More than half of the newly diagnosed patients with type 1 diabetes who got an experimental treatment for the disease did not need insulin injections for at least a year.
Patients also showed improvements in the functioning of the insulin-producing cells that are attacked and destroyed in patients with type 1 diabetes.
Four of the 23 patients who took part in the study remained insulin free for at least three years and one patient went without insulin injections for more than four years.
The most common form of dementia may be closely related to another common disease of old-age – type II diabetes, say scientists.
Treating Alzheimer’s with the hormone insulin, or with drugs to boost its effect, may help patients, they claim.
The journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences reports insulin could protect against damage to brain cells key to memory.
UK experts said the find could be the basis of new drug treatments.
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Eating fish at least twice a week seems to reduce the incidence of kidney disease in patients with diabetes, according to findings from a large British study.
Although diabetics are advised to limit dietary protein to delay the progression of kidney disease, recent observations suggest that the benefit to the kidneys may have to do with “the protein source rather than quantity,” the investigators note in the American Journal of Kidney Diseases.
Despite research linking fish to improved outcomes in diabetics, they add, epidemiological evidence of this benefit is scarce.
In a group of Medicare beneficiaries who have diabetes, being depressed was associated with a higher death rate, according to a new study.
Publishing in the October issue of the Journal of General Internal Medicine, researchers from the University of Washington tracked 10,704 Medicare beneficiaries (average age of 75.6 years) who had diabetes and were enrolled in a disease management program in Florida. The participants’ depression status was assessed by physician diagnosis, patient reports of antidepressant use, and answers to a brief screening test.
Tea has long been used in China as a natural remedy, used by the British as a societal prerequisite, and the proliferation of tea brands and types at your local grocery attests to Americans current love of the brew. Sure, English Breakfast tea is delicious when paired with a scone, green tea can be sipped alongside sushi, and my favorite spiced Indian chai has become a staple with the latte lovers at Starbucks; but none of these compare to the herbal healing powers of chamomile, which new research concludes could soon help diabetes patients.
Chamomile is a mild tea with a fruit flavor many have likened to the scent and taste of apples. Ironically, the word chamomile is derived from the Greek word chamaimēlon, meaning “ground apple” or “earth apple” and is made by drying flowers of the plant Matricaria chamomilla L. and steeping them in water for a few minutes, providing the drinker with a multitude of antioxidants. Chamomile could be called the physician of teas with a variety of uses such as calming stress, soothing anxiety and nervous disorders, inducing sleep at night, relieving stomach cramps, inflammation, skin irritations and gout, while boosting the immune system. A new study followed chamomile’s progress in lowering certain conditions caused by diabetes.
One of a new class of diabetes drugs has done well in a trial conducted to help bring it to market, researchers report.
The drug, liraglutide, is a laboratory-made version of glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1), a hormone produced by the body. Several members of the GLP-1 family are in clinical trials, and one already has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
In a phase 3 trial, usually the last kind done before marketing approval is sought, liraglutide had greater benefits against type 2 diabetes, the kind that generally develops in the adult years, than a now-standard medication, glimepiride, said a report in the Sept. 25 online issue of The Lancet.
Premixed insulin, which combines short- and long-acting versions of the hormone, results in better blood-sugar control as compared with long-acting insulin alone or oral medications, a new study finds.
But it’s not clear that this tighter glycemic control translates into fewer complications and a lower mortality rate among people suffering from type 2 diabetes, researchers add.
And two types of premixed insulin — premixed human insulin and premixed insulin analogues (genetically engineered human insulin) — appeared to produce the same benefit.
It’s often considered a last resort for the severely overweight and obese, but gastric bypass surgery can be a lifesaver for one group of overweight patients: those with diabetes. Several recent studies have reported that the surgery not only reduces patients’ risk of death – particularly from obesity-related diseases, including diabetes and coronary artery disease – but that in some patients with diabetes the surgery is practically a cure, resulting in normalization of blood sugar, often within days. That’s part of the reason that gastric bypass is now the most commonly performed weight-loss surgery in the U.S., with nearly 140,000 procedures done each year.
One of a new class of diabetes drugs has done well in a trial conducted to help bring it to market, researchers report.
The drug, liraglutide, is a laboratory-made version of glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1), a hormone produced by the body. Several members of the GLP-1 family are in clinical trials, and one already has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
In a phase 3 trial, usually the last kind done before marketing approval is sought, liraglutide had greater benefits against type 2 diabetes, the kind that generally develops in the adult years, than a now-standard medication, glimepiride, said a report in the Sept. 25 online issue of The Lancet.
Valencia biotechnology company MannKind Corp. thought it had encouraging news about its experimental insulin inhaler on Tuesday. But Wall Street wasn’t buying it.
For months, skeptical traders have expressed concern that the diabetes drug, if approved by the Food and Drug Administration, might end up with an FDA cancer advisory. Fears that the inhaler would never take off were still lurking Tuesday, even though MannKind said that trials of its Technosphere insulin delivery system showed no elevated cancer risk.
Analysts said those concerns helped push the company’s stock down 14% to $2.92 on Tuesday. MannKind shares have fallen 54% since April 1.
