Women who developed gestational diabetes while pregnant are at a higher risk for pancreatic cancer. Unfortunately, that's the word from a new study. According to this report from Canada's CTV News, past studies have linked type 2 diabetes with increased pancreatic cancer. And, of course, having gestational diabetes puts you at risk for type 2 diabetes. However, this is the first time a link has been made between GD and pancreatic cancer.

The study involved an analysis of health records for a whopping 40,000 women, all of whom gave birth in Jerusalem between 1964 and 1976. Phew, that's a lotta diapers... Of 410 women diagnosed with GD, five developed pancreatic cancer in later years. None of the 137 women with type 1 diabetes went on to develop pancreatic cancer. Want the full story? Results have been published in BMC Medicine.

Now, don't panic if you have had GD. Says lead researcher, Mary Perrin of NYU's School of Medicine, the absolute risk for pancreatic cancer is still very low. Nevertheless, she points out that even a small statistical difference is significant since obesity is on the rise. The implication? If trends continue, we can expect to see more and more moms-to-be with GD in the future.

Drug giant Novo Nordisk's big white bus will soon roll into the USA. Officially known as the Novo Nordisk Changing Diabetes Bus, the vehicle is scheduled to visit a selection of towns in the USA between June and November. First, though, it's the turn of those lucky Canadians. The tour kicked off in Denmark back in September 2006 and goes under the banner "Changing Diabetes." Since Denmark, the bus and its crew have visited the following countries: Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, France, South Africa, Australia, China, Japan, and Canada. (Cool job, huh?) The Canada sojourn will last a few more days - 'till June 12, to be exact - then it's time to cross the border into the US. Last stop is New York City, where the tour will end on November 14, which is World Diabetes Day. Oddly, the Novo "bus" is actually a big truck, at least according to the pics I'm viewing on Novo's snazzy website. I guess calling it a bus tour makes it sound a tad folksier...more Partridge Family, less soulless pharmaceutical empire? But I digress...

The Changing Diabetes Bus tour is touted by Novo as an attitude-altering event with its high-tech educational displays that are housed on board the bus/truck. (See the website for a fun virtual tour of the bus.) A vehicle for change, if you will (yukkity yuk) designed to reach out to everyone: diabetics, their families, healthcare providers, as well as curious Average Joes. The specific purpose, says Novo, is to support the passing of a United Nations resolution on diabetes. Listen, I hate to be catty, but it's been an awareness-raising event in more ways than one, don't you agree? It's been a great promotional venture. An all around image-polishing exercise for Novo too. Hey, that's not to say this tour has not done good things to educate the public. I mean, it's good that mega-companies like that put aside money in the budget for feel-good, reach-out-to-the-community stuff. But let's be honest. Would they have put up the cash if their name wasn't plastered all over? Probably not.

It's still going - the TrialNet and the NIH are continuing to recruit patients for their clinical study of oral insulin to slow the onset of type 1 diabetes.

In the study, researchers are testing whether an insulin capsule taken by mouth once a day can prevent or delay diabetes in individuals at high risk for developing type 1 diabetes. An earlier trial suggested that oral insulin might delay type 1 diabetes for about four years. This was found to be true in people with autoantibodies to insulin in their blood. Some scientists think that introducing insulin via the digestive tract induces tolerance of the immune system. Insulin taken orally has no effect on glucose because the digestive system breaks it down quickly. To lower blood glucose, insulin must be injected or administered by an insulin pump.

In type 1 diabetes, a person's own immune cells destroy the beta cells of the pancreas. Beta cells sense blood glucose and produce the hormone insulin, which regulates glucose and converts it to energy. The autoantibodies causing type 1 diabtes may appear in the blood up to 10 years before diagnosis. These autoantibodies to glutamate decarboxylase (GAD), IA-2, and to insulin itself indicate a greater risk for developing type 1 diabetes. For a person with high-risk genes and all three antibodies, the risk of developing diabetes in the next 5 years is greater than 50%.

Yes, that's what it says: curbing the diabetic epidemic with 6 oat waters. CeaProve® is a new test for the early detection of pre-diabetes or impaired glucose tolerance that may help curb the diabetes epidemic. For those of you who have endured a glucose tolerance test - you'll understand the pivotal importance of this new diagnostic test. Ceapro has developed a test that identifies people at risk of type-2 diabetes as early as 5 to 10 years before the disease is diagnosed.

The simple test involves eating 6 oat-wafers and undergoing a finger prick. The test - when repeated at six month intervals - can also show if lifestyle changes are being effective or if more treatment is needed. Ceapro has tested CeaProve in the workplace of several prominent businesses in Edmonton that are interested in helping their employees monitor and preserve their health. Over 90% of tested volunteers were unaware of their risk for diabetes. Of the population studied, 60% were overweight, 56% were over the age of 40, 44 % had a family history of diabetes and over 57% had more than two risk factors for the disease. Although Ceapro is a Canadian-based company, they expect to have Ceaprove available in commercial quantities within the next 45 days. The product will likely be released through regional health initiatives and may also be available through pharmacies and medical laboratories.

Can such a simple test have such a significant impact on the future of one's health? The results tell people, years ahead of time if they are heading down the path to diabetes. With dietary modifications, regular exercise, and an overall improve in lifestyle - wouldn't it be worth it to you?

Overeating can shut down a natural brain function that is key to preventing common cardiovascular and diabetic diseases..

Researchers found that chronic overeating can overwhelm the neural pathway that regulates the amount of fats flowing into the bloodstream from the liver. The liver is partly responsible for regulating fats entering the blood stream. It produces triglyceride fats the body can turn into LDL (bad) cholesterol, which can cause arteriosclerosis and blood vessel blockage. Glucose can enter the brain when levels are elevated in the bloodstream. When glucose enters the brain, it is broken down into an acidic substance known as lactate. Lactate signals the liver to stop making fat. It appears that chronic overeating can overwhelm the brain's ability to metabolize glucose into lactate. When lactate is no longer produced -- the signal to stop the liver from releasing fat into the blood stops, too. As small arteries get clogged, they create the circulatory problems common in type 2 diabetes, linked to overeating, obesity, and limb amputations.

Smaller portions, less glucose in the brain, better traffic flow. After all - nobody likes getting mixed signals. Let's do all we can to keep the lines of communimcation (and our arteries) open.

New research reveals that faulty nerves in the pancreas may be one of the causes of type I diabetes, a condition where the immune system mistakenly attacks islets. Substance P was found to be responsible for healthy function and protection of islets.

Toronto researchers injected substance P into diabetic mice to reverse new onset diabetes. Sernova Corp is leading research into reversing insulin dependent diabetes by implanting a small device containing insulin producing islets to reverse diabetes, and Sertoli cells to naturally protect the islets from the body's immune system.

There is no point in scaring you like a virgin on prom night by telling you where the Sertoli cells derive. Where they're taking us along the path to cure type 1 diabetes is of greatest importance.

First Canada and now New Zealand. In the latest development in the worldwide quest to find a cure for type 1 diabetes, a new treatment to prevent its development has emerged from Kiwi country. This comes fresh off the heals of an astounding scientific breakthrough from our neighbors to the north last week.

This new approach taken by the New Zealand scientists, which has only been trialed on mice thus far, involves injecting cells sourced from neonatal piglets that have been coated with a gel to protect them against the immune system. According to researchers at Living Cells Technology -- the team behind this development -- the cells then secrete proteins "responsible for the repair and protection of the cells."

As of this writing, the scientists are hopeful that trials on humans can begin within the next ten years. Before this can happen, however, they must determine what the correct dosage would be and the correct age for it to be administered.

Okay, so it's not just an immune blunder anymore. Canadian-led research suggests immune cells aren't the only culprits in developing type 1 diabetes - the nervous system also plays a pivotal role.

With Type 1 diabetes, the destruction of the islet cells in the pancreas leaves the body without insulin to regulate the metabolism of blood glucose, or sugar. In studies of laboratory mice specially bred to make them susceptible to Type 1 diabetes, researchers discovered that a control circuit exists between insulin-producing cells and their associated sensory, or pain-related, nerves. It turns out that this control circuit is necessary to retain the health and normal function of islet cells. Researchers have found that the immune system is under much closer control by the nervous system than previously thought.

In other words, a dysfunctional immune response is not the only thing needed to get diabetes - the nerve cells are also critical. The researchers also found that injecting a substance into mice whose islet cells were inflamed and on the way to being destroyed not only eliminated the inflammation but actually reversed it. "The blood glucose normalizes overnight and it stays low for weeks to months - this is with a single shot," enthused one researcher. "We now have four-month-old mice that are non-diabetic that used to be diabetic" - a period equivalent to six to eight years in humans. Heck, I'll take a 6 to 8 year vacation from 10 finger sticks a day, 3 SYMLIIN injections a day, and a bi-weekly pump change. O Canada!

There's a fascinating story in Canada's Globe and Mail about the controversial use of xenotransplantation as a method of treating Type 1 diabetes. Xenotransplantation involves transplanting animal cells into human bodies. The surgeon in question here is the Mexican transplant surgeon Raphael Valdes, who claims to treat diabetes by transferring pancreas cells from piglets into his diabetic patients. Eww. What a nasty thought.

Even aside from the gross-out factor of this procedure, critics of Valdes believe his treatment does not work. In fact, the International Xenotransplantation Society has called for an end to his clinical trials saying that, despite the claims made by Valdes, there isn't enough independent proof that the treatment works. For now, the surgery is unavailable while the Mexico City hospital at which Valdes works and the National Committee for Bioethics review his techniques and ethics.

Nevertheless, Valdes has his supporters. The Globe and Mail article profiles a couple of Canadian Type 1 diabetics who have had the procedure done and who are happy with the results. It's an article that's well worth checking out.

The new air travel security regulations are creating big headaches in Canada as well as here in the US. The latest: an 87 year-old diabetic great-grandmother allegedly had her heart medication confiscated at Toronto's Pearson International Airport. The woman, Hetwig Strohmeier, has to take her pills every four hours. Too bad, said airport security. No exceptions. Although I'm surprised, 'cause I thought it was okay to take pills onboard a plane. Maybe someone made a mistake.

Anyway, Strohmeier was hardly what you'd call a security threat. In addition to being 87 and diabetic, she has had four angioplasty procedures, bypass surgery and a double-hip and shoulder replacement, according to a report in the Toronto Star. To make matters worse, the poor lady does not speak English - she had been in Canada visiting her son. The son in question, was furious at her treatment, saying "What did they think were in the pill bottles with my mother's name on them - dynamite?"

A Pearson airport spokesperson says they have not received a formal complaint from the woman, so were not prepared to comment.

So I just finished a blog on the promise of Canada's Conservative Party to provide diabetes care to low-income Canadians if elected to government. Well, the world is a funny place. I immediately stumbled upon a story hailing from my own home country of New Zealand, reporting that a diabetes care program there is folding due to unexpectedly high costs and also the difficulty of getting people to change their unhealthy lifestyle habits, attributed to cultural attitudes.

The Maori people of New Zealand (like Canada's First Nations people) suffer from diabetes at around three times the rate of the non-indigenous population. Phew. The low-cost diabetes plan was put in place with the aim of slowing or preventing the spread of diabetes amongst the Maori - for an annual cost of just $200 per person (that's around $127 in US dollars). The program began in 2004 and involved over five thousand Maori, making it the world's largest reported study on Type 2 diabetes prevention. Although the program is folding, the lead researcher says it has been helpful anyway, demonstrating a thirty-five percent reduction in new Type 2 diabetes cases amongst the sample group. This indicates that prevention programs do work - if only society can come up with the cash to pay for them!

More news from Canada: Canada's Conservative Party leader Bernard Lord (pictured) has announced that his party, if elected, would institute a comprehensive diabetes care program for low-income families. Included would be subsidized testing and insulin supplies. "Unfortunately," remarked Lord, "there seems to be a correlation between low income and higher incidence of diabetes. That's why prevention measures, education measures, wellness measures are so important." Lord added that his party would also work to improve diabetes care overall in Canada, with improved screening for the disease and better public awareness campaigns. The estimated cost of the program would be $6.1 million per year, which amounts to about $5.5 million in US dollars.

Of course, pre-election promises are one thing. Actually following through on those promises is quite another and, we all know, they often end up being watered down versions of what is really needed. It is interesting though that this is being proposed at all - a measure of growing concern about diabetes. Although there is less commitment to such government-funded social services here in the US, I wonder if we'll start hearing similar promises being made here come next election season? Makes sense, considering how many millions of people here are affected by diabetes.

So the American Diabetes Association says a low-carb diet is not sustainable for most diabetics in the long-term. Tell that to Dr. Jay Wortman of Vancouver and he will say "HA!" - or something like that. First Nations people are developing Type 2 diabetes at three to five times the rate of non-aboriginal Canadians. Wortman is proposing that First Nations people respond to the Type 2 diabetes crisis by returning to a traditional aboriginal diet. Such a diet is naturally very low in carbohydrates and sugars.

The doctor is conducting a year-long study amongst the tribal community of Alert Bay to see if his theory actually works. He says he has had a strong response from locals. Included on the list of traditional foods that volunteers will be able to eat while they are participating in the study are ooligan grease (huh?) and local seafood. However, they cannot eat anything that is not on the list, which sounds like a tough call. Worth it, says Dr. Wortman, who has been eating this way himself for four years now. "Some people breeze through while others have a very hard time with the cravings," says Wortman about the difficulties people face giving up the carbohydrate-rich foods they enjoy.

If you've ever wondered why diabetics are particularly susceptible to persistent infections and health complications following relatively mild infections, the answer may be at hand. Researchers working at Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry, Canada, have just published a study on the topic in Clinical Immunology. They found that diabetics have compromised immune systems resulting from problems with their dendritic cells. Dendritic cells (see image) regulate the body's T-cells, which fight infection. The study, which looked at both people with Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes, showed that the dendritic cells of diabetics are poor producers of an anti-viral agent that is important in activating T-cells. Without enough of that agent, T-cells can't do their job fighting infection.

The immediate lesson to be learned, says Dr. Bhagirath Singh, lead author of the study, is that strategies to control or avoid infection in diabetics (such as vaccinations) are of critical importance.

People with Type 2 diabetes with a yen to improve their overall health and to lose weight through walking are to be commended. But here's some advice, courtesy of researchers at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada: make your walking pace brisk and you'll experience greater health benefits.

The approach is neatly summed up in the name of the program used for the study - "Pick Up the Pace." That is, you don't necessarily have to walk further for better health. You can walk the recommended 10,000 steps daily, just walk them faster than before. The Type 2 diabetics who participated in the Alberta study did so, picking up the pace by a mere ten percent. As a result, they experienced significant improvements in their heart and respiratory fitness levels over a three month period, as well as decreased blood sugar levels.

What's nice about this study? It shows that Type 2 diabetics can benefit from good old-fashioned (not to mention inexpensive!) tactics to improve their health. All you need, say the researchers, is to get going. A pedometer and a stopwatch are nice, but not essential.