Staph Bacteria May Be A Trigger For Type 2 Diabetes

Staph Bacteria May Be a Trigger for Type 2 Diabetes

A growing body of research indicates that exposure to bacteria and viruses affects one’s likelihood for developing a number of chronic health conditions. Increasingly, scientists are uncovering proof that certain features of the human microbiome may be a root cause of obesity and Type 2 diabetes.
A new study published this week adds to this evidence, implicating staph bacteria as one potential cause of the disease.
For the study, published in the journal mBio, a team of microbiologists at the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine exposed rabbits to the toxin produced by Staphylococcus aureus bacteria. The researchers found that exposure to high levels of this toxin caused the animals to develop symptoms of the disease, including insulin resistance, glucose intolerance and inflammation.
Their study suggests that drugs that eradicate or neutralize staph bacteria in the body may hold some promise as a treatment for Type 2 diabetes, which affects close to 30 million people in the U.S.
Because obesity is one of the common risk factors for the condition, the authors suggest extreme weight gain has a cascade effect: Obesity alters the microbiome and makes a person—or in this case, a rabbit—more susceptible to staph bacteria. Then a higher than normal exposure to toxins produced by the bacteria will trigger the disease.
Prior research has found that the toxins produced by staph bacteria disrupt normal immune system functioning, which can result in sepsis, inflammation of the heart and toxic shock, all of which can be fatal. But this new study shows staph toxins also a Continue reading

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PredictBGL is a diabetes management app predicting fluctuations in blood sugar levels

A chronic disorder that touches more than 1.5 million Australians, diabetes requires careful and lifelong management.
Seeking a way to streamline the diabetes management process for himself and his daughter led entrepreneur Simon Carter to create PredictBGL, an insulin dosage app for people for Type 1 diabetes. The app allows users track their food intake and exercise, meshing it together to calculate insulin dosages and predict fluctuations in blood sugar levels.
Typically, Carter explained, parents of children with Type 1 diabetes patients have to buy expensive devices such as glucose trackers to help monitor blood sugar levels. The device, he said, sits under the skin and measures the blood sugar level of the person every five minutes, notifying parents if the user’s blood sugar levels gets too low.
“It’s $5,000 to buy one and $2,000 a year to run it,” Carter said.
The device is predominantly used to monitor people with Type 1 diabetes overnight, a time when patients can be at higher risk due to their blood sugar level dropping while they sleep. This risk factor, Carter explained, is even higher in children.
“If they have too much insulin overnight they’re not aware if their blood sugar gets low, and can actually die overnight. It’s something that is a huge concern to both parents of kids and adults with Type 1 diabetes,” he said.
“You never really know what’s going to happen when you inject. You’re really relying on getting the right amount and the right sleep. And often you have to take a ballpark guess of the amount of insulin to take.”
Finding Continue reading

Diabetes Diet: 7 Foods That Can Help Control Your Blood Sugar Levels Naturally

Your diet plays an important role in managing diabetes. In fact, your diet and lifestyle are important aspects of diabetes management and treatment. One reason is that the food you eat on a day to day basis has a direct impact on your blood sugar levels. For instance, high carb foods raise your blood sugar levels. The digestive system breaks down the digestible ones into sugar, which enters the blood. But then again, not all carbohydrates are bad. Complex carbohydrates like whole grains take longer to digest while simple carbs like white flour and refined sugar may cause sudden spikes in your blood sugar levels. Diabetics tend to have high blood sugar levels due to the inefficiency of insulin, a hormone secreted by the pancreas, to control them. Here are six foods that can help in controlling your blood sugar levels naturally.
1. Barley
A study done by Lund University in Sweden states that eating a special mixture of dietary fibres found in barley can help reduce your appetite as well as high blood sugar levels. "Whole grains like oats, brown rice or millets like jowar and ragi contain both soluble and insoluble fibre that helps with sugar control," shares Consultant Nutritionist Dr. Rupali Datta.
The dietary fibers in whole grains can help control blood sugar. Photo Credit: Istock
2. Bananas
Accordingly to a study done by the University College Dublin in Ireland, resistant starch found in foods such as bananas, potatoes, grains and legumes, may benefit your health by aiding blood sugar control, supporting gut health and enhancing satiety. This is a form of starch that is n Continue reading

Apple reportedly has a “super secret” project to change the way we treat diabetes

Apple is reportedly working on a “super secret” medical project: building sensors to monitor blood sugar levels without piercing the skin.
According to CNBC, the iPhone maker has been working on this for at least five years, quietly hiring dozens of biomedical engineers and sequestering them in a nondescript Palo Alto office.
It may be intended to connect to the Apple Watch, which Apple CEO Tim Cook has previously hinted at trying to make more medically useful, even suggesting that an app developed “adjacent to it” might have to get approval from the US Food and Drug Administration. And Reuters reported in 2014 that Apple, Samsung, and Google were all interested in merging their respective mobile devices with glucose monitoring devices. What Apple’s reportedly trying to do here hasn’t worked out so well for Google, whose life-sciences arm, Verily, is also located away from company headquarters in its own unassuming office building and has long been working (publicly) on a smart contact lens for blood sugar monitoring. That project hasn’t been fruitful yet.
Keeping track of how blood sugar levels rise and fall throughout the day is a big job for people with type 1 diabetes, whose bodies don’t produce insulin—a crucial hormone in blood sugar regulation. Diabetics typically test blood samples from their fingertips several times a day to measure these levels, but since the numbers can fluctuate so much in response to food, exercise, stress, and other factors, a few data points per day isn’t always enough information. That’s why enthusiasm has been building Continue reading

How statins can cause diabetes: Pills raise the risk of getting disease by 46 per cent

And the cholesterol-busting drugs do nothing to prolong the lives of those at low-risk of a heart attack, experts found.
The conclusions, published today, will put rival British doctors at loggerheads over the safety of the cheap, widely prescribed drugs.
One leading cardiologist last night said the benefits of statins, taken by eight million Britons, had been “grossly exaggerated”.
But another heart expert insisted “the benefits will outweigh the risks”.
Researchers in Finland studied 8,749 non-diabetic men to see whether taking two of the most popular statins increased the chance of developing Type 2 diabetes.
They found those who took simvastatin or atorvastatin were 46 per cent more likely to develop the condition and those on higher doses were at even greater risk.
Last year, Britain’s National Institute for Health and Care Excellence issued guidance making 40 per cent of adults eligible for statins.
It said anyone thought to have a greater than 10 per cent chance of a heart attack or stroke within 10 years should be offered the drug on the NHS.
It means virtually all men aged over 55 and women over 65 are encouraged to take statins to stave off fatal cardiovascular disease.
But London cardiologist Dr Aseem Malhotra said: “Although the benefits are clear in reducing the risk of death in those with established heart disease this is not the case for a low-risk population.
“Millions see them as a magic pill but they are not.
“This research shows you are more likely to develop irreversible Type 2 diabetes than prevent a non-fatal heart attack if you are at Continue reading