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Saturday, December 27, 2008

Blood Glucose Levels, Checking With Diabetic Breath Analysis?

Blood glucose levels, there may be a better and more non-invasive way of monitoring this aspect of diabetes management. This is according to an Irvine study in the University of California. The chemists and pediatricians examined this issue by employing a method of chemical analysis used to test air pollution.

They reported that the type 1 diabetic children when they exhibited hyperglycemia, exhaled considerably increased concentrations of methyl nitrates. This is important news in the sense that it may lead to a breath device that can detect high blood glucose levels.

This will let them know if the diabetics need insulin. This is in contrast to the device now presently in use that breaks the skin. Dr. Pietro Galassetti, a UIC Irvine General Clinical Research Center diabetes researcher, said breath analysis has revealed that it could become a diagnostic tool for other conditions like cystic fibrosis and ulcers but has not investigated this for diabetes until now.

Galassetti, along with Dr. Dan Cooper and Andria Pontello investigated the breath-analysis on type 1 diabetic children. They took air samples while the subjects were on hyperglycemic state and progressively while increasing their subjects' blood insulin levels.

F. Sherwood Rowland and Donald Blake, chemists at the UC laboratory of UC Irvine examined the breath samples and found high concentration of methyl nitrates up to ten times more when the subjects were hyperglycemic compared when it was shown they had normal readings.

The concentration matched the subjects' blood glucose levels in the sense that the higher they went so did the concentration of methyl nitrates go up. Dr. Pietro Galassetti said that there are more fatty acids in the blood of type 1 diabetics during hyperglycemia.

This causes oxidative stress and methyl nitrates maybe its by-product. I hope there will be more news on their progress because I know they are involved in more studies hoping they will have more report on the use of breath analysis to monitor blood glucose levels.

Saturday, December 20, 2008

Omega-3 Fatty Acids Lower Risk for Type 1 Diabetes

Omega-3 fatty acids when consumed regularly by the children at risk of developing type 1 diabetes are revealed by a preliminary research to help lower that risk. This was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

With type 1 diabetes, the beta cells in the pancreatic islets are destroyed. No one knows why this happens although the hypothesis has been that this is caused by both heredity and environment. Nutritional factors are also thought of as related to type 1 diabetes so Dr. Jill Norris wanted to see if the regular consumption of Omega-3 Fatty Acids were a factor in the destruction of the beta cells that produce insulin.

From 1994-2006, Dr. Norris and her team studied 1770 children who were at high risk for developing type 1 diabetes. They followed this case up for more than six years on the average with the subjects taking polyunsaturated fatty acids since when the children were one year old. They found out that the regular consumption of the Omega-3 Fatty Acids lowered the risk by 55%.

The following are some of the findings related to Omega-3 Fatty Acids:

The tendency of the diabetics to have low HDL and high triglyceride levels makes it essential to consume omega-3 fatty acids found in fish oil. Since they are considered essential to maintain health and are not manufactured by the body, they must be consumed through foods such as tuna, salmon, and halibut, lake trout, mackerel and sardines at least twice a week.

Another essential fatty acid is the omega-6 but the trouble is there has to be the correct balance between these two. An imbalance could contribute to the development of disease while a proper balance will do the opposite, that is, maintain and improve health. For more information on Omega-3 Fatty Acids, scroll down to the second paragraph after the graphic on this page.

The usual American diet in order to be healthy should contain approximately two to four times more omega-6 fatty acids than the omega-3 but the trouble is that is not the case in what we usually eat. What we have instead is a usual diet with 14 to 25 times more of the omega-6 than the omega-3 fatty acids.

Saturday, December 13, 2008

Bladder Dysfunction in Women with Type 2 Diabetes

This report is based on a presentation made at the 29th Congress of the Societe International d'Urologie in Paris, France. Study of past literature on this subject showed that older women with diabetes had atonic bladder condition known as diabetic cystopathy.

The trouble with these findings in the past is that the studies were carried out in patients who were going to specialty clinics. In addition, they did not distinguish between men or women and neither did they do so with type1 and type 2 diabetes.

This new study, however, employed well classified subjects based on urine testing. This is the way they did it. Among the 400 women diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, 48 agreed to undertake urine testing. The researchers were able to measure the urinary incontinence through questionnaires, interviews, standard evaluation and physical examination.

The measurements included treatment, duration, diabetic complications, glycemic control and laboratory data on the gravity of the incontinence.
These are their findings. Nobody had bladder cystopathy, about 50% had severe incontinence, and 38% had weekly measurement of the urinary incontinence.

Among the subjects studied, 50% stated they had mild symptoms of the lower urinary tract, 42% of which were average and 8% severe. Almost 75% used insulin and had a mean A1c of 7.5. Among these women, 11% had retinopathy while 54% had neuropathy.

Here are their conclusions. The study showed that bladder sensation was impaired early on. The bladder dysfunction does not appear to show in the majority of the participants. This is found to be not common. It is rather an infrequent end organ outcome of diabetes.

What does this mean to us? We have to soldier on to achieve our ABC targets through lifestyle changes first and then through medications if necessary. And of course let's not forget about increasing our physical activity and other things to do to reach our goals as shown on this page.

Saturday, December 6, 2008

Hope for Cure on Diabetes Walks

There are so many walks for diabetes going around. All you have to do is find one in your community and then sign up. An example is the one done about a year ago with hundreds participating to help find a cure for type 1 diabetes.
which is the mission of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation International.

The walk above has a lot of participants so they were hoping they would surpass the $100,000 raised the year before. Lee Smith, who was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes said that JDRF helps with the discovery of medication. The most notable of this is the one that helps protect the kidneys which is called the protease inhibitor.

The Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation International was established by parents whose children are diabetics. This non profit organization helps raise funds all over the world. The hope is to find a cure and the complications through research. It has already granted over $1 billion to research for a cure for type 1 diabetes since it was established in 1970.

In 2006 alone, the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation International donated $122 million dollars. Let us support organizations like this in their fight against diabetes for as the saying goes: United we stand; Divided we fall. Ask your employer to have a campaign fundraiser.

You can even start your own team. There are lot of benefits when the place of employment participates. Not only does it build the spirit of team building and promote teamwork but also it does not cost the company anything because the raising of the funds is on the shoulders of individual donors while it raises awareness to the company and building employee morale.

So go out and start walking for diabetes. It is our very own tour de cure. This will draw people to walk together in a healthy activity and at the same time raise money for a worthy cause. And it is to find a cure for type 1 diabetes.
What are you waiting for?