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Scientists at the University of Warwick have discovered that 'good' cholesterol is turned 'bad' by a sugar-derived substance. The substance, methylglyoxal - MG, was found to damage 'good' HDL cholesterol, which removes excess levels of bad cholesterol from the body. Low levels of HDL, High Density Lipoprotein, are closely linked to heart disease, with increased levels of MG being common in the elderly and those with diabetes or kidney problems. Supported by funding from the British Heart Foundation (BHF) and published in Nutrition and Diabetes, the researchers discovered that MG destabilises HDL and causes it to lose the properties which...

I know this is a loaded and extremely controversial topic but there’s been a big break in the diabetes world. I thought it needed to be shared because no matter how you feel, it’s a big deal! ViaCyte Inc. has been given FDA approval to begin clinical trials on beta cell encapsulation. You may be wondering why this is a big deal. You see, in Type 1 diabetes the body’s own immune system attacks beta cells found in the pancreas. These beta cells produce insulin and the attack makes them unable to do that. Because the body can no longer...

Work by scientists at the Universities of Manchester and Auckland suggest that both major forms of diabetes, type 1 and type 2, are the result of the same mechanism. The findings, published in the FASEB Journal, provide compelling evidence that juvenile-onset or type 1 diabetes and type 2 diabetes are both caused by the formation of toxic clumps of a hormone called amylin. The results, based on 20 years’ work in New Zealand, suggest that type 1 and type 2 diabetes could both be slowed down and potentially reversed by medicines that stop amylin forming these toxic clumps.

“Diabetes is reaching epidemic proportions, not only in the U.S. but worldwide,” says Dr. Allison Goldfine, a diabetes specialist at the Joslin Diabetes Center. She is helping foreign graduate students Tobias Horstmann and Juliet Phillips with their research project. They’re trying to use bees to sniff out diabetes. In collaboration with the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, they are using a device to house the bees and observe the bees’ reaction. If a patient breathes into the device and acetone is detected, the bees stick out their tongues in response.

My friend Roy is in a very tight spot. She has diabetes and got a really bad infection in her left leg, she has been seeing he dr. regularly to try and fix it with meds but it's getting worse. Today she got on and I asked how she was. She told me that her dr. wants her in the hospital but sadly there was no room in the hospital where she is. She will be going to the hospital in 2 days when a room is open and saved for her. Please pray for a safe recovery of what...

A native Washingtonian who played drums for some of the greatest singers in history needs a prosthetic leg to play the way he used to play. Woody Woodson lives in the same Northeast home he’s been in for more than 50 years, most of which he spent playing for artists like the Temptations, the Four Tops, the Supremes and Steve Wonder. He spent years on the road with Wilson Pickett, Otis Redding and Marvin Gaye. One of the biggest hits he collaborated on was the Isley Brothers’ “It’s Your Thing.” Grammy-winning musician Steve Jordan, who plays for Eric Clapton and...

Miss Idaho, aka Sierra Anne Sandison, could certainly be posting pictures of crowns and diamonds all over her Twitter page. But the beauty queen is choosing to show off another accessory — her insulin pump. Sandison, a 20-year-old diabetic, was crowned Miss Idaho last Saturday and has talked openly about how she felt when she got diagnosed with type one adult-onset diabetes in 2012. She tweeted a picture of herself lying on her bed, wearing her Miss Idaho sash and crown, a Wonder Woman sweatshirt, and an insulin pump. She tagged the photo #showmeyourpump and encouraged friends and followers...

When mice with the human equivalent of Type 2 diabetes were injected with the protein FGF1, their blood sugar levels returned to normal over two days. Just one injection of the protein both regulated these levels and even helped reverse insulin insensitivity – the underlying cause of diabetes. Published in the journal Nature, the research on FGF1 could revolutionize diabetes treatment. In addition to being effective against diabetes, the protein has several advantages over current diabetes drugs. It does not result in dangerous side effects seen with other diabetes drugs, such as heart problems, weight gain, or hypoglycemia. Additionally, FGF1...

Scientists led by Dr David Fairlie from the University of Queensland, Australia, have found abnormal amounts of an inflammatory protein called PAR2 in the fat tissues of overweight and obese rats and humans. PAR2 is also increased on the surfaces of human immune cells by common fatty acids in the diet. When obese rats on a diet high in sugar and fat were given a new oral drug that binds to PAR2, the inflammation-causing properties of this protein were blocked, as were other effects of the high-fat and high-sugar diet, including obesity itself. "This important new finding links obesity and...

Obesity-related diseases such as Type 2 diabetes and metabolic syndrome are triggered by a lack of oxygen in adipose cells, according to a study led by UC San Diego researchers. An excess of fatty acids causes an increase in oxygen consumption, which outstrips the supply, triggering hypoxia, the study found. This leads to inflammation in the adipose cells, which in turn leads to insulin resistance, obesity and related diseases. And that's the short version. The full chain of events is even more complicated. The study, performed in mice, points to possible therapies in people, said researchers led by Dr. Jerrold...

As readers of the garden thread already know; I grow loads of vegetables to supplement my wife's diet in order to manage her diabetic condition. My wife is under tremendous stress due to a dispute with neighbors here in Red Hampshire. This has been a contributing factor in the deterioration of her pancreas, and she is now on insulin. The other night, my wife was awakened by one of our Siamese rescue cats sniffing and poking around her face. This is a rescue cat that is considered 'her' cat. He waits at the door for her to come home from...

Scientists have made big progress on a “bionic pancreas” to free some people with diabetes from the daily ordeal of managing their disease. A wearable, experimental device passed a real-world test, constantly monitoring blood sugar and automatically giving insulin or a sugar-boosting drug as needed, doctors said Sunday. The device improved blood-sugar control more than standard monitors and insulin pumps did when tested for five days on 20 adults and 32 teens. Unlike other artificial pancreases in development that just correct high blood sugar, this one also can fix too-low sugar, mimicking what a natural pancreas does. …

A new study by researchers at Stanford University is suggesting that making soda and other sugary drinks ineligible for purchase with SNAP funds could result in nearly a quarter million fewer diabetes cases in adults, and over 140,000 fewer obese children.

When the Jansa Family adopted a small rescue cat, Pretty Pippa, from the RSPCA in Kent, UK, they never dreamed the kitty would save the life of the family’s 8-year-old daughter, Mia – over and over again. Mia has type-one diabetes, which requires her to constantly monitor her blood sugar levels. Incredibly, the little black and white rescue cat has a special ability: Pippa can detect when Mia’s blood sugar drops and the girl goes into a hypoglycemic episode. According to the RSPCA, Pippa first demonstrated her gift when she woke Mia up in the middle of night as she...

The latest bad news concerns one more of the ill-fated thiazolidinediones (TZDs). This class of drugs was introduced in the late 1990s, and includes Avandia, Actos, and Rezulin. TZDs are PPAR-gamma agonists, meaning that they activate peroxisome proliferator-activated receptors, especially the “gamma” receptor. Such activation affects certain metabolic processes, and among other things, insulin resistance is reduced. Rezulin—notoriously fast-tracked by FDA—was withdrawn from the market in 2000, in the wake of scores of liver failures and deaths. Pfizer, the manufacturer, was on the hook for upwards of $750 million in damages. At the time, Dr. Janet Woodcock, director of FDA’s...

The headline looks like a hoax-- saturated fat does not cause heart disease -- but it's real. This news is more than just another example of changing health guidelines; it's a cautionary tale about trusting the scientific consensus. For more than 50 years, the best scientific minds in America assured us that saturated fat was the enemy. Animal fat, we were instructed, was the chief culprit in causing obesity, Type 2 diabetes and heart disease. Throughout my adult life, I have conscientiously followed the guidelines dispensed by the health arbiters of our age. Trusting utterly in the scientific research of...

Type 2 diabetes could cause the brain to age by up to two years every decade a person has the disease, researchers have claimed. It is the first time diabetes has been linked to a change in the size of the brain. The study also found that, contrary to common clinical belief, diabetes may not be directly associated with small vessel ischemic disease, where the brain does not receive enough oxygenated blood. 'We found that patients having more severe diabetes had less brain tissue, suggesting brain atrophy,' said lead author R. Nick Bryan, M.D., Ph.D., professor of radiology at the...

Low-carb, high-fat diets outperformed low-fat diets for managing and even reversing type 2 diabetes, Diabetes.co.uk reported. According to an eight-year study conducted by the Second University of Naples, men and women who followed the low-carb, higher-fat Mediterranean diet were able to come off their diabetes drugs and reverse their diabetes symptoms more readily than people who followed a low-fat diet.In the study, two groups of diabetic men and women were instructed to either follow a low-fat diet or a low-carb, high-fat Mediterranean diet that was comprised of at least 30% fat.The results showed that the higher-fat, low-carb dieters were able...

The rates of five serious complications from diabetes -- heart disease, stroke, kidney disease, amputations and death -- have all dropped dramatically since 1990, a new U.S. government study shows. Heart attack rates have decreased nearly 70 percent in people with diabetes. Stroke rates have dropped by more than 50 percent, as have lower extremity amputations. Deaths from high blood sugar crises have fallen nearly 65 percent, and the risk of end-stage kidney disease is down 28 percent, according to the study. The biggest declines in diabetes-related complications have occurred for heart attack and stroke, especially among people aged 75...

According to the American Diabetes Association, 25.8 million children and adults in the United States–8.3% of the population–have diabetes (90-95% are type 2). This includes 18.8 million who are diagnosed and 7 million who are “undiagnosed.” And, if that weren’t bad enough, the ADA estimates that there are also 79 million so-called “prediabetics” in this country. Much more statistical information–and some elucidation of the dubious methodology behind it is available here. Why dubious? At best, these widely touted statistics are pedal to the metal extrapolations from National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey data, which examines “a nationally representative sample of...