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Saturday, November 22, 2008

Whatever Happened to the Study That Was Granted $10.8 Million

The Columbia University Medical Center received $10.8 million from National Institute of Health last year to study the link between heart disease and diabetes. This multidisciplinary team will find out why those who have type 2 diabetes are vulnerable to heart disease, which is the top cause of death for people who have diabetes.

This will be a five-year program. This all started when Dr. Elizabeth Nabel, director of the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute and Dr. Allen Spiegel, then director of The National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases asked researchers of other fields to get together to study diabetes and heart disease.

Dr. Ira Tabas, professor and vice-chairman of research at Columbia's College of Physicians and Surgeons, Dr. Alan Tall, a professor at Division of Molecular Medicine and Dr. Domenico a co-director of research at Naomi Berrie Diabetes Center agreed to accept the challenge.

Dr. Tabas said that if they could understand better the function of insulin resistance in the development of atherosclerosis, they would be able to develop the appropriate therapies to prevent the terrible effects from these two diseases. Heart disease is the cause of diabetic deaths by 65%, so did the NIDDK report. The risk for heart disease for diabetics is two to four times higher than those without diabetes. The same is true for stroke.

My research did not show any of the aforementioned study but revealed among other studies from the same university the following:

  • Columbia University Medical Center along with the Joslin Diabetes Center and the State University of New York conducted a Telemedicine Research Study.

  • Naomi Berrie of the Columbia University Medical Center will have a study on Telemedicine Research.

  • Columbia University Medical Center reveals that diabetes can result in gum disease in children much younger than previously observed.


As you can tell, there is no mention of the $10 million dollar study on the
link between heart disease and diabetes. With much anticipation, I await the report on the result of this study. It can only advance the knowledge we have on this important issue.

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