More Evidence for Surgery for Type 2 Diabetes?

Posted at 31st December 2012 by Ryan Luce

Written by Michael O'Leary

Edward Gregg, Ph.D.

Intensive lifestyle changes including diet and exercise were significantly more effective than standard counseling and medications for reversing type 2 diabetes, an ongoing federal study shows. But the success rate may add fuel to the debate for those advocating surgery as a more effective method of reversing the disease.

Funded by the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK), theLook AHEAD: Action for Health in Diabetes study began in 2001 and continues today, but is no longer recruiting participants.

Is Victoza Better Than Bydureon?

Posted at 2nd December 2012 by Ryan Luce

written by Michael O’Leary

In a head-to-head comparison of the daily type 2 diabetes drug Victoza and weekly injections of Bydureon, those taking the daily drug did significantly better in lowering their HbA1c than those taking the weekly injections.

The down side was that those taking the higher than normal dose of Victoza had more side effects.

Good News For Potential Approval of Tresiba – A New Long-Acting Insulin

Posted at 25th November 2012 by Ryan Luce

written by Michael O’Leary

Last week an FDA advisory panel recommended degludec, a once-daily injectable insulin, be approved by the FDA, but will require Novo Nordisk to conduct additional trials to assess the heart risk that may be posed by the drug.

As reported by Fierce Biotech, Reuters and others the outside panel of non-FDA medical experts recommended approval by an 8-4 vote, but unanimously voted to require additional studies to assess the heart risk.
(published site)

Does losing weight help prevent heart attacks for people with type 2 diabetes?

Posted at 23rd October 2012 by Ryan Luce

written by Michael O’Leary

People with type 2 diabetes who maintained a weight-loss of 5 percent of their starting weight over four years saw improvements in blood sugar control, sleep apnea, mobility and HDL cholesterol.

Despite those benefits, however, researchers were surprised to find no difference in the rates of heart attacks, chest pain and death from cardiovascular causes between the exercise group and the comparison group of type 2 diabetes patients who did not lose weight.
(published site)

Does Qsymia Help Lower HbA1c? New Results From CONQUER Study

Posted at 16th October 2012 

written by Michael O’Leary

People with type 2 diabetes who participated in a study using a newly FDA-approved weight-loss drug reduced their blood sugar by an average of 0.4 percent compared to those in the trial who were taking a placebo.
(published site)

Is Weight Loss Surgery the Best Option to Prevent Type 2 Diabetes?

Posted at 30th August 2012 by Ryan Luce

written by Michael O’Leary

In a study that could lead to changes in doctors’ recommendations about weight-loss surgery for people at risk for type 2 diabetes, researchers have shown that the procedure may be twice as effective in preventing the disease as lifestyle changes.

(published site)

Why is Actos banned in France and Germany – but just made cheaper in U.S.?

Posted at 29th August 2012 by Ryan Luce

written by Michael O’Leary

Less than a week after France and Germany banned the use of pioglitazone, the FDA approved a generic version of the drug Actos for adults with type 2 diabetes.

As reported by Medpage Today, generic drug manufacturer Mylan Pharmaceticals was given approval for three dose levels of the drug, 15 mg, 30 mg and 45 mg. The approval comes just a year after the FDA approved updated labeling warning of bladder cancer risk for drug combinations using pioglitazone. The generic version will include the same warnings about heart failure and increased bladder cancer risk as the brand name versions.
(published site)

Can Curry Help Prevent Type 2 Diabetes?

Posted at 7th August 2012 by Ryan Luce

written by Michael O’Leary

A supplement containing one of the ingredients in curry spice has been reported to prevent new development of type 2 diabetes among people at high risk for the disease.

The study, appearing July 29, 2012 in the journal Diabetes Care was widely reported by a number of major news outlets, including Reuters, USA Today, and MSNBC, among others.
(published site)

Avandia, Actos May Raise Risk of Macular Edema

July 2nd, 2012
written by Michael O’Leary

In a large observational study there appears to be a link between a commonly used drug for type 2 diabetes and an increased risk of macular edema, or swelling of the base of the retina, which is responsible for central vision.


(Published site)

Dulaglutide Shows Evidence At Helping Manage Blood Pressure for Type 2 Diabetes

June 15th, 2012

written by Michael O’Leary

People with type 2 diabetes may find that a new GLP-1 drug being tested in clinical trials may help to control both their blood sugar and their high blood pressure.

A large study was presented last week at the 27th American Society of Hypertension Scientific Meeting by Tulane University School of Medicine researchers. Led by Dr. Keith C. Ferdinand, the researchers found that the drug, dulaglutide being developed by Eli Lilly, lowered blood pressure by a significant amount compared to a placebo. (Published site)

Do People With Type 2 Diabetes Have a Higher Risk of Colon Cancer?

June 14th, 2012

written by Michael O’Leary
It was recently a good news, bad news week for people with type 2 diabetes. A study in Diabetes Care showed that people with diabetes are living longer. As reported by the New York Daily News, deaths from all causes among people with either type of diabetes dropped by 23 percent between 1997 and 2006. Most of the drop in deaths was attributed to better screening and treatments for cardiovascular disease.

On the same day at the Digestive Disease Week conference in San Diego researchers from Washington University in St. Louis found that among a sample of 125 people aged 40-49 with type 2 diabetes were diagnosed with colon cancer at twice the rate as a similar sample of same-aged people without diabetes. (Published site)

Is Bariatric Surgery Better Than Other Ways of Losing Weight?

June 13th, 2012

written by Michael O’Leary
It is not so much how you lose the weight as it is how much weight you lose that makes the difference in improving type 2 diabetes.

An ongoing large study presented May 7 at the International Congress of Endocrinology/European Congress of Endocrinology in Florence, Italy is showing that the of different types of weight-loss surgery made little difference in diabetes control in comparison to the amount of weight lost. (Published site)

Is a High Fat Diet Okay for Type 2 Diabetes?

June 13th, 2012

written by Michael O’Leary

If you have type 2 diabetes, you know that diet and exercise are the first treatments your doctor prescribes, and the diet recommended is likely a low-fat diet. But a new study suggests that the opposite might be better for weight loss and controlling blood sugar, at least to start. (Published site)

Double Whammy for Kids with Type 2 Diabetes

May 2nd, 2012

written by Michael O’Leary

The news this week in the New England Journal of Medicine carried a double blow for parents of children diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. The first blow was finding that adding Avandia (rosiglitazone) or exercise to metformin was only slightly more effective at controlling blood sugar than metformin alone.

More disappointing than that, the researchers were surprised at how quickly many of the kids needed to switch to insulin injections to achieve blood sugar control.

As reported by MedPage Today, co-author Dr. Phil Zeitler, of the University of Colorado in Denver said that for some kids who are unable to get their blood sugar under control, adding Avandia may be beneficial. Determining who those kids may be however, may prove challenging as only a little more half of the kids in the study given the dual drug therapy achieved blood sugar control. (Published site)

Does Naturopathy Help Diabetes?

April 25th, 2012
Written by Michael O'Leary

Would you go to a naturopathic doctor if it would help you lower your HbA1c? A new joint study by researchers at the Group Health Research Institute and Bastyr University Research Institute has found that such an approach might help people with poorly controlled type 2 diabetes lower their blood sugar by twice as much as similar patients treated with conventional therapy alone. (Published site)

Victoza Wins Head-To-Head Battle With Januvia

April 24th, 2012
Written by Michael O'Leary

If you take Victoza to help control your blood sugar for type 2 diabetes, you can now officially wear the foam finger proclaiming your team is number one.

The FDA this week approved an expanded label for Victoza showing data from two large trials that compared Victoza head-to-head with Januvia®. In both studies, Victoza won 2-0 for superior blood sugar control and weight loss. (Published site)

Will Albiglutide Be Approved?

April 13th, 2012

Written by Michael O'Leary

British pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline announced this week that it was ready to submit its once-weekly drug for controlling blood sugar for approval. The announcement came following the results of a series of clinical trials, called HARMONY, that have shown effectiveness without wowing investors.


As reported by MedPage Today and the Wall Street Journal, the trial results for HARMONY 6, released April 3, showed that albiglutide reduced HbA1c levels by .82 percent compared to a .66 percent reduction for patients taking insulin before meals.

Metformin Also Helps Pancreatic Cancer Patients

April 12th, 2012
by Michael O'Leary

Dr. Donghui Li, of MD Anderson Cancer
Center

A new study shows that people with diabetes and pancreatic cancer may live longer if they take metformin. In fact, those prescribed metformin had a 32 percent lower risk for death compared to those who didn’t take metformin.

Whether taking metformin might prevent people with diabetes from developing pancreatic cancer, however, is unknown.
This is mostly because the relationship between diabetes and pancreatic cancer is unclear. While about 80 percent of those diagnosed with pancreatic cancer also have diabetes, researchers have been unable to determine if the diabetes causes the cancer, or whether the cancer causes the diabetes.

A 2003 review of multiple studies of the link between the two found that there is no simple answer to which is the cause and which is the result, and that neither theory excludes the possibility that pancreatic cancer is both caused by diabetes and causes diabetes. (Published site)

Does Verapamil Help With Diabetes?

April 11th, 2012
Written by Michael O'Leary

If you are a mouse with human pancreatic islet cells in your body, taking a common drug for high blood pressure appears to reverse the diabetes-related death of those islet cells, which is good news for mice involved in diabetes research.

Dr. Anath Shalev, director of the University of
Alabama Birmingham Comprehensive Diabetes Center

The research team led by Dr. Anath Shalev, director of the University of Alabama Birmingham Comprehensive Diabetes Center, have found that the drug verapamil, which belongs to the family of high blood pressure medicines called calcium channel blockers, slows the progression of type 1 or 2 diabetes, at least in mice. But the authors think it may have clinical application in humans with diabetes, particularly since the drug is already FDA approved for high blood pressure. Their study appears in the March 22 issue of the journal Diabetes. (Published site)

Study points way to showing how vitamins affect brain health

April 4, 2012

Written by Michael O'Leary

You are what you eat, is a long held belief, but determining how nutrients affect our bodies has been difficult. Despite that difficulty, a group of researchers from Oregon Health Sciences University, in Portland, recently published results of a study that tried to determine the relationship between certain vitamins and brain function. (Published site)

Bug Named Suspect in Cause of Type 2 Diabetes

March 19th, 2012

written by Michael O'Leary

Thirty years ago a tiny corkscrew-shaped bug that is commonly found in people’s stomachs was positively identified as the culprit in 70 percent to 90 percent of peptic ulcers.

Since then the rap sheet on this bug has grown. Not only are ulcers caused by H. Pylori, it has also been linked to an increased risk of stomach cancer, stomach lymphoma, iron deficiency anemia and unexplained low platelet counts. (Published site)

Tradjenta and Metformin Sing a Duet

March 16th, 2012

written by Michael O’Leary
If you are taking metformin and Tradjenta to control your type 2 diabetes, Eli Lilly and Company has a new combination drug for you.

With a name that sounds more like a drug you’d buy at a cantina in Tijuana, Jentadueto was launched for U.S. sales with a Lilly press release Mar. 7. Developed in conjunction with its German partner Boehringer Ingelheim, Jentadueto combines the DPP-4 inhibitor in Lilly’s Tradjenta with metformin in a twice-daily pill. (Published site)

Can Vinegar Help Diabetes?

February 26th, 2012

If you have type 2 diabetes, you may have heard that a spoonful of vinegar before or after a high-carb meal will prevent a blood sugar spike. Like most doctors you probably dismiss the claim as an old-wive’s tale, or a folk remedy with no scientific basis.

True, medicinal benefits of apple cider vinegar have been claimed for everything from arthritis to weight loss, asthma, colitis and food poisoning, in addition to claims for lowering blood sugar after high carbohydrate meal. (Published site)

American College of Physicians Now Recommends Metformin For Initial Type 2 Diabetes Treatment

February 21st, 2012

Several years ago the American Diabetes Association recommended diet and exercise as the initial treatment for type 2 diabetes. As well as that might work for most people, it is very difficult to stick with diet and exercise to maintain your blood sugar levels. The ADA acknowledged that reality some time ago and added to their guidelines starting newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes with metformin. (Published site)

Another week, another drug approved for type 2 diabetes

February 8th, 2012 

written by Michael O’Leary
If it seems there is another new drug given FDA approval for treatment of type 2 diabetes every week, you are not imaging things. Last week, once-a-week injection formula BYDUREON was approved.

This week the FDA approved another once-daily pill to help people with type 2 diabetes control their blood sugar levels. The new drug is a combination of sitagliptin and metformin and MERCK is marketing it under the brand name Janumet XR^®, the XR is for extended release. (Published site)

FDA Finally Approves Bydureon

February 6th, 2012 written by Michael O’Leary

Try, try again. After three tries BYDUREON, the once-a-week version of Byetta received FDA approval last Friday, Jan. 27. The approval follows two earlier rejections by the FDA, which each time asked for more data.

BYETTA® (exenatide) was developed by Amylin Pharmeceuticals and Eli Lily. The twice-daily injection drug was the first glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) receptor agonist to be approved by the FDA for the treatment of type 2 diabetes. GLP-1 stimulates the release of insulin when glucose levels become too high. (Published site)

Do Byetta and Victoza Help You Lose Weight?

written by Michael O’Leary

Dr. Tina Vilsboll

If like many people, a component of your type 2 diabetes is being overweight, then the new class of drugs, called GLP-1 agonists, may help you lose more weight than older oral drugs for controlling blood sugar.

That’s the conclusion of a new study that analyzed the data from 25 trials involving 6,411 patients conducted over the last seven years.  The first GLP-1 drug to receive FDA approval was Byetta^®, which is injected twice daily into the abdomen, thigh or shoulder an hour before breakfast and dinner. Victoza^® is a long-acting GLP-1 agonist injected once daily. Bydureon^® is a once-a-week injection formula of Byetta. (Published site)

Low-blood sugar episodes linked to higher survival

January 9th, 2012

written by Michael O’Leary

Dr. Elizabeth Seaquist

Adults with type 2 diabetes who maintain intensive blood sugar control experience more low-blood sugar events than similar people with diabetes who maintain their blood sugar in the standard target range, but they also have a slightly lower risk of dying.

That is the result of an analysis of 10,096 people who participated in the Action to Control Cardiovascular Risk in Diabetes (ACCORD) study, led by Dr. Elizabeth Seaquist, of the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis.

The results reported by HealthDay News on the DoctorsLounge website were published in the Dec. 16 Diabetes Care.
(Published site)

January 3rd, 2012 

National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey

written by Michael O’Leary

People with type 2 diabetes who control their blood glucose with metformin are more likely to be deficient in vitamin B12 than those who don’t use metformin.

That’s the finding of a survey of more than 8,000 adults, 6,867 of whom have type 2 diabetes conducted by the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. The survey results appear online Dec. 16 in the journalDiabetes Care.

The survey involved U.S. adults 50 years or older, and included 1,621 people without diabetes and 6,867 people with type 2 diabetes. Participants had to have been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes after age 30 and had not started insulin therapy within a year of being diagnosed. Vitamin B12 deficiency was defined as concentrations of the vitamin in the blood below 148 pmol/L, and borderline deficiency was between 148 and 221 pmol/L. (Published site)