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Saturday, October 25, 2008

Diabetes Patients More Likely to Fracture Hip

Sixteen studies examined 836,941 people who suffered 139,531 hip fractures. The studies found that diabetes will make one susceptible to break the hip. Further results of twelve studies reviewed that type 2 diabetes patients are 70% more likely to sustain hip fracture.

The other six studies showed that people with type 1 diabetes are over six times more vulnerable to hip fracture. No one knows why this is the case although the researchers said it could be a complication of the disease that may make a diabetic patient more likely to break the hip.

Hopefully, there will be more studies on this matter. For now it is good to take notice of this and be alerted so we will be able to cope with any unexpected situation. Now there are more studies on the same issue that have been conducted by researchers. Could neuropathy be a part of this?


The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, reports that older women with diabetes are 80-90% more likely to have a shoulder or hip fracture than women without diabetes. Researchers also found out that women receiving insulin are two more times likely to have fractures in the feet.

The largest study on the risk for fracture of women with diabetes was conducted in San Francisco's University of California. They analyzed the data on the study of fractures conducted for nine years. They found that during that period 2624 women had at least one fracture during 9.4 years and 388 women suffered a fracture during 3.7 years.

It is therefore suggested that the quality of the bone mass among the subjects with diabetes might show abnormalities that can lead to higher risk of fracture. There is a need to improve the bone strength of these women and so research is needed to see if the current treatments are doing enough.

Saturday, October 18, 2008

American Diabetes Association Features Dr. John Buse

Last year, The American Diabetes Association announced the election of its president, Medical and Science. Dr. John B. Buse, MD, PhD served as the ADA's main spokesperson and advocate on scientific and medical matters. In addition, he worked with the volunteers and staff to support ADA's mission.

Dr. Buse has a stellar background. He served as chairman of several committees and task forces at ADA and was associate editor of ADA's journals. To fight for a diabetes cure, he is an active fund raiser. He is the chief of the Endocrinology Division of the Department of Medicine of the University of School of Medicine in North Carolina and is an active clinician with a diabetes practice.

As for his research work, Dr. Buse serves as vice-chairman of the National Institute of Health's largest study called Accord. This study's goal is to determine the best treatments for diabetes, blood pressure and cholesterol in type 2 diabetes.

Dr. Buse is also co-investigator in the National Institute of Health's study about changing the school environment as a means of preventing diabetes among children in the middle school. I can't wait to read the findings on these two studies, don't you?

I tried to keep an eye on the results so that as soon as they publish them, you will be the first to know. But alas I could not find it anywhere. But some of you may be more of a scholarly type than I am. So let me know when you find it and I will assess it and see what to impart to others.

We should all celebrate Dr. Buse election for his dedication to the science of how to prevent diabetes is apparent. Diabetes is such a serious disease that affects 21 million adults and children in the US. It is the fifth destructive disease. As of yet, there is no cure and so we need someone like Dr. Buse as an advocate. But cure or no cure, each one of us, individually or together, can fight and beat this deadly disease.

Saturday, October 11, 2008

Kids Do Not Have Enough Exercise

A University of Bath study found that 95% of boys and 99.6% of girls did not meet the national target of one hour a day of exercise. This finding led the Archives of Disease in Childhood to issue a warning for the NHS to do more to combat obesity.

This is the way they conducted the study. The researchers examined the physical activity levels of more than 5500 11-year-olds in the South West of England for seven successive days from January 2003 to January 2005. They were interested in the level of physical activity these kids were doing every day. They also observed the amount of moderate and vigorous exercise these kids were doing.

Libby Dowling, Care Advisor at Diabetes UK said that it's disturbing to find that children and young people live a more and more inactive lifestyle. This sedentary lifestyle along with diets that are high in fat, sugar and salt is linked with increasing statistics on obesity and consequently the rise of type 2 diabetes in young people.

If this is not addressed accordingly to stress exercise and healthy lifestyle, young people are in for a life of bad health. That is why weight is important to prevent diabetes. Likewise, it is important to diabetes treatment. So use the arithmetic of energy balance for they are now pointing out the link between exercise and diabetes.

What is this arithmetic all about? It's simple. When the energy that comes in goes over the energy that goes out, we gain weight. It's that simple. When we consume more calories than we use up, we of course gain weight. And this extra energy is stored as fat.

One important use of energy is physical activity. So each time the child moves his arms and legs he uses the energy to provide power to the muscles. Even a simple activity as walking consumes some form of energy. The more strenuous the activity, the more energy is consumed.

So now that the children use the computer more often and play games on it, the energy consumed is less than the energy intake. The result? Weight gain of course. With the aforementioned study finding out that kids do not have enough exercise, what can we expect?

Saturday, October 4, 2008

UK's Research on New Insulin Capsule

To make sure insulin taken orally is not useless before entering the blood stream. researchers are trying to find a chemical coating that will protect the insulin from the enzymes that break it down. The researchers from Aberdeen's Robert Gordon University did just that and found a chemical coating called a novel polymer.

The discovery of an insulin capsule is therefore becoming a real possibility. They need to do more testing to find out if it's suitable as an insulin delivery system. Dr. Colin Thompson, Research Fellow at the university's School of Pharmacy said that this will give hope to people living with diabetes.

In fact, researchers are continuing their search for what causes diabetes in the hope that they will find a cure or prevent this disorder. They have already found the genes that may be involved with IDDM and a NIDDM (Non-Insulin Dependent Diabetes Mellitus). They have already identified some genetic markers so they can screen the relatives with this condition.

The above is a good thing, indeed, if used properly. But once greed sets in, there you go. This may be just fiction, but reading Robin Cook's "Marker" just gives me the creeps. It is so scary. I don't want to reveal the source of my displeasure of this novel except it is not due to Robin Cook. In fact, he's such an excellent writer, I couldn't put the book down!

That was a long side-bar and I didn't even give you a warning. But anyway, I'd like to say here that there's been an on-going study where the relatives of IDDM (Insulin Dependent Diabetes Mellitus) are identified and treated with low doses of insulin, hoping this will prevent diabetes.

Anyway, they are being treated now with the goal to see if this will answer the question on how to prevent diabetes. This is a long term study to find out if the therapeutic approach works. They have started this for sometime now but I have not seen the result yet and believe me, I am watching like a hawk, eight hours a day, seven days a week.