Diabetes Developments - Page 8 of 150 - A blog on latest developments in diabetes by David Mendosa

The Stress of Managing Diabetes When You Are the Prime Minister

Do you think that managing your diabetes is too hard because of all your responsibilities? Then, you might want to consider the tasks facing a 59-year-old woman named Theresa May.

She just became the UK’s Prime Minister. This makes her among the first—if not the first—current heads of a government who has diabetes.

Three years ago, when she was the country’s Home Secretary, Ms. May made an appointment with her doctor to treat a bad cold. She mentioned that she had been losing a lot of weight, so the doctor ordered a blood test. Her blood glucose level showed that she had diabetes.

by David Mendosa

Diabetes Medication

Does Weight Loss Surgery Keep Working for Diabetes Management?

Does your weight makes it difficult for you to manage your diabetes? Check out bariatric surgery, because it’s likely to help you to lose many pounds.

But how well will it help you manage your diabetes over the long term?

Until now, nobody knew the answer to this question. That’s why researchers have been studying a group of 120 adults with Type 2 diabetes at three teaching hospitals in the U.S. and one in Taiwan. Half of them got bariatric surgery, and half got intensive lifestyle medical management.

by David Mendosa

Diabetes Complications

Why You May Want To Take Early Control of Your Diabetes

If having heart failure or getting a stroke or dying soon are the only diabetes risks that concern you, then you don’t need to start managing your diabetes right away. But if you would rather not get diabetic retinopathy, diabetic nephropathy, or diabetic neuropathy, you may want to get down to a normal blood glucose level right after your doctor diagnoses it.

This is the good news/bad news summary of a study by researchers at the University of Chicago’s Department of Medicine and colleagues at the Kaiser Permanente Division of Research, and Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine. They presented their findings in late breaking abstract 184-LB, “Early Glycemic Control after Type 2 Diabetes Diagnosis Is Most Critical for Future Health and Survival,” at the American Diabetes Association recent convention, the world’s largest annual meeting of diabetes professionals.

by David Mendosa

Diabetes Medication

Metformin Pro and Con

Metformin, the most popular diabetes medicine, figured in about 200 of the presentations at the recent annual convention of the American Diabetes Association. Two of these presentations show good news for its likely role in degenerative nerve disease and in dispelling concerns about its possible role in neuropathy. One presentation, however, brought some disturbing results, and the rest are of less interest to most people with diabetes.

This convention, which the ADA calls its 76th Scientific Sessions, attracted more than 16,000 attendees, including more than 13,000 professionals who went to New Orleans to see and hear almost 3,000 presentations about diabetes. I represented HealthCentral there.

Dr. Liu presents her poster on metformin

(Photo by David Mendosa)

A team of researchers from Tulane University’s School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine presented one poster and one oral presentation about metformin. Shuqian Liu, MD, presented the poster and told me that she designed both of these studies. The poster 570-P reported a retrospective study that examined the effect of high doses of metformin on neuropathy, a complication for 60 to 70 percent of people with diabetes.

by David Mendosa

Exercise For Diabetes

Exercise Harder, But Not Hard

Hard exercise, like high-intensity interval training, undoubtedly can provide metabolic, heart disease, and fitness benefits. But a leading expert on diabetes fitness says that it’s too hard for almost all people with diabetes.

The best exercise is the hardest exercise than you will do. High-intensity interval training may be the current fitness craze, says Sheri Colberg-Ochs. “Its health efficacy is not in question,” she says. But “despite its current popularity, there is no evidence supporting HIIT as a viable public health strategy.”

Sheri Colberg-Ochs, Left, Receives Outstanding Educator Award

Credit: American Diabetes Association

Dr. Colberg-Ochs addressed the recent annual convention of the American Diabetes Association in New Orleans on “The Feasibility of Doing High-intensity Interval Training (HIIT) in Persons with Diabetes” in a presentation that I had the opportunity to hear. Dr. Colberg-Ochs was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes almost 50 years ago, when she was 4. Recently retired from Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia, where she was a professor of exercise science, Dr. Colberg-Ochs is best known for her book Diabetic Athlete’s Handbook. During the convention, Margaret Powers, the American Diabetes Association’s president health care, presented her with the 2016 Outstanding Educator in Diabetes award.

by David Mendosa

Diabetes Complications

You Can Stop NASH Before Your Liver Fails

You may be able to stop a serious liver disease called nonalcoholic steatohepatitis, but better known as NASH, when you take the diabetes drug pioglitazone. NASH is a common complication of type 2 diabetes. But a three year long randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial concludes that pioglitazone, sold here as Actos as well as in a generic version, is a safe and effective treatment.

Kenneth Cusi, MD, is the lead author of the study, which the journal Annals of Internal Medicine published online ahead of print. Only the abstract of the study is free online. But a spokesperson for the University of Florida, where Dr. Cusi is a professor of medicine, sent me the full-text.

My Wife Catherine Died of Liver Failure

NASH usually has few or no symptoms, according to the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases. It is “usually a silent disease.”

by David Mendosa

Older Posts

Newer Posts