July 2006 – University of Utah researchers have taken a potentially powerful new therapy for treating diabetes, peripheral vascular disease, and other illnesses out of the test tube and into animals by demonstrating it restores nerve and blood vessel growth in mice.

July 2006 – Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have found that the acute loss of a protein called menin can cause the proliferation of pancreatic islet cells, which secrete insulin to regulate blood sugar. The menin gene (Men1) mutation in humans causes an inherited disease called …

June 2006 ? Black women, even if their weight is normal, may be at increased risk for insulin resistance, a condition associated with diabetes, high blood pressure, and heart vessel disease, according to new research by Wake Forest University School of Medicine.

July 2006 – A study of the sleep characteristics of 669 middle-aged adults found that people sleep much less than they should, and even less than they think. Published in the July issue in the American Journal of Epidemiology, the study also found that blacks sleep less than whites, men …

July 2006 – A growing number of cystic fibrosis patients are battling a second, often deadly complication: a unique form of diabetes that shares characteristics of the type 1 and type 2 versions that strike many Americans.

Bayer HealthCare Diabetes Care Buys Metrika, the maker of the A1c disposal test. This makes Bayer the largest supplier of A1c testing products. Bayer’s DCA 2000 A1c analyzer is now joined by Metrika’s A1cNow+ available as a 10 pack for doctors offices and soon to be available for consumers sometime …

This Weeks Cartoon by Theresa L. Garnero, ARNP, CDE. Issue 320

A high normal A1c (HbA1c) reading might be a better, cheaper, and easier-to-use screening tool for prediabetes and diabetes than the laboratory-based oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT).

Patients who take Levemir (insulin detemir) twice daily can chose a convenient evening time for their second dose.

Rosiglitazone and pioglitazone, as part of triple oral therapy, are equally effective in bringing hemoglobin A1C levels down to recommended levels in type 2 diabetic patients.