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Diabetes
March 24, 2011
Pill prevents diabetes, new research says
Researchers at a San Antonio university and seven collaborating institutions reported this week that taking the drug pioglitazone, sold as Actos, once a day prevented type 2 diabetes in 72 percent of individuals at high risk for it.
Those risks included obesity, ethnicity and other biological markers, according to a news release from the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio.
“It’s a blockbuster study,” said senior author Dr. Ralph DeFronzo, right, a professor in the School of Medicine and chief of the health science center’s diabetes division. “The 72 percent reduction is the largest decrease in the conversion rate of pre-diabetes to diabetes that has ever been demonstrated by any intervention, be it diet, exercise or medication.”
The study enrolled 602 and followed some of the patients for as long as four years.
Previous studies by other researchers in the past decade have shown that pioglitazone slows thickening of the carotid artery. This study also found that. Dr. Robert Chilton, a cardiologist at the health science center not involved in the study, said that finding indicates that glucose was well controlled, preventing blood vessel damage that leads to heart attacks and strokes, according to the news release.
“The only thing that could potentially beat (the study’s results) is the free pill no one seems to be able to take - diet and exercise,” Chilton said.
Sadly, he’s right.
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March 22, 2011
Are you at risk for diabetes? Simple online test can help
I just had my risk of diabetes assessed. It took all of a minute, and I’m pleased to report that my risk is low.
Not everyone in Texas is so lucky. Not by a long shot. Today, about 2.2 million Texans have been diagnosed with diabetes. By 2040, about 8 million adult Texans, or 24 percent of the population, will have it, according to a recent report from the Texas Health Institute in Austin.
Are you at risk?
Today, the American Diabetes Association is launching a simple online test to mark American Diabetes Alert Day so people can see how high — or low — their risk is for diabetes. The test is aimed at Type 2 diabetes, which is soaring because of obesity. But factors also include age, ethnicity, pregnancy and family history.
To take the test go to these links on Facebook or to the association’s website.
If you discover that you are at risk for diabetes, the test offers tips on how to lower it.
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March 3, 2011
Free diabetes classes start Saturday
People who have been newly diagnosed with diabetes, have a family member with diabetes or want to learn more about an illness that affects a growing number of Texans can take a free class every Saturday in March courtesy of the Austin/Travis County Health and Human Services Department.
Diabetes Empowerment Education Program classes start this Saturday from 10:30 a.m. to noon at the St. John’s Community Center, 7500 Blessing Ave., and continue through March 26.
Participants will learn how to identify diabetes symptoms and risk factors; become more physically active; eat better; prevent complications; and work better with health care providers. They also will get take-home materials to help them achieve a healthier lifestyle.
Participants are asked to register by leaving a message for Sabrina McCarty at 972-5463 or at sabrina.mccarty@ci.austin.tx.us.
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March 18, 2010
Diabetes health fair Saturday -- at the cemetery
Admittedly, a cemetery is a weird place for a health fair, but the folks at Cook-Walden Forest Oaks Memorial Park are sincerely interested in preventing diabetes and helping people who have it, general manager Kyle McFather said.
On Saturday, the combined Cook-Walden cemetery and funeral home at 6300 West William Cannon Drive in Austin will hold a free diabetes information and risk assessment fair from 12 to 2 p.m. featuring representatives of the Central Texas chapter of the American Diabetes Association. They will have educational and prevention materials, but won’t be doing medical tests, McFather said.
“We’re just trying to raise awareness of diabetes,” McFather said. “We’re not trying to offend anybody.”
The event is tied to national Diabetes Alert Day, which is Tuesday. The funeral home has several employees with diabetes and participates in the annual diabetes walk and other events to promote awareness of the disease.
“It’s definitely not the norm” to have the event at cemetery, McFather said, “but in today’s world what’s the norm?”
Diabetes has reached epidemic proportions. It occurs when the body does not make or produce enough insulin. It can lead to serious complications from heart disease to blindness to amputations. It affects nearly 24 million Americans, including those who don’t know they have it. More than 60,000 people in the Travis and Williamson counties are believed to have diabetes, including one-fourth who don’t know it, according to the American Diabetes Association.
If current trends continue, the association estimates that one out of every three children born today will live with diabetes.
The main risks for type 2 diabetes are being overweight, inactive, over the age of 45 and having a family history of diabetes. Minorities are at greater risk, and more kids are turning up with type 2 diabetes because of childhood obesity.
The American Diabetes Association is offering an online assessment so people can learn their risk for diabetes. They can also do it by calling (800) 342-2383. The assessments are available in English or Spanish.
For more information about Saturday’s event, call the funeral home at 892-1172.
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September 18, 2008
Researchers transforming skin into insulin-producing cells to treat diabetes
University of North Carolina researchers are “reprogramming” human skin into cells that produce insulin, the hormone used in treating diabetics. With diabetes rates soaring in Texas and nationally, researchers on the Chapel Hill medical school campus believe they might be on the way to finding a new way of treating the disease.
The reprogramming causes the skin cells to change into adult stem cells capable of acting like insulin-secreting cells, according to the abstract published in the online Journal of Biological Chemistry.
Insulin injection is used to control blood sugar in people who have diabetes.
Data from the Texas Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System in 2006 show that 8 percent of adults in Texas were diabetics, compared with 7.5 percent nationwide. In Travis County in 2006, diabetes rates were even higher: 8.7 percent of adults.
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