Diabetes Breakthrough? New Skin Patch Could End Misery Of Daily Insulin Injections

Diabetes breakthrough? New skin patch could end misery of daily insulin injections

Scientists have created the special patch which stimulates the body’s own insulin production - and is completely pain-free.
The new device could revolutionise treatment of the condition, which affects around four million people in the UK.
Researchers say the game-changing invention delivers a natural substance extracted from brown algae - completely removing the need for painful and unpleasant daily injections.
They claim the pain-free weekly ‘smart’ patch only releases the active ingredients when needed.
It stimulates the body’s own insulin production and control blood sugar levels.
The biochemically formulated treatment does this by delivering a natural substance, which is extracted from brown algae and mixed with therapeutic agents, through dissolvable microneedles which penetrate the skin.
Dr Richard Leapman, scientific director of the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB) in Maryland, US, where the patch has been developed, said: “This experimental approach could be a way to take advantage of the fact that persons with type 2 diabetes can still produce some insulin.
“A weekly microneedle patch application would also be less complicated and painful than routines that require frequent blood testing.”
About four million people in the UK now have diabetes, with 90 per cent suffering from Type 2.
Type 1 is an auto-immune disease which cannot currently be cured.
Type 2 can be avoided by making lifestyle changes such as taking more exercise and eating a healthy diet.
An estimated 549,000 people have it but are unaware.
The condition Continue reading

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How to Eat a Low Glycemic, Plant-Based Diet

Diabetes affects millions of people every single day. It may run in your family, leading to Type 1 diabetes, which is genetically disposed and irreversible, however, Type 2 diabetes is a whole other story. Type 2 diabetes develops due to poor blood sugar, usually influenced by lifestyle factors. Red meat, fatty foods, processed sugars, a diet high in refined carbohydrates, a lack of exercise, and poor weight management can all lead to Type 2 diabetes. Other risk factors include women with past histories of PCOS (polycystic ovarian syndrome) and other hormonal disorders that affect insulin levels.
How Does Diabetes Happen in The First Place?
Diabetes occurs due to poor insulin function in the body. Normally, when a carbohydrate is consumed, the hormone insulin releases glucose from foods into the bloodstream where it helps turn the sugars into energy by helping glucose to enter the cells. All excess glucose is stored in the liver (which usually leads to excess fat storage.) However, in someone with diabetes, cells don’t properly absorb glucose, which results in consistently high blood sugar. This sugar cravings leading to more sugar intake, and the cycle happens all over again. Over time, this consistent poor glucose response leads to insulin resistance where the body keeps producing excess insulin but since it never works properly, so the muscles, liver, and cells aren’t able to use it for energy. Over time, the pancreas stops producing insulin.
Should We Avoid All Carbs?
A carb-free diet is not necessary, nor helpful, for improving diabetes. Many carbs such as non-star Continue reading

Service dog a lifesaver for child with diabetes, autism | The Wichita Eagle

Brianna Bertrand huffs and puffs, blowing into her dog Cyrus’ face.
The scene playing out is not that of an 8-year-old playfully tormenting her pup.
It’s of life and death.
Cyrus is a medic-alert service dog trained to detect when Brianna’s blood sugar levels are dangerously low or high. He does so by smelling her breath and skin.
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Doctors diagnosed Brianna with Type 1 diabetes last year.
Juvenile diabetes is difficult for any child, with the constant finger pricks and insulin shots and the counting of every carbohydrate, but it is particularly so for Brianna.
Brianna is autistic and can’t communicate when she doesn’t feel well. She has never told her parents, Dana and Joe Bertrand, when her tummy hurt or her ear ached.
But on March 2, 2011, Dana Bertrand could tell from Brianna’s behavior that she wasn’t feeling well. The doctor thought the girl had a virus. While at the appointment, Dana Bertrand also mentioned to the pediatrician, Elaine Harrington at Via Christi Clinic, that Brianna had been drinking a lot of water, waking her parents up at night for more.
Harrington ordered a urine test, and Brianna and her mother left afterward. They were down the road a ways when the doctor’s office called and asked them to come back to do a blood test. It revealed Brianna’s blood sugar levels were too high, and Brianna went straight to the hospital, where she spent the next four days.
That day just happened to be Dana Bertrand’s birthday.
Brianna now tak Continue reading

Scientists Create a Pill That Can Stop Type 2 Diabetes in Its Tracks

Here’s a scary thought about one of America’s leading causes of death: in addition to the 29.1 million people who have diabetes, there are 86 million over the age of twenty who are prediabetic. This reality seems pretty daunting, but new research suggests a cure for type 2 diabetes which accounts for 90 percent of cases nationwide. With type 2 diabetes rising at an alarming rate because of obesity in America, this potential cure is not only timely but necessary.[1,2,3]
A Very Brief History of Type 2 Diabetes
The earliest record of diabetes that we know of is from the year 1552 BC. Physician Hesy-Ra recorded on 3rd Dynasty Egyptian papyrus that frequent urination is a symptom of the disease. Approximately one century later in the year 500 BC, people recorded descriptions of sugar in the urine and noted its occurrence in obese individuals. Because people believed that diabetic urine had a sweet taste, the Latin word for honey – Mellitus – was added to the term ‘diabetes’.
In 1776, English physician Matthew Dobson observed diabetic urine. When he evaporated the urine, he found a brown sugar-like substance which both tasted and looked like brown sugar. Dobson noticed this flavor in diabetic blood as well. Upon further study, he observed that diabetes is fatal five weeks or less for some people while, for others, it’s a chronic condition. Dobson’s observations highlight the first time anyone ever made a distinction between type 1 and type 2 diabetes.
American physician Frederick Allen believed that diabetics’ bodies couldn’t use food normally. So, in 1916, he Continue reading

Study reveals how a very low calorie diet can reverse type 2 diabetes

In a new study, a Yale-led research team uncovers how a very low calorie diet can rapidly reverse type 2 diabetes in animal models. If confirmed in people, the insight provides potential new drug targets for treating this common chronic disease, said the researchers.
The study is published in Cell Metabolism.
One in three Americans will develop type 2 diabetes by 2050, according to recent projections by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Reports indicate that the disease goes into remission in many patients who undergo bariatric weight-loss surgery, which significantly restricts caloric intake prior to clinically significant weight loss. The Yale-led team's study focused on understanding the mechanisms by which caloric restriction rapidly reverses type 2 diabetes.
The research team investigated the effects of a very low calorie diet (VLCD), consisting of one-quarter the normal intake, on a rodent model of type 2 diabetes. Using a novel stable (naturally occurring) isotope approach, which they developed, the researchers tracked and calculated a number of metabolic processes that contribute to the increased glucose production by the liver. The method, known as PINTA, allowed the investigators to perform a comprehensive set of analyses of key metabolic fluxes within the liver that might contribute to insulin resistance and increased rates of glucose production by the liver—two key processes that cause increased blood-sugar concentrations in diabetes.
Using this approach the researchers pinpointed three major mechanisms responsible for the VLCD's dramatic effect o Continue reading