Diabetes in the News

Welcome. This feature has links to diabetes related news stories, blogs, or websites. For informational purposes only, follow the “source” link to read the whole article.

Diabetes treatment isn’t right for everyone
About 20.8 million people, or 7 percent of the U.S. population, have diabetes, the fifth-leading cause of death by disease in the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says. But Byetta isn’t the answer for all of them. Here’s why:

What is Byetta? Byetta is a Food and Drug Administration-approved injectable diabetes treatment available by prescription. Its active ingredient, exenatide, is a synthetic version of a protein found in the saliva of the Gila monster.

How it works: Exenatide lowers blood glucose levels mostly by increasing insulin production, but only when it’s needed. At the same time, it suppresses production of glucagon, a hormone that stimulates the re-lease of glucose from the liver.

Who can use it: People with type 2 diabetes whose oral diabetes medicines aren’t controlling their blood glucose levels.

Who can’t use it: People with type 1 diabetes. Their bodies don’t produce insulin naturally, so they need injections of insulin. Byetta is a non-insulin treatment. People with digestive problems or serious stomach or kidney diseases. Women who are pregnant, planning to become pregnant or breast-feeding. Children. The medicine hasn’t been studied in them.

Lifting weights can cut diabetes risk
LOS ANGELES - Research suggests that overweight teens can reduce their risk for diabetes and other diseases by lifting weights as part of a general health program.

Doctor Michael Goran at the University of Southern California says illnesses such as diabetes are linked to obesity, which should be tackled before adulthood. Goran says it’s wrong to think pudgy kids will just “grow out of it.”

Goran’s study of inner-city teenage Hispanic boys shows the group dramatically reduced the chance of diabetes by lifting weights and losing weight. He says they’re motivated because they see relatives taking diabetes medication and sometimes losing their legs to the disease. Source

Acomplia May Be Effective for Diabetes
Oct. 26, 2006 — A highly anticipated weight loss drug may also be an effective treatment for type 2 diabetes.

Overweight or obese people with diabetes who took the drug Acomplia for a year, in combination with diet and exercise, had modest but significant improvements in blood sugar control and cholesterol, along with modest weight loss.

Acomplia has not yet been approved for sale in the U.S., but it is being sold in Europe.

In the new study, 1,047 overweight or obese people with type 2 diabetes who were already on an oral diabetes drug were randomly assigned to also take either a placebo, 5 milligrams of Acomplia, or 20 milligrams of Acomplia daily. Source

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