First ADA approved sugar free energy drink Pit Bull

Via Foodingredientsfirst.com

In the midst of the energy drink boom, Hip Hop Beverage Corporation, a Minority Business Enterprise that manufactures Pit Bull Sugar Free Energy Drink, has been the first energy drink approved by the American Diabetes Association as a free food product for diabetic consumers. Based on the nutrient analysis, serving size and ingredient composition, one serving (8fl. oz) of Pit Bull Sugar Free Energy Drink has no calories, no carbohydrates and most importantly, no sugar. These dietary exchanges are based on the Exchange List for Meal Planning by the American Diabetes Association and the American Dietetic Association.

I know there are plenty of you diabetics out there addicted to energy drinks, which one is your favorite? I know I used to be hooked on Low-carb Monster and man, was that a hard habit to kick. Though now I can say I’m quite happy with my organic green tea

First non-evasive diabetes screening device

Via Foodingredientsfirst.com

A one-minute experimental diabetes screening system that uses light to detect diabetes-related biomarkers found in skin regardless of color will be previewed tomorrow for the first time at the 67th annual meeting of the American Diabetes Association held at McCormick Place. Previously reported studies of a prototype of the portable desktop system have shown it outperforms both the fasting plasma glucose (FPG) test and the A1C test as a rapid and non-invasive screen for pre-diabetes and type 2 diabetes. The investigational device, not yet approved for use in the United States, is being designed for use at physician-supervised point-of-care locations.

Known as Scout DS™, manufactured by VeraLight Inc. of Albuquerque, New Mexico, the simple-to-use device weighs about 10 pounds and does not require the patient to fast or provide a blood sample. Using light directed onto a small area of an individual’s forearm the device is able to detect abnormal concentrations of advanced glycation endproducts (AGEs), which correlate well with diabetes and pre-diabetes and are associated with the disease’s serious complications. The medical device is slated for U.S. market introduction in the second half of 2008.

This looks especially cool but really, 10 pounds?

Artificial Diabetes Pancreas

Via Foodingredientsfirst.com

Scientists in Cambridge say they are moving a step closer to developing an artificial pancreas for people with diabetes.

They are conducting trials in Cambridge with 12 youngsters aged five to 18.

All have type-one diabetes which means their pancreas does not produce insulin – the hormone that regulates blood sugar levels.

I have to say either these kids are pretty brave or I’m a big sissy. Though if they get this stable and properly working it would be a really great thing. I just hope it doesn’t malfunction in one of these testers

Well, we’ve officially been launched for a month now! We wanted to share some overall stats of the system, how we’re doing and a tiny bit of the great stuff to come If you haven’t already don’t forget to get your own account free.

We got hit and continue to get hit with loads of traffic but we’re happy to say things are holding up great.

We’ve gotten great response in these first 4 weeks of launch that have helped us greatly improve the system. Within just the first few days alone we had hundreds of new users sign up and thanks to people seeing the value of the system and spreading the word virally this trend is still happening.

First 30 Day Stats

Within the first 4 weeks of launch:

Sugar Readings

• Over 17,500 Sugar Entries Recorded.
• Averaging 147 mg/dL and 9.2 mmol/L respectively

Top 5 Meds:

1. Lantus
2. Humalog
3. Novalog
4. Metformin
5. NovoRapid

Foods

While only premium members can track food/carbs, plenty of food/carb tracking going on:

• Some of you LOVE yogurt, popcorn, peanut butter, orange juice and milk
• Over 2850 meals have been eaten via over 750 different foods
• Over 85,100g grams of carbs consumed
• Avg carbs per food entry: 134g
• Avg carbs per meal: 29g

Before and After Meal Sugar Readings

Before you ask, yes these types of graphs and trends will be making their way into your own SugarStats account. So you premium users can look forward to an even greater look into how your meals affect your blood sugars.

Overall Averages:

• Before Breakfast: 143 mg/dL
• After Breakfast: 154 mg/dL
• Before Lunch: 141 mg/dL
• After Lunch: 150 mg/dL
• Before Dinner: 151 mg/dL
• After Dinner: 158 mg/dL

Activities

Another premium only feature but very important to keep track of:

1. Over 6200 minutes of physical activity tracked. Over 103 hours.
2. Over 206 minutes per day (3.4 hours)

Some of your favorite exercises include:

1. Walking
2. Swimming (one of my favs)
3. Dancing
4. Yoga

Overall Averages (in mg/dL):

• Before Activity: 147
• After Activity: 150

What’s to come

Besides the few that really want to track everything in detail, we’ve gotten absolutely great response from you guys. You’ve told us you love how simple and easy to use the system is. This is great to hear as that is what it was built for, so the average diabetic will actually WANT to use it and then actually be able to understand the statistics.

Even so there are plenty of places we can improve on and you’re helping greatly with that. While we won’t go into detail on our future plans (gotta keep some excitement huh? ), we’re working on some really cool stuff. We’ll give a few little hints:

• Would you like to share your stats (on your blog etc) for all to see your progress?
• Think your mobile phone/PDA browser could be more useful for adding entries?
• Would you like to add friends within SugarStats to see their stats and create a support system?
• Do you use Twitter, Facebook, MySpace etc?
• Want to show your people better and more informative graphs? (especially for premium users)

Ok ok, thats enough for now. We don’t have dates for specific features but there is plenty of exciting stuff going on over here So don’t forget to create your free account.

Finally, THANK YOU

And finally a big thanks to all our users and BETA testers who have helped craft the site and application. Your support and feedback has been tremendous and we really appreciate all of it. Stay tuned because there is more to come for sure!

Eating bitter melon increases insulin production by 160% in some

Via Foodweek.com.au

“Bitter melon extract, a traditional Chinese medicine, has been tested and found to protect β-cells and increase insulin production in new research presented by Dr Pingfan Rao, Fuzhou University, China.

In traditional Chinese medicine, herbs undergo maillard reaction during sun-drying and boiling, to extract dark colour tonics as remedies. In spite of their prominent presence, maillard reaction products (MRPs) have never been linked to therapeutic effects,” he said.

The scientific team tested bitter melon extract (Mormodica Charantia Extract), an anti-diabetic herbal remedy prepared by boiling extraction of sun-dried fruits.

“The MRPs were found to release reducing agents and bind to the membrane of pancreatic cells and when these cells were treated with MCE prior to alloxan damage, insulin secretion increased by 160% compared to the untreated group

I’m definitely a lover of melons, I can’t deny that. But this is some interesting news to me as I don’t really eat so many bitter melons. It is interesting to see more and more of these studies coming out regarding extracts from natural foods and their potential healing properties. There was also one a while back regarding chili pepper extract curing diabetes in mice.

Americans making progress in managing diabetes

Via Reuters.com

Americans appear to be doing a better job of managing diabetes, with more than half of diabetics reaching recommended targets for controlling blood sugar last year, according to a survey published on Saturday.

Just over a third of people had their diabetes well-controlled in 2001, according to a study of lab tests done on more than 4 million people with type 1 and type 2 diabetes.

Definitely great to hear, the study notes a 44% improvement which is a superb improvement. Obviously the more effort we put into changing our daily habits, routines and focusing on our daily health the better off we’ll be.

One thing I found quite interesting though is they say people find diabetes much harder to manage in the winter as well as being harder for men than it is for women.

The diabetes divide: Is diabetes a surgical or medical disease.

Via aesisgroup.com

During residency (which is not the free-for-all carnival that “Gray’s Anatomy” would have us believe), one of the most important judgment calls that is learned is whether the patient is “sick” or not. This is not in the sense that the patient is faking illness but rather the concept that young doctors gradually learn from experience whether a patient is on the up-trend or down-trend towards recovery.

One of the most important of such decisions is whether a disease is of a surgical or a medical nature. A surgical disease is one which requires some form of intervention such as, of course, surgery (although various vascular interventions and radiation techniques would also fall in this category) while a medical condition implies a pharmaceutical approach to treatment.

Interesting thoughts, though the article might appeal to the more medical minded, it is something worth checking out. Also gives a few ideas to ponder about the future of diabetes treatment.

Hours of TV watched increases HBA1C levels

Via PrNewsWire.com

The more hours of TV
kids with type 1 diabetes watch, the less they are able to maintain good
blood glucose control, according to a study published in the June issue of
Diabetes Care.

The study by researchers in Norway found that the more television a
child or adolescent watched, the higher the child’s average blood glucose
level measured. For example, young people who watched less than one hour of
television per day scored an average level of 8.2 percent on the HbA1c, a
test that measures how well blood glucose is controlled over several
months. Those who watched up to 2 hours daily scored 8.4 percent; up to 3
hours daily scored 8.7 percent; up to 4 hours daily scored 8.8 percent; and
those who watched more than 4 hours of TV per day scored 9.5 percent on the
A1C test. The ADA recommends keeping A1C levels at 7 percent or below.

Very interesting study to say the least. I should consider myself lucky I grew up with little TV… Though I don’t think that helped my a1c levels much As for my current viewing habits… I guess I’ll have to cut down on my CSI and 24.

Diabetes reaching crisis level. CDC estimates 41 million pre-diabetic

Via Blackvoicenews.com

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention now estimates that one in three children born in the U.S. five years ago is expected to become diabetic in their lifetime. The number of diabetics has grown by 80% in the past decade.

The CDC also estimates that 21 million Americans have high blood sugar levels and are therefore diabetic, but don’t realize it because the outward signs are not showing…yet. The CDC also estimates 41 million others are pre-diabetic, with blood sugar levels steadily increasing. Most people with early signs of the disease are not taking necessary action by more-carefully choosing what they eat.

This number just keeps going up and up. While hearing news like this is sad, it is something to be aware of in order for people to start taking control and help to change the trend. I know it took me a while to change my eating habits, but it was worth it. Sooner or later all the fast food, deep fried food and gallons of coke a day catches up with you. A fight any persons pancreas just can’t win.

It reminds me of the quote:

“If you keep doing what you’ve always done. You’ll keep getting what you’ve always got”

New Diabetes Compression Sock

Via Vivantmedical.com

Diabetes affects every aspect of a person?s health, including their feet. menzies-med introduces Dia-Flow, a diabetic support sock that protects the feet while helping to increase circulation.

Thought I personally don’t have circulation problems or problems in general with my feet, I know others might find this useful. There have been times though of very bad BG management on me part, I started to feel the effects in my feet… It scared me to death and provided me with all the motivation I needed to try and keep things under control. Hearing that 54,000 diabetics have amputations each year is yet another reminder. Yikes!

Glaxo’s diabetes drug may cause heart attacks

Via Nonunk.com

Avandia, GlaxoSmithKline Plc’s widely used drug for treating type 2 diabetes, raises the risk of heart death by 64 percent and the risk of heart attack by 43 percent, U.S. researchers said on Monday.

The news about Avandia, a $3 billion a year drug also known as rosiglitazone, triggered a free fall in GSK’s shares, which closed off more than 5 percent on the London Stock Exchange. The slide continued on the
New York Stock Exchange, with shares closing down nearly 8 percent.

This is particularly disturbing news, considering the sheer amount of Type-2 Diabetics out there 64%!!!! I just wish they would have done more testing and do more testing the next time around (If there is a next time for them).

Tony Blair talks about healthy living, including UK diabetes stats

Via Gaurdian.co.uk

Obesity is rising rapidly. 1 in 4 adults and children in the UK is obese, and rising. The social effects of alcohol abuse are widespread and worsening. In the last 30 years of the 20th century the death rate from liver cirrhosis went up 8 fold amongst men and almost 7 fold amongst women aged 35 to 44. Smoking may account for half of the social class health inequality. An estimated 1.7 million people in the UK have type 2 diabetes. 10 per cent of NHS resources are used to treat diabetes. This could double by 2010. And it is avoidable. Three quarters of diabetics are type 2 diabetics and two thirds of them have a disease that could be preventable with exercise diet and more healthy choices.

While I don’t know the complete diabetes statistics in the UK (Does anyone else?), that is a pretty large number. Right now I believe the U.S., UK, Australia and India are having the largest surges of diabetes diagnoses, especially Type-2.

What is Gestational Diabetes and what causes it?

Via Fox30online.com

Diabetes that occurs as a result of pregnancy is known as gestational (jess-TAY-shun-ul) diabetes (die-uh-BEE-tees). Risk factors for this condition include obesity, a family history of diabetes, age over 25, or previously having a child who was very large, had birth defects, or was stillborn.

While not at the explosive growth of Type-2 Diabetes, I keep hearing and seeing more of Gestational diabetes being a big problem. Especially in the Island (Hawaii etc) they are having a pretty hard time dealing with the newly diagnosed.

We’re pretty excited over here as we’ll be shortly be launching SugarStats to the public. As a thank you to the community and those who have wanted to help with the BETA testing we’re going to offering something special for the next 6 days:

Free? Premium? Beta? Huh?

The free account in SugarStats includes pretty much all of the features we’ve spent the last year building up. We want to make it as widely available to the Diabetes community as possible. Our goal is to keep as much of the feature set included in the free plan now and in the future.

At launch we’ll also be introducing a Premium accounts upon launch for those wanting more for a low monthly/yearly cost. This plan includes everything the free plan has but adds a few more features (such as food intake and physical activity tracking) and convenience benefits such as being ad free and having secure SSL encryption.

Beta accounts are exactly the same as premium accounts, but as you’ll see below, include a little something special

Big thanks to all our BETA testers

Along the same lines as above, as a token of our appreciation in helping test and polish SugarStats, all current Beta testers will get all premium features free… Forever. This means all current premium features and all future features you’ll get free.

Thank you to the early adopters

Let me at it!!

Just go to:

http://manage.sugarstats.com/users/new

and fill in your info. We’ve made the validation string the same for everyone and it should be filled in when you go there. If it isn’t, type in: aloha. Complete the sign up form and you’re in.

Now whenever you want to login just go to:

http://manage.sugarstats.com/

Spread the word

This offer is open to every and anyone. Tell your friends, family, doctor, dogs, cats etc. Email it, digg it, share it, whatever (click the “share this” button below). Tell any diabetics you know might want to track their Sugars online, any one you know who might be interested. They are all welcome. Enjoy!

There has been a lot of stuff going on lately over here. We’ve been doing various research over the past year regarding online diabetes research and have come across a lot of great stuff. I thought it would be worth collecting all these snippets of info up in one post to share with you all what we’ve found. It is more of a reference list in case you’re interested in looking them up, we’ll work on trying to find links if any of these studies are online.

There have been at least 16 scientific studies done over the last few years showing the positive affects that an online diabetes management system like SugarStats.com would have on diabetics. These studies have been published by prestigious organizations such as the NIH, JAMA, Diabetes Care(American Diabetes Association), and several others. The following are some of the studies we’ve found, enjoy

1. De Leo G,Krishna S,Boren S,Fato M,Porro I,Balas EA.Web and computer telephone-based diabetes education: Lessons learned from the development and use of a call center. Journal of Medical Systems.29(4):343-355.
2. Jay A. Johnson, MD, FACC, attending staff physician with Stanford University Rahul Singal, MD 2005. Impact of a Web-Based Diabetes Program and Personal Health Record on Diabetes Quality of Care, Journal of Managed Care Medicine Vol. 9, No. 2
3. Baker AM, Lafata JE, Ward RE, Whitehouse F, Divine G. 2001 A Web-based diabetes care management support system. Henry Ford Health System, Detroit, USA. 2001 Apr;27(4):179-90
.
4. McKay HG, Feil EG, Glasgow RE, Brown JE. 1998. Feasibility and use of an Internet support service for diabetes self-management. Diabetes Educ. 1998 Mar-Apr;24(2):174-9.
5. Bell JA, Patel B, Malasanos T. 2006. Knowledge improvement with web-based diabetes education program: brainfood. Diabetes Technol Ther. 2006 Aug;8(4):444-8.
6. Deo SS, Deobagkar DN, Deobagkar DD. 2005. Design and development of a web-based application for diabetes patient data management. Inform Prim Care. 2005;13(1):35-41. Inform Prim Care. 2005;13(1):42-4.
7. Kwon HS, Cho JH, Kim HS, Lee JH, Song BR, Oh JA, Han JH, Kim HS, Cha BY, Lee KW, Son HY, Kang SK, Lee WC, Yoon KH. 2004. Development of web-based diabetic patient management system using short message service (SMS). Diabetes Res Clin Pract. 2004 Dec;66 Suppl 1:S133-7. PMID: 15563964
8. Ferrer-Roca O, Franco Burbano K, Cardenas A, Pulido P, Diaz-Cardama A. 2004. Web-based diabetes control. J Telemed Telecare. 2004;10(5):277-81. PMID: 15494085
9. Riva A, Bellazzi R, Stefanelli M. 1997. A Web-based system for the intelligent management of diabetic patients. MD Comput. 1997 Sep-Oct;14(5):360-4. PMID: 9308344
10. James B. Meigs, MD, MPH1,2, Enrico Cagliero, MD3, Anil Dubey, MD4, Patricia Murphy-Sheehy, MPH1, Catharyn Gildesgame, MBA2, Henry Chueh, MD2,4, Michael J. Barry, MD1, Daniel E. Singer, MD1,2 and David M. Nathan, MD3. 2003. A Controlled Trial of Web-Based Diabetes Disease Management. The MGH Diabetes Primary Care Improvement Project. Diabetes Care 26:750-757, 2003 © 2003 by the American Diabetes Association, Inc.
11. Christopher D. Saudek, MD; Rachel L. Derr, MD; Rita R. Kalyani, MD. 2006. Assessing Glycemia in Diabetes Using Self-monitoring Blood Glucose and Hemoglobin A1c. JAMA. 2006;295:1688-1697.
12. Does Diabetes Disease Management Save Money and Improve Outcomes? Diabetes Care 25:684-689, 2002 © 2002 by the American Diabetes Association, Inc. Epidemiology/Health Services/Psychosocial Research
13. Glasgow RE, Strycker LA. Preventive care practices for diabetes management in two primary care samples. Am J Prev Med 2000;19:9—14.
14. Chien-Tsai Liu, PHD1, Yu-Ting Yeh, RN2, Ting-I Lee, MD3 and Yu-Chuan Li, MD, PHD1© 2005 Letters: Observations on Online Services for Diabetes Management by the American Diabetes Association Diabetes Care 28:2807a-2808, 2005
15. Hyuk-Sang Kwon, MD1, Jae-Hyoung Cho, MD1, Hee-Soo Kim, MD1, Bok-Re Song, RN2, Seung-Hyun Ko, MD, PHD1, Jung-Min Lee, MD1, Sung-Rae Kim, MD, PHD1, Sang-Ah Chang, MD, PHD1, Hee-Seung Kim, RN, PHD2, Bong-Yun Cha, MD, PHD1, Kwang-Woo Lee, MD, PHD1, Ho-Young Son, MD, PHD1, Jin-Hee Lee, MS3, Won-Chul Lee, MD, PHD3 and Kun-Ho Yoon, MD, PHD1. © 2004 by the American Diabetes Association. Establishment of blood glucose monitoring system using the Internet. Diabetes Care. 2004;27:478-483
16. Graham T. McMahon, MB, BCH1, et al. 2005. Web-Based Care Management in Patients With Poorly Controlled Diabetes. Diabetes Care 28:1624-1629. © 2005 American Diabetes Association, Inc.

The high cost of diabetes

Via http://www.sugarstats.com/

“Nearly 3 out of 5 of the 18 million Americans with Type 2 diabetes suffer from at least one serious health complication such as heart attack or chronic kidney disease, according to a new study. Taken together, complications from the disease accounted for an estimated $22.9 billion in medical spending in 2006; annual health care costs per person were nearly $10,000, almost three times higher than for non diabetics.”

Find out about the sugar in your food

Via http://healthwealth.wordpress.com/

“Almost any food we eat may contain sugar. Even those with marketing ads saying the product is sugar free…may actually mean “no added table sugar” BUT contains other sources of sugar hidden under a different name so BE AWARE!

It is important to remember that sugar can come in many forms. You may think you are eating sugar free foods but hidden in the ingredients are the likeness of sugar that can still contribute to calories.”

Lifestyle changes for Type-2 Diabetics

Via http://www.rocklintoday.com/

“Type 2 diabetes (T2D), now epidemic in the United States, is a national tragedy, as 1 in 3 Americans – born in the 21st century – are expected to become diabetic, even young children.

I call it tragic because more than 90% of T2D cases are preventable – with fairly simple changes in lifestyle. Diabetes is the leading cause of blindness, kidney failure, non-traumatic limb amputation, and nerve damage. Diabetes increases the likelihood of stroke and heart disease by 2-4 times; Alzheimer’s disease is 60% more likely. There is no end to diabetes complications.”

FDA clears the New FreeStyle Lite

Via http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/

“Abbott Diabetes Care announced today the launch of its FreeStyle Lite™ blood glucose monitoring system for people with diabetes after receiving a 510(k) clearance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

The new FreeStyle Lite system has an innovative automatic calibration feature that eliminates the manual coding step usually required by most blood glucose meters before starting a new vial of test strips. The easy-to-use FreeStyle Lite meter allows people with diabetes to test quickly and more easily.”

Depression may trigger diabetes in older adults

Via http://www.eurekalert.org/

“Chronic depression or depression that worsens over time may cause diabetes in older adults, according to new Northwestern University research.

This is the first national study to suggest that depression alone—and not lifestyle factors like being overweight –can trigger Type 2 diabetes in adults 65 and older, a population with a high prevalence of diabetes and depression. The report will be published April 23 in Archives of Internal Medicine.

The study examined 4,681 men and women 65 and older from Forsyth County, N.C.; Sacramento County, Calif.; Washington County, Md.; and Pittsburgh, Pa., annually for 10 years.”

Scientists identify 7 diabetic genes

http://www.nytimes.com/ NYTimes Login Required