Texting Helps Low-Income Diabetes Patients Manage Insulin Dosing

People whose diabetes requires insulin injections usually have to make a series of visits to the doctor's office to fine-tune their daily dosage. But many low-income patients can't afford to take those few hours off to see the doctor. As a result, they often live with chronically elevated blood sugars for weeks or months until they can find time to get to the clinic.
But mobile technology can help patients with the process of titrating their dosage without them having to see a doctor, according to a study from New York's Bellevue Hospital.
For people with chronic conditions, mobile technology can provide crucial support and lower costs. Doctors have used mobile messaging to prompt hypertensive patients to measure their blood pressure and to remind HIV-positive people to return for regular lab testing. For people tracking their overall health, Apple's new HealthKit makes it easier for different health and fitness apps to exchange data.
So Natalie Levy, an assistant professor at the New York University School of Medicine and head of Bellevue Hospital's Diabetes Program, decided to try mobile technology to help her low-income diabetes patients adjust their insulin doses remotely.
When diabetics initially start taking insulin shots, they need to check their blood sugar at least once a day to make sure their dosage is correct.
Bellevue, which has traditionally served New York's poor, sees about 5,000 diabetes patients a year. In a survey Levy conducted, one patient reported that it often took three to four months to return for each followup visit during the titration phase.
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Diabetes an expensive disease for many Canadians, costing on average $2.5K annually

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Days after his Grade 8 graduation, Julie Vanderschot’s 13-year-old son began to have blurry vision and stomach pains. He was rapidly losing weight, had difficulty chewing, was insatiably thirsty and frequently needed to use the bathroom.
At the same time, he was taking medication to treat an infected tendon in his foot, which he’d hurt in a bicycle accident. “We initially mistook some of the symptoms as side effects of the antibiotics,” said Vanderschot, a policy analyst in Ottawa.
Her son was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes, an autoimmune disease in which the pancreas can’t produce insulin because the immune system attacks and destroys the cells that produce it. Insulin is a crucial hormone that helps shuttle glucose from the blood into the body’s cells where it’s used as an energy source.
In the weeks and months that followed, the family attended training and education sessions at the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario (CHEO), learning how to test blood-glucose levels, administer insulin and adjust dosages, count carbohydrates and manage diet. Vanderschot’s son now sees an endocrinologist every three months.
A report from the Canadian Institute of Health released earlier in November, which is National Diabetes Month, noted that Canada has one of the highest rates of diabetes in the world. More than nine million people are living with diabetes or pre-diabetes in this country. It’s a chronic condition that takes a physical toll and has expensive recurring drug fees.For those who are living with the condition, it’s an expensive situation.
Under Th Continue reading

A Patient With Diabetes No Longer Needs Insulin After Receiving A Bioengineered “Pancreas”

A year after receiving a new type of islet cell transplant to treat her severe diabetes, a patient continues to do well and no longer needs insulin injections to manage her disease.
A Happy Anniversary
Even the most exciting breakthrough medical treatment can be rendered obsolete by a particularly insurmountable obstacle: time. If a treatment only works temporarily, it has little chance of making a significant difference in the lives of patients, which is why the latest news from the University of Miami’s Diabetes Research Institute is so exciting.
A year after transplanting insulin-producing islet cells into the omentum of a woman with a particularly unwieldy form of type 1 diabetes, the cells continue to operate as hoped. She no longer needs to receive insulin via injections or an insulin pump and is in good health.
By using the omentum, a fatty membrane in the belly, as the transplant site, the researchers were able to avoid complications associated with the traditionally used site, the liver. The longterm goal of the research is to identify a suitable location for a pancreas-mimicking mini-organ called the BioHub. Based on this patient’s response, the omentum is looking like it just may be the ideal spot.
A Better Life
Prior to this transplant, the patient’s entire life revolved around her diabetes. “Her quality of life was severely impacted. She had to move in with her parents. And, if she traveled, she had to travel with her father,” the study’s lead author, Dr. David Baidal, told HealthDay.
Unfortunately, she’s not alone in having diabetes control her l Continue reading

Rising insulin prices forcing Hoosiers with diabetes to make tough choices

INDIANAPOLIS (Statehouse File) – For six years, Erin Roberts worked two jobs in order to afford the life-saving medication her son depends on.
“It was really hard,” she said. “I feel like I missed a lot of family life because I was working as a registered nurse, and so I would work five 12-hour shifts a week.”
When he was 2 years old, Roberts’ son was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes, a disease that occurs when the body does not properly process the food it needs for energy.
The pancreas, an organ that lies near the stomach, makes a hormone called insulin, which is needed to transform the sugar from foods into energy. Without it, the body’s glucose levels can rise dangerously, resulting in potentially life-threatening situations.
But while necessary for survival, families across the country are finding it increasingly difficult to afford their diabetes medication.
Roberts, who requested her name be changed for the purpose of this article, said she didn’t want her son to feel like his diabetes was a burden on their family.
“I try not to let our son know how his disease affects our family financially,” she said. “I know he’s somewhat aware, but I don’t want that to be something he feels bad about.”
As a nurse practitioner, Roberts works with disadvantaged diabetic Hoosiers, many of whom are at a loss for how they way pay for their insulin.
The price of an order of insulin per patient increased from roughly $230 in 2002 to more than $700 in 2013, according to an analysis published in 2016 for the Journal of the American Medical Association. An order c Continue reading

12 Benefits Of Turmeric In Diabetes [UPDATED]

Diabetes is a chronic metabolic condition wherein blood sugar levels in the body remain high as the body fails to regulate it. Insulin is the hormone that plays a vital role in this disease.
It is produced by the pancreas and it controls the blood sugar. Blood sugar or glucose acts as a fuel for various cellular activities. Insulin moves glucose from blood to muscles, fat and liver cells where it is stored or used as fuel.
In diabetes either little insulin or insulin resistance hampers this transformation of glucose and in turn tends to affect the body negatively. There are three main types of diabetes:
Type 1 diabetes: It is caused due to lack of insulin production.
Type 2 diabetes: It is caused due to failure of cells to respond to insulin appropriately.
Gestational diabetes: It occurs during pregnancy due to high blood glucose levels.
Type 1 diabetes is not treatable while Type 2 can be cured by use of medications with or without insulin and lifestyle changes. Turmeric is a perennial herb that is cultivated mainly in Asia as a spice.
Numerous research studies have proven the use of turmeric in treating diabetes and its complications. This article goes over various studies and developments made in utilizing the medicinal properties of turmeric to cure or prevent pathological conditions associated with diabetes.
Composition of Turmeric
The bioactive properties of turmeric are attributed to various components isolated from its rhizome. The important components are curcuminoids and the volatile oil.
Curcuminoids comprise of curcumin, monodemethoxycurcumin and bisdemethoxycur Continue reading