U.S. News
"A new type of stem cell treatment for people with type 1 diabetes appears to help re-educate rogue immune system cells, which allows cells in the pancreas to start producing insulin again.
The treatment, which combines a patient's immune system cells with stem cells from a donor's cord blood, even worked in people with long-standing diabetes who were believed to have no insulin-producing ability.
Although the treatment didn't wean anyone off insulin completely, average blood sugar levels dropped significantly, which would reduce the risk of long-term complications."
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Medical News Today
"Post-menopausal females who take statins have been found to have a higher risk of developing diabetes, researchers from various medical schools in Massachusetts and other US faculties reported in Archives of Internal Medicine. However, the authors emphasized that the benefits of statins - cholesterol-lowering medications - still outweigh the risks, even for females in the mentioned age-groups.
Their six-to-seven year study, involving thousands of women from the Women's Health Initiative, found that patients who had been prescribed certain types of statins had a 48% higher chance of subsequently being diagnosed with diabetes, compared to their counterparts who were not on those medications."
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USA Today
"Young people with type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) may have difficulty getting a good night's sleep, resulting in difficulty controlling blood sugar and decreased performance in school, according to a study published in the January issue of SLEEP.
Michelle M. Perfect, Ph.D., of the University of Arizona in Tucson, and colleagues used home-based polysomnography, actigraphy, and questionnaires to track the sleep health of 50 patients, aged 10 to 16 years, with T1DM; results were compared with a control group without diabetes matched for sex, age, and body mass index. The level of glucose control was simultaneously assessed using continuous glucose monitors and hemoglobin A1C values."
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Market Watch
"The American Diabetes Association, the nation's largest and leading voluntary health organization leading the fight to Stop Diabetes(R), is pleased to announce its officers and Board of Directors members for 2012."
Read more HERE for the full list of board members
eMax HealthRemovable medical identification jewelry is being voluntarily replaced with tattoos. Medical identification is important for patients in case of emergencies such as car accidents or collapsing in public, but some patients aren't privy to wearing jewelry or watches that might have their medical info inscribed on the inside because it's irritating. The caduceus symbol and a "T1" or "T2" specification is now permanently gracing the wrists and ankles of diabetics around the world.
The familiar caduceus is generally depicted as two serpents twisting around a herald's staff with wings outstretched at the top. Many ID bracelets or necklaces will have this symbol with the medical condition transcribed on the back. A necklace or bracelet isn't permanent however and some people can't stand wearing jewelry. This growing phenomenon is now testing the waters of whther tattoos are as taboo as some people might think.
Endocrine TodayHbA1c tests provide similar diabetes measurements to the traditional fasting blood glucose test, but the HbA1c excels in predicting future heart disease and stroke risks, researchers concluded in a new study.
As a diagnostic tool, “HbA1c has significant advantages over fasting glucose,” researcher Elizabeth Selvin, PhD, MPH, assistant professor of epidemiology and medicine in the department of epidemiology at the Welch Center for Prevention, Epidemiology and Clinical Research, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, said in a press release.
The researchers compared the prognostic value of fasting glucose vs. HbA1c in identifying adults at risk for cardiovascular disease or diabetes. They measured samples from more than 11,000 black and white adults with no history of diabetes or CVD who participated in the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities study (1990-1992).
Washington PostYou don't need to be an athletic marvel to successfully manage diabetes.
More than 285 million people, or 6.4 percent of the world's adult population, live with the disease right now, and it's safe to presume most of them can't make a layup on a 10-foot basket to save their lives.
Having said that, the traits that have helped Austin Freeman become a productive Division I basketball player, an elite college athlete, should serve him well in managing diabetes.
America's News OnlineThe lunches the children eat in school are anything but nutritious and certainly not good-tasting, as most Americans know from their own personal experience. That they cause Diabetes, as Senator Tom Coburn asserted at the Health Summit, cannot be dismissed, least of all because the Senator is a physician.
