No Insulin Shots? Diabetes 'Cure' Under Study In San Antonio

A possible cure for diabetes is on the horizon for the millions of people who suffer from the disease. The important research is being conducted in San Antonio. The technique is designed to make the body produce insulin on its own again.
Diabetic patients have to use finger pricks to check blood sugar and insulin shots to control their glucose levels.
"It's part of my daily routine all day and at night before I go to bed, all of it has to be done," said type two diabetic Denise Shank. She has been a slave to this routine for 29 years. She’s among millions of people who have to take injected insulin to control their blood sugar levels.
"It's a pain and it’s time consuming," Shank added. "In other words you can’t just get up in the morning and put your clothes on and go somewhere."
"This becomes a big burden for diabetic patients," explained Ralph DeFronzo, MD, a world renown diabetes researcher and director of the Division of Diabetes at UT Health San Antonio. "So it would be nice if they could just go around, not ever have to take another insulin injection, not ever have to do a finger stick for glucose."
DeFronzo and his colleague, biologist Bruno Doiron, Ph.D., believe they are onto a technique that will be a game changer. It’s called gene transfer.
Using lab-created sections of DNA, scientists injected the pancreases of mice with a cocktail of three molecules delivered by a virus. That virus infects the cells, spreading the new gene information and sparking those cells to produce insulin. Sort of like a cold virus makes your nose run.
"Basically, what we’re goi Continue reading

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Here's how stress can cause diabetes

The growing burden of diabetes represents a global health challenge with considerable consequences in terms of illness and discomfort, health care costs and overall loss of economic productivity. Projections show that the global prevalence of diabetes continues to increase, with Africa facing an alarming acceleration in numbers.
The origins of this debilitating condition are multi-factorial with genetics and poor lifestyle choices now fairly well-established as major contributors. This increase is strongly linked to greater urbanisation and the adoption of detrimental lifestyle choices that include sedentary behaviour, smoking and poor dietary preferences. More recently, however, stress has also emerged as an important contributor to the onset of diabetes and therefore deserves some consideration.
Psychosocial stress
Benjamin Franklin’s famous quote ‘’Time is money’’ provides an apt metaphor describing contemporary Western society’s problem with the perceived lack of time and the ‘’mad rush’’ suffered almost daily. Of concern is that time wasted (and palpitations!) while sitting in a traffic jam or the rush to pick up the kids from school can trigger psychosocial stress that may elicit the development of diabetes in the long-run.
Stress can best be defined as a highly coordinated physiological response mediated by the nervous system – followed by corresponding changes in behaviour and cognition – in response to environmental challenges. This response allows for adaptation to a changing environment.
Environmental stressors can be physical or psycholog Continue reading

Type 2 diabetes breakthrough: Scientists create first pill that not only STOPS the condition in its tracks but also helps patients lose weight - and it could be available on the NHS within 3 years

Scientists have created a new pill that can halt type 2 diabetes in its tracks and help patients shed pounds from their waistlines, a major study has revealed.
Results from a human trial of 632 patients found semaglutide allowed 71 per cent of them to shed pounds - it is believed this is the first type 2 diabetes pill to instigate weight loss.
Researchers hope semaglutide will offer a better way to control the hidden killer, as some treatments currently available can trigger unexpected weight gain which fuels type 2 diabetes.
Results from the phase II trial carried out by the Leicester Diabetes Centre were published in the prestigious JAMA. Semaglutide could be available on the NHS within three years.
The pill was handed as an add-on to patients already taking Metformin - the drug is the first line of defence to control the preventable condition.
Researchers discovered semaglutide stopped type 2 diabetes in its tracks, slashed blood sugar levels and prevented patients from needing insulin.
Type 2 diabetes can lead to heart failure, blindness and leg amputations and is deemed a global time bomb.
Spiraling obesity rates have fuelled a 65 per cent rise in diagnoses in a decade, with more than 4 million people now living with the condition, UK data shows. Globally there are 380 million patients.
Charities have warned the NHS will become crippled by the burden of the condition without urgent action to make changes to today’s lifestyles.
Professor Melanie Davies, lead author, dubbed the results 'hugely promising' and said they show 'semaglutide’s ability to lower HbA1c and su Continue reading

Foot care for people with diabetes: prevention of complications and treatment

This article for nurses on foot care for people with diabetes is the second in a series of five evidence reviews being written by Sarah Chapman for the British Journal of Community Nursing through 2017. It was published there in April.
The prevalence of diabetes, one of the most common chronic conditions in the UK, is increasing. In England, the number of people diagnosed with diabetes rose from 1.9 million in 2006 to 2.9 million in 2013 and this is expected to rise to more than 5 million by 2025. The life expectancy of people with diabetes is shortened by up to 15 years, and 75% die of macrovascular complications (NICE, 2016).
Diabetic neuropathy and peripheral arterial disease put people with diabetes at greater risk of foot problems and it is estimated that one in ten will have a foot ulcer due to diabetes during their lives. Diabetes is also the most common cause of limb amputation not associated with trauma, and 80% of these amputations will be preceded by foot ulceration (NICE, 2016).
Foot ulcers have a significant impact on people’s quality of life, while the annual cost to the NHS of foot ulcers or amputations was estimated to be around £650 million in 2012, or £1 in every £150. There is considerable regional variation in services and practice for preventing and treating foot problems in people with diabetes, highlighted by NICE in their latest guideline on Diabetic foot problems: prevention and management (NICE, 2016).
Evidence-based practice in foot care for people with diabetes
Evidence-based practice is the use of current best evidence in making decisions a Continue reading

Breakthroughs for Diabetes Treatments

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Summary: Recently pharmaceutical firms have released new diabetes treatments, including one in the past week. Moreover, a promising new therapy that attacks the root cause of type 2 diabetes is in the development pipeline. [This article first appeared on the LongevityFacts.com website. Author: Brady Hartman. ]
The CDC recently shocked the public when they reported that 40% of Americans walking around today would develop type 2 diabetes.
Many people develop type 2 diabetes as they age because their body’s response to insulin – the hormone that controls sugar levels – gets weaker.
Fortunately, scientists have discovered new treatments for the disease and have more in the pipeline. One such drug, ertugliflozin (brand name Steglatro) was released less than a week ago.
Moreover, researchers at UCSD are developing a promising new therapy that attacks type 2 diabetes at its cellular roots.
Furthermore, doctors have developed a medication maintenance program, which can help prevent type 2 diabetics from health-robbing complications such as blindness, heart and kidney disease, and peripheral vascular disease.
There is also hope for type 1 diabetics, as scientists are working on improved insulin delivery devices, replacing damaged pancreases with stem cell-derived islet cells and the novel ‘pancreas in a box‘ that may restore normal insulin regulation.
Type 2 Diabetes Epidemic
Diabetes has been a documented human disorder for millennia, but only in recent decades has it developed into an epidemic. Mentions of the condition in ancient medical text Continue reading