Ketogenic diet causes ‘remarkable’ effect in patients with diabetes
BY HEALIO: The ketogenic diet lowered blood glucose and HbA1c levels in patients with diabetes, according to study findings presented at the American Association for Clinical Chemistry Annual Scientific Meeting & Clinical Lab Expo.
“Experts caution that very little evidence indicates that the keto diet is effective over the long term for anything except managing epilepsy — but some research does suggest that this diet could help with other medical conditions such as diabetes,” the association said in a press release.
Kanchana Lakshmi Prasanna Angati, MD,of CARE Hospitals in Visakhapatnam, India, led a team that followed 110 patients (ratio of men to women, 3:1) aged 35 to 60 years who had a BMI of either 26 kg/m2 or 27 kg/m2 and changed their eating habits to reflect a low carbohydrate- high fat, or ketogenic, diet. At baseline, the mean HbA1c level of patients was 7.8% and mean glucose level was 169 mg/dL. (read more)
US man with type 1 diabetes dies after needing to ration insulin
BY JACK WOODFIELD: We are extremely saddened to learn about a 27-year-old US man with type 1 diabetes who died after cost constraints forced him to switch to a cheaper insulin and then ration its use.
Josh Wilkerson went into a coma in June before being found by his fiance, Rose Walters. He was taken to hospital but could not be revived.
The cost of insulin in the US is becoming a wider known issue as more and more stories emerge of people with type 1 diabetes struggling to afford the life-saving medication.
Last month a US senate bill was proposed to bring down insulin costs, which was endorsed by JDRF and the American Diabetes Association.
Mr Wilkerson had switched to a cheaper insulin 17 months prior. He had previously been included on his stepfather’s insurance policy which covered Josh up to the age of 25. When Josh turned 26, the insurance policy expired, and Josh needed to self-fund his insulin from that point. (read more)
Early onset of menstruation linked with increased type 2 diabetes risk
BY JACK WOODFIELD: Earlier menarche is associated with an increased risk of type 2 diabetes, whereas later menarche is associated with lower risk, researchers have said.
Early menarche (the first time a woman experiences menstruation) has previously been associated with a greater risk of gestational diabetes – which can precede type 2 diabetes – later in life.
In this latest study, a team from the North American Menopause Society (NAMS) analysed more than 15,000 postmenopausal women in China and the time in which they started menstruating. This analysis was then used to estimate the relationship between age of menarche and type 2 diabetes risk.
Earlier onset of menarche was associated with type 2 diabetes later in life, however this association was likely driven by adult BMI according to the researchers, which was calculated to account for around a quarter of the associated risk. (read more)
Have we found the true cause of diabetes, stroke and Alzheimer’s?
BY DEBORA MACKENZIE: FOR decades, health experts have been lecturing us about our bad habits, blaming them for the surge in “lifestyle diseases”. These often come on as we age and include heart disease, Alzheimer’s, type 2 diabetes and some cancers. Worldwide, 70 per cent of all deaths are now attributed to these conditions. In the UK, it is a whopping 90 per cent.
Too much red meat, too little fruit and veg, smoking, drinking, obesity and not enough exercise appear to make all these diseases more likely – and having any of them makes getting the others more likely. But no one really knows why, and we still haven’t worked out what causes any of them. Alzheimer’s is now one of the UK’s biggest killers, yet the main hypothesis for how it originates imploded this year after drugs based on it repeatedly failed. High blood cholesterol is blamed for heart attacks, except most people who have heart attacks don’t have it.
Software engineer with diabetes incredibly builds his very own artificial pancreas
BY FABIENNE LANG: You most likely know someone who has diabetes. Even though it is relatively common, it’s still not an easy condition to manage. Most people take their regularly-working pancreas’ for granted, not realizing how important it is and how it’s working in our own bodies.
Dutch software engineer, Liam Zebedee, who struggles with diabetes, had enough of the currently poor quality of monitoring insulin levels available for diabetics and built his very own artificial pancreas.
As a quick refresher in biology, the pancreas secretes enzymes, or our digestive juices, into our lower intestines to break down foods. It also produces the hormone insulin into our bloodstream, to regulate our sugar levels. (read more)
