Metformin Found Safe In Pregnant Women With Diabetes

Metformin Found Safe in Pregnant Women With Diabetes

Metformin Found Safe in Pregnant Women With Diabetes
Adverse outcomes tied to diabetes, not the drug
by Jeff Minerd Jeff Minerd, Contributing Writer, MedPage Today
This article is a collaboration between MedPage Today and:
Note that this observational study suggests that women who take metformin during pregnancy have no increased risk of adverse pregnancy outcomes, beyond those that arise through the presence of diabetes.
Be aware that the authors did not analyze a group of women with diabetes but not treated with metformin.
Pregnant women who took metformin for pregestational diabetes had a higher risk for adverse outcomes, but this risk was linked to the diabetes, not the drug, researchers reported.
Pregnant women on metformin for other indications, such as polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), had no significantly increased risk for poor outcomes, Alice Panchaud, PhD, of the University of Geneva in Switzerland, and colleagues wrote online in the British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology .
Compared with a matched reference group of pregnant women not taking metformin, metformin users with diabetes were nearly four times more likely to give birth to an infant with major birth defects (odds ratio 3.95; 95% CI 1.77 to 9.41). However, there was no significantly increased risk for pregnant women on metformin for other reasons (OR 0.83; 95% CI 0.18 to 2.81), the study found.
Similarly, women taking metformin for pre-gestational diabetes had more than twice the risk for spontaneous abortion or stillbirth (OR 2.51; 95% CI 1.44 to 4.36), but women taking metformin for othe Continue reading

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Can CBD Help With Diabetes?

Verdict Is Still Out on Whether CBD Oil Can Help With Diabetes Here's Why
Over the past two decades, medical cannabis has been legalized in 29 states and Washington DC . In the years since its legalization, cannabis and CBD oil (an extract that doesn't get you high) have been used to treat a variety of physical and mental illnesses including anxiety disorder , epilepsy , nausea, multiple sclerosis , and general pain relief .
Researchers have explored the possibility that CBD oil could potentially be used to treat diabetes . Several studies have found that CBD oil can lower the incidence of diabetes in nonobese, diabetes-prone mice , but there hasn't been a great deal of research in this area, and no human trials have been conducted. Doctors are deeply divided on whether CBD oil should be used to treat diabetes. Some report overwhelmingly positive results in their patients, while others state that it could actually be a harmful treatment method. We spoke to experts on both sides of the debate. Here are the cases for and against using CBD oil to treat diabetes.
World Health Org Announces CBD Has No Health Risks
Why CBD Oil Could Be an Effective Treatment Method
Dr. Joy Summers, naturopathic physician at Arizona Natural Medical Center , and Dr. Bonni Goldstein , medical adviser to Weedmaps and medical director of Canna-Centers Wellness and Education , use CBD to treat diabetes patients.
"CBD is anti-inflammatory, immunoprotective, and neuroprotective, which all provide direct benefit to patients dealing with diabetes. Often with diabetic patients, immune systems are c Continue reading

WHO | Addressing Asias fast growing diabetes epidemic

Addressing Asias fast growing diabetes epidemic
Hampered by shortages of resources, specialized services and skilled health workers, India and other countries in south-east Asia are scrambling to respond to type 2 diabetes epidemics. Sophie Cousins reports.
Bulletin of the World Health Organization 2017;95:550-551. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.2471/BLT.17.020817
A diabetes nutrition counselling session at Dr Mohans Diabetes Specialities Centre in Chennai.
During a visit to his native village outside the Indian city of Chennai, steel plant worker K Shankar (not his real name), 51, dropped in at Dr Mohans Diabetes Specialities Centre for a check-up, where he discovered his blood sugar was high, though not quite high enough to be type 2 diabetes.
They advised me to change my lifestyle to avoid diabetes, he says. Shankar used to eat a lot of white rice a large part of the diet of Indias 1.3 billion population but has since switched to smaller quantities of brown rice with lots of vegetables. He also goes for a walk twice a day.
Set up in 1991, the centre is part of a network of 32 private clinics offering care for some 400 000 diabetes patients across nine Indian states. The centre has also become a World Health Organization (WHO) collaborating centre.
Diabetes is a chronic disease that occurs when either the pancreas doesnt produce enough insulin (type 1) or when the body cant effectively use the insulin it produces (type 2).
An estimated 422 million adults were living with diabetes in 2014, according to WHOs Global report on diabetes 2016.
Between 1980 and 2014, the Continue reading

LDLHow Low to Go In People With Diabetes?

For Professionals Research Updates Diabetes complications
LDLHow Low to Go In People With Diabetes?
Compelling data supports achieving a very low LDL-Cholesterol with combined statin-evolocumab therapy to reduce further risk of cardiovascular events, which presents important implications for people with diabetes.
With Robert Giugliano, MD, and Priyathama Vellanki, MD
Reducing LDL-cholesterol to less than 30 mg/dL with a combination of a statin and the PCSK9 inhibitor, evolocumab (Repatha), produced favorable clinical outcomes in patients at high risk for cardiovascular disease (CVD), including significant reductions in myocardial infarctions (MI) and stroke,1 according to findings presented at the American College of Cardiology annual scientific sessions, and simultaneously published in the New England Journal of Medicine. 2
Among the more than 27,000 patients enrolled in the FOURIER (Further Cardiovascular Outcomes Research with PCSK9 Inhibition in Subjects with Elevated Risk) trial,2LDL-C was lowered 59%, but more telling was a 15% reduction in the 5-point composite of MI, stroke, hospitalization for angina, revascularization, and mortality.
CVD Risk Points to Need for Very Low LDL-Cholesterol
The study findings validated the lipid recommendation of the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists (AACE),3 to treat patients who fell into the extreme risk category for CVD to achieve LDL levels of less than 55 mg/dl, published earlier this year in the AACE Lipids Guidelines Update.
In the FOURIER trial, evolocumab was typically given in combination with a b Continue reading

What's the Connection Between Sleep Apnea and Diabetes?

When You Should See a Doctor About Sleep Problems
Because sleep apnea can have such serious consequences, its a good idea to encourage your parents to see their doctor if you suspect they have it. If they sometimes appear to stop breathing during sleep or take long pauses between breaths and then gasp for air during sleep, they may have central sleep apnea.
A constant sense of tiredness, even after they sleep 7 hours or more
Loud snoring that wakes up other people in the home. Snoring isnt always a sign of sleep apnea, but the two are often related
Waking suddenly while feeling short of breath or choking
To diagnose a sleep problem , the doctor may ask your parent to keep a sleep diary to track their nighttime rest and nap patterns over a few weeks. The doctor will also ask if they have a family history of sleep apnea and whether their snore loudly or gasp and choke in their sleep.
If the physician thinks your parent may have sleep apnea, he or she will want to do a sleep study to monitor their brain activity, vital and other signs while they sleep. The study involves wearing sensors on their skin and it can be done at home with a portable machine or in a lab designed especially for sleep studies. The sleep study might record your parents sleep for a full night, or the doctor might order a split-night study. In this type of study, your dad or mom wears the sensors and sleeps for the first few hours. Then they use a CPAP machine for the remaining hours of sleep so the sensors can check for changes in their bodys response.
The most common treatment for sleep apnea is Continue reading