Diabetes News

People with type 1 diabetes who intensively control their blood glucose early in their disease are likely to live longer than those who do not, according to research funded by the National Institutes of Health. The findings are the latest results of the Diabetes Control and Complications Trial (DCCT) and its follow-up, the Epidemiology of Diabetes Control and Complications (EDIC) study. Results were published online Jan. 6 in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

The American Diabetes Association is lowering the Body Mass Index cut point at which it recommends screening Asian Americans for type 2 diabetes, aligning its guidelines with evidence that many Asian Americans develop the disease at lower BMI levels than the rest of the population, according to a position statement being published in the January issue of Diabetes Care.

The most popular treatment for type 2 diabetes, metformin, may be safer for patients with mild to moderate kidney disease than guidelines suggest, according to a new, systematic review of the literature published by Yale investigators in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Only 12% of type 2 diabetics with chronic kidney disease are properly diagnosed as having CKD, according to a new study published in PLOS Medicine.

Type 1 diabetes patients who have developed hypoglycemia as a complication of insulin treatments over time are able to regain normal internal recognition of the condition after receiving pancreatic islet cell transplantation, according to a new study led by researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, and published online in Diabetes. Severe hypoglycemia can occur when the body’s defense mechanisms against low blood sugar are broken down over a long period of time, causing shakiness, irritability, confusion, lightheadedness, shortness of breath, and even seizures or loss of consciousness.

In an effort to understand why Mexicans are disproportionately affected by the disease, researchers at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center led the largest study to date to examine the underlying causes. The study is published in the Dec. 17 issue of Diabetes. While people of Mexican ancestry are nearly twice as likely to develop Type 2 diabetes as people of European heritage, the majority of research in this area has focused on those of European origin.

Janssen Pharmaceuticals Inc. is collaborating with the American Diabetes Association to launch Teaming Up to Take On Diabetes, a national educational campaign intended to help the nearly 30 million Americans living with diabetes better understand and manage the disease.

A new treatment for type 2 diabetes and obesity developed by researchers at Indiana University and the German Research Center for Environmental Health has essentially cured lab animals of obesity, diabetes and associated lipid abnormalities through improved glucose sensitivity, and reduced appetite and enhanced calorie burning, according to researchers.

People diagnosed with diabetes in midlife are more likely to experience significant memory and cognitive problems during the next 20 years than those with healthy blood sugar levels, new Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health research suggests. The researchers found that diabetes appears to age the mind roughly five years faster beyond the normal effects of aging. For example, on average, a 60-year-old with diabetes experiences cognitive decline on par with a healthy 65-year-old aging normally. Decline in memory, word recall and executive function is strongly associated with progression to dementia, a loss of mental capacity severe enough to interfere with a person's daily functioning. A report on the research is published in the Dec. 2 issue of the journal Annals of Internal Medicine. The study is believed to be the longest of its kind following a cross-section of adults as they age. “The lesson is that to have a healthy brain when you’re 70, you need to eat right and exercise when you’re 50,” says study leader Elizabeth Selvin, PhD, MPH, an associate professor of epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. “There is a substantial cognitive decline associated with diabetes, pre-diabetes and poor glucose control in people with diabetes. And we know how to prevent or delay the diabetes associated with this decline.” For the study, Selvin and the team used data from the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities Study (ARIC), which in 1987 began following a group of 15,792 middle-aged adults in communities in Maryland, North Carolina, Minnesota and Mississippi. Participants were seen at four visits approximately three years apart beginning between 1987 and 1989, and were seen a fifth time between 2011 and 2013. Cognitive function was evaluated at visits two (1990-1992), four (1996-1998) and at visit five. The researchers compared the amount of cognitive decline associated with aging with the amount of decline found in the ARIC participants. They determined that there was 19% more decline than expected in those participants with poorly controlled diabetes, as well as smaller declines for those with controlled diabetes and pre-diabetes. The outcomes were the same whether the participants were white or black. Selvin says the results underscore the importance of using a combination of weight control, exercise and a healthy diet to prevent diabetes. Even losing just five to 10% of body weight, she says, can keep someone from developing diabetes. Diabetes is a function of elevated sugar (glucose) levels in the blood. This excess glucose can damage tissues and the vascular system throughout the body and diabetes is associated with blindness, nerve damage in the extremities and kidney disease. While diabetes can often be controlled through medication, exercise and changes to diet, disease prevention is the preferred goal. “If we can do a better job at preventing diabetes and controlling diabetes, we can prevent the progression to dementia for many people,” Selvin says. “Even delaying dementia by a few years could have a huge impact on the population, from quality of life to health care costs.”

The first clinical trial comparing three alternative treatments for type 1 diabetes confirms that the external artificial pancreas improves glucose control and reduces the risk of hypoglycemia compared to conventional diabetes treatment. The study was conducted in Montréal by researchers at the IRCM (Institut de recherches cliniques de Montréal) and the University of Montreal, led by endocrinologist Dr. Rémi Rabasa-Lhoret.