Facts

One in 16 women hospitalized for childbirth has diabetes: More than a quarter million women who gave birth in U.S. hospitals in 2008 had pre-existing diabetes or developed it during their pregnancy. The federal agency also found that in 2008, the 35,500 women with pre-existing diabetes and the 232,300 with …

Low-Dose Folic Acid Cuts Homocysteine Levels: A low dose of folic acid roughly equal to the added intake from food fortification policies in the U.S. and elsewhere lowered homocysteine levels as effectively as doses two to four times higher, a randomized trial showed. Over 26 weeks, daily doses of 0.2, …

Analysis and Patient Satisfaction Assessment of Insulin Pump Therapy in Type 2 Diabetes Patients: Insulin pump therapy provided better glycemic control and reduced the total amount of insulin utilized. Patients who utilized continuous subcutaneous insulin infusion (CSII) thought that the treatment was more convenient, less burdensome, and provided better control …

Kids Will Eat Low-Sugar Cereals: Despite the heavy marketing of sugary breakfast cereals to children, kids seem willing to eat low-sugar cereals — particularly if they can add fresh fruit or a small amount of table sugar. In a randomized study conducted among more than 90 kids, those children offered …

Congress Passes Doctor Payment Fix: The House has passed a $15 billion bill keeping Medicare physician payment rates steady through 2011 and blocking the 25% cut in the Medicare pay rate scheduled for Jan. 1 with the Senate passing the same measure a day earlier. The fix is the fifth …

New Mechanism Discovered for Controlling Blood Sugar Level: According to Professor Andrew Tobin (University of Leicester, UK), in order to maintain the correct levels of sugar, a protein, called the M3-muscarinic receptor, present on the cells that release insulin in the pancreas, has to be active and also needs to …

Most Insulin Users Have Inadequate Control of Glycemia and CVD Risk Factors: Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is a well-established comorbidity of Type 2 diabetes (T2D). The relationships between control of CVD risk factors, CVD comorbidity prevalence and medication status in T2D patients were investigated on a population-based cross-sectional study. A total …

Mobile Phone-Based Telemonitoring Improves Blood Pressure Control: An automated mobile phone-based telemonitoring system that actively engages patients in their care significantly improved blood pressure control among diabetes patients with uncontrolled hypertension. Patients received pre-programmed cell phones that automatically transmitted readings from a Bluetooth-enabled home blood pressure monitor. Feedback is provided …

Sixty Percent of Cardiovascular Patients are Diabetic or Pre-Diabetic: The impact of growing obesity levels is pushing Type 2 diabetes into an epidemic. This is a serious problem for healthcare providers due to the cost of treatment, but also for cardiologists who now see diabetes prevention as one of their …

Physical Activity Blocks Colds: Being fit — or at least a perception of being fit — appears to be associated with a reduction in upper respiratory tract infections, researchers found. During a 12-week period, individuals who said they exercised at least five days a week had 43% fewer days with …