As usual, I think it makes sense to look at things from many angles, and then make up your own mind…........................

Aggressive measures to treat diabetics make many of them worse, studies show

Rigorous treatment to bring down blood pressure and cholesterol is not beneficial and increases side effects, researchers say.

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The results are disappointing, researchers say, because they suggest that clinicians may have reached the limit of what they can do for diabetic patients without developing new therapeutic approaches.

But the good news is, the findings “reduce the cost and potential side effects of drug therapy” and mean that patients will not have to work as hard at reducing blood sugars, lipids and blood pressure, said Dr. Denise Simons-Morton of the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, which funded the trial.

“The take-home message is that the standard care approaches are pretty good. If we try to go beyond them, it doesn’t provide additional benefit,” she said.

Diabetes has become a tremendous problem in the United States, with at least 21 million people afflicted with Type 2 diabetes—in which cells do not respond properly to insulin produced by the pancreas—and millions more at risk because of obesity. Most diabetics also have high blood pressure and high cholesterol, factors that raise their risk of heart attack and stroke to the same level as that of people who already have suffered a heart attack.

Many doctors have reasoned that aggressively lowering blood pressure and lipids below nationally recommended levels might decrease the risk of heart disease, and ACCORD, or Action to Control Cardiovascular Risk in Diabetes, was created to study the possibility.

In one arm of the study, Dr. William C. Cushman of the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Memphis, Tenn., and his colleagues at 77 medical centers enrolled 4,733 Type 2 diabetics with high cholesterol and cardiovascular disease or a high risk of developing it. They were randomly assigned to treatment regimens to lower their systolic blood pressure—the top number in a blood pressure measurement—below 140 mm Hg, the standard treatment goal for diabetics, or below 120 mm Hg, the target goal.

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You might have heard, but if not please go over to http://www.healthefda.com to get more info and sign this petition.

The FDA has its place for many things and I’m sure they have the best of intentions at heart. But they could be doing a whole lot better in regards to diabetes and new diabetic treatments. While safeguards and rules are important, they have such stringent restrictions it severely limits new and innovative options for diabetic patients.

We need to let the FDA to hear us and try and get some of the restrictions removed or changed, this petition in part tries to do that and more. We need 20,000 petitions by February, so PLEASE sign it in case you haven’t already and forward it to anyone you think would support the cause.

From the Website:

“We, the undersigned, appeal to the leadership of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to reduce barriers to innovation in diabetes treatment development, in the interest of public health.

The FDA’s job is to protect the safety of patients in its use of drugs and medical devices and to advance public health by speeding innovations that make medicines and technology more effective, safer and more affordable. That is its mission.

But we believe the FDA has adopted a stance of excessive caution in its regulation of diabetes drugs and technology that is counter to its duty to serve patient needs.

Specifically, it has established new rules that will impair research and innovation into diabetes therapy. (A copy of the letter sent to manufacturers in November 2008 can be found at www.diatribe.us/fdaletter.)

This worries us. For example, new requirements for additional multi-year long-term outcome studies prior to approval for drugs with no cardiovascular signals will assuredly discourage research and innovation to the detriment of public health.”

Around the Net

Here’s a message from our good friend Manny at TuDiabetes:

Read what others are saying about this:

• http://tudiabetes.com/forum/topics/help-promote-the-fda-petition
• http://www.bernardfarrell.com/blog/2009/01/ask-fda-to-better-serve-diabetes.htm


• http://www.diabetesmine.com/2009/01/the-diabetes-community-appeal-to-the-fda-dont-slam-the-door-on-progress.html

Petition Sponsors

Kelly Close: Editor, diaTribe
Manny Hernandez: President, Diabetes Hands Foundation; Founder, TuDiabetes
Amy Tenderich: Creator and Author, DiabetesMine
Nadia Al-Samarrie: Publisher, Diabetes Health magazine
Marston Alfred: Founder, SugarStats.com
Allison Blass: Author, Lemonade Life
Jennifer Block, CDE: Stanford Medical Center, Stanford University
Nancy Bohannon, MD: Director of Clinical Research, CVD Risk Reduction Program, St. Luke’s Hospital, San Francisco
Bruce Buckingham, MD: Professor of Pediatric Endocrinology, Stanford University
Stead Burwell: CEO, Alliance Health Networks, Inc.
Priscilla Call Essert: Author, My Life As A Pancreas
Gina Capone: Co-Founder, the Diabetes Talkfest Blog
Fran Carpentier: Author, Diabetes, Day-By-Day on Parade.com
Kitty Castellini: Founder, CEO, Producer and Host, Diabetes Living Today – Talk Radio
David Edelman: Co-Founder, Diabetes Daily
Steve Edelman, MD: Professor of Medicine, University of California, San Diego; Founder, Taking Control of Your Diabetes
Bernard Farrell: Author, the Diabetes Technology Blog
Bob Hawkinson: Author, Joy of Diabetes
James S. Hirsch: Author, Cheating Destiny
Irl B. Hirsch, MD: Professor of Medicine, University of Washington
Lois Jovanovic, MD: CEO and Chief Scientific Officer, Sansum Diabetes Research Institute
Francine R. Kaufman, MD: Professor of Pediatrics, Keck School of Medicine, USC; Head, Center for Diabetes, Endocrinology and Metabolism, Childrens Hospital Los Angeles; former ADA President
Tom Karlya: Author, Diabetes Dad
Rebecca Killion: Diabetes advocate
David Mendosa: Diabetes Journalist
Kerri Morrone Sparling: Author, Six Until Me
Jenny Ruhl: Author, Blood Sugar 101
Lisa Shenson: Diabetes Parent & AdvocateScott Strumello: Author, Scott’s Web Log
Howard Steinberg: CEO and Founder, dLife
Virginia Valentine: CNS, BC-ADM, CDE, CEO, Diabetes Network, Inc. Albuquerque, New Mexico

Sign it Now

You can even sign it now via the widget below:

FDA study: Insulin pumps linked to injuries, deaths in teens

According to investigations by the FDA they might be. But really it is more about the use/convenience of pumps have resulted in circumstances stemming from mis-education and carelessness that bring about such events.

“Parents should be vigilant in (more…)

Gestational Diabetes, Pre-Diabetes and Endocrinologists versus General Practitioners for addressing diabetes.

Interview with Dr. Anita Ramsetty, Endocrinologist Part 1
Interview with Dr. Anita Ramsetty, Endocrinologist Part 2

SugarStats’ host interviewer, Nedrra Lanakila, continues her talk with Endocrinologist Dr. Anita Ramsetty of EndocrineHelp.com. In this third and final post from their first interview, Dr. Ramsetty talks about Gestational Diabetes, signs of pre-diabetes and some of the factors to consider when determining your physician of choice to provide medical diabetes care.

N (Nedrra Lanakila): You mentioned about gestational diabetes. How do you treat your patients diagnosed as gestational diabetics?

A (Anita Ramsetty): We always end up in a somewhat odd situation because these women are split between the endocrinologist and their obstetrics teams. It can be a little bit dicey at times, trying to get all the communication loops closed but it gets done and quickly.

As an example, my case of gestational diabetes was fairly mild. I was pregnant with twins at the time so I sort of saw it coming. Between having the twins, gaining lots of weight and then having a strong family history I had seen it coming from afar and wasn’t too surprised.

In my case, I ended up checking my blood sugars very (more…)

Wow.

So the new figures are in and they’ve concluded the annual cost for diabetes in the U.S. for 2007 hit *$174 Billion dollars*, up 32% since 2002. That is 1 in every 5 health care dollars going to diabetes care. These figures are only for the U.S., worldwide the estimates go over $300 billion.

This number shadows the $150 Billion in damages from Hurricane Katrina and some say it is about as much as the cost of the Iraq/Afghanistan conflicts (though who knows the real numbers on that).

This is really getting out of control, they say last year the diabetes related death toll in the U.S. was over 284,000. There are 1 million new cases each year.

These figures also did not take into account the undiagnosed diabetes population in the U.S. which is estimated at over (more…)

You know, I’ve always liked mice. Cute and furry little guys.

Now it seems some new studies out of the University of Florida research labs (http://www.ufl.edu/) show that a certain Protein (Complex Amino Acid Chain) called Pdx1 is stimulating insulin production in mice.

In this article titled: *“Researchers trigger insulin production in diabetic mice”* (Found via BernardFarrell.com) they note:

“Now University of Florida researchers have coaxed liver and pancreatic cells within diabetic mice into churning out insulin by injecting the animals with a naturally occurring protein called Pdx1, opening up a new research avenue that someday could lead to safer treatments for type 1 diabetes. Pdx1 activates the genes controlling the development of the pancreas cells that make and release insulin to maintain safe levels of glucose in the body. The UF research team’s novel approach is described online in the journal Diabetes.”

What makes Pdx1 special?

If you do then please take 5 minutes to fill out this survey about why you think, as a person with diabetes, technology is important and should be better supported in the diabetes world.

As Amy from DiabetesMine.com writes:

“The information gathered will be compiled and sent to insurance companies and government bodies in the form of an ad hoc research report.”

And as Kelly from CloseConcerns.com notes:

“Our hope is that a groundswell of support for diabetes technology will just be one more sign to the policymakers in Washington, DC, that they shouldn’t try to be cheap with patients with diabetes. We have all seen the warning signals.””

Even though the survey is primarily about hardware devices such as pumps, glucose meters and CGMS’s we feel this will also extend to all the great projects and services which also aim to improve diabetes management.

Using SugarStats ourselves and receiving dozens of great feedback weekly on how much it has helped people become conscious and better control this disease gives me great hope for the future.

Surprised? Hardly…

“A new study released Thursday suggests sodas sweetened with high fructose corn syrup may contribute to the development of diabetes. The study from researchers at Rutgers University, shows sodas sweetened with high fructose corn syrup contain high levels of compounds that previous research suggests may play a role in the development of diabetes. Especially when consumed in large amounts.”

Make sure to digg the story:
http://digg.com/health/Study_Links_Diabetes_and_High_Fructose_Corn_Syrup_Found_in_Soda

It is not often that diabetes gets so much attention in Digg.

To discuss, visit TuDiabetes.com: http://tudiabetes.com/forum/topic/show?id=583967%3ATopic%3A34478