Category Archives: Diabetes

Diabetes can be deadly. Each year, more than 70,000 Americans die from complications of the disease. About half of all people with Type 2 diabetes don't have their condition under control.

New research now confirms a well-known procedure for weight loss may be the best bet for patients with uncontrolled diabetes.

Lisa Shaffer, at her heaviest, weighed nearly 300 pounds.

"When I was obese, my life was so limited," Shaffer said.

Her health suffered, too. Lisa had Type 2 diabetes, and she tried everything to control it.

"Nothing worked, nope," Shaffer explained.

But today she is 120 pounds lighter and her diabetes is gone. The reason: gastric bypass surgery.

"It's been incredible. Yeah, it really did give me my life back," Shaffer said.

Dr. Phillip Schauer, director of the Cleveland Clinic Bariatric and Metabolic Institute, led a study that compared bariatric surgery, either gastric bypass or gastric sleeve, to intense medical therapy in people with diabetes. After five years, the gastric bypass patients did the best. Many were in complete remission without drugs or insulin.

"Which is pretty remarkable. That's about as close to a cure that you can get," Schauer said.

Twenty-nine percent of gastric bypass and 23 percent of gastric sleeve patients achieved and maintained normal blood sugar levels, compared to just 5 percent of medication-only patients. The surgery groups also lost more weight and reported a better quality of life.

"All in all, the patients who had surgery did better and were happier at the five- year mark," Schauer said.

Three days after her surgery, Shaffer was off all of her meds. Her A1c, a measure of blood sugar control, was 10.5 before the surgery and today, it's 5.3. Now she's able to live the life she's always wanted.

"Ever since I lost the weight, I've run three 5Ks. I've done zip-lining with the family, which is fantastic. Just no limits anymore, there's no limitations on my life anymore," Shaffer said.

Schauer says weight loss is one reason diabetes patients benefit from bariatric surgery. The other is something that happens in the body as a result of the surgery. When the intestines are bypassed, special hormones increase, which helps the pancreas produce insulin more effectively.

Published at 4:48 PM CDT on Jun 2, 2017 | Updated at 4:55 PM CDT on Jun 2, 2017

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Gastric Bypass Surgery May Be Best Bet for Diabetes - NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth

Nicole Petit

Over the next few weeks, Nicole Petit is going to share her story of living with diabetes, beginning with when she was first diagnosed at the age of nine. This is her first installment.

This October, Iwill be celebrating 32 years with type 1 diabetes. Some might find it odd that Id use the word celebrate to commemorate my chronic illness, but Im hoping my stories that I share will help others find a positive part of their chronic condition, too. Certainly, not everything has been sunshine and roses, but I would say that every single one of my life experiences good or bad has been affected or influenced by my disease.

When I was 9 years old growing up in Portland, Maine, all I cared about was playing outside in our huge backyard where I had endless lilacs to bring to my mother and plenty of time for target practice in the woodpile with fallen apples from our crabapple tree. My cats and dwarf rabbits were always around, a canoe trip or a hike in the woods with family was usually planned and as often as I could, Id join one of my parents on their trip to Saco to play with my more than 20 cousins. Life was sweet.

Always making friends

Right before school started for my 4th-grade year, I came down with a terrible ear infection. This really threw a wrench in things because my father had planned to take my cousin Katie and me to Funtown to close the summer. I was devastated to miss that day and within a few weeks I lost almost 10 pounds from non-stop urination, lack of appetite and was constantly drinking water. My parents became quite concerned when the kilt my mother was tying around my tiny waist fell right to the floor. They became even more concerned when I drank from a stagnant, dirty puddle on a hiking trail out of desperate thirst.

Those two instances sent me to my pediatrician who within less than a few minutes diagnosed me with type 1 diabetes, at the time known as juvenile diabetes. My breath smelled sweet and there were ketones in my urine. My mother cried while on the phone with my father who was in Augusta where he served as Commissioner of Human Services at the time. They both sounded worried. I sat talking to my doctor calmly. I wanted to know two things: will this go away or will it get any better? He didnt sugarcoat it Nope, youve got it for life kid, there might be a cure in ten years. I felt assured that Id be ok with healthy eating and daily injections of insulin and off my mother and I went to Maine Medical Center.

I spent a week at Maine Medical Center. I bombarded the dietician with questions about what foods were off limits. Anything I cared about was off limits (with moderation, but what kid cares about moderation?). I could have a quarter cup of ice cream once per week, but celery was a free food. Awesome.

Aside from that heartbreak, I welcomed the dozens of people who visited me. I got gifts. I became obsessed with Diet Coke. A surgeon who had performed an Intussusception on me as a baby came to visit me when he saw I had been admitted he brought me stickers. I made friends with most of the pint-sized patients on the pediatric floor many of whom I was convinced, were far worse off than I was. I thought to myself, I just have to take shots and cant eat ice cream theyre in real pain.

I had no pain. I read to them, pushed the TV and VCR around and offered movies for them to watch. I visited the baby floor and the Gift Shop and walked the Western Prom with my father. It really wasnt all that bad until my nurse said I couldnt leave until I gave myself or her an injection of saline.

While I was excited to get home to our beautiful yard, my pets, and my normal life, I simply wasnt ready to self-inject, so I refused. The nurse refused to discharge me. Still, I refused. I would have rather stayed there a year with all the Diet Coke and movies I wanted before injecting me or the nurse with that needle. We came to a compromise she had me inject an orange several times and I went on home.

Once home, life seemed normal to me. We had always eaten a healthy diet and been an active family so getting used to the maintenance of diabetes didnt seem too daunting. My family and I attended classes on diabetes, went to the doctor for lots of follow-ups and explained to my friends what it meant when I had a low blood sugar.

The day I decided to inject myself for the first time, my cousins were with me and watched in amazement as I stuck the needle into my thigh. I was so proud of myself and knew I had reached cool status with them. My parents had successfully prepped me to explain my disease, ask for help if I needed it and to not miss out on life because of this new diagnosis. Thats all great but a few years later, teen years hit, and things became a bit more challenging.

Nicole and her dad Michael Petit

When I learned that Nicole had diabetes a disease I hadnt previously associated with children I asked a physician friend about the prognosis. He said that Nicoles Type I/Juvenile Diabetes had been a certain death sentence until scientists learned how to extract insulin from animals in the early 2oth century. He also said that while the illness was deadly serious, it was manageable, but required persistent, daily attention. I wept at the diagnosisbut was relieved to learn the disease could be treated if not cured.

I think every parents worst fear is that their children may pre-decease them. That certainly crossed my mind in the days and weeks that followed. But thanks to attending support groups for parents, participating in a week-long boot camp for children with diabetes and their parents, and, especially, Nicoles determination to not have her life built around her diabetes, we learned to normalize her condition as another part of her life and our familys life that was woven into our daily living.

Now, more than 30 years later, we still worry about a disease that is relentless, but our anxiety is relieved because, medical advances in diabetes notwithstanding, Nicoles determination to lead a near-normal, productive life remains her and our best ally.

Nicole and her mother Ann Kerry

The only thing I knew about diabetes was that it caused excessive thirst and frequent urination. This, I thought, was found only in older adults. I never to my knowledge had met a type 1 diabetic, probably due to it being a faceless disease.

Nicole had an ear infection that was treated and I thought that was it. On a day trip in the fall, she was so thirsty that she wanted to drink from a puddle. I made an appointment the following day with the pediatrician. The doctor diagnosed her by just smelling her breath the tests confirmed his diagnosis.

It was a scary time. We were so uneducated about the disease and we had so much to learn. Nicole was admitted to the hospital where we spent the week. I lay prostrate in a cot next to her, and she became the pediatric floor social director. This I took as a good sign. We were bombarded with so much information on how and what areas to give shots, mixing insulin (no bubbles in the syringe), and a whole new way of eating measuring all her food and the food exchanges. If she wanted ice cream, she couldnt have a potato for dinner; it was all pretty daunting.

We left the hospital armed with all this information, and the first day home Nicole gets the flu, vomiting the whole nine yards. She couldnt eat, but still had to take her insulin; it was trial and error from then on.

I went back to work and Nicole to school. Many times I had to leave work due to her high and low blood sugars. That was the big learning curve. As it happened, the school principal also had just been diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. Each day at lunch they would both test their blood sugars together this gave me great comfort during school hours.

Nicole at diabetes camp

We spent a week at a camp in Maine for newly diagnosed children, it was so informative and we all learned a great deal from those who had been living with diabetes for years we no longer felt alone. Our pediatrician sent a child about Nicoles age to visit, but my daughter had no interest in hanging out with a kid just because she was diabetic. It was the beginning of Nicole taking charge of her disease.

Together we met with newly diagnosed kids and their parents at Maine Med. It was great for the kids to see this lovely energetic young girl thriving and a mother who was relaxed about her daughters disease. I remember wondering after the diagnosis if the day would ever come that I wouldnt be talking every day about my sadness and fears. It did come, and it was due to Nicoles amazing spirit she just didnt give in. I am so proud of the way she has handled the challenges, and there have been many these past three or four years, but she never quits I really admire my daughter for that.

As Nicole mentioned, when she became a teenager, her life became even more challenging. Shell tell us why in her next blog post.

Do you or does someone in your family have type 1 diabetes? Is your story similar to Nicoles?

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How Nicole Petit lives with diabetes. Part one: The diagnosis - Bangor Daily News (blog)

The twin epidemics of diabetes and obesity sweeping the country have forced a re-evaluation of the American diet, including the notion that fruit juice is a healthy alternative to soda.

That topic was taken up in a recent op-ed in the Journal of the American Medical Association. The article was written by Harvard Medical School Assistant Professor Florence Brown, director of the Joslin-Beth Israel Deaconess Diabetes and Pregnancy Program; HMS instructor in pediatrics Elvira Isganaitis, a research associate and staff endocrinologist at the Joslin Diabetes Center; and Heather Ferris, a former Joslin research associate and now an assistant professor at the University of Virginia Medical School. The three recommended that fruit juice be cut from the federal WIC (Women, Infants, and Children) supplemental nutrition program for low-income families.

The change would make the WIC program healthier for the 25 percent of pregnant American women and 50 percent of children it benefits, Isganaitis said in an interview.

GAZETTE: What is wrong with juice? When I was growing up, people always thought fruit juice was healthy.

ISGANAITIS: Juice has some healthy aspects to it. Its a good source of vitamin C. If youre talking about 100 percent fruit juice, it contains a lot of the vitamins and phytonutrients that fruit contains. But if youve ever squeezed your own juice or tried to make apple cider, youll know that it takes a lot of fruit to make a glass of juice. When youre drinking a cup of apple juice, youre having a lot more calories than you would if you just ate a whole apple. Youre boosting calories and reducing the amount of fiber, so it winds up being a less healthful choice than eating the whole fruit.

GAZETTE: Weve heard about avoiding extra calories, but how important is the fiber we miss by choosing juice over whole fruit?

ISGANAITIS: Higher fiber intake is healthful for lowering cholesterol levels and the risk of certain cancers. Higher fiber intake at a given meal is associated with a greater feeling of fullness or satiety. Its thought to reduce the degree to which your blood sugar levels will spike in response to a meal and help control your appetite at the next snack or meal. In general, North American diets, in particular the diets of kids, are pretty poor in fiber. So when you choose juice rather than a whole fruit youre really missing out on a lot of the fiber.

GAZETTE: When we talk about calories, fiber, and satiety, are we really talking about obesity?

ISGANAITIS: Absolutely. Just thinking of obesity in energetic terms, it stems from a mismatch between your energy in and your energy output. So thats really whats happened to Western/North American food patterns over the last 30 to 40 years. There are just so many opportunities to max out your energy intake while at the same time we have become more and more sedentary. With juice being a ready source of quickly absorbed calories, its being scrutinized for its contribution to obesity. Its been shown to contribute to excessive weight gain in the Nurses Health Study, based at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, as well as weight gain during early childhood.

GAZETTE: Should people get it out of their heads that juice is healthy?

ISGANAITIS: Absolutely. They should continue to view fruits and vegetables as healthy, but in processing those things into juice, you really miss out on a lot of their healthful nutritional aspects. The reason we got together and wrote this op-ed is that, as diabetes and obesity specialists, we spend a lot of our time trying to dispel nutritional myths. People will often come to us having already received some nutritional information. Theyre aware that theyre dealing with a weight problem or they have prediabetes. Oftentimes they will say, Ive cut out soda, now I only drink juice. But you can potentially pack in the same amount of calories drinking juice as soda. Sure, you get a little bit more vitamin C, but in terms of combating obesity, you dont really make much progress that way.

GAZETTE: The op-ed focuses on juice in the federal governments WIC program.

ISGANAITIS: WIC is a supplemental nutrition program specifically targeting pregnant and nursing women, [different from] SNAP, the food stamp program. Theyre managed a little bit differently. The food stamp program is basically a voucher program and participants are free to choose whatever grocery items they would normally buy. The WIC program is set up really to promote the consumption of healthy and nutritious foods. You actually cant use WIC to buy junk food. The types of bread and cereals, for example, that you can buy through WIC have to be high in fiber, whole grain, no added sugar. Given that its set up to improve the nutritional quality of the diet of these mothers and their children, it caught our attention that WIC continues to provide juice, which I, as a pediatric endocrinologist, and my colleagues Dr. Brown and Dr. Ferris just dont really view as a healthy food.

GAZETTE: And does the WIC population have a greater obesity problem than the general population?

ISGANAITIS: Unfortunately, yes. In this country, obesity disproportionately affects low-income populations, who are by definition the populations that are targeted by this nutritional assistance program. Food insecurity, which the USDA defines as a situation of limited or uncertain availability of nutritionally adequate and safe foods is increasingly recognized to be a risk factor, not for being underweight, as was previously thought, but rather for obesity and diabetes. So, even though the amount of juice that has been provided by WIC historically has gone down, by continuing to provide some juice, this is just adding one more risk factor to the many obesity risk factors this population is already known to have.

By Liz Mineo, Harvard Staff Writer | May 3, 2017 | Editor's Pick Popular

GAZETTE: Is there a review coming up during which these changes could be suggested?

ISGANAITIS: There is. The WIC food package is congressionally mandated to be reviewed every 10 years, and the framework for revisions will be released later this year. The National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine recently reviewed the current WIC food package and recommended that the program increase the amounts of vegetables, fruits, fish, and whole grains, and reduce the subsidy for fruit juice.

GAZETTE: Is this an opportunity to make a dent in the broader obesity problem?

ISGANAITIS: Absolutely. Unfortunately, a really large percentage of children and mothers in the U.S. live in poverty. Children in the U.S. are 1.5 [times] more likely to live in poverty than adults. Sadly, children are overrepresented in the poor. Whereas children accounted for 24 percent of the total U.S. population in the 2010 census, they made up 36 percent of individuals living in poverty.

WIC is a program that really has the potential to impact multiple generations at once. Increasing data, including some from my research group at Joslin Diabetes Center and others in the Harvard Medical School community, are supporting the concept that a healthy mom whos at an optimal weight as she enters pregnancy is less likely to have children who are overweight or obese or develop diabetes in later life. So, by fine-tuning a moms nutrition when shes pregnant and nursing her child, you have the ability to benefit her nutrition and health as well as her childrens. Its a really high-impact intervention.

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Diabetes specialists seek to push WIC program away from juice - Harvard Gazette

Roughly 30 million Americans close to 10% of the population have diabetes, and 75,578 people died from the disease in 2013, making it the seventh leading cause of death in the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). And the problem is getting worse, with 1.4 million new cases diagnosed each year. At the current rate, the CDC predicts one in three U.S. adults could have diabetes by 2050.

Thats alarming not just in terms of public health, but also because of the high costs of treating diabetes. In 2012, spending on people with diabetes totaled $245 billion, or about 20% of all healthcare spending in the country. And diabetes-related spending is going up at a startling rate. In 2014, spending on diabetics who were covered by employer-sponsored health plans grew nearly twice as fast as spending on nondiabetics, totaling $16,021 per capita, according to a June 2016 study by the Health Care Cost Institute.

From routine blood glucose testing to nutrition and healthy lifestyle training, the challenge of coping with this epidemic has spawned a growing interest among both new companies and tech giants in diabetes management.

Innovations in the diabetes management space have been focused on both hardware (e.g. glucose monitoring and pumping) and on software (e.g. digital monitoring of blood sugar levels and predictive analytics).

In addition, the global needle-free diabetes management market is expected to grow 17.8% year over year, reaching $16.8 million by 2025, according to a recent reportby P&S Market Research. Included in the space are glucose monitors, advanced insulin jet injectors and artificial pancreases the latter projected to see the fastest growth. Major players include Medtronic,Pharmajetand Zogenix, among others.

Companies focused on delivering behavior change are the ones to watch in this industry, Troy Bannister, lead academy analyst with StartUp Health, told Healthcare Dive. Bannister argues behavior change is the most challenging part of diabetes management.

It is incredibly hard to try and encourage behavior change like exercise, diet and medication adherence, he said. And the problem is only getting worse with the clinician shortage, he added.

"We will need to find ways to incentivize people to change their behaviors.

Troy Bannister

Lead academy analyst, StartUp Health

One company focused on making strides in that area is Omada Health. The online and mobile phone-based program offers lifestyle education, small group support and individual coaching along with a wireless scale and other digital tracking tools to gauge patients progress. In a recent study in a Medicare population, participants using Omada experienced 7.5% weight loss and saw improvements in both glucose control and cholesterol levels.

Taking a slightly different tack on diabetes management is Virta Health, an online specialty medical clinic that aims to not just manage type 2 diabetes but also to reverse it. The company operates as a licensed provider in states across the U.S., delivering telemedicine and support on a 24/7 basis.

What we wanted to do and have now demonstrated can be done is to fundamentally reverse the disease and get patients off of medications and get their blood sugars into a healthy range, Sami Inkinen, founder and CEO of the San Francisco-based startup, told Healthcare Dive.

In a clinical study, more than half of patients using Virtas virtual support reversed their type 2 diabetes in under three months, meaning their blood sugar dropped below 6.5 A1C, according to Inkinen. In addition, more than 90% of patients who started the trial with insulin were able to reduce or stop using it altogether and more than 90% complied with the program and stayed on as patients, he added.

Advances in blood glucose monitoring are also improving diabetes management. In December, One Drop announced regulatory approvals in the U.S. and European Union for its subscription-based One Drop|Chrome mobile blood glucose monitoring system. The tool includes a lancing device, unlimited test strips and an app that wirelessly transmits glucose data to the cloud. The device is available on both iOS and Android.

It isn't just startups that are biting into diabetes. Several tech giants have big plans for diabetes too.

Verily, Alphabets life sciences unit, and French drugmaker Sanofi launched a joint venturelast September called Onduo to create tools for diabetes management. The aim is to combine devices, software, medicine and professional care to create digital solutions to help diabetics manage their disease. The effort, which recently raised $500 million, is focused on type 2 diabetes, but plans to expand over time to include type 1 diabetes and people at risk of developing the condition.

Samsung and WellDoc recently teamed up to offer WellDocs BlueStar mobile diabetes management tool directly to consumers. The app, which received FDA clearance in January, uses clinical and behavioral algorithms to drive individualized, real-time coaching, according to WellDocs website. In two clinical trials, BlueStar reduced blood glucose A1C by an average of 1.9%.

In the area of cognitive computing, IBM Watson is using deep learning to look for genetic variants and molecular indicators of diabetes, Bannister noted. The Sugar.IQ combines IBM Watsons artificial intelligence prowess with Medtronics diabetes expertise to identify patterns in diabetes data that can inform real-time insights into a diabetics health status and actionable steps.

Apple also has plans to enter the space. In April,reports surfaced that the tech giant had hired a team of biomedical engineers to develop noninvasive sensors that can monitor blood sugar and help diabetics manage their disease. If successful, this could open a whole new market for Apple Watch. Word of the top-secret team follows discussions between the tech giant and Food and Drug Administration officials on a range of issues including the 510(k) clearance process.

Bannister expects the trend toward life sciences and technology in diabetes management to continue. The line between life sciences and technology is continuing to dissolve as we quantify our medical statuses, he said. Life science companies want data to understand disease; tech companies are getting really good at building products that not only fit seamlessly into our lives but are also exciting and fun for us to use. They make our lives better.

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Tech giants and startups alike taking on diabetes - Healthcare Dive

Diabetes both type 1, which is an incurable autoimmune disorder, and type 2 which is a lifestyle disease that can be reversed or cured are among the fastest-growing diagnoses in the world. Left untreated, they can cause life-threatening conditions and death. So its not surprising that the medical establishment is pumping resources into new methods of management.

What makes them worthy of talking about here on Geek is that technology is playing a major role. Todays diabetic is often wired up with Bluetooth sensors and custom software that turn them into virtual cyborgs with an awareness of their body chemistry that normal people cant match.

Heres a quick rundown of diabetes if youre not familiar with the condition. When you eat food, its split into three basic categories: carbohydrates, fats, and proteins. Carbohydrates, which are found primarily in plant products, break down into a sugar called glucose in your digestive system. That glucose is turned into fuel to power your mind and muscles.

The body does that conversion with a hormone called insulin, which is produced by beta cells in the pancreas. Type 1 diabetics dont make it at all their immune system destroys those beta cells for an as yet unknown reason. Type 2 diabetics make it, but for some reason its less efficient at breaking down glucose into energy.

When the body cant break down glucose, it has to get energy from other places mostly fat, but nothing is safe. That leads to a state of ketosis, where acids released from fats build up. Those acids can cause a wide variety of nerve and tissue damage.

So the life of a diabetic is basically monitoring their carbohydrate intake and then injecting an appropriate amount of insulin, based on a series of complex mathematical formulas, to match it. Too little and they go into ketosis. Too much insulin can drop their blood sugar dangerously low, which can lead to comas and death. Its a delicate tightrope that they walk every day.

The last few decades have seen advances in diabetes treatment that will blow your mind. To put them into context, lets rewind 50 years or so to look at what treatment was like.

Back in the day, a diabetic would wake up every morning and pee into a test tube. Theyd then drop a tablet into it that would change color to tell them what range their blood sugar was in high, normal or low. Theyd then take a single injection of long-lasting time-release insulin that would do for the entire day and hope for the best. When they were done, theyd take the syringe, boil it on the stove to sterilize it and put it back for tomorrow.

Needless to say, the life expectancy for diabetics was pretty short. Without a way to detect highs or lows, their bodies were at the mercy of a variety of factors and many died.

So there were two problems facing diabetics: being able to monitor blood sugar and being able to deliver the appropriate amount of insulin, no more, no less.

Monitoring got easier with the invention of the fingerprick blood glucose monitor in 1981. A drop of blood is introduced to an enzyme, and then an electrical current is passed through it. The number of electrons the sample loses correlates to the amount of glucose present in the sample. This allowed for significantly more precision, delivering a numerical representation of the patients current blood sugar.

That was coupled with the development of faster-acting insulin, so diabetics could treat highs as they happened. The next wave of diabetes care required them to be a more active participant in their management, checking glucose throughout the day and making adjustments as needed. As cool as this was, technology was about to get involved in a big way.

Fingerprick glucose is accurate but requires the diabetic to go through a process every time they want to check (and only works when theyre awake). The threat of low blood sugars at night is a very real one, as glucose levels can drop quickly. An accidental scientific discovery in the mid-1990s helped change the lives of diabetics around the world.

Researchers were experimenting with the bodys cell fluid in the skin and discovered that it basically mirrors the blood glucose level with about a 15-minute delay. In 1999, MiniMed got FDA approval for the first continuous glucose monitor an electrode thats inserted into a diabetics skin that transmits a reading every five minutes without the need to draw blood. Now patients could get real-time feedback on their blood sugar throughout the day. Those early sensors were good for about three days before the bodys immune system rejected them, but modern ones can go for a week or more before theyre changed.

Monitoring that accurate is all well and good, but a diabetic would still need to give themselves an injection to bring high blood sugar down. However, an earlier invention made that process significantly easier. In 1973, Dean Kamen (inventor of the Segway) debuted the worlds first wearable insulin pump, a device that could dose any amount of insulin to a diabetic through a cannula, or small tube, that attached to the body. This gave diabetics even more control over their treatment, enabling them to microdose and control exactly how much of the hormone they receive.

Pumps have advanced significantly over the last decade, with one the Omnipod not needing a tube at all, but affixing directly to the skin and communicating wirelessly with a control device. Patients who manage diabetes with these devices are uniformly in better condition, and even though only one in a thousand diabetics currently uses a pump, that number is rising.

The next step is the artificial pancreas, a device that combines the two into one. These have passed clinical trials and are being rolled out slowly by endocrinologists around the country. Using complex algorithms, they monitor blood glucose and treat it at the same time in a closed-loop system, also administering glucose when blood sugars are too low. Early results are incredibly positive. Like existing pumps and CGMs, they still have to be changed out regularly, but the system marks a significant advance in treatment.

The future of diabetes is even more exciting. Companies are working on insulin that doesnt have to be injected, but rather is absorbed through the skin with a sound-activated patch. Another brand can be inhaled before a meal. Google is collaborating with contact lens manufacturer Alcon on a lens that measures blood sugar through the eye.

So if you see somebody walking around with some little gray boxes attached to their arms or stomach, its highly possible that theyre toting around a cyborg pancreas, wired into the cloud and keeping them healthy.

See the original post here:
How Diabetes Is Transforming People Into Real-Life Cyborgs - Geek

VERSAILLES, Ky.(WKYT) Saturday June 3, 2017 hundreds will come together to walk and run in an effort to help stop diabetes.

In Kentucky more than 300,000 people of all ages are living with diabetes.

One of those taking part this weekend is Parker Thomas, a young man from Woodford County who has used his diagnosis to help in the fight to find a cure from a very young age. As WKYT's Amber Philpott reports Thomas hopes his work will inspire others battling the disease to get involved.

WKYT first introduced you to Parker Thomas back in 2011, the spunky then 12-year-old was all about baseball and wasn't shy when asked about something very personal.

"On a daily basis I check around 10 to 12 times a day probably," said Parker Thomas.

The little leaguer, diagnosed at the age of eight looked at diabetes like a pitcher would face a batter. For Parker, striking it out became his mission.

"I want to find a cure, why not."

To do that, Parker and his family joined the annual Step Out Walk to Stop Diabetes in Lexington, raising money to find that cure.

Parker also became a Youth Ambassador for the American Diabetes Association serving as a role model to countless youngsters with diabetes.

Fast forward to 2017, Parker now 18 just finished up his senior year at Woodford County High School. To this day, that mission and diabetes are still an everyday part of his life.

"It's never ending obviously, but I feel like we've definitely made strides from going from an insulin pen to a pump which has been miraculous. Right now it's the closest thing to a cure we have."

On Saturday Parker and his Scoops Crew team will again take part in that walk. His team is always easy to spot in the "scoops" shirts that have helped him raise some $30,000.

Parker says this year is the last Scoops Crew shirts he will hand out; he is headed off to college this fall to play baseball.

It's a bittersweet yet proud moment for Parker's mom.

"He used to be inspired by others and now I'm seeing others inspired by him and as a mom what more can you ask for," said Carrie Thomas.

Parker has done his best to strike out diabetes, now he's hoping his work will inspire another youngster to step up to bat to help in the fight to find a cure.

Parker says despite hanging up his fundraising hat, he will be back for the walk in years to come, and he will always support the ADA.

You can support the annual Step Out Walk this Saturday, June 3 at Keeneland. There is a 3 mile walk and run offered. For more information click on the link you see on this page.

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Versailles teen continues mission to strike out diabetes - WKYT

From Wednesday to Friday, the Silva familys life changed. Zahmira Silva, then 7, had a teacher question whether frequent requests to use the restroom could have other explanations than just a desire to get out of class. Zahmira and her parents Rudy and Shawn Silva made an appointment to see the doctor on a Wednesday. The diagnosis: Type 1 diabetes.

I went home to search online and just scared myself, said Shawn.

Overnight our world changed, Rudy said.

By Friday, Zahmira and her parents were in the hospital for a five-day crash course of diabetes education and to get her blood sugar under control.

Diabetes is a disease that affects how the body uses glucose, the main type of sugar in the blood. Typically, bodies naturally break down food into glucose. When the glucose level rises, the pancreas makes the hormone insulin and releases it into the blood. With diabetes, the body doesnt produce insulin (Type 1) or cant respond to insulin properly (Type 2.) In either case, with high blood sugar levels remaining in the body, there can be complications.

Type 1 symptoms include increased thirst and urination, constant hunger, weight loss, and blurred vision. Children also may feel very tired. Type 2 symptoms are progress slowly and include Type 1 symptoms but also frequent infections, slow healing of wounds or sores, yeast infections or burning on urination due to yeast infection. With extreme elevation of glucose in the blood, there may be signs of severe dehydration and coma.

The prevalence of diabetes along the U.S. Mexico border is 16.1 percent compared to 8.3 percent in the U.S. population as a whole. American Diabetes Association

One of the most common disease is school-aged children, diabetes is still a terrifying diagnoses for a parent to hear about their child. In 2012, about 208,000 young people in the U.S. under the age of 20 were diagnosed with diabetes. Many nationwide look to support groups to help navigate this life change.

They taught us how to survive at the hospital, but having a support group, thats where we learned how to live with it and be smart about it, Rudy said.

For five years, the Southern New Mexico Diabetes Outreach has had a support group specifically for children and adolescents who have been diagnosed with Type 1 or Type 2 diabetes. Established in 1998 by local health professionals and other citizens, the organizers were dedicated to helping prevent and manage diabetes affecting the community. Volunteers like Beverly Estrada, the coordinator for the group, create a special connection to the children and parents looking for someone to talk to and learn from Estrada herself was diagnosed at the age of 5 with Type 1 diabetes.

The adjustment for the Silva family, who also have three older sons, was hard, especially at first when they wiped their pantry clean. However, they later learned through education through the support group the wide variety of food they could offer Zahmira.

Its not about deprivation, its about eating properly and how to balance your plate, Estrada said.

Id tell them its not too bad because when you get older it gets easier. Zahmira Silva, diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes at age 7

In the support group, she teaches parents and children about counting carbohydrates such as breads, pasta and rice; and how those can affect blood glucose levels.

Its also dealing with emotions, sometimes self-esteem takes a hit, Estrada explained. No one like changes, because change is never easy and there is nothing worse to be diagnosed with something you may know nothing about.

She notes that diagnosis and journey that follows for the child and family is not an easy one.

Shawna, Zahmira, 10, and Sabian Silva, at a warm up before Zahmira's baseball game on May 15. With Zahmira's Type 1 diabetes diagnosis meant not only a lifestyle change for her, but for her whole family. Support and education is key to maintaining a healthy environment. (Photo: Josh Bachman/Sun-News)

There (are) a million questions, she said. You might feel like youre failing as a parent, and youre guessing, but come out because there are so many in the same shoes walking this journey. Educate yourself, embrace it and take it on and make it your best friend.

Zahmira suggested a simple measure for other kids like her.

Id tell them its not too bad because when you get older it gets easier, she said.

She also thought about how she handled the change in her life, and admitted that she feels pretty normal.

You have two choices: you dont take care of it and the worst happens, or you jump in with both feet, Rudy said. And I feel the proudest of her answer, that she does feel normal.

Cassie McClure is a freelance writer and may be reached at cassiemcclure@gmail.com.

About 208,000 Americans under age 20 have been diagnosed diabetes, approximately 0.25 percent of the population.

From 2008 to 2009, the annual incidence of diagnosed diabetes in youth was estimated at 18,436 with type 1 diabetes, 5,089 with type 2 diabetes.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as of 2012, there are 8.1 million people undiagnosed with diabetes.

25.8 million: The estimated number of children and adults that have diabetes which is 8.3 percent of the population

79 million: The number of Americans with prediabetes

The prevalence of diabetes along the U.S. Mexico border is 16.1 percent compared to 8.3 percent in the U.S. population as a whole.

Hispanics are 1.7 times as likely to have diabetes when compared to non-Hispanic whites.

Source: American Diabetes Association

Southern New Mexico Diabetes Outreach has a support group for elementary-, middle- and high school-age youths from 6 to 7:30 p.m. the first Tuesdays of each month at MountainView Senior Circle Association, 3948 E. Lohman Ave., Suite 1 (behind Walgreens). Snacks are provided. Parents/guardians are required to attend. Children under five are also accepted when diagnosed. Info: 575-522-0289, snmdo.org and snmdo@snmdo.org

El Paso Diabetes Association has two opportunities for children and adolescents with diabetes:

Info: epdiabetes.org, info@epdiabetes.org and 915-532-6280

The American Diabetes Association has a section just for kids with diabetes and their parents, including how to have discussions with your children and strategies for parents together: Info:www.diabetes.org/living-with-diabetes/parents-and-kids

Children with Diabetes highlights the stories of other children with diabetes and tips for parents Info:www.childrenwithdiabetes.com

Myth: People with diabetes should eat special diabetic foods.

Fact: A healthy meal plan for people with diabetes is generally the same as a healthy eating for anyone low in saturated and trans fat, moderate in salt and sugar, with meals based on lean protein, non-starchy vegetables, whole grains, healthy fats and fruit. "Diabetic" foods generally offer no special benefit. Most of them still raise blood glucose levels, are usually more expensive and can also have a laxative effect if they contain sugar alcohols.

Myth: Eating too much sugar causes diabetes.

Fact: The answer is not so simple. Type 1 diabetes is caused by genetics and unknown factors that trigger the onset of the disease; Type 2 diabetes is caused by genetics and lifestyle factors.

Being overweight does increase your risk for developing Type 2 diabetes, and a diet high in calories from any source contributes to weight gain. Research has shown that drinking sugary drinks is linked to Type 2 diabetes.

Myth: People with diabetes can't eat sweets or chocolate.

Fact: If eaten as part of a healthy meal plan, or combined with exercise, sweets and desserts can be eaten by people with diabetes. They are no more "off limits" to people with diabetes than they are to people without diabetes. The key to sweets is to have a very small portion and save them for special occasions so you focus your meal on more healthful foods.

Source: American Diabetes Association

Excerpt from:
Growing up with diabetes - Las Cruces Sun-News

LA JOLLA, Calif. (KGTV) - This weekend 30,000 runners will be taking over the streets of San Diego for the Rock 'n' Roll Marathon. They'll be able to tackle either a 5K, half marathon or full marathon.

For Kristy Castillo, it will be her first time running the full course, 26 miles. A few years ago, it was something she never thought was in her reach.

"It was always a roadblock as far as me wanting to get engaged in intense activity."

That's because Castillo lives with Type 1 Diabetes. Her body doesn't produce the insulin needed to process sugar and produce energy. Long distance running or any intense exercise sends her blood sugar levels on a rollercoaster, spiking and dropping.

"When your sugars go up you feel more sluggish, your performance isn't as good. When blood sugars go down, you feel real jittery," said Castillo.

It will be the longest race of her life. But in addition to her training, she'll also be armed with a new device that will not only monitor her blood sugar but pump insulin at the same time.

With Continuous Glucose Monitoring (CGM), patients are able to measure glucose levels in real-time throughout the day and night. It's also waterproof.

"Over those few weeks, it started learning my body and the rhythms and is keeping my blood sugar steady during these intense runs."

Dr. Athena Philis-Tsimikas, Corporate Vice President for the Scripps Whittier Diabetes Institute, says the device is a game-changer for patients.

"It really will allow patients who previously had to think of everything, they had to be the brains behind how to inject their insulin, they now allow that process to be automated," said Philis-Tsimikas.

Leaving patients like Castillo in control of their diabetes.

"It's a part of me, and it can take this journey with me, but I don't want it to define me," said Castillo.

You can follow Castillo's race on Sunday by entering your number here and receiving text messages. Runners will be wearing a GPS chip in their shoes so family and friends can watch their progress ever step of the race.

Read the original here:
New tech helping Type 1 Diabetes patient race to marathon finish line - 10News

Xconomy Texas

San Antonio Most diabetes treatments work by giving the body the insulin it needs to break down sugar. But that approach deals with the symptoms of diabetes. In recent years, scientists and companies have taken aim at the root cause of the condition by attempting to stimulate or replace the cells in the pancreas responsible for producing insulin in the first place. One of them is a San Antonio researcher hoping to use gene therapya potentially one-time, long lasting treatmentto do the trick.

When cells in the pancreas, known as beta cells, either get destroyed by the immune system or stop producing enough insulin, the result is type 1 or type 2 diabetes. Companies large and small-from European diabetes drug giant Novo Nordisk to privately held startups ViaCyte, of San Diego, and Semma Therapeutics, of Cambridge, MAwant to engineer stem cells that develop into pancreatic beta cells to help a patient produce insulin.

Other researchers, such as Bruno Doiron, a scientist and assistant professor at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, have different ideas. Doiron has developed an injectible treatment consisting of three molecules glucokinase, a second that targets a protein known as PTP1B, and a third that targets a protein called Pdx-1, a so-called transcription factor that regulates genesthat, when infused into the body, are meant to help stimulate the formation of new beta cells. Doiron has tried the method on mice, and based on some encouraging early results, intends to move the work forward through a startup company.

You have to prove you can translate that to a large animal model, he says.

The San Antonio company, Syner-III, got its name because of the synergistic use of three molecules to generate the beta cells, he says. Those molecules are administered via a gene therapy procedure: theyre stuffed into a modified virus and injected directly into the pancreas in a one-time treatment, where they are meant to stimulate beta cell production. The work was published in the peer-reviewed journal Current Pharmaceutical Biotechnology in 2016.

Doiron hopes to raise as much as $10 million to complete preclinical testing.

Others, including Novartis, are considering different ways of boosting beta cell production. Researchers from the Swiss company published findings in Nature Communications that showed a group of compounds called aminopyrazines could be packed into a pill and similarly lead to more beta cells, and more insulin, in mice. Such attempts are fraught with failure, however. In an article on its own website, Novartis notes that researchers have succeeded in producing beta cells in mice many times, but havent been able to reproduce those results in humans.

The potential payoff, however, is huge. Some 29.1 million Americans have diabetes, and 1.25 million of them have type 1 diabetes, according to the American Diabetes Association. Doiron believes the therapy may be able to help both types. While stem cell research has had its share of failures and competition continues to increase in insulin therapysuch as pumps that automatically deliver the treatmentDoiron says a gene therapy, if successful, could result in a longer-lasting, more effective treatment.

When I use your own body to produce medicine, that drastically changes the field, he says.

David Holley is Xconomy's national correspondent based in Austin, TX. You can reach him at dholley@xconomy.com

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With Gene Therapy for Diabetes, San Antonio Researcher Eyes Funding - Xconomy

More than 420 million people across the world have diabetes. At least 29 million of those individuals are Americans, including an estimated 8 million undiagnosed cases. And prevalence of diabetes is increasing.

Because of the enormous market size, many pharmaceutical companies have developed treatments for the disease. Some of these drugmakers rank as some of the best dividend stocks on the market. AstraZeneca (NYSE:AZN), Pfizer (NYSE:PFE), and Sanofi (NYSE:SNY) stand out as the top dividend stocks in diabetes treatment, but several others are strong contenders.

Image source: Getty Images.

AstraZeneca markets several diabetes treatments, including Bydureon, Byetta, Farxiga, Kombiglyze, Onglyza, Symlin, and Xigduo.The company's diabetes franchise generated revenue of $2.4 billion last year.

Farxiga is AstraZeneca's No. 1 diabetes medication. Sales for the drug totaled $835 million in 2016, up 70% compared to the prior year. This strong growth knocked Onglyza out of the top spot among the company's diabetes drugs.

AstraZeneca claims an attractive dividend yield of 5.58%. Although the company currently is paying out more in dividends than it's making on the bottom line, the dividend should be relatively safe because AstraZeneca appears to have solid earnings growth prospects in the coming years.

Pfizer doesn't have as significant a presence in the diabetes market as AstraZeneca. The big drugmaker's lineup includes diabetes medications Glucotrol, Glyset, and Micronase.However, none of these drugs generated enough sales to even merit a reference in Pfizer's annual report for 2016.

More revenue in the diabetes market could be in store for Pfizer, though. Pfizer and its development partner, Merck (NYSE:MRK), expect a decision by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) forSGLT2 inhibitorertugliflozin by December 2017. The type 2 diabetes drug is expected to reach peak sales topping $1 billion.

Pfizer has long been a favorite among dividend investors. It should be still, with a solid yield of 3.98%. Like AstraZeneca, Pfizer has a dividend payout ratio of just over 100%. While that's not good, it probably will only be temporary. Pfizer should experience reasonable earnings growth in the near future, thanks in part to new products gained with several acquisitions made over the past few years.

Sanofi is a major player in the global diabetes market, with products such as Lantus, Amaryl, Apidra, Toujeo, Insuman, Lyxumia, and Soliqua. Lantus is Sanofi's top-selling product in its diabetes franchise and overall. It's also the No.1 insulin brand in the world.

A major challenge for Sanofi is that sales of Lantus are slipping due to generic competition. Sales for Toujeo, however, are soaring and have largely offset the decline for Lantus. Soliqua should also help. The drug gained U.S. approval in late 2016 and is expected to generate peak annual sales of around $1.5 billion.In addition, Sanofi has a couple of promising late-stage diabetes candidates in its pipeline.

Sanofi's dividend currently yields 3.21%. Its payout ratio of 86% is relatively high, but the dividend doesn't appear to be in significant jeopardy right now.

There are other drugmakers in the diabetes market with dividend yields that aren't too far behind those of AstraZeneca, Pfizer, and Sanofi. Merck, which markets Janumet and Januvia, claims a yield of 2.94%. Bristol-Myers Squibb, developer of diabetes drug Farxiga, sports a dividend yield of 2.9%.

GlaxoSmithKline (NYSE:GSK) also sells a diabetes drug, Tanzeum. The drugmaker's dividend yield of 4.55% would rank the stock second behind AstraZeneca. However, GlaxoSmithKline's payout ratio is a whopping 225%. There is significant reason to worry that Glaxo's dividend could be slashed in the future.

Still, investors looking for great dividend stocks in the diabetes market have plenty of options from which to choose. AstraZeneca, Pfizer, and Sanofi can deliver high yields and dividend checks that should keep on flowing well into the future.

Keith Speights owns shares of Pfizer. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

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3 Top Dividend Stocks in Diabetes Treatment - Motley Fool