All About Diabetes

Quit smoking now and prevent further health risks. Not news for most but a recent study confirms the direct link of smoking cessation to the recovery of damaged arteries due to cigarettes. Although it may take more than a decade for the arteries to heal, Dr. Noor A. Jatoi of the Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland pointed out that the adverse effects of smoking to the blood vessels are reversible. The findings supported studies showing that the risk of heart attack and stroke falls among smokers when they quit three to 20 years after, he said.

“Our study reinforces the message that smoking cessation is an important step smokers can take to enhance the quality and length of their lives,” Jatoi said. “The longer one stops smoking the better.” The study showed that smoking a single cigarette or exposure to “second-hand” smoke all lead to stiffer arteries, which eventually lead to high blood pressure. Jatoi’s research team found that the arterial stiffness parameters of ex-smokers showed some improvements after one to 10 years of cigarettes, but reached normal levels only after more than a decade.

Among the 150 current smokers, 136 ex-smokers and 268 nonsmokers in the study, current and ex-smokers of only one year had significantly narrowed arteries compared to nonsmokers, the team reported in the medical journal Hypertension. The ex-smokers were categorized as to how long they were off cigarettes-under 1 year, more than 1 but less than 10 years and more than 10 years, of smoking cessation, Jatoi explained.

A recent report in the European Heart Journal, showed no significant difference between the mortality rate of ischemic heart disease (IHD) patients with diabetes and good long-term glycemic control compared to those without diabetes.

Dr. Ane C. Dale of the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Norway conducted a 20-year follow-up study on the mortality from IHD of 205 patients with newly diagnosed diabetes and another 205 matched subjects without diabetes.

Using annual measurements of HbA1c, the researchers closely monitored the blood glucose control among the diabetics. The results show that the adjusted hazard ratio for death from IHD was 1.8 times higher in diabetic patients compared to non-diabetic subjects.

“The risk for death from IHD was four times higher in diabetic subjects with HbA1c in the highest quartile (hazard ratio 4.2) compared to the control group,” Dr. Dale noted, “Analyzing HbA1c as a continuous time-varying variable showed 30% (HR 1 .3) higher risk per increment of HbA1c among diabetes patients without known cardiovascular disease at baseline.”

The study findings are”compatible with the hypothesis that good glucose control reduces the risk of coronary complications in patients with diabetes.” Dr. Dale recommends good glycemic control in persons with newly diagnosed diabetes. She also stressed the need to control other cardiovascular risk factors properly.

According to the ADVANCE (Action in Diabetes and Vascular disease: preterAx and diamicroN-MR Controlled Evaluation) study, intake of two blood pressure (BP) lowering drugs may cut the risk of kidney disease by 20 percent. This is applicable even in patients who don’t have high blood pressure. Read more… »

Researchers from the University of Texas Medical School in Houston concluded that a minimal dose of oral interferon alpha could preserve beta cell function for patients who are newly diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. Dr. Stanley Brod, principal investigator of the trial explains that interferon alpha can extend the ‘honeymoon phase’ of the disease, allowing the body to still produce insulin from beta cells, which correlates with lower complication rates. Read more… »

Rising mortality among diabetics could be blamed on the steady intake of nitrosamines found in processed and preserved food, and the environment. A recent study held at Little Falls, New Jersey by Dr. Suzanne de la Monte of the Brown University and Rhode Island Hospital in Providence found that nitrosamines, nitrates and nitrites are associated with insulin resistance. Her team also suggested that this chemical-infested food can actually induce DNA damage, oxidative stress, cell death and even cancer. Read more… »

University of Minnesota Medical School researcher Michael Mauer, MD, has found a treatment that significantly slows the progression of eye injury in people with type 1 diabetes, a common complication caused by this disease. By administering an anti-hypertensive (medication commonly prescribed to treat high blood pressure), Mauer and colleagues were able to slow progression of diabetic eye damage in more than 65 percent of participants involved in the study published in the New England Journal of Medicine. Read more… »

There is an increase in the number of children being diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. Medical experts blame this condition on a culture steeped in junk food and inactivity that has led to more obese kids. Read more… »

In a study published in the Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery, it was indicated that diabetics who would undergo total joint replacement are more at risk for complications after surgery due to their pre-existing health conditions. However, the study otherwise claimed that those complications are less likely to occur when a diabetic patient has glucose levels under control. “We found that controlled glucose levels really do make a aifterence for the patient,” said study co-author Dr. Milford Marchant Jr., an orthopedic surgeon who conducted tne study with colleagues of the adult Reconstruction Section at Duke University Medical Center.

Moreover, the study found out that, more than post-surgical complications, uncontrolled glucose levels in patients are three times more likely to experience a stroke or death after joint replacement surgery and twice as likely to experience post-operative bleeding and infection.

Using data from a national healthcare database on more than one million patients who had total joint replacement surgery from 1988 to 2005, Dr. Marchant and his colleagues found out that surgical complications, such as infection, blood transfusions and longer hospitals stays, are more prevalent in patients with uncontrolled glucose levels than those who had controlled glucose levels and those patients who did not have diabetes.

“It did not matter if the patient had Type 1 or Type 2 diabetes,” he explained. “We found that patients had fewer complications after surgery if their glucose level was controlled before, during and after surgery.” He added that the factors necessary for diabetic patients to be considered ‘under control’ are different for each individual patient; therefore diabetic patients should have good relationships with their medical doctors.

As defined by the American Diabetes Association, disease control is determined based on a series of laboratory blood tests and an assessment of diabetes-related illnesses. Approximately only eight percent of patients undergoing total hip and knee replacement in the United States have diabetes. “It is crucial for patients to have controlled glucose level before, during and after surgery because it reduces the potential of having a complication,” Dr. Marchant noted. “This is the responsibility of both the patient and the surgeon, and it should be a priority.”

Results of a study indicate that there a a statistically significant association between type 2 diabetes and obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) during REM sleep. “Type 2 diabetes is a multifactorial disorder. REM-related OSA and s metabolic effects need to be nvestigated in more depth, and this can provide another unique avenue for intervention and control of type 2 diabetes,” said Dr. Kamran Mahmood, one of the principal nvestigators of the study. Read more… »

An insulin pump with a continuous glucose monitoring system has recently gotten regulatory approval, according to the device maker Medtronic Inc. Read more… »