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Welcome to “Diabetes in the News”. This feature has links to diabetes related news stories, blogs, or websites. If you come upon a story, blog or website that I haven’t mentioned, e-mail me at jmp5329 at yahoo.com. I will check it out and if posted, give credit where credit is due.

:!: I mentioned here the type of med-alert bracelet I wear. Go here to see what I have.

US Marshals Seize Defective Infusion Pumps at Alaris Facility
On August 25, US Marshals seized a batch of defective infusion pumps in a Cardinal Health Care (the pump’s manufacturer) facility.

Apparently, Alaris (part of Cardinal) had failed to follow FDA regulations in the wake of two warning letters issued back in 98 and 99, and continued to manufacture the pumps without fixing the flaw.  Source 

Obesity pandemic engulfing world
Obesity has reached pandemic proportions throughout the world and is now the greatest single contributor to chronic disease, an international conference was told here.

“This insidious, creeping pandemic of obesity is now engulfing the entire world,” Australia’s Monash University professor Paul Zimmet, chair of the 10th International Congress on Obesity, said on the opening day of the conference.

The spread of the problem was “led by affluent western nations, whose physical activity and dietary habits are regrettably being adopted by developing nations,” Zimmet told more than 2,000 delegates.

The world now has more fat people than hungry ones, according to World Health Organisation figures, with more than a billion overweight people compared to 800 million who are undernourished.  Source

Diabetes Is Better Managed In The UK Than The USA, New Research Shows
Patients in England with diabetes are better managed than their counterparts in the United States of America due to access to universal healthcare available in the United Kingdom, according to new research.

Writing in the September issue of the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, researchers from England and the USA compared diabetes management in the two countries.

“Our evidence shows that universal healthcare when treating a common disease like diabetes, works,” said Professor Arch Mainous from the Medical University of South Carolina.

“In both countries, diabetes sufferers are effectively managed as outpatients and our research shows that when patients have access to free healthcare, they have better clinical outcomes.

“Importantly, this finding does not reflect income or social class since better control of the disease amongst people with insurance or free access persists in both countries even among poor patients and minorities. Source  (Note: I don’t believe in “government” managed health care, because I want to choose my doctor … but I thought this was interesting anyway.)

As U.S. students begin another school year, hundreds of sixth graders will be taking part in a wide-ranging diabetes study.
The National Institutes of Health-sponsored research at 42 middle schools is to determine if changes in school food services and physical education classes will lower risk factors for type 2 diabetes.

“The alarming rise in obesity and type 2 diabetes in all age groups poses a major public health crisis for this country,” said NIH Director Elias Zerhouni. “This important study is one component of a multi-faceted research agenda to address this dual epidemic, which threatens the health of our youth and the vitality of our healthcare system.”

Participating schools will be randomly assigned to a program group that implements the changes, or to a comparison group that will continue to be offered food choices and PE programs typically seen in U.S. middle schools. Source (Note: I believe the biggest problem has been the reducing or complete removal of PE programs, or after lunch breaks on the playground I had growing up that is helping to contribute to the child obesity problem.  The worst thing to do after a good, large meal is to get up and move – walk it off my grandmother use to say.)

 

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