topic Re: more diabetes news in Wellness

more diabetes news

cherry — Tue, 10 Apr 2018 10:43:02 GMT

Re: more diabetes news

cherry — Tue, 10 Apr 2018 10:15:11 GMT

Ronny Jackson has been named head of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. He has no experience in hospital management but hopefully a system led by a physician can focus attention on chronic illnesses such as diabetes.

There are 29.1 million Americans who are currently diagnosed with diabetes, of these half have a significant hearing loss statistically. In the veteran’s population, diabetes is three times more prevalent than in the general population. Around 25 percent of those who receive care at the VA are diagnosed with this chronic disease.

Although those who work with diabetes and hearing loss may know the link, it is not widely known in the medical community. Hearing loss is not screened enough by primary physicians. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has recommended annual checks with the dentists, podiatrist and ophthalmologist for many years but only added this year a hearing exam by an audiologist as part of the follow-up recommendations. But there also needs to be recognition from The American Diabetes Association as well.

In the medical community, we are increasing our outreach and education when it comes to diabetes as it costs our country, an estimated at $327 billion, $237 billion due to increased medical costs. The VA provides benefits to 1.45 million vets who have diabetes, which is 6 percent of those diagnosed with diabetes in the United States.

We need to support legislation to make the public aware of the link between diabetes and hearing loss.

There are Senate and House bills, S.2575 sponsored by Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and HR 2276 sponsored by Rep. Tom Rice (R-S.C.). These bipartisan bills named Audiology Patient Choice Act would ensure seniors and those with disabilities on Medicare have direct access to hearing and balance health care services from licensed audiologists.

The passage of these bills would help people get treatment faster and more affordably. This would also decrease the overall burden on insurance costs as well by taking out unnecessary referrals.

Currently, there is an extra layer of barriers because a medical doctor, doctor of osteopathy or nurse practitioner have to refer a patient for a medical diagnosis, such as diabetes. The VA system doesn’t require a referral. Of all reported health issues, hearing loss is in the top fourreported from military service members and veterans.

If audiologists had to wait to get referrals within the VA system, the wait time to have hearing exams and help would double. Why wouldn’t we want the same pathway to direct care in the public sector? These bills would give people direct access to hearing healthcare.

Most endocrinologists and primary care physicians are unaware of the effects of decreased hearing with diabetes. I recently have signed on as a state cohort for Arizona and topic speaker with The Audiology Projectheaded by Kathy Dowd, AuD. Dowd works tirelessly on promoting hearing health.

Along with my own work as a doctor of Audiology, with those with hearing loss these past 28 years, I now have easier access to years of work and research connecting diabetes and the connection to hearing loss while working with other disciplines such as podiatry, dental, vision and neurology.

I recently diagnosed a sensorineural hearing loss in a 13-year-old boy who just found out he had Type 1 Diabetes. His blood sugar count was 573. He only came to have his hearing checked by chance because I knew his mother and let her know about the connection of hearing loss and diabetes.

Audiologists are first and foremost the experts in hearing protection, diagnosis and rehabilitation.

The barrier to medical care must be lifted with the passage of these bills, but also every person who has diabetes should have their hearing monitored annually to see if there is a progressive hearing loss. Physicians recommend vision, podiatry, dental and risk of fall, it is time that hearing loss has the same respect.

Dr. Judy Huch, an Audiologist is a private practice owner, community advocate, commissioner for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing for the State of Arizona and a public voices fellow with The OpEd Project.

Re: more diabetes news

cherry — Tue, 10 Apr 2018 10:31:01 GMT

Doctors using hyperbaric oxygen therapy to treat diabetes, cancer patients

PUBLISHED: APR 9TH, 2018 - 1:45AM (EDT)

LAKE CHARLES, La. (KPLC) — Chambers filled with nothing but oxygen are helping patients — especially those with chronic, non-healing wounds — heal.

We are typically exposed to about 23 percent oxygen in the earth's atmosphere. But in these chambers, patients fill their bodies and open wounds with nothing but 100 percent oxygen.

Registered nurse Denise Peshoff says at the Lake Charles Memorial Hospital in Louisiana, if patients with non-healing wounds don't improve within four weeks, they'll start treatment in the chamber.

"We put them under pressure at two atmospheres and what happens is that 100 percent oxygen is pushed into the body," said Peshoff. "So it goes into the plasma so where they normally don't have a good amount of blood flow, they do with this."

Peshoff said diabetes patients can have calcified veins, making blood flow difficult, especially to the lower extremities.

The treatment is mostly used for patients suffering from diabetic issues, open sores, or recovering from an amputation. But it's also used as a preventative measure for cancer patients.

"Patients who have received radiation therapy ... they can develop wounds later on," Peshoff said. "They can bump their leg in an area that's been previously radiated, and then it won't heal."

Peshoff says they can put those patients in a chamber for treatments, get oxygen to the area, and help the healing process.

Hyperbaric chambers have been around for years, but doctors are still working to find out everything the chambers are capable of doing.

Re: more diabetes news

cherry — Tue, 10 Apr 2018 10:35:24 GMT

Researchers investigate the role of arsenic in the development of diabetes March 10th, 2018A five-year, $2.7 million grant from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences will help researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago answer basic questions about the role of arsenic in the development of diabetes and examine the mechanisms by which selenoproteins - found in the human body in 25 different forms - counter the effects of arsenic.

Diabetes is a metabolic disease characterized by either a lack of adequate insulin or insulin resistance, which can cause dangerous spikes in blood sugar levels, as well as long-term complications such as blindness, kidney failure, amputations and cardiovascular disease. It is projected that diabetes will affect more than 693 million people globally by 2045.

Recent evidence has implicated environmental pollutants, including arsenic, in the development of diabetes, but little is known about how arsenic exerts this effect.

Arsenic currently contaminates drinking water sources used by more than 100 million people globally. More groundwater sources are expected to be affected by arsenic due to fracking, which produces arsenic-tainted wastewater that can seep into underground aquifers, explained Dr. Robert Sargis, assistant professor in the division of endocrinology, diabetes and metabolism in the UIC College of Medicine and principal investigator on the grant.

"We really need to know how arsenic affects the cells that produce insulin in the pancreas and identify factors that might counteract arsenic, such as selenoproteins, which we know have a protective effect, but what we don't know is exactly how they do this," he said.

Sargis and colleagues will use the grant to examine how arsenic behaves in pancreatic beta cells - the cells that produce insulin. They will also look at how arsenic exposure affects mice that selectively lack selenoproteins in their beta cells. Using synchrotron X-ray fluorescence microscopy, they will map the locations of arsenic and selenium in beta cells.

"By looking at the locations of these two players in beta cells at very high resolution, we should be able to learn more about how arsenic poisons beta cells and how selenoproteins protect or mitigate the damage caused by arsenic in these cells," Sargis said.

The researchers will also examine the function of a specific selenoprotein implicated in an increased risk for diabetes - glutathione peroxidase - to determine how it impacts arsenic-induced beta cell dysfunction.

Finally, they will examine whether selenoprotein polymorphisms - differences in the DNA that code for these proteins - might alter the impact of arsenic on beta cells and overall metabolism in mice.

"If our studies find that there is a specific selenoprotein polymorphism that causes an increased risk for diabetes, and if we later find that polymorphism in a specific population, we could develop interventions to lower exposure to arsenic in these populations or develop interventions to boost good selenoproteins," Sargis explained.

Provided by University of Illinois at Chicago

Re: more diabetes news

cherry — Tue, 10 Apr 2018 10:41:12 GMT

Heart Disease and Diabetes Risks Tied to Carbs, Not Fat, Study Finds

By Christopher Wanjek | December 2, 2014 06:55am ET

Credit: Vince Clements/Shutterstock.com

Is the pendulum swinging back? In what seems contrary to mainstream dietary advice, a small new study shows that doubling the saturated fat in a person's diet does not drive up the levels of saturated fat in the blood.

Rather, the study found that it was the carbohydrates in people's diets that were linked with increased levels of a type of fatty acid linked to heart disease and type-2 diabetes. The results of the study, which followed 16 middle-aged, obese adults for 21 weeks, were published Nov. 21 in the journal PLOS ONE.

Saturated fats, largely from meat and dairy products, have been vilified for decades as a primary culprit in promoting heart disease. And most health authorities maintain this stance.

However, in recent years, scientists have seen the ill effects of completely replacing saturated fat with carbohydrates, particularly the simple carbs that are found so commonly in processed foods. A large analysis published in 2009 in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that swapping saturated fats with carbs had no benefit in reducing people's risk of heart disease. But replacing those so-called bad fats with polyunsaturated fats — found in fish, olives and nuts — did.

"The unintended consequence of telling everyone to restrict fat was that people ate an even greater amount of carbohydrates," said Jeff Volek, senior author on the new study and a professor of human sciences at The Ohio State University. "This is a fact. It's not a stretch to make the connection between overconsumption of carbs and the obesity and diabetes epidemic."

The new study "challenges the conventional wisdom that has demonized saturated fat," Volek said, because it shows that saturated fats don't need to be replaced at all, neither with carbs nor polyunsaturated fats. [7 Foods You Can Overdose On]

The study, it should be noted, was funded by a grant from the Dairy Research Institute, the National Cattlemen's Beef Association, the Egg Nutrition Center, and the Robert C. and Veronica Atkins Foundation, although the researchers reported that the funders had no role in the study design or decision to publish the research.

For the analysis, researchers placed 16 participants on a tightly controlled diet of fats and carbs. The participants were on their own high-carb, low-fat diets before entering the study. For the first three weeks of the study, they doubled or tripled their saturated-fat intake, consuming 84 grams of saturated fats, and 47 grams of carbs per day. Researchers found no jump in the levels of saturated fat in the blood during this phase.

Then, every three weeks after this, the dieters decreased the fat and increased their carb intake, ending the study on a diet of 32 grams of saturated fat and 346 grams of carbs per day. The final phase modeled U.S. dietary recommendations for carbs and included whole grains.

"You can sort of think of this experiment as a dose-response study, where we exposed individuals to a range of dietary carb levels and monitored their fatty-acid levels to determine if they were accumulating saturated fatty acids and turning carbs into fat," Volek told Live Science.

The researchers found that as the amount of dietary fat was decreased, there were no changes in the levels of saturated fat in the participants' blood. But one kind of fatty acid, called palmitoleic acid, did progressively increase.

"Higher proportions of palmitoleic acid in blood or adipose tissue are consistently associated with a myriad of undesirable outcomes, such as obesity, …inflammation, metabolic syndrome, type 2 diabetes, coronary disease, heart failure, and incidence and aggressiveness of prostate cancer," the researchers wrote.

Dr. Dariush Mozaffarian, dean of the Friedman School of Nutrition Science & Policy at Tufts University, who was not involved in the research, described the work as a well-controlled interventional study confirming that dietary refined carbohydrate is the primary driver of circulating saturated fatty acids in the bloodstream.

"White bread, rice, cereals, potatoes, and sugars — not saturated fat — are the real culprits in our food supply," he Mozaffarian.

Dr. Walter Willett, the chair of the Department of Nutrition at Harvard School of Public Health, also thought this was a reasonably done study, but he added it is difficult to make conclusions about the risk of heart disease from a study so small and short.

"Basically in their study they are comparing two bad diets, and the adverse of carbohydrates is likely to be particularly serious in the obese and insulin resistant population that they studied," Willett said.

We know from many long-term studies, Willet added, that replacing saturated fats from red meat and dairy with vegetable fats high in polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats will reduce risks of heart disease. This is characteristic of the Mediterranean diet.

Also, other studies have shown beneficial properties of dietary palmitoleic acid, and its role in health remains an open question.

Follow Christopher Wanjek @wanjek for daily tweets on health and science with a humorous edge. Wanjek is the author of "Food at Work" and "Bad Medicine." His column, Bad Medicine, appears regularly on LiveScience.

Re: more diabetes news

cherry — Tue, 10 Apr 2018 11:09:18 GMT

Dietary advice to switch saturated fats to carbs or omega 6 fats is based on flawed data, a researcher has claimed.

Diets low in saturated fat won't curb heart disease risk or help you live longer, according to an editorial from a US scientist.

Dr DiNicolantonio argues that carbohydrates are to blame for the surge in diabetes and obesity in America. He suggests that a low carb diet is better for weight loss and claims there is no conclusive proof that a low fat diet cuts cardiovascular risk.

To look after our hearts long term, we should look at our diet as a whole.

Our Senior Heart Health Dietitian, Victoria Taylor, said: “As research into diet and coronary heart disease has developed, so too has our understanding of fats and cholesterol. Over the years, advice has changed from cutting out all fat to focussing on types of fats.

“In the UK, our intake of total fat meets the recommended levels but we eat too much saturated fat, so there is still work to be done. That’s why we still need to swap saturated fats like lard and butter for unsaturated fats such as plant oils, nuts, seeds and oily fish.

“There have been many column inches devoted to the saturated fat debate in recent months, but fat is just one element of our diet. To look after our hearts long term, we should look at our diet as a whole. Eating a Mediterranean style diet rich in fruit, veg, pulses and fish will help lower cholesterol and reduce the risk of coronary heart disease.”

Re: more diabetes news

cherry — Tue, 10 Apr 2018 12:38:32 GMT

People with prediabetes and low thyroid function were more than twice as likely to progress to full-blown type 2 diabetes compared to those with normal thyroid-hormone levels in a new study1 published September 30 in the journal BMC Medicine.

For the study, researchers from the Erasmus Medical Center in the Netherlands followed 8,492 adults, ages 54 to 74, for nearly eight years. At the start, 1,338 had prediabetes and 7,114 had normal blood sugar levels. After 7.9 years, 798 had developed type 2 diabetes. Overall, low thyroid function—even in the low-normal range—increased risk for diabetes by 13%. But among those with prediabetes, the risk for progressing to type 2 diabetes ranged from 15% for those with normal thyroid function to 35% for those with signs of low function. Even “low normal” thyroid functioning increased risk.

It’s the first large study to track low and low-normal thyroid function and diabetes risk. “There are no other studies addressing the relation between diabetes and thyroid function in the euthyroid range or in individuals with prediabetes,” the researchers note. Lead study author Layal Chaker, MD2 a Research and Curriculum Fellow at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and a research fellow in the Department of Endocrinology and Epidemiology at the Erasmus Medical Center told EndocrineWeb that its too soon to recommend thyroid screening tests for people with prediabetes. And while treating low thyroid can help people with type 2 control their blood sugar, it’s not known whether treatment could prevent or delay it. “Our findings suggest that screening in people with prediabetes could be considered for further research,” Dr. Chaker said.

“There are many ways in which low thyroid hormone levels can increase the risk of diabetes,” he said. “First of all, thyroid hormones are crucial for our body’s metabolism and energy expenditure. Low thyroid hormone levels are associated with higher Body Mass Index, which in turn is a risk factor for diabetes.”

But there seems to be a deeper connection. “When we account for [BMI] in our analyses we still see an association of thyroid hormone levels with the risk of diabetes, especially in individuals with glucose levels within the prediabetic range,” he says. “Thyroid hormone is also directly involved in control of insulin secretion and glucose homeostasis. Hypothyroidism is associated with decreased insulin sensitivity and glucose tolerance and treatment of hypothyroidism has shown to improve these effects. The exact mechanism or mechanisms that are involved in the association need to be investigated.”

Participants in the study are all part of the large, on-going Rotterdam Study tracking the development of age-related diseases in residents of Ommoord, a large neighborhood in the Dutch city of Rotterdam. Volunteers’ thyroid status had already been checked by measuring levels of thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) and thyroxine (also called T4). Elevated TSH and reduced T4 indicate low thyroid function.

If further research confirms a connection, in the future people with prediabetes and low or low-normal thyroid function might be more strongly encouraged to adopt healthy lifestyle changes to prevent prediabetes or even begin diabetes treatment or thyroid treatment sooner, the researchers note.

Re: more diabetes news

sidsmom — Tue, 10 Apr 2018 13:57:06 GMT

This is a good video directly mentioning diabetes & hearing loss.

https://youtu.be/NX4y2fAYg_w

Re: more diabetes news

cherry — Tue, 10 Apr 2018 15:37:58 GMT

February 9, 2018) -- The DRI’s reputation as a leader in translational research has reached across the Atlantic to several countries like Spain, where an ongoing student exchange program has given Dr. Juan Dominguez-Bendala, head of the cell supply and islet regeneration program, frequent opportunities to share his expertise. In January, Dr. Bendala made stops in both Madrid and Seville to speak to students in his home country – and others interested in a diabetes research – about some exciting progress.

He kicked off his trip at the University of Francisco de Vitoria in Spain’s capital city, where he was invited to host a four-hour seminar for medical students focused on translational medicine. He was later invited to speak in his hometown of Seville to provide a general overview of the DRI’s contributions to and next steps in developing a biological cure for type 1 diabetes.

DRI researchers have already shown that islet cell transplantation has the ability to restore natural insulin production in people with type 1 diabetes (T1D). However, the shortage of donor organs from which the islets are isolated, among other challenges, has limited the treatment to only the most severe cases of T1D. Dr. Bendala and his team are focused on finding alternative sources of islets to address the cell supply issue and have been making significant progress, especially most recently.

“One of the milestones that we have achieved over the past year is the characterization of a novel population of stem cells that we have found inside the human pancreas, and that we think we can potentially stimulate without the need for transplantation,” said Dr. Bendala. “We have analyzed these cells, we have found exactly where they live in the pancreas, and have submitted these results for publication.”

As previously published, the researchers used a naturally occurring protein, bone morphogenetic protein 7 (BMP-7), to demonstrate that those stem cells within the non-endocrine tissue in the pancreas can become new islets when cultured in a lab. In itself, that discovery could open the door to transplanting multiple patients from a single organ. However, additional observations about these pancreatic stem cells led the team to extensively test the ability to regenerate a patient’s own islets, eliminating the need for donor organs altogether.

Speaking to a very timely topic, Dr. Bendala also covered their work on another major breakthrough for the field – making the use of transplanted embryonic stem cells safer for patients.

“We are already witnessing the first human clinical trials with human embryonic stem cells and the potential for these cells to form tumors is something that has been acknowledged in the field. We are tackling this challenge by genetically engineering these cells to contain suicide genes that may get rid of tumors. We have shown that we can prevent altogether the formation of tumors that derive from human embryonic stem cells,” said Dr. Bendala.

The significant findings from both of these research studies were recently submitted for publication in peer-reviewed journals.

Dr. Dominguez-Bendala’s visit to Spain and research update also attracted the attention of several of the country’s major media outlets, which covered his talks extensively.

Re: more diabetes news

cherry — Tue, 10 Apr 2018 15:41:23 GMT

HANGIN THERE @Trinity11 a cure might be just around the corner for you..for the rest of us as well

Re: more diabetes news

Trinity11 — Tue, 10 Apr 2018 15:49:05 GMT

@cherry wrote:
HANGIN THERE @Trinity11 a cure might be just around the corner for you..for the rest of us as well

Thanks @cherry. I worry about my children and pray there is a cure in their lifetime.

Re: more diabetes news

cherry — Tue, 10 Apr 2018 15:50:39 GMT

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eXft3cfed20

Try this link @Trinity11 I hope it works for you..It is a video about the new research the Dr is doing

Re: more diabetes news

cherry — Tue, 10 Apr 2018 16:09:04 GMT

This is exciting news for all diabetics, particularly type 1

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ydhmash1N_A

Re: more diabetes news

cherry — Wed, 11 Apr 2018 10:51:03 GMT

Studies have found an association between insufficient sleep and the development of insulin resistance, one of the factors that cause type 2 diabetes, and now researchers have discovered a biological reason for this relationship, at least in men: an imbalance between their testosterone and cortisol hormones. The study results will be presented Sunday at ENDO 2018, the Endocrine Society's 100th annual meeting in Chicago, Ill.

"Our highly controlled sleep study showed that even one night of restricted sleep can cause insulin resistance and that we can dampen this effect by controlling levels of these two important hormones," said senior investigator Peter Y. Liu, M.B.B.S., Ph.D., a professor of medicine with the Los Angeles Biomedical (LA BioMed) Research Institute at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, Torrance, Calif.

Insulin resistance occurs when the body does not properly use the hormone insulin. Testosterone is the main anabolic, or muscle-building, hormone, whereas cortisol -- often called the "stress hormone" -- helps catabolism, or breaking down energy and fat stores for use, Liu explained. Past research shows that sleep loss reduces a man's testosterone levels and increases cortisol levels.

Liu and his fellow researchers conducted five nights of sleep studies in 34 healthy men with an average age of 33. They controlled what the subjects ate and how much they slept, giving them 10 hours of sleep the first night and restricting them to four hours of sleep the remaining nights. The study received funding from the National Institutes of Health and the Clinical and Translational Research Center at LA BioMed.

In this "crossover" study, the men served as their own controls. In one series of sleep studies, they received three medications: ketoconazole, which switches off the body's production of testosterone and cortisol; testosterone gel; and oral hydrocortisone, a synthetic form of cortisol. The doses of testosterone and hydrocortisone were in the midrange of levels that the body normally produces, according to Liu. This arm of the study was called a dual "clamp" because it stopped the body's production of these two hormones and then gave them a fixed amount of the hormones, thus clamping levels in a normal hormonal balance, he said.

In another set of experiments, the men received inactive placebos that matched the medications. The order of when they received the clamp and the placebo was random, with a two-week interval between the study conditions. The morning after the first and last nights of each part of the study, all men took the oral glucose tolerance test, in which they gave blood samples while fasting and again after drinking a sugary drink. This test result allowed the researchers to calculate each man's insulin resistance using standard measures, including the Matsuda Index.

After sleep restriction, this index reportedly showed greater insulin resistance with both the clamp and the placebo. However, Liu said this increase was significantly dampened, or less severe, with the dual-clamp, demonstrating that testosterone and cortisol reduced the negative effects of sustained sleep restriction on insulin resistance.

"Maintaining hormonal balance could prevent metabolic ill health occurring in individuals who do not get enough sleep," he said. "Understanding these hormonal mechanisms could lead to new treatments or strategies to prevent insulin resistance due to insufficient sleep."

Story Source:

Materials provided by The Endocrine Society. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.

Re: more diabetes news

cherry — Wed, 11 Apr 2018 10:52:03 GMT

Claiming the lives of some 4,500 Jamaicans in 2006 alone, diabetes continues to plague the nation's people today.

Joining host Dr Sara Lawrence for episode three of Doctor's Appointment, Season Three, was diabetes expert Professor Michael Boyne, senior lecturer in endocrinology and metabolism at University of the West Indies, Mona, who debunked myths about the disease and offered sound advice for those affected by the illness.

Caused by a spike in blood-glucose levels, or excessive sugar in the blood, diabetes causes a person's body to have a delayed reaction to the hormone that regulates glucose, insulin. This disease is often hereditary, passed on through genes, brought on by lifestyle choices, such as diet, exercise or stress level, related to a person's age or developed as a side effect of other drugs/medication.

Diabetes has two main types:

- Type 1 - called insulin-dependence or youth-onset diabetes, and Type 2, called adult onset/non-insulin dependent diabetes. Type 1 often affects children and young people, causing their insulin levels to drop to as low as zero and forcing them to rely on taking insulin for survival. Research shows that this condition has no gender preference as it affects both men and women equally.

- Type 2 - more commonly found in adults where insulin levels are inconsistent and oftentimes stem from lifestyle choices. Afflicting the lives of women more than men, type two is greatly attributed to weight gain as well.

Prof Boyne explains that the average Jamaican woman is heavier or bigger in size than the average Jamaican man, and so is more at risk. He goes on to explain that if a woman is age 45 and gaining weight, she has an even higher chance of developing diabetes.

Another form, gestational diabetes, happens in the middle of a woman's pregnancy, causing her to have rising sugar levels. Prof Boyne assures that this form only affects the mother and not the child.

COMMON SYMPTOMS

Some common symptoms associated with diabetes include:

- Surging sugar levels

- Frequent urination

- Overeating coupled with rapid weight loss

- More infections

- Fatigue

- Having cuts that either take longer to or don't heal

Prof Boyne says in some diabetics, the symptoms take longer to develop, while others may not show symptoms at all. The condition also has unique manifestations, for instance, if a woman gives birth to a baby that weighs more than nine pounds, she may be showing signs of this disease.

Diabetes also has the tendency to lead to other maladies or health risks, such as:

- stroke

- heart attack

- the need for amputations

- kidney failure

- blindness.

Every part of the body is affected when someone has diabetes.

INHERITED TRAITS

The appointment continued with Lurlene Less, chairperson of the Diabetic Association of Jamaica and managing director of the Renal Unit, who joined Dr Lawrence on set to relate her own experience with the disease.

Less has been living with Type 1 diabetes for some 30 years, having been diagnosed in her early 20s. She explains that she developed diabetic neuropathy, which is nerve damage resulting in severe pains in arms and legs.

Less was never overweight, but her mother has Type 2 diabetes and so inherited the traits of the condition genetically.

But to conquer her illness, Less says management is key. To remain on top of her health she must take a number of precautions, including testing her blood sugar levels regularly, eating on time, taking medication, doing an A1 test twice a year, along with exercise and other physical activities. Yet, for Less these few steps mean a more fulfilled life.

One of her main concerns is the number of people who outrightly deny they have the condition and so refuse to seek treatment. This can lead to persons deteriorating more quickly and running the risk of developing other maladies in the process.

Less further explains that women who have diabetes have a higher probability of having a high-risk pregnancy.

TREATMENT OPTIONS

Prof Boyne joined the conversation with Less and Dr Lawrence to discuss treatment options for diabetics. Both guests suggest that persons living with the disease:

- Maintain a regular routine of monitoring their blood sugar levels

- Maintain healthy weight and diet

- Develop a manageable exercise regime

- Get enough sleep

- Reduce stress.

- Taking one of the more than 20 medications available to regulate insulin levels, or take insulin itself to maintain healthy blood-glucose levels.

The 6 p.m. Dr's Appointment Facebook live segment, season three's new feature, saw viewers talking directly with another of Jamaica's top consultants, Marshall Tulloch-Reid, Professor of Epidemiology and Endocrinology and Director of the Epidemiology Research Unit, Tropical Medicine Research Institute, The University of the West Indies.

PRACTICAL ADVICE

As in all the appointments, the experts gave viewers practical advice, such as:

- read widely

- visit the Diabetic Association of Jamaica, where diabetics can find a team of supportive and qualified persons versed in diabetic education and training.

- diabetics are encouraged to learn the ABCs of diabetes, namely: A1c testing, blood pressure checking and cholesterol control.

Re: more diabetes news

cherry — Wed, 11 Apr 2018 10:58:11 GMT

My Dr(endocrine) mentioned to me, that lack of a good nights sleep, will give you a high morning BS reading

I have had stomach issues for over a year, that are slowly getting better, but my morning blood sugar readings were always a lot higher, than prior to my digestive issues

It has been slowy coming down, since I am not wakened every 2 hrs , and need to take meds to calm it down, so I can go back to sleep

Today, my reading was 110 ,the lowest it has been in a year. I hope I can keep it at this level, I was only wakened once last night..so many things, that have nothing to do with food, can affect us

Re: more diabetes news

cherry — Thu, 12 Apr 2018 10:50:56 GMT

Although green tea has been getting most of the attention lately for its myriad health benefits, accumulating research shows that black tea offers advantages, too. The latest revelation: black tea’s ability to blunt increases in blood sugar. 1

A new study has found that black tea significantly reduces rises in blood glucose levels among both healthy and pre-diabetic adults, in this case after consuming a sugary drink. 1

“We demonstrated that black tea reduced incremental blood glucose after sucrose consumption at 60, 90 and 120 minutes compared with placebo,” wrote the authors of the study, which appears in the Asia Pacific Journal of Clinical Nutrition. 1

“The data confirm that polyphenols lower glycemic response and may be responsible for the lower rates of diabetes observed with tea and coffee consumption,” said Peter Clifton, M.D., PhD., professor of nutrition at the University of South Australia in Adelaide, who recently conducted a review of the role of dietary polyphenols (in tea, cinnamon, coffee, chocolate, pomegranate, red wine and olive oil, among others) in regulating glucose homeostasis and insulin sensitivity, published in Nutrients. 2, 3

The Polyphenol Power of Tea

Indeed, the major bioactive compounds in black tea are polyphenols—naturally occurring antioxidants abundant in plant foods (and drinks) that are said to promote health and protect against a range of diseases. 4

Black, green and oolong teas are all made from the plant Camellia Sinensis. Green tea, which is minimally oxidized, contains simple flavonoids called catechins. During the process of making black tea, which is more fully oxidized, the catechins convert to complex flavonoids known as theaflavins and thearubigens, and research has shown that theaflavins and thearubigens maintain substantial anti-oxidant, anti-inflammatory, anti-cancer and anti-hypertensive properties. 5

“The new study confirms the findings of a number of biological, physiological, clinical, epidemiological and ecological studies suggesting a positive effect of black tea consumption on diabetes prevention and clinical diabetes,” said Ariel Beresniak, M.D., PhD., chief executive officer of Data Mining International in Geneva and lead author of a large global study on black tea and health published in the British Medical Journal. 5,6

That study, which involved data from 50 countries around the world, found that countries with the highest levels of black tea consumption—Ireland followed by the United Kingdom, Turkey and Russia—were associated with the lowest incidence of type 2 diabetes. The U.S. ranked close to the bottom of the list of black-tea drinking countries. 5

Proving Cause and Effect

Still, the new study doesn’t prove cause and effect, Dr. Beresniak said, adding that more causality research needs to be done on the glucose-control benefits of black tea. 6

While black tea extracts have been shown in laboratory experiments to block carbohydrate absorption and to suppress postprandial blood glucose in animal studies, the authors of the latest report said they undertook their study because of the relative dearth of clinical research on the effects of black tea on postprandial glycemic control in humans. 1

The authors also noted that keeping blood sugar in check after meals is a critical but simple way to help prevent diabetes, and that black tea, regarded as a functional food, may be useful to that end. 1

Tea, after water, is the most widely consumed beverage in the world. About 78% of the tea produced worldwide is black and is used primarily in Europe and North America; about 20% is green and is consumed mostly in Asian countries; and about 2% is oolong, which undergoes a level of oxidation somewhere in between green and black teas and is favored in China and Taiwan. 7

As of 2015, 415 million people in the world—one of 11 adults—have diabetes, according to the Brussels-based International Diabetes Federation. By 2040, that number is expected to climb to 642 million. An estimated 318 million worldwide have impaired glucose tolerance, or prediabetes. 8

The U.S. leads the developed world in diabetes, with more than 29 million cases among adults, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. About 86 million adults in the country—more than one-third of the population—have pre-diabetes, a serious health condition that increases the risk of developing type 2 diabetes as well as other chronic diseases. The vast majority of those with pre-diabetes (90%) don’t know they have it. 9

Re: more diabetes news

cherry — Thu, 12 Apr 2018 10:52:24 GMT

With commentary by lead study author Laurent Azoulay, PhD, associate professor, centre for clinical epidemiology, at Jewish General Hospital, in Montreal.

For years, a drug used to treat diabetes has been linked to an increased risk of bladder cancer, but the research to support a strong association had been lacking. Now a new study reveals strong evidence that pioglitazone does in fact increase the risk of bladder cancer, and that the increased risk can occur as quickly as about 22 months on the drug.

Warnings from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration about the risk of bladder cancer from pioglitazone were issued in 2011. The FDA warned that the use of the medication pioglitazone (Actos, Oseni, Duetact) for more than one year may be associated with an increased risk of bladder cancer, and advised those with bladder cancer not to take it. But the agency stopped short of recommending that others avoid it, even those with increased risk of the cancer. The drug remains on the market, and some of the drugs containing pioglitazone have been approved since the 2011 warning.

Researchers from Canada set out to conduct a study that avoided some of the weaknesses of past research, such as past use of medications or existing bladder cancer in subjects. They conducted a large, population-based study of more than 145,800 patients from the UK, and compared the use of pioglitazone with rosiglitazone (Avandia), which is in the same class of drugs called thiazolidinediones, as well as other diabetes drugs.

The study, published in The BMJ, included patients who were given diabetes drugs for the first time between 2000 (the year pioglitazone and rosiglitazone entered the UK market) and 2013. Patients were followed by a mean of 4.7 years. The authors excluded all patients with a diagnosis of bladder cancer and created a one-year lag time to make sure that patients did not have bladder cancer that hadn’t yet been diagnosed.

Compared with taking no thiazolidinedione, the use of pioglitazone was associated with a 63 percent increased risk of bladder cancer. The risk increased with higher doses and length of time on the drug. In contrast, the use of rosiglitazone was not associated with an increased risk of bladder cancer in any analysis.

When pioglitazone was compared to rosiglitazone head to head, pioglitazone was associated with a 48 percent increased risk of bladder cancer compared to rosiglitazone.

“We believe that our findings are quite compelling,” says Laurent Azoulay, PhD, associate professor, centre for clinical epidemiology, at Jewish General Hospital, in Montreal. “Given their similarities, any bias observed with pioglitazone would have also been expected with rosiglitazone. The fact that rosiglitazone was not associated with bladder cancer in any of our analyses provides some reassurance on the pioglitazone findings,” he says.

There’s a slight difference between the two drugs and the receptors they activate. The type that pioglitazone activates has been shown to increase the expression of carcinogenic biomarkers in the bladder. But the authors stress that additional studies are needed to better understand the mechanisms.

The authors stress that, in absolute terms, the risk of bladder cancer remains low. According to the American Cancer Society, men have a 1 in 26 chance of developing bladder cancer, while women have a 1 in 88 chance.

Azoulay suggests that doctors and patients should be aware of this association when weighing the overall risks and benefits of this therapy. “Certainly patients with bladder cancer or other bladder conditions should not use the drug, but ultimately the decision to prescribe this drug will lie with the treating physician,” says Azoulay.

Re: more diabetes news

cherry — Thu, 12 Apr 2018 10:55:47 GMT

apid swings in blood sugar levels caused by eating too much sugar or too little sugar can sometimes cause headaches.

Headaches can range from annoying to debilitating, so understanding what triggers a headache can significantly improve a person's quality of life.

For some people who experience migraines, sugary foods may be a trigger.

Can sugar give you a headache?

Headaches may be caused by too much or too little sugar.

Both too much and too little sugar can cause a headache. Consuming too much sugar can cause high blood sugar levels (hyperglycemia). Consuming too little sugar can cause low blood sugar levels (hypoglycemia).

Low blood sugar can cause a range of symptoms, including headaches and muscle pain. People who take insulin have a higher risk of having low blood sugar levels.

People who consume too much sugar, who are insulin resistant, or who have diabetes are more vulnerable to high blood sugar. If a person consumes a lot of sugar at once, then does not have any more in the period that follows, they may experience a sugar crash, which can cause a headache.

Sugar may trigger hormonal changes, particularly in the hormones epinephrine and norepinephrine. These hormonal shifts change the way blood vessels in the brain behave, potentially triggering a headache.

It is not the sugar itself that causes a person to develop a sugar headache. What triggers a headache is a rapid shift in blood sugar, due either to consuming too much sugar or not eating enough. These changes in blood sugar can induce a headache and other symptoms, which some people call a sugar hangover.

https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/5089.php

Related conditions

Some medical conditions make people more prone to sugar-related headaches, including:

Diabetes

Managing blood sugar naturally is not possible for people with diabetes, so they may be more prone to sugar-related headaches.

People with diabetes are not able to manage their blood sugar levels naturally. When their blood sugar gets too high or too low, they may experience headaches.

More blood sugar fluctuations typically mean more headaches, so people with diabetes who struggle to manage their condition or do not take medication as prescribed may be more vulnerable to diabetes-related headaches.

Unmanaged diabetes can damage the blood vessels, which may change blood circulation to the brain and increase the risk of headaches.

Blood vessel damage can also increase the risk of heart and brain conditions that cause headaches. A sudden, intense headache could be due to a stroke, blood clot, or an aneurysm.

Some people with diabetes develop a condition called diabetic ketoacidosis when the body uses fat instead of sugar for energy. People with diabetic ketoacidosis sometimes experience intense headaches, in addition to swelling, confusion, or loss of consciousness.

Migraine

Changes in diet and blood sugar fluctuations may trigger migraines in some people who regularly have them.

Every individual has different triggers, so it is crucial for a person to keep a record of when their migraines occur to determine whether sugar is a trigger.

A 2006 study linked the sweetener sucralose that is found in Splenda to migraines, meaning that even sugar substitutes may play a role in causing sugar headaches.

Re: more diabetes news

Q4u — Thu, 12 Apr 2018 14:23:24 GMT

Incredibly valuable information, thank you so much for sharig!