Did You Know

Diabetes-Related Hospitalizations on the Rise: Nearly one in five hospitalizations in 2008 were related to diabetes, according to a recent report by the U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. That means a total of more than 7.7 million hospital stays and $83 million in hospital costs, of which Medicare …

Unpleasant People May Be More Prone to Stroke: People with antagonistic or disagreeable personalities have vascular abnormalities that may make them more prone to strokes and perhaps other cardiovascular events, researchers said. Carotid artery intima-media thickness, which is linked to stroke risk, was significantly greater in individuals who rated low …

What We Can Do to Combat Obesity: This week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that in 2009, no state had met a target of reducing obesity prevalence among adults to 15 percent. Dr. Teresa Quattrin from the CDC states that, “People are eating more, and eating less …

Lilly/Amylin amassing significant pre-launch stock of Bydureon, the once-a-week form of Byetta. October 22nd, 2010 is the likely date Bydureon will be ready to launch. Byetta has only lost 7.7% market share to Victoza.

Once-monthly exenatide begins phase 1a clinical trials: Versartis has announced the start of phase 1a clinical trials for VRS-859, its once-monthly exenatide. The drug, also called E-XTEN, is a fusion protein containing the GLP-1 analog exenatide and the hydrophilic peptide XTEN. Versartis has proposed that the 100 mg monthly dose …

Why Some Obese People Go On to Become Diabetic While Others Do Not: It is common to find obese people (even morbidly obese people) who are healthier than their condition would normally allow. Working with subjects with a BMI of about 56, a team of researchers investigated the inflammatory and …

People with Diabetes Guaranteed Health Insurance: This rule comes under the new Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. The rules will help simplify the denial process and create consistency in all 50 states. “In order to stay healthy, people with diabetes have to manage their disease with supplies like test …

A Healthy Diet Controls Blood Sugars Better than Drugs: A healthier diet helps control high risk Type 2 diabetes better than what drugs can achieve alone. Kirsten Coppell of the University of Otago (Dunedin, New Zealand), who led the study, says the research indicates that providing the right dietary advice …

Lack of Zinc Linked to Diabetes: A U.S. researcher says zinc may play a role in blood sugar regulation and in avoiding Type 2 diabetes. Ayyalusamy Ramamoorthy of the University of Michigan suggests that in Type 2 diabetes a protein called amylin forms dense clumps that shut down insulin-producing cells. …

Half the Population in the World Doesn’t Get Enough Vitamin D: Anthony Norman, a professor emeritus of biochemistry and biomedical sciences at the University of California, says, “It is clear that merely eating vitamin D-rich foods is not adequate to solve the problem for most adults.” Currently in the U. …