High glycemic foods make the major blood vessel of our upper arms swell out or expand from internal pressure, according to new research. This brachial artery is the most convenient place that scientists and doctors have to measure how elastic our arteries are.

The elasticity of our arteries anywhere in our body is a measure of our heart health. When the walls of an artery anywhere in our body expand suddenly, this can lead to heart disease or sudden death.

Those of us who have diabetes need to do what we can to keep our arteries healthy. The statistics are shocking: 68 percent of Americans 65 or older die from heart disease, and adults with diabetes are two to four times more likely to die from a heart attack than other Americans. [Read more →]

A few days ago when I finally was able to see a neurologist for the headaches that started four months ago, the first part of his examination was of my feet. I had heard of referred pain, but this seemed extreme to me, and I told him so.

The doctor replied that he would get to my head. In the meanwhile he gave me a complete examination. He used a tuning fork, similar to what musicians use. I could feel it as he went down my legs. But when he got to each of my feet, I felt nothing.

Then he worked down my legs to my feet with the side of a pin. Again, my feet I had no sensation.

He told me that I had peripheral neuropathy. And I could see it for myself. None of my other doctors had ever told me that before. [Read more →]

Until now our doctors have lacked an effective way to predict who is at the greatest risk of neuropathy. Usually we find out too late — when irreversible nerve damage has already occurred.

Diabetic neuropathy is the most common microvascular complication we have. More than half of all people with diabetes develop neuropathy. It is a complication in both type 1 and type 2 diabetes.

In the past few years the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved two drugs — Cymbalta and Lyrica — for managing the pain of diabetic neuropathy. These drug help many of us. But wouldn’t it be a lot better for us if we could prevent diabetic neuropathy?
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All over the world people with diabetes are slacking off how well they control their diabetes. Their A1C levels are climbing to 7.0 percent or more, apparently blessed by scientific research.

Researchers designed the Action to Control Cardiovascular Risk in Diabetes trial, universally known as ACCORD, hoped to prove that we would have fewer heart attacks and strokes when we able to bring our A1C levels below 6.0 percent. Instead, they were surprised to discover that 257 patients in the intensive-therapy group died, compared with 203 patients in the standard-therapy group. Consequently, they terminated the intensive therapy regime 17 months before the scheduled end of the study.
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We now have an early warning that can help people with diabetes prevent heart attacks and strokes. Until now, for many people the first symptom of a heart attack has been having one.

I don’t think that I have ever written about the complications of diabetes without offering some way to deal with them. That would be just too negative for either you or me, and I am not going to start being negative now.

Heart attacks are serious business, but we can prevent them. People with diabetes especially need to prevent them.
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When you consider how many of us have problems with our feet, you might expect to find lots of resources full of good advice. Then, when you reflect that peripheral neuropathy is one of the most serious complication of diabetes, you could hope to find a book that could help you to keep the legs you stand on.

Until now I have looked in vain for such a book. But I just read it.

Dr. Mark Hinkes, a podiatrist and amputation prevention specialist, wrote Keep the Legs You Stand On and sent me a copy. This big book — 537 pages — is the definitive guide for those of us with diabetes who want to keep both of our legs.
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Researchers finally know why people with diabetes are more likely to get Alzheimer’s disease. That alone would be big news. The huge news is that we now know what we have to do to break the link.

Did you miss the growing number of reports in the past few years about how those of us who have diabetes are more likely to get Alzheimer’s as we age? I can understand, because until last year I ignored the evidence myself. We have enough on our plate already without worrying about a possible complication many years down the road that until now nobody knew how to prevent anyway.
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We have been using mirrors for at least 8,000 years to check our appearance and to admire our features. But only now can we conveniently use them to check the health of our feet.

The newest development in this long history of mirrors can help those of us who have diabetes prevent the worst problems that diabetic neuropathy causes. About 60 to 70 percent of us have some form of neuropathy. The most common type is peripheral neuropathy, which causes pain or loss of feeling in the toes, feet, legs, hands, and arms.

We we don’t treat injuries to our feet right away, doctors may have to amputate. But if we catch little problems with our feet before they became major, people with diabetes can prevent at least half of these amputations.
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When we have healthy kidneys, little or no protein appears in the urine. But protein in the urine — technically called proteinuria — is an early sign that our diabetes has damaged the kidney’s filters. It’s a strong risk factor for kidney failure where the only treatment is dialysis.

A progression from diabetes to proteinuria to kidney failure is anything but inevitable. Each step can be a heads up for change.

Now, new studies show that a drug commonly used to treat problems of circulation can also decrease proteinuria. The drug is pentoxifylline, sold under the brand names of Pentoxil and Trental.
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