An Apple Watch App Is Coming For People With Diabetes

An Apple Watch app is coming for people with diabetes

Medical device maker Dexcom has been showing off iPhone and Apple Watch integration for its implantable diabetes glucose monitors for the past few weeks. The app will display glucose readings on iOS devices and should be ready when Apple Watch is launched in April, according to the Wall Street Journal.
The Dexcom Apple Watch app, medical device experts say, is made possible by recent Food and Drug Administration policy changes that suggest the federal agency will only regulate medical hardware, and not the apps that connect it to consumer platforms like iOS and Android. The exact scenario of glucose monitoring for people with diabetes was discussed when Apple quietly met with FDA officials to discuss the possibility of Apple Watch triggering federal regulation.
People with diabetes and their loved ones want the kind of features that Dexcom’s iOS app promises. In fact, Dexcom’s app was preceded by NightScout, a open-source, not-for-profit, and unregulated set of tools created as a labor of love by software engineers around the world. NightScout takes readings from Dexcom glucose monitors, uploads them to the internet, and can display them on devices like the Pebble smartwatch.
Dexcom’s demos have only shown its Apple Watch app displaying glucose readings. There might be other features included, including alarms and calibration, but those haven’t been revealed yet.
The opportunity for Apple and device makers like Dexcom in mobile health is huge. Credit Suisse estimates there are 400 million people worldwide with Type II diabetes, with associated costs totaling up to $ Continue reading

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Platypus venom paves way to possible diabetes treatment

Platypus venom could pave the way for new treatments for type 2 diabetes, say Australian researchers.
The males of the extraordinary semi-aquatic mammal - one of the only kind to lay eggs - have venomous spurs on the heels of their hind feet.
The poison is used to ward off adversaries.
But scientists at the University of Adelaide and Flinders University have discovered it contains a hormone that could help treat diabetes.
Known as GLP-1 (glucagon-like peptide-1), it is also found in humans and other animals, where it promotes insulin release, lowering blood glucose levels. But it normally degrades very quickly.
Not for the duck-billed bottom feeders though. Or for echidnas, also known as spiny anteaters - another iconic Australian species found to carry the unusual hormone.
Both produce a long-lasting form of it, offering the tantalising prospect of creating something similar for human diabetes sufferers.
Lead researcher Prof Frank Grutzer told the BBC's Greg Dunlop why the researchers had decided to look at the platypus and its insulin mechanisms: "We knew from genome analysis that there was something weird about the platypus's metabolic control system because they basically lack a functional stomach."
They are not the only animals to use insulin against enemies. The gila monster, a venomous lizard native to the US and Mexico, and the geographer cone, a dangerous sea snail which can kill entire schools of fish by releasing insulin into the sea, both also weaponise the chemical.
"That's obviously something that can be powerful in venom," Prof Grutzer said, though he stresse Continue reading

Diabetes is no laughing matter, say young sufferers

A young American woman, infuriated by a social media trend where pictures of cakes and sweets are accompanied by #diabetes, has spelled out what it is really like to have the condition.
On a Facebook post with the hashtag #WhatDiabetesReallyLooksLike, Madeline Milzark, 18, wrote about living with type 1 diabetes.
"Diabetes isn't your piece of cake, or that super-sized McDonald's meal with extra fries or anything you see coated with sugar.
"Diabetes is an 18-year-old girl sitting on her bathroom floor shaking and not able to breathe because her blood sugar dropped and praying her grandma's phone is near her and she got the text message to bring some sugar since she's too weak to yell and the whole room is spinning."
Her post has been shared thousands of times around the world.
Madeline told the BBC: "I originally posted the piece because I had low blood sugar, and I finally had enough. So many people post jokes about my disease, even people on my 'friends' list, yet they don't see me when I'm unconscious or when sugar actually saves my life.
"I'm so extremely happy about the response I've gotten.
"I've had so many people telling me I'm making a difference, sharing their stories with me and thanking me. It's so heart-warming."
Like Madeline, Amy Black - from Belfast - has type 1 diabetes and she supports her campaign: "I agree with it in terms of how she's retaliated. It's something which I've experienced personally and frustrates me a lot. A lot of people trivialise diabetes and don't realise how serious it is.
"People don't seem to see it as a chronic illness - people poke Continue reading

Vegan Diet Endorsed by American Diabetes Association

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A vegan diet rich in whole foods — mainly fresh fruits, vegetables, and plant-based proteins including beans, grains, nuts, and seeds, can help to mitigate the onset and effects of type-2 diabetes, the American Diabetes Association says in its 2018 Standards of Medical Care in Diabetes.
The comprehensive report cites 35 studies pointing to the benefits of a plant-based diet, and also notes that doctors and nutritionists should “always” include “education on lifestyle management.”
According to the Physician’s Committee for Responsible Medicine, “A plant-based diet can prevent, reverse, and manage diabetes.” The group recommends the elimination of animal and high-fat foods, replacing them instead with low-glycemic foods rich in healthy plant-based fiber.
Another recent study also found that cutting all carbohydrates from the diet may not be the smartest choice for people wanting to decrease the risk of developing type-2 diabetes. Diets such as paleo and ketogenic that tout their weight-loss benefits avoid fiber-rich plant-based foods such as whole grains, lumping them in unfairly with highly processed and nutritionally void refined grains commonly found in baked goods. But whole grains can play an instrumental role in slowing the body’s absorption of sugars because of their high fiber content. Whole grains are also rich in necessary vitamins, minerals, and amino acids.
Type-2 diabe Continue reading

Two meals a day 'can treat diabetes'

Only eating breakfast and lunch may be more effective at managing type 2 diabetes than eating smaller, more regular meals, scientists say.
Researchers in Prague fed two groups of 27 people the same calorie diet spread over two or six meals a day.
They found volunteers who ate two meals a day lost more weight than those who ate six, and their blood sugar dropped.
Experts said the study supported "existing evidence" that fewer, larger meals were the way forward.
Timing important?
Type 2 diabetes occurs when the body does not produce enough of the hormone insulin to function properly, or the body's cells don't react to insulin.
Since insulin controls the amount of sugar in the blood, this means blood sugar levels become too high.
Larger studies over longer periods of time will be needed to back up these findings before we would change adviceDr Richard Elliott, Diabetes UK
If untreated, it can lead to heart disease and stroke, nerve damage, light-sensitive eyes and kidney disease.
About 2.9 million people in the UK are affected by diabetes, 90% of whom have the type 2 form of the disease.
Current advice in the UK recommends three meals a day, with healthy snacks.
Scientists at the Institute for Clinical and Experimental Medicine in Prague divided a group of 54 volunteers aged 30 to 70 with type 2 diabetes into two groups of 27 people.
Volunteers were then given either a six-meal-a-day diet (A6) for 12 weeks followed by a two-meal day diet (B2), or vice versa.
The study compared two meals with six meals - as the latter accorded with current practice advice in the Czech Republic, Continue reading