Jo's Cafe

Pumpkin could help diabetics avoid insulin shots

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Pumpkin extract has insulin-like effects that could help people with diabetes keep their blood sugar under control, results of an animal study hint.

Chinese researchers found that animals with drug-induced diabetes treated with pumpkin extract had lower blood glucose levels, greater insulin secretion, and more insulin-producing beta cells than diabetic rats that weren’t given the extract.

clipped from www.healthcentral.com

Diabetic driver accused of “cavalier attitude” causing woman’s death

UK couple Suzanne and Julian Meredith went for an evening stroll one night, but their outing ended in disaster. A driver lost control of the wheel and ploughed his car into the two, killing Mrs. Meredith, who was fifty-two years old. The driver, an aircraft engineer named Phillip Willey, is now defending himself in court against a charge of dangerous driving causing death. Turns out, though, Willey is diabetic and he’s using that as his defense, saying he blacked out while behind the wheel. Well, that was his defense until the prosecution turned the argument on its head and used it against him, alleging the accident was one hundred percent Willey’s fault because he had a “cavalier attitude” to his condition and did not check his blood sugar levels before driving.

clipped from www.thediabetesblog.com

New drugs lower blood glucose without weight gain

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Two new antidiabetes drugs are modestly effective at reducing blood glucose levels without causing weight gain in people with type 2 diabetes, according to a review in this week’s Journal of the American Medical Association.

Both drugs target incretin hormones that are produced in the gastrointestinal tract and boost the release of insulin triggered by glucose. This “incretin pathway” appears to be weakened in type 2 diabetes.

In 2005, the US Food and Drug Administration approved exenatide, which mimics the effect of the incretins, as add-on treatment for type 2 diabetes. The following year, the agency approved the incretin enhancer sitagliptin. Of the two, only sitagliptin is taken orally.  Source: MyDiabetesCentral.com

Jo says: Anything to help without weight gain is a bonus. I don’t understand how you can have doctor’s prescribing medication that causes weight gain and then bitch at you for gaining too much weight. I’m sooo glad I’m off Actos. After I stopped taking it, I lost 20 pounds with no problem.
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