The Battling A1C Challenge is now over. Our thanks to everyone who competed, and congratulations again to the winner, O. Robinson!

For over a year now we have had one of the premier hypertensive care physicians sharing his opinions and information on the treatment of hypertension. This week, Dr. George Bakris starts a new video series on hypertensive guidelines and how best to use them for patients. These choices become more …

A patient with diabetes gets her meds, prescribed by a nurse practitioner, from a national chain pharmacy in New York. She was planning travel to Hawaii. Patient did not refill her meds at home in New York before leaving for her travel in Hawaii because it was too early. Insurance would not pay until closer to the refill date. She thought she could wait until the time insurance would cover, go to a location where she was traveling and pick it up there. She’d done that during her travels in the past. It did not work in Hawaii.

Obesity and weight gain have consistently been shown to be the one of the strongest modifiable risk factors for diabetes. The ratio of a person’s weight in kilograms divided by the square of their height in meters called the body mass index (BMI) has been used in numerous studies as a surrogate for obesity. In a representative sample of the US population, each unit increase in BMI was associated with a 12% increased risk of T2DM. Compared to people with BMI less than 22 kg/m2 those with BMI of 25–27 kg/m2 had 2.75 times the risk of diabetes, and each kilogram increase in body weight over 10 years was associated with a 4.5% increase in diabetes risk.

In this week's Homerun Slides, an investigation of the contribution of periodontal disease to insulin resistance.

In part 1 of this exclusive video, DIC publisher Steve Freed once again visits with Dr. George Bakris to discuss the many blood pressure guidelines and what they should be for adults and those with diabetes.