Diabetes •

Diabetes Increases Risk of Heart Disease

July 17, 2016 By Jason Leathers 1 Comment

Diabetes and hypertension combine to a 50% higher risk of heart disease and stroke.

Diabetes is a disease that signals a malfunction in glucose assimilation. Glucose is contained in rice, flour products, or yam, and it is the fundamental element in sugar.

The glucose load in the gut creates an insulin response in the pancreas. The insulin helps glucose absorption so that it could later get into cells and participate in energy production.

By improving absorption, the insulin can contribute to lower the sugar level in the blood.

In case the glucose is not used by the cells when the cells are inactive, the substance is transformed into fat. The hormone responsible for changing glucose into fat is called glucagon.

There are two types of diabetes. One involves the pancreas not creating enough insulin (type I), and the other occurs when the body rejects the action of insulin (type II).

Type II diabetes is the most common one. Experts believe that it is caused by mistakes in lifestyle, such as inactivity and a diet based on carbohydrates. The body starts to contain a lot more insulin than it could assimilate, the glucagon intervenes, and it transforms the glucose into fat.

On the other hand, the fat leads to insulin resistance. The mid-section fat proved to be the most dangerous for creating resistance.

Diabetes is also a risk factor for cardiovascular disease, which is one of the mortality causes in people that have diabetes. The reason is that hypertension, the abnormal quantity of lipids in blood and obesity are all factors that influence the apparition of cardiovascular disease.

The damage done by uncontrolled diabetes to blood vessels can also make people more vulnerable to hypertension and atherosclerosis. Moreover, atherosclerosis developed by the individuals with diabetes appears at a younger age and is more severe than the regular one.

Almost 50% of the people with the disease also have hypertension. They are also more prone to heart attacks and strokes, and their prognosis is usually worse.

The most worrying aspect is that a person with diabetes can have a “silent” heart attack, with no chest pains, as the diabetes damages nerves and blood vessels and impairs the usual symptoms of a heart attack.

Women that have not reached menopause have a higher risk of heart disease because the effects of estrogen are annulled by the underlying illness.

People that have both the disease and hypertension are twice more likely to have a stroke.

The damage done by the illness to blood vessels brings along a higher risk of intermittent claudication and amputation of the lower limbs.

A person that has diabetes must control the blood glucose levels, which could reduce the risks of cardiovascular death by 57%. The blood lipids control can reduce complications to up to 50%.

A healthy diet and losing weight can make the condition manageable. Quitting smoking is also a decisive factor in improving the general health status.

Age, ethnicity, family history, obesity are all factors that can influence type II diabetes. The factors affecting type I diabetes are less known, but they probably involve toxins, dietary components or viruses.

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The War on Diabetes: Insulin Pill and Artificial Pancreas Tested

July 4, 2015 By Brian Galloway Leave a Comment

Researchers from all around the country seem to be determined to significantly reduce the life-altering effects which diabetes has on almost 30 million Americans or even prevent it altogether. While University of North Carolina researchers have developed an artificial pancreas which monitors insulin levels in patients and releases the substance when necessary, another government funded research studies the possibility of insulin pills preventing the development of the disease altogether.

The artificial pancreas was designed for patients with Type 1 diabetes, in which the natural human pancreas deteriorates to the point where it can’t produce the amount of insulin necessary to maintain normal blood sugar levels. Controlling blood sugar levels in Type 1 patients is difficult as it requires daily monitoring and significantly disrupts day-to-day activities.

Researchers propose a device which monitors blood sugar levels and automatically injects him with hyaluronic acid (HA) through patched micro-needles. The HA has a double role: it protects insulin stored in the device, and it is also used to probe blood sugar levels. When HA detects them to flow too high, the device is prompted to release stored insulin to contain them Not looking anything like a real pancreas and more similar to an MP3 player, the so-called artificial pancreas would be significantly more convenient for Type 1 diabetes sufferers than current methods.

Until now, the device has only been tried out on diabetic mice, but researchers say that results are encouraging, with the device successfully controlling blood sugar levels about 80 percent of the time. Future tests results could result in patching the device to lower the failure rate to non-threatening rates.

In unrelated research, a government-sponsored project which brought together researchers from all around the country is testing the viability of insulin pills as a prevention mechanism for diabetes. Over 400 individuals – both children and adults – who present genes which grant them an increased risk of developing multiple diabetes types are currently testing the product.

Previously unrelated research regarding insulin pill treatment has noted that, at least in children, it causes changes in the immune system which might help prevent diabetes. However, there is no way to know whether this is the case, as the research’s scope and timeframe were too small to relevantly gather results, while Type 1 diabetes factors are still largely unknown.

Nearly 30 million Americans are afflicted with diabetes, out of which 1.25 million suffer from the severe Type 1 form. Type 1 cases have been increasing at an alarming rate, with over 3 percent more cases being reported worldwide yearly.

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Glycemic index is of no concern unless you have diabetes: Study says

December 17, 2014 By Jason Leathers Leave a Comment

According to new study people shouldn’t be concerned of where their diet lies in the Glycemic index unless they have diabetes.

Food that cause the sugar level in the blood to rise sharply are called high Glycemic index and food that doesn’t rise the sugar level are named low Glycemic index. Although having almost same amount of carbohydrates, some foods can increase the sugar level more than other.

Dr. Frank Sacks, the study’s lead author from Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston said “The big question is, does that translate to any health issues,”

Some previous studies say that people should adopt diets that are low on the Glycemic index and their value should be printed on their packaging.
Researchers added that uncertainty lies in getting benefits from the low -glycemic-diet especially if the diet is nutritious and heart healthy.

163 overweigh adults were taken for the study and each were provided with 4 heart-healthy diets to be followed for 5 weeks at a time between April 2008 and December 2010. Atleast two diets were completed by the participants.

The 4 diets include
• High carbohydrate foods on high glycemic index
• High carbohydrate foods on low glycemic index
• Low carbohydrate foods on high glycemic index
• Low carbohydrate foods on low glycemic index

Overall the researchers have found no improvement in health pointers among low and high glycemic diets.

No change was observed to hormone insulin which actually converts glucose into energy. No improvement in systolicpressure and amount of fat in blood was recorded.

Sacks remarked that it is expected that the body can handle variations in food on the glycemic index.

“I guess it just works normally in most people,” he said, but emphasized that glycemic index should be studied and followed among people with type 2 diabetes, which is also commonly known as adult-onset diabetes.

Dr. Robert Eckel, a past president of the American Heart Association and a professor at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus in Aurora, wrote an editorial concomitant the new study, said the study’s message is that the glycemic index is not that important if a diet is already heart healthy.

“If you’re eating a heart-healthy diet, glycemic index is not important to consider, I think the emphasis need to be on the overall diet pattern.” He said.

Sacks concluded that people should follow Mediterranean food or Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) diet which involves fruits, fish, poultry, fat-free dairy, vegetables, nuts, whole grains and vegetable oils.

Bariatric Surgery Could Be More Than Efficacious For The Obese

November 8, 2014 By Jason Leathers Leave a Comment

Obesity has become one of the most influential of problems in America, and while most people would benefit from a healthier diet, sometimes the issue is more complicated than just changing what you eat. Bariatric surgery, for one, can be quite effective, but many people probably do not opt for it out of lack of knowledge for its safety and efficacy.

The perception has been that gastric bypass is a very risky operation, but the reality is, it is safe, if not safer, than many of the most commonly performed surgeries in America,” explains study co-author Dr. Ali Aminian, a clinical scholar of advanced metabolic and diabetes surgery at Cleveland Clinic.

He treads on: “The risk-to-benefit ratio of gastric bypass for diabetes and obesity is very favorable. There’s significant weight loss, diabetes improvement or remission, and a relatively low complication and mortality rate. In addition, earlier intervention with metabolic surgery may eliminate the need for some later higher-risk procedures to treat cardiovascular complications of diabetes.”

Dr. John Morton, chief of Bariatric and minimally invasive surgery with Stanford University School of Medicine says, “The study was a quite interesting experience for the entire team. Researchers tested the taste sensitivity among people. With the help of a test strip that was impregnated with five taste components i.e. salt, sweet, bitter, umami, and sour, researchers gave different gradations or strength of intensity.”

Morton is also the president of the American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery. He describes that in their research they found that taste sensitivity was lower in obese patients; before surgery. However, after surgery, researchers noted that the same patients had an improvement in taste sensitivities as they were less inclined to crave salty foods. Dr. Morton suggests that the intergastric balloon treatment could be a highly effective procedure for many patients.

The studies also reveal that almost 18 million people in the U.S. opt for weight loss surgery but only 18,000 actually go through one.

Diabetes Rates Might Be Balancing Off in U.S

September 24, 2014 By Germaine Hicks Leave a Comment

Since 2008, the researchers have found that, the rate of diabetes seems to be stabilizing again. Though, way back in 2012, the rate was 8.3%, which is almost similar to the newly diagnosed diabetic patients.

Linda Geiss states, that there seems to be a possible slowing in the Diabetic epidemic, study published on September 23^rd in the journal JAMA.

Yet, since 1990, there is an increase in the diabetes rates by double, and the situation stays a public health fear, researchers told.

On the other hand, not every one of them experienced the plateauing tendency. The researchers told that, when it comes to racial groups, there seems a constant increase of diabetes amongst Black and Hispanic adults. Particularly, these groups of people are more expected to have the diabetic epidemic as compared to the whites, previous studies claimed. According to the recent results of the study, the rate is continuously increasing amid people who are students of high school or less.

According to CDC report of 2012, in United States more than 29mn people suffer from type-2 diabetes, and other 82mn people are at pre-diabetes stage, a condition when body sugar level increase abnormally usually results in diabetes. It also revealed in the report that, almost 1.7mn people were newly diagnosed with diabetes.

In past two decades, the growing rate of diabetes have linked a variety of factors, which include the aging factor of population, increased rate of obesity and people having inactive lifestyle, all these are risk factors of type-2 diabetes.

Researchers say that, it is very difficult to analyze the causes behind this new change in trend. It is quite possible that the decrease in obesity could leads towards the decrease in diabetes. Present rate of obesity in United States is equal to the rate which was present in 2004, suggested by researchers.

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