Promising treatment for type 2 and obesity ready for clinical trials

Indiana University  Distinguished Professor Richard Di Marchi 

Photo by Indiana University

DIABETES DIGEST – Dec. 8, 2014 – A new treatment for type 2 diabetes and obesity developed by researchers at Indiana University and the German Research Center for Environmental Health is poised to begin human clinical trials.

Study strengthens yogurt type 2 diabetes prevention link

DIABETES DIGEST – Nov. 24, 2014 – A analysis of data from three large populations studies with nearly 290,000 participants seems to confirm that consuming yogurt daily was associated with an 18 per cent lower risk of type 2 diabetes. The study  was published in the British medical journal, BMC Medicine.

Researchers from Harvard School of Public Health pooled the results of three large cohort studies that followed the medical history and lifestyle habits of health professionals. These studies were the Health Professionals' Follow-up Study (HFPS), which included 51,529 US male dentists, pharmacists, vets, osteopathic physicians and podiatrists, aged from 40 to 75 years; Nurses' Health Study (NHS), which began in 1976, 

Not all people with type 2 diabetes benefit from exercise

copyright: 123RF Stock Photo

DIABETES DIGEST – Nov. 20, 2014 – If you have been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes and exercise regularly but see no improvement in your blood sugar control, you are not alone. 

A study in the current issue of the Endocrine Society's Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism shows that as many as 20 percent of people with type 2 diabetes do not see any improvement in blood sugar management even when they take part in supervised exercise.

Study shows burning brown fat could be key to weight-loss

Copyright: maridav 

123RF Stock Photo

DIABETES DIGEST – Nov. 17, 2014 – If you want to lose weight, you might try exercising in the cold. More research is out this week showing that the key to weight-loss is burning what is called brown fat, or more technically, brown adipocytes.

When you are cold the nervous system activates receptors on the surface of brown fat cells to stimulate glucose uptake from the bloodstream. Brown fat tissue is able to take up large amounts of glucose from the bloodstream to use as fuel to generate body heat. 

Coffee component that may reduce type 2 diabetes risk identified

Photo courtesy: Julius Schorzman

DIABETES DIGEST – Nov. 11, 2014 – Researchers have identified the chemical compound in coffee that may prevent the harmful effects of obesity. 

Previous research has shown that coffee may lower the risk of some chronic diseases such as heart disease, type 2 diabetes and cancer. Consequently researchers are looking at the chemicals found in coffee to see which of them may be providing the beneficial effect.

Weight loss surgery may substantially reduce risk of type 2 diabetes

DIABETES DIGEST – Nov. 10, 2014 – With many studies showing that weight-loss surgery in obese patients can cure them of type 2 diabetes, many researchers are now looking to see if the surgery for overweight and obese people can prevent type 2 diabetes.

Noting that more than 80 percent of adults with type 2 diabetes are overweight or obese, British researchers led by Martin Gulliford, professor of Public Health at King's College, London, used medical records to see if people

Metformin still formidable first line treatment for type 2 diabetes

Generic metformin 500-mg tablets, 

as sold in the United Kingdom
– Wikipedia

DIABETES DIGEST – Oct. 31, 2014 – A new study in JAMA Internal Medicine found once again that metformin should be the first line treatment for type 2 diabetes, which isn’t really the news. The study also found that despite the guidelines recommending metformin first, only 57.8 percent of newly diagnosed patients began treatment with metformin.

FDA grants first US approval for SGLT2/metformin combination

DIABETES DIGEST – Oct. 30, 2014 – The FDA today, has approved once-daily XIGDUO™XR for the treatment of adults with type 2 diabetes.

The dual action drug combines the complementary mechanis of dapagliflozin (trade name in the US, FARXIGA™), which blocks a sodium-glucose co-transporter 2 (SGLT2), with extended-release metformin, which reduces the amount of sugar produced by liver cells. SGLT2 inhibitors are a relatively new class of medicines that remove glucose from the body via the kidneys.

Liver fat may be key to type 2 diabetes

Victor Shengkan Jin says it is important to find a drug for 

type 2 diabetes that attacks the root cause of the disease 

and not just symptoms. – Photo: Nick Romanenko 

Rutgers University

DIABETES DIGEST – Oct. 17, 2014 – Obesity is associated with the rise in type 2 diabetes, but new research suggests that it is not just overall fat that causes insulin resistance, but liver fat.

Dr. Victor Shengkan Jin, an associate professor of pharmacology at Rutgers University Robert Wood Johnson Medical School notes that excess fat in the liver is not just a condition of the obese; people of normal weight can also develop fatty livers and type 2 diabetes.

Combination therapy scores trifecta in type 2 treatment

DIABETES DIGEST – Sept. 30, 2014 – Treatment that combines insulin with one of the newer GLP-1 blockers appears to provide exceptional blood sugar control without weight gain, a new study shows.

The combination treatment had been compared in 15 studies, from which the researchers combined the data and re-analyzed the results in what is called a meta-analysis. The studies included involved 4,348 participants and the re-analysis was published in the Sept. 12, 2014, The Lancet.

High-fat dairy may lower risk of developing diabetes

Photo courtesy Wikipedia

DIABETES DIGEST – Sept. 17, 2014 – Diet really comes down to complex chemistry that has multifaceted effects on health. As a result, a lot of nutrition research seems to show contradictory findings. Nowhere is this more evident than in the research into nutritional effects on type 2 diabetes. 

Some fats are good and some are bad as far as the risk of diabetes goes. A new study has shown that intake of high-fat dairy products seems to reduce the chance of developing type 2 diabetes.

Pumping up control of type 2 diabetes

DIABETES DIGEST – Aug. 31, 2014 – For people with type 2 diabetes who have been unable to control their blood sugar adequately, an insulin pump may be the most effective therapy, results of a new study shows.

Pumps outperformed multiple daily injections on several measures. The researchers found that people who used the pumps achieved an average HbA1C that was 0.7 percent lower than the multi-injection group.

Blood sugar in hospitalized emergency room patients may predict type 2 diabetes

DIABETES DIGEST – Aug. 22, 2014 – During an emergency hospital admission for an acute illness it is common for patients who are not known to have diabetes to have elevated blood sugar. That factor has been linked to adverse outcomes in those patients. Whether this abnormally high blood sugar level is related to the risk of subsequently developing type 2 diabetes, however, is unknown. 

Low-carb and low fat may be better for managing type 2 diabetes

This Italian chopped salad has
only 2.5g of saturated fat and
11g of carbs. Source: American
Diabetes Association
Healthy Living Magazine

DIABETES DIGEST – July 31, 2014 – A comparison of low-carb vs. high-carb diets shows that while both diets improve blood sugar control and reduce cardiovascular risks, the very low-carb diet provided the most improvement.

This study differs from previous studies of low-carb diets in several ways. The researchers compared a very low carbohydrate and low saturated fat diet to a high-unrefined carbohydrate, low fat diet in 93 people with type 2 diabetes. 

Statins may cut death from heart disease in people with type 2 diabetes

DIABETES DIGEST – July 17, 2014 – If you have type 2 diabetes and are at high risk of heart disease, taking a cholesterol-lowering drug might prolong your life.

A new analysis of data from a study of type 2 diabetes found that the patients with high-risk for cardiovascular disease who were taking cholesterol-lowering statins at the start of the study had a 50 percent greater chance of being alive after the 8-year study as compared to those who weren’t taking the drugs.

Surgery better than drug therapy for type 2 diabetes

DIABETES DIGEST – June 28, 2014 – If you have type 2 diabetes associated with a weight problem, surgery may be more effective for controlling your diabetes, not to mention your weight, than taking medications. Of course there is always a catch, in this case the effect may not last. 

Fasting may slow prediabetes progression to type 2 diabetes

DIABETES DIGEST – June 20, 2014 – Many religions observe some form of occasional fasting, however, Mormons forgo at least two consecutive meals in a 24-hour period one Sunday each month. With such a regular fasting schedule researchers have been able to study the effects of fasting on this population for some time.

Massive analysis shows diabetes may be bigger danger to women’s hearts

Professor Rachel Huxley,
University of Queensland 

DIABETES DIGEST – May 27, 2014 – One of the things about participating in a clinical trial is that it is a gift that keeps on giving. Such is the case of a new study out this week that included data from people who participated in diabetes trials nearly 50 years ago. Data from those people added to others through the years keeps adding to researchers’ understanding of how damaging diabetes is. The result of the new investigation shows that women with type 2 diabetes appear to be at a much greater risk of heart disease than previously thought. 

Cutting carbs better than cutting fat for type 2 diabetes patients

Lena Jonasson, professor of
cardiology, Linköpings University

DIABETES DIGEST – May 16, 2014 – For years people at risk for, or diagnosed with type 2 diabetes have been advised to consume a low-fat diet, but a growing body of evidence is showing that it might be better to reduce carbohydrates. The latest study comparing type 2 diabetes patients on a low-fat or low-carb diet showed that the low-carb diet significantly reduced inflammation, whereas the low-fat diet didn’t.

Go for a double over the ‘grand slam’ for breakfast

Heather Leidy, of
the University of
Missouri  

DIABETES DIGEST – April 30, 2014 – If you skip the pancakes and stick to the sausage and eggs on your Denny’s Grand Slam breakfast, you might be protecting yourself from developing type 2 diabetes. 

At least that’s the early conclusion of researchers at the University of Missouri who compared the blood sugar levels of healthy women who ate three different breakfasts. They presented their study results at the 2014 Experimental Biology meeting this week in San Diego, Calif.

Previous research has shown that extreme increases in glucose and insulin in the blood can lead to poor glucose control and increase an individual's risk of developing diabetes over time. In other words, too much sugar in the diet can lead to type 2 diabetes.

Does Gastric Banding Help Overweight People With Type 2 Diabetes?

While the evidence showing that weight-loss surgery can halt type 2 diabetes in obese people grows, less is known about whether such a drastic intervention might also benefit people who are overweight, but not obese. (The difference between overweight and obese is a technical one. Obese refers to people with a body mass index of over 30. Overweight refers to people with a body mass index between 25 and 29.9. To calculate your own BMI, visit this link on the NIH website.)