Nutrigenetics is the study of the interaction of genes and diet. The Diet Channel has published an article explaining what nutrigenetics is and how it will revolutionize the world of diabetes.

Researchers believe elevated blood sugar can be mapped back to a genetic reaction. Drugs are only overriding the cause of elevated blood sugar and forcing the sugar into the cells, causing damage over time. Nutrigenetics is addressing the cause of the elevated blood sugar and may suggest a better diet to control your diabetes. Genes control how you metabolize certain vitamins, minerals, and nutrients. These genes can vary from one individual to the next. See what happens to Buddy the Elf when he consumes way too much coffee? Yes, I know - that's Hollywood. Nevertheless - a comical example of what nutrigenetics explores.

Consumer-friendly tests are available for these gene and diet interactions. The tests are done with a cheek swab. You send your swab off to a specialized lab, which analyzes DNA from the cheek cells. You receive a report identifying your gene variations. A qualified health professional can explain the test results, and make specific diet and supplement recommendations to optimize your health. If this is a test you're interested in taking, Sciona's Mycellf Program will be happy to prepare your profile. Open up and say Ahhhh.

You've heard about the sports stars and the rock stars who succeed in life despite suffering from diabetes. Now, here's something a little more unusual: a circus acrobat! Dolly Jacobs is Circus Sarasota's "Queen of the Air." She recently gave an interview to the Bradenton Herald about her life in the circus.

Trim and petite like a dancer, Jacobs was diagnosed ten years ago. How did it happen? She had the warning signs most type 1s experience: weight loss and a killer thirst she just could not quench. Her mom already had type 1, so during a routine office visit, Jacobs asked the doc to check her blood sugar too. Whoa. It was 260 - way, way above normal. Jacobs was diagnosed not with type 1, but with a rarer form sometimes dubbed "type 1.5" or Latent Autoimmune Diabetes of the Adult (LADA). LADA is basically the same as type 1 diabetes, but develops later in life.

So how does one deal with diabetes when your job involves flying through the air with the greatest of ease? Low blood sugar is easy, says Jacobs. Correct it with a soda or juice. High blood sugar is tougher. She says she can go as high as 500 or 600 just from adrenaline. So, just like any other athlete, she depends on testing several times daily and she wears an insulin pump - but not when she's performing. Eating healthy - lean meats, fruits and veg - are important too, she says.

Click here to read more. Kudos, by the way, to the journalist who wrote this article, Roberta C. Nelson, for taking time out to identify the different forms of diabetes and to explain the dangers associated with high vs. low blood sugar. Great!

Yes, I'm back on the topic of diabetes and car crash liabiity. Here's a case from Montana that's become particularly ugly. Eleven-year-old Cady Tucker was killed in a head-on collision five years ago. The driver of the car that caused the crash has diabetes. Now, usually in these situations the diabetic (sorry, BetterCell!) driver was experiencing low blood sugar. But in this case, the driver had extremely high blood sugar.

Ever since the crash, the girl's mom, Pat Tucker, has been trying to press criminal charges against the woman. Tucker likens the crash to a DUI. The driver, she says, was "drunk on sugar." The Tuckers have even founded an organization devoted to changing the law: People Against Impaired Drivers.

Now Tucker is very upset because she was not able to get to court before last week, when the statute of limitations ran out on the case. "I couldn't believe a crime wasn't committed when a child's life was taken," says Tucker.

There's a ton of sympathy out there for grieving mom, Tucker. But no one's going to bat for her. Attorney General Mike McGrath has said that while he's sorry for Tucker, the accident was just that: an accident, and not a case of negligent homicide. "We don't put people in prison for high blood sugar," says McGrath.

The Chicago-Sun Times just ran a piece about area dentists who are doing their bit for type 2 diabetes prevention. These docs are screening all patients with gum disease for high blood sugar. They hope this will help with early detection, since gum disease is a risk factor for diabetes. (In fact, gum disease is a risk factor for tons of health issues, running the gamut from minor to life-threatening.)

The paper profiles, among others, dentist Dr. Ronald Schefdore. Whenever Schefdore gets patients coming in with gum disease, he automatically gives them blood tests that measure cholesterol and blood sugar levels, as well as inflammation. Schefdore describes a success story involving one patient who, thanks to the tests, got an early diagnosis of pre-diabetic symptoms and now, with the help of his PCP, has his blood sugar back under control.

Schfdore has also trained about five hundred other dentists (wow) how to collect blood samples using the finger-prick method. "If every dentist practiced this way," he comments, "we could improve the health of the world overnight."

This is preventive care in action. People like this are raising the bar for everyone. Cheers!

Ever wonder what would happen to a non-diabetic's blood sugar if they loaded up on a pile of concentrated sugar, preservatives and weird science fats? Doctors and the ADA call it prediabetes. This clip takes it to the extreme by sandwiching the center of 16 double stuff Oreos! Sometimes you have to be insanely blunt to make your point.

This is a brilliant example of the diabetes epidemic in action. In today's world -- many people are eating for convenience without realizing the consequences. More convenient equates to less nutritious - more preservatives, more sugar and even more fattening (the wrong fats, too!) The combination increases the amount of time our digestive enzymes need to work on these lab-derived ingredients. This sustains an elevated blood sugar following the time of consumption. Add the ADA definition of pre-diabetes (a blood sugar between 140 to 199 mg/dl 2 hours after a meal) and there you have it -- a potential player on Team Diabetes!

Think what would happen if this guy was in his doctor's office 2 hours after this stunt. I'd like to thank his employer for keeping him busy (whatever he's paid to do) well after the lunch hour - and protecting him from becoming another statistic. Big ups to HR for hiring this guy!! If he's not in marketing already -- you might consider a transfer and give this guy a raise. He's my Oreo hero.

Results from a recent study reveal oral contraceptives are not all alike.

Researchers from the Kaiser Permanente Medical Care Program of Northern California recently released evidence linking oral contraceptives containing a highly androgenic progestin to a 43% increased risk of gestational diabetes, when used for five years leading up to pregnancy. Interestingly, oral contraceptives with a low androgenic progestin were associated with a 16% decreased risk of gestational diabetes.

Gestational diabetes develops in about 4% of pregnant women who have never had diabetes, but exhibit high blood sugar levels during pregnancy. Untreated, it can be dangerous for both mother and baby.

The study selected 356 women with gestational diabetes and 368 women without the condition from a multiethnic cohort of 14,235 women who delivered a baby between January 1996 and June 1998. The women were members of Kaiser Permanente for a minimum of five years before pregnancy and screened for the condition between 24-28 weeks of pregnancy. Medical records and pharmacy data were utilized to determine contraceptive use.

Researchers state their results support other related studies that confirm more androgenic oral contraceptives can impact glucose tolerance.

When my older brother Mark was diagnosed with juvenile diabetes at the age of 13, I was nine years old. I absorbed the basic science of high and low blood sugars, and how he needed daily insulin to regulate his blood sugar. But little did I expect an awaiting surprise.

One day my mom returned home from grocery shopping and pulled out two giant bags of Jolly Rancher hard candies. I remember the scene clearly. You see, I was a candy addict (still am). Big bags of watermelon Jolly Ranchers had my full attention.

My mom explained how this candy was purchased for Mark, in case he had low blood sugar at school. I nodded my head in full agreement, then began stuffing handfuls of them in my pocket every day or so thereafter. Yet, whenever the bag of Jolly Ranchers was nearly empty, my hand wavered, unable to steal the last candies. Deep inside my sugared-up, pre-adolescent consciousness, I knew better. Jolly Ranchers were my brother's mini-life preservers, just in case he floundered in the seas of low blood sugar.

Today I compose an ode in remembrance for our islets of Langerhan. Their job is far more complex than balancing blood sugar. They balance everything in our metabolism, starting with the hormones that tell us to eat or stop eating. The islets of Langerhan house 4 critical cell groups: beta cells, alpha cells, delta cells, and gamma cells - also referred to as the PP cells and D1 cells.

Beta cells are activated by a rise in glucose which results in secreting insulin. As this insulin lowers the blood glucose, amylin is also released. Amylin supports the stability of blood glucose levels by slowing the rate that digested glucose enters the bloodstream. The alpha cells are the opposite - they are responsible for preventing hypoglycemia by secreting glucagon. Glucagon helps maintain the level of glucose by causing the liver to release stored glucose. Delta cells secrete somatostatin, which is like the hold button of the alpha-beta cell connection, restraining the release of insulin and glucagon. The last of our Langerhan lineup, and seemingly the least understood, is the gamma cells, PP and D1. These cells affect appetite through the secretion of ghrelin or leptin. Ghrelin is a stimulant for appetite and feeding. Leptin is a hormone that suppresses appetite and speeds up metabolism.

To recap Team Langerhan: beta cells respond to rising blood glucose with insulin, alpha cells respond to falling blood glucose with glucagon. Delta cells respond to perfect balance in blood glucose by suppressing insulin and glucagon, and the gamma cells keep an appetite on an even keel with ghrelin and leptin. If the initial blood glucose lowering medicine prescribed affects any one of these hormones (as you can see it does) - it is definitely causing an imbalance in metabolism. As we memorialize the islets of Langerhan- let us consider all they have done for us. Pay tribute to your islets of Langerhan by doing all that is naturally possible to restore metabolic balance in the future. I have a few ideas - but your job today is complete. You are enlightened. Please have a happy and safe Memorial Day!

For thousands of years, Ayurveda has used meshashringi as a treatment for adult-onset diabetes, a condition once described as "honey urine". Meshashringi is a climbing plant that grows in the tropical forests of India and could be just the thing to combat high blood sugar.

Thousands of years ago, type 2 diabetes was treated with meshashringi. The plant's sugar-destroying property was released when a person chewed on one or two leaves. Meshashringi was said to "paralyse" a person's tongue to sweet and bitter tastes. This taste-blocking reaction lasted for several hours. Meshashringi blocked sugar in the digestive system, resulting in a decrease in blood sugar. This is known as a hypoglycemic effect. This action has been studied since the late 1930s.

Recent studies have shown that meshashringi helped control blood sugar levels by stimulating insulin release from the beta cells. Meshashringi enhanced natural insulin production, which was evidenced by an increase in levels of C-peptide. C-peptide is the connecting peptide that is found along the amino acid chains in natural insulin (insulin produced in the islets). When insulin is cleaved apart, the connecting peptide disengages and floats off to preserve and protect the body's cells from microvascular damage resulting in diabetic complications like blindness, kidney disease, and neuropathy.

Another study found that 400 mg a day of meshashringi produced similar results for non insulin-dependent diabetics. Fasting blood glucose, A1c and glycosylated plasma protein were significantly reduced compared to baseline values after 18-20 months of treatment. By the end of the treatment period, cholesterol, triglycerides, phospholipids and free fatty acid levels were also significantly reduced. It is possible that the blood sugar lowering effects of meshashringi are mediated through their cortisol inhibiting potency. Clinical trials have recorded the benefits of meshashringi in diabetic patients where 400 mg a day reduced insulini requirements by about 50% in insulin-dependent diabetics.

Hello? Did that study say I might be able to cut my daily insulin requirements in HALF? Where on Earth (besides the Saharan terrain of Africa and the jungles of India) can I find this green Goddess? Somebody clear the fog in my head - does India even have jungles? I'm not a Globe-trotter (not yet, anyway). Irrational fear of turbulance.

Knocking out the gene for a peptide associated with insulin was shown to protect mice against the harmful effects of a high-fat diet. Urocortin 3 plays a role in the increased production of insulin in response to high caloric intake in animals.

Scientists found that by removing the urocortin 3 gene from mice, they did not develop the age-related insulin resistance and high blood sugar observed in the normal control mice. The metabolisms of normal mice were compared to the metabolisms of those without the urocortin 3 gene. When placed on a high caloric diet for three months, the mice without the urocortin 3 gene packed on the same amount of weight but had lower insulin levels. But these mice also had lower blood sugar, improved glucose tolerance curves and they did not develop the fatty livers the control mice experienced.

Scientists hypothesize that by curtailing the abnormally high insulin levels, they were able to manipulate insulin sensitivity and avoid some of the untoward consequences of the high food intake and weight gain. Like many of us diabetics already know too well - while insulin is effective at lowering blood sugar it also promotes fat storage. This is a natural protective response to prepare for times when food may not be available. When insulin is produced at too high a level for too long, the body becomes insulin resistant and blood sugar and certain blood lipids gradually creep up, which can cause progressive damage to multiple organs.

Urocortin 2 and urocortin 3 are part of the system that governs the body's response to insulin. Scientists already know that mice on a high-fat diet do better if either urocortin 2 or urocortin 3 is removed. Now they want to know if the mice will respond even better if both are missing. Such results may instruct us how best to develop therapeutic means to exploit these powerful effects.

Two doctors from the UK warn athletes who take growth hormone in an effort to enhance their performance increase their risk of developing diabetes.

The doctors describe what they believe is the first reported case of diabetes associated with taking high doses of growth hormone. A 36-year-old professional body-builder was admitted to the emergency room and treated for chest pain. He told his doctors that in the past year he had lost 88 pounds and noticed that he had to urinate excessively and was constantly thirsty and hungry. The man admitted to using anabolic steroids for 15 years and high doses of growth hormone for the past 3 years. He said he went on insulin a year after starting growth hormone in an effort to counter the effects of high blood sugar, but he stopped taking insulin after a couple of episodes of sudden low blood sugar while at the gym. Tests showed that the man's liver was inflamed, his kidneys were enlarged and that he had very high blood sugar. He was also dehydrated, and was diagnosed with diabetes. He was admitted to the hospital, treated with intravenous fluids and insulin for five days and then sent home. His symptoms resolved completely, and he was no longer diabetic.

The use of growth hormone has become popular with athletes because it is easy to buy online and difficult to detect in screening tests, unlike anabolic steroids. The internet gives easy access to these drugs as well as the 'best' means to take them. The reporting doctors warn physicians should not dismiss such users as being naïve. They have extensive pseudo-medical knowledge. Sadly, the short term risks are instantly addressed. More concerning is the reality of long term complications. The efficacy of growth hormone for enhancing athletic performance is debatable. The conclusive suggestion is anyone taking high doses of growth hormone should get their blood sugar levels checked regularly.

New research shows that snoring doesn't have to be loud to cause health problems especially in women. Although women generally snore less and more softly than men, recent studies have shown women have a greater risk of some of the adverse effects of sleep apnoea and may not know they have type 2 diabetes.

Sleep apnoea historically has been a problem most associated with men. However, this new research reveals that women who experience sleep apnoea may have a greater risk for developing type 2 diabetes. Both, men and women, with sleep apnoea also tend to have risk factors for the metabolic syndrome, a condition characterized by abdominal obesity, high cholesterol, raised blood pressure and insulin resistance, which causes high levels of blood glucose and can lead to diabetes.

Here comes the rude awakening -- partners of men who snore seem to be more affected by the sleep apnoea. This is due to the fact that a man's snoring is characterized by louder gasps and snorts This keeps him awake, as well as anybody within earshot. However, because women's snoring is often much quieter and they tend to have partial or incomplete obstructions, their partner's sleep may not be disturbed and the sleep disorder may go unchecked. Now I lay me down to sleep, I beg of You the silence keeps!!

The FDA has approved sitagliptin phosphate tablets to improve blood glucose levels in patients with type 2 diabetes. The drug, named Januvia, is proudly presented to the diabetic community by Merck and Co.

JANUVIA, a once-daily pill, enhances your body's natural ability to balance blood sugar levels. Your body sends important messages to your pancreas to try to balance high blood sugar. In response, your pancreas makes more insulin and signals the liver to make less sugar. But a substance in your body called DPP-4 blocks some of these important messages. JANUVIA works by blocking DPP-4, so more of the important messages get through. It also helps your pancreas make more insulin and signal your liver to make less sugar. Another feature of this new drug is the ability to prevent your sugar from going too low. JANUVIA works only when your blood sugar levels are high, or out of balance. When your blood sugar levels are at a healthy balance, JANUVIA doesn't have an effect. Because JANUVIA stops working before your blood sugar gets too low, it is not likely to lower your blood sugar to a potentially dangerous level (hypoglycemia). One more bonus to JANUVIA is the fact that this drug did not show weight gain in most patients during clinical trials.

Could this be the answer for your diabetes dilemma? Next time you swing by your doctor's office, mention that new drug Merck released. I'm sure your doctor will be as thrilled to see your numbers controlled as you'll be to see your natural ability to control them restored. Best of luck to those who find their diabetic solution in JANUVIA!

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) says a pilot's diabetes may have been a factor in a fatal plane crash in south-west Queensland just over two years ago.

The 49-year-old man was flying to New South Wales in October 2004 when he reported feeling unwell near St George. A short time later, the two-seater Canard plane crashed in a rugged area on the town's outskirts, killing the pilot. The ATSB found the plane was in working order at the time of the incident and the bureau says it is unable to pinpoint what caused the man to become disoriented before the crash. However, it says dehydration and the man's diabetes, which was diagnosed a year earlier, may have contributed to the crash.

This is the kind of news that leaves me wondering what the pilot's blood sugar was at the time of the crash. If it was in range or even considerably high I'm not so sure the cause of the crash was diabetes related. So if the pilot was dehydrated - it is possible his numbers were a little on the high side. If that's the case, I'm skeptical that his diabetes was fairly contributed to the crash. I know I'd rather drive my car with my sugar a little higher than lower. What do you think?

A wiki about a controversial prescription drug has been ordered by a US court to remove a link to documents which originated with Eli Lilly, the drug's manufacturer. Eli Lilly has paid nearly $1.7 billions to settle cases over its alleged side effects from its drug Zyprexa, including diabetes.

The wiki about Zyprexa published a link to internal Eli Lilly documents which the New York Times said showed that the company deliberately downplayed the side effects of the drug, which are alleged to include weight gain, high blood sugar levels and diabetes.

The judge in one of the product liability cases ordered the site and a number of named individuals to refrain from distributing the documents. A digital rights group defended the free speech rights of one anonymous poster but the judge would not budge. The electronic gag order will remain in effect until the case is resolved, sometime after January 16th.