Diabetes

Diabetes Cases Double to 347 Million Worldwide


Nearly 10 percent of adults worldwide have diabetes, and new research suggests the rate of new cases is rising rapidly. Over the past three decades, the number of adults with either type 1 or type 2 diabetes worldwide has more than doubled, jumping from 153 million in 1980 to 347 million today. (Type 1 diabetes means the body produces too little or no insulin, while type 2 is linked to excess weight or inactivity.) About 70 percent of the increase is due to an aging population—since diabetes typically hits in middle age—while the remaining 30 percent is explained by the obesity epidemic, according to a study published Monday in the Lancet. Perplexingly, the incidence rate is rising twice as fast in the United States as it is in Western Europe, though researchers don't yet understand why. "This is likely to be one of the defining features of global health in the coming decades," study author Majid Ezzati, an epidemiologist and biostatistician at Imperial College London, told The Washington Post. "There's simply the magnitude of the problem. And then there's the fact that unlike high blood pressure and high cholesterol, we don't really have good treatments for diabetes."

Common Myths and Misconceptions About Diabetes
There are many mistaken beliefs about diabetes. Sue McLaughlin, former president of healthcare and education at the American Diabetes Association, offered her opinion of what she says are the six most common myths and misconceptions about diabetes, based on an ADA survey of more than 2,000 Americans released in 2009

Tips That Will Help Keep You Out of the Hospital

Diabetics know what they will hear whenever they see their doctor: another exhortation to eat right and exercise because that's how to keep blood sugar low and under control. It's proven advice, but not enough to prevent a long list of diabetic complications from sending you to the emergency room, say diabetes experts.
[How to Find a 'Best' Hospital for Diabetes]
Diabetes-related complications, in fact, are among the most common reasons for hospitalization, according to a recent study in the Journal of Women's Health. Researchers found that in 2006, for example, diabetics hospitalized because of congestive heart failure accounted for more than 1 in every 16 discharges; diabetics with pneumonia made up another 1 in 26. Moreover, the overall rate of hospital admissions for diabetics is rising—up more than 65 percent between 1993 and 2006. And it will climb even faster if the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's recent estimate that as many as 1 in 3 Americans, up from 1 in 10 now, will have type 1 or type 2 diabetes by 2050 holds up.

For those who already have the disease, though, there is hope. Some of these tips may help keep you healthy­—and out of the hospital:

• Do a daily foot check. "Keeping good watch over your feet is an important aspect of good diabetes care," says Joyce Lee, a coauthor of the Women's Health study and assistant professor in the department of pediatrics and communicable diseases at the University of Michigan Hospitals and Health Centers. A high blood glucose level can cause nerve damage in the feet, and you might not feel a cut, scrape, or blister that could be the start of a deep skin infection. Data from the study indicates that young men are especially prone to such ulcerations. Applying lotion regularly and drinking lots of water can keep skin on the feet—and the rest of the body—from becoming dry and cracked, advises the National Diabetes Information Clearinghouse.

• Coddle teeth and gums. Diabetics run an increased risk of tooth decay, inflamed gums, and gum disease because the condition increases vulnerability to bacterial infections and hampers the ability to fight them. Periodontitis, an especially severe infection that destroys gum tissue and the bone that holds teeth in place, also complicates a diabetic's life by raising blood sugar levels when hormones are released by the immune system to battle the infection, warns the American Diabetes Association. Brushing after every meal, or at least twice a day, and flossing once a day is crucial, according to the NDIC.

• Go easy on salt. Sodium and high blood pressure go hand in hand, and high blood pressure multiplies a diabetic's already elevated risk of cardiovascular and kidney diseases, says Om Ganda, director of the lipid clinic at the Joslin Diabetes Center in Boston. The landmark DASH study by researchers at the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute of the National Institutes of Health, published in 2001 in the New England Journal of Medicine, showed that cutting down on salt dramatically reduced blood pressure even in those on a healthy diet rich in veggies, fruit, and low-fat dairy­. The American Heart Association says that 1,500 milligrams of salt—about two-thirds of a teaspoon—should be the daily limit; the average American consumes two to three times as much. Cutting back on salt isn't just a matter of reaching for the shaker less often, unfortunately. Prepared foods tend to be salt-heavy: One large fast-food taco or egg-and-sausage biscuit has close to the AHA's recommended limit. Even unlikely suspects such as a half cup of low-fat cottage cheese or a smallish cinnamon-raisin bagel will kick in almost a third of the recommended total. For diabetics, zeroing in on the number next to sodium on nutritional labels is a survival skill.

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How To Lose Weight

With the world, as a whole, said to be struggling with an "obesity epidemic," it is perhaps no wonder that the weight loss industry is now quoted as being worth tens of billions of dollars a year. We seem to be bombarded on almost a daily basis by new diets, exercise programmes and magazine pictures of celebrities showing off their 'amazing new body.' For those people looking to improve their overall health and lose weight, we will go through some of the reasons for losing weight and some of the methods to help you intentionally do it.

People can lose weight for many reasons, perhaps intentionally through exercise training for a sports event, for health reasons, just to look better, or unintentionally as may occur because of an underlying disease. Weight loss refers to the loss of body fat (adipose tissue), fluid and/or lean mass. Lean mass are parts of your body without fat, such as bone mineral deposits, tendons, connective tissue and muscle.

People intentionally lose weight to:

• Become fitter
• Become healthier
• To look better
• To be eligible for a competition - such as a boxer who needs to lose a few pounds to be able to stay a middle weight, for example, or a racehorse jockey.
• To improve their job prospects - in some professions there is a limit on how much you can weigh

Overweight or obese people may lose weight for therapeutic reasons. By losing weight they reduce their risk of developing diabetes, hypertension (high blood pressure), osteoarthritis, some cancers, and heart disease.

An obese or overweight individual with diabetes type 2 will usually have less severe symptoms if they can bring their weight down to normal levels for their height and age.

Negative Energy Balance - in order to lose weight you need to be exerting more energy than you are consuming, this is called a negative energy balance. If you are in a state of negative energy balance, your body will seek out stores of energy, such as fat or muscle to make up for the shortfall - it will start using up your excess weight. In extreme cases, however, when the individual has little fat, more muscle and lean tissue will be used up.

Sports - some sportsmen and sportswomen will try to lose weight even though doctors would say their bodyweight is ideal. In some cases it might be to get better speeds, or as mentioned above, to be within a weight classification for a competition.

Losing too much weight - if you become underweight there are also certain health risks. Your chances of developing infections might increase, there is a risk of osteoporosis, reduced muscle mass and strength, and problems regulating your body temperature. There may even be a higher risk of death if your weight goes down a lot.

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Cancer drug reverses Alzheimer's in mice

A cancer drug has succeeded in reversing Alzheimer's disease in its early stages in mice, according to a new study.
The drug, bexarotene, is designed to reduce levels of amyloid beta, the protein whose presence in the brain has been most closely tied to the development of Alzheimer's.
In a new study, mice treated with bexarotene saw their amyloid beta levels drop 25 percent within six hours and, importantly, they showed a corresponding improvement in their cognitive function.
"The data we provide here really suggest that Alzheimer's could be, in the early stages, a reversible disease," said study author Paige Cramer, a doctoral student in neuroscience at Case Western Reserve School of Medicine.
The researchers used mice that had a mouse model of Alzheimer's disease. After the researchers administered varying doses of bexarotene, they measured levels of amyloid beta in the brain and tested the mice for their abilities in maze running, nest building, smell, and fear conditioning, which is a type of learning.
"They did a lot of different tests of learning and memory and they saw an effect on every single one of them," said Michael Sasner, a research scientist and associate director at the Jackson Laboratory in Bar Harbor, Maine.
Bexarotene is already approved by the Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of cutaneous T-cell lymphoma, a type of skin cancer, and so it may be able to proceed through clinical trials more quickly than drugs not already known to be safe to administer to people.
The study appears in the Feb.10 issue of the journal Science.

A new way to target Alzheimer's
Sasner, who was not involved with the new study, said it overcomes some of the weaknesses of previous Alzheimer's work, in which only one or two tests of cognitive improvement were conducted.
Bexarotene is not the first attempted Alzheimer's treatment to target amyloid beta. But past research has aimed at removing the plaques that amyloid beta can form in the brain, which has not shown any effect on the disease itself.
The difference now, researchers say, is in a better understanding of amyloid beta and the various forms it can exist in. Rather than focusing on the plaques, researchers now think it is the active, soluble form of the protein that is at work in Alzheimer's.
While there are various views on the causes of Alzheimer's, "the predominant view right now is that it's the soluble forms of amyloid beta that are causing the impaired brain function," Cramer said. "Plaques are just sinks, just tombstones that gather amyloid beta."
Bexarotene works by promoting the production of another protein, called Apolipoprotein E, which binds to and clears amyloid beta from the brain.
"This paper lends a lot to the mechanism of how ApoE may be involved in Alzheimer's," Cramer said.

Hurdles remain
It remains to be seen whether the benefits of bexarotene in mice would translate to humans.
"Because we're using an FDA-approved drug, this allows us to translate these basic science findings to the clinic; that's our next goal," Cramer said.
Figuring out the correct dosing presents another challenge. Researchers found that in one case, giving bexarotene over several doses appeared to be less effective than giving it once. Cramer said the reason may be that the drug degrades itself within the body.
Cramer said she and Gary Landreth, the senior investigator on the study, hope to begin a preliminary trial this year, in which they will look for the same changes in beta amyloid levels in humans. If successful, the testing would move to clinical trials.
Bexarotene is currently sold as Targretin; patents on that drug will expire in April.
"There's a long way to go to prove this treatment in humans, but it seems like an exciting thing to follow up on," Sasner said.

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