Using Muffins To Detect Diabetes

October 31st, 2011 by Ryan Luce No Comments

written by Michael O’Leary

“Fast all night and eat a muffin in the morning,” might be your doctor’s orders for testing whether you have type 2 diabetes someday according to researchers at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York.

That’s what a subset of 73 women taking part in a menopausal hormone therapy trial, were told after a 10-hour fasting blood draw to assess their two-hour glucose levels. (Link to published site)

COPD Detection Adds More Bang to CT Screening for Lung Cancer

Adding a short, low-dose sequence to a CT scan for lung cancer proved useful in identifying current and former heavy smokers with asymptomatic chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), a new Dutch study shows.

(Video courtesy of the Journal of the American Medical Association)

While the 2010 US National Lung Screening Trial (NLST) proved that using CT scans to diagnose lung cancer in heavy smokers reduced deaths by 20 percent compared to conventional x-rays, questions about the cost-effectiveness of doing so remain. Whether adding the ability to diagnose COPD in these patients tips the balance in favor of CT screening in this population is unclear. The study appears in the Oct. 26, 2011 Journal of the American Medical Association. (Link to published site)

Does Raising Your HDL Cholesterol Really Help?

October 26th, 2011  

written by Michael O'Leary

Dr. Gregory Nichols

Type 2 diabetics know they have a significantly higher risk for coronary artery disease that can lead to heart attacks and hospitalization. There has been tremendous progress in heading off these heart attacks using LDL cholesterol-lowering medications. The evidence is growing, however, that raising HDL cholesterol may double the benefits in both lowering LDL cholesterol and reducing hospitalizations due to cardiovascular disease.

That’s the finding of a large study conducted by Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research in Portland, Ore. as reported by MedPage Today. The researchers found that for every increase of 5 milligrams of HDL cholesterol per deciliter (mg/dL) of blood there was a 6 percent reduction in hospitalization due to cardiovascular disease. (Link to published site)

Byetta Can Now Officially Be Used With Lantus

written by Michael O'Leary

Adult type 2 diabetes patients who use insulin have a new option for controlling their blood glucose.

Amylin Pharmaceuticals, Inc., and Eli Lilly and Company announced Oct. 19, that the FDA has approved a new use for BYETTA® (exenatide) injection. The drug can now be used by those using the insulin glargine (Lantus®) with or without metformin and or thiazolidinedione and still haven’t achieved control of their blood sugar.

Dr. Christian Weyer, senior vice president, research and development at Amylin said this marks an important new option for the 60 percent of type 2 diabetes patients who haven’t been able to reach their target blood sugar levels. (Link to published site)

MRI Offers Powerful Research Tool for Assessing Lipid-Lowering Therapy

MRI scans might give researchers a powerful new tool for monitoring the effectiveness of lipid therapies for coronary or carotid artery disease, a new study shows.

Led by Dr. Xue-Qiao Zhao, of the University of Washington, Seattle, the researchers sought to determine if cholesterol-lowering drugs deplete plaque lipid content. Zhao told the Hub by e-mail that they used MRI as a tool to make direct assessment of the plaque tissue composition during treatment. The study appears in the October issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology: Cardiovascular Imaging. (Link to published site)

“I got this powdered water – now I don’t know what to add” – Steven Wright

written by Michael O’Leary

H2O might lower your risk of a rising A1c depending on how much you drink each day.

A nine-year study of 3,615 middle-aged, French men and women with normal fasting blood glucose levels at the start of the study showed that the risk of developing excessive blood sugar levels decreased the more water people drank. (Link to published site)

Diabetes Is Yet Another Disease Cured! (In Mice…)

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 19, 2011

written by Michael O’Leary

The day when you take a pill to prevent or reverse type 2 diabetes may be a step closer, but clinical testing of the new, promising drug is still a few years away according to new research published yesterday.

Researchers have restored normal blood sugar control in mice with type 2 diabetes and the finding suggests it may be possible for people some day too. (Link to published site)