Category Archives: Diabetes

Justin Green was diagnosed with type two diabetes in 2016. At the time, he weighed nearly 400 lbs (WKEF/WRGT)

KEEPING FAMILIES SAFE: Weight loss can be very difficult, especially if you have a lot of pounds to lose, but the payoff is worth it. A young man FOX 45s Deborah Linz spoke to for her Keeping Families Safe report proves exactly that.

Justin Green was diagnosed with type two diabetes in 2016. At the time, he weighed nearly 400 lbs. Since then hes lost 120 lbs, with his doctor recommending being more active and changing his diet. But, Justin's lifestyle changes didn't come easily.

"I probably eat less than a quarter of what I used to. Nothing fried, raw vegetables, Justin said.

We always encourage diabetics to reduce calories and carb intake, Dr Omotayo Akinmad said, but also only eat when they have to when they're hungry. It's overeating that leads to an uncontrolled blood sugar."

Justin said his weight loss has improved his overall health, and he no longer has to take medication or check his blood sugar.

"The diagnosis was technically reversed but I consider myself a non-practicing diabetic," Dr. Akinmad said. "It's not uncommon for patients who are very well motivated who have lost significant weight and have change their lifestyle to have a reversal in their blood sugar."

Justin's advice for anyone trying to manage their diabetes is to never give up.

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KEEPING FAMILIES SAFE: Weight loss and diabetes - WKEF ABC 22

Newser

Researchers Developing Contact Lens to Help People With Diabetes Newser (Newser) People with diabetes can monitor their blood glucose levels continuously by using electrodes implanted under their skin, but that method can be painful and can even lead to infections. Researchers think they have a more elegant solution: a ... Researchers develop contact lens that tells people with diabetes when they need to take medicationThe Independent all 6 news articles »

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Researchers Developing Contact Lens to Help People With Diabetes - Newser

Dear Doctor: A recent study found that air pollution increases the risk of Type 2 diabetes. How can that be? Air pollution cant possibly raise blood sugar levels.

Dear Reader: I can understand your disbelief. My first thought when I saw this study was that it was correlative, not causative. In other words, air quality is simply worse in cities, which are more likely to have large numbers of people with lower socioeconomic status, who, in turn, tend to have greater rates of obesity and diabetes. Then I looked more closely.

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Air pollutants assessed in the studies include nitrogen dioxide and particulate matter between 0.1 to 2.5 microns in size (PM 2.5). Early epidemiologic studies showed a correlation between areas of greater pollution and diabetes but did not control for socioeconomic status. Then came a 2010 study that used census data from three counties in the United States, and assessed rates of diabetes and Environmental Protection Agency data regarding PM 2.5 pollution.

The authors took into account such socioeconomic variables as median income, high school completion, male sex and ethnicity all markers for diabetes risk. The authors found a 16 percent to 20 percent increase in the prevalence of diabetes in the areas that had the highest amounts of PM 2.5 versus those areas with the lowest amounts, even with all other factors being equal.

Then came this years study published in the journal Diabetes that included 314 obese Latino children in Los Angeles. The authors analyzed where the children lived; the amount of pollution to which they were exposed, measured by nitrogen dioxide and PM 2.5; and their parents socioeconomic data. The children were followed for 3.4 years, during which time they underwent tests of blood sugar, two-hour glucose tolerance, insulin and insulin response to glucose. The authors found that the markers for future diabetes were much greater in those exposed to greater amounts of pollutants. This was independent of socioeconomic status and even independent of the level of obesity.

The cause isnt completely clear yet. Studies in rodents exposed to pollutants have shown increased inflammation within fat cells, accumulation of cholesterol in the liver and decreased ability of muscles to use sugar. This leads to metabolic dysfunction and obesity. Further, pollutants can lead to systemic inflammation that in turn leads to insulin resistance, and thus the inability to bring sugar into the cells of the body, leaving it to sit in the bloodstream.

What is clear is that there does appear to be an association between pollution and diabetes, but more studies are needed to evaluate the degree of the association. Regardless, pollution is obviously unhealthy and needs to be controlled within society. The measurements of pollution provided in these studies come from the Environmental Protection Agency, whose existence is to safeguard the health of current and future societies.

Robert Ashley, M.D., is an internist and assistant professor of medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles. Send your questions to askthedoctors@mednet.ucla.edu, or write: Ask the Doctors, c/o Media Relations, UCLA Health, 924 Westwood Blvd., Suite 350, Los Angeles, CA, 90095. Owing to the volume of mail, personal replies cannot be provided.

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Ask the Doctors: Studies show surprising link between diabetes and pollution - Tulsa World

Catch News

Urine metabolites may help predict which obese teens will develop diabetes Science Daily Researchers have discovered a unique metabolic "signature" in the urine of diabetic, obese black teenagers that they say may become a way to predict the development of type 2 diabetes in people at risk. They will present their results Tuesday at the ... Children at risk of diabetes should be screened by HbA1C, oral glucose tolerance testsMedical Xpress Diabetes control is more difficult for night-shift workers The Endocrine SocietyEurekAlert (press release) all 5 news articles »

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Urine metabolites may help predict which obese teens will develop diabetes - Science Daily

Ventura 9:04 a.m. PT April 4, 2017

Betty Berry (Photo: Contributed photo)

QUESTION:I am looking for information about living with diabetes.Someone told me about a six-week workshop being offered do you have any information about where and when?

ANSWER:Yes, I do and I would be more than glad to share it with you.

You are asking about a self-management diabetes workshop called Everyone with Diabetes Counts. It is a program that encourages lifestyle changes while teaching about diabetes and how it affects overall health.

It is a Diabetes Empowerment Education Program and is being presented by the Braille Institute.The workshops are interactive and involve demonstrations, role play, games and other engaging activities for group learning.

The class you are asking about is six short, weekly workshops from 10 a.m. to noon Thursdays from April 20 through May 25 at theGoebel Adult Community Center, 1385 E. Janss Road in Thousand Oaks.

The program will be facilitated by Brenda Birdwell from the Braille Institute.To register, call886-6025.

QUESTION:I just heard about an organization called Long-Term Care Ombudsman.Can you shed any light on what this organization does?

ANSWER:To understand what this organization does, you need to mark your calendar to attend a seminar at the Goebel Adult Community Center in Thousand Oaks from 2-2:45 p.m. April 27.

Ventura County Ombudsman Daniel Uhlar will explain What Is An Ombudsman? and What Does an Ombudsman Do? He will answer these questions as well as provide the history and current perspective of the program.

Come and learn how these federally mandated volunteer advocates fight for the rights and needs of the elderly and disabled residents living in nursing homes and other long-term care facilities.

The Long-Term Care Ombudsman Program of Ventura is a nonprofit organization.Services are free and confidential.They can be reached Mondays through Fridays at 656-1986.

To make a reservation for this very informative presentation, call 381-2744.

Happenings

April 9, 8 a.m. to 1 p.m.:9th annual Community Garage Sale at Goebel Adult Community Center, 1385 E. Janss Road in Thousand Oaks.Call 381-2744 for information.

April 11, 9-11a.m.:FOOD Share Distribution of Senior Kitsat Goebel Adult Community Center, 1385 E. Janss Road in Thousand Oaks.Flyers and applications are available at the center.For more information, call 381-2744.

April 13, 12:30 p.m.:Transportation Expo will offer information on local transportation choices at the Goebel Adult Community Center, 1385 E. Janss Road in Thousand Oaks. Seating is limited. For reservations, call 381-2744.

April 19, 8 a.m. to noon:Simi Valley Wellness Expo 2017 at Simi Valley Senior Center, 3900 Avenida Simi.For more information, call 583-6363.

April 14, 1:30-3p.m.:Lets Look at Volunteering in a Different Way seminar at Westlake Civic Center, 31200 E. Oak Crest Drive in Westlake Village.For more information, call 495-6250.

April 20, 1-3 p.m.:Will You Pass Your Next Driving Test? seminar at Goebel Adult Community Center, 1385 E. Janss Road in Thousand Oaks.For reservations, call 381-2744.

Betty Berry is a senior advocate for Senior Concerns.The advocates are at the Goebel Adult Community Center, 1385 E. Janss Road in Thousand Oaks. Call 495-6250 or e-mail bberry@seniorconcerns.org. Please include your telephone number.You are invited to submit questions on senior issues.

Read or Share this story: http://www.vcstar.com/story/news/2017/04/04/six-week-workshop-cover-living-diabetes/100020684/

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Six-week workshop to cover living with diabetes - Ventura County Star

Diabetes and fatigue Look to the causes of fatigue to overcome this common side effect of diabetes.

Posted on April 3, 2017 by Diana Hassan, Michigan State University Extension

Fatigue is a common side effect of diabetes. But what causes fatigue and how can you overcome it?

Managing diabetes can be challenging with all the tasks that you have to track such as glucose levels, carbohydrates, food portions, medication and many other tasks. This daily management of the disease can cause a person to experience fatigue. However, there could be other underlying causes of fatigue.

Diabetes itself can also cause fatigue due to high or low blood glucose (sugar). High levels of glucose in the blood can slow circulation. As a result, oxygen and nutrients do not get transported efficiently to the cells and this can cause fatigue. Additionally, since glucose is a fuel for the cells, low blood sugar can also cause fatigue simply because there isnt enough glucose or fuel for the cells.

There could be other medical conditions causing fatigue such as anemia, hypothyroidism (low thyroid), and depression, to name a few. Please check with your doctor if you think that your fatigue is caused by a condition other than diabetes.

To prevent diabetes-related fatigue, try to keep blood sugar levels in control, get enough sleep and try to limit stress in your life. Caffeinated beverages and energy drinks may help you deal with fatigue temporarily, but this approach is not a long-term solution and can also mask the root causes of fatigue.

To understand the benefits of diabetes self-management and to enroll in a diabetes self-management workshop near you visitMichigan State University Extension.

This article was published by Michigan State University Extension. For more information, visit http://www.msue.msu.edu. To have a digest of information delivered straight to your email inbox, visit http://www.msue.msu.edu/newsletters. To contact an expert in your area, visit http://expert.msue.msu.edu, or call 888-MSUE4MI (888-678-3464).

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Diabetes and fatigue - Michigan State University Extension

Americans of South Asian descent are twice as likely as whites to have risks for heart disease, stroke and diabetes, when their weight is in the normal range, according to a study headed by Emory University and UC San Francisco.

Similarly, Americans of Hispanic descent were 80 percent more likely than whites to suffer from so-called cardio-metabolic abnormalities that give rise to heart disease, stroke and diabetes, compared with 50 percent more likely for those who were Chinese and African-American.

These risks include high blood pressure (hypertension), elevated glucose, low HDL, the good cholesterol, and high triglycerides, a fat found in blood. In the study, participants who were aged between 45 and 84, were classified as having cardio-metabolic abnormalities if they had two or more of these four risk factors.

The study, publishing April 3, 2017, in Annals of Internal Medicine, included 803 South Asian residents of San Francisco Bay and Chicago areas, who traced their ancestry to India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh or Sri Lanka. Also enrolled in a parallel study were approximately 6,000 residents of New York, Baltimore, Chicago, Los Angeles, Minneapolis-St. Paul and Winston-Salem areas, who identified as Chinese, white, Hispanic or African-American.

For whites, Hispanics and African-Americans, normal weight was categorized as having a body mass index (BMI) between18. 5 and 24.9 kg/m2. For Chinese and South Asians, the range was narrower: from 18.5 to 22.9 kg/m2.

Questionnaires were given to assess participants activity levels and eating habits.

While other studies have looked at race and cardio-metabolic risk, this is the first that looks at the relative differences between five races, said senior author Alka Kanaya, MD, professor of medicine, epidemiology and biostatistics in the Division of Internal Medicine at UCSF. Its also the first that compared risk between two different Asian populations.

The researchers found that for non-whites to have the same number of cardio-metabolic risk factors as whites with a BMI of 25 kg/m2 the equivalent of 150 pounds for a woman measuring 5-foot-5 they had to have much lower BMI levels. These were 22.9 kg/m2 for African-Americans, 21.5 kg/m2 for Hispanics, 20.9 kg/m2 for Chinese and 19.6 kg/m2 for South Asians the equivalent of 118 pounds for a woman measuring 5-foot-5.

These differences are not explained by differences in demographic, health behaviors or body fat location, said first author Unjali Gujral, PhD, a postdoctoral fellow at the Global Diabetes Research Center at Emory University in Atlanta. Clinicians using overweight/obesity as the main criteria for cardio-metabolic screening, as currently recommended by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, may fail to identify cardio-metabolic abnormalities in many patients from racial/ethnic minority groups.

Kanaya, who is also the principal investigator of the MASALA study (Mediators of Atherosclerosis in South Asians Living in America), which enrolled the South Asians, said that the results of the study should not be interpreted as a call to those with normal BMI to lose weight.

We hope the results will enable patients and their health care providers to see that race/ethnicity alone may be a risk factor for cardio-metabolic health in minority Americans, she said.

The study was funded by the National Institutes of Health and the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute.

Co-authors are Eric Vittinghoff, PhD, of UCSF; Morgana Mongraw-Chaffin, PhD, of Wake Forest School of Medicine in Winston-Salem, N.C.; Dhananjay Vaidya, PhD, of Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore; Namratha Kandula, MD, MPH, and Kiang Liu, PhD, both of Northwestern University in Chicago; Matthew Allison, MD, MPH, of UC San Diego; Jeffrey Carr, MD, of Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn.; and KM Venkat Narayan, MD, of Emory University.

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Race Ranks Higher than Pounds in Diabetes, Heart-Health Risks - ScienceBlog.com (blog)

UPI.com

Even 'healthy' weight gain raises pregnancy diabetes risk Science Daily Women gaining more than 2.5 percent of their body weight each year tripled their risk of gestational diabetes compared to women who maintained a stable weight. This risk doubled for women with a small weight gain (1.5 to 2.5 percent). Even women with ... Healthy weight gain still raises risk of gestational diabetesUPI.com Probiotics may reduce risk of gestational diabetes - Medical XpressMedical Xpress Common probiotic may help reduce diabetes in pregnancy, study findsStuff.co.nz all 5 news articles »

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Even 'healthy' weight gain raises pregnancy diabetes risk - Science Daily

Lions cornerback Alex Carter (far left) met with U.S. Sen. Gary Peters (D-Michigan) in Washington last week about diabetes research funding.

Alex Carter wanted to be an advocate for years. It was one of the things he made clear when he entered the NFL three seasons ago. He just didnt know his first big venture into trying to help cure diabetes would come through an email.

Thats exactly what happened to the Detroit Lions cornerback a few weeks ago. The NFLPA reached out looking for players who might be interested to going to Washington to help advocate for the continued funding of diabetes research. Carter saw the email. He reached out to his family.

They told him, Youre ridiculous if you dont do it.

Thats how Carter ended up meeting with staffs for U.S. Sens. Ron Johnson (R-Wisconsin), Tammy Baldwin (D-Wisconsin) and Gary Peters (D-Michigan) for about a half-hour each last week. In the meetings, Carter, Indianapolis Colts safety Stefan McClure and members of the American Diabetes Association shared their stories as part of the 2017 Call to Congress Advocacy Day. They explained why the federal government needed to continue funding for diabetes research. They also pushed to help lower the cost of insulin. Carter said there were 40 NFL players advocating for diabetes funding last week.

This has been a personal issue for Carter for years. His sister, Cameron, died of complications from Type 1 diabetes. at age 14. Another sister, Madison, also has Type 1 diabetes. She graduated from college early, Carter said, in part because she knew she would eventually need to afford the insulin that helps keep her alive on her own without their parents insurance. Other family members, Carter said, suffer from Type 2 diabetes.

Cameron died the morning of Feb. 21, 2012, of complications from Type 1 diabetes. Carters mother, Renee, found Cameron lying on the floor in her room. She screamed and Carter came running into the room, thinking they saw a spider. He saw his sister on the floor and thought she had passed out.

Carter hugged his dad. Saw him crying. Then he left to pick up his other sisters from school and didnt know how serious it was even as he went to the hospital.

Me and my sister walked up and they were like, She didnt make it," Carter told ESPN in 2015. I kind of broke down. Ran away. It was pretty tough, just out the door. I couldnt believe it. Started crying. Then I got myself back together and came in.

My parents were like, 'You have two young sisters still; youve got to be a man and youve got to show them you can keep them together still.'

Camerons death caused Carter to rethink his decision to go to Stanford -- but he eventually chose to go. Her death also put diabetes at the forefront of issues he began to learn and care about.

Thats the story Carter told last week in Washington.

They really just wanted all these NFL players to come in and pretty much share their personal testimony of how their families are affected by diabetes and why its so important to continue funding research, Carter said. Thats pretty much the gist of everything. We were just there as players advocating to the government, to Congress, that this means a lot.

So many lives are affected by it. Me personally, Ive already lost somebody in my family because of diabetes and we cant cut funds, pretty much.

The Center for Disease Control estimated last year that more than 29 million Americans have diabetes and 86 million have pre-diabetes, which adds to someones risk of turning into Type 2 diabetes. The CDC says diabetes was the seventh-leading cause of death in the United States in 2013 and more than 20 percent of health care spending is for people with diagnosed diabetes.

The difference between Type 1 diabetes and Type 2 diabetes is with Type 1, people dont make any (or enough) insulin. In Type 2, peoples bodies either have too little insulin or are unable to use insulin properly. The CDC estimates that 90 to 95 percent of diabetes cases in the United States are Type 2 diabetes.

The cost of insulin, which is used to regulate and treat diabetes, has increased from $231.48 per patient per year in 2002 to $736.09 in 2013, according to a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association last year. In the same study, the price of insulin per millimeter increased 197 percent.

This is part of what Carter is trying to fight to keep the costs of insulin down while making sure funding to help find a cure for the disease remains.

Its even more personal for Carter because while he does not present any symptoms of diabetes, he knows that because of his family history, he could in the future.

When I spoke to Congress and I spoke to people, I said I was honestly surprised that I dont have it personally, Carter said. Im surprised. But Im also preparing myself for life if that ever does happen, you know.

For now, hes doing what he can to get more involved. He believes there was headway made in both his conversations on Capitol Hill and those of his NFL peers who met with other members of Congress. Carter also spoke to members of the American Diabetes Association on Friday, telling his story.

Before last week, Carter had mostly participated in walks to help raise awareness and funds for diabetes research and awareness. Last week was a larger step for him to become more involved.

Im just seeing what doors open, Carter said. Getting more involved with the ADA, thats definitely a path Im going down. Whatever doors open in that direction, Ill do.

Speaking engagements, getting my voice out there, explaining my passion and my mission.

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After family tragedy, Lions' Alex Carter fights for diabetes research funding - ESPN (blog)

QUEENSBURY The SUNY Adirondack Nursing Alumni Speakers Series will feature the program What Nurses Need to Know: Recent Advances in the Treatment and Management of the Diabetic Patient at 5 p.m. Wednesday.

The program will be held in Room 128 of the J. Buckley Bryan Jr. Regional Higher Education Center.

The event will provide up-to-date information regarding care of patients with diabetes, including categories of drugs on the market, technologies for diabetics and case management, including diet, hospital discharge and specialty referral.

Presenters include Dr. Christine Alexander-Decker, from the Center of Endocrinology and Diabetes of Saratoga Hospital; and Abby Bayer and Kat Christensen, both graduates of SUNY Adirondacks nursing program.

Free 1.5 hours of CEU credit will be offered to all attendees.

The program is free and open to the public. The information provided will be geared toward nurses and nursing students.

For more information, contact Jill Vogel at the SUNY Adirondack Foundation at 743.2244.

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SUNY Adirondack to offer program on diabetes treatment - Glens Falls Post-Star