Diabetes mellitus presents numerous challenges to patients and physicians constantly battling to stave off its deleterious effects on various organs in the body. While end-organ damage in diabetic patients targets vital organs like the kidney, heart, brain and lungs, a less known organ called the gallbladder likewise deserves attention. Read more… »
Wounds in general pose a big problem in our current health setting. The general physician as a primary care provider sees a wide variety of wounds, either acute or chronic. It is of utmost importance that the general physician assess the patient as a whole in formulating a wound management strategy. Questions abound in the general physician’s mind regarding factors which contribute to poor wound healing. Read more… »
With the advent of everything instant nowadays, from instant noodles to instant body slimming supplements, people are now taking shortcuts to a better way of living. In return, people either suffer the adverse effects of these or waste their money on non-beneficial products. Also, they regularly buy health supplements to enhance certain parts of their health like lowering blood pressure or balancing the cholesterol level. Read more… »
And they say teaching is best done when the mentor knows what she preaches like the back of her hand. She never ceases to learn and continues to live life brimming with zeal to gain more knowledge and acquire more skills. The knowledge and skill she eventually fills herself with, she then passes on to her apprentices. Read more… »
Regular exercise has been proven to improve blood sugar, blood pressure and blood cholesterol levels besides playing a role in enhancing weight loss and sense of well-being. Regular physical activity may even prevent type 2 diabetes in people at high risk (e.g., those with glucose intolerance, family history of diabetes, hypertension, abnormal blood cholesterol, sedentary lifestyle, excess body fat, polycystic ovary syndrome, gestational diabetes, history of giving birth to large babies, etc.). Read more… »
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… »