Did You Know

Weight Loss is Associated with Decreased Proteinuria and Microalbuminuria: The evidence supports the beneficiary effect of weight loss on the outcomes of the decrease of urinary protein excretion. See this week’s Item #7.

Diabetes is one of the most costly diseases in America, with total direct and indirect costs for diabetes and pre-diabetes estimated at $218 billion in 2007. Currently, only 3.7 percent of the National Institute for Health budget goes to diabetes research, despite the fact that one out of every five …

One out of every 10 healthcare dollars is spent on diabetes and its complications, and one in every three Medicare dollars is spent on people with diabetes. (Halvorsen, George, Healthcare Will Not Reform Itself, CRC Press, 2009, p.131)

Diabetes Screening Should Start Sooner: A recent study found that checking for blood sugar disease earlier cut complications and costs. Current recommendations suggest that screening for Type 2 diabetes start at age 45, especially for those who are overweight, but new research shows cost-effective screening can begin between the ages …

Maple Syrup Reduces Cancer, Diabetes Risk: Maple syrup can substantially slow the growth of cancerous cells in several cancers and help reduce the risk of diabetes, U.S. researchers found. Navindra Seeram of the University of Rhode Island found 13 new antioxidant compounds that were not known to exist in syrup …

Selenium Shields Against Diabetes: Scientists have found evidence that older men with higher levels of selenium are less likely to suffer from dysglycemia, or improper blood-sugar metabolism. Researchers studied 1,162 French adults for nine years, checking their levels of selenium and monitoring whether they developed blood-sugar problems. According to their …

Impotence Plus Heart Disease Ups Death Risk: Men with heart disease who also complain of erectile dysfunction die sooner than other male heart patients, researchers report. They found that men who had both conditions were twice as likely to die from any cause and twice as likely to have a …

Glycated Hemoglobin Tests See Increasing Use: Glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) testing is one of the success stories of point-of-care diagnostics, and an area that will experience higher growth rates than other POC tests as a result of expert recommendations, new cases and booming mail-in test sales, according to the new report …

Beware of Daylight Saving Time: On average, people go to work or school on the first Monday of Daylight Saving Time after sleeping 40 fewer minutes than normal. And recent studies have found there’s a higher risk of heart attacks, traffic accidents and workplace injuries also on the first Monday …

Supplementing with Omega-3’s Can Reduce Blood Glucose: In subjects with Type 2 diabetes mellitus, six weeks of supplementation with omega-3 fatty acids reduced the postprandial decrease in macrovascular function relative to placebo, and improved postprandial microvascular function, according to a recent German study In a double blind, placebo-controlled, randomized, crossover …