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An estimated 462 million people around the world suffer from type 2 diabetes, a chronic disease in which the body has problems using sugar as a fuel, leading to a buildup of sugar in the blood and chronic health issues. New research shows how zinc, pH levels and insulin work together to inhibit the buildup of protein clumps that contribute to this disease. The research focuses on the intricate dance between insulin and the hormone amylin, or human islet amyloid polypeptide (hiAPP). Amylin is a naturally occurring peptide hormone that plays a role in regulating glycemia and energy balance. But...

The users call the drug Lizzie, the Big Brother or sometimes Gilly. On blogs they rave over its uncanny ability to melt away pounds, although some are wary of its side effects, which can include nausea and strange welts. The users are not fad dieters or methamphetamine addicts, but people with diabetes. And the subject of their rhapsodies is not a gray-market diet pill sold on late-night television but Byetta, a federally approved diabetes medicine, available only by prescription, whose popularity and sales have soared since its introduction last June. For diabetics, the weight loss caused by Byetta comes as...

Two new diabetes medications have helped some patients control their weight. Barbara Oster has had diabetes for 15 years, and her medication wasn't working so well, reported WBAL-TV in Baltimore. "It just blows you up, makes you feel like you're gaining all this weight," she said. The Food and Drug Administration recently approved two new diabetes drugs -- Byetta and Symlin -- that studies have proved help patients control their illness and cut back their eating. "One of the lovely side effects of both drugs is people tend to lose weight," said Dr. Paula Yutzy, a diabetes educator at Baltimore's...

WASHINGTON - Type 2 diabetics got a new option to help control their blood sugar Friday, a drug derived from the saliva of the Gila monster — but one that must be injected twice a day. The Food and Drug Administration approved Byetta, known chemically as exenatide, the first in a new class of medications for Type 2 diabetes — but for now, it's supposed to be used together with older diabetes drugs, not alone. Makers Amylin Pharmaceuticals and Eli Lilly & Co. said the prescription drug would begin selling by June 1, but wouldn't provide a price. Some 18...