Top 5 Gadgets for Diabetes Patients

June 18th, 2006 Cure for diabetes could be around the corner after US scientists found cells from the spleen can transform into insulin-producing cells. US researchers were able to halt, and even reverse, the disease in mice.

May 18th, 2005 Valsartan, commercially known as Diovan, a drug that controls blood pressure and reduces heart risk, also appears to protect against diabetes, especially in high-risk people, according to new research presented at the American Society of Hypertension's Twentieth Annual Scientific Meeting and Exposition (ASH 2005) by a University of Michigan physician who helped lead the study. The randomized trial involved 15,313 patients at 942 sites in 31 countries, of whom 9,995 did not have diabetes at the start of the study.

July 17th, 2005 The European study of patients with Type I diabetes found that short-term treatment lowered insulin dependence by 12 percent and increased insulin-making capabilities for at least 18 months. "The results are very promising.

September 13th, 2005 University of Utah researchers have determined tingling in the feet (neuropathy) could be an early warning indicator for impaired glucose tolerance, or prediabetes. 67 patients underwent nerve conduction studies as well as a series of other neuropathy testing.

April 3rd, 2005 Since most patients with diabetes die from some vascular complication, Medical College of Georgia researchers set out to determine the effects of simvastatin on endothelial cell dysfunction, an early pivotal event in atherogenesis and a major cause of the microvascular complications in diabetics. The researchers found that in addition to lowering cholesterol levels, simvastatin also appeared to prevent or reverse vascular injury by vasoprotective means.

July 16th, 2005 A multicenter international study chaired by a Joslin Diabetes Center investigator and reported in the July issue of the American Diabetes Association’s journal Diabetes brings hopeful news to the 18 million people in the United States -- and millions more worldwide -- with type 1 or type 2 diabetes. Initial results of the Phase III clinical trial demonstrated that 32 milligrams per day of ruboxistaurin (RBX) was well tolerated and may reduce the risk of moderate vision loss, especially in patients with diabetic macular edema.

April 4th, 2005 NASH, a liver disease that resembles alcoholic liver disease but occurs in patients who drink little or no alcohol. NASH occurs most often in adults over the age of 40 who are overweight or have diabetes, insulin resistance (pre-diabetes), or hyperlipidemia (excess concentrations of fatty materials in the blood).

March 14th, 2005 A discussion on immune system re-education results.

July 18th, 2005 A Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center team is launching a high-tech study to determine if early screening using a special camera and images transmitted over the Internet can prevent blindness in Medicaid patients with diabetes. "Medicaid patients are rarely screened and are at risk of becoming blind," said Ramon Velez, M.D., M.

September 27th, 2005 Pfizer Inc. said U.S. regulators (FDA) have approved its cholesterol lowering drug Lipitor. Lipitor is used to reduce the risk of stroke and heart attack in diabetic patients.

March 23rd, 2005 "Positron Emission Tomography is being installed at AIIMS next month, through which we will get the final proof of our work on heart patients. All the patients would be screened for finding how viable our work was and would also study various heart tissues of the patients metabolically," Dr P Venugopal, director AIIMS, said.  "We also plan to inject stem cells directly into the pancreatic arteries of patients suffering from diabetes," he says.

April 5th, 2005 According to University of Washington about 10 million US citizens have diabetes without being aware of it. Diabetes is the most insidious disease.

May 23rd, 2005 DeGette, a Denver Democrat, and Rep. Mike Castle, R-Del., are sponsoring a bill that would add new ethical standards and increase the number of lines of embryonic stem cells available for federally funded disease research.

April 4th, 2005 A diabetes epidemic is under way. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), an estimated 30m people worldwide had some form of diabetes in 1985; by 2000, the number had increased to 177m.

March 23rd, 2005 Scientists at Joslin Diabetes Center have found genetic regions that, when defective, allow the immune system to attack the pancreas - the first in a series of mis-steps that lead to type 1 diabetes. Armed with these findings, published today, March 22, in the journal Immunity, the researchers are now trying to hone in on the exact genes involved, in mice and in human patients.