New contact lenses could help patients with diabetes keep vision longer
BY CBS MIAMI: Millions of people with diabetes live with the dread of eventually losing their eyesight to the disease.
Now a California researcher has developed a glowing contact lens he believes could help millions of patients keep their vision longer.
Colin Cook watched diabetes take his aunt’s vision and eventually her life.
He’s now on a mission to stop the disease from stealing the eyesight of others.
The Caltech graduate student designed these glowing contact lenses to treat diabetic retinopathy – a condition that causes blindness in diabetics. (read more)
Reversing diabetes with weight loss: Stronger evidence, bigger payoff
BY KATHLEEN DOHENY: Every year, about 1.5 million Americans learn they have diabetes. However, there are more than 7 million adults who have diabetes but haven’t been diagnosed, according to the American Diabetes Association. This matters since we are learning that the best chance of reversing diabetes seems to occur very early in the onset of the disease. Finding from several recent studies indicate that the timing of diagnosis matters alot.
If you have diabetes, your doctor may have encouraged you to consider making lifestyle changes; for many, that may include losing weight. While that same message has been discussed for years, recent evidence suggests that achieving about a 10% weight loss may be even more important than experts thought—with a payoff that is greater than previously imagined. (read more)
Cancer risk with diabetes is higher for women than men
BY LISA RAPAPORT: People with diabetes are more likely to develop certain cancers than those without the condition, and a new analysis suggests that the increased risk is greater for women than for men.
Diabetes and obesity, one of the main causes of the most common form of the disease, are both independent risk factors for a variety of cancers. Some previous research suggests that this may be due at least in part to biological changes caused by these conditions such as high blood sugar levels and chronic inflammation as well as increased production of estrogen in women and decreased testosterone in men. (read more)
Health insurers are using diabetes drug coupons to pad profits
BY CHRISTEL MARCHAND APRIGLIANO: Health insurance companies have complained they are burdened with the high cost of diabetes care as a way to justify new programs that shift more of the cost of care to patients themselves. But these programs are actually padding profits in the insurance industry and placing a huge strain on diabetes patients already struggling to meet their health care needs.
Insurance companies are hiding this new effort behind opaque and confusing jargon. They call their new policies “copay accumulators,” “Out-of-Pocket Protection Programs” or “Coupon Adjustment: Benefit Plan Protection Programs.”
These programs block patients from crediting a manufacturer’s copay assistance — coupons or discount cards provided to patients to cover high copays on brand name and specialty drugs — toward the patient’s annual deductibles. (read more)
BY BENEDICT JEPHCOTE: A study has shown that people with type 1 diabetes are statistically at greater risk of heart disease, however, the reassuring note is that heart risks can likely be significantly reduced through simple methods of self-care.
The new research by University of Gothenburg links type 1 diabetes that is diagnosed at a young age to shorter life expectancy by an average 10 years compared with those diagnosed at an older age and 16 years shorter than people without the condition.
The findings added that people diagnosed with type 1 diabetes before the age of 10 had an increased risk of heart attacks and heart disease by up 30 times compared to people without the condition. (read more)
