Just out in the new issue of Diabetes Care: a report that diabetic women are more at risk for the various stroke subtypes. (Today is just a day for bad health news, I guess. See my previous blog on trauma injuries.) Stroke, as you may already know, is where blood supply to the brain is restricted or cut off.

The study's authors tracked the progress of 116,316 women through middle age during the period 1976 to 2002. That's a lotta women... They found the women with diabetes were at a higher risk for stroke, generally: four times higher than that of the general population for women with Type 1 diabetes, and twice as high for women with Type 2 diabetes.

That people with diabetes face a higher risk of stroke is not new. What is new? This study also looked at stroke subtypes and relative risk for women with and without diabetes for each of those subtypes. Some results: ischemic stroke (caused by a blood clot to the brain) risk was 6.3 times higher for T1 diabetics, 2.3 times higher for T2 diabetics. The risk for large-artery infarction and lacunar stroke was similar. The study also concluded that while Type 1 diabetic women face a higher risk of hemorrhagic stroke (where bleeding occurs in the brain or between the brain and the skull), Type 2 women did not.

This study was funded by the National Institutes of Health.

Read more about strokes and learn how to recognize signs of stroke by visiting some of the excellent Web-based resources out there. A good starting point is InteliHealth's section on stroke or visit the National Stroke Association's website. You could save someone's life!

A major study of patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is just out. It found that those treated with hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) - brand name: Plaquenil - an antimalarial drug also prescribed for RA, are much less likely to develop Type 2 diabetes. The study was conducted over a period of more than twenty years and analyzed the treatment of 4,905 adult patients with RA. Bottom line: relative risk for T2 diabetes declined by up to seventy-seven percent in patients who took HCQ for four years. Wow.

But that's not all. The researchers also say the RA patient who did develop diabetes were less likely to need medications for blood sugar control. Moreover, according to Mary Chester M. Wasko, a rheumatologist and professor of medicine at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, the greatest potential application could come in using HCQ as a preventive for people with pre-diabetic symptoms, "much in the same way as a daily baby aspirin is suggested for people at high risk for heart disease."

This is significant because having RA is a condition that usually leads to reduced activity levels and also to weight gain (as a consequence of taking corticosteroids), and these two factors put them at risk for Type 2 diabetes. So this is good news indeed.

The study was directed by scientists at Stanford University, however, researchers from multiple institutions were involved. Funding was provided by the National Institutes of Health. The report has been published in the latest issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association. Click here or here to read more.

Research findings emerging from the annual conference of the American Diabetes Association just keep on coming. This study caught my eye, especially in light of President Bush's recent veto (once again!) over lifting restrictions on federal funding for embryonic stem cell research.

Now here's one way to make an end run around the Bush roadblock. An early-stage mice study has shown adult blood may yield insulin-creating stem cells. Not only that, the adult blood could be a better source than the ethically-debated stem cells from fertilized eggs.

Dr. Zhao from University of Illinois extracted insulin-making stem cells from the blood of diabetic mice. The cells were then condensed into a solution. After injecting the solution back into the mice, normal blood-sugar levels were maintained for three months, no treatment required.

Dr. Zhao is planning to seek National Institutes of Health funding for human studies, which could take five years alone for the first phase. He would use adult blood and umbilical cord blood -- absolutely no embryonic stem cells from fertilized eggs -- so no federal funding issues. Interestingly, Dr. Zhao said 70 percent of adult blood stem cells possess insulin-making capacity compared to only 7 percent of embryonic stem cells.

On the treatment level, insulin-making stem cells extracted from the blood of a human diabetic would be injected back into the diabetic patient. Utilizing a patient's own blood reduces chances of rejection. This line of research is a dream right now, but clinical studies could make the dream a reality.

As a kid, I cleaned my trumpet by shoving a flexible wire brush through the metal tubing. There was a lot of gunk in there since I regularly blew that trumpet with a Jolly Rancher hard candy tucked in my cheek. I had access to a never-ending supply as my older brother, a type 1 diabetic, used them to treat low blood sugar.

For women in their 50s, it looks like estrogen keeps the gunk from seriously building up in the arteries. A study recently published the New England Journal of Medicine examined high-tech heart scans to survey calcium buildup in the arteries of 1,064 women from the Women's Health Initiative (WHI), a 15-year government study researching strategies to prevent heart disease, cancers and fractures in postmenopausal women. In the WHI, women in the 50-59 age range taking estrogen had 30 to 40 percent less severe coronary-artery calcium than similarly aged women on a placebo. A dramatic 60 percent lower risk of severe coronary calcium was realized for women regularly taking the study pills.

Keep in mind, this study only looked at women who had hysterectomies and were taking solely estrogen, not the estrogen/progestin combination taken by menopausal women with a uterus. This study has nothing to say about healthier arteries in those taking the combo hormone therapy. Besides, most menopausal women are afraid of hormone therapy after the National Institutes of Health suddenly stopped the WHI estrogen/progesterone trials five years ago after finding menopausal hormone therapy was associated with heart-attack risk.

Possibly one BIG overreaction -- here's the key -- the heart effects of hormones depend on a woman's age and how recently she entered menopause. Start hormones ten or more years past menopause and you're at greater risk for heart attack, but using the hormones at the start of menopause appears to lower risk.

The Edmonton Protocol has been temporarily put on hold due to fears the human form of mad cow disease might infect patients.

The source of an enzyme used in transplants was reported to derive from cow brains. Transplants of these treated islets have been put on hold until a source for this enzyme can be found that doesn't use cow brains. Dr. James Shapiro, the surgeon who developed the Edmontol Protocol said, "we just decided to put the program on hold". Shapiro and his team transplant healthy islet cells into the pancreas of people with Type 1 diabetes. The healthy cells allow recipients to again begin producing insulin crucial to the body's ability to regulate sugar digestion.

The National Institutes of Health was creating a similar program in the United States when it discovered that one of the biomedical compounds that Shapiro's team has been using depends on cow brains. Roche Applied Sciences was selling the team an enzyme that allows doctors to extract healthy islet cells. But Roche was buying the bacteria that secretes the enzyme from a third company, which grew the bacteria using fat from cow brains. Roche spokeswoman Michele Beaubien said from Montreal that the enzyme is sold for research purposes only.

The more I learn these days about medicine and how it is applied to diabetes - the more I feel as though everything is for research purposes only. Don't you? As Yogi Berra said, "it ain't over till it's over". A big thanks to Dave of No Sugar Tonight for bringing this story to my attention.

African American churches are "the central hub in the social fabric of the African American community." So says Brian Letourneau, director of the Durham County Health Department in North Carolina. It's hoped that understanding this fact - and working with and through local churches (not around them) - will help the medical community to improve the lot of the area's black residents, many of whom suffer from Type 2 diabetes.

Letourneau's agency and the Department of Community and Family Medicine has begun working with experts from Duke School of Medicine and local black churches to reach out to African Americans, many of whom suffer from poor health and have limited access to health care services. The initiative, funded primarily by the National Institutes of Health, is called the African-American Health Improvement Partnership (AAHIP). The collaboration makes a lot of sense because, as Duke's campus paper The Chronicle reports, black churches are no strangers to dealing with difficult social problems.

The program will have Duke faculty members brought out to talk about healthy lifestyles: what constitutes a healthy lifestyle, why it's important for preventing or controlling diseases like Type 2 diabetes, and about the kind of medical care required to manage diabetes. Duke professor Sherman James (pictured) told The Chronicle, "Diabetes in on the rise across the country, driven largely by increasing obesity and sedentary lifestyles. Poor people of color are among the most severely affected groups, and of course that includes many African Americans. Our goal...is to develop a project that is not only scientifically sound, but culturally appropriate and sustainable."

It sounds just too good to be true: preventing or delaying the onset of Type 1 diabetes through a simple daily insulin regimen. Yet a number of health experts believe that giving insulin daily to those at risk of developing Type 1 diabetes, or those newly-diagnosed with the disease, could do just that. You see, it seems there's evidence that taking an oral dose of insulin on a regular basis brings about an increased tolerance for the substance or a "quieting of the immune system." And that could prevent diabetes or at least delay it for a few years.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) wants to find out what's what. It was announced yesterday that the NIH will fund a world-wide network of research into the issue. The research program will go by the name of Type 1 Diabetes TrialNet and will involve the participation of more than one hundred medical centers both here in the US and in Canada, Australia, and in parts of Europe. Individuals at risk for Type 1 diabetes - who can be identified through a simple blood test which identifies the presence of a certain type of autoantibodies - are currently being enrolled for the study. (I have no idea if they're looking for volunteers in the US, by the way - sorry.)

Talk about your big science breakthrough, huh? I mean, if insulin really can be used as a preventative...well, that would be fabulous in and of itself. But you would also have the added bonus that it could be achieved simply, with no side-effects (because insulin is quickly broken down by the digestive system), and it would be affordable. That last one's important. How refreshing it would be to have a big medical breakthrough associated with humble old insulin instead of some ultra-expensive wonder drug!

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has begun gathering data that will be very useful in the future. The data relates to the health of hundreds of kids who are just beginning sixth grade. Researchers want to find out whether or not Type 2 diabetes risk declines when children have access to healthy school lunches and also spend more time working on physical education.

The NIH says that participating schools - forty-two in total - will be randomly assigned to either a program group, which implements the food and exercise changes, or to a control group, which will continue to offer the usual public school lunch fare and phys-ed classes. For those in the program group, out go the fatty favorites and in come healthier (and presumably less processed?) items, both in cafeterias and in the vending machines. (I didn't know you could get healthy vending machine foods...) They'll also be getting more physical activity in the form of longer phys-ed sessions of greater intensity. After two and a half years, lucky things, they'll be dragged in for measuring, weighing etc. (Aww, as if middle school isn't tough enough already!) Then we'll find out if healthier school environments can counteract unhealthy family/cultural/social influences.

Yesterday I posted a blog about a study showing that people first diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes at under twenty years of age stand to face extra-serious health consequences if they go on to develop kidney disease. In a similar vein, I now see in the news that yet another study shows one in five children and teens with diabetes are already exhibiting two or more risk factors for heart disease. Of that number, around fourteen percent have Type 1 diabetes. A very frightening ninety-two percent have Type 2 diabetes. The problem - surprise, surprise - is overweight and obesity in young Americans. Those most at risk are minorities, especially girls from minority communities. (See my previous blog for more on this topic.)

Think about it: all those kids are heading towards a future of dealing with heart disease. And they're not even adults yet. So sad, isn't it?

The study was carried out by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institutes of Health.

NBC6 South Florida is profiling an eighteen-year-old, Kimberly Parker, who is taking part in study to test the effectiveness of using a cancer drug to control diabetes. The study is being funded by the National Institutes of Health, but the research is being carried out in three places around the country, with the number of sites to increase in the future. One of those places is the University of Miami. The study involves giving a drug approved for treating lymphoma, Rituximab, to diabetics in the hope it will target and disable the immune system cells that allow diabetes to develop.

Kimberly, who was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes only three months ago, is philosophical about her condition and is optimistic that being involved in the study is better than doing nothing. "I'm excited to do this and to help others and to help myself, hopefully, and to see what happens," she says.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has announced that major new studies of Type 1 diabetes have begun. The studies will involve the participation of eighteen medical centers located in the US, Canada, Europe and Australia. The announcement was made at the American Diabetes Association' annual meeting, which is currently underway in Washington, DC.

First up, the NIH says, are two studies focusing on those newly diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes. Researchers will be looking at possible ways to preserve peoples' capacity for insulin production. In theory, it is thought possible to somehow "turn off" the body's attack on insulin production.

Secondly, researchers are also looking into the health of newborns considered at risk of Type 1 diabetes. Some studies have linked the immune system's suppression of insulin production with an inflammatory process triggered by certain molecules that are believed to "communicate" with immune cells. It is thought that this process could be related to early nutrition.

Finally, a study is also to be carried out on the immune and metabolic developments that precede the onset of diabetes. For more info, visit the NIH's website.

Ignorance is not bliss, and nowhere is that more true than as it relates to your health. Eventually, you will pay the price for ignoring a health problem you suspect you might have or for neglecting your overall health long-term. Turns out, this is frequently the case with diabetics. According to the results of a new study conducted by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), around one-third of diabetics don't yet know they have the disease. That figure amounts to around 2.8 percent of the population.

Interestingly, the NIH and CDC found that although diabetes is much more prevalent than in the past, the percentage of adults being diagnosed has not changed significantly. Needless to say, this is bad news for the diabetics themselves and for the nation as a whole.

The NIH's press release on the study provides an excellent summary of the findings. The results have also been published in the latest issue of Diabetes Care (June 2006), should you want to read more.

Oh, brother. This just in from the National Institutes of Health: lifestyle changes in older Hispanics are to be encouraged as a way to both prevent the development of the disease and to aid in its management for those afflicted. Well, duh. Who writes these press releases anyway? But since it's out there, I may as well share it with you. Let's begin, as always, with some scary statistics: Hispanics are almost twice as likely as non-Hispanic white Americans to have diabetes and are also more likely to be affected by diabetes-related health complications. It is, in fact, the fourth leading cause of death in Hispanics aged sixty-five or older. What to do about it: weight loss through diet and/or exercise is the best way to combat the disease. And the NIH would like to help. The NIH's National Institute on Aging has produced a fact sheet in Spanish available on its website or by calling 1-800-222-2225.