Archive for the “Diabetic matters” Category

Here’s hoping a cure is coming down the line soon.

Scientists Turn Human Skin Cells Into Insulin-producing Cells

ScienceDaily (Sep. 18, 2008) — Researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine have transformed cells from human skin into cells that produce insulin, the hormone used to treat diabetes

The breakthrough may one day lead to new treatments or even a cure for the millions of people affected by the disease, researchers say.

The approach involves reprogramming skin cells into pluripotent stem cells, or cells that can give rise to any other fetal or adult cell type, and then inducing them to differentiate, or transform, into cells that perform a particular function – in this case, secreting insulin.

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“Of course, there are many years of additional studies that are required first, but this study provides hope for a cure for all patients with diabetes,” said John Buse, M.D., Ph.D., president of the American Diabetes Association and professor and chief of the endocrinology division in the UNC School of Medicine’s department of medicine.

One of the more challenging things for me, as someone who has Type 1 diabetes, is the fact that the overwhelming majority of information about diabetes is targeted towards people who have, or may develop, Type 2. In a sense, it’s only right, because Type 2 is preventable, and by far the more common. That doesn’t mean awwwwwllll the books have to be about that, though. For instance, much of the dietary information available advises the diabetic to lose weight. I don’t wanna lose weight. I don’t need to lose weight. At any rate, I bring this up for two reasons: one, because I’m going to make a new category, where I will try to post develompments or information strictly geared toward patients with Type 1. The other is because some of the research seems to be on some ‘well duh!’ status. Take this study, for instance: Black women who drink fewer sugary drinks per day are less-likely to develop Type II? Say word!!

Johnson is one of nearly 44,000 black women whose diets were studied between 1995 and 2001 by Boston University and Harvard University researchers as part of the Black Women’s Health Study, a national effort to understand what distinguishes black women’s health issues from other groups’. About 4,000 participants came from Michigan. Every two years in the diet analysis, researchers asked who had been newly diagnosed with diabetes. Over the course of the study, they logged 2,700 new cases on top of the 4,000 diabetics who were in it at the beginning.

Researchers found that women who drank at least two sodas or sugary juice drinks, such as Kool-Aid or fruit punch, daily were diagnosed with diabetes more often than those who consumed less.

Most surprising, said lead author Julie Palmer, was those who drank juice drinks were leading healthier lives than their soda-drinking counterparts, but still getting diabetes. She said some women mistakenly considered juice drinks healthier when, in fact, they contain as much sugar as soda.

“People are trying to be healthier and replace soft drinks with fruit drinks, and it’s not reducing their risk of diabetes,” she said.

Now the fruit drinks vs. soft drinks piece is some good information, because there are lots of people who think the danger is in the carbonation. However, the idea that people who drink lots of sweet drinks are more likely to develop Type 2 is fairly intuitive.

Somebody got a grant to study that?