Measuring insulin resistance might be the key to stopping prediabetes from becoming Type 2 diabetes.
Category: Medicine/Drugs
Marijuana-based diabetes drug progresses in U.K.
Researchers are trying to determine how to utilize compounds in marijuana to control insulin levels. A U.K. drugmaker reports promise with a new marijuana-based drug and a survey finds pot-smokers have better insulin levels than non-pot-smokers.
ADA Scientific Sessions 2013: A Pause Before The “Next Big Thing”
Every year since 1940, the American Diabetes Association has brought doctors, researchers, clinicians, and industry together for an annual event they call the Scientific Sessions. The name is apt. This is a serious gathering, not an excuse to party, and the titles of many presentations would leave those who didn’t fare well in their high… Continue reading ADA Scientific Sessions 2013: A Pause Before The “Next Big Thing”
Type 2 Insulin Therapy: Wherever You Go, V-Go
Among all the nations where diabetes is a serious health concern, the United States is an outlier when it comes to insulin treatment therapies. While insulin pens rule the roost among multiple daily injectors in Japan, and in many European countries, the good old-fashioned syringe is still preferred by a majority of insulin users here.… Continue reading Type 2 Insulin Therapy: Wherever You Go, V-Go
Incretins Under Siege? Don’t Jump To Conclusions
Safety concerns and potential side-effects accompany almost every drug used by consumers, and diabetes is no exception. Are Byetta, Victoza, and Januvia about to join Avandia and Actos on the diabetes drug “black list?” Not anytime soon, according to most experts.
Faster Insulin: Extracellular Action
Want your bolus insulin to arrive faster and leave sooner? Halozyme Therapeutics has good news for you.
Four-Legged Islet Factories: The Pigs of Auckland Island
A herd of pigs from a remote island in the south Pacific Ocean hold the promise of a virtually endless supply of beta cell-filled islets. The breeder, Living Cell Technologies, hopes to create a demand for islet transplants as long-term therapy in millions of people with Type 1 diabetes…
Taking A Bite Out Of Carbohydrates
A chewable tablet that reduces the amount of glucose released in your body after meals, with no significant side effects, is approaching Phase III human trials. A sexier name than PAZ320 will get attached to it if it keeps piling up results.
A Type 1 Triple Play
What if we could forecast which people would suffer from Type 1 diabetes years before it happened?
Mending Metabolism
Bariatric surgery early in the course of a patient’s diabetes is far more likely to produce remission, and sustained improvements in blood pressure and cholesterol levels, than the same procedure performed as a “last resort.”
Insulin Pills Move Closer To Reality
Our digestive system is marvelously effective at breaking food down into its molecular components. Getting a group of active insulin molecules through this mill and releasing insulin at just the right time and place is a breakthrough accomplishment.
Faster Insulin: A Heated Exchange
Faster bolus insulin absorption is the goal of InsuPatch and InsuPad, each of which uses heat applied to the infusion or injection area.
Faster Insulin: Short and Sweet
A 1.5 MM needle about the thickness of a human hair is being tested by BD. There’s no need to fear injections if you can’t even feel them.
Small Wonders On A Cellular Battlefield
“We’re exploring using materials that release, slowly, low amounts of drugs at the implant site for many years. Instead of a future with daily pills or injections, it’s feasible to have patients come in every three, five or seven years and have the BioHub refilled or replaced.”
A Safe House for Islets
“The BioHub is a localized micro-environment,” said Ricordi. “It is a quantum leap in cell therapy to replace insulin-producing cells that are destroyed by diabetes.” Is this the breakthrough we’ve been waiting for?
Games Cells Play: Protecting Islet Transplants
“It’s a lot like shrink wrapping,” said Dr. Alice Tomei of the islet cell encapsulation technique she uses. This “conformal coating” technology is just one way researchers at Miami’s Diabetes Research Institute protect transplanted islet cells.
Operating On Diabetes
Bariatric Surgeries Can Cure Type 2 Diabetes. But They’re No Free Lunch.
The Doctor is (Always) In
“Connected Care” Puts Expert Advice In The Palm of Your Hand
A Cure Out Of Thin Air?
The Diabetes Research Institute’s “oxygen sandwich” may help Chris Fraker and his coworkers make islet cell transplantation — and a cure — more accessible to Type 1s.
