Blood pressure drug could prevent 60 per cent of type 1 diabetes cases, say researchers

 

Blood pressure drug could prevent 60 per cent of type 1 diabetes


A drug normally associated with treating high blood pressure could help prevent type 1 diabetes in 60% of at-risk people, researchers have said.


Methyldopa has been around for more than 50 years and is often given to pregnant women and children with high blood pressure, but now it is believed it could have other uses.


Researchers say they have found evidence that it could be beneficial in the prevention of type 1 diabetes because the drug can block the DQ8 molecule, found in around 60% of people at high risk of developing type 1 diabetes.


Professor Aaron Michels, a researcher at the Barbara Davis Center for childhood diabetes and associate professor of medicine at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, said: "With this drug, we can potentially prevent up to 60% of type 1 diabetes in those at risk for the disease. This is a very significant development."


The team spent 10 years studying the oral drug, normally taken between two and three times a day, and what effect it had on mice and 20 people with type 1 diabetes.


Prof Michels said: "We can now predict with almost 100 per cent accuracy who is likely to get type 1 diabetes. The goal with this drug is to delay or prevent the onset of the disease among those at risk."


Fellow researcher David Ostrov, PhD, hopes their methyldopa discovery might help block other molecules which could mean preventing other diseases.


Professor Ostrov, associate professor at the University of Florida College of Medicine's Center for NeuroGenetics, said: "This study has significant implications for treatment of diabetes and also other autoimmune diseases [and] suggests that the same approach may be adapted to prevent autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, coeliac disease, multiple sclerosis, systemic lupus erythematosus and others."


The findings of the study have been published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation

SOURCE : https://www.diabetes.co.uk/news/2018/feb/blood-pressure-drug-could-prevent-60-per-cent-of-type-1-diabetes-cases,-say-researchers-94241987.html

Women who have gestational diabetes in pregnancy are at higher risk of future health issues

Women who have gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) during pregnancy have a higher than usual risk of developing type 2 diabetes, hypertension, and ischemic heart disease in the future, according to new research led by the University of Birmingham.

The retrospective cohort study, a collaboration between the Universities of Birmingham, Auckland, and Warwick, as well as University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust, was published today in PLOS Medicine.

The researchers studied the incidence of type 2 diabetes, hypertension and ischemic heart and cerebrovascular diseases in a UK primary care database that included more than 9,000 women diagnosed with GDM between 1990 and 2016.

The study found that women diagnosed with GDM were over 20 times more likely to be diagnosed with type 2 diabetes later in life, over two and a half times more likely to develop ischemic heart disease and almost twice as likely to develop hypertension.

Dr Krish Nirantharakumar, of the University of Birmingham's Institute of Applied Health Research, said: "Results showed women diagnosed with GDM were significantly more likely to develop hypertension and ischemic heart disease at a relatively young age compared with women without a previous diagnosis of GDM in addition to the established risk of developing diabetes. The risk was greatest for type 2 diabetes in the first year following diagnosis of GDM and persisted throughout the follow-up period.

The findings add an important insight into the trajectory of the development of type 2 diabetes, hypertension and cardiovascular disease in the early and latter post-partum periods.

"Furthermore, the findings are the first to report on a large UK population and identify an at-risk group of relatively young women ideally suited for targeting risk factor management to improve long term metabolic and cardiovascular outcomes."

Although current guidelines recommend annual screening for diabetes in women diagnosed with GDM, the study also found that follow-up screening for diabetes as well as cardiovascular risk factors was low. With the exception of blood pressure, less than 60% of women were screened in the first year after giving birth and decreased to less than 40% by the second year after having their baby.

Barbara Daly, of the Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences at the University of Auckland, said the research was especially important given that the prevalence of GDM is increasing rapidly in most developed countries.

She added: "Guideline recommendations for screening and management of hypertension, lipids and smoking cessation are lacking and need to be reviewed.

"Although the NICE guidelines recommend annual screening for type 2 diabetes in women diagnosed with GDM, this study found follow-up screening was poor for type 2 diabetes and other cardiovascular risk factors such as hypertension.

"Clinical guidelines need to include post-partum screening and management for all cardiovascular risk factors in women diagnosed with GDM and not restrict it to diabetes."


SOURCE : https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/01/180116151450.htm 

CAN DIABETIC PATIENTS EAT JAGGERY ?

IS JAGGERY GOOD FOR DIABETIC PATIENTS ?

Being diabetic often triggers sweet cravings. And when sugar is out of limit, you look for non-sugary alternates, one of which is jaggery. Believed to be a great alternative for sugar, jaggery indeed has a number of health benefits. But is it really a healthy choice for diabetics? Let’s have a look.


IS IT AS BAD AS SUGAR? 

Jaggery is a traditional form of sweetener. It is obtained by boiling clarified sugarcane juice. This solid residue is less refined when compared to sugar and retains a lot of essential nutrients such as potassium, iron and calcium. But that doesn’t mean a person with high sugar level can eat jaggery. Its brown colour may seem healthy but for a diabetic patient, it is not a healthy choice. Jaggery does help in fighting oxidative stress and maintains blood pressure because of its iron content, but if you’re a diabetic, jaggery should be out of your food limits.


JAGGERY CONTAINS SUGAR: 

Yes, a lot of sugar! Jaggery is a nutrient-rich sweetener but this sweet-alternate also contains about 65 to 85 per cent of sucrose. And this is the reason that eating jaggery should be a big no for diabetics, as the bulk of it is sugar!


IT CAN CAUSE HIGH SUGAR LEVEL: 

Eating jaggery has somewhat similar effect on your glucose level as eating sugar. Many people have the perception that when they replace sugar with jaggery, it can help them maintain their blood sugar level. But this is not the case. Though complex, jaggery contains sucrose, which when absorbed by our body raises blood sugar levels. That means it is as harmful as any other form of sugar. The only difference is jaggery takes time to get absorbed in the body.
People who don’t have diabetes can replace sugar with jaggery. This is a healthy choice for them. Doctors recommend a low Glycemic Index diet for diabetics. Hence eating jaggery is not an option for them.


WHAT AYURVEDA SAY? 

Even Ayurveda doesn’t recommend jaggery for diabetic patients. Ayurveda uses jaggery to treat lung infections, sore throat, migraines, and asthma. And this ancient form restricts diabetics to use jaggery in their diet. Ayurveda has listed jaggery as an ' offender’ for a diabetic's diet.


SOURCE : https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/life-style/health-fitness/can-diabetic-patients-eat-jaggery/what-ayurveda-say/photostory/61878327.cms

NEW BLOOD PRESSURE GUIDELINE 

New guidelines were released on tips to lower blood pressure. 

The American Heart Association is calling for more aggressive control of high blood pressure to reduce complications with hypertension and diabetes. 

The recommendation is based on a series of studies that show 130 over 80 as the new target. 

At one point, doctors were okay with high numbers like 140 over 90, which is now deemed stage two hypertension. 

Many South Georgians are already in stage two and require immediate treatment.

"These recommendations are based on good data and I have high confidence that they will help patients and prevent disease," said Dr. Derrick Taylor, Phoebe Primary Care Physician at Tower One. 

More aggressive blood pressure treatment could include more medication and a lifestyle change such as exercise, weight loss, low-fat diets, and no smoking

SOURCE : http://www.walb.com/story/36892742/american-heart-association-releases-new-blood-pressure-guidelines

Diabetics may not feel classic heart attack symptoms

People with diabetes are three times more likely to die from heart disease than the general population

New Delhi: People with diabetes may not always feel classic symptoms like acute chest pain when they have a heart attack, according to a small study that offers a potential explanation for why these episodes are more deadly for diabetics.

Researchers examined data from detailed interviews with 39 adults in the UK who had been diagnosed with diabetes and had also experienced a heart attack. Most of the participants reported feeling some chest pain, but they often said it didn’t feel like they expected or that they didn’t think it was really a heart attack.

“Long term diabetes damages your heart in many ways (increased blocking of the heart’s blood vessels), but it also damages your nerves,” said study co-author Dr. Melvyn Jones of University College London.

 “So a bit like a diabetic might not feel the stubbing of their toe, they also feel less pain from damaged heart muscle when the blood supply gets cut off, so they don’t get the classical crushing chest pain of a heart attack,” Jones said by email.

People with diabetes are three times more likely to die from heart disease than the general population and possibly six times more likely to have a heart attack, Jones added.

All patients in the study received care at one of three hospitals in London, and they ranged in age from 40 to 90. Most were male, and roughly half were white.

The majority had what’s known as type 2 diabetes, which is tied to aging and obesity and happens when the body can’t properly use insulin to convert blood sugar into energy. Four of them had type 1 diabetes, a lifelong condition that develops when the pancreas produces little or no insulin, a hormone needed to allow blood sugar to enter cells.

Many of the participants described heart attack symptoms such as chest pain and discomfort.

However, many felt like their pain wasn’t severe enough to be a heart attack or didn’t consider the discomfort they felt in their chest as similar to what they would expect with a heart attack.

This may have contributed to delays in seeking care, which are in turn associated with lower survival odds and a higher risk of complications and disability for people who do live through the event, researchers note in the journal BMJ Open.

The study was small, and it wasn’t a controlled experiment designed to prove whether or how diabetes might lead people to experience different heart attack symptoms.

Still, it confirms a longstanding belief that people with diabetes may be prone to atypical heart attack symptoms, said Dr. Deepak Bhatt, executive director of Interventional Cardiovascular Programs at Brigham and Women’s Hospital Heart and Vascular Center and a researcher at Harvard Medical School in Boston.

“Atypical means instead of the more classic chest pain or chest pressure, patients experience symptoms such as extreme fatigue or breathlessness, for example,” Bhatt, who wasn’t involved in the study, said by email.

“The biology of the heart attack is the same,” Bhatt added. “But the thought is that patients with advanced diabetes may have a degree of nerve damage (neuropathy) and therefore may be less likely to experience the more common chest pain or chest pressure from a heart attack.”

Patients with diabetes should understand that they’re more likely to have a heart attack than other people, said Dr. John Wilkins, a researcher at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago who wasn’t involved in the study.

“They should have regular follow-up with their physicians, keep their blood sugars well controlled, lead a heart-healthy lifestyle, avoid the development of cardiovascular risk factors like high blood pressure and high cholesterol, and if they have risk factors they should make sure they are appropriately managed,” Wilkins said by email.

“They should also be familiar with the symptoms that suggest that they might be having a heart attack or an impending heart attack and know how to respond if those symptoms develop,” Wilkins advised.

source :http://zeenews.india.com/health/diabetics-may-not-feel-classic-heart-attack-symptoms-2051609 

Wife’s Obesity Could Increase Risk of Diabetes in Men :

According to a latest study, a wifes obese condition can not only up her diabetes risk but her husbands too.

Obesity is a disorder involving excessive body fat that increases the risk of various other health problems. For the longest time, experts have studied the effect of obesity on an individual in detail, but according to a latest study, a wife’s obese condition can not only up her diabetes risk but her husband’s too. The study revealed that obesity can substantially increase her risk of developing Type 2 diabetes, especially in middle age -- but women with an obese husband have no additional risk.

The study revealed that for every 5 kg/m2 higher BMI in a wife, the husband's Type 2 diabetes risk was 21 per cent higher when accounting for the man's own BMI.
Adam Hulman from Aarhus University in Denmark said, "Having an obese wife increases a man's risk of diabetes over and above the effect of his own obesity level, while among women, having an obese husband gives no additional diabetes risk beyond that of her own obesity level.”

"Our results indicate that on finding obesity in a person, screening of their spouse for diabetes may be justified," Hulman added.

The research, also suggests that people over 55 with a spouse with Type 2 diabetes tend to be more obese than their peers without a diabetic partner.

The study presented at the 2017 European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD) Annual Meeting in Lisbo further explained that obesity or Type 2 diabetes in one partner could lead to Type 2 diabetes in the other due to the many risk behaviours which often leads to diabetes shared by couples, such as unhealthy eating habits and inadequate physical activity.

"Recognising shared risk between spouses may improve diabetes detection and motivate couples to increase collaborative efforts to eat more healthily and boost their activity levels," Hulman said.



From heart diseases to diabetes, being heavily overweight can prove to be a harbinger of many health risks. Here are some effective ways  which can come in handy to tackle obesity:

1.Include more whole grains in your meal: .Whole grain provide energy to sustain and grow and are also a major source of all essential nutrients. Ditch processed cereals and load up on whole grains like Bajra, Ragi, Maize and Jowar, and use them often. Try brown rice instead of white rice .

2.Keep the trans fats away: Industrial trans fats are often present in fast foods, street snacks, fried foods, cookies, margarine and spreads. Read the labels; if there is no label, find a better substitute.

3.Do not skip meals: Eat three balanced meals. Take a standard dinner plate, fill ½ with vegetables, 1/3rd with cereal, 1/3rd with protein, and add 150 ml of milk/dahi/dessert.

4.Limit your intake of sugar: Sugar is a source of many excess calories which practically does nothing for your body, and goes on storing as fat. While it is important to stay away from refined sugars, do note that a lot of foods have natural sugar hidden in them too. It  is advisable to keep the  intake less than 10% of your total calories. For a normal weight woman who needs 1900Kcal/day this is about 10 -11 teaspoons of sugar.

5.Eat protein with every meal: Proteins take longer to digest which means that they keep you full for longer and also help in reducing the total body fat. Having protein-rich foods like amaranth, sprouts, peas, and eggs helps in accelerating weight.

SOURCE : https://www.ndtv.com/food/wife-s-obesity-could-increase-risk-of-diabetes-in-men-5-handy-tips-to-keep-obesity-in-check-1749610

TAKE CARE OF YOUR FEET MORE THAN YOUR FACE

We all know that India is fast becoming the diabetes capital of the world. There are about 69.2 million diabetes patients in India which is expected to reach 123.5 million by the year 2040.

Development of foot ulceration is a common problem in patients with longstanding diabetes. Life time risk of developing foot ulcer may be as high as 25%. Foot ulceration is one of the leading causes of hospital admission in patients with diabetes mellitus. 60% of admissions in diabetes patients are for foot problems. 1% of diabetes patients may lose a portion of their limb in lifetime. In India prevalence of foot ulcer in people with diabetes is 3%.

The reason why diabetes patients are more prone to foot problems are vasculopathy i.e. involvement of blood vessels, neuropathy i.e. involvement of nerves, development of infection and many other co-existing problems such as old age, immunosuppressive states, hypoproteinemia and poor blood sugar control. The blood vessels in diabetic patients are affected by atherosclerosis i.e. deposition of fat inside blood vessels causing lead pipe arteries with resultant loss of its elastic property. Further calcification of blood vessels lead to poor distal blood flow.

Neuropathy, the involvement of nerves can occur because of autonomic, sensory and motor neuropathy. Autonomic neuropathy is the loss of autonomic control resulting in inhibition of thermoregulatory function and sweating. It results in dry, scaly and stiff skin that is prone to cracking and allows the entry of bacteria. Sensory neuropathy is the loss of protective sensation. It starts distally and migrates proximally in stocking distribution. Motor neuropathy results in foot deformities like hammer toes, claw toes, hallux valgus and flat feet.

Presence of high plantar pressure due to obesity, deformities in the foot, limited joint mobility further leads to development of foot ulcer. Ill-fitting footwear may further aggravate the situation. Majority of ulcer occur below head of 1 st metatarsophalangeal joint. Diabetic foot are usually classified as neuropathic foot or neuroischaemic foot meaning either only nerve is involved or both nerve and blood vessels are involved. There are various type of therapy available to treat diabetic foot ulcer ranging from simple surgical debridement to hyperbaric O 2 therapy, vacuum therapy, injections of G-CSF/Zolendronate.

Prevention of the developing ulcer is better than cure
*Feet should be washed daily using warm water and soap. After washing, feet should be dried with a dry towel especially between the toes followed by application of moisturizing lotion.
*Avoid wearing socks with rough seams as seamless diabetic socks are available.
*Toe nails should be trimmed regularly. Ingrown toe nails should not be removed at home.
*Avoid cutting nails if they are thick or hard and visit a local chiropodist.
*Corns and calluses should not be trimmed with scissors, knives or razor blades.
*Foot care should be a routine in the life of a diabetic along with good blood sugar control.

SOURCE : http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/life-style/health-fitness/every-heart-counts/take-care-of-your-feet-more-than-your-face/articleshow/60837360.cms