Diabetes

In a discovery that could lead to a revolution in the way infants are fed, researchers have implicated exposure to a common milk protein during the first nine months of life as a major cause of insulin-dependent diabetes, which affects more than 1 million Americans.If confirmed by further studies, the controversial findings by Canadian and Finnish researchers could bring about a sharp decrease in the incidence of diabetes. About one-quarter of the population is genetically susceptible to diabetes.

Medicine has made life-saving advances in treating and preventing heart disease, the major killer of people with diabetes, yet female diabetics are dying at higher rates than three decades ago, researchers reported this week. "There's good news here; we are making progress," said Dr. Deborah Burnet, a diabetes expert at the University of Chicago. "The bad news is it appears to be limited to men." The trend has ominous public-health consequences, experts note. Diabetes is growing more common in the U.S. as the population gets older and fatter, and elderly women are the fastest-growing segment of society.

When Robert Cleveland was a boy, in place of a birthday cake his mother wrapped an oatmeal box in colored paper and put candles on top. "I never had any sweets as a child," he said. "Never." Since he was 5, he has lived within the strict boundaries imposed by diabetes, knowing that if he loosened his grip on the disease it would ravage his body - the terrifying complications, the shortened life span. For years, the only diabetic he knew was his grammar school principal, who lost one leg to the disease, and then the other, "and I remember wondering how long it would be before I lost mine."

NICK WALTERS is 13. He likes baseball, comics, math and pizza.He has a doting mother who calls him ''a rotten kid'' as he lobs a soccer ball through the house and a father whom he calls ''my best friend.''Nick Walters has braces, big sisters, a cat, two rabbits and designs on a bulldog. He also has diabetes. But Nick doesn't let that slow him down -- not much anyway.In fact, since Nick's diabetes was diagnosed almost four years ago, his hobbies have grown to include fund-raising, public speaking and publishing.

CHICAGO -- After years of raising co-payments and deductibles for prescription pharmaceuticals, some employers are taking an unorthodox approach to lowering health care costs in an experimental program by - get this - paying for diabetes drugs and consultations. For patients the savings could amount to $2,000 a year. If the program proves successful it could be expanded to include other common diseases and chronic conditions such as asthma, depression or arthritis and extended beyond its one-year pilot phase, according to the Midwest Business Group on Health, a Chicago-based coalition of employers that is coordinating the program.

Researchers said yesterday that they have identified seven new genes connected to the most common form of diabetes - the latest result of an intensifying race between university researchers and private companies to find genes linked to a range of diseases. The findings, presented in three reports by university scientists and one report by a private company, offer novel insights into the biology of a disease that affects 170 million people worldwide. And the sudden spate of new results marks an acceleration, and perhaps a turning point, in the ability to find disease genes, the long-promised payoff from the Human Genome Project that began in 1989.

The first major head-to-head study comparing the newer diabetes drug Avandia to the older medicines metformin and glyburide shows that Avandia provides better glucose control than metformin but carries more serious side effects and a higher cost, researchers said yesterday. "Metformin is still the first drug of choice" for newly diagnosed Type 2 diabetes, said the study's leader, Dr. Steven E. Kahn of the University of Washington and the Puget Sound Veterans Affairs Health Care System.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, nearly 21 million people in America are believed to be diabetic, and 41 million more are believed to be pre-diabetic, which means that if they don't lose weight and exercise more, their blood-sugar level could dangerously escalate, making them diabetic. Everybody knows someone who has either died of diabetes or is living with complications, such as a stump for a foot, kidney failure, bad eyes or erectile dysfunction. Every time the topic of diabetes comes up in the news, the narrative reads like a trail of tears.

I am a family practitioner and want to share an herbal remedy with you. A 60-year-old male Hispanic diabetic patient has had trouble controlling his blood sugar. Despite intensive diet changes and a prescription for Glucovance, his blood sugar still ran in the 160s to 180s. One day he came in with his diary showing blood sugars of 90 to 100 consistently. I asked what he was doing differently, and he said in a low voice: "I got me a new girlfriend. She's from Mexico, and she makes me tea from nopalito [prickly pear]

Candy canes, pumpkin pie, mashed potatoes, oh my. Holiday treats can wreak havoc on anyone's diet plan, but for the approximately 23.6 million Americans with diabetes who are trying to maintain good glucose control, the festive season can be particularly difficult to navigate. Nonetheless, this doesn't mean that diabetics can't join in the festivities, says Michelle Bravo, a dietitian and certified diabetes educator at the Johns Hopkins Diabetes Center. There are steps that can be taken to help maintain good health.