Category Archives: Diabetes

ABBOTT PARK, Ill., March 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Abbott (NYSE: ABT) today announced that the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare has approved the expansion of reimbursement coverage for its FreeStyle Libre system to include all people with diabetes who use insulin at least once a day.

The expanded coverage will enable more people with diabetes to access the glucose data needed to manage their condition without the routine fingersticks1 associated with traditional blood glucose monitoring.

"The best healthcare solution is the one that helps the most people, which is why we designed our FreeStyle Libre system with access and affordability in mind from the very beginning," said Jared Watkin, senior vice president of Abbott's diabetes care business. "FreeStyle Libre systems provide a complete and comprehensive glucose picture without the need for routine fingersticks. The technology helps enable behavior change, which ultimately helps people live better, fuller lives."

The reimbursement expansion, which will go into effect April 1, 2022, was granted based on FreeStyle Libre's overall value proposition, which includes ease of use and scientific evidence that shows the clinical benefits of using the FreeStyle Libre system among all people who take self-injections of insulin.2,3,4

"With the expanded reimbursement coverage, healthcare professionals like me will be equipped with continuous glucose monitoring information and actionable insights for patients with diabetes, which has previously been available mainly to a limited population of people who require multiple daily injections of insulin. This will allow patients to have a better understanding and control of their diabetes based on glucose fluctuation through continuous monitoring," said Dr. Wataru Ogawa, professor, Division of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, Kobe University Graduate School of Medicine. "I am expecting this will lead to better management of my patients' overall condition, as well as reduce the future risks of diabetes-related complications."

About AbbottAbbott is a global healthcare leader that helps people live more fully at all stages of life. Our portfolio of life-changing technologies spans the spectrum of healthcare, with leading businesses and products in diagnostics, medical devices, nutritionals and branded generic medicines. Our 113,000 colleagues serve people in more than 160 countries.

Connect with us at http://www.abbott.com, on LinkedIn at http://www.linkedin.com/company/abbott-/, on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/Abbott and on Twitter @AbbottNews.

1 A fingerstick test using a blood glucose meter is required when there are questions on the accuracy of the interstitial fluid glucose levels or impending hypoglycaemia or hypoglycaemia as reported by the system or when symptoms do not match the system readings.2 Miller, Brandner et al. HbA1c Reduction After Initiation of the FreeStyle Libre System in Type 2 Diabetes Patients on Long-Acting Insulin or Non-Insulin Therapy.3 Miller et al. FreeStyle Libre System Use Associated with Reduction in Acute Diabetes Events and All-Cause Hospitalizations in Patients with Type 2 Diabetes Without Bolus Insulin.4 Wright et al. HbA1c Reduction Associated with a FreeStyle Libre System in People with Type 2 Diabetes Not on Bolus Insulin Therapy.

SOURCE Abbott

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Abbott's FreeStyle Libre is First and Only CGM System to Gain Expanded Reimbursement in Japan to Include All People with Diabetes Who Use Insulin - PR...

People with diabetes often hear about what they shouldn't eat, or to have all foods in small portions. But having diabetes doesn't mean you're reserved to a life of restriction. In fact, there are many foodsand drinksthat people diagnosed with diabetes can have regularly. Specifically, there is one beverage that someone with diabetes can have daily and plenty of it. What's that flowing beverage? It's water, of course. Here's a look at how much you can drink and the different forms of the beverage you can have.

All adults, including people with diabetes, need to stay hydrated. The best way to do so for a person with diabetes is to consume a calorie-free beverage. According to the 2020-2025 Dietary Guidelines for Americans which were developed also for people with chronic diseases, like diabetes, "Beverages that are calorie-freeespecially water" is the primary beverage of choice.6254a4d1642c605c54bf1cab17d50f1e

Water won't affect blood sugar levelsand will keep you hydrated without adding anything else except good old H2O.

The dietary guidelines continue and say that you can also opt to have beverages that contribute beneficial nutrients, such as fat-free and low-fat milk, but that should be consumed keeping portions and grams of carbohydrates in mind. You can also opt to have sparkling water or zero-calorie flavored water, sparkling or still. As long as it's calorie-free, it will help keep you hydrated without having to worry about blood sugar levels.

RELATED: 25 Healthy, Low-Sugar Soda Alternatives

According to the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, women should consume about 11.5 cups of water per day and men should consume about 15.5 cups per day. However, these are estimates that account for fluids consumed from both beverages and food. You typically get about 20% of the water you need from food, especially from vegetables and fruit. Taking that into account, it's estimated that women should take in about nine cups of fluids per day and men should take in about 12.5 cups of fluids per day.

These amounts of water aren't the same for everyone and can vary depending on someone's activity level, the environment (like hotter or more humid weather, you need more fluids), overall health, and if you're pregnant or breastfeeding.

Below are a few tips to make sure you're getting enough water throughout the day:

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The #1 Best Drink to Have Every Day for Diabetes, Says Dietitian Eat This Not That - Eat This, Not That

If you drink diet soda or add a little Equal to your coffee as a way to cut down on added sugar, heres some good news: Drinking no- or low-calorie beverages instead of sugar-sweetened drinks was linked with small decreases in weight, BMI, and diabetes risk in a new meta-analysis published on March 14 in JAMA Network Open.

Participants who consumed low and no-calorie beverages saw positive effects similar to those researchers would expect from water, says Tauseef Ahmad Khan, MBBS, PhD, a researcher at the University of Toronto department of nutritional sciences and a coauthor of the study.

Ideally, you would replace sugary beverages with water as much as possible, but our findings show that people have another choice a low-calorie or no-calorie beverage is a good option as well, says Dr. Khan.

The average American consumes 22 teaspoons (tsp) of added sugar a day, which translates into about 350 calories, according to the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. One tsp of sugar is equal to 4 grams (g) of sugar.

The American Heart Association (AHA) recommends that people cut back on added sugar to help reduce the risk of heart disease and obesity by limiting daily intake to about 6 tsp or 24 g of sugar for women and 9 tsp or 36 g of sugar for men.

Heres a sampling of how much sugar is found in a 12 ounce (oz) serving of some popular drinks, according to the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health:

The overall effects of nonnutritive sweeteners (NNSs) the scientific name for sweeteners such as aspartame, stevia, and sucralose on metabolism and weight is unclear. Although artificially sweetened beverages may help save on calories, experts have been divided on whether they may cause unintended negative effects on metabolism and even impede weight loss efforts.

A study published in Naturefound that artificial sweeteners induced glucose intolerance and weight gain in mice. Glucose intolerance increases the risk of diabetes and cardiovascular disease, according to StatPearls.

Its also been found that drinks containing sucralose (which goes by the brand name Splenda) may increase food cravings and appetite in women and people with obesity, according to a study published in JAMA Network OpeninSeptember 2021.

Some observational studies have suggested that the use of NNSs, such as sucralose and aspartame, is associated with higher body weight and type 2 diabetes, according to a review published in Obesityin March 2018.Because those studies were not interventions researchers simply observed and compared what people were already doing, its unclear whether the alternative sweeteners were actually contributing to those issues or if people were drinking low calorie drinks in response to already having overweight or diabetes.

But the same review found that when researchers looked at prospective randomized controlled trials, NNSs actually helped with weight loss, especially when used with behavioral weight loss support.

Because health experts and organizations have been instructing people to reduce their consumption of sugary drinks, we wanted to find out if people who want to switch from sugar-sweetened beverages to water or low-calorie sweetened beverages would see any benefit, explains Khan.

Researchers analyzed 17 randomized trials that investigated how drinking water, no or low-calorie drinks, or sugar-sweetened drinks impacted body weight, other measures of fat, and cardiometabolic risk. The trials included a total of 1,733 adults with overweight or obesity who were at risk for or already had diabetes. Participants were 77.4 percent women and 22.6 percent men, with an average age of 33.

The included studies lasted anywhere from just three weeks to a year, with the average trial lasting 12 weeks.

The effects were modest, but overall beneficial, according to the findings. On average, switching to the sugar-free drinks reduced body weight by about 2 pounds (lb), lowered BMI by .2 points, and reduced body fat by about half a percent.

Water or alternatively sweetened drinks were also linked to a reduction in intrahepatocellular lipid (IHL). IHL accumulation (nonalcoholic fatty liver disease) is associated with cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes, according to the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases.

Our analysis is unique in that in addition to comparing sugary drinks to alternatively sweetened drinks, we also included water in our study. We found the benefits of switching from sugary drinks to either no- or low-calorie beverages or water were very similar, says Khan.

There are a few limitations to the findings, he says. Our analysis grouped all no- and low-calorie sweetened drinks together it didnt separate and compare according to what was used to sweeten them, says Khan.

For example, if you are wondering about the difference between drinking Diet Coke (which uses aspartame as its sweetening agent) or Coke Zero (which uses both aspartame and acesulfame potassium), these findings wont help you figure that out, he says.

Any questions about long-term impact positive or negative of drinking no- or low-calorie drinks are still unanswered, says Khan. The longest study included in our analysis lasted one year, and so further study is needed to look at what the health impacts might be 5 or 10 years down the line, he says.

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Sugar-Free Drinks Linked to Weight Loss and Lower Diabetes Risk - Everyday Health

Studies have tied the vaccine to lower rates of childhood mortality and stronger immunity against a host of infectious diseases. There are also signs the vaccine can calm the immune system, benefiting people with allergies and autoimmune diseases.

Around the world, trials are underway to research BCG in multiple sclerosis, Alzheimers, and COVID-19.

Faustmans lab, in partnership with NYU Langone Health, is recruiting 150 adolescents with Type 1 diabetes for pediatric clinical trials of the shots. All participants must be between the ages of 12 and 17 and have had the disease for at least two years.

The research builds on studies Faustman has conducted over the last decade.

A small phase 1 clinical trial, published in 2012, showed BCG prompted higher levels of insulin production than in placebo-treated subjects. In a long-term follow of the trial, published in 2018, Faustmans lab found that adult patients with diabetes treated with the vaccine experienced 10 to 18 percent reductions in blood sugar levels and were able to use less insulin. Diabetic patients in the same trial who were treated with a placebo showed almost no improvement.

Research has found that reducing levels of hemoglobin A1c, a measure of blood glucose, by even 10 percent can lower the risk of lifelong complications from diabetes.

A phase two clinical trial, begun in 2015 with 150 patients, is ongoing, with results expected in a year and a half.

Faustman said BCG appears to help patients with Type 1 diabetes by altering their immune system.

In individuals with the disease, the body produces abnormal white blood cells that attack insulin-secreting cells in the pancreas.

Faustmans research suggests BCG can turn on good white blood cells and destroy bad white blood cells prone to attacking the pancreas. Further, the vaccine fixes defects in the white blood cells of diabetes patients, allowing the cells to process sugar and draw more of it out of the blood, Faustman said.

Key to BCGs potency, Faustman and others believe, is the fact that it is a live vaccine. It uses a weakened form of the bacteria that cause tuberculosis, reintroducing a key microbe to the body that humans stopped interacting with as society became more hygienic.

Its amazing to think about how a bug could, over a period after vaccination, reprogram cells in permanent ways that result in immune responses, Faustman said.

Faustmans research, which is still in early stages, has met with controversy.

After she published her phase 1 research in 2018, JDRF, formerly known as the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, and the American Diabetes Association issued a joint statement saying it wasnt clear that lowered insulin levels were a direct result of the vaccine, as levels tend to change over time, and said the small number of participants wasnt robust enough to be generalized to the larger population.

In a statement to the Globe, JDRF said its position on Faustmans research had not changed.

The ADA did not respond to a request for comment.

Other researchers also have been skeptical.

Its not something being pursued or taken seriously by the rest of the field, said Stephan Kissler, a Type 1 diabetes researcher at Joslin Diabetes Center.

Other more mainstream diabetes experts are pursuing avenues such as immunosuppression and creating insulin-producing cells out of stem cells that can be transplanted back into patients bodies. Kissler works to genetically alter transplanted cells so they dont require recipients to take immunosuppressants.

We want to change their disease, said Kissler.

Yet Faustman sees her work as a stepping stone to do just that. The pediatric clinical trial will focus on children who are at an early enough stage in the disease to still have some pancreas function.

When we go into older people, they have no pancreas reserve, Faustman said. So were only testing in them what does BCG do to become a better regulator of glucose metabolism. Now, when we go into kids, it tests the ability of BCG to possibly preserve the pancreas as well as change these sugar defects.

Its an exciting population to study. You get to see if you stop the immune response, can the pancreas recover or become more stable as well as getting white blood cells to behave.

Dr. Joseph Bellanti, a professor emeritus of pediatrics and microbiology-immunology at Georgetown University Medical Center, said the work is innovative and the clinical trials conducted so far were encouraging.

People are entitled to their opinions. My opinion is they are on to something. And its worthy of being pursued, he said.

Ultimately, Faustman hopes to begin another set of clinical trials by the end of this year in children who have just been diagnosed with diabetes, which could change the course of the disease even earlier.

She is undeterred by the skepticism, saying the number and scope of clinical trials involving BCG speaks to its promise.

When you see a global momentum to study these off-target effects in humans, you start to see the validity of reintroducing this microbe, Faustman said.

Jessica Bartlett can be reached at jessica.bartlett@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @ByJessBartlett.

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Could a 100-year-old vaccine treat Type 1 diabetes? MGH researchers are working to find out. - The Boston Globe

If you have diabetes , eating more carbs in the morning and leafy greens at night may help you live longer, according to new researchpublished March 15 in The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism.

Researchers from Harbin Medical University in China looked at data from 4642 Americans with diabetes over 11 years of follow up as part of the NHANES study. They compared eating habits, based on 24-hour food questionnaires, with levels of cardiovascular disease and all-cause mortality over time.

The researchers found participants who ate carbs-rich veggies like potatoes earlier in the day were less likely to die of heart disease . The same was true of participants who ate whole grains in the afternoon, and those who ate dark, leafy vegetables at night.

In contrast, eating a lot of processed meat in the evening was linked to higher risk of dying of heart disease, according to data.

The researchers' data modeling suggested that switching even a tenth of a serving to a more ideal meal time was linked to a significant risk reduction for instance, swapping a portion of potatoes from dinner to breakfast, or whole grains from breakfast to lunch.

The results suggest nutrient timing could help people with diabetes match their meals to natural biological rhythms of insulin sensitivity to improve their longevity.

"Nutritional guidelines and intervention strategies for diabetes should integrate the optimal consumption times for foods in the future," Dr.Qingrao Son, co-author of the study and researcher at Harbin Medical University, said in a press release.

The study is supported by previous research from the same authors which found people with diabetes had better survival rates if they regularly ate a bigger breakfast than dinner.

Meal timing may matter whether or not you have diabetes, too. Skipping breakfast isn't always deal breaker for a healthy diet, but it is associated with more variable blood sugar levels and possibly dips in performance at work, school, and the gym, experts previously told Insider.

Eating more early in the day and less at night is also linked to a healthy weight, possibly because it helps you avoid late-night snack attacks tending toward calorie-dense, less nutritious foods like chips, alcohol, and the like.

While more research is needed on meal timing,what you eat overall may still be more important than when you eat, studies suggest.

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Eat carbs in the morning to live longer with diabetes, study says - Insider

Insulin is a hormone that the pancreas produces to regulate the amount of sugar circulating in the blood.

In diabetes, this regulatory mechanism starts to break down either when the pancreas fails to produce enough insulin or when the bodys tissues become resistant to the hormones effects.

Over time, uncontrolled high blood sugar resulting from diabetes can lead to blindness, kidney failure, strokes, and lower limb amputation.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), in 2019, diabetes caused 1.5 million deaths worldwide.

More than 95% of people with diabetes have type 2 diabetes, which is largely the result of physical inactivity and excess body weight.

Scientists have reached a consensus that high blood sugar levels damage beta cells in the pancreas the cells that make insulin but the part that fat plays is more controversial.

Findings from a new lab-based study suggest that fat stores in the pancreas may help maintain insulin secretion and slow the onset of diabetes.

This research may provide a possible explanation for the benefits of exercise and intermittent fasting as strategies to prevent and treat type 2 diabetes.

The study indicates that a cycle of fat storage in pancreas cells after mealtimes, followed by the breakdown of fat in the hours before the next meal, may help maintain insulin production.

The research, led by scientists at the University of Geneva Medical Centre in Switzerland, appears in the journal Diabetologia.

The scientists exposed human and rat beta cells to periods of excess sugar, with or without high fat levels.

As expected, over time, high sugar levels reduced the cells ability to secrete insulin, compared with normal sugar levels.

However, an abundant supply of fat appeared to protect the beta cells insulin secretion against the effects of high sugar levels.

When cells are exposed to both too much sugar and too much fat, they store the fat in the form of droplets in anticipation of less prosperous times, Lucie Oberhauser, Ph.D., first author of the study, explains.

Surprisingly, we have shown that this stock of fat, instead of worsening the situation, allows insulin secretion to be restored to near-normal levels, she adds.

The researchers observed that periods of high fat and sugar availability, alternating with low availability, activated genes in pancreatic cells that promoted a cycle of fat storage and mobilization.

The benefits of this cycle became apparent during periods when the cells no longer had ample energy supplies.

These fasting-like conditions induced fat mobilization that supported insulin secretion, said Pierre Maechler, Ph.D., who led the study.

In other words, the whole cycle of fat storage (overnutrition) followed by fat mobilization (fasting) is required for the mechanism uncovered in our study, he told Medical News Today.

He said a fast of just 46 hours would be sufficient to allow beta cells to reset and recover their insulin-secreting capacity between meals.

Practically, avoid snacking! he advised.

He believes that the release of fat from stores is not a problem provided the body uses it as a source of energy between mealtimes for example, to fuel regular bouts of physical activity.

Other scientists have questioned whether these findings from isolated pancreas cells growing in dishes in a lab can be extrapolated to people with obesity.

[I]n truth, the higher the [body mass index], the higher the risk of diabetes, and there is evidence that excess fat deposition in key organs, such as [the] liver and pancreas, accelerates diabetes risks, said Naveed Sattar, Ph.D., professor of metabolic medicine at the University of Glasgow in the United Kingdom.

There is plentiful evidence high circulating triglycerides, which deliver excess fat to [the] pancreas, may accelerate diabetes risk, he told MNT.

Triglycerides are a type of fat that the body uses as fuel.

Prof. Sattar cited a clinical trial in which he was involved and which suggests that raised levels of fat in the pancreas contribute to the dysfunction of beta cells.

The Diabetes Remission Clinical Trial shows that when people recover from diabetes as a result of weight loss, their long-term remission depends on continuing low levels of triglycerides in their bloodstream and low levels of fat in their pancreas.

Dr. Francesco Rubino, chair of Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery at Kings College London in the U.K., also cautioned that the new lab-based study may not reflect what happens in the body.

He told the Science Media Centre (SMC) in London that type 2 diabetes involves problems with other tissues and organs, not just the pancreas. For example, experts associate excess fat with widespread insulin resistance and inflammation.

Hence, it is difficult to assess the clinical relevance of the observations from this study and, specifically, the potential role of fat as protective for the development of diabetes as suggested by the authors, he said.

However, he pointed out that, while the association between excess fat and diabetes is clear, the nature of the association is less obvious.

Katarina Kos, M.D., Ph.D., senior lecturer and honorary consultant physician in diabetes and endocrinology at the University of Exeter Medical School in the U.K., told the SMC:

It would be wrong to take from this study that fat rescues the pancreatic insulin-secreting cell once damaged. Reduced nutritional intake combined with exercise improves insulin sensitivity, and this remains the key recommendation for prevention and treatment of type 2 diabetes.

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Fat in the pancreas may help stave off diabetes - Medical News Today

Individuals living with Type 1 diabetes must carefully follow prescribed insulin regimens every day, receiving injections of the hormone via syringe, insulin pump or some other device. And without viable long-term treatments, this course of treatment is a lifelong sentence.

Pancreatic islets control insulin production when blood sugar levels change, and in Type 1 diabetes, the bodys immune system attacks and destroys such insulin-producing cells. Islet transplantation has emerged over the past few decades as a potential cure for Type 1 diabetes. With healthy transplanted islets, Type 1 diabetes patients may no longer need insulin injections, but transplantation efforts have faced setbacks as the immune system continues to eventually reject new islets. Current immunosuppressive drugs offer inadequate protection for transplanted cells and tissues and are plagued by undesirable side effects.

Now a team of researchers at Northwestern University has discovered a technique to help make immunomodulation more effective. The method uses nanocarriers to re-engineer the commonly used immunosuppressant rapamycin. Using these rapamycin-loaded nanocarriers, the researchers generated a new form of immunosuppression capable of targeting specific cells related to the transplant without suppressing wider immune responses.

Thepaper was publishedin the journal Nature Nanotechnology. The Northwestern team is led byEvan Scott, associate professor of biomedical engineeringandGuillermo Ameer, professor of biomedical engineering at McCormick and Surgery at Feinberg. Ameer also serves as the director of theCenter for Advanced Regenerative Engineering (CARE).

Ameer has been working on improving the outcomes of islet transplantation by providing islets with an engineered environment, using biomaterials to optimize their survival and function. However, problems associated with traditional systemic immunosuppression remain a barrier to the clinical management of patients and must also be addressed to truly have an impact on their care, said Ameer.

This was an opportunity to partner with Evan Scott, a leader in immunoengineering, and engage in a convergence research collaboration that was well executed with tremendous attention to detail by Jacqueline Burke, a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow, Ameer said.

Rapamycin is well-studied and commonly used to suppress immune responses during other types of treatment and transplants, notable for its wide range of effects on many cell types throughout the body. Typically delivered orally, rapamycins dosage must be carefully monitored to prevent toxic effects. Yet, at lower doses it has poor effectiveness in cases such as islet transplantation.

Scott, also a member of CARE, said he wanted to see how the drug could be enhanced by putting it in a nanoparticle and controlling where it goes within the body.

To avoid the broad effects of rapamycin during treatment, the drug is typically given at low dosages and via specific routes of administration, mainly orally, Scott said. But in the case of a transplant, you have to give enough rapamycin to systemically suppress T cells, which can have significant side effects like hair loss, mouth sores and an overall weakened immune system.

Following a transplant, immune cells, called T cells, will reject newly introduced foreign cells and tissues. Immunosuppressants are used to inhibit this effect but can also impact the bodys ability to fight other infections by shutting down T cells across the body. But the team formulated the nanocarrier and drug mixture to have a more specific effect. Instead of directly modulating T cells the most common therapeutic target of rapamycin the nanoparticle would be designed to target and modify antigen presenting cells (APCs) that allow for more targeted, controlled immunosuppression.

Using nanoparticles also enabled the team to deliver rapamycin through a subcutaneous injection, which they discovered uses a different metabolic pathway to avoid extensive drug loss that occurs in the liver following oral administration. This route of administration requires significantly less rapamycin to be effective about half the standard dose.

We wondered, can rapamycin be re-engineered to avoid non-specific suppression of T cells and instead stimulate a tolerogenic pathway by delivering the drug to different types of immune cells? Scott said. By changing the cell types that are targeted, we actually changed the way that immunosuppression was achieved.

The team tested the hypothesis on mice, introducing diabetes to the population before treating them with a combination of islet transplantation and rapamycin, delivered via the standard Rapamune oral regimen and their nanocarrier formulation. Beginning the day before transplantation, mice were given injections of the altered drug and continued injections every three days for two weeks.

The team observed minimal side effects in the mice and found the diabetes was eradicated for the length of their 100-day trial; but the treatment should last the transplants lifespan. The team also demonstrated the population of mice treated with the nano-delivered drug had a robust immune response compared to mice given standard treatments of the drug.

The concept of enhancing and controlling side effects of drugs via nanodelivery is not a new one, Scott said. But here were not enhancing an effect, we are changing it by repurposing the biochemical pathway of a drug, in this case mTOR inhibition by rapamycin, we are generating a totally different cellular response.

The teams discovery could have far-reaching implications. This approach can be applied to other transplanted tissues and organs, opening up new research areas and options for patients, Ameer said. We are now working on taking these very exciting results one step closer to clinical use.

Jacqueline Burke, the first author on the study and a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow and researcher working with Scott and Ameer at CARE, said she could hardly believe her readings when she saw the mices blood sugar plummet from highly diabetic levels to an even number. She kept double-checking to make sure it wasnt a fluke, but saw the number sustained over the course of months.

For Burke, a doctoral candidate studying biomedical engineering, the research hits closer to home. Burke is one such individual for whom daily shots are a well-known part of her life. She was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes when she was nine, and for a long time knew she wanted to somehow contribute to the field.

At my past program, I worked on wound healing for diabetic foot ulcers, which are a complication of Type 1 diabetes, Burke said. As someone whos 26, I never really want to get there, so I felt like a better strategy would be to focus on how we can treat diabetes now in a more succinct way that mimics the natural occurrences of the pancreas in a non-diabetic person.

The all-Northwestern research team has been working on experiments and publishing studies on islet transplantation for three years, and both Burke and Scott say the work they just published could have been broken into two or three papers. What theyve published now, though, they consider a breakthrough and say it could have major implications on the future of diabetes research.

Scott has begun the process of patenting the method and collaborating with industrial partners to ultimately move it into the clinical trials stage. Commercializing his work would address theremaining issuesthat have arisen for new technologies likeVertexs stem-cell derived pancreatic isletsfor diabetes treatment.

Republished courtesy of Northwestern University.Photo credit: Northwestern University.

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Nanotherapy Offers New Hope for the Treatment of Type 1 Diabetes - Laboratory Equipment

We found significant differences in the rates of D5 attainment both by rurality and deprivation, she said.

Specifically, they found:

McCoy says that anyone living withdiabetesshould have access to a trusted health care provider who can help them meet the D5 metrics safely.

It is important to work closely with their health care providers to optimize blood glucose,blood pressureand cholesterol management; not smoke or use other tobacco products; and take aspirin if they have existing heart disease, she said.

Communication is key. Patients should tell their health care provider if they can afford and tolerate their medications, and discuss any other barriers to diabetes care, she said.

There are resources available to help people living with diabetes afford medications and testing supplies, and to live well with their diabetes. Pharmacists, certified diabetes care and education specialists, community health workers, community paramedics and social workers are all integral parts of the health care team and can help people living with diabetes, McCoy said.

For older adults with diabetes, McCoy suggests they select aMedicareAdvantage or Part D plan that covers the medications they need to manage their diabetes. She also cautions them to be particularly watchful of experiencing hypoglycemia (low blood sugar) or hypotension (low blood pressure).

Older people are particularly susceptible to both, and both are dangerous. If they are, they need to tell their health care provider so their regimens can be changed. It is important for blood glucose and blood pressure to be in a safe range, not too high or too low, McCoy said.

Peter Urban is a contributing writer and editor who focuses on health news. Urban spent two decades working as a correspondent in Washington, D.C., for daily newspapers in Connecticut, Massachusetts, Ohio, California and Arkansas, including a stint as Washington bureau chief for theLas Vegas Review-Journal.His freelance work has appeared inScientific American, Bloomberg Governmentand CTNewsJunkie.com.

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Diabetes Disparities: Where You Live Impacts Long-Term Health - AARP

Two researchers at Seoul St. Mary's Hospital released a study result on Tuesday, which stresses the need for people with poor lung function to monitor their health, especially the possibility of diabetes closely.

Diabetes mellitus is a systemic inflammatory disease in which high blood sugar persists for a long time. Prior studies have shown a decrease in lung capacity due to chronic inflammation in diabetic patients. In addition, researchers have published studies on diabetes in patients with chronic airway diseases such as asthma or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

However, few studies analyzed the association between lung function and the development of diabetes by following up on undiagnosed adults for years.

The research team, led by Professors Kim Hun-sung of the Department of Endocrinology and Lee Hwa-young of the Department of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, analyzed and compared diabetes development and lung function in 17,568 healthy adults who received a health checkup at the hospital from March 2009 to October 2012. They had not had diabetes and received at least two lung function tests in six years.

Among them, 152 (0.9 percent) had diabetes, and the team performed a multiple logistic regression analysis to determine the relationship between diabetes onset and multiple variables.

After adjusting for age, gender, and body mass index, the team found that the group with a forced expiratory volume in one second and forced vital capacity (FEV1/FVC) ratio of 78-82 percent had a 40 percent lower risk of diabetes than the group with an FEV1/FVC ratio of 86 percent or higher.

The FEV1/FVC ratio represents airway resistance, and the team identified it as a predictor of future diabetes incidence in healthy adults.

By analyzing the correlation between pulmonary function and glycated hemoglobin followed for six years in the same person, the team also confirmed a negative correlation -- lower the pulmonary function test value led to higher glycated hemoglobin.

The research team said the study is significant. It analyzed the blood test results, including the six-year follow-up lung function, clinical characteristics, and glycated hemoglobin of non-diabetic patients with large-scale data.

Through this study, the research team found that decreased lung function and airway resistance are related to blood sugar and lungs and that managing lung health will help prevent diabetes.

Endocrinology and Metabolism published the results of the study in its December issue.

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St. Mary's Hospital team finds new link between lung function and diabetes - Korea Biomedical Review

TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) Across the country, one in ten people were told they had diabetes in 2020 and a few years before, diabetes was the seventh leading cause of death in the United States.

According to the Arizona Department of Health Services about 600,000 people have type 2 diabetes and about 1,800 youth are diagnosed with type 1, both creating daily struggles for them and their families.

Over at the University of Arizona, there is a new exhibit in the health sciences library that is helping depict the day in the life for those with diabetes called Strips and Needles: A Day in the Life".

"My goal for the exhibit strips and needles is to serve a whole host of communities," Dr. Michael Lee Zirulnik, the exhibit's creator and type 1 diabetic, said. "To serve medical and allied health students, to serve families, to let families know that beauty can come out of things that are a challenge, and for people that have a hidden or visible disabilities, whether it's diabetes or something else."

Zirulnik cataloged over 3,000 test strips and insulin syringe needles into the panels of the exhibit, showcasing a full year of daily struggles for diabetics.

The Diabetes Prevention Program is a year long support group that helps those suffering with type 2 learn to create healthy lifestyle choices. The program's state director Vanessa da Silva said from stress management to a healthy diet, there are ways to help with type 2.

She said when someone is both chronically or acutely stressed, their blood sugar spikes, which is even more prevalent due to the pandemic.

"Theyre also reporting that for those that have had COVID and the worse the infection is the higher the risk is for diabetes, type 1 or type 2," she said. "Our diabetes risk is higher in certain populations that are lower economic status, a hispanic/latino, or tribal, of which we have a lot here in Arizona.

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