worsens. Screening for depression should be routinely carried out in patients with type 1 diabetes, targeting patients with deteriorating glycemic control.”
0 comments - Posted Feb 1, 2007
It’s not easy to navigate the crowded waters of type 2 oral medications. There are dozens of them, and their names have a lot in common with tongue twisters. They’re hard to pronounce, and harder to remember. But they’re necessary. Of the 20 million Americans with diabetes, 90 to 95 percent have type 2. Although some people with diabetes are able to manage their condition through diet and exercise alone, the majority cannot control their blood sugar without medication. According to the CDC, among adults diagnosed with diabetes, 57% take oral medication; 16% take insulin; 12% take both insulin and oral medication; and only 15% take neither insulin nor oral medication.
0 comments - Posted Feb 1, 2007
As a type 1 interested in nature’s ability to heal, I ask, What is causing this so-called diabetes epidemic? Why is it expanding from Western countries to developing countries at the same rate that fast food and junk food are spreading?
2 comments - Posted Feb 1, 2007
December 2006
University of Pittsburgh researchers say that moderate weight loss improves arterial stiffness in people with type 2 diabetes.
0 comments - Posted Dec 1, 2006
November 2006
The idea for this article came to me one night after attending a diabetes support group at a local hospital. During the meeting, the discussion of serious complications became so graphic that there was an air of melancholy and hopelessness permeating the entire room. I thought, "What we really need is the good news." I tried to imagine whether I would miss any part of having diabetes if I could be cured today.
2 comments - Posted Nov 1, 2006
Like so many others, Kris Berg, EdD, an exercise physiologist at the University of Nebraska at Omaha, has observed the rapid-fire increase in obesity that has recently been labeled an “epidemic.”
0 comments - Posted Nov 1, 2006
October 2006
Sudanese researchers have found that conventional therapy of children with type 1 is associated with impaired physical growth and delayed sexual maturation.
0 comments - Posted Oct 1, 2006
A low-fat vegan diet was found to improve blood glucose and lipid control in type 2 diabetics, according to researchers at George Washington University School of Medicine.
0 comments - Posted Oct 1, 2006
‘You wouldn’t believe how much I ate. Every night, besides dinner, I ate one of those big poppers full of popcorn with lots of butter and salt on it.”
0 comments - Posted Oct 1, 2006
September 2006
Real-Time Pump and CGMS Technology Given the Go-Ahead by the FDA
0 comments - Posted Sep 1, 2006
Reducing Inner Body Fat Is the Key to Metabolic Improvement After Weight Loss
0 comments - Posted Sep 1, 2006
Women With Diabetes Suffer Worse Neuropathy Symptoms
1 comment - Posted Sep 1, 2006
As I get older, I get more calls from friends and family members telling me about their recent diabetes diagnosis. A little over a year ago, my first cousin Jeannie called to announce her inclusion in the growing type 2 club.
0 comments - Posted Sep 1, 2006
DexCom’s real-time continuous sensor—the DexCom STS—burst on the scene in March 2006.
0 comments - Posted Sep 1, 2006
Ron Mason was a workaholic. He spent six, sometimes seven days a week crafting and installing high-quality cabinets and furniture in and around Santa Cruz, California, where he owned and managed a small, homegrown woodworking business. Mason, who describes his product as “high-end, low-volume,” said that for a number of years, putting in a 70-hour workweek was not atypical—it was merely life as usual.
2 comments - Posted Sep 1, 2006
August 2006
Byetta, which came on the market last year, was developed to help people with type 2 diabetes who weren’t getting adequate blood glucose control using other drugs. Any associated weight loss was only incidental.
16 comments - Posted Aug 1, 2006
Another red flag about the obesity epidemic in young people has been raised after researchers found that youth with type 2 have significantly higher rates of microalbuminuria (protein in the urine) and high blood pressure than youth with type 1. They say this is the case even though type 2 youth have lower A1Cs and a shorter diabetes duration.
0 comments - Posted Aug 1, 2006
“I can bend over and paint my own toenails now,” says Annie, who had bariatric surgery on February 5, 2005.
0 comments - Posted Aug 1, 2006
As a user of LifeScan glucose meters, I was eager to take a look at their diabetes management software. I installed the software, hooked up the data cable, grabbed my trusty UltraSmart glucose meter and started up the software with a double-click on the OneTouch icon.
8 comments - Posted Aug 1, 2006
1. How do these oral hypoglycemic agents (OHAs) work?
0 comments - Posted Aug 1, 2006
July 2006
For Ed, diabetes wasn’t only a wake-up call—it was an alarm clock.
0 comments - Posted Jul 1, 2006
David Kliff is the editor of The Diabetic Investor. In 1994 he was diagnosed with type 2.
1 comment - Posted Jul 1, 2006
June 2006
If you live in New York City and have diabetes, your right to privacy is gone. A mandatory registry of all diabetics is in effect.
1 comment - Posted Jun 1, 2006
In 1998, Eli Lilly & Co.’s rapid-acting insulin analogue lispro (Humalog) appeared on the U.S. market, followed in 2000 by Novo Nordisk’s rapid-acting counterpart aspart (NovoLog). Joined now by sanofi-aventis’ glulisine (Apidra), these rapid-acting insulins offer both convenience and improved blood glucose control to people who require bolus insulin.
1 comment - Posted Jun 1, 2006
May 2006
This month, we hear from Rachel, who will tell us about the process she is going through right now.
0 comments - Posted May 1, 2006
My life depends entirely on getting little squirts of insulin into my bloodstream on a regular basis. Too little, and high blood glucose hijacks my moods—tired and cranky are the watchwords here. Too much insulin makes my BGs plummet—and shakiness and confusion take over until I eat something containing sugar.
3 comments - Posted May 1, 2006
One good thing about having diabetes—you quickly learn the importance of numbers. And you are about to read some numbers that should bother you as much as a bad A1C.
0 comments - Posted May 1, 2006
When retired NBA center Chris Dudley was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes in 1981, the high school sophomore’s first concern was whether he would be able to continue playing sports.
0 comments - Posted May 1, 2006
April 2006
With the new basal-bolus insulin landscape, what is the most important thing that endocrinologists and primary care physicians need to know so that their insulin-using patients can follow the best possible regimen?
0 comments - Posted Apr 1, 2006
Mary is a 64-year-old woman who has been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes for 14 years. She is obese at 220 pounds. Mary has been treated with a sulfonylurea (a medication that stimulates the pancreas to secrete insulin, such as glypizide and glyburide) for the past 10 years. Her glucose control for the past three or four years has not been good. A recent A1C was 9.5% (normal range is 4% to 6%, with a goal of 7%). Metformin (Glucophage) and rosiglitazone (Avandia) were added to her sulfonylurea. Both her pre-meal and post-meal glucose values improved and her A1C came down to 7.8%. However, her fasting blood glucose levels were in the upper 100 mg/dl to low 200 mg/dl range. She was afraid of “the needle” and did not want to start on insulin. In addition, Mary was recently diagnosed with early diabetic eye disease (retinopathy) and nerve disease (neuropathy).
0 comments - Posted Apr 1, 2006
Several months ago, I met Sophia, a woman in her mid-40s who had been struggling to manage her type 2 diabetes for years. Her blood glucose levels were typically well above 300 mg/dl, and she had an equally high A1C of 12.5%. She made it clear that the last thing she wanted was insulin.
0 comments - Posted Apr 1, 2006
Last fall, Bob was surprised when his primary care doctor called to tell him that his recent blood tests showed that he had type 2 diabetes. The doctor immediately put Bob on 15 milligrams of Actos each day and advised him to stay away from sugar and to come back in three months for more blood work.
0 comments - Posted Apr 1, 2006
At age 25, Dee was initially diagnosed with gestational diabetes in 1972. After giving birth, she was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. Insulin was started with a daily injection of morning NPH and progressed to twice-daily doses. Dee did not have good control with either regimen.
0 comments - Posted Apr 1, 2006
Diabetics who visit a diabetes care specialist have better A1Cs than those who visit a primary care physician.
0 comments - Posted Apr 1, 2006
High blood glucose coupled with inflammation is a one-two punch that researchers say is associated with an “advanced early carotid atherosclerosis progression and increased risk of new vascular events in diabetic as well as nondiabetic subjects.”
0 comments - Posted Apr 1, 2006
Valsartan (Diovan) significantly reduces systolic and diastolic blood pressure at dosages of 60 mg/dl and has a “significantly greater effect” in reducing micro- and macroalbuminuria in people with type 2 who have albuminuria.
0 comments - Posted Apr 1, 2006
Adding the sulfonylurea glimepiride (Amaryl) to insulin therapy results in “sustained improvement of glycemic control in patients with poorly controlled type 2 diabetes,” according to researchers at the department of endocrinology and metabolism at Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine.
0 comments - Posted Apr 1, 2006
A group of Buffalo, NY, researchers recommend that patients with uncontrolled type 2 diabetes who take extremely high doses of insulin give the insulin pump a try.
0 comments - Posted Apr 1, 2006
Pump therapy in preschool children, according to researchers at Texas Children’s Hospital, is “feasible and safe.”
0 comments - Posted Apr 1, 2006
Spanish researchers claim that in most studies of small children with diabetes, insulin pump therapy resulted in improved A1Cs and a decreased rate of hypoglycemia without an abnormal increase in body mass index (BMI) and without adversely affecting psychosocial outcomes in young people with type 1.
0 comments - Posted Apr 1, 2006
Dutch researchers say that treatment of diabetes in pregnant women should be aimed at achieving A1C levels within the range of 6% or less. They add that “a minimum of 10 self-monitored blood glucose determinations daily is necessary to obtain adequate information of all daily glucose fluctuations.”
0 comments - Posted Apr 1, 2006
For people with type 2, Lantus in combination with oral medications can be a cost-equivalent alternative to conventional insulin therapy.
0 comments - Posted Apr 1, 2006
Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is significantly associated with a moderately increased cardiovascular disease risk among type 2s, according to Italian researchers.
0 comments - Posted Apr 1, 2006
Although people with diabetes use many different approaches to help them adhere to treatment regimens, researchers say that there is little evidence that they are effective. However, in a study they conducted, they found that some “adherence aids” do work and lead to better diabetes control.
0 comments - Posted Apr 1, 2006
In 1998, Eli Lilly & Co.’s rapid-acting insulin analogue lispro (Humalog) appeared on the U.S. market, followed in 2000 by Novo Nordisk’s rapid-acting counterpart aspart (NovoLog). Joined now by sanofi-aventis’ glulisine (Apidra), these rapid-acting insulins offer both convenience and improved blood glucose control to your patients who require bolus insulin.
0 comments - Posted Apr 1, 2006
Recent developments in the treatment of diabetes mellitus have shown that “tight” control and intensive therapy are necessary to prevent complications, increased morbidity and mortality. We are all familiar with the findings of the DCCT and various UKPDS studies and sub-studies. The importance of these “landmark” studies does not need any further discussion at this time.
2 comments - Posted Apr 1, 2006
Italian researchers say that kidney disease is a “significant predictor” of death, and that people who have kidney problems at the time of their diabetes diagnosis should be treated aggressively from the onset.
0 comments - Posted Apr 1, 2006
Ernest had high triglycerides and his blood glucose was rising. He thought he was doing all right, so you can imagine what he thought when I recommended that he increase the amount of fat and protein in his diet and decrease his carbohydrate intake.
0 comments - Posted Apr 1, 2006
As I discussed in the February 2006 issue, the Atkins Nutritional Approach has four phases, ranging from the most restrictive Induction phase to the Lifetime Maintenance phase.
0 comments - Posted Apr 1, 2006
Pramlintide (Symlin) is a synthetic amylin analogue. First described in 1987, amylin is a neuroendocrine hormone produced by beta cells, which also produce insulin. This hormone is absent in type 1 diabetes and decreased in type 2 diabetes.
0 comments - Posted Apr 1, 2006
March 2006
Have you ever thought, “No one understands me or my problems”? You felt alone. You felt overwhelmed. You struggled intensely.
0 comments - Posted Mar 1, 2006
For six seasons, actor Aida Turturro has played the role of Tony Soprano’s sister Janice on the award-winning and critically acclaimed HBO series “The Sopranos.”
0 comments - Posted Mar 1, 2006
February 2006
The book, which includes all aspects of self-care for people with diabetes, is for both type 1s and 2s. According to OSS Publishing of White Plains, New York, patients can log their carb intake and A1C test results, chart their weight, keep track of their foot and eye care and more.
0 comments - Posted Feb 1, 2006
For Deb it was a vicious circle. She was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes 33 years ago at age 20. It was four weeks before her marriage. You can imagine the stress she endured at that time. “I have lived on a diabetes rollercoaster ever since, until about eight months ago,” she says.
0 comments - Posted Feb 1, 2006
Kris Freeman, 25, is a three-time national champion and the number one cross-country skier in the United States. In the history of American cross-country skiing, Freeman is the second most successful skier of all time.
0 comments - Posted Feb 1, 2006
Since his type 1 diagnosis 20 years ago, Doug Frazer of Forest Knolls, California, had been using Lente as his basal insulin. His regimen of Humalog at mealtimes coupled with Lente at bedtime provided him with what he considered great control.
0 comments - Posted Feb 1, 2006
January 2006
For people who have been newly diagnosed with type 1, Italian researchers suggest that intensive insulin therapy (ITT) coupled with nicotinamide for two years improves metabolic control.
0 comments - Posted Jan 1, 2006
Exenatide (Byetta) and insulin glargine (Lantus) achieve similar improvements in overall blood glucose control in people with type 2 diabetes who were not being controlled sufficiently on oral combination therapy.
0 comments - Posted Jan 1, 2006
For Scott Verplank, staying on top of his diabetes with frequent blood glucose testing means staying on top of his game for the Professional Golf Association (PGA) Tour.
8 comments - Posted Jan 1, 2006
December 2005
Japanese researchers say that adolescents and young adults who have poor blood glucose control can add one more weapon to their control arsenal: a type 2 drug.
0 comments - Posted Dec 1, 2005
Most of the products reviewed in this column over the past few months have come from glucose meter and insulin pump manufacturers and independent software companies. This month, we will take a look at an offering from one of the major insulin manufacturers: DiabetesWatch, a Web-based product from Aventis Pharmaceuticals.
0 comments - Posted Dec 1, 2005
Scott Dunton, 20, is a world-class professional surfer, currently ranked 220th in his first year on the professional circuit.
4 comments - Posted Dec 1, 2005
November 2005
At the August 2005 American Association of Diabetes Educators Conference in Washington, D.C., BD Diabetes Care announced the results of its D.C. Diabetes Makeover.
0 comments - Posted Nov 1, 2005
Diabetes researchers from Columbia University, the University of California at San Francisco (UCSF) and the National Institutes of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases studied the effects of Ala-Ala—a humanized Fc-mutated anti-CD3 monoclonal antibody—on the progression of type 1 diabetes in patients with recent-onset disease. The study was a follow-up to an article by a team that included UCSF’s Jeffrey Bluestone, MD, and Columbia University’s Kevan Herold, MD, that appeared in the May 30, 2002, issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.
0 comments - Posted Nov 1, 2005
“The use of flexible multiple daily insulin [FMDI] therapy with glargine [Lantus] among preschool-aged children with type 1 diabetes mellitus was associated with improved overall glycemic control and decreased frequency of severe hypoglycemia.”
0 comments - Posted Nov 1, 2005
October 2005
This month, we take a look at the Medtronic CareLink Therapy Management System for Diabetes. This is an online diabetes management program from the folks who make the Medtronic MiniMed insulin pumps.
0 comments - Posted Oct 1, 2005
I have some exciting news: As of January 2006, there will be another human being in our household.
0 comments - Posted Oct 1, 2005
Will Cross has taken diabetes to new heights—literally. The Pittsburgh-based expeditioner and former high school principal became the first person with diabetes to reach the South Summit of Mount Everest, with a successful summit on May 31.
0 comments - Posted Oct 1, 2005
The American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists (AACE) effectively raised the bar on diabetes control by lowering the level of the A1C standard.
0 comments - Posted Oct 1, 2005
Improving the health of your teeth and gums can also improve your diabetes control, according to Turkish researchers.
0 comments - Posted Oct 1, 2005
For people with type 2 diabetes, inhaled insulin may be an effective therapy.
0 comments - Posted Oct 1, 2005
There’s no argument that an insulin pump is the best choice for diabetes management for a very young child. Many articles have appeared in the past five years that support this opinion.
0 comments - Posted Oct 1, 2005
According to a recent study, soy-based meal replacement plans (MRs) yield greater weight loss and better blood glucose control than American Diabetes Association-recommended individualized diet plans (IDPs).
0 comments - Posted Oct 1, 2005
There here, they’re there, they’re everywhere! It’s the Diabetes Police—your family, friends and others who criticize your diabetes behaviors. They disapprove of your food choices, point out your weight gain, accuse you of skipping your medication and nag you to exercise more. These well-meaning individuals care about you, but they make life with diabetes more difficult and can create tension in a relationship. Here are some examples of ways that the Diabetes Police operate in our lives:
1 comment - Posted Oct 1, 2005
September 2005
I lean heavily on the feedback I receive from all of you because it helps me to shape the direction of this magazine. Many times, readers alert me to debates about hot topics taking place in the diabetes community, and other times I like to start discussions myself.
0 comments - Posted Sep 1, 2005
Diabetes professionals from all over the world descended on San Diego, California, this past June for the 65th Annual American Diabetes Association Scientific Sessions. Some brought with them the latest drugs, meters, pumps and software. Others came armed with research.
0 comments - Posted Sep 1, 2005
On June 17, 2005, Novo Nordisk received word from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) that their long-acting insulin analog, Levemir (insulin detemir), had received approval. Levemir will join Lantus (insulin glargine) as a basal insulin option for people with diabetes who take insulin.
0 comments - Posted Sep 1, 2005
Overweight type 1s may improve their blood glucose control without increasing their insulin dosage by supplementing their control regimen with the type 2 insulin-sensitizing drug Avandia (rosiglitazone), say Dallas, Texas, researchers.
0 comments - Posted Sep 1, 2005
Diabetes duration and A1C remain the gold standard for determining whether you may develop retinopathy and neuropathy. However, if you are a type 1 with a weight problem, you may not be slowing down the progression to these microvascular complications.
0 comments - Posted Sep 1, 2005
Actos, an insulin sensitizer in the glitazone class of type 2 oral diabetes medications, was found to reduce carotid artery intima-media thickness (IMT) as well as insulin resistance in a German study.
0 comments - Posted Sep 1, 2005
By following a low-carbohydrate diet for two weeks, obese patients were able to reduce calorie intake, lose weight and improve their diabetes.
0 comments - Posted Sep 1, 2005
Type 1 Kids Do Well on Pumps
0 comments - Posted Sep 1, 2005
August 2005
Most of the products reviewed in this column over the past few months have come from glucose meter and insulin pump manufacturers and from independent software companies. This month, we will take a look at an offering from one of the major insulin manufacturers: Keeping Well With Diabetes, a Web-based product from Novo Nordisk.
0 comments - Posted Aug 1, 2005
A recent Canadian study examined administrative records of diabetic patients to see if specialists or primary care physicians gave them better care.
0 comments - Posted Aug 1, 2005
There is no doubt that living with type 1 diabetes is a fulltime job. But like any job, the more knowledgeable and skilled you become, the better your chances of success.
0 comments - Posted Aug 1, 2005
He trains about 22 hours during the average week—not counting the additional seven hours of workouts on weekends. Through his twice-daily workouts, he totals nearly 120 miles of bicycling, about 10 miles of swimming and between 50 to 100 miles of running each week. For Ironman triathlete Jay Hewitt, training and diabetes have something in common: Working at them every day is critical to achieve his goals.
1 comment - Posted Aug 1, 2005
July 2005
This is another letter in response to Scott King’s column that ran in the February 2005 issue (“Random Shots”).
0 comments - Posted Jul 1, 2005
Stress, anxiety, burnout—whatever you choose to call it, it’s clear that Americans have it.
0 comments - Posted Jul 1, 2005
June 2005
We are all accustomed to seeing nice, safe, uplifting public service advertising about diabetes on television, featuring cute kids, compassionate parents and diabetes fighters.
0 comments - Posted Jun 1, 2005
On March 16, 2005, Amylin Pharmaceuticals, Inc., of San Diego, California, announced it had received FDA approval for Symlin (pramlintide acetate) injections to be used in conjunction with insulin to treat diabetes.
0 comments - Posted Jun 1, 2005
Type 1s who switch from NPH to Lantus (insulin glargine) in multiple daily injection (MDI) regimens significantly reduce severe hypoglycemic episodes without significant weight gain.
1 comment - Posted Jun 1, 2005
When insulin first became available in 1922, the treatment goal in diabetes management was to minimize ketoacidosis and high blood glucose levels.
0 comments - Posted Jun 1, 2005
If you want to know how well you are controlling your diabetes, you have had only two options. You can check your current blood glucose level with a meter, or you can check your average over the past two or three months with an A1C test. Now there’s a third and quite promising option—the GlycoMark test.
1 comment - Posted Jun 1, 2005
May 2005
• A grandmother in Tampa, Florida, who knocked her A1C down two percentage points
• A female bodybuilder on an insulin pump
• A 12-year-old who estimates that he has tested his blood glucose more than 100,000 times in the past three years
0 comments - Posted May 1, 2005
Improved glucose control helps you metabolize food more efficiently. Prior to pump use, you may have lost glucose in the urine. If so, those were calories you did not have available to maintain a normal weight. Was your A1C higher before pump therapy? If your A1C has improved, then you are using the nutrients in your food and losing less of them.
0 comments - Posted May 1, 2005
A1C Author Did Not Prepare or Endorse A1C Chart
0 comments - Posted May 1, 2005
The following is excerpted and adapted from the book “Taking Control of Your Diabetes,” by Steven Edelman, MD, and friends, 2001.
0 comments - Posted May 1, 2005
Although most adults with insulin-treated diabetes usually follow their prescribed insulin regimen, experiencing A1Cs higher than 7% suggests that an individual’s insulin use, regimen or both are inadequate to achieve optimal blood glucose control.
0 comments - Posted May 1, 2005
April 2005
“Errors in calculation of insulin dosage by adolescents occur frequently,” write U.C. Davis researchers in a recent study. “Consistent use of an insulin dosage calculation device may help to improve metabolic control in adolescents using multiple daily injections (MDI) or continuous subcutaneous insulin infusion pumps (CSII).”
4 comments - Posted Apr 1, 2005
People with type 2 and obesity who are considering gastric bypass surgery first need to learn what exactly is a gastric bypass operation.
0 comments - Posted Apr 1, 2005
I am devoting this month’s column to the most important sight-saving information that you should know as a person living with diabetes.
0 comments - Posted Apr 1, 2005
March 2005
A while back, a friend of mine who is very overweight went to see his doctor and was found to have an A1C of over 9%. He also had high blood pressure, abnormal cholesterol levels and arthritic knees.
1 comment - Posted Mar 1, 2005
In the simplest terms, hemoglobin A1C (known as HbA1c or A1C) is measured in people with diabetes to provide an index of average blood glucose for the previous three to four months.
2 comments - Posted Mar 1, 2005
Ginseng is a root that has been used for medicinal purposes for centuries. There are two different forms that have been used for diabetes: Asian ginseng (Panax ginseng C.A. Meyer) as well as American ginseng (Panax quinquefolius L).
0 comments - Posted Mar 1, 2005
It’s pretty much a truism that video games are bad for children’s health. They hold their minds hostage, promote sedentary behavior and can even desensitize them to violence.
0 comments - Posted Mar 1, 2005
Caution: Consult your diabetes care team before starting a lower-carbohydrate meal plan. Diabetes medications such as insulin or oral drugs that stimulate insulin production (sulfonylureas or meglitinides) will need adjustment to prevent hypoglycemia (low blood glucose) when carbohydrate intake is decreased. In addition, blood glucose levels need to be checked more often.
0 comments - Posted Mar 1, 2005
Last year, Stacey Martin, a 41-year-old real estate agent from East Hampton, New York, was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. At 270 pounds, the medical community considered her “morbidly obese.”
8 comments - Posted Mar 1, 2005
February 2005
Not even 20 years ago, it was uncommon for a woman with diabetes to choose to have children of her own. Many doctors discouraged attempting pregnancy based on the high incidence of complications that both a mother and an infant could suffer due to poor blood glucose control.
0 comments - Posted Feb 1, 2005
Taken with a low- or modified-fat diet, Australian researchers say that 30 grams of walnuts per day improve the lipid profile of patients with type 2.
0 comments - Posted Feb 1, 2005
Pinitol, isolated from soybeans, may be beneficial in reducing cardiovascular risk in type 2s, according to Korean researchers.
0 comments - Posted Feb 1, 2005
As a user of LifeScan glucose meters, I was eager to take a look at their diabetes management software.
20 comments - Posted Feb 1, 2005
Although severe hypoglycemia is a definite problem for children and adolescents with type 1 diabetes, newer therapies may improve control without increasing the risk of severe hypoglycemia.
0 comments - Posted Feb 1, 2005
January 2005
Dan Stephens has mastered his game. The University of Pittsburgh football player is a star on and off the field as he steps up to the challenges he loves: balancing athletics, academics—and diabetes control.
0 comments - Posted Jan 1, 2005
It seemed that every time we gave something a try and it didn’t quite work out, Mom and Dad always had a cliché at the ready to cushion the blow.
0 comments - Posted Jan 1, 2005
In people with higher A1Cs, rapid-acting insulin analogs NovoLog (insulin aspart) and Humalog (insulin lispro) are more effective in achieving optimal blood glucose control when administered with insulin pumps rather than via multiple daily insulin injections (MDII), according to University of Toronto researchers.
0 comments - Posted Jan 1, 2005
Exenatide (synthetic exendin-4) significantly reduced A1C in patients with type 2 diabetes who were failing maximum doses of a sulfonylurea, according to researchers at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, and the Veterans Medical Center at the University of California San Diego. Exenatide was well tolerated and associated with weight loss.
0 comments - Posted Jan 1, 2005
Fenugreek (Trigonella foenum-graecum) is a plant product that has been used for a variety of medicinal and other purposes, and may be used in the treatment of diabetes.
3 comments - Posted Jan 1, 2005
Representative George R. Nethercutt, Jr. (RWash.), formed the Congressional Diabetes Caucus in 1996 with only 22 supporters.
0 comments - Posted Jan 1, 2005
What are the biggest challenges facing the insulin pump market today?
0 comments - Posted Jan 1, 2005
December 2004
In combination with intermediate-acting NPH insulin, twice-daily injections of Apidra (insulin glulisine)—a rapid-acting insulin analog— can provide small improvements in blood-glucose control compared with Regular human insulin in patients with type 2 diabetes.
0 comments - Posted Dec 1, 2004
Check with your doctor or diabetes educator for a recommendation about how often and what times a day are best for you to check blood glucose levels. In general, the more often you check, the better. Most diabetes specialists recommend that patients with type 2 diabetes who are on oral agents check their blood glucose one or two times per day, often varying the times between the morning, before supper and two hours after a meal. Patients who inject insulin may need to test four or more times per day. Checking your blood glucose provides information about how well the treatment of your diabetes is working, as well as about how things you do during the day affect your blood glucose levels. Paying attention to the results can help you learn how to keep your diabetes under control. I take pills for my diabetes, while my friend uses insulin to treat her type 2 diabetes. Is her diabetes “worse” than mine?
1 comment - Posted Dec 1, 2004
Inhaled insulin offers the same blood glucose control as conventional subcutaneous insulin for people with type 2 diabetes that was previously managed with at least two insulin injections a day. It’s also as effective and is well tolerated and safe.
0 comments - Posted Dec 1, 2004
Hockey players often joke about the rugged nature of their sport by touting the popular mantra, “Give blood, play hockey.”
0 comments - Posted Dec 1, 2004
One of the most powerful and simple methods to take control of your diabetes is to follow a “diabetes warranty program.”
0 comments - Posted Dec 1, 2004
November 2004
Foot disorders are the number one reason that people with diabetes spend time in the hospital.
0 comments - Posted Nov 1, 2004
There is growing interest recently in the potential benefits of using cinnamon for treating diabetes.
30 comments - Posted Nov 1, 2004
October 2004
Annual screening for microalbuminuria (low levels of protein in the urine, indicating early signs of kidney disease) in type 1 diabetes should begin with puberty and/or after five-year disease duration of diabetes.
0 comments - Posted Oct 1, 2004
Swedish researchers say that smoking is associated with both poor blood glucose control and microalbuminuria (protein in the urine) that indicates early kidney disease and increased heart disease risk.
0 comments - Posted Oct 1, 2004
Annual screening for microalbuminuria (low levels of protein in the urine, indicating early signs of kidney disease) in type 1 diabetes should begin with puberty and/or after five-year disease duration of diabetes.
0 comments - Posted Oct 1, 2004
Swedish researchers say that smoking is associated with both poor blood glucose control and microalbuminuria (protein in the urine) that indicates early kidney disease and increased heart disease risk.
0 comments - Posted Oct 1, 2004
September 2004
The following are summaries of studies presented at the June 2004 ADA Scientific Sessions in Orlando, Florida:
0 comments - Posted Sep 1, 2004
As part of our Food for Thought section, we will begin profiling a nutritional supplement every month.
1 comment - Posted Sep 1, 2004
If you are type 2, elderly and have peripheral neuropathy, resistance training may be just what you need to improve your health, say Kentucky researchers.
0 comments - Posted Sep 1, 2004
August 2004
Diachrome, a patented combination of chromium picolinate and biotin, significantly lowers coronary risk factors in type 2s. According to a small study presented at an American Heart Association meeting, Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis and Vascular Biology (ATVB), held in May in San Francisco.
0 comments - Posted Aug 1, 2004
July 2004
A Spanish study found that in type 1s, pre-breakfast and pre-dinner blood glucose levels have more influence on A1C levels than at other times of the day.
0 comments - Posted Jul 1, 2004
Gastroparesis is a form of neuropathy that causes damage to the autonomic nervous system, which regulates the normal automatic functioning of the stomach. This difficult-to-treat complication of diabetes results in the incomplete or delayed digestion of food, leading to nausea, vomiting and bloating, and makes blood glucose levels unpredictable and difficult to control.
0 comments - Posted Jul 1, 2004
Dick Clark has had diabetes for at least 11 years—but he only made it public this past spring.
0 comments - Posted Jul 1, 2004
It’s always a case of Murphy’s Law for me. Whenever I am without my glucose tabs or other quick-acting carbohydrate , I seem to have a low blood glucose.
0 comments - Posted Jul 1, 2004
June 2004
A South Carolina study indicates that simvastatin (Zocor), an oral “statin” lipid-lowering drug is a potentially beneficial treatment for the inflammatory reaction associated with atherosclerosis.
1 comment - Posted Jun 1, 2004
If you want the best quality care for your type 2 diabetes, see the same physician at each visit to your diabetes outpatient clinic (DOC), especially if that physician specializes in diabetes.
0 comments - Posted Jun 1, 2004
Numerous scientific studies have demonstrated that ACE inhibitors such as Vasotec, Altace and lisinopril are the antihypertensive drugs of choice in all patients with diabetes and high blood pressure.
0 comments - Posted Jun 1, 2004
May 2004
If you provide them they will test…
15 comments - Posted May 1, 2004
The number of people opting for insulin pump therapy grows. Worldwide, the number is approximately 300,000.
0 comments - Posted May 1, 2004
A 12-week Scandinavian comparison study involving 107 nonsmoking patients with type 2 diabetes concluded that inhaled insulin administered via the AERx system achieved the same blood glucose control as insulin injected into the skin.
0 comments - Posted May 1, 2004
April 2004
One of the largest physician organizations in the country has developed a new guide for self-testing of blood glucose levels.
0 comments - Posted Apr 1, 2004
When your last A1C registered at more than 7 percent, did your primary care physician take action to lower it?
0 comments - Posted Apr 1, 2004
“Diabetes case management can help reduce disparities in diabetes health status among low-income ethnic populations,” writes Lois Jovanovic, MD, endocrinologist and researcher at Sansum Medical Research Institute in Santa Barbara, California.
0 comments - Posted Apr 1, 2004
Robert Guillaume is best known for his work in television, where he earned two Emmy Awards and four NAACP Image Awards for his role as Benson DuBois on “Soap” and “Benson.”
0 comments - Posted Apr 1, 2004
March 2004
Medtronic MiniMed’s Continuous Glucose Monitoring System (CGMS) improved kids' control by providing them with accurate data—for adjustment of insulin treatments—and by promoting better communication and motivation.
0 comments - Posted Mar 1, 2004
Procter & Gamble Pharmaceuticals is sponsoring a new study on the safety and efficacy of INGAP-peptide.
0 comments - Posted Mar 1, 2004
Who would have guessed that taking two diabetes drugs combined in one tablet would offer greater glucose-lowering benefits than taking the same two drugs in separate but still co-administered tablets?
0 comments - Posted Mar 1, 2004
I struggle to understand why you are publishing information recommending low-or no-carb meals for people with diabetes.
0 comments - Posted Mar 1, 2004
February 2004
Have you had type 2 diabetes for less than five years? Do you want to lose approximately 30 percent of your body weight?
0 comments - Posted Feb 1, 2004
In the United Kingdom, the national organization Diabetes UK awards medals to individuals who have lived with type 1 diabetes for 50 years or more.
0 comments - Posted Feb 1, 2004
January 2004
The landmark Diabetes Control and Complications Trial (DCCT) showed that the risk of complications such as eye disease, kidney disease and nerve damage in people with type 1 diabetes is closely related to blood glucose control.
0 comments - Posted Jan 1, 2004
Who is a “typical” pumper? To find the answer, we went to insulin-pumpers.org, the not-for-profit Web-based Insulin Pumpers Organization (IP) of Milpitas, California. In the “About Insulin Pumpers” section of this Web site, executive director Michael Robinton has collected and compiled data from the more than 4,000 members who choose to fill out a survey.
0 comments - Posted Jan 1, 2004
In 1978, after prolonged hospitalization, my father died from consequences of diabetes associated with abnormal lipids and high blood pressure.
0 comments - Posted Jan 1, 2004
May 2003
John Dennis, 58, says that self-monitoring to control his type 2 diabetes comes naturally because he is used to "going it alone." After all, taking care of himself is as much a solo responsibility these days as sailing his 50-foot boat around the world.
0 comments - Posted May 1, 2003
A University of Iowa study indicates that socioeconomic status and behavioral problems are more likely than poor metabolic control to affect grades in children with type 1 diabetes.
0 comments - Posted May 1, 2003
John Dennis, 58, says that self-monitoring to control his type 2 diabetes comes naturally because he is used to "going it alone." After all, taking care of himself is as much a solo responsibility these days as sailing his 50-foot boat around the world.
0 comments - Posted May 1, 2003
Thanks for the Type 1.5 Article. I just received my February 2003 issue of Diabetes Health and was pleased and excited to read the article "What's Your Type? Diabetes Isn't Always Easy to Classify" (p. 40).
0 comments - Posted May 1, 2003
April 2003
Linda McNeely, a retired registered nurse, remembers her first insulin pump.
0 comments - Posted Apr 1, 2003
A recent study by French researchers demonstrated that taking an injection of Humalog (insulin lispro) before lunch can lower dinnertime blood-glucose levels in children and adolescents with type 1 diabetes. Boys in particular also saw improved overall blood-glucose control after adding the lunchtime Humalog.
0 comments - Posted Apr 1, 2003
March 2003
In Defense of Non-Western Medicine. I was disappointed with Ron Zacker's editorial in the December 2002 issue ("Keep Your Eyes on the Prize," p. 46). It seemed that Zacker lost sight of the prize with his statement, "Too much information and too many options can distract us from what's really important."
0 comments - Posted Mar 1, 2003
I can't wait to see what my next A1C will be! My last one was 7.3%, with my blood glucose up, down and all around. I was low, I was high, and just way out of control.
0 comments - Posted Mar 1, 2003
The A1cNow monitor, which can provide an at-home A1C test, is now available for sale without a prescription.
0 comments - Posted Mar 1, 2003
February 2003
Q: I was wondering whether you could have someone discuss "type 1.5."
0 comments - Posted Feb 1, 2003
Reasons for choosing a particular blood-glucose meter are as varied as the users. Some users want it simple, some want all the bells and whistles and many want something in between—as long as the meter and strips are affordable and accurate. Not to mention fast!
0 comments - Posted Feb 1, 2003
If you are a Medicare recipient with diabetes and you live in New England, the upper Midwest or the Pacific Northwest, you're more likely to get A1C tests and eye exams than people in other parts of the country. For lipid testing, however, you'd be better off living in the mid-Atlantic states or some Southern coastal states. Those who live in the Ohio Valley, the lower Mississippi Valley or the Southwest are least likely to have their A1C levels measured and eyes examined. Lipid testing was least likely to occur in the Rocky Mountain states and parts of the lower Mississippi Valley.
0 comments - Posted Feb 1, 2003
Levels of C-reactive protein (CRP), a protein produced by the liver that is present only during episodes of inflammation, better predict the risk of having a cardiovascular event than levels of LDL ("bad") cholesterol.
0 comments - Posted Feb 1, 2003
People with type 2 diabetes who do not take insulin saw their A1C levels improve after testing their blood glucose, keeping a diary of their results and their eating habits and receiving counseling on self-testing, say researchers in Germany and Austria. Control subjects were given counseling on diet and lifestyle only.
0 comments - Posted Feb 1, 2003
When a "planned care" system of healthcare delivery was instituted in three primary-care practices in Wisconsin and Minnesota, it resulted in better care by physicians and in better diabetes control for their patients, according to researchers from the Mayo Health System Diabetes Translation Project.
0 comments - Posted Feb 1, 2003
When a "planned care" system of healthcare delivery was instituted in three primary-care practices in Wisconsin and Minnesota, it resulted in better care by physicians and in better diabetes control for their patients, according to researchers from the Mayo Health System Diabetes Translation Project.
0 comments - Posted Feb 1, 2003
You're out on a date. Things are going smoothly, and you are surprisingly at ease. Is it time to introduce your diabetes, or should you keep it hidden?
0 comments - Posted Feb 1, 2003
Q: I was wondering whether you could have someone discuss "type 1.5." I am especially interested in how diabetes "type" and C-peptide numbers are related. I was 28 when I first started having symptoms of diabetes (thirst, weight loss, fatigue). Two years later, I was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. After a year or two, some confusion arose about what type of diabetes I had. (I needed a rather low total daily insulin dose of 25 units for my weight of 140.) A C-peptide test was run. My blood sugars were kind of high at the time, and the C-peptide came back as 0.2. The doctor told me I was definitely type 1. I am still requiring rather low doses of insulin (a daily total of 30 units for a weight of 170).
0 comments - Posted Feb 1, 2003
January 2003
If you test your blood glucose regularly, you probably think you have a pretty good idea of how high or low your numbers rise and fall during a typical day and night. However, what if you had 288 blood-glucose readings every 24 hours, instead of only a handful?
1 comment - Posted Jan 1, 2003
A campaign aimed at educating people with diabetes about their increased risk of heart disease and stroke is called "Be Smart About Your Heart: Control the ABCs of Diabetes"—in other words, control your A1C, blood pressure and cholesterol.
0 comments - Posted Jan 1, 2003
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved a new indication for Glucovance (glyburide and metformin tablets), allowing the type 2 diabetes medication to be taken in combination with thiazolidinediones (TZDs) when adequate control is not achieved with diet and exercise.
0 comments - Posted Jan 1, 2003
Measuring body mass index and setting cutoff values for fasting glucose levels and A1Cs may be enough to determine whether an individual has pre-diabetes without having to administer an oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT), say researchers in Maryland—including one at the National Institute for Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases.
0 comments - Posted Jan 1, 2003
Renal (kidney) function declines more rapidly in people with type 2 diabetes who have both retinopathy and proteinuria (protein in the urine).
0 comments - Posted Jan 1, 2003
Irbesartan (Avapro), an angiotensin II receptor blocker (ARB), reduces 24-hour systolic and diastolic blood pressure as well as albumin excretion rate (AER) in people with type 2 diabetes.
0 comments - Posted Jan 1, 2003
I have just had the best trip of my entire life! It all started when Carl Butler asked me to be a keynote speaker at a diabetes conference he was organizing. The first surprise was the location—Carl lives in Guam and is part of a group of wonderful, dedicated individuals who planned this educational conference for Guam and its surrounding islands.
0 comments - Posted Jan 1, 2003
December 2002
Postmenopausal women who have diabetes and take oral diabetes medications or insulin are more likely to have acute, symptomatic urinary tract infections (UTIs) than women who don't have diabetes, women who manage their diabetes by lifestyle changes—or even women with untreated diabetes.
0 comments - Posted Dec 1, 2002
Elimination of infection by the gastric organism Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) in people with type 1 diabetes might be associated with better control of blood glucose.
0 comments - Posted Dec 1, 2002
When combined with NPH insulin taken at bedtime, Glucophage (metformin) provides slightly better glucose control with less weight gain and improved satisfaction with diabetes treatment than Prandin (repaglinide) plus NPH, say researchers in the United Kingdom.
0 comments - Posted Dec 1, 2002
At our house, we have avoided trans fats since 1993. This was the year Diabetes Health first printed a report about the dangers of eating margarine, which is often made from hydrogenated oil. Our 1993 article cited a study done in 1974, which indicates that scientists have been aware of the hazards of trans fats for quite some time.
0 comments - Posted Dec 1, 2002
You know the routine: Go to the lab, have somebody stick a needle the size of a telephone pole in your arm and draw up a test tube full of blood. Then you wait for the doctor to tell you how your average blood-glucose levels have been over the past three months or so.
0 comments - Posted Dec 1, 2002
Postmenopausal women who have diabetes and take oral diabetes medications or insulin are more likely to have acute, symptomatic urinary tract infections (UTIs) than women who don't have diabetes, women who manage their diabetes by lifestyle changes - or even women with untreated diabetes.
0 comments - Posted Dec 1, 2002
When combined with NPH insulin taken at bedtime, Glucophage (metformin) provides slightly better glucose control with less weight gain and improved satisfaction with diabetes treatment than Prandin (repaglinide) plus NPH, say researchers in the United Kingdom.
0 comments - Posted Dec 1, 2002
You know the routine: Go to the lab, have somebody stick a needle the size of a telephone pole in your arm and draw up a test tube full of blood. Then you wait for the doctor to tell you how your average blood glucose levels have been over the past three months or so.
0 comments - Posted Dec 1, 2002
November 2002
Guilty pleasures are certainly in abundance between Thanksgiving and New Year's Day. However, if you are a person with diabetes, too much guilty pleasure may make your A1C resemble something less pleasant than a picture print by Currier and Ives.
0 comments - Posted Nov 1, 2002
"Si Tiene Diabetes, Cuide Su Corazón" (If you have diabetes, take care of your heart) is a campaign launched in late July 2002 by the U.S. National Diabetes Education Program (NDEP) to call attention to the fact that Hispanic and Latino Americans with diabetes are at higher risk for heart disease.
1 comment - Posted Nov 1, 2002
A shift in fat distribution from visceral (the internal abdominal area) to subcutaneous (under the skin) could be the reason the insulin sensitizer Actos (pioglitazone) helps to lower blood-glucose levels in people with insulin resistance.
0 comments - Posted Nov 1, 2002
Untreated celiac disease in children can stunt growth and cause lower A1Cs. However, researchers conducting a longitudinal study of children with type 1 diabetes and celiac disease say that following a gluten-free diet can restore normal growth and contribute to even lower A1Cs—and might also mitigate the blood-glucose deterioration commonly present during puberty.
0 comments - Posted Nov 1, 2002
A shift in fat distribution from visceral (the internal abdominal area) to subcutaneous (under the skin) could be the reason the insulin sensitizer Actos (pioglitazone) helps to lower blood glucose levels in people with insulin resistance.
0 comments - Posted Nov 1, 2002
Guilty pleasures are certainly in abundance between Thanksgiving and New Year's Day. However, if you are a person with diabetes, too much guilty pleasure may make your A1C resemble something less pleasant than a picture print by Currier and Ives.
0 comments - Posted Nov 1, 2002
October 2002
Researchers in Canada studying barriers to self-monitoring of blood glucose discovered that—surprise!—people who were given free strips tested more often than those who had to pay for them. An added benefit of more frequent testing was better blood-glucose control.
0 comments - Posted Oct 1, 2002
Researchers are discussing yet another risk factor for diabetes-related complications: health literacy, defined as the measure of a person's "ability to read, comprehend and act on medical instructions."
0 comments - Posted Oct 1, 2002
Should you skip eating animal protein in favor of vegetable protein if you have type 2 diabetes and microalbuminuria (a sign of kidney disease)?
0 comments - Posted Oct 1, 2002
September 2002
Vicki Abbott, a 65-year-old medical transcriptionist from Portland, Oregon, has taken the idea of tight diabetes control to heart. She adheres to a control regimen that is almost militaristic in its method, and her goal is perfect blood glucose.
4 comments - Posted Sep 1, 2002
Imagine being able to pop a blood-glucose testing device into your personal digital assistant (PDA), put blood on the strip and store the results in the PDA. Now you can do just that, thanks to U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval of two such devices in mid-June 2002.
0 comments - Posted Sep 1, 2002
1) Control Your Blood Pressure
0 comments - Posted Sep 1, 2002
Researchers in Spain who wrote a letter to Diabetes Care report studies showing that pre-meal blood-glucose averages better predict A1Cs in people with type 1 diabetes than after-meal readings do. But they add that if after-meal blood-glucose averages are more predictive of heart disease, as some studies suggest, it could mean that A1C results do not accurately reflect the harmful effects of high blood-glucose levels on diabetes-related cardiovascular complications.
0 comments - Posted Sep 1, 2002
A 37-year-old woman with type 1 diabetes who was pregnant with her second child was able to eliminate frequent severe hypoglycemic episodes after being switched from NPH insulin to Lantus (insulin glargine), report two doctors and a nurse practitioner in a letter to Diabetes Care.
0 comments - Posted Sep 1, 2002
People who have a heart attack but have not been previously diagnosed with diabetes should be checked for pre-diabetes—formerly called impaired glucose tolerance—or even diabetes itself.
0 comments - Posted Sep 1, 2002
Researchers in Spain who wrote a letter to Diabetes Care report studies showing that pre-meal blood glucose averages better predict A1Cs in people with type 1 diabetes than after-meal readings do. But they add that if after-meal blood glucose averages are more predictive of heart disease, as some studies suggest, it could mean that A1C results do not accurately reflect the harmful effects of high blood-glucose levels on diabetes-related cardiovascular complications.
0 comments - Posted Sep 1, 2002
August 2002
Once again, Diabetes Health has read through more than 2,500 abstracts of research presented at the American Diabetes Association's annual Scientific Sessions and selected a few of the more interesting ones to pass along to you as part of our annual "Research Extravaganza" feature.
0 comments - Posted Aug 1, 2002
On June 3, 2002, Metrika, Inc., of Sunnyvale, California, announced that its disposable A1cNow diabetes monitor, which can provide an A1C test result in a doctor's office or a patient's home, has obtained certification from the National Glyco-hemoglobin Standardization Program (NGSP).
0 comments - Posted Aug 1, 2002
An implantable insulin pump may provide better blood-glucose control and help lower A1Cs, say researchers who compared the control provided by continuous peritoneal insulin infusion from an implantable pump to that offered by continuous subcutaneous infusion using a standard (external) insulin pump.
0 comments - Posted Aug 1, 2002
The topic of sexual problems among women with diabetes has been highly underreported, says Lois Jovanovic, MD, from the Sansum Medical Research Institute in Santa Barbara, California. While nearly 2,000 studies addressing sexual dysfunction among men with diabetes have been published in the past five years, Jovanovic observes that a "paltry" 13 articles about sexual dysfunction among women with diabetes appeared during that same period.
0 comments - Posted Aug 1, 2002
If you have type 2 diabetes and don't take insulin, it's possible your mid-morning blood-glucose levels are high.
0 comments - Posted Aug 1, 2002
Both short-term and long-term quality of life are improved in people with type 1 diabetes who use an insulin pump.
0 comments - Posted Aug 1, 2002
July 2002
When Charles H. Raine III, MD, director of the Diabetes Control Center in Orangeburg, South Carolina, learned he had type 2 diabetes, he went straight to insulin as his preferred method of control.
0 comments - Posted Jul 1, 2002
Diabetes Technologies, Inc., of Thomasville, Georgia, announced it has received approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for marketing its over-the-counter A1C kit. This product, called the AccuBase A1C Test Kit, was developed to allow people with diabetes to test their A1C levels at home.
0 comments - Posted Jul 1, 2002
When Charles H. Raine III, MD, director of the Diabetes Control Center in Orangeburg, South Carolina, learned he had type 2 diabetes, he went straight to insulin as his preferred method of control.
0 comments - Posted Jul 1, 2002
June 2002
A hormone called GLP-1 offers promise for treating type 2 diabetes, say researchers from Denmark. A lab-engineered version of glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1) was shown to regulate blood-glucose levels and improve insulin sensitivity in a small test group, researchers report in the March 9, 2002, issue of Lancet.
0 comments - Posted Jun 1, 2002
People with diabetes who don't have healthcare insurance may be more likely to receive tests that monitor diabetes control and assess risk for complications at community and migrant health centers than they do at a private doctor's office, according to researchers in North Carolina.
0 comments - Posted Jun 1, 2002
I Developed Type 2 Diabetes From Polycystic Ovary Syndrome
0 comments - Posted Jun 1, 2002
"Clearly no diet works reliably," says Jan Harper of San Jose, California. Harper, who has type 2 diabetes, takes oral medications to control her diabetes and tries to adhere to a "good diet"-the advice most often given to people who have type 2. However, as Harper laments, what is a "good diet" or the "right diet" for a person with type 2 diabetes? Does such a thing actually exist?
0 comments - Posted Jun 1, 2002
May 2002
For Bret Michaels, diabetes hasn't stopped the show—it's just added an extra chord to the loud, exciting, pyrotechnically enhanced melody.
0 comments - Posted May 1, 2002
Routine A1C tests conducted by physicians may help detect type 2 diabetes in people who haven't been diagnosed, according to researchers from Duke University.
0 comments - Posted May 1, 2002
April 2002
A type of weight-loss surgery called the LAP-BAND has been successful in putting type 2 diabetes in remission, according to researchers in Australia. Doctors from Monash University in Victoria found that the majority of people with type 2 diabetes who were treated with the stomach-reduction surgery achieved better blood-glucose control one year afterward. Results of the study were published in the February 2002 issue of Diabetes Care.
1 comment - Posted Apr 1, 2002
“You shouldn't have to futz around with shots,” says Wendy S. Lane, MD, of Asheville, North Carolina. ”[If I had my way], newly diagnosed type 1s would be put right on pumps, if it weren't for insurance companies.”
0 comments - Posted Apr 1, 2002
If you have type 1 diabetes, your A1C level might be influenced not only by exercise, diet and insulin therapy, but also by your genetic makeup.
0 comments - Posted Apr 1, 2002
You keep your A1Cs in line by testing your fasting and before-meal blood-glucose levels, but could you have a time bomb ticking in your body by failing to keep after-meal glucose levels down?
0 comments - Posted Apr 1, 2002
March 2002
Living with diabetes means living in a world of limitations—some imposed by society and some by the disease itself. Diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at the age of 5, I've spent the last 35 years trying to break free of those limitations.
0 comments - Posted Mar 1, 2002
Carbohydrates seem to be in the news a lot these days. You either hear or read that if you want to lose weight, you shouldn't eat carbohydrates, or that if you want to control your blood-glucose levels, there are some specific carbohydrates you should not eat. The question, then, is to sort out what's important.
0 comments - Posted Mar 1, 2002
It's happened again. You test and the number that pops up on your meter is low. Way too low! But you feel fine. Shouldn't you be experiencing that fuzzy-headed, heart-pounding, shaky-bodied, world-swirling feeling that goes with hypoglycemia?
0 comments - Posted Mar 1, 2002
Q: I am a 52-year-old person with type 1 diabetes who is at least 40 pounds overweight. I have tried many ways to lose the extra weight, but I can never seem to get my blood glucose under good enough control so that I don't have too many lows.
0 comments - Posted Mar 1, 2002
Q: Is there a difference between an A1C test from a doctor's office and a hemoglobin test that is given to you after you give blood? I am 23 years old and have had type 1 diabetes for about three years, most of that time without any health insurance.
0 comments - Posted Mar 1, 2002
People with type 2 diabetes often have blood-glucose levels of 200 mg/dl or higher after meals, even if they are maintaining good A1C control, according to the results of a new study.
0 comments - Posted Mar 1, 2002
Metformin is safe and effective for the treatment of type 2 diabetes in children, according to new research.
0 comments - Posted Mar 1, 2002
If you have type 1 diabetes with an A1C greater than 8% and you are also a smoker, you are at higher risk for microalbuminuria—abnormal levels of protein in the urine that signal kidney complications—warn researchers at the Joslin Diabetes Center.
0 comments - Posted Mar 1, 2002
Cost-effective, group-based stress management programs can provide significant help for people with type 2 diabetes, say researchers from Duke University. Stress can raise blood-glucose levels by stimulating the release of counter-regulatory hormones, and it can also disrupt diabetes control by undermining diet and exercise programs and self-care routines.
0 comments - Posted Mar 1, 2002
Providing goals and support to doctors can result in better outcomes for their patients with type 2 diabetes, say Danish researchers. Doctors who were helped to set guidelines and who received regular follow-ups and continuing medical education were most likely to have healthier patients. Results of the study were published in the October 27, 2001, issue of the British Medical Journal.
0 comments - Posted Mar 1, 2002
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0 comments - Posted Mar 1, 2002
While someone with type 1 diabetes needs insulin from the beginning of the disease, people with type 2 diabetes have some residual insulin secretion. However, first-phase insulin response-the initial surge of insulin that normally occurs when food is ingested-is lost, resulting in high blood-glucose levels after meals. Nat-ural insulin production also is insufficient to handle insulin resistance.
0 comments - Posted Mar 1, 2002
February 2002
Whether type 1 or type 2, young or old, all people with diabetes have one thing in common: their blood-glucose meter.
0 comments - Posted Feb 1, 2002
Five years ago, when Dana Elias, PhD, first clutched a publication reporting that a synthetic peptide had halted beta-cell destruction in mice that already were showing high blood-glucose levels, she felt a shiver of excitement. She had helped develop the synthetic peptide, called DiaPep277.
0 comments - Posted Feb 1, 2002
Children with diabetes who have a better quality of life also maintain better control of their blood-glucose levels, according to worldwide statistics. Twenty-one research centers across 15 European countries, Canada and Japan participated in the study, which was published in the November 2001 issue of Diabetes Care.
0 comments - Posted Feb 1, 2002
The amount of fat you eat can affect your A1C level, say researchers in the United Kingdom, but the type of fat can also make a difference. Researchers writing in the November 2001 issue of Diabetes Care report that people who consumed more polyunsaturated fat, which includes most vegetable oils, nuts and high-fat fish, had lower A1C levels across the normal range than those whose fat intake came primarily from meat, milk and milk products.
0 comments - Posted Feb 1, 2002
January 2002
At 81 years of age, Eva Saxl has a lifetime of rewarding accomplishments behind her—careers as a writer, teacher, philanthropist and lecturer and a history of living with type 1 diabetes for more than 60 years with no complications.
2 comments - Posted Jan 1, 2002
How do couples in which one partner has diabetes and the other doesn't deal with the question of whose diabetes it is? Answers to this question, often overlooked by many healthcare professionals, can be critical to the successful long-term management of diabetes and its integration into daily life.
0 comments - Posted Jan 1, 2002
Managing your blood-glucose levels is not the only treatment needed to avoid diabetes-related complications, according to several health advocacy groups. Controlling blood pressure and cholesterol is also important in preventing heart disease and stroke, the two leading causes of death for people with diabetes, say the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the National Diabetes Education Program (NDEP) and the American Diabetes Association (ADA).
0 comments - Posted Jan 1, 2002
Another study is suggesting that continuous glucose monitoring could be a superior testing method for determining optimal control.
0 comments - Posted Jan 1, 2002
When Will Medicare Cover the Cost of Insulin Pumps for Type 2s?
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December 2001
Generex Biotechnology of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, announced the results of four studies showing the effectiveness of Oralin in treating type 2 diabetes. Oralin is a new oral insulin spray that is absorbed into the bloodstream. Pankaj Modi, PhD, chief scientific officer at Generex, presented the studies' findings at the September 9-13 meeting of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes in Glasgow, Scotland.
0 comments - Posted Dec 1, 2001
Giving lispro (Humalog) insulin to young children after they eat is as effective as giving Regular insulin before a meal, researchers say. After-meal administration allows parents to match the lispro insulin dose to what the child actually eats.
0 comments - Posted Dec 1, 2001
Correction: In the Letters to the Editor of the November issue (p. 61), we made an incorrect statement about the use of Lantus. The sentence should read "..those who take three meal-time shots of short-acting insulin plus basal Lantus will take four shots of insulin a day." We apologize for this error.
0 comments - Posted Dec 1, 2001
0 comments - Posted Dec 1, 2001
November 2001
"Okay, so I know I should do it. I know it will decrease my blood sugar. I know it will burn more calories. It's supposed to improve my circulation, cholesterol, triglyericdes and A1c. Rumor says it will even make me feel better. I know, I know, I know! Go ahead—blame me for not doing it!"
0 comments - Posted Nov 1, 2001
Researchers at three centers in the United Kingdom have been successful in demonstrating that using an insulin pump helps to control blood sugar and A1c levels, and can assist in preventing serious diabetes complications in a variety of patients—from long-term type 1s with erratic control to children and pregnant women.
0 comments - Posted Nov 1, 2001
One of Diabetes Health's most popular sections is its "Question & Answer" column. Our readers ask questions that cannot always be answered in a 10-minute office visit, and we pose these questions to our arsenal of diabetes professionals who offer their expertise.
0 comments - Posted Nov 1, 2001
The September 11 terrorist attacks in New York City, Washington, D.C and Pennsylvania are perhaps the single darkest event in the history of the United States.
0 comments - Posted Nov 1, 2001
Researchers at three centers in the United Kingdom have been successful in demonstrating that using an insulin pump helps to control blood sugar and A1c levels, and can assist in preventing serious diabetes complications in a variety of patients-from long-term type 1s with erratic control to children and pregnant women.
0 comments - Posted Nov 1, 2001
October 2001
A group of Brazilian researchers say bariatric surgery (stomach stapling) is the most effective therapy for extreme obesity. Their recent studies show that glucose control can also improve with the surgery.
0 comments - Posted Oct 1, 2001
Studies in California comparing readings from a continuous blood glucose monitor with A1c readings show that average levels are predicted differently in people with type 1 and type 2 diabetes.
0 comments - Posted Oct 1, 2001
Testing at night and after meals may give you the most accurate A1c reading, according to the result of recent research. Doctors from California and Washington, D.C., tested blood-glucose levels continuously on patients for three days to identify the times when the readings most closely reflected A1c levels. They found that glucose levels tested at night and after meals matched the patients' actual A1c levels. Glucose levels taken in the morning did not match their A1c levels as closely.
0 comments - Posted Oct 1, 2001
Adjusting insulin regimens does not cause people to adopt a poor diet, according to researchers in the United Kingdom. Researchers from Bournemouth, Dorset, studied the change in patients' diets when they were allowed to adjust the amount of insulin therapy to the total carbohydrate content. They questioned whether or not the change in the insulin regimen would cause patients to consume more fat.
0 comments - Posted Oct 1, 2001
"Currently, diabetes guidelines in the United States are not consistent with world-wide standards,'' said Rhoda Cobin, MD, FACE, president of the American College of Endocrinology (ACE), in its press release. "We need more aggressive, complete and cohesive standards."
0 comments - Posted Oct 1, 2001
September 2001
What's so unusual about the life of Charles Ray III? His story is a simple one—about a man from Raleigh, North Carolina who has lived with type 1 diabetes for 22 years without developing a single complication. Ray maintains consistently low A1c levels (averaging between 6% and 7%) and leads a life of hard work (as an evening-shift cook) and careful play (drinking only non-alcoholic beer).
0 comments - Posted Sep 1, 2001
Type 2s Say They Like the Pump Better
0 comments - Posted Sep 1, 2001
"The HbA1c test is underutilized because it is not that convenient to run and it takes a lot of effort for physicians and patients," says Michael Allen, chairman and CEO of Metrika, Inc. of Sunnyvale, California.
0 comments - Posted Sep 1, 2001
According to a recent survey conducted by the American Association of Diabetes Educators (AADE), 75 percent of people with type 2 diabetes do not know their Hemoglobin A1c (A1c) level. In addition, 77 percent could not name a good test result. Also, a 2000 survey published by the National Quality Control Association states that 75 percent of people with diabetes are not getting their A1cs tested.
0 comments - Posted Sep 1, 2001
Eating less animal protein and sugar may improve HbA1c levels in your body, say researchers from the University of South Florida in Tampa.
0 comments - Posted Sep 1, 2001
Australian researchers are saying the angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitor perindopril (Aceon) is more effective than the calcium channel blocker nifedipine (Procardia) in slowing the progression of kidney disease in people with diabetes who have normal blood pressure.
0 comments - Posted Sep 1, 2001
0 comments - Posted Sep 1, 2001
0 comments - Posted Sep 1, 2001
0 comments - Posted Sep 1, 2001
0 comments - Posted Sep 1, 2001
0 comments - Posted Sep 1, 2001
August 2001
Participants in the intensive treatment sector of the Diabetes Control and Complications Trial are continuing to see lower microalbumin rates six years after the study ended, despite the fact that their average HbA1cs have increased. The DCCT proved, among other things, that the chances of progressing to microalbuminuria was reduced by 39 percent with intensive treatment.
0 comments - Posted Aug 1, 2001
Helicobacter pylori (H.pylori), a recently discovered bacteria that causes inflammation of the stomach and may lead to ulcers, is more likely to reappear in people with type 1 than in people without diabetes, according to researchers in Rome, Italy.
0 comments - Posted Aug 1, 2001
Researchers speculate that incorrect use of insulin pens may harm one's ability to control diabetes. However, after studying the effects of correct and incorrect use of insulin pens on users, they found that the method of injecting did not affect a person's HbA1c—despite the fact that incorrect injecting is common.
0 comments - Posted Aug 1, 2001
A majority of people with type 1 diabetes who were taught to adjust their insulin dosages based on the carbohydrate content of their meals had better daily blood-glucose averages and were able to lower their HbA1c levels by up to 6%, say researchers in the United Kingdom. Findings were presented at the American Diabetes Association's scientific sessions in June.
0 comments - Posted Aug 1, 2001
Avandia maker GlaxoSmithKline announced on May 22 that it is sponsoring a nationwide educational campaign, called "Know Your A1c" to help people with type 2 diabetes better manage their disease over the long term.
0 comments - Posted Aug 1, 2001
Nine out of 10 primary-care doctors in this country could not correctly name the top three tests that a person with diabetes requires on a regular basis to stay alive—tests that could save patients' lives.
0 comments - Posted Aug 1, 2001
0 comments - Posted Aug 1, 2001
July 2001
In July 1999, John Buse, MD, PhD, CDE, director of the University of North Carolina's Diabetes Center told Diabetes Health that patients enrolled in clinical trials for insulin glargine (Lantus) absolutely "loved" the 24-hour-a-day long-acting (basal) insulin. Most of the people who participated in the clinical trials were not doing well on just NPH or Ultralente, and Lantus improved their control. However, Buse added, "[The clinical-trial participants are] upset that they cannot continue on it." That was because, at the time, the clinical trials had ended and the participants were told they would have to wait at least one year for FDA approval of Lantus and longer until they could get their hands on it.
0 comments - Posted Jul 1, 2001
When Karl Smith was first diagnosed with type 1 diabetes in August 1922, he started out on what he calls "starvation" to treat his condition. He stayed on that "treatment regimen" until December 24, 1922.
0 comments - Posted Jul 1, 2001
Karl Smith, a type 1 for 79 of his 85 years, remembers having type 1 diabetes as a child but not having any insulin with which to treat the disease.
0 comments - Posted Jul 1, 2001
A recent study shows that taking extended-release niacin, a vitamin known to lower cholesterol, helps reduce risk of cardiovascular disease without affecting sugar levels in the body.
0 comments - Posted Jul 1, 2001
Don't look for rising blood pressure as a first indicator of impending kidney disease if the subject is a child.
0 comments - Posted Jul 1, 2001
Stomach Stapling Not a Cure for Type 2 Diabetes
0 comments - Posted Jul 1, 2001
May 22, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced that it will review the weight-loss drug orlistat (Xenical) to determine if it is a suitable treatment for type 2 diabetes. If given FDA approval, Xenical, which works by preventing about one-third of the fat in the food consumed from being absorbed, will be the first weight-loss drug indicated for the treatment of type 2 diabetes.
0 comments - Posted Jul 1, 2001
Don't look for rising blood pressure as a first indicator of impending kidney disease if the subject is a child.
0 comments - Posted Jul 1, 2001
0 comments - Posted Jul 1, 2001
June 2001
Carlos's HbA1c had been above 10.2% for the last three clinic visits. We were frustrated because he was 16 years old, had a great personality and knew a lot about diabetes management. Every time he came to clinic without his blood-sugar records, he would promise to bring them next time and also promised to get his HbA1c down. It was hard not to believe him because he was such a nice guy.
0 comments - Posted Jun 1, 2001
Father's Day is a good time to reflect upon the gift fathers give to their children and families when they assume an active role in the management of diabetes. Fathers play a pivotal role in helping the child and family cope effectively with the diagnosis and daily challenge of living with diabetes.
0 comments - Posted Jun 1, 2001
For many parents, the most troubling aspect of diabetes is the possibility of low blood sugars during the night. We have recently tested two new products that are providing solutions to this problem.
0 comments - Posted Jun 1, 2001
In addition to lowering sugar levels in people with type 1 diabetes, the rapid-acting insulin Humalog can also help lower HbA1c levels, according to data published in the March issue of Diabetes Care.
0 comments - Posted Jun 1, 2001
Infusing insulin on a continuous basis has been shown to help control sugar levels and hypoglycemia in children and adolescents.
0 comments - Posted Jun 1, 2001
Because of the obesity epidemic in this country, the disease formerly called "adult-onset" diabetes is no longer given that label. Type 2 diabetes, we have learned, is fair game for people of all ages.
0 comments - Posted Jun 1, 2001
Carla Elliot liked to keep busy. A bright and outgoing 14-year-old girl, Carla involved herself in as many activities as she could. Whether it was swimming, cheerleading, softball, 4-H club meetings or simply running around the neighborhood, Carla was there.
0 comments - Posted Jun 1, 2001
Father's Day is a good time to reflect upon the gift fathers give to their children and families when they assume an active role in the management of diabetes. Fathers play a pivotal role in helping the child and family cope effectively with the diagnosis and daily challenge of living with diabetes.
0 comments - Posted Jun 1, 2001
Carlos's HbA1c had been above 10.2% for the last three clinic visits. We were frustrated because he was 16 years old, had a great personality and knew a lot about diabetes management. Every time he came to clinic without his blood-sugar records, he would promise to bring them next time and also promised to get his HbA1c down. It was hard not to believe him because he was such a nice guy.
0 comments - Posted Jun 1, 2001
What does having the words “Miss America” on your resume do for you in the real world? What doors does it open and what difference does it really make?
0 comments - Posted Jun 1, 2001
0 comments - Posted Jun 1, 2001
0 comments - Posted Jun 1, 2001
0 comments - Posted Jun 1, 2001
For many parents, the most troubling aspect of diabetes is the possibility of low blood sugars during the night. We have recently tested two new products that are providing solutions to this problem.
0 comments - Posted Jun 1, 2001
May 2001
Rosiglitazone (Avandia) is more effective if taken twice per day instead of once per day, according to research conducted at the Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta.
0 comments - Posted May 1, 2001
I am a type 1 insulin-pump user and I intend to try the GlucoWatch as soon as it's available.
2 comments - Posted May 1, 2001
On November 28, 2000, Bio-Rad Labratories announced that its new instrument for measuring HbA1c levels, called Micromat II, was chosen for use in the Action to Control Cardiovascular Risk in Diabetes (ACCORD) trial. The ACCORD trial is aimed at reducing cardiovascular disease in people with type 2 diabetes. The test will be used to measure the patients HbA1c levels at 60 different test sites throughout the U.S. and Canada.
0 comments - Posted May 1, 2001
April 2001
Managing diabetes is hard work. It can also be very discouraging when you are making a consistent effort to manage your blood glucose, and your efforts are rewarded by unpredictable high and low blood-glucose readings.
0 comments - Posted Apr 1, 2001
If you are a non-obese type 2 who no longer gets the maximum effect from your Glucotrol, DiaBeta or Tolinase, a 12-hour intravenous infusion of insulin could help you regain sensitivity to them, say researchers in Italy.
0 comments - Posted Apr 1, 2001
I am 72 years old and have been a type 2 for 21 years. I keep my blood sugar under control and get lab work done every three months. My A1c remains at 6%. Despite these measures, every year I get neuropathy on a different part of my body that lasts from winter until spring. Currently, I have it in my right buttocks and the back of my thigh. It is very painful. My doctor doesn't know what to do other than to prescribe painkillers that irritate my stomach.
0 comments - Posted Apr 1, 2001
To prevent or slow progression to end-stage renal disease, Robert Stanton, MD, chief of nephrology at Joslin Diabetes Center in Boston recommends taking the following steps:
0 comments - Posted Apr 1, 2001
March 2001
When your mother tells you to eat your broccoli, you should listen.
0 comments - Posted Mar 1, 2001
Lowering your after-meal BG levels can also lower your risk of heart disease. Researchers who determined that measuring blood-glucose levels two hours after eating say after-meal BG levels are a better indicator of risk factors for heart disease than either fasting levels or HbA1cs.
0 comments - Posted Mar 1, 2001
Can you tell if little Susie or Johnny is likely to experience diabetes-related kidney problems in later years? Even if the diagnosis of type 1 diabetes is fairly new?
0 comments - Posted Mar 1, 2001
Researchers have discovered that "a sustained reduction in Hba1c level among adult diabetic patients is associated with a significant cost savings within one to two years of improvement."
0 comments - Posted Mar 1, 2001
Diabetic women who are planning to become pregnant are advised to wait until their HbA1c is below 7.5%.
0 comments - Posted Mar 1, 2001
February 2001
When my mom saw that her hammer toe was bright red and swollen, she knew she was in trouble, even though she was in no pain. Mom, a type 2, had been to her podiatrist just two weeks before for routine foot care. This included trimming a callus on that toe. My mom takes great care of her diabetes. She tests before each meal, has good HbA1cs and sees her doctors regularly.
0 comments - Posted Feb 1, 2001
A healthy dose of vitamins may be a valuable tool in lowering urinary albumin excretion rates in people with type 2 diabetes. Unveiled at this year's August meeting of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes, a recent Danish study found that taking large daily doses of vitamins C and E significantly reduced short-term levels of albumin excretion in the urine (Diabetologia, Vol. 43, Suppl. 1, p. A36).
1 comment - Posted Feb 1, 2001
The Top 10 Plans and the Percentages of Diabetic Patients Who Received Specific Tests
0 comments - Posted Feb 1, 2001
On December 22, 2000, Novartis Pharmaceuticals received approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for its type 2 drug nateglinide (Starlix) as a therapy on its own and in combination with Glucophage.
0 comments - Posted Feb 1, 2001
The following is a composite of the top 10 health care plans whose members with diabetes maintain an HbA1c of 9.5% or less.
0 comments - Posted Feb 1, 2001
January 2001
Q: My concern is related to slow absorption and decay of lispro insulin used in an insulin pump. My diabetologist, NP/ CDE and I have determined that the infusion site/rotation is not the problem. If my BG is 80mg/dl before a meal and the appropriate bolus delivered, it is necessary that I wait half an hour before eating in order to hold the after-meal spike to 150 points (BG of 230 mg/dl). If pre-meal BG is elevated, perhaps at 130 mg/dl, and meal bolus plus corrective insulin bolus is given, the wait could be 90 minutes.
0 comments - Posted Jan 1, 2001
Although the idea of preventing the onset of diabetes in people at risk for type 1 was recently introduced in the Diabetes Prevention Trial of Type 1 (DPT-1), a group of Italian researchers report that the treatment does not have similar effects in people who have already contracted the disease. In a study published in the August issue of Diabetologia, the researchers report that giving oral insulin to newly diagnosed individuals with diabetes may be doing too little too late.
0 comments - Posted Jan 1, 2001
New research is showing that what matters after dinner is not dessert. In a study published in the September 2000 issue of Diabetes Care, a team of researchers say their findings show that good postprandial (after-meal) glucose levels are key to overall control and lowering HbA1cs.
0 comments - Posted Jan 1, 2001
December 2000
British health care company Provalis of London announced on August 24 that it has received U.S. regulatory approval for Glycosal, its novel diabetes-monitoring product.
0 comments - Posted Dec 1, 2000
October 2000
Many of you probably record your blood glucose in a diary or logbook, which you bring to your healthcare team on routine visits. This logbook has been an important component of diabetes treatment programs since the days of Dr. Elliot Joslin (Joslin Diabetes Center), the late pioneering diabetes specialist. Dr. Joslin believed important events in a person's life and diabetes treatment should be entered into a diary that both that person and his health care team could refer back to for treatment decisions.
0 comments - Posted Oct 1, 2000
Whether you realize it or not, most blood sugar meters store information about the tests you perform and also let you recall the date and time that you checked your blood sugars. Some meters keep track of the "control" and "checkstrip" quality control tests done to ensure the accuracy of your meter. More advanced meters even store additional data such as events like low blood sugar symptoms, insulin doses, activity levels, the amount of food consumed or even your HbA1c levels.
0 comments - Posted Oct 1, 2000
On July 31, Metrika Inc. of Sunnyvale, California, announced it received 510(k) marketing clearance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for its Digital Response (DRx) HbA1c Patient Monitor.
0 comments - Posted Oct 1, 2000
On August 9, FlexSite Diagnostics of Palm City, Florida, announced the availability of the A1C At Home Test Kit to consumers.
0 comments - Posted Oct 1, 2000
September 2000
Barbara Nelson, CDE, of Boise, Idaho, recently noticed that many of her patients were using the book "Sugarbusters!" for their dietary guidelines, usually at the recommendation of their health care providers. She wrote in asking for our thoughts on this book, and we got the following answer from Joy Pape, RN, CDE:
0 comments - Posted Sep 1, 2000
Mixtures of Insulin:
0 comments - Posted Sep 1, 2000
With nearly 20 percent of type 1s and 2s suffering from some form of depressive disorder, depression is an issue of paramount importance for the diabetes community, and one with far-reaching ramifications. The May issue of Diabetes Care reports that a new class of antidepressant agents has just finished its first round of clinical trials, and the results look good.
0 comments - Posted Sep 1, 2000
August 2000
Recently, Dr. James Shapiro and a team of transplant surgeons at the University of Alberta in Edmonton transplanted islets into 10 people with type 1 diabetes. In previous studies, only eight percent of islet-transplant recipients have remained off insulin for one year. The Edmonton Protocol is the first study in which 100 percent of islet-transplant recipients have been insulin-independent for one year.
1 comment - Posted Aug 1, 2000
Patients who measure their glucose levels from one to four times per day and their fructosamine levels once per week can significantly improve their BG control and lower HbA1c. Called the IN CHARGE, LXN Corporation of San Diego, has a GlucoProtein test which can provide both tests.
0 comments - Posted Aug 1, 2000
July 2000
You'll find this months "letters to the editor" to be very interesting. On several topics, our readers are clearly divided. Our article on nighttime hypoglycemia shocked one reader and drew praise from another.
0 comments - Posted Jul 1, 2000
June 2000
Getting lost in the Amazon rain forest without a backpack is bad news for a person with diabetes.
0 comments - Posted Jun 1, 2000
There was an outcry from insulin users when Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly decided to withdraw animal-derived basal insulins from the market and replace them with biosynthetic NPH and Ultralente, which many consumers consider inferior. These same critics are hoping that a new generation of basal insulins such as HOE901, Basulin and Lantus will prove to be more effective.
0 comments - Posted Jun 1, 2000
A review of the charts of diabetic girls aged 10 to 18 revealed that better BG control can help regulate their menstruation. Of 47 girls studied, those who had menstrual problems had a higher mean HbA1c (11.4%) than those who had regular menstruation (9.7%).
0 comments - Posted Jun 1, 2000
When officials at MediCal realized how much diabetic patients were costing the program, they came up with a team management plan to reduce the number of complications associated with diabetes. By doing so, they hoped to cut down on hospitalizations, amputations and other medical costs associated with diabetes. The California program is based on the Diabetes Control and Complications Trial.
0 comments - Posted Jun 1, 2000
Jean Betschart MN, RN, CDE is a pediatric nurse practitioner in the Department of Diabetes, Endocrinology and Metabolism at Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh. She has also written many books and articles for children with diabetes.
0 comments - Posted Jun 1, 2000
Diabetes Camp-The Best Thing to Happen to My Son
0 comments - Posted Jun 1, 2000
On April 17, ChoicePoint Health Systems of Atlanta announced the launch of Appraise, a new mail-in HbA1c test.
0 comments - Posted Jun 1, 2000
May 2000
On the morning of March 22, people in the diabetes community awoke to the news that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) had decided to withdraw Rezulin from the market on March 21. The FDA and endocrinologists advised Rezulin users to switch to Avandia or ACTOS. People who believe they may have been harmed by using Rezulin called their attorneys to pursue litigation against Parke-Davis/Warner-Lambert, which manufactures the drug.
0 comments - Posted May 1, 2000
Let me start off with a big thank you to all of you. As a person with diabetes, I feel I have the best job in the world! An important goal for me is giving consumers of diabetes products and treatments a voice. That is why you will find your voices included in these pages.
0 comments - Posted May 1, 2000
Q: Are there any studies of dietary changes to help with problems of gastroparesis? My daughter has had type 1 diabetes for 32 years and is now suffering complications, gastroparesis being one of particular concern.
0 comments - Posted May 1, 2000
Editor's note: Before changing your treatment plan, always advise your physician or health care practitioner.
0 comments - Posted May 1, 2000
Taking 1,800 mg of oral alpha-lipoic acid daily for 19 days helped reduce nerve pain for type 2 patients, according to a Berlin study reported in the December 1999 issue of Diabetic Medicine. At the start of the trial, the patients all had multiple neuropathic symptoms such as burning and numbness. The double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled trial was funded by German drug company ASTA Medica AG, which supplied the alpha-lipoic acid for the research.
0 comments - Posted May 1, 2000
In a follow-up study of the 10-year DCCT (Diabetes Control and Complications Trial), it was found that people who intensively managed their blood sugar significantly reduced their risk of developing retinopathy and kidney disease.
0 comments - Posted May 1, 2000
On April 3, SmithKline Beecham announced that the FDA has approved Avandia for use as a treatment in combination with sulfonylureas. Previously, Avandia had been approved for treating type 2 diabetes as both monotherapy and in combination with Glucophage.
0 comments - Posted May 1, 2000
On March 20, Eli Lilly and Company announced the availability of the first pre-mixed insulin containing the rapid-acting insulin lispro (Humalog). Called the Humalog Mix 75/25 Pen, the mixture combines 75 percent insulin lispro protamine suspension (similar to NPH) and 25 percent insulin lispro injection (rDNA origin).
0 comments - Posted May 1, 2000
April 2000
I thought Daniel Trecroci's foot care feature in the February issue ("Does the Shoe Fit? Important New Products for the Diabetic Foot") was very well written and organized. It is always good to express opinions from a variety of specialties.
0 comments - Posted Apr 1, 2000
I thought Daniel Trecroci's foot care feature in the February issue ("Does the Shoe Fit? Important New Products for the Diabetic Foot") was very well written and organized. It is always good to express opinions from a variety of specialties.
0 comments - Posted Apr 1, 2000
Sande Francis has a veritable gymnasium at her home in Fresno, California. A type 2 since 1992, Francis started exercising after she was diagnosed with a random blood sugar reading of 264 mg/dl.
1 comment - Posted Apr 1, 2000
March 2000
It seems that each new issue of Diabetes Health is more exciting than the previous one.
0 comments - Posted Mar 1, 2000
Jay Leeuwenburg is an imposing, 6-foot, three-inch, 295-pound physical specimen which goes a long way in his field of work as an offensive lineman in the National Football League (NFL). Even before Leeuwenburg was a teenager, he weighed as much as 170 pounds. At the age of 12, however, he began losing weight at a rapid pace, and eventually whittled away to 130 pounds. Upon seeing a doctor, Leeuwenburg discovered he had type 1 diabetes.
0 comments - Posted Mar 1, 2000
February 2000
Researchers at the Walton Diabetes Center in Liverpool, United Kingdom, are saying that in certain individuals with poor hypoglycemia unawareness, the use of lispro in insulin pumps may increase the frequency of hypoglycemia.
0 comments - Posted Feb 1, 2000
Neutral protamine Hagendorn (NPH) insulin contains several components which need to be evenly mixed to be the most effective. If the solution is not mixed well, it can produce potentially severe episodes of hypoglycemia in its users.
0 comments - Posted Feb 1, 2000
A pilot study involving 9 patients using MiniMed's continuous glucose monitoring system shows a 1 percentage point drop in HbA1c values after 5 weeks.
0 comments - Posted Feb 1, 2000
There are few issues that scare people with diabetes more than that of amputation. Losing a leg or foot has the potential to affect not only the way you work and play but, generally, all of the activities in your life. The good news is that most amputations are preventable.
0 comments - Posted Feb 1, 2000
BioSafe Laboratories, Inc., of Lincolnshire, Illinois, recently announced that they have received marketing clearance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for a Hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) home test kit to monitor the progression of diabetes. This means that people with diabetes can now monitor their long-term blood sugar control through a home blood collection process.
0 comments - Posted Feb 1, 2000
January 2000
If you're a person with diabetes who suspects your beta cells may still be hard at work, you may be more right than you know. Most people with diabetes, including type 1s, are still producing at least trace amounts of insulin. And while BGs and HbA1cs may be the foundation for any good diabetes treatment, when it comes to showing insulin production, they don't necessarily paint the full picture.
2 comments - Posted Jan 9, 2000
A British study published in the April issue of Diabetes Care has put caffeine under the microscope again. After a two-year study, researchers conclude that caffeine can intensify the warning symptoms of hypoglycemia without affecting a patient's glycemic control.
0 comments - Posted Jan 7, 2000
If you have a child with type 2 diabetes, South Carolina researchers suggest the possibility of getting him or her off of insulin and metformin and onto a very low calorie diet (VLCD) with medical supervision.
0 comments - Posted Jan 1, 2000
According to a SmithKline Beecham-funded survey of 1,000 patients with type 2 diabetes, nearly two-thirds of those surveyed do not understand or have never heard of insulin resistance. Insulin resistance, an underlying cause of type 2 diabetes, is a condition in which a unit of insulin has less effect in lowering blood sugar. Only 28 percent of the survey participants have discussed insulin resistance with a physician or other healthcare professional.
0 comments - Posted Jan 1, 2000
Health Maintenance Organizations (HMOs) like to emphasize preventative medicine as a way to cut costs. Their screening rates for diabetic complications, however, suffer in comparison to screening rates by traditional fee-for-service organizations, according to a report published in the October 29, 1999 issue of Morbidity and Mortality Weekly.
0 comments - Posted Jan 1, 2000
Pancreas Tonic, a new herbal treatment for people with diabetes, is drawing conflicting opinions from different quarters of the diabetes community. In 1999, Pancreas Tonic was hailed during an episode of the NBC television program EXTRA as "…the cure for diabetes" by William Taylor, MD, an internist. In additon, testimonials were given by people with diabetes who said that Pancreas Tonic really worked for the treatment of their blood sugars. According to transcripts from the EXTRA episode, Taylor added that Pancreas Tonic could be "one of the biggest medical breakthroughs of the century."
3 comments - Posted Jan 1, 2000
December 1999
Dr. David Matthews, chairman of the Oxford Center for Diabetes, Endocrinology and Metabolism, says beta-cell deterioration is "virtually inevitable" in persons with type 2 diabetes. He urges doctors who treat type 2s to refrain from telling them that they only have "mild diabetes," and instead tell them that they are still at considerable risk for diabetic complications.
0 comments - Posted Dec 1, 1999
On September 11, 1998, Jackie Warren Demijohn, 42, a domestic violence outreach counselor from Farwell, Michigan, took a monumental leap in controlling the diabetes she had suffered from for the last 37 years. Demijohn underwent the first-ever islet and bone marrow transplant at the Diabetes Research Institute (DRI) in Miami.
0 comments - Posted Dec 1, 1999
In the October 20 Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), Frank Hu, MD, of the Harvard School of Public Health, writes that people can cut the risk of type 2 diabetes nearly in half by engaging in one hour of moderate-intensity activity each day, which doesn't have to be all at once. This moderate-intensity activity can be accomplished with a walk to the bus stop in the morning, a walk up several flights of stairs in the afternoon, and housework in the evening.
4 comments - Posted Dec 1, 1999
November 1999
I attended a party this weekend at a friend's house. The hostess said, "Scott, I want you to meet my brother-in-law, Alan. He has diabetes, and you two should talk."
0 comments - Posted Nov 1, 1999
Just in time for National Diabetes Month, there is new data from the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES III) which shows that more than half of people with type 2 diabetes in the United States have unacceptably high blood sugar levels, putting them at increased risk for serious diabetes-related complications.
0 comments - Posted Nov 1, 1999
I have had diabetes for 24 years and my HbA1cs run below 6.4%. When I am ill, I tend to need stronger antibiotics and need them longer than the average nondiabetic. My doctor, however, tells me that I should only need the same amount of antibiotics as anyone else. I usually have a relapse and need additional antibiotics to clear an infection.
0 comments - Posted Nov 1, 1999
I am a 39-year-old type 1. What is a good strategy for controlling BGs during the night?
0 comments - Posted Nov 1, 1999
Q: One of my students is 9 years old and has diabetes. Many times, the student's BG is greater than 200 mg/dl at lunch time. My reaction would be to take insulin. Are these high BG readings normal for children that age?
0 comments - Posted Nov 1, 1999
In the current diabetes literature, the average interval for the HbA1c test is variously quoted in the range of four weeks to four months. While I am convinced by the papers published in the 1980s by Henrik Mortensen that the correct answer is four weeks, there clearly is no consensus value among practicing professionals. What do you feel the appropriate interval should be?
0 comments - Posted Nov 1, 1999
October 1999
In 1993, Ross Adler of Lakewood, Washington, was 58 years old and taking a four-shot-per-day regimen of NPH and Regular insulin for a total of 110 units per day. His HbA1c was 8.4%, and his fasting C-peptide was 3 ng/mL which strongly suggested type 2 diabetes was caused by insulin resistance. Obviously, with such a high HbA1c, his injected insulin was not lowering his blood sugars.
0 comments - Posted Oct 1, 1999
Large doses of vitamin E may help normalize retinal blood flow problems and improve kidney function in people with diabetes, according to researchers at the Joslin Diabetes Center in Boston.
0 comments - Posted Oct 1, 1999
In a January 1991 issue of Diabetes Care, it was demonstrated for the first time that vitamin E in patients with diabetes reduces protein glycoslation, which is a process where glucose attaches itself to the hemoglobin inside your red blood cells, contributing to complications. Also, a study conducted by vitamin manufacturer Hoffman-LaRoche of Switzerland reported that doses as low as 200 IU of vitamin E significantly reduced glycoslation.
0 comments - Posted Oct 1, 1999
The Case of Meyer K.
0 comments - Posted Oct 1, 1999
Nothing has changed. Recent studies show that the majority of Americans are still exercising less and gaining more weight. This could mean trouble for people with diabetes, and anyone who wants to stay healthy.
0 comments - Posted Oct 1, 1999
Diabetes summer camps help children develop healthy habits, and the Diabetes Camping Association (DCA) helps camps to enrich their curricula. To help prepare for the summer of 2000, the DCA will host its third annual Diabetes International Camping Conference February 16-20, 2000, near Orlando, Florida.
0 comments - Posted Oct 1, 1999
For 30 years, diabetes specialist John Hunt, MB, BS, FRCP, has been trying to get his patients at the University of British Columbia to understand the importance of good control. Nothing worked, until six months ago, when Hunt hung this sign in his office:
1 comment - Posted Oct 1, 1999
September 1999
Not too long ago, I received a hero's medal from Joslin Diabetes Center for having diabetes for more than 50 years. Now approaching 52 years with diabetes, I'm still going strong. I've had a few complications from diabetes, but nothing that has kept me from leading an active life. The complications I've experienced have made me more determined to maintain my present quality of life.
0 comments - Posted Sep 1, 1999
According to the July issue of Diabetes Care, high doses of supplementary vitamin C may cause an unexpected elevation of blood sugar levels and false diagnosis of type 2 diabetes.
4 comments - Posted Sep 1, 1999
Two new drugs have received approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the treatment of type 2 diabetes. In clinical trials, Avandia (rosiglitazone maleate) and ACTOS (pioglitazone hydrochloride) lowered blood sugars an average of 76 mg/dl and 95 mg/dl respectively, when compared to a placebo.
0 comments - Posted Sep 1, 1999
Doctors Say "Noncompliant" is an Irrelevant Term
1 comment - Posted Sep 1, 1999
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has identified five new cases of liver failure linked to Rezulin.
0 comments - Posted Sep 1, 1999
August 1999
Q: I have been taking vitamin E for over 10 years. I started on 100 mg., then moved up to 200 mg. About six months ago, I switched to 400 mg. Recently, however, I started having swelling in my lower legs and feet. I also started having blisters that oozed on my legs.
0 comments - Posted Aug 1, 1999
The following studies on insulin pump therapy were presented recently at the American Diabetes Association's Scientific Sessions in San Diego:
0 comments - Posted Aug 1, 1999
According to the American Diabetes Association (ADA), a person is labeled as having type 2 diabetes if his or her morning blood sugar reading is 126 mg/dl or greater. A new study, however, suggests that type 2 diabetes should not be diagnosed at these levels if that person's HbA1c is not excessive.
0 comments - Posted Aug 1, 1999
German researchers say that using Regular insulin prior to every meal improves blood glucose control without causing weight gain in obese patients with type 2 diabetes. Their research was presented at the American Diabetes Association's scientific sessions in June.
0 comments - Posted Aug 1, 1999
Pregnant women with type 1 diabetes can have healthy deliveries if they maintain a good HbA1c during early pregnancy.
0 comments - Posted Aug 1, 1999
Insulin therapy for one year improves HbA1c, but does not appear to have any adverse effects on blood pressure in people with type 2 diabetes.
0 comments - Posted Aug 1, 1999
Two patient reminders are more effective than one reminder in improving diabetic retinal exam rates in a managed care setting.
0 comments - Posted Aug 1, 1999
According to Kalpana Reddy, rapid availability of HbA1c results is a benefit to patients. The faster a doctor gets HbA1c results, the faster he or she can make appropriate decisions about the patient's blood sugar control.
0 comments - Posted Aug 1, 1999
July 1999
Walking could be the easiest, least expensive exercise, and it is proven to help shed pounds and improve glucose levels. An Australian study looks at post-menopausal type 2 women, and how walking changed their health.
0 comments - Posted Jul 1, 1999
June 1999
It was discovered that HbA1c measurements in adolescents went up during the summer months by .73% and declined by .75% in the fall.
0 comments - Posted Jun 1, 1999
Researchers say that combining some NPH insulin with each injection of lispro (Humalog) has several benefits. It improves 24-hour blood glucose, lowers HbA1c values, and reduces hypoglycemia.
0 comments - Posted Jun 1, 1999
NutraSweet Manufacturer: Beware Internet Rumors, Not Us
0 comments - Posted Jun 1, 1999
May 1999
In a study conducted in Finland, it was discovered that insulin combined with metformin (Glucophage) taken at bedtime appears to be an effective regimen for controlling type 2 diabetes.
0 comments - Posted May 1, 1999
Q: If an individual with diabetes has numbers that are all within normal when compared to a healthy nondiabetic, are there adjustments that must be made in terms of diet? By normal numbers, I mean fasting blood glucose less than 100, HbA1c less than 5.3%, body mass index less than 23 percent, and a lipid panel within normal.
0 comments - Posted May 1, 1999
Readers Sweet On Aspartame Article but ADA Sour
0 comments - Posted May 1, 1999
April 1999
I never thought I would weigh over 200 pounds in my life, yet I stepped on the scales one day and weighed 214 pounds!
0 comments - Posted Apr 1, 1999
You rely on your physicians to recommend the best therapy, but how much do they know about vitamins and nutrition?
2 comments - Posted Apr 1, 1999
Q: Is the Dr. Atkins low-carbohydrate diet bad for me? I was around 200 pounds last year. I went on a diet and lost 20 pounds by eating a lot of meat, vegetables and eggs, and drinking a lot of diet soda. When I reached 180 pounds, I quit the diet and lost another 20 pounds. Soon thereafter, I was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes.
0 comments - Posted Apr 1, 1999
If you eat more fiber, you will lose weight, says the Journal of Nutrition. A person who goes from 18 grams of fiber per day to 36 grams will absorb 130 fewer calories per day, translating to a 10-pound weight loss over one year.
0 comments - Posted Apr 1, 1999
A study published in the December 1998 issue of the Canadian Journal of Diabetes Care says that regular exercise is an important component of the treatment regimen for all people with diabetes. Gayle Lorenzi, RN, CDE, who conducted the study at the University of California, San Diego, says that exercise, when combined with dietary management and drug therapy, generally contributes to improved blood glucose control, as well as decreased cardiac risk, blood pressure control, lipid profiles and psychological well-being. Oftentimes, however, initiating an exercise program is a tough sell for most diabetes physicians and educators. The decision to start an exercise program requires motivation to get started, and then a commitment to maintaining the program.
0 comments - Posted Apr 1, 1999
March 1999
I recently spoke to 200 people at the Desert Diabetes Club in Palm Springs, California. The talk went great, and the Question & Answer part of the speech was the best part for me because it gave me an opportunity to see what was on the minds of people with diabetes. I learned that what people with diabetes wanted the most was tips and information they could use for the treatment of their diabetes.
0 comments - Posted Mar 1, 1999
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will again address the safety of Rezulin (troglitazone), the controversial type 2 medication, on March 26 at a scientific advisory panel meeting. In the wake of two recent deaths, the FDA will look at steps to make Rezulin safer for people with type 2 diabetes.
0 comments - Posted Mar 1, 1999
The results of a 20-month study on metformin (Glucophage) use were published in the January 1999 issue of Diabetes Care. Data collected from researchers at the health maintenance organization Kaiser Permanente revealed that there seemed to be good adherence to prescription guidelines, as well as an improvement in glucose control and rare incidence of lactic acidosis, in patients taking metformin.
0 comments - Posted Mar 1, 1999
February 1999
Our top feature this month examines the controversy surrounding the popular type 2 diabetes drug, Rezulin. Should a medication that has demonstrated injury in some individuals be withdrawn from the market? Or, should we consider whether the benefits outweigh the risks?
0 comments - Posted Feb 1, 1999
My daughter, Savannah, was diagnosed with diabetes at 9 years of age. At that time, she was put on insulin injections. For at least the first three years, her HbA1cs were in the normal ranges, and we were able to control her diabetes. She started having problems, however, as soon as she got into her teenage years. Her HbA1cs rose to the 8% range, and no matter what we did, nothing helped.
0 comments - Posted Feb 1, 1999
Vanadium, a metallic element found in humans, has insulin-like capabilities, according to recent discoveries. As a result, there is increased interest in using vanadium as a possible treatment for diabetes.
0 comments - Posted Feb 1, 1999
Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison are suggesting that high blood glucose levels help cause cataracts in older patients with type 2 diabetes.
0 comments - Posted Feb 1, 1999
Q: I cannot find any information on the effect of short-term spikes in blood sugar (i.e., 115 before breakfast, 170 one hour after breakfast). How dangerous are swings? Currently, I am not on any medication and I am simply trying to control my blood sugar through diet and exercise. I am not overweight (6 feet tall, 175 pounds), and I walk four miles about four to five times a week. Even with all of this, I still cannot control my blood sugar into the nondiabetic range. Any suggestions?
0 comments - Posted Feb 1, 1999
Recent studies indicate that glycemic control is not up to standards.
According to the December 1998 issue of Diabetes Care, HbA1c values of 2,579 French people with type 1 diabetes registered at an average of 8.9%. Approximately 33 percent of the research subjects registered HbA1cs less than 8%.
0 comments - Posted Feb 1, 1999
Patrick Lustman, PhD, of the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, and colleagues recently conducted a study of people with diabetes who were suffering from depression. The purpose of the study was to determine the effects that depression might have in managing blood glucose.
0 comments - Posted Feb 1, 1999
In a speech delivered at the 58th Annual Meeting of the American Diabetes Association in Chicago last June, Mayer B. Davidson, MD, of King-Drew Medical Center in Los Angeles outlined the current state of diabetes research and diabetes care in the United States.
0 comments - Posted Feb 1, 1999
January 1999
The Food and Drug Administration has given marketing clearance to Bayer Corporation's pharmaceutical division to use Precose in combination with insulin or metformin for treating people with type 2 diabetes.
0 comments - Posted Jan 1, 1999
For over five years, I thought about starting on the pump, but I always hesitated.
0 comments - Posted Jan 1, 1999
William W. Quick, MD, FACP, FACE, CDE, is an endocrinologist and author of the Web site Diabetes Monitor (http://www.diabetesmonitor.com) Here he presents a case from his experience in caring for people with diabetes. In this case study the patient's name has been changed but the rest of the story is true.
0 comments - Posted Jan 1, 1999
People with diabetes have long been frustrated by variations in glucose meter readings. Now the meter industry has added a new wrinkle, meters that reference plasma rather than whole blood.
0 comments - Posted Jan 1, 1999
When I read the letter from Katherine Smith of Wood River, Illinois ["Stop Covering Type 2 Diabetes"], I immediately felt that this woman needed to be properly informed. Diabetes, no matter what type, cannot be cured, and any research in the field of diabetes is beneficial to all.
0 comments - Posted Jan 1, 1999
PharmaTerra Inc. has staked a claim with its herbal remedy, ProBeta, which, if legitimate, could be the most profound treatment of diabetes to date.
1 comment - Posted Jan 1, 1999
December 1998
Dori Linnell of Eureka, Montana, would do anything for Tel, her 5-year-old son with diabetes. With diligence, knowledge and love, she has kept his HbA1cs in the nearly perfect range of 6.8 to 7.0 %. Linnell is obviously doing what works but always looking for something that may work better. She read about BetaFast, a product that is said to help people with diabetes control their blood sugars. BetaFast is made from the leaf extract of the herb Gymnema sylvestre, a climbing plant found in India. Always a believer in herbs, she wanted to try it with Tel.
0 comments - Posted Dec 1, 1998
November 1998
How do you know the differences between a new pump user, and a not-so-new pump user?
0 comments - Posted Nov 1, 1998
In early September, researchers concluded a landmark, 20-year study on type 2 diabetes. The $38.6 million study, known as the United Kingdom Prospective Diabetes Study (UKPDS), examined the effects of various therapies on patients with type 2 diabetes. The study is considered the first of its kind in relation to examining diet, oral drug and insulin therapies for patients with type 2 diabetes.
0 comments - Posted Nov 1, 1998
Q: My daughter was diagnosed with diabetes at the age of 2. She is now 7. I have read Dr. Bernstein's book, Dr. Bernstein's Diabetes Solution (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1997) several times, and would like to put my daughter on the program. What do you think about it? I don't remember you ever talking about it in DIABETES HEALTH.
0 comments - Posted Nov 1, 1998
According to the August 1998 issue of Diabetologia, a study revealed that an increase in the intake of fiber has beneficial effects in preventing ketoacidosis in people with type 1 diabetes.
0 comments - Posted Nov 1, 1998
Strategic Diabetes Management (SDM) is a program concept that can guide professionals through diabetes treatment, ensuring that patients receive the most thorough and specific guidelines on how to manage their blood sugar. Recent research has indicated that this new treatment strategy really works.
0 comments - Posted Nov 1, 1998
For many years, sulfated beef insulin has been produced for insulin users. By 1993 there were 26 people taking sulfated beef insulin in Canada. By 1996 only 15 people were still using sulfated beef insulin.
0 comments - Posted Nov 1, 1998
Express-Med, Inc., recently announced FDA approval for its A1c-Express kit, which patients can perform at home then mail to their doctors. Express-Med hopes that the kit will help people with diabetes to test their HbA1c levels two to four times per year, which the American Diabetes Association recommends.
0 comments - Posted Nov 1, 1998
October 1998
Christine Klemp of West Bend, Wisconsin, received a shock when she opened her box of insulin on August 16. A message printed in red ink said, "This insulin will be discontinued. Contact your physician to change to another insulin." Klemp was horrified, because this particular insulin (Iletin I beef-pork) is the only insulin that works well for her. "My life is about to come to an end. I just could not believe this was happening."
0 comments - Posted Oct 1, 1998
When peering over the edge of Half Dome, one of the signature peaks of Yosemite National Park, it is hard not to worry about falling. When Paul Wiersma reached this precipice, he had other falls to worry about as well. In the Sierra heat of this past summer, Paul, who has type 1 diabetes, had to worry that a combination of exertion and insulin would cause his blood glucose levels to fall too low. Overdosing on insulin and exertion can be dangerous anywhere, but it is especially unforgiving on a mountain trail with perilous drops only a misstep away.
0 comments - Posted Oct 1, 1998
September 1998
A recent study published in the May issue of Practical Diabetes International showed that insulin therapy is a safe option for elderly type 2s and can significantly improve their metabolic control.
0 comments - Posted Sep 1, 1998
Darryl Rawlinson, a 47-year-old middle manager for a Silicon Valley semiconductor plant, was a little hesitant to have needles stuck in his body. Although Rawlinson had diabetes, the needles he was concerned about would not be delivering insulin but would help to stimulate his flow of qi (pronounced CHEE).
0 comments - Posted Sep 1, 1998
Preliminary results from research performed at Children's Hospital Los Angeles by the Starbright Foundation suggests that the Diabetes CD-ROM is effective in teaching kids about diabetes. When compared to other education methods-including a three-hour group session of educational games and activities and a 1991 Nintendo video game designed to help kids learn about managing their insulin levels-the CD-ROM produced the best overall results. For example, children who used the CD-ROM had better HbA1c levels, higher diabetes knowledge scores, and were more comfortable talking to parents and friends about their diabetes than those who engaged in the other activities.
0 comments - Posted Sep 1, 1998
August 1998
Sifting through the research findings from Chicago, we found many exciting new developments. Some of the results, which we have reviewed below, offer new insights into the complications and associated conditions that come with diabetes. Some of these discoveries offer the possibility of radical new therapies that can help mitigate, if not eliminate, certain damaging effects. Here is a sample of the more interesting reports we found.
0 comments - Posted Aug 1, 1998
Before eating lunch at a restaurant, Jim loads his foil packs of insulin into a device about the size of a large flashlight. He then presses a button which releases a cloud of insulin into the clear chamber of the device. He takes a slow, deep draw of powdered insulin into his lungs.
0 comments - Posted Aug 1, 1998
After only two weeks with Diabetes Health as managing editor, I was in Chicago covering the 58th American Diabetes Association's conference. Even before I arrived in the windy city, it was obvious from the phone book-sized conference program that there would be much to learn.
0 comments - Posted Aug 1, 1998
Two things that affect every aspect of one's life are having diabetes and becoming a senior citizen. When these happen together their impacts can become even more pronounced. As if this isn't enough, seniors with diabetes have to confront less-than-flattering stereotypes every day. This can be especially frustrating, and potentially damaging, when dealing with health care providers. Despite these added challenges, the plight of seniors with diabetes is often overlooked.
0 comments - Posted Aug 1, 1998
Asheville, North Carolina recently saved $25,000 in treating diabetes-related conditions under its self-funded health insurance program. The city owes its savings to a novel pilot project conceived by the North Carolina Center for Pharmaceutical Care in cooperation with Mission St. Joseph's Hospital System and local pharmacies.
0 comments - Posted Aug 1, 1998
July 1998
Prompted by Scott King's April 1998 column ("Questions for a Cure"), Camillo Ricordi, MD, sent in his response to Scott's series of questions regarding islet cell transplantation. Ricordi is a Professor of Surgery and Medicine and Chief of the Division of Cellular Transplantation, Department of Surgery at the University of Miami School of Medicine and the scientific director of the Diabetes Research Institute in Miami. He is a pioneer in the field of islet cell transplantation and is credited with developing an islet cell isolation technique that allows researchers and doctors to obtain enough islets from a single pancreas to treat a recipient.
0 comments - Posted Jul 1, 1998
The role that type 1 diabetes may or not play in the growth of kids with type 1 diabetes has been studied for some time. According to a study in the May issue of Diabetes Care, the timing of the pubertal growth is normal in type 1 children, but the magnitude of this growth is reduced in girls.
0 comments - Posted Jul 1, 1998
I was among the 400 individuals who attended Today's Solutions for Type 1 Diabetes in St. Louis this past May. The seminar, organized and hosted by the Insulin-Free World Foundation, brought together leading researchers and those of us living with the disease to discuss current transplant options and possible future treatments.
0 comments - Posted Jul 1, 1998
In addition to the host of health risks that smoking presents to all people, studies have shown that adult type 1 smokers are at increased risk to develop macrovascular and microvascular diabetic complications, especially retinopathy and nephropathy. A recent study from Germany shows that markers of microvascular complications are also found in teen smokers with type 1 diabetes.
0 comments - Posted Jul 1, 1998
June 1998
Researchers in the Netherlands recently found that well controlled type 1s on multiple injection therapy have less variable fasting blood glucose levels and a lower total frequency of hypoglycemia when nighttime pump therapy is substituted for their bedtime NPH insulin injection. In addition, warning signs of hypoglycemia were enhanced and aspects of the counter-regulatory hormonal response to hypoglycemia were improved when subjects were on nocturnal pump therapy.
0 comments - Posted Jun 1, 1998
Fish oil may lower triglyceride levels by almost 30 percent, according to an analysis of 26 published clinical trials performed by researchers at the Ziekenhuis der Veije University in the Netherlands. All trials studied included more than five diabetes patients (both IDDM and NIDDM) and looked at the effect of fish oil and docosahexaenoic acid on serum lipids and glucose tolerance.
0 comments - Posted Jun 1, 1998
Ethnic and racial differences may play a role in insulin response, according to a recent study published in Diabetes Care. In a group of 153 men with type 2 diabetes put on intensive therapy, African-Americans achieved an improvement in HbA1c levels with less insulin than other ethnic groups. The differences could not be explained by differences in body weight, activity levels, use of other medicines or the insulin secretion ability of the pancreas.
0 comments - Posted Jun 1, 1998
When the first pancreas transplant was performed in 1966 at the University of Minnesota, doctors considered it a risky venture at best. Three decades later and over a 1,000 people in the United States undergo a pancreas or simultaneous pancreas/kidney transplant every year. Still, a cloud of misinformation surrounds the procedure.
0 comments - Posted Jun 1, 1998
The following is a list developed by the California Diabetes Control Program and the Diabetes Coalition of California detailing the specifics of good diabetes care. This list can be used to illustrate to your HMO the level of care essential to maintaining your good health, and its financial incentive to provide you with these services.
0 comments - Posted Jun 1, 1998
The following is a greatly abridged list of quotes from respected medical journals on the financial and medical impact of various diabetes practices and products. These can be used in letters to HMOs and purchasers of HMO plans to impress upon them the importance and financial good sense of providing good diabetes care. Again, this list is just a short list of the many facts gathered on the subject. The more you investigate and the more you learn the stronger the case you can present to get the coverage you need and deserve.
0 comments - Posted Jun 1, 1998
Are you a member of a HMO but not getting the coverage you need for proper diabetes care? After finding a primary care physician who is sympathetic to your needs, you may need to contact your HMO and appeal for coverage for the services and equipment you need for good preventative care.
0 comments - Posted Jun 1, 1998
May 1998
This month DIABETES HEALTH posed a few questions to an expert in pump therapy, Bruce W. Bode, MD, of the Atlanta Diabetes Association. Bode first became familiar with pump therapy in the '70s and has been putting people on the pump in his own practice since 1985. To date, Bode has started over 800 patients on insulin pump therapy. He also maintains the largest database in the world on people who have undergone pump therapy.
0 comments - Posted May 1, 1998
Canyon Ranch Health Resort. Established in Tucson, Arizona, in 1979, Canyon Ranch Health Resort has two other locations in Lenox, Mass., and a soon-to-be-opened resort in Bali, Indonesia.
1 comment - Posted May 1, 1998
Since Glucophage's (metformin) arrival on the U.S. market in 1995, the type 2 oral medication has produced significant results in people with type 2 diabetes, including reducing fasting glucose levels an average of 60 mg/dl and lowering HbA1c an average of 1 to 2% (i.e., from 10% to 9 or 8%).
0 comments - Posted May 1, 1998
April 1998
If your child's blood glucose readings are erratic, have his doctor check his tummy. A recent study in the March issue of Diabetes Care cited an increased incidence of slow emptying of the stomach in children with diabetes as a possible cause of poor glucose control.
0 comments - Posted Apr 1, 1998
March 1998
While all the specific causes of neuropathy are not fully understood, medical professionals and researchers agree the most effective treatment for neuropathy is the stabilization of blood glucose levels.
1 comment - Posted Mar 1, 1998
February 1998
Susan has type 2 diabetes and is under the care of diabetes specialist Nancy Bohannon, MD. Like many other type 2s she is also hypertensive, has high cholesterol and suffered a heart attack. She has arthritis, is postmenopausal and is trying to quit smoking as well. To cover all these conditions she is on a list of pharmaceuticals that might have made even Elvis Presley take a step back.
0 comments - Posted Feb 1, 1998
According to a recent study in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism, estrogen therapy protects against cardiovascular disease, decreases glucose levels and improves HbA1cs in postmenopausal woman with diabetes .
0 comments - Posted Feb 1, 1998
Some women with type 1 diabetes will need additional insulin during their pregnancy and a new blood test can reveal one reason why.
0 comments - Posted Feb 1, 1998
January 1998
Once the DCCT results were published showing the benefits of tight control, the importance of self-monitoring to a successful diabetes control regimen was solidified. The BG diagnostics market has boomed as a result. United States revenues for 1997 are expected to top out at $877.2 million, and by the year 2004, they are expected to reach $2.25 billion.
0 comments - Posted Jan 1, 1998
December 1997
A recent USDA study has found that chromium picolinate significantly lowers blood sugars. Chromium is not a drug, but a trace mineral that helps insulin attach to cell membranes to control blood sugars.
0 comments - Posted Dec 1, 1997
Health Care Professional Calls to Save Insulin
0 comments - Posted Dec 1, 1997
November 1997
The FDA recently cleared the B-D Easy A1c, an at-home HbA1c kit by Becton-Dickinson. The kit, which enables patients to draw samples at home for mail-in laboratory measurement, is the first of its kind and is expected to be ready in early 1998.
0 comments - Posted Nov 1, 1997
October 1997
Eli Lilly, the manufacturer of 80 percent of America’s insulin is planning to take Iletin I (beef/pork) insulins off of the market.
0 comments - Posted Oct 1, 1997
In the early '70s, Elke Austenat, MD, spent her days working at the largest diabetes clinic in Eastern Germany. It seemed to her at the time that many of the patients passing through the clinic were overwhelmed and confused by the task of controlling their diabetes. The clinic once counted 400 patients in diabetic comas admitted in just one year.
0 comments - Posted Oct 1, 1997
Rezulin, Warner-Lambert's type 2 diabetes drug, has recently been approved by the FDA for use in conjunction with sulfonylureas.
0 comments - Posted Oct 1, 1997
Awake and Aware to a Sleeping Hypoglycemic Coma
0 comments - Posted Oct 1, 1997
October 1: Walking is one of the best possible exercises, so why not walk for diabetes? Walktoberfest is the ADA's national walking event to raise money for diabetes research. Over 100,00 walkers participate each October. Call 1(800) 254-WALK for more information.
0 comments - Posted Oct 1, 1997
September 1997
I recently learned of a famous diabetologist, Dr. Lawrence in England, who made all the endocrinologists he trained take a shot of insulin to experience an insulin shock. He felt this was necessary for them to become good doctors.
0 comments - Posted Sep 1, 1997
Laura Greenfield has lived with type 1 diabetes for over 18 years. When told by health professionals that exercise would help her control BGs she tried it. Unfortunately, Laura discovered that exercise is a tricky balancing act and not simply a matter of physical exertion. At first, she found it made it even more difficult to maintain stable BG levels.
0 comments - Posted Sep 1, 1997
You know your friends and family can raise your blood pressure, but what about your glucose level? A study published in the July 1997 Diabetes Care shows a relationship between environmental stress and increased BGs for people with type 2 diabetes.
0 comments - Posted Sep 1, 1997
August 1997
In this study, 152 pump users (using either Velosulin BR or Humulin R insulins) were analyzed during their routine follow up visits to determine what factors had the strongest effect on their current HbA1cs. These patients had an average HbA1c of 7.58 and tested an average of 3.5 times each day.
0 comments - Posted Aug 1, 1997
In this study Bruce Bode, MD, found that using Lispro in pump therapy provided patients with significant glycemic benefits. While daily BG levels did not change significantly, HbA1c levels had a statistically significant drop from 7.51% to 7.26%. The percentage of patients reporting severe hypoglycemic events (including comas and seizures) were also significantly reduced from 17 percent to 7.5 percent. The total daily doses of insulin did not appear to be affected by Lispro, but insulin antibodies dropped on Lispro pump therapy. In addition, the HbA1c improvement was especially pronounced for patients with the human insulin antibodies.
0 comments - Posted Aug 1, 1997
Metformin and troglitazone were both shown to improve glycemic control of type 2 diabetes. In addition, using them in combination proved to be safe and to provide additional benefit.
0 comments - Posted Aug 1, 1997
In this panel discussion, physicians presented the benefits of pancreas transplants for people with type 1 diabetes and the barriers to this type of therapy.
0 comments - Posted Aug 1, 1997
Switching patients from an established insulin regimen to Humalog does not necessarily improve glycemic control, but it does reduce the frequency of mild and severe hypoglycemia and improves their quality of life.
0 comments - Posted Aug 1, 1997
Patients with better glycemic control have lower medical care expenses, report researchers from Minneapolis.
0 comments - Posted Aug 1, 1997
The DCCT showed that there is a strong relationship between HbA1c values and the risk of developing chronic diabetes complications. But this information is of limited benefit to people with diabetes in setting up day-to-day glycemic goals if they don't understand the relationship between HbA1cs and mean blood glucose levels (MBG).
0 comments - Posted Aug 1, 1997
The following case study was submitted by board member, Steven Edelman, MD an endocrinologist at the Veterans Hospital in San Diego.
3 comments - Posted Aug 1, 1997
July 1997
I have been taking the new insulin Humalog for almost a year now. It took plenty of getting used to - I had to increase my basal insulin and completely relearn when to take my meal shot. But it's been working great.
0 comments - Posted Jul 1, 1997
At this point, the Diabetes Control and Complications Trial's (DCCT) finding that intensive insulin treatment reduces the number of long-term diabetes complications is, hopefully, only news to the recently diagnosed. What is less commonly known is that the same tight BG control that reduces the risk of complications has a darker side. The intensive insulin therapy (IIT) described by the DCCT presents a three fold risk of severe hypoglycemia - sometimes with dire consequences.
1 comment - Posted Jul 1, 1997
After conducting a three-year audit of the effectiveness of Medicare, the United States General Accounting Office (USGAO) has found some disturbing facts about diabetes care.
0 comments - Posted Jul 1, 1997
June 1997
Researchers have discovered that cardiovascular autonomic neuropathy (CANP) affects more than the heart. A new study shows that the diabetes complication is also related to slower gastric emptying in people with type I diabetes.
0 comments - Posted Jun 1, 1997
How can I get the best diabetes care from an HMO? As health management organizations become more and more popular millions of people with diabetes find themselves asking this question every day. There are no easy answers, but there is one thing that all the experts agree upon - you must be your own tireless advocate.
0 comments - Posted Jun 1, 1997
What kind of durable medical equipment (DME) coverage will you receive?
0 comments - Posted Jun 1, 1997
Warning: Read at your own risk. The following case study is a true story about one person's fatal encounter with diabetes and may not be suitable for all readers. While the information is unpleasant we feel that it provides a valuable lesson. Most of our case studies have been success stories in the past, but Dr. Marcus and DIABETES HEALTH feel that the information herein can help to save lives.
0 comments - Posted Jun 1, 1997
Bio-Rad Laboratories Inc., located in Hercules, California, is the first company to be certified by the National Glycohemoglobin Standardization Program (NGSP) for their glycohemoglobin and hemoglobin (HbA1c) testing methods: VariantTM and DiaStatTM.
0 comments - Posted Jun 1, 1997
May 1997
A host of new diabetes start-ups are trying to develop alternatives to finger-stick home glucose testing. It is their hope that an alternative to the finger-stick will bring high acquisition valuations like those paid for LifeScan by Johnson & Johnson and for MediSense by Abbott Laboratories Inc.
0 comments - Posted May 1, 1997
After a nine-year study researchers have found that variability in long-term glycemic control is a "marked feature of type I diabetes."
0 comments - Posted May 1, 1997
April 1997
Everybody is talking about Enter The Zone these days. They are referring to the popular book on nutrition and diet by Barry Sears. But there are other zones as well - the "treatment zones" for type 2 diabetes. Knowledge of these zones will help you better understand how and why your particular treatment program was designed.
0 comments - Posted Apr 1, 1997
Children and adolescents with diabetes are far more likely to experience moderate to severe hypoglycemic episodes than their adult counterparts.
0 comments - Posted Apr 1, 1997
March 1997
A normal blood sugar level is the primary goal of all treatment options for people with diabetes. It is especially important for young adolescents because poor control can be very problematic at that age.
0 comments - Posted Mar 1, 1997
Balance PC Diabetes Software, a new product from MediLife Inc., has received a "Favorably Reviewed" seal from the American Association of Diabetes Educators (AADE). The software is "a complete health management" system for insulin and oral medication users.
0 comments - Posted Mar 1, 1997
February 1997
Bill King was training for the Philadelphia marathon when he noticed that no matter how much he drank, he had an inexhaustible thirst. He was easily fatigued and had to go to the bathroom constantly. He had been running and training hard since the age of 17 as a competitive runner. Yet, at 24, it suddenly seemed like everything he had worked for was slipping through his fingers due to this mysterious illness.
0 comments - Posted Feb 1, 1997
There is a new medication for people with type 2 diabetes on insulin that could help reduce, and in a few cases possibly eliminate, the need for insulin. The drug appears to resensitize the body to insulin and makes it easier for glucose to be absorbed from the bloodstream.
0 comments - Posted Feb 1, 1997
Some criminals will go to enormous lengths to beat a rap. The Palm Beach Post reported a Florida man, Wesley Shaffer, attempted to convince a jury that he was an undiagnosed diabetic who had been driven insane by eating large amounts of cotton candy. The jury didn't buy it. Mr. Shaffer was convicted on burglary charges, and then promptly escorted to jail-far from the tempting dangers of cotton candy.
0 comments - Posted Feb 1, 1997
January 1997
It seems hard to believe that a simple, over-the-counter vitamin could greatly reduce the chance of developing cardiovascular disease, lower HbA1c levels and improve insulin sensitivity without anyone having noticed. But, until recently, vitamin E seems to have been doing just that.
0 comments - Posted Jan 1, 1997
Could vitamin B3 help slow down, or possibly halt the development of type I diabetes? A recent study shows that when the vitamin is given at diagnosis it helps keep the remaining Beta-cells active.
0 comments - Posted Jan 1, 1997
Knowledge Leads to Advancements
0 comments - Posted Jan 1, 1997
A study, conducted at the University of Wisconsin Medical School at Madison and published in the Archives of Internal Medicine in March of 1996, found that hypertension is significantly related to high HbA1c levels in people with diabetes who are taking insulin. The study concluded that controlling high blood sugars may reduce the risk of developing hypertension.
0 comments - Posted Jan 1, 1997
Improvements in the lives of people with diabetes usually come by way of the latest technology. In the late 1970s, the ability to self-monitor daily blood glucose (BG) levels dramatically improved BG management and is now indispensable. Now, the HbA1c test, which has been around for years, has re-emerged with the same promise of indispensability, but fails to be fully understood or utilized.
1 comment - Posted Jan 1, 1997
Twenty First Century Health Inc., a new products development company, has announced their acquisition of the exclusive rights from Milton Fuller and Solid State Farms to develop a non-invasive monitor that measures hemoglobin A1c.
0 comments - Posted Jan 1, 1997
November 1996
Gary Freitag is frustrated by his three-year-old son William's blood glucose numbers. Diagnosed just this past February, William's BGs frequently bounce between 65 and 300. At night when William goes to bed, even if his blood sugar is as high as 400, Gary and his wife must give William a snack or by morning his blood sugars will be down to 50.
0 comments - Posted Nov 1, 1996
1000 B.C.- An Indian physician, Susruta, discovers diabetes.
6 comments - Posted Nov 1, 1996
October 1996
Like many people with diabetes, Ted Wright doesn't always wait 30-40 minutes to eat after injecting his regular insulin.
0 comments - Posted Oct 1, 1996
September 1996
There came a point in Evelyn Narad's life when she knew it was time to get serious about losing weight. She was 75 years old and had been diagnosed with type II diabetes 22 years ago. A broken shoulder and hand in the summer of 1995 kept her from exercising, and every inactive day she spent inside her house seemed like another pound gained.
0 comments - Posted Sep 1, 1996
August 1996
Diabetes has affected my life since before I was born. You see, my father was diagnosed with diabetes in his early teen years. By the time I was born, chronic high blood sugars had done their devastating damage to him-he was nearly blind and in the advanced stages of diabetic kidney disease. He died of the latter complication when he was just over 30 years old. I was nearly 3 at the time and my older brother was five. My mother was left to raise us alone, and developed good deal of anger at the disease. I know many of us share that anger towards diabetes and how it has affected our lives.
0 comments - Posted Aug 1, 1996
July 1996
There has been much debate in recent years surrounding the use of animal vs. human insulin. Since the introduction of human insulin over 10 years ago, the reputation of animal insulin has taken a beating. Critics have derided it as an antiquated, impure and a less desirable alternative, and in many countries it has been taken off the market completely. This trend, however, may be unwarranted and depriving some people of an insulin which suits them best. New research is answering many questions about this controversy.
2 comments - Posted Jul 1, 1996
Though results from the DCCT study showed that intensive therapy can reduce complications of type I diabetes, it also showed that it can increase the chance of hypoglycemia.
0 comments - Posted Jul 1, 1996
Research from Finland indicates that high doses of ascorbic acid (vitamin C) helps people with type 2 diabetes maintain glycemic control.
1 comment - Posted Jul 1, 1996
People with diabetes who have trouble keeping their HbA1c levels down often have complex psychosocial problems within their families. A recent study, led by Christina Preis, showed that a diabetes education program which focuses on family therapy can help lower HbA1c levels and reduce the risk of severe hypoglycemic episodes.
0 comments - Posted Jul 1, 1996
The new fast acting Lispro insulin received FDA approval on June 17, thanks in part to a study presented during the American Diabetes Association's 56th annual scientific meetings.
0 comments - Posted Jul 1, 1996
A new study shows that providing physicians with glycated hemoglobin readings during patient visits can improve glycemic control in those patients.
0 comments - Posted Jul 1, 1996
An on-going follow-up study of the original DCCT patients found those with poor insurance coverage had poor blood glucose control.
0 comments - Posted Jul 1, 1996
Now that HMOs have become the most popular choice of health plan for employers, some employees-especially those with diabetes-have found themselves disappointed with the care they receive. Many HMOs do not provide lancets, blood test strips, alcohol swabs or syringes. Many do not cover the cost of specialists such as podiatrists or ophthalmologists.
0 comments - Posted Jul 1, 1996
June 1996
Reviewed by Bruce W. Bode, MD
0 comments - Posted Jun 1, 1996
April 1996
I have been sifting through the pages of several diabetes medical journals from all over the world over. My impressions are mixed. A very few articles are clear and significant for people with diabetes, while most are written only for a select few. These have titles so complicated, I have to get out the medical dictionary even to read them. I don't question their validity, but with titles such as "Anglotensin-converting enzyme polymorphism and development of diabetic nephropathy in non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus," it makes it difficult to know whether I'm looking at the next cure or maybe a stepping-stone for someone to get their next grant. I read through over 300 articles and selected the seven which follow. I felt these had relevant information to help people with diabetes make better informed choices.
1 comment - Posted Apr 1, 1996
In 1993 Terri Hopkins was diagnosed with diabetes and placed on insulin. Until only recently, Terri was miserable. Not only was she trying to accept her diabetes (a process that took about two years), but she gained weight. Her blood glucose levels averaged 260 mg/dl, and with an A1c of 9.8, she realized that she would never feel comfortable about having a baby.
1 comment - Posted Apr 1, 1996
March 1996
The FDA has given approval to a new drug for people with type 2 diabetes. Precose (acarbose tablets) received marketing clearance in September 1995.
0 comments - Posted Mar 1, 1996
February 1996
The big news of the day for me is that carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) is one of a group of muscular-skeletal manifestations common to diabetes. Most people know about retinopathy [eyes], nephropathy [kidneys], and neuropathy [nerves]. But many are not aware of this whole other group of degenerative problems that relate to the joints.
0 comments - Posted Feb 1, 1996
As a registered nurse and director of operations for the Southwest Organ Bank, Alison B. Smith was well-acquainted with type I diabetes long before she herself was diagnosed.
0 comments - Posted Feb 1, 1996
January 1996
Fluoxetine is the generic name for Prozac, the increasingly-popular antidepressant drug. A study published in Diabetic Medicine, May 1995, reported that fluoxetine may help elderly people with type 2 diabetes lose weight.
0 comments - Posted Jan 1, 1996
A recent study reported in the September 1995 issue of Diabetes Care by David S.H. Bell, MB, at the University of Alabama, may have answered a question long debated by diabetes researchers. It has been known for some time that long-term diabetes complications rarely occur before puberty. Whether this is a result of the short duration of diabetes before puberty or because pre-puberty diabetes simply does not cause complications has remained a controversial question.
0 comments - Posted Jan 1, 1996
If you think diabetes makes exercise an extra challenge, you may be right. A report published in the May 1995 Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise shows that people with type 2 diabetes "have a decreased exercise performance compared with non-diabetic subjects."
0 comments - Posted Jan 1, 1996
Although §-cells comprise just two percent of the gland, a study has found that children with diabetes have smaller pancreases than their healthy peers.
0 comments - Posted Jan 1, 1996
We hear about the hemoglobin A1c all the time, but a lot of people still wonder what it is.
0 comments - Posted Jan 1, 1996
December 1995
You reach a point in your life when it's time to set an awesome goal for yourself. I was at that point when I saw an ad for the California AIDS Ride 2, a seven-day bike ride from San Francisco to Los Angeles. They called it "the adventure of a lifetime," and they were right!
0 comments - Posted Dec 1, 1995
One day Don Brennen was windsurfing near the San Francisco Airport. The sport is a strenuous one, and when he began to lose his balance and feel disoriented, Brennen blamed it on the exertion combined with fumes from the airport. Luckily, he made it back to the beach and began to feel better.
0 comments - Posted Dec 1, 1995
Food is an important part of life, and it takes on extra significance when a person has diabetes.
0 comments - Posted Dec 1, 1995
November 1995
Precose, a new oral drug from Bayer, was recently granted market clearance by the FDA for the treatment of type 2 diabetes.
0 comments - Posted Nov 1, 1995
Q: I witnessed a problem that seemed related to the extreme heat at a sports camp in Tucson.
0 comments - Posted Nov 1, 1995
Do you have to be skinny to have good control? Not necessarily, according to a study at the University of Texas School of Allied Health Sciences in Galveston. Led by E. Ann Cabanas, researchers concluded that "consistent carbohydrate consumption in patients with type 2 diabetes is associated with improved glycemic control without regard to weight loss."
0 comments - Posted Nov 1, 1995
A study led by L.S. Griffith in St. Louis indicates that some patients with diabetes who believe they are having hypoglycemic incidents are actually suffering from a panic disorder.
0 comments - Posted Nov 1, 1995
October 1995
A company in Southern California has become the center of debate within the diabetes community. The company, Loran Medical Systems, is conducting studies involving fetal pancreatic tissue. More unusual than the science is the fact that patients are paying thousands of dollars to participate in clinical trials.
0 comments - Posted Oct 1, 1995
Most people don't think about their teeth until something goes wrong. Several dental journals have recently published reports about the effect of diabetes on oral health.
0 comments - Posted Oct 1, 1995
Glucose Meter Debate!
The following letters are from our new internet users group. Join us at diabetes@netcom.com.
0 comments - Posted Oct 1, 1995
There are hundreds of fresh and exciting products out there. Innovative diabetes supplies are hitting the market all the time. Here's a sampling of some of the new stuff you can get.
0 comments - Posted Oct 1, 1995
July 1995
Several prominent endocrinologists gathered in San Diego this past January to develop guidelines for prescribing metformin. Speaking at the American Diabetes Association Post-Graduate course were: Alan J. Garber, MD, PhD, of Houston's Baylor College of Medicine; Ralph A. DeFronzo, MD, Chief of the Diabetes Division of the University of Texas Health Center in San Antonio; and Jay S. Skyler, MD of Miami.
0 comments - Posted Jul 1, 1995
March 1995
Acarbose was found to be effective at reducing blood sugar in people with type 2 diabetes in research conducted at the Centre de Recherch/Hotel-Dieu de Montreal in Quebec.
0 comments - Posted Mar 1, 1995
As if the adolescent experience is not traumatic enough, a number of teens must also carry the burden of diabetes through those difficult years.
0 comments - Posted Mar 1, 1995
The DCA 2000, a clinical analyzer for the measurement of HbA1c levels, was tested by the Department of Clinical Biochemistry at the Royal London Hospital.
0 comments - Posted Mar 1, 1995
February 1995
The phenomena of hypoglycemic unawareness was studied in forty three people with type I diabetes in an attempt to find a common bond between people who lack hypoglycemic warning signs.
0 comments - Posted Feb 1, 1995
January 1995
A drop of 17.4 percent in triglyceride levels was obtained in a study conducted at the Medical Center Hospital and the Audie Murphy Veterans Hospital in San Antonio, TX.
0 comments - Posted Jan 1, 1995
November 1994
As many as 40.2 percent of women with type I diabetes between the ages of 15 and 30 intentionally take less insulin than they need. This is according to a study that took place at Joslin Diabetes Center in Boston and was published in Diabetes Care (October 1994).
0 comments - Posted Nov 1, 1994
October 1994
Phyllis Furst, RN, MA, CDE is a diabetes nurse educator in Long Island, New York. She is the Diabetes Education Director at the Endocrinology and Diabetes Associates of Long Island in Rockville Center, a 3 physician diabetes and endocrinology practice, and has had type I diabetes for 22 years.
0 comments - Posted Oct 1, 1994
September 1994
Researchers at Lapeyronie Hospital in Montpellier, France have studied the 7 cases of complications, out of 40 patients treated there with programmable implantable insulin pumps. Based on their study, they recommend that exercise should be limited to moderate exertion, and vigorous activity should be avoided to prevent an increases in the risk of pump-pocket complication.
0 comments - Posted Sep 1, 1994
August 1994
What the Papanececolaou (PAP) test did for preventing cancer in women the test for glyosylated hemoglobin A1c can do for controlling diabetes.
0 comments - Posted Aug 1, 1994
June 1994
The letters we received in response to Joan Hoover's article "The DCCT Offers Nothing to Diabetic Patients" were surprising in a number of ways. Firstly, they were primarily from health professionals: doctors, researchers, nurses. Secondly, almost all of them were opposing Ms. Hoover's viewpoint. We are printing the letters (some have been edited for length) because such a response deserves consideration, but also because the letters touch on many of the reasons behind the DCCT study. Also interesting is that each letter has a different view on the DCCT.
0 comments - Posted Jun 1, 1994
Metabolic Control Matters. These words by Dr Richard Eastman, director of the the diabetes program of the National Institutes of Health were meant to introduce the results of the Diabetes Control and Complications Trial 1, a 10 year study in almost 1500 patients that demonstrated a tight correlation of excellent control of blood glucose and a dramatic reduction in the risk of the complications of diabetes. This study leaves little room for doubt: if you want to prevent the devastating complications of diabetes you need to bring your blood glucose as close to normal as possible.
0 comments - Posted Jun 1, 1994
March 1994
Blood glucose awareness training (BGAT) is a patient education program designed to teach people who use insulin to estimate their blood glucose levels more accurately. It is specifically designed to help them recognize episodes of hypoglycemia. BGAT is a comprehensive, seven-class course which helps people identify and increase sensitivity to the symptoms of hyper- and hypoglycemia. The course also includes information on insulin, food, and exercise relating to extreme blood glucose levels.
0 comments - Posted Mar 1, 1994
November 1993
A new program in Germany, offering a specialized office-based teaching program for people with non-insulin dependent type 2 diabetes, has had markedly effective results. After completing the program, average body weight decreased by 2.8 kg (6.2 lbs.), average HbA1c levels decreased by .64%, the dose of oral medication was decreased by almost 50%, and the percentage of people treated with oral medication decreased by 21%. The program is taught in the physician's office, by the office staff, and is being paid for through health insurance. The cost is approximately $10 per person per session, plus $9 per person for learning materials. After the initial outlay of $49, the average savings per year due to reduced medication alone is approximately $13.20 per person, making the program cost effective in less than 4 years.
0 comments - Posted Nov 1, 1993
August 1993
It took years of refining my multiple injection techniques for me to get my blood sugars down to the levels achieved in the DCCT study. It was tough, but with monitoring 8-10 times/day I was able to lower my average blood sugars and my hemoglobin A1C tests. During this period I could not get health insurance and had to save money wherever I could. I would reuse my syringes until the markings rubbed off and I would cut my strips in half. (Don't try this now because today's meters don't work with cut strips.) Then for a brief period in 1989 I was part of a group health insurance plan that paid for durable medical equipment. This enabled me to afford purchasing an insulin pump.
0 comments - Posted Aug 1, 1993
A team of French researchers report the success of an experimental study involving the implantation of a programmable insulin pump in 214 patients with insulin-dependent diabetes. The pumps used in the study were the MiniMed MIP 2001, the Infusaid M1000, and the Promedos 3. The pumps were implanted into the abdominal wall, with catheters inserted into the peritoneum (the membrane sac lining the abdominal cavity).
0 comments - Posted Aug 1, 1993
In a study of 48 people with non-insulin dependent diabetes, 25 individuals who had exclusively used "Humulin" insulin, and 23 who had exclusively used "Novolin" insulin were "crossed over" to the opposite brand. There were no differences measured in mean blood glucose levels, HBA1c levels, hypoglycemic threshold, or frequency of hypoglycemia either within subject comparisons or between the two groups. The study concludes that brands of human insulin are interchangeable without special precautions, and that cost should generally dictate the choice of human insulin selected.
0 comments - Posted Aug 1, 1993
In a 28-week behavioral weight control program, 22 obese patients with non-insulin dependent diabetes (NIDDM) were recruited to determine the effects of self blood glucose monitoring (SBGM) in diabetes management. For the first eight weeks, all the participants met in weekly support groups. After eight weeks, the original group was divided in two, with the first half continuing the support groups, and the second adding SBGM and dietary carbohydrate counting. While the results in weight loss were identical for both groups, the study revealed that people in the support group experienced a substantial decline in HbA1c levels, followed by a rapid "rebound," while in the second group, HbA1c levels consistently declined. The results of the study suggest that SBGM and carbohydrate counting should be recognized as important tools in the management of non-insulin dependent as well as insulin-dependent diabetes.
0 comments - Posted Aug 1, 1993
A survey of 997 persons with insulin-dependent diabetes reports that, overall, 30.7% of the repondents polled had been uninsured at some point after their eighteenth birthday. Males are uninsured more frequently and for longer durations than females. In addition, 22% of all those uninsured reported that they had been denied health insurance, suggesting barriers to health insurance coverage.A study conducted by researchers in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and Franklin Lakes, New Jersey, suggests that the availability of HbgA1c data makes a significant difference in clinical decision-making. In a sample of 70 insulin-dependent patients, the availability of HbgA1c data before therapeutic decision-making resulted in a significant changes made in insulin adjustment and treatment regimens.
0 comments - Posted Aug 1, 1993
In light of the results of the DCCT, Dr. Barry Ginsberg has written a three-part series on intensive insulin therapy. Look for the continuation of Dr. Ginsberg's "How to Understand and Use Insulin" in future issues.
0 comments - Posted Aug 1, 1993
In an effort to assist the rapidity and accessibility of HbgA1c testing, researchers from Redwood City and Fresno, California report the development of a new, simple and rapid office method of glycohemoglobin measurement. Using only 10 microliters of blood collected into a disposable cappilary tube, the test is able to determine the level of glycosylated hemoglobin in less than ten minutes. To determine the accuracy of the new method, the results of 130 samples were compared to a commercial semiautomated method (Helena Laboratories, Column-Mate), and a high degree of correlation was found. Given the importance of the HbgA1c test in the management of diabetes, the immediate feedback potential of this new proceedure may prove to be extremely useful in clinical decision-making.
0 comments - Posted Aug 1, 1993
July 1993
For the last ten years the DCCT has been a big part of the participants' lives, affecting everything from what they eat to how they control their diabetes. The study is over now; the doctors have proven the effectiveness of intensive therapy, they have told us that tight control is the new standard in diabetes care. But they have not told us what the new therapies are like and how they affect our day to day life. For that we must talk to the participants themselves. We contacted eleven of the patients for their insights on the study and the therapies they used.
0 comments - Posted Jul 1, 1993
June 1993
A survey involving over 1400 family-practice and general-practice physicians, internists, and pediatricians suggests that less than one third of the non-specializing physicians who treat people with diabetes agree with the "acceptable ranges" for blood glucose and HbA1c levels recommended by the American Diabetes Association (ADA). The three designated "acceptable ranges" are: fasting blood glucose levels between 70-120 mg/dl; two hour post-meal blood glucose levels less than 180 mg/dl, and HbA1c levels less than or equal to 8%.
0 comments - Posted Jun 1, 1993
January 1993
Even after participating in an intensive treatment and training program, it has been found that smoking and low-level education are indicators of poor metabolic control in people who have been newly diagnosed with type I diabetes. This study was conducted by researchers from the Department of Metabolic Disease and Nutrition, Dusseldorf, Germany.
0 comments - Posted Jan 1, 1993
December 1992
January 1991
Improved blood sugar control, smoking cessation and aggressive blood pressure treatment are mainstays for preventing or treating the development of kidney disease in people with diabetes. Increasingly, physicians are also turning to a class of drugs called ACE inhibitors to slow the progression of kidney disease in their patients.
1 comment - Posted Jan 1, 1991
January 1970
Because we have good health insurance, my son sees his endocrinologist twice a year, his diabetes health educator twice a year, and his nutritionist once a year. Meanwhile, he sees his school nurse one to three times a day. As you know, this relationship can make a difference for the rest of a child's life.
6 comments - Posted Jan 1, 1970