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 Diabetes This Week
For week of 02/07/99
Should You Eat Fiber Or Not?
For years medical people have touted the benefit of fiber for preventing colon cancer. Now a new study published in the New England Journal of Medicine says no evidence can be found that eating lots of high-fiber foods such as bran, beans and whole wheat bread does anything to lower the risk of colon cancer. Should you still eat high fiber foods for your health? The answer appears to be yes. Numerous prior studies have linked a diet rich in fruits, vegetables and whole grains to many other health benefits, including reducing the risk of heart disease, high blood pressure and Type 2 diabetes. If you are taking fiber for any of these reasons, then keep doing it, but, alas, don't expect it to prevent colon cancer.
PCOS Women At Higher Risk For Diabetes
Women with Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS) are at a much higher risk for impaired glucose tolerance which is a risk factor for diabetes, according to a study of 254 volunteers at Pennsylvania State's College of Medicine in Hershey. The study shows the number of undiagnosed cases of diabetes among PCOS women is 7.5 percent compared to just 1 percent for the rest of the population. Between 5 and 10 percent of women suffer from PCOS, which can cause irregular menstrual cycles, increased body and facial hair and infertility. PCOS is associated with insulin resistance, and the medication Rezulin (troglitazone), an insulin-sensitizing agent, has been used with some success to treat the symptoms of PCOS.
Lab-On-A-Chip Technology For Instant Diagnosis And Monitoring
A team at the Department of Engineering at Glasgow University has won a research grant to develop state of the art miniaturised health analysis equipment. Within five years, the project hopes to create chip size micro-labs; hand-held devices capable of rapidly analysing samples, for example to identify DNA, without sending them to specialised laboratories. Results could be obtained in minutes rather than hours. As an example of how the process works, a tissue sample would be drawn into a small chamber filled with sensors. This sample would be drawn from a tissue like skin, blood, or buccal mucosa for sampling by simple capillary action using suction, with an electrical field to drive ions into the analysis zone, and dielectrophoresis will use the ability of cells to pick up an electrical charge to push them through at different rates. Once inside an analysis chamber, a mix of technology linked to computer chips will be used to pin down the characteristics of the sample using optical sensors, electronic sensors and gravometric sensors.
Development of these lab chips not only allows rapid analysis of materials, but could also allow constant analysis for treating conditions like diabetes, where decisions must be made continuously. As a result, research into lab-chip technology has become big business with many large companies queuing up to take advantage of the benefits from this new technology.
Drugs And Therapies Begin To Mimic Exercise
Is exercise on its way to becoming obsolete? Some breakthroughs over the last year in drugs and therapies which seem to produce the beneficial effects of exercise suggest a radically different future. In December, Science News reported on a new type of gene therapy that halts the loss of muscle tissue related to aging, at least in mice.Scientists inserted DNA for insulin growth factor in a virus which was then injected into the right legs of mice of varying ages. Even though they were kept sendentary for up to nine months, 15 to 19 percent more muscle mass occured in the right legs of the mice.
A few weeks earlier, another group of researchers at the University of Mississippi said that a new type of fat-burning drugs have been shown to break down fat and expend energy by mimicking the effects of the hormones epinephrine and norepinephrine, two hormones that prepare the body for strenuous exercise. This produces metabolic effects similar to exercise. And Texas researchers said they have discovered a genetic switch for turning on and off muscle growth and medications that may render the same heart-promoting benefits as running or swimming in sedentary people.
These developments may eventually help people with chronic diseases, such as heart disease, muscular dystrophy, or diabetes. Eventually, they may be used by many others.
How To Choose That Diet Book Extra eating over the holidays may have added up to extra pounds. Now's the time to go out and buy the book that will motivate you to lose those extra pounds and keep them off. But which book to buy? To help you choose a useful plan, Chris Rosenbloom, PhD, who is a registered dietitian and evaluates diet books for the American Dietetic Association, makes some suggestions. Decide what your goal is first--quick weight loss, weight maintenance or long-term weight loss? Books that show you how to make permanent changes are the best. Avoid books that eliminate one food group, such as carbohydrate, because restricted diets are not good for your health or maintainable over time. Also avoid books that use exotic ingredients or unrealistic, time-consuming preparation. Also consider the credentials of the author. A registered dietitian or someone with a master's degree in nutrition may be the best authority.
E-mail, The Internet And Diabetes
Have you had your health care assisted by a computer? You probably think of computerized medical files when asked this, but there are many more possibilities today. In the last three decades, computers in health care have advanced to sophisticated equipment that helps physicians in diagnosis, treatment, record keeping, prevention, education, research and communications. How is this affecting diabetes treatment? Faxes have already become a major way of transferring blood sugar data. Now email between physicians and patients is beginning to help in the management of chronic diseases like diabetes, high blood pressure and asthma, where decisions have to be made daily or weekly. Using computerized logs of daily blood sugar results, a doctor can help a patient at home make decisions about balancing insulin, food and exercise.
Systems are being developed and in some cases already in place for sharing patient information among care givers. In an emergency, for example, quick access to someone's medical history helps in treating them accurately and with less duplication of tests. X- ray films are being replaced by digital images for rapid transfer anywhere in the world. The future is expected to bring increasing use of long-distance medicine. A doctor or other health professional in a distant city or state may soon be part of your care team through computerized information and the Internet.
Success For Diabetes Treatment Centers Of America
American Healthcorp (AMHC) says it is now on track to achieve sustained profits for the first time in five years. Through its wholly owned subsidiary, Diabetes Treatment Centers of America (DTCA), AMHC is the nation's largest provider of diabetes disease-management services. Through DTCA, American Healthcorp contracts with health maintenance organizations (HMOs) and other health plans to charge a monthly fee per member for managing the care of each plan's diabetes patients. In addition to handling diabetes-related care, DTCA has a say in managing all other care for a health plan's diabetic patients, and in particular hospitalization.
The company attributes much of its success with the contracts to managed care organizations' desire to contain costs. Containing costs is of significant importance given the sizable health care costs associated with most diabetic patients. While diabetics make up less than 5 percent of the population, they represent nearly 15 percent of total U.S. health care expenditures, or as much as $120 billion annually. The company recently signed its first contract with a preferred provider organization, or PPO. This could increase members by 101 million in addition to its 73 million HMO enrollees.
CDC To Do Five Year Study On Diabetes Care In HMOs
The Centers for Disease Control over the next five years plans to study how well managed care is treating people with diabetes. The feeling is that managed care is more designed to provide acute care than it is to deal with chronic illness which requires management on a daily basis. The CDC says the six-site, $15 million study will look at diabetes education, early screening and detection, treatment and quality of care for patients of diverse ethnic backgrounds. One of the goals of the study is to find why many new guidelines for treating diabetes such as receiving certain exams on a regular schedule aren't being implemented by physicians. The focus is on managed care, but the findings may be extended to a large number of patients regardless of their type of insurance.
Information provided by The Diabetes Mall, (http://www.diabetesnet.com) 1-800-988-4772 or 011-1-619-497-0900 
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