Think Twice Before Making That Diabetes Joke

I decided to do a little experiment. I went to the mall and asked strangers a question,
“When I say the word ‘diabetes,’ what is the first thing that pops into your
mind?”
I got varied responses, but about half of the answers fell into the stigma. What is the stigma, you ask? The stigma is that people with diabetes are overweight, that people with diabetes ate too much sugar, that people with diabetes need to diet.
If we look at the things written down in the picture above, you’ll see about half of them appear to have a decent understanding. Yes, diabetes is an illness and a disease. Yes, for many it does involve needles. Some people thought of a family member who was affected. A couple of people even knew there was more than one type of diabetes.
So where does the problem come in? About half the responses included the word “sugar.” Most disturbingly, upon further discussion I learned this was literally all the knowledge some people had about diabetes.
I’m sure you’ve seen it before on social media. You see a picture of an indulgent dessert, and you click on the comments. “DIABETES,” someone said. You’re reading someone’s Facebook status and it reads, “If John had 20 candy bars, then Joe gave him 2, what does he have now? Diabetes. John has diabetes.” Again, you click on the comments to see that they’re full of “LOLs,” “HAHAHAs,” and praise for the hilarious joke. The thing is… it’s not hilarious. It’s horribly offensive.Diabetes is not a candy bar. Diabetes is a devastating disease that can happen
to anyone. It doesn’t matter Continue reading

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Immunotherapy treatment shown safe in type 1 diabetes clinical trial

A small clinical trial showed an immune system therapy was safe for people with type 1 diabetes, British researchers report.
The immunotherapy also showed signs of helping to keep insulin production steady in people newly diagnosed with the disease, the study authors said. However, because this was a placebo-controlled safety trial, there weren't enough people included to know for sure how well the treatment works.
The therapy is similar to an allergy shot in the way it works, the researchers explained.
"Type 1 diabetes comes about when the immune system inadvertently and irreparably damages beta cells that make insulin," said one of the study's authors, Dr. Mark Peakman. He's a professor of clinical immunology at King's College London in England.
Insulin is a naturally occurring hormone that helps usher the sugar from foods into the body's cells to be used as energy. If the immune system continues to attack the beta cells, which are found in the pancreas, a person with type 1 diabetes will no longer make enough insulin to meet the body's needs. It's at this point that they must take insulin injections or use an insulin pump to replace the lost insulin.
Peakman and his colleagues are trying to stop the attacks on the beta cells.
"We have learned that immune attacks like this can be suppressed by immune cells called T-regs (regulatory T cells)," Peakman said.
When people develop type 1 diabetes, it's likely that they don't have enough of the right type of T-regs or those T-regs aren't working very well. So, the investigators developed a type of treatment called peptide immun Continue reading

50 Worst Foods for Diabetes

Controlling your diabetes requires a careful balance of lifestyle habits, including eating right, exercising, and taking your proper medication. But it can be tricky to navigate proper nutrition, especially with foods that sound healthy but can actually wreak havoc on your blood sugar and overall health.
In fact, diabetics are two to four times more likely than people without diabetes to die of heart disease or experience a life-threatening stroke, according to the American Heart Association. It’s even more dangerous for those who don’t control their diabetes; it can lead to heart disease, nerve damage, and kidney disease.
To stay on track, be sure to avoid these 50 foods that will spike your blood sugar and lead to chronic inflammation. Luckily, life with diabetes doesn’t have to be flavor free. “After working with thousands of diabetic individuals over the years, I noticed that many asked me the same question at their first appointment. ‘Can I still eat my favorite foods?’” says Lori Zanini, RD, CDE, author of Eat What You Love Diabetes Cookbook. “And the answer from me was always ‘Yes!’ It’s the portion sizes and frequency that makes the most difference, in addition to how the food is prepared.”
As always, be sure to consult with your doctor, registered dietitian, or certified diabetes educator before making any drastic changes to your diet. Some of these recommendations may change if you are suffering from low blood sugar. If you’re looking for what you can enjoy, be sure to stock up on the 50 Best Foods for Diabetes.
Sure, it seems healthy, bu Continue reading

Apple Is 'Secretly Working' on Diabetes Treatment

Apple has hired a team of biomedical engineers as part of a secret initiative, initially envisioned by late Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, to develop sensors to treat diabetes, CNBC reported, citing three people familiar with the matter.
An Apple spokeswoman declined to comment.
The engineers are expected to work at a nondescript office in Palo Alto, California, close to the corporate headquarters, CNBC said.
The news comes at a time when the line between pharmaceuticals and technology is blurring as companies are joining forces to tackle chronic diseases using high-tech devices that combine biology, software and hardware, thereby jump-starting a novel field of medicine called bioelectronics.
Last year, GlaxoSmithKline and Google parent Alphabet unveiled a joint company aimed at marketing bioelectronic devices to fight illness by attaching to individual nerves.
U.S. biotech firms Setpoint Medical and EnteroMedics have already shown early benefits of bioelectronics in treating rheumatoid arthritis and suppressing appetite in the obese.
Other companies playing around the idea of bioelectronics include Medtronic, Proteus Digital Technology, Sanofi SA and Biogen.
The company's shares were marginally up after the bell on Wednesday. Continue reading

Cities Are the Front Line in the Global Diabetes Epidemic

Today, 437 million people worldwide have type 1 or type 2 diabetes. New estimates published this month show that three-quarters of a billion people could have the disease by 2045 — and cities are the front line of this challenge. As the growth fast becomes unmanageable for health systems, shortening the lives of millions of urban citizens and constraining economic growth, Novo Nordisk is working with a coalition of major cities to bend the curve on type 2 diabetes. We’re calling for local political and health leaders of all cities to ask what it will take to change the trajectory of the disease in their area and to put into practice the new models that we are forging.
A rapidly urbanizing world is changing not just where we live but also how we live. As my predecessor at Novo Nordisk wrote, the way cities are designed, built, and run creates health benefits for citizens — but critically it also creates risks. Towns and cities, where half of the world’s population now lives, are home to two-thirds of people with diabetes. That’s why when we initiated the Cities Changing Diabetes program in 2014, we set out to put a spotlight on urban diabetes. This effort has grown into a global partnership of nine major cities, home to over 75 million people, and over 100 expert partners united in the fight against urban diabetes.
Without concerted action, health systems around the world will reach a point in coming decades when they won’t be able to effectively treat patients sustainably. We conservatively estimate that the related costs of diabetes — including medication, su Continue reading