Insulin

Dear Dr. Solomon: We who have diabetes are quite interested in the experimental implantation of cells that will eventually eliminate the need to take insulin. Where would these cells come from? -- Mrs. M.L.Dear Mrs. M.L.: Islet cell transplantation designed to provide blood glucose control has been performed in animals since the early 1970s. These transplants have been shown to be effective in preventing an elevated blood sugar level and in reducing the complications of diabetes, including cataract formation, retinopathy and neuropathy.

Eating chocolate can make you thin, new study shows. The article, Association Between More Frequent Chocolate Consumption and Lower Body Mass Index , was published Tuesday in the Archives of Internal Medicine . The full text of the article costs $30 bucks to look at, which you could spend on chocolate instead and start getting in shape for swimsuit season. The study, which was performed by scientists at the University of California, La Jolla, appears to show that "chocolate consumption shows favorable metabolic associations with blood pressure , insulin sensitivity and cholesterol level.

FOR ORDINARY mortals, just finishing an Ironman Triathlon is almost unimaginable. You swim 2.4 miles, dodging hundreds of other adrenalin-crazed swimmers, then hop on your bike to pedal for 112 miles, then don running shoes and run, jog or limp your way through an entire marathon, all 26.2 grueling miles. If you actually want to win, it takes roughly nine hours. But Jay Handy, 41, a financial adviser at Merrill Lynch in Madison, Wis., not only did all this - albeit more slowly than the winners - but he did it with Type 1 diabetes, which he has had since he was 13. Diabetes, which is on the rise and strikes an estimated 18.2 million Americans, is a nasty disease in which the body doesn't make enough insulin, a hormone made in the pancreas that helps glucose, or sugar, get from the blood into muscles.

Each week a nutritionist from the University of Maryland Medical Center provides a guest post to The Baltimore Sun's health blog Picture of Health (baltimoresun.com/pictureofhealth), which is reprinted here. This week, Amanda Tauber weighs in on type 2 diabetes. Type 2 diabetes is a growing concern. According to the National Institutes of Health, approximately 23.6 million Americans have the disease. However, only 17.9 million Americans have been diagnosed with it at this point.

NORFOLK, Va. - Researchers at Eastern Virginia Medical School believe they have isolated the gene that sparks rebirth of the cells that produce insulin, the hormone that diabetics lack - but need - to stay alive.The discovery could be a major advance in treating diabetes, a potentially fatal disease characterized by the inability to make or use the insulin vital to processing sugar and other carbohydrates.The findings also could help insulin-dependent diabetics say goodbye to daily shots of the hormone, said Aaron Vinik, leader ** of the research team at the EVMS Diabetes Institutes Foundation in Norfolk.

Each week a nutritionist from the University of Maryland Medical Center provides a guest post to The Baltimore Sun's health blog Picture of Health (baltimoresun.com/pictureofhealth), which is reprinted here. This week, Amanda Tauber weighs in on type 2 diabetes. Type 2 diabetes is a growing concern. According to the National Institutes of Health, approximately 23.6 million Americans have the disease. However, only 17.9 million Americans have been diagnosed with it at this point.

William Emmett Ryan III, 70, a former NBC reporter who covered the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, died Tuesday in Point Marion, Pa., after a long illness. Ryan worked for NBC and its New York City affiliate, WNBC-TV, for 26 years, covering the civil rights movement, early space flights and local news.When Kennedy was shot in Dallas in 1963, Ryan was the network's first anchor to go on the air, eventually breaking the news that Kennedy had died.Leo Rosten, 88, a Yiddish lexicographer and humorist whose works introduced mainstream America to "The Joys of Yiddish," died Wednesday in New York.

The parents of a 13-year-old boy who had been missing since Thursday found him Saturday night as they drove toward the city to pass out fliers about his disappearance, Baltimore County police said. Phillip Tyree Davis of the first block of Royalty Circle in Owings Mills appeared to be in good health despite concerns that he would run out of insulin to treat his diabetes. Authorities said the teen took enough insulin to last one day when he left home Thursday after an argument. The parents spotted him in Owings Mills about 6 p.m. Saturday, police said.

Drugs for liver disease and a rare blood disorder may help treat the most common form of diabetes in overweight people, a study suggests. The medicines, ursodiol, for the liver and gallbladder, and Buphenyl, which fights a sometimes-fatal genetic disorder, lowered blood sugar to normal levels in the cells of severely obese and insulin-resistant mice, researchers said. More tests need to be done to show whether the same results appear in humans. If so, the findings may lead to better treatments, said Gokhan Hotamisligil, head of Harvard University's department of genetics and complex diseases, which ran the study.

For most patients with diabetes and clogged arteries who have not had a heart attack, treatment with drugs and lifestyle changes are as effective at reducing death as immediate bypass surgery or angioplasty, researchers said Sunday. For diabetics with a more severe form of heart disease requiring immediate surgery, bypass surgery is more effective than angioplasty at reducing heart attacks and strokes but not deaths, researchers reported at a meeting of the American Diabetes Association in New Orleans.

Gene Ransom, CEO of the Maryland State Medical Society, writes in his article to the Sun ("Don't cut services first," Aug 29) that thousands of vulnerable Marylanders stand to receive inadequate, substandard health care for years to come if the state's Medicaid Advisory Committee and the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene are forced to implement a series of radical cost cutting measures for the state's Medicaid program. According to Mr. Ransom, proposals on the desk include eliminating the kidney disease program, charging co-pays for emergency room visits and placing limits on outpatient hospital visits.

The first day of school is harrowing enough for any parent of a young child. But for Mimi Delore, whose 5-year-old daughter, Olivia, was diagnosed with juvenile diabetes at 13 months, the day was especially unwelcome. For almost the first time in four years, Olivia's fate was going to be out of her mom's hands. She wouldn't be there to monitor what Olivia ate, to test her blood sugar, to make sure her insulin levels were OK. It would be up to Olivia's teacher and school nurse to shoulder those responsibilities, and Delore wasn't taking the change well.

Dr. Christopher Dyer Saudek, founder and director of the Johns Hopkins Comprehensive Diabetes Center and a pioneer in the development of the implantable insulin pump, died Wednesday of metastatic melanoma at his Lutherville home. He was 68. "We have lost one of our giants," said Dr. Edward D. Miller, dean of the faculty of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and CEO of Johns Hopkins medicine. "He always tried to make things better for patients. I so enjoyed referring patients to him because I knew that he would not only give them great medical care but that his compassion and understanding of the human condition was unsurpassed," Dr. Miller said.

For most patients with diabetes and clogged arteries who have not had a heart attack, treatment with drugs and lifestyle changes are as effective at reducing death as immediate bypass surgery or angioplasty, researchers said Sunday. For diabetics with a more severe form of heart disease requiring immediate surgery, bypass surgery is more effective than angioplasty at reducing heart attacks and strokes but not deaths, researchers reported at a meeting of the American Diabetes Association in New Orleans.

Ray Gilbert once spent his days behind the lens of a camera, using his keen eye to capture images and turn them into photographs. But a diagnosis of diabetes in 1985 would irrevocably alter life for Gilbert, a former photographer with the Afro American newspaper in Baltimore. In 1996, after more than a decade of not "doing all I was supposed to be doing," to control his diabetes, that lack of attention caught up with the West Baltimore resident. "I was driving one night along Route 301, when all of a sudden my eyes started bleeding," recalls Gilbert, 56. "I couldn't see. By the grace of God, I was able to pull over to the side of the road safely.

William Haynes refuses to go on insulin. The retired Chicago UPS driver was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes 15 years ago and was supposed to start giving himself insulin injections two years ago. But he says swallowing daily pills for his diabetes, high blood pressure and high cholesterol is enough of a chore. As a boy, he helped his mother and grandmother with their insulin shots. Now 59, he has decided: "I don't want to be hooked up on insulin for the rest of my life." Chronic illnesses account for 70 percent of all deaths in the United States, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Q: My son has diabetes, but he insists on playing Little League this year. We'd like to let him, but won't it throw his diabetes off?A: Parents of children and adolescents with chronic illnesses often worry about the ability of their sons and daughters to participate safely in sports. With proper care and forethought, virtually every individual can join some kind of sports activity. Increased cardiovascular fitness and improved self-esteem are but two benefits of sports participation. In your son's case, regular exercise will help lower his blood sugar and increase the body's sensitivity to the insulin he must take daily.

LAS VEGAS, Nev. -- In what doctors termed the most important discovery for diabetics since insulin, researchers said yesterday that the devastating complications of the disease could be prevented or delayed.They said this is possible when diabetics closely monitor their blood sugar levels with a special meter throughout the day and inject themselves with insulin four to seven times daily to keep their blood sugar at a near-normal level.In current practice, patients do not monitor their blood so closely and give themselves one or two doses of insulin a day, which causes their blood sugar to vary greatly.

Researchers say an oral diabetes drug used by millions of Americans may increase the risk of heart attack and cardiovascular death, prompting federal drug safety officials yesterday to encourage patients to consult their doctors. Patients who took Avandia, a relatively new drug that lowers diabetics' blood sugar, were at 43 percent higher risk of heart attack and 64 percent higher risk of cardiovascular death than patients who took other drugs or a placebo, according to a review of previous research released yesterday by The New England Journal of Medicine.