Tom Hanks Blames Bad Diet For His Type 2 Diabetes, But What Really Causes The Disease?

Tom Hanks has suggested he was to blame for his Type 2 diabetes because he was an "idiot" about his diet when he was younger.
In an interview with the Radio Times, the actor said: “I'm part of the lazy American generation that has blindly kept dancing through the party and now finds ourselves with a malady.
“I was heavy. You've seen me in movies, you know what I looked like. I was a total idiot.
"I thought I could avoid it by removing the buns from my cheeseburgers. Well, it takes a little bit more than that."
So, is Hanks being too hard on himself or is a healthy diet the key to avoiding diabetes?
Joel Ryan/Invision/AP
There are two types of diabetes, Type 1 and Type 2. Hanks was diagnosed with the latter in 2013.
While Type 1 diabetes cannot be prevented, more than half (58%) of cases of Type 2 diabetes can be delayed or prevented by making simple changes in our everyday lives.
According to Diabetes UK, Type 2 diabetes occurs when the body doesn't produce enough insulin to function properly, or the body’s cells don't react to insulin.
Symptoms include feeling the need to go to the toilet a lot, being really thirsty, feeling more tired than usual, unexplained weight loss and genital itching or thrush.
Causes of the disease are related to both genetics, which we can't control, and lifestyle choices, which we can.
According to the NHS, a person is considered at a higher risk of developing Type 2 diabetes if they are a overweight or obese, are over the age of 40 (over 25 for south Asian people), have a close relative with the condition or if they are of South Asian, Chi Continue reading

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Yet another risk for kids on antidepressants: Higher chance of developing type-2 diabetes, according to new study

(Natural News) Antidepressants are often prescribed for individuals who exhibit signs of major depressive disorders and various conditions such as anxiety, chronic pain, and sleep disorders. Now, a recent study has proven that children and adolescents who take antidepressants could develop type-2 diabetes.
Researchers from the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy and the University of Maryland School of Medicine have discovered that the prolonged and current intake of a major class of antidepressant medications called serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SRI) can cause an estimated two-fold increased risk of developing type-2 diabetes in both children and adolescents. Teenagers that formerly used and eventually discontinued their medication were not at risk. (Related: Study: Antidepressant drugs actually cause many people to have worse depression.)
The study was published on Oct. 16 in JAMA Pediatrics and is the first population-based study that looked into the risks of pediatric patients being diagnosed with type-2 diabetes once they start taking antidepressants. Mehmet Burcu, PhD, led the study for his dissertation. Burcu said, “Antidepressants are one of the most commonly used psychotropic medication classes among youth in the United States, with serotonin reuptake inhibitors representing a majority of total antidepressant use in this population.”
He added, “These findings provide new information on the risk of a rare, but serious adverse outcome that is often difficult to assess in clinical trials due to limited sample size and inadequate follow up.”
Burcu et al. Continue reading

New Study Shows Antidepressants Increase the Risk of Developing Type 2 Diabetes in Children and Youth

A new study published in JAMA Pediatrics has asked whether antidepressants increase the risk of developing type 2 diabetes in youths. Mehmet Burcu, Ph.D., and the other researchers at the University of Maryland in Baltimore and John Hopkins who conducted the study found that the risk of developing type 2 diabetes in youths aged 5 to 20 years nearly doubled among current users of antidepressants and the risk intensified with increasing duration of use, cumulative dose, and average daily dose. “Overall,” the authors write, “when compared with former use, current use of antidepressants was associated with a 1.92-fold increased risk of type 2 diabetes.”
The researchers examined Medicaid claim files from California, Florida, Illinois, and New Jersey from January 1, 2004, through December 31, 2009 and restricted the study to 119,608 patients who were 5 to 20 years of age who initiated treatment with antidepressants between January 1, 2005, and December 31, 2009. The classes of antidepressants included in the study were selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), serotonin-norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors (SNRIs), tricyclic or other cyclic antidepressants (TCAs), and other antidepressants. According to the researchers, “The risk of type 2 diabetes was significantly greater during current use than former use of SSRIs or SNRIs and tricyclic or other cyclic antidepressants.” Furthermore, risk of diabetes significantly increased among youth with an average daily dose of SSRI and SNRI of more than 150 days of use. In other words, if a child (5-20 years old) were to u Continue reading

Can sweat patches revolutionise diabetes?

Scientists have developed a sensor that can monitor blood sugar levels by analysing sweaty skin.
But rather than a gym-soaked t-shirt, it needs just one millionth of a litre of sweat to do the testing.
The team - in South Korea - showed the sensor was accurate and think it could eventually help patients with diabetes.
And in extra tests on mice, the sensor was hooked up to a patch of tiny needles to automatically inject diabetes medication.
The team at the Seoul National University were trying to overcome the need for "painful blood collection" needed in diabetes patients.
Type 1 diabetes is caused by the immune system attacking the part of the body that controls blood sugar levels
Type 2 diabetes is often caused by lifestyle damaging the body's ability to control blood sugar levels
Patients with both conditions need to medically control their blood sugar levels to prevent damage to the body and even death
This is how patients with diabetes would normally keep track of blood sugar levels:
And this could be the future:
The sensor is flexible so it can move with the skin it is stuck onto.
However, the scientists needed to overcome a series of challenges to make it work.
There is less sugar in sweat than blood so it is harder to find, and other chemicals in sweat such as lactic acid can disrupt the results.
So the patch has three sensors keeping track of sugar levels, four that test the acidity of the sweat and a humidity sensor to analyse the amount of sweat.
It is all encased in a porous layer that allows the sweat to soak through and bathe the electronics.
All this informat Continue reading

Diabetes device scrutinizes sweat for a week at a time

While there are already biosensors that help people manage type 2 diabetes, they're single-use devices that have to be replaced on a daily basis. That could be about to change, however, thanks to research being conducted by scientists from the University of Texas at Dallas. Led by Prof. Shalini Prasad, they've created a diabetes-monitoring tool that's good for up to a week.
Worn on the wrist like a bracelet, the biosensor utilizes a gel known as room temperature ionic liquid (RTIL) to analyze minute amounts of sweat on the skin. In doing so, it measures concentrations of three interconnected compounds – cortisol, glucose and interleukin-6.
"If a person has chronic stress, their cortisol levels increase, and their resulting insulin resistance will gradually drive their glucose levels out of the normal range," says Prasad. "At that point, one could become pre-diabetic, which can progress to type 2 diabetes, and so on. If that happens, your body is under a state of inflammation, and this inflammatory marker, interleukin-6, will indicate that your organs are starting to be affected."
Ultimately, it is envisioned that the device will contain a small transceiver, allowing it to transmit data to a smartphone app at the push of a button.
"If you measure levels every hour on the hour for a full week, that provides 168 hours' worth of data on your health as it changes," states Prasad. "People can take more control and improve their own self-care. A user could learn which unhealthy decisions are more forgiven by their body than others."
Plans call for the device to be inexpensively Continue reading