Let's remember him. How about all those arrests? How about that infamous car chase with the cops in tow? Who could forget those ghastly mug shots? Yes, let's remember all his crazy antics. He was "Super Bad," as the song said. But let's also remember that although James Brown frequently ended up on the wrong side of the law and was more than a little eccentric, he was also a musical force of nature. Brown propelled his incredible funk and soul forward by force of a powerhouse personality, fully earning his status as a music legend - not to mention an icon of the black community.

I saw James Brown perform in 2005. Onstage, Mr. Cold Sweat was still a powerhouse. Offstage, however, he had become frail. In the end, diabetes was one of the afflictions that gave Brown great trouble. It probably won't come as a shock to you that Brown was not a terribly health-conscious fellow. That neglect extended to a failure to get control of his diabetes. Brown finally died of heart failure while battling a case of pneumonia. But I also found a few mentions on the web of Brown's battle with diabetes. According to a feature in the Chicago Defender, Brown was not taking his insulin and had told his sister that the disease had damaged his legs and feet. Fannie Brown says, "I do remember him saying something about the doctors telling him that if he didn't change his lifestyle that there could be complications (from diabetes), but I don't remember the whole conversation. That was a few years ago. So you can't really quote me on that. Whatever it was, I think he changed his lifestyle." Uh, maybe.

Don't know much about the music of James Brown? Want to learn? Let me point you in the right direction. Rolling Stone is featuring James Brown on its cover this month. Inside is a lengthy tribute, which recounts the man's amazing career.

Metabolex is a company dedicated to the discovery and development of novel therapeutics for diabetes and related metabolic disorders. They recently announced the launch of a double-blind, placebo-controlled Phase 2a, proof-of-concept study for MBX-2044, an oral insulin sensitizer for the treatment of type 2 diabetes.

Metaglidasen and MBX-2044 address insulin resistance, the underlying cause of type 2 diabetes, by enhancing insulin sensitization. The currently marketed insulin sensitizers, Actos® and Avandia®, carry warnings of increased risk of congestive heart failure due to edema and cause significant weight gain, which compromises patient compliance.

Metaglidasen and MBX-2044 have been specifically designed to address the shortcomings of the currently marketed insulin sensitizer drugs. Clinical testing of metaglidasen suggests it has comparable efficacy with an improved safety profile. Now we're getting somewhere with this medical advancement stuff! A new drug that does the trick sans the undesirable side effects - attaboy, Metabolex!

Older Americans with heart failure are increasingly likely to also be afflicted with diabetes, according to a new study. Moreover, having diabetes is a big risk factor for people in this category.

The study was conducted by researchers at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN, and results have been published in the American Journal of Medicine (July 2006). It looked at the health records of 665 older people with an average age of seventy-seven. Of that number, around twenty percent had diabetes. The prevalence of diabetes within the group studied increased by 3.8 percent each year. The really significant finding was that five-year survival was several percentage points lower for those with heart failure and diabetes than for those who had heart failure alone.

The conclusion of the researchers: effective diagnosis and aggressive treatment of diabetes is essential for reducing risk of heart failure.

The results of a new study, just published in Diabetes Care, indicate that diabetes affects the heart in different ways depending on ethnic group. Researchers from Wake Forest University School of Medicine conducted a multi-ethnic study of atherosclerosis, focusing on heart mass - the weight of the heart muscle. While all diabetes sufferers have an increased risk of heart failure, damage at the early stages took different forms for different groups. Among the findings: of the ethnic groups studied - white, African American, Hispanic and Chinese - only Chinese participants did not seem to have an increase in muscle mass, which was observed in the other ethnic groups. This kind of information could help medical professionals in the future to better tailor preventive care from person to person.