Fwd: Experimental Drug Holds Promise for New Type 1s and Other Top Stories
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| Subject: | Experimental Drug Holds Promise for New Type 1s and Other Top Stories |
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| Date: | Thu, 10 Oct 2013 13:43:57 -0400 |
| From: | Diabetes Health E-Newsletter <webmaster@diabeteshealth.com> |
| To: | mikebell@netins.net |
Oct/Nov Issue Out Now
Four Cheese Basil Pita Pizza 
Today's Top Diabetes Stories...
One of the most intriguing areas of type 1 diabetes research focuses on newly diagnosed patients. Given that the disease occurs after an autoimmune response damages the body's insulin-producing beta cells, scientists have looked to new type 1s as fertile ground for experimentation.
After all, their beta cells have only been attacked recently, and their pancreases might still function to a limited extent.
Thus, new drugs are aiming to keep the pancreas and its beta cells working longer and better for those in the early stages of type 1. One of those new drugs, specifically designed for the purpose, has just had a positive report. According to scientists, teplizumab allowed some patients to preserve their current insulin levels for some two years.
But the news wasn't all good. About half of the people receiving the drug stopped producing insulin altogether-a response that was similar to patients in a control group. Read more...
1 comment - Oct 8, 2013 - 
People with type 2 diabetes and those heading toward that diagnosis may face a quicker decline in their beta cell function than previously understood, according to a new study published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism. That means the progress and challenges for such patients may progress more quickly than doctors expects and need more aggressive treatment.
The study took place over five years and looked at patients with type 2 diabetes and impaired fasting glucose/impaired glucose tolerance. A control group of patients with normal glucose tolerance was also studied. Over the five years of the studies, these patients were frequently tested to see how their body reacted to glucose. (The normal response, of course, is for a person's body to increase insulin production.)
Over those five years, the folks with impaired fasting glucose/impaired glucose tolerance did increase insulin production in response to glucose. The subjects with type 2 diabetes did not. But each of those groups still saw a drop in how well their beta (insulin-producing) cells worked over that time period.
Researchers used a yardstick called a "homeostasis model assessment of beta cell function" to figure out how quickly people in the study would lose the insulin-producing ability of those cells. The model predicted that the patients with impaired glucose response would see a 31 percent drop over five years, while those with type 2 diabetes would see a 70 percent drop. Read more...
0 comments - Oct 9, 2013 -
For several years now I've been following the controversy surrounding a lawsuit by California parents to force public school districts to allow people who aren't nurses or doctors to be able to give insulin shots to diabetic children. (The California Supreme Court recently ruled that non-nurses can now give such injections. You can find background information here and here.)
The official stance of the state's nurses unions and associations was that injections by non-experts could invite possibly fatal complications. Administering insulin requires more than just superficial knowledge of how to give a shot-there's also the question of knowing what's the proper dosage.
The other biggest objection was simple: Injections by unlicensed people would be an incursion on the hard-won rights and privileges nurses have gained over the years. What is the point of spending years learning how to be a nurse or licensed healthcare worker if comparatively ignorant and untrained people can be allowed to execute a possibly live-saving procedure?
In an ideal world, those objections would have been enough to persuade the California Supreme Court not to OK having non-medically licensed personnel give insulin shots. Read more...
0 comments - Oct 10, 2013 -
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posted by Mike at 2:29 PM
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