Type 3 Diabetes.....Alzheimer's?

Just in case you need another reason to cut back on junk food, it now turns out that Alzheimer’s could well be a form of diet-induced diabetes. That’s the bad news.

The good news is that laying off soda, doughnuts, processed meats and fries could allow you to keep your mind intact until your body fails you. We used to think there were two types of diabetes: the type you’re born with (Type 1) and the type you “get.” That’s called Type 2, and was called “adult onset” until it started ravaging kids. Type 2 is brought about by a combination of factors, including overeating, American-style.

The idea that Alzheimer’s might be Type 3 diabetes has been around since 2005, but the connection between poor diet and Alzheimer’s is becoming more convincing, as summarized in a cover story in New Scientist entitled “Food for Thought: What You Eat May Be Killing Your Brain.” (The graphic — a chocolate brain with a huge piece missing — is creepy. But for the record: chocolate is not the enemy.)

The studies [1] are increasingly persuasive, and unsurprising when you understand the role of insulin in the body. So, a brief lesson. We all need insulin: in non-diabetics, it’s released to help cells take in the blood sugar (glucose) they need for energy. But the cells can hold only so much; excess sugar is first stored as glycogen, and — when there’s enough of that — as fat. (Blood sugar doesn’t come only from sugar, but from carbohydrates of all kinds; easily digested carbohydrates flood the bloodstream with sugar.)

Insulin not only keeps the blood vessels that supply the brain healthy, it also encourages the brain’s neurons to absorb glucose, and allows those neurons to change and become stronger. Low insulin levels in the brain mean reduced brain function. Type 1 diabetes, in which the immune system destroys insulin-producing cells in the pancreas, accounts for about 10 percent of all cases.

Type 2 diabetes is chronic or environmental, and it’s especially prevalent in populations that overconsume hyperprocessed foods, like ours. It’s tragically, increasingly common — about a third of Americans have diabetes or pre-diabetes — and treatable but incurable. It causes your cells to fail to retrieve glucose from the blood, either because your pancreas isn’t producing enough insulin or the body’s cells ignore that insulin. (That’s “insulin resistance”; stand by.)

Put as simply as possible (in case your eyes glaze over as quickly as mine when it comes to high school biology), insulin “calls” your cells, asking them to take glucose from the bloodstream: “Yoo-hoo. Pick this stuff up!” When the insulin calls altogether too often — as it does when you drink sugar-sweetened beverages and repeatedly eat junk food — the cells are overwhelmed, and say, “Leave me alone.” They become resistant. This makes the insulin even more insistent and, to make matters worse, all those elevated insulin levels are bad for your blood vessels.

Diabetes causes complications too numerous to mention, but they include heart disease, which remains our No. 1 killer. And when the cells in your brain become insulin-resistant, you start to lose memory and become disoriented. You even might lose aspects of your personality. In short, it appears, you develop Alzheimer’s. A neuropathologist named Alois Alzheimer noticed, over a century ago, that an odd form of protein was taking the place of normal brain cells.

How those beta amyloid plaques (as they’re called) get there has been a mystery. What’s becoming clear, however, is that a lack of insulin — or insulin resistance — not only impairs cognition but seems to be implicated in the formation of those plaques. Suzanne de la Monte, a neuropathologist at Brown University, has been working on these phenomena in humans and rats. When she blocked the path of insulin to rats’ brains, their neurons deteriorated, they became physically disoriented and their brains showed all the signs of Alzheimer’s.

The fact that Alzheimer’s can be associated with low levels of insulin in the brain is the reason why increasing numbers of researchers have taken to calling it Type 3 diabetes, or diabetes of the brain.[2] Let’s connect the dots: We know that the American diet is a fast track not only to obesity but to Type 2 diabetes and other preventable, non-communicable diseases, which now account for more deaths worldwide than all other causes combined.

We also already know that people with diabetes are at least twice as likely to get Alzheimer’s, and that obesity alone increases the risk of impaired brain function. What’s new is the thought that while diabetes doesn’t “cause” Alzheimer’s, they have the same root: an over consumption of those “foods” that mess with insulin’s many roles. (Genetics have an effect on susceptibility, as they appear to with all environmental diseases.)

“Sugar is clearly implicated,” says Dr. de la Monte, “but there could be other factors as well, including nitrates in food.” If the rate of Alzheimer’s rises in lockstep with Type 2 diabetes, which has nearly tripled in the United States in the last 40 years, we will shortly see a devastatingly high percentage of our population with not only failing bodies but brains.

Even for the lucky ones this is terrible news, because 5.4 million Americans (nearly 2 percent, for those keeping score at home) have the disease, the care for which — along with other dementias — will cost around $200 billion this year. Gee. That’s more than the $150 billion we’ve been saying we spend annually on obesity-related illnesses. So the financial cost of the obesity pandemic just more than doubled.

More than 115 million new cases of Alzheimer’s are projected around the world in the next 40 years, and the cost is expected to rise to more than a trillion of today’s dollars. (Why bother to count? $350 billion is bad enough.) The link between diet and dementia negates our notion of Alzheimer’s as a condition that befalls us by chance. Adopting a sane diet, a diet contrary to the standard American diet (which I like to refer to as SAD), would appear to give you a far better shot at avoiding diabetes
in all of its forms, along with its dreaded complications.

There are, as usual, arguments to be made for enlisting government help in that struggle, but for now, put down that soda!

Related articles

• Differentiating between Diabetes Mellitus Type 1 and Type 2 (epicahealth.com)
• More tests on promising diabetes vaccine (stuff.co.nz)
• Pediatricians Issue First-Ever Diabetes Guidelines for Children (healthland.time.com)
• First-ever health guidelines issued for diabetic kids (cbsnews.com)

Continue Reading...

Electronic Medical Records

Living in the digital age has brought around new technologies that revolutionize the health care industry. In a day and age where you can keep the contents of your entire computer on something the size of a stick of gum, doctors and healthcare professionals are now pushing for their patients to carry thumb-drives with Electronic Medical Records on it. I know being a Diabetic I carry a thumb-drive with all my medical information on it so that way if I have a medical emergency, doctors and emergency response teams will have my whole history right there at their fingertips. Electronic medical Records Software is typically easy to use and there are companies that will even maintain these records for you. One such company that provides these services is Optimus ERM they offer:

ADT and Resident Information

The Electronic Chart (eChart)

Point-of-Care (POC) Documentation

Automated MDS

Integrated Electronic Heath Records

Fully Integrated Billing and Financial System

Electronic Control Center (eCC)—Management Dashboard

CPOE Physician Order Module

eMAR and eTAR (Electronic Medication Administration Records and Electronic Treatment Administration Records)

Pharmacy and Lab Interfaces

Physician Full Clinical Module

Complete Support for Integrated CCRC Campuses

Full Therapy (Rehab) Module that is Integrated with Resident Clinical Records

I strongly urge everyone to at least get one and update it with your current records and place one in a safety deposit box or on your keychain, you never know when it will save your life.

Continue Reading...

Electronic Medical Records Software

Living in the digital age has brought around new technologies that revolutionize the health care industry. In a day and age where you can keep the contents of your entire computer on something the size of a stick of gum, doctors and healthcare professionals are now pushing for their patients to carry thumb-drives with Electronic Medical Records on it. I know being a Diabetic I carry a thumb-drive with all my medical information on it so that way if I have a medical emergency, doctors and emergency response teams will have my whole history right there at their fingertips. Electronic medical Records Software is typically easy to use and there are companies that will even maintain these records for you. One such company that provides these services is Optimus ERM they offer:

ADT and Resident Information

The Electronic Chart (eChart)

Point-of-Care (POC) Documentation

Automated MDS

Integrated Electronic Heath Records

Fully Integrated Billing and Financial System

Electronic Control Center (eCC)—Management Dashboard

CPOE Physician Order Module

eMAR and eTAR (Electronic Medication Administration Records and Electronic Treatment Administration Records)

Pharmacy and Lab Interfaces

Physician Full Clinical Module

Complete Support for Integrated CCRC Campuses

Full Therapy (Rehab) Module that is Integrated with Resident Clinical Records

I strongly urge everyone to at least get one and update it with your current records and place one in a safety deposit box or on your keychain, you never know when it will save your life.

Continue Reading...

Marijuana Controls Diabetes

Marijuana Compound May Help Stop Diabetic Retinopathy
A compound found in marijuana won’t make you high but it may help keep your eyes healthy if you’re a diabetic, researchers say.
Early studies indicate cannabidiol works as a consummate multi-tasker to protect the eye from growing a plethora of leaky blood vessels, the hallmark of diabetic retinopathy, says Dr. Gregory I. Liou, molecular biologist at the Medical College of Georgia.

“We are studying the role of cannabinoid receptors in our body and trying to modulate them so we can defend against diabetic retinopathy,” Dr. Liou says. Diabetic retinopathy is the leading cause of blindness in working-age adults and affects nearly 16 million Americans.

High glucose levels resulting from unmanaged diabetes set in motion a cascade ultimately causing the oxygen-deprived retina to grow more blood vessels. Ironically, the leaky surplus of vessels can ultimately destroy vision.
Dr. Liou, who recently received a $300,000 grant from the American Diabetes Association, wants to intervene earlier in the process, as healthy relationships inside the retina first start to go bad.

Cannabinoid receptors are found throughout the body and endogenous cannabinoids are produced to act on them. “Their function is very different from organ to organ but in the central nervous system, cannabinoid receptors are responsible for the neutralization process that should occur after a nerve impulse is finished,” says Dr. Liou.

Nerves come together at a point of communication called a synapse. Glutamate is a neurotransmitter that excites these nerves to action at their point of communication. “There are also inhibitory neurotransmitters such as GABA,” Dr. Liou says. Endogenous cannabinoids help balance the excitation and inhibition, at least until oxygen gets scarce.

In the face of inadequate oxygen, or ischemia – another hallmark of diabetes – nerve endings start producing even more glutamate, setting in motion an unhealthy chain of events. Pumps that keep the right substances inside or outside of cells start to malfunction. Excess nitric oxide and superoxides are produced, which are toxic to the cells. Another irony is the heightened activity increases the retina’s need for oxygen. “We are talking about nerve cell death,” Dr. Liou says. “In the retina, if a lot of our nerve cells die, our vision is directly affected.”

And that’s not all that goes wrong in the nerve-packed retina. Nearby microglial cells, which can function as cell-eating scavengers in the body, sense something is going wrong with the nerve cells, become activated and start an inflammatory process that can be fatal to nerve cells.
Interestingly, the body starts producing more endogenous cannabinoids to stop glutamate release, then produces an enzyme to destroy the cannabinoids to keep them from continuing to accumulate. The same thing happens in the brain after a stroke.

That’s why cannabidiol, an antioxidant, may help save the retina. Test-tube studies by others, as well as Dr. Liou’s pilot studies in diabetic animal models show cannabidiol works to interrupt essentially all these destructive points of action.
“What we believe cannabidiol does is go in here as an antioxidant to neutralize the toxic superoxides. Number two, it inhibits the self-destructive system and allows the self-produced endogenous cannabinoids to stay there longer by inhibiting the enzyme that destroys them.” Cannabidiol also helps keep microglial cells from turning on nerve cells by inhibiting cannabinoid receptors on microglial cells that are at least partially responsible for their ability to destroy the cells.

“Cannabinoids are trying to ease the situation on both sides. They help save the neuron and, at the same time, make sure the microglial cells don’t become activated. How good do you want a drug to be?” Dr. Liou says.
“We are very pleased,” he says of studies in which cannabidiol is injected into diabetic rats and mice. He hopes the compound in marijuana may one day be given along with insulin to stop the early changes that set the stage for damaged or destroyed vision.

Continue Reading...

Study Links Mothers’ Weight and Blood-Sugar Levels to Health of Newborns

Pregnant women with weight and blood-sugar levels even slightly above average may pose a risk to their pregnancies and the health of their newborns, a study suggests.

The 2008 Hyperglycemia and Adverse Pregnancy Outcome study showed a possible link between mothers with elevated blood sugar — but below the level of gestational diabetes — and increased birth weight and elevated insulin in newborns.

The new review of data from the HAPO study shows that blood-sugar levels and weight even just above average can boost newborns’ birth weights and insulin levels, and lower blood sugar. Having a larger-than-average baby can lead to infant injuries during delivery and more, risky Caesarean births.

“My recommendation would be that every pregnant mother should have a chance to have dietary advice. It would pay off in the long run,” says Dr. Boyd Metzger, the principle investigator of the study and a professor of medicine-endocrinology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. However, many insurance plans don’t cover prenatal dietician visits, he says.

Women who are slightly overweight with moderately elevated blood-sugar levels pose a higher risk than pregnant women who are obese with normal blood sugar, or those who have gestational diabetes (when blood-sugar levels rise to a certain point) and a normal weight, the study says. It included 23,316 women from nine countries and was published in April’s Diabetes Care.

Babies born to mothers that are both obese and have gestational diabetes weigh an average of 340 grams, or about three-quarters of a pound, more than those born to mothers with normal weight and blood sugar, according to the study.

Mothers who are overweight — but not obese — with above-normal blood sugar had babies weighing an average of 214 grams, or half a pound, more. Babies of mothers of normal weight who have gestational diabetes weigh an average of 164 grams — just under a third of a pound — more. And obese mothers with normal glucose level have babies that weigh an average of 174 grams more.

Earlier studies have linked gestational diabetes and other ailments in mothers to health problems later on in the lives of their children, as WSJ reported last year.

There is a potential link between mothers with higher blood-sugar levels and weight, and obesity and diabetes in the children, perhaps as early as childhood, Metzger tells the Health Blog.  But “the unsettled question is whether these milder levels of higher glucose or weight [in the mother] carry that risk,” says Metzger.

Continue Reading...

Study Links Mothers’ Weight and Blood-Sugar Levels to Health of Newborns

Pregnant women with weight and blood-sugar levels even slightly above average may pose a risk to their pregnancies and the health of their newborns, a study suggests.

The 2008 Hyperglycemia and Adverse Pregnancy Outcome study showed a possible link between mothers with elevated blood sugar — but below the level of gestational diabetes — and increased birth weight and elevated insulin in newborns.

The new review of data from the HAPO study shows that blood-sugar levels and weight even just above average can boost newborns’ birth weights and insulin levels, and lower blood sugar. Having a larger-than-average baby can lead to infant injuries during delivery and more, risky Caesarean births.

“My recommendation would be that every pregnant mother should have a chance to have dietary advice. It would pay off in the long run,” says Dr. Boyd Metzger, the principle investigator of the study and a professor of medicine-endocrinology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. However, many insurance plans don’t cover prenatal dietician visits, he says.

Women who are slightly overweight with moderately elevated blood-sugar levels pose a higher risk than pregnant women who are obese with normal blood sugar, or those who have gestational diabetes (when blood-sugar levels rise to a certain point) and a normal weight, the study says. It included 23,316 women from nine countries and was published in April’s Diabetes Care.

Babies born to mothers that are both obese and have gestational diabetes weigh an average of 340 grams, or about three-quarters of a pound, more than those born to mothers with normal weight and blood sugar, according to the study.

Mothers who are overweight — but not obese — with above-normal blood sugar had babies weighing an average of 214 grams, or half a pound, more. Babies of mothers of normal weight who have gestational diabetes weigh an average of 164 grams — just under a third of a pound — more. And obese mothers with normal glucose level have babies that weigh an average of 174 grams more.

Earlier studies have linked gestational diabetes and other ailments in mothers to health problems later on in the lives of their children, as WSJ reported last year.

There is a potential link between mothers with higher blood-sugar levels and weight, and obesity and diabetes in the children, perhaps as early as childhood, Metzger tells the Health Blog.  But “the unsettled question is whether these milder levels of higher glucose or weight [in the mother] carry that risk,” says Metzger.

Continue Reading...

Diabetes Affects Hearing Loss, Especially in Women

Having diabetes may cause women to experience a greater degree of hearing loss as they age, especially if the metabolic disorder is not well controlled with medication, according to a new study from Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit.

Women between the ages of 60 and 75 with well-controlled diabetes had better hearing than women with poorly controlled diabetes, with similar hearing levels to those of non-diabetic women of the same age.

The study also shows significantly worse hearing in all women younger than 60 with diabetes, even if it is well controlled.

Men, however, had worse hearing loss across the board compared to women in the study, regardless of their age or whether or not they had diabetes.

"A certain degree of hearing loss is a normal part of the aging process for all of us, but it is often accelerated in patients with diabetes, especially if blood-glucose levels are not being controlled with medication and diet," says Derek J. Handzo, D.O., with the Department of Otolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery at Henry Ford.

"Our study really points to importance of patients controlling their diabetes, especially as they age, based on the impact it may have on hearing loss."

The study was presented Jan. 26 in Miami Beach at the annual Triological Society's Combined Sections Meeting.

According to the American Diabetes Association, nearly 26 million people in the U.S. have diabetes, and another 34.5 million have some degree of hearing loss. Signs of hearing loss include difficulty hearing background noises or hearing conversations in large groups, as well as regularly needing to turn up the volume on a radio or TV.

While the association between diabetes and hearing loss has previously been studied, Henry Ford researchers sought to learn more about hearing differences among patients with well-controlled diabetes, poorly controlled diabetes, and those who do not have diabetes.

The Henry Ford research team reviewed records for 990 patients that had audiograms performed between 2000 and 2008 at the hospital. Patients were categorized by gender, age (younger than 60 years old, between 60-75 years old and older than 75 years old), and if they had diabetes. Those with diabetes were divided into two groups: well-controlled or poorly controlled, as determined by the American Diabetes Association guidelines that use HbA1C blood levels.

Dr. Handzo notes that previous studies about diabetes and hearing loss have not focused on blood-glucose levels, nor did they include such a diverse population based on age and gender.

The Henry Ford team looked at patients' pure tone average, a measurement that determines hearing level at certain frequency, and speech recognition at different ages. The team evaluated pure tone average ranges that focus on the frequency at which most people speak and the very high frequencies used in music and alarms.

Women between the ages of 60 and 75 with poorly controlled diabetes had significantly worse hearing than those whose diabetes was well-controlled and the control group. Among the women younger than 60, those with diabetes – regardless of whether or not it was being controlled – had worse hearingthan non-diabetic women.

For the men in the study, there was no significant difference in hearing between those with diabetes that well-controlled or poorly controlled, as well as those who did not have diabetes.

"Younger males in general have worse hearing, enough so to possibly mask any impact diabetes may have on hearing. But our findings really call for future research to determine the possible role gender plays in hearing loss," says Dr. Handzo.

Continue Reading...

Insulin Therapy May Help Repair Atherosclerotic Lesions in Diabetic Patients

New research reveals that insulin applied in therapeutic doses selectively stimulates the formation of new elastic fibers in cultures of human aortic smooth muscle cells. These results advance the understanding of the molecular and cellular mechanisms of diabetic vascular disease. The study is published in the February issue of the American Journal of Pathology.

"Our results particularly endorse the use of insulin therapy for the treatment of atherosclerotic lesions in patients with type I diabetes, in which the induction of new elastic fibers would mechanically stabilize the developing plaques and prevent arterial occlusions," explained lead investigator Aleksander Hinek, MD, PhD, DSc, Professor, Division of Cardiovascular Research, The Hospital for Sick Children and the Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathobiology, University of Toronto.

Primary insulin deficiency and decreased cellular sensitivity to insulin have been implicated in the pathogenesis of impaired healing processes, atherosclerosis and hypertension, all frequently observed in patients with both type I and type II diabetes.

However, the possibility of a direct contribution of insulin to the cellular and molecular mechanisms that control the production of elastic fibers (elastogenesis) has not been explored. The researchers conducted a series of experiments to determine whether low therapeutic concentrations of insulin would promote the production of elastic fibers in cultures of human aortic smooth muscle cells.

Investigators found that insulin does in fact stimulate the deposition of elastic fibers in cultures of human aortic smooth muscle cells. The data demonstrated, for the first time, that low doses of insulin induce the elastogenic effect solely through the activation of insulin receptor and trigger the downstream activation of the P13K signaling pathway. The ultimate up-regulation of elastic fiber deposition by insulin is executed through two parallel mechanisms: the initiation of elastin gene expression and the enhancement of tropoelastin secretion.

Importantly, the experimental data suggest that insulin-dependent initiation of the elastin gene transcription occurs after dissociation of the FoxO1 transcription factor from the specific domain identified within the elastin gene promoter. The researchers also demonstrated that insulin may facilitate the transportation of tropoelastin into the secretory endosomes, where it can associate with S-GAL/EBP, the "chaperone" protein that enhances secretion.

"We believe that our discovery of the elastogenic action of insulin allows for better understanding of the pathologic mechanisms in which the lack of insulin, in diabetes type I, or insulin resistance, in diabetes type II, contribute to the development of hypertension and the rapid progression of atherosclerosis," concluded Dr. Hinek.

Dr. Hinek further elaborated on the far-reaching effects these data provide: "Importantly, our newest results indicate that the discovered elastogenic effect of low concentrations (0.5-10 nM) of insulin is not restricted to the arterial smooth muscle cells. Thus, insulin also stimulates formation of elastic fibers by human skin fibroblasts and by myofibroblasts isolated from human hearts.

These observations constitute a real novelty in the field of regenerative medicine and endorse 1) local application of small doses of insulin for ameliorating difficult healing of dermal wounds in diabetic patients and 2) systemic administration of insulin in patients after heart infarctions, in hope that insulin-induced elastic fiber deposition may alleviate formation of maladaptive collagenous scars in the myocardium."

The article is "Insulin Induces Production of New Elastin in Cultures of Human Aortic Smooth Muscle Cells," by J. Shi, A. Wang, S. Sen, Y. Wang, J. Kim, T.J. Mitts, and A. Hinek (DOI: 10.1016/j.ajpath.2011.10.022). It will appear in The American Journal of Pathology, Volume 180, Issue 2 (February 2012) published by Elsevier.

Continue Reading...

Scientists Reassess Weight Loss Surgery For Type 2 Diabetes

Weight loss surgery is not a cure for type 2 diabetes, but it can improve blood sugar control, according to a new study published in the British Journal of Surgery. Whereas some previous studies have claimed that up to 80 per cent of diabetes patients have been cured following gastric bypass surgery, researchers at Imperial College London found that only 41 per cent of patients achieve remission using more stringent criteria.
The research was funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Biomedical Research Centre awarded to Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust and Imperial College London.
Obesity is a major risk factor for type 2 diabetes. Worldwide, 80 per cent of people with type 2 diabetes are overweight or obese at the time of diagnosis. Diabetes is normally treated by using insulin injections and drugs to control blood sugar. However, many diabetic patients who had stomach surgery to lose weight found that their diabetes improved, even before they had lost any weight.
Recently the American Diabetes Association pulled together a group of experts to agree on standards by which to assess whether a patient has achieved remission of diabetes. They defined complete remission as returning to normal measures of glucose metabolism without taking diabetes medication at least one year after surgery.
The new study revisited previous data on 209 patients with type 2 diabetes to evaluate the effectiveness of three types of weight loss surgery using the new criteria. They found that the remission rate was 41 per cent for gastric bypass, the most effective type of surgery.
"Using the new criteria, we don't get such eye-catching figures as some that have been quoted in recent years," said Dr Carel le Roux, from the Department of Medicine at Imperial College London, who led the study. "But it's clear that weight loss surgery, particularly gastric bypass, has a significant beneficial effect on glucose control.
"Diabetes is a chronic, multisystem disease. Stomach surgery may not mean that patients can stop taking diabetes medication, but surgery and medication together achieve better results than either treatment on its own."
Gastric bypass involves stapling the stomach to create a small pouch at the top, which is then connected directly to the small intestine, bypassing most of the stomach and the duodenum (the first part of the small intestine). Sleeve gastrectomy, which involves surgically removing a portion of the stomach, and gastric banding, in which a band is placed around part of the stomach, achieved remission rates of 26 per cent and 7 per cent respectively, although these figures are based on smaller numbers of patients

Continue Reading...

Novel Biosensor Benefits

Purdue University scientists have developed a method for stacking synthetic DNA and carbon nanotubes onto a biosensor electrode, a development that may lead to more accurate measurements for research related to diabetes and other diseases.
Standard sensors employ metal electrodes coated with enzymes that react with compounds and produce an electrical signal that can be measured. But the inefficiency of those sensors leads to imperfect measurements.
Carbon nanotubes, cylindrically shaped carbon molecules known to have excellent thermal and electrical properties, have been seen as a possibility for improving sensor performance. The problem is that the materials are not fully compatible with water, which limits their application in biological fluids.
Marshall Porterfield, a professor of agricultural and biological engineering and biomedical engineering, and Jong Hyun Choi, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering, have found a solution. Their findings, reported in the journal The Analyst, describe a sensor that essentially builds itself.
"In the future, we will be able to create a DNA sequence that is complementary to the carbon nanotubes and is compatible with specific biosensor enzymes for the many different compounds we want to measure," Porterfield said. "It will be a self-assembling platform for biosensors at the bimolecular level."
Choi developed a synthetic DNA that will attach to the surface of the carbon nanotubes and make them more water-soluble.
"Once the carbon nanotubes are in a solution, you only have to place the electrode into the solution and charge it. The carbon nanotubes will then coat the surface," Choi said.
The electrode coated with carbon nanotubes will attract the enzymes to finish the sensor's assembly.
The sensor described in the findings was designed for glucose. But Porterfield said it could be easily adapted for various compounds.
"You could mass produce these sensors for diabetes, for example, for insulin management for diabetic patients," Porterfield said.
Porterfield said it may one day be possible to develop other sensors using this technology that could lead to more personalized medicines that could test in real time the effectiveness of drugs on their targets as with cancer patients.
Porterfield said he would continue to develop biosensors to detect different compounds.

Continue Reading...

Blame Does A Body Bad: New Study Links Attitudes To Diabetes Management

Genetics play a critical role in developing diabetes. So do eating properly, exercising and not smoking. According to a new study by an Ithaca College psychology professor and her two colleagues, people with diabetes who see themselves as responsible for their disease onset blame themselves for making poor lifestyle choices and are significantly less likely to monitor their glucose levels, properly inject themselves and make lifestyle choices that would benefit their condition. The new findings have added relevance now, since the American Diabetes Association has designated November as American Diabetes Month.

"A great deal of research targets the biological interventions for diabetes," said Mary Turner DePalma, professor of psychology at Ithaca College. "But far fewer studies examine the psychological factors related to managing the disease. Our study investigated the relationship between judgments of responsibility for disease onset and subsequent health behavior. We hypothesized that increased anger regarding the development of diabetes would be associated with increased self-blame and negative social support and, when coupled with decreased positive social support, would ultimately be associated with the self-report of poorer disease management."

DePalma and her colleagues Julia Rollison, senior analyst at Arlington's MANILA Consulting Group, and Matthew Camporese, clinical psychology doctoral candidate at Adelphi University began the study by placing postcards in a medical and a fitness center to recruit individuals over 18 who had been diagnosed with either type 1 or type 2 diabetes to take an Internet survey. The 46 participants, (18 males, 27 females and one who failed specify sex, ranging from 18 to 92 years of age) answered questions about perceptions of responsibility for disease onset, trait anger (anxiety that is chronic not temporary), self-blame, positive and negative social support and disease management.

"We used the word 'perceptions' of responsibility in a very deliberate way," DePalma said. "The accuracy of a person's judgment was not at issue. Rather, we were primarily concerned with an individual's perceptions, which may be true, or they may be false and unfair, but the consequences can be real nonetheless.

Metrics

Responsibility was measured by asking, "How responsible to you perceive yourself to be for the onset of your diabetes?" and then asking the participants to respond on a scale of 0 to 10. (Zero=not at all responsible; ten=entirely responsible).

Self-blame was measured by asking, "How do you generally react when you experience diabetes-related stressful events?" and then responding, on a scale of 1 to 4. (One=I usually don't do this at all; four=I usually do this a lot). Anger was measured by using a subscale of the State-Trait Anger Expression Inventory-2.

Social support was measured by the Diabetes Family Behavior Checklist.

The data was analyzed through structural equation modeling, a statistical technique used to test causal models.

"As perceptions of responsibility for disease onset increased, so did trait anger," said DePalma. "Increases in trait anger were associated with increases in self-blame and negative social support, which were associated with the self-report of poorer disease management."

The data showed no relationship between trait anger and positive social support.

"That perceptions of responsibility for diseases onset are associated with health behavior illustrates their importance in the specific context of diabetes," DePalma said. "Our study shows that interventions designed to improve anger management and increase disease acceptance may offer additional mechanisms to improve diet, exercise and perform appropriate blood glucose testing in individuals with diabetes."

Although the investigation was limited to the self-report of health behaviors associated with diabetes, DePalma added that this model could generalize to other diseases in which lifestyle risk factors play a commanding role. Also, since the study participants were male and female Caucasians, additional research is currently being conducted to determine if cultural backgrounds may influence the link between attitudes and disease management.

Continue Reading...

Diabetes Drug cause of Heart Problems?

A new study published on the British Medical Journal website adds to mounting evidence that rosiglitazone -- a drug used to treat type 2 diabetes -- is associated with an increased risk of major heart problems.

It finds that rosiglitazone is associated with significantly higher odds of congestive heart failure, heart attack and death compared with a similar drug (pioglitazone).

Rosiglitazone and pioglitazone belong to a class of drugs called thiazolidinediones that help to control blood sugar levels in patients with type 2 diabetes. Both drugs are known to increase the risk of heart failure, but it is unclear whether there are clinically important differences in their cardiac safety.

In 2010, the European Medicines Agency suspended the use of rosiglitazone in Europe, but in the United States it is still available on a restricted basis.

So a team of researchers in the UK and the US set out to compare the cardiovascular effects of the two drugs among patients with type 2 diabetes.

They analysed the results of 16 studies involving 810,000 patients (429,000 on rosiglitazone and 381,000 on pioglitazone). Most patients were aged over 60 years.

Compared with pioglitazone, rosiglitazone was associated with a modest but statistically significant increased risk of heart attack (16%), congestive heart failure (23%), and mortality (14%).

In certain groups of patients with type 2 diabetes, this may lead to 170 excess heart attacks, 649 excess cases of heart failure, and 431 excess deaths for every 100,000 patients who receive rosiglitazone rather than pioglitazone.

Further adjusting the data to minimise bias, did not change the results significantly, suggesting that this is unlikely to be a chance finding, say the authors.

"Our findings have important implications," they write. "Rosiglitazone is still available on a restricted basis in the United States and Canada. However, for patients who need thiazolidinedione treatment, continued use of rosiglitazone may lead to excess heart attacks, heart failure and mortality, compared with pioglitazone."

Given that there are about 3.8 million prescriptions for rosiglitazone dispensed annually in the United States, "the effect on public health may be considerable," they warn.

They also emphasise that both rosiglitazone and pioglitazone have been linked with other important safety concerns, and say that further studies are needed.

In an accompanying editorial, Victor Montori and Nilay Shah from the Mayo Clinic in the US argue that the rosiglitazone story "says much about how healthcare has become less about promoting patients' interests, alleviating illness, promoting function and independence, and curing disease, and much more about promoting other interests, including those of the drug industry."

They believe that regulators, prescribers, and patients all have a role in promoting patient safety and they urge patients to become engaged in decisions about their diabetes treatment.

Continue Reading...

Alternate form of Insulin?

  A new study shows that an alternate form of insulin may be approved in upcoming years that is longer lasting, overall helping patients living with diabetes to have an improved quality of life by not having to inject themselves daily. This incidence may be able to be cut in half.
People diagnosed with type 1 diabetes usually start with two injections of insulin per day of two different types of insulin and generally progress to three or four injections per day of insulin of different types. The types of insulin used depend on their blood glucose levels. Studies have shown that three or four injections of insulin a day give the best blood glucose control and can prevent or delay the eye, kidney, and nerve damage caused by diabetes.
Most people with type 2 diabetes may need one injection per day without any diabetes pills. Some may need a single injection of insulin in the evening (at supper or bedtime) along with diabetes pills. Sometimes diabetes pills stop working, and people with type 2 diabetes will start with two injections per day of two different types of insulin. They may progress to three or four injections of insulin per day.
Dr. Yogish C. Kudva and Dr. Ananda Basu, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine, Rochester, MN, USA, says:

"Doses given three times a week might improve adherence, improve glycaemic control without an increase in hypoglycaemia, and cause less disruption to the patient's lifestyle. The presumption here is if you use a medication less frequently, then people are more likely to take it and remember it, especially as we multitask and try to do so many things every day."

There is no specific cut off for the number of insulin injections per day that are given, but the key is having a strategy to determine what the source of the high blood sugars may be, whether a medication change is the correct answer or whether an alteration in food intake.
A new longer-acting form of insulin degludec has shown that when given once daily it is as effective at controlling blood sugar as existing insulin glargine injections but with lower rates of hypoglycaemia.
Professor Bernard Zinman, Samuel Lunenfeld Research Institute, Mount Sinai Hospital, University of Toronto, ON, Canada comments:

"Because of its ultra-long action profile, insulin degludec injected three times weekly appears to provide similar glucose control to insulin glargine once daily. This new basal insulin analogue might be a valuable addition to clinical practice...However the safety, efficacy, and optimum use of treatment regimens for insulin degludec will need to be established in larger phase 3 trials."

Insulin is a naturally occurring hormone secreted by the pancreas. Many people with diabetes are prescribed insulin, either because their bodies do not produce insulin (type 1 diabetes) or do not use insulin properly (type 2 diabetes). There are more than 20 types of insulin sold in the United States. These insulins differ in how they are made, how they work in the body, and how much they cost.

Continue Reading...

Natural Remedy for Helping Diabetes

The importance of regulating blood sugar is clear: stabilizing blood sugar can prevent lots of health problems, one of the most obvious being diabetes, which is often a result of years of unstable blood sugar. Fortunately, for most of us it is within our power to take control of our blood sugar levels by remaining active & making the right "food choices" and also by drinking chamomile tea.

Chamomile tea has long been prized for its ability to quiet & relax, making it a favored tea for bedtime, but now a recent study in the Journal of Agricultural & Food Chemistry shows chamomile may serve another purpose: regulating blood sugar.

At the University of Toyama in Japan & at the Institute of Grassland & Environmental Research in the United Kingdom, researchers studied the effect of chamomile tea on diabetic rats. Half of the rats got a dose of chamomile extract for three weeks. Another set of diabetic rats was given a traditional diet with no addition of chamomile.

The study observed that when chamomile was given to the rats, a lesser amount of glucose was turned in to sorbitol (a sugar alcohol). Excess sorbitol may cause destroy to kidneys, eyes & nerve cells. The enzymes primarily responsible for this sort of destroy in diabetics were also inhibited in the chamomile rats. The rats who were fed chamomile extract also showed an overall decrease in blood glucose compared to the other rats.

Chamomile tea's benefits are not only for those with diabetes. For diabetics, stabilizing blood sugar is crucial for lovely health, but the truth is even people without diabetes can benefit from maintaining normal blood sugar levels. Blood sugar swings are associated with fatigue, sugar cravings & insulin resistance, among other signs. Taking measures to regulate blood sugar can actually prevent the onset of diabetes in healthy individuals, & it will also help you feel more energetic & maintain a healthy weight.

The authors of the study stated there's a clear link between the every day consumption of chamomile tea & stopping the progression of diabetes & hyperglycemia. As usual there's those who say more research needs to be finished to select  how effective this treatment can be, but to someone looking for a natural way of regulating blood sugar, the results of this study are over enough encouragement to start drinking chamomile tea.

Of coursework, if you are thinking about drinking chamomile tea solely to regulate your blood sugar, keep in mind it is a healthy addition to an overall lifestyle that naturally contributes to healthy blood sugar. Other steps which should be included in this lifestyle are regular exercise, eating balanced meals, avoiding refined foods & getting lots of sleep.

Related articles

• New diabetes treatment lowers blood sugar with less need for insulin (physorg.com)
• "What Causes Low Blood Sugar?" and related posts (dothegreenthing.com)
• Fruit residue on fingers can confuse blood sugar meters (ctv.ca)

Continue Reading...

Two great sites for those strapped for cash…

Being Diabetic I know the importance of having my eyes looked at on a regular basis, but don’t like having to shell out the high price fees associated with it.

Well here is a great tip for saving you some money on your next visit. If you have a Wal-Mart with a vision center get your eyes tested there. Typically they only charge about $50 for an eye exam, and they will print you out your prescription and pupil distance.

Here is where the next part can save you upwards of $200 or more, go over to    or     they offer eyeglasses starting at around $6.00. They also offer free single vision lenses and really cheap shipping.

On advantage that Zenni has that EyeBuyDirect doesn't have is that Zenni allows you to virtually try on their glasses by uploading a picture of yourself to their website. See below:

I liked this feature as you really don’t know if you will like the way you will look in a style. But above and beyond that, you have a huge selection on both sites, and the prices are right. Now you can get glasses for your whole family, for a fraction of the cost.

Related articles

• The Quality Of perfection from ZenniOptical (thebrandbarry.com)
• Buying corrective lenses online can cut costs (seattletimes.nwsource.com)

Continue Reading...

Transplanted Feces Improve Insulin Sensitivity

 

European researchers have reported that when fecal matter transplanted from healthy and thin people to obese people with pre-diabetes, insulin sensitivity of the latter group increased. (Insulin sensitivity is the body's ability to use insulin properly to regulate the amount of glucose in the blood. The pre-diabetes occurs when the increasing insulin resistance creates higher than normal glucose, a prerequisite for the emergence of full-fledged type 2 diabetes.)

The team of researchers led by Anne Vriezen, MD, Academic Medical Center Amsterdam, The Netherlands, focused on 18 overweight men aged 21-65 years who were diagnosed with metabolic syndrome. (The term that describes a set of conditions that are often used interchangeably with pre-diabetes). The men were not taking medication for their condition and had not received antibiotics within the past 90 days. After the intestines of men have been thoroughly cleaned, feces were transplanted into people who were either male donors thin, or control, in the feces that they themselves produced. The two sources of feces were tested for parasites and pathogens.

During the six-week experiment, neither group experienced a weight loss, an effect seen in animal experiments. But the peripheral insulin sensitivity was significantly improved in men who received transplantation or by external donors and those who were implanted with their own feces. Vrieze attributed the increase to the effects of transplantation because there had been no change in the power of men or physical activity. Although the study results are promising, the use of gut bacteria affect pre-diabetes program is still in very early stage of research. fecal transplant is not a new line of research, but Vrieze is the first study to focus on the possible effects of fecal transplant in metabolic syndrome. Previous studies had focused on the use of stool to restore and rebalance the intestinal bacteria of laboratory animals and humans.

Several medical centers in the United States focused on fecal transplantation as a possible treatment for people with persistent gastrointestinal infections caused by Clostridium difficile . In such cases, the system of "good" bacteria is destroyed by gastrointestinal antibiotics in medical treatment, leaving open the digestive tract to the overcrowding of the robust, resistant to antibiotics difficile Clostridium. The introduction of fecal matter in patients introduces new bacteria that reproduce rapidly, reducing the number of Clostridium difficile. Their presence reduces bloating and diarrhea often associated with Clostridium difficile.

Small size and limited duration of the study Vriezen, the connection planted fecal matter and increased insulin sensitivity is indicative but not conclusive. The results open the door to much larger studies and longer, trying to demonstrate that the differences between individuals with the intestinal biota, the products of genetics and family environment, can become a tool for diabetes. While researchers continue to examine the bacteria in the digestive system a key factor in the progression of diabetes treatment aims to modify the intestinal biota does not seem so implausible, because it would have only a few years ago.

Related articles

• Treating Diabetes With Stool Transplants? (drsharma.ca)
• Attack on C. difficile: How can we combat this serious health issue (eurekalert.org)
• Transplanting Gut Microbes to Treat Disease (technologyreview.com)
• Insulin sensitivity may explain link between obesity, memory problems (sciencedaily.com)
• Mysa.com: Odd treatment for serious bug brings yucks from patients (mysanantonio.com)
• Progenics Awarded $4.1 Million NIH Grant to Advance Novel C. Difficile Antibody Therapy (eon.businesswire.com)
• Is it Possible to Reverse Insulin Resistance? (brighthub.com)

Continue Reading...

Pedometer Progress week 7

Well I was able to make my 20 mile mark + 3 additional miles.

I am finding that it is easier for me to make 15-20 miles a week verse’s anything else. So I think that I’m going to keep my distance between those ranges until spring.

I did really well on my mileage on Saturday, but that is because I went shopping which you tend to do a lot of walking around. But still every little bit helps.

Continue Reading...

New User Submitted Resource Page

I just added a resource page that I am hoping that people can use and take advantage of.

If there is resources in your area and you would like to submit them to me, Please do so by emailing them to me at michael@hellocupcakeitsme.com

Continue Reading...

Depression and Taking Care of Yourself

So many of you may or may not already know this about me, but I suffer from a serious case of depression, anxiety, and what we are beginning to think is bipolar.

I have struggled with this for many years now, and as I get older I find it harder and harder to deal with certain things, as well as attempting to care for myself.

I know that you only get one life and you have to make the best of it while you have it. So what I have been trying to do is to focus my depressed and anxiety energy into trying to work out, even if it is for 10 or 15 minutes at a time. This is  a lot easier said than done most times, but I find that by forcing myself to do it, even if I don’t want to, that I feel somewhat better afterwards even if I do sleep from the depression.

I hope that no matter how down you are, that you can find some way of seeing the light at the end of the tunnel and make strides however small toward your goal.

Continue Reading...