Diabetes News

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Farxiga (dapaglifozin) tablets to improve glycemic control, along with diet and exercise, in adults with type 2 diabetes. Farxiga is marketed by Bristol-Meyers Squibb Company and AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals L.P.

Nipro Diagnostics Inc. is initiating a voluntary recall and replacement of a limited number of TRUEbalanceand TRUEtrack Blood Glucose Meters distributed in the United States and internationally.

The American Diabetes Association is recommending increasing amounts of individualized care in diabetes treatment in its revised Standards of Medical Care, published in a special supplement to the January issue of Diabetes Care.

Weight loss is associated with long-term improvements in cardiometabolic risk factors, according to a study published online Dec. 18 in the Journal of the American Heart Association.

People with pre-diabetes could significantly reduce their risk of having a heart attack or stroke by walking for an extra 20 minutes a day for a year, according to a study published in The Lancet. An international team of researchers analyzed data from the NAVIGATOR trial involving 9,306 people in 40 countries with impaired glucose tolerance, or pre-diabetes. Participants were given a lifestyle change program aimed at helping them lose weight and cut fat intake while increasing physical activity to 150 minutes a week.

Despite recent advances in prevention and treatment of most vision loss attributed to diabetes, a new study shows that fewer than half of Americans with damage to their eyes from diabetes are aware of the link between the disease and visual impairment, and only six in 10 had their eyes fully examined in the year leading up to the study.

Widely used treatments for type 2 diabetes have different effects on the hearts of men and women, even as the drugs control blood sugar equally well in both sexes, according to researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

A team of Wayne State University researchers recently developed several diabetic models to study impaired wound healing in diabetic corneas. Using a genome-wide cDNA array analysis, the group identified genes, their associated pathways, and the networks affected by diabetes in corneal epithelial cells and their roles in wound closure. Their findings may bring scientists closer to developing new treatments that may slow down or thwart the impact diabetes has on vision.

About 8.8% of the privately insured U.S. population in 2012 had diabetes or was diagnosed as being at high risk for diabetes, up from 8.3% in 2011, but the rates of disease varied depending on age, gender, and region of the country, says a new report from the Health Care Cost Institute (HCCI). In 2012, over one quarter of men between the ages of 55 and 64 and nearly one in 10 Southerners had diabetes or were at high risk for diabetes, according to the report.

Vitamin D decreases pain in women with type 2 diabetes and depression, according to a study conducted at Loyola University Chicago. These findings were presented at an Oct. 24, 2013 research conference at Loyola’s Health Sciences Campus.