00seshunarayanahttps://imedworks.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/MedWorks-Logo-02-300x300.pngseshunarayana2020-08-13 10:53:272020-08-13 10:53:27Am I having Diabetes ?
Irregular sleep time has long been linked to a host of health ailments. Sleep plays a pivotal role in regulating some of the most vital processes in our body. Experts suggest that not sleeping for at least 7-8 hours every day may have severe health repercussions. Also, sleeping late at night – even though you may end up meeting the 8-hour sleep mark – is also linked with health issues.
Some of the previously conducted studies note that loss of sleep incurred during the week cannot be compensated by sleeping for longer time over the weekend. A latest study conducted by American experts explains that sleeping for long hours over the weekend may actually be adverse for the health and trigger heart issues and weight gain.Experts called this phenomenon ‘social jet lag’ described as a situation when one goes to bed and wakes up much later on weekends than during the week. This ‘social jet lag’ is associated with an 11 per cent increase in the likelihood of heart disease. The study was published in the journal Sleep and assessed sleep pattern and associated effects on health in close to 984 adults ageing 22 to 60 years.
“Results indicated that sleep regularity, beyond sleep duration alone, plays a significant role in our health. Regular sleep schedule may be an effective, relatively simple, and inexpensive preventative treatment for heart disease as well as many other health problems,” lead author Sierra B. Forbush, from the University of Arizona in the US.
Sleep deprivation may affect the brain activity, trigger memory problems, induce moodiness, anxiety and depression; it may also lead to lack of concentration, lethargy. Prolonged sleep deprivation is also tied to risk of heart disease, diabetes, weakened immune system, hypertension among others.
00seshunarayanahttps://imedworks.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/MedWorks-Logo-02-300x300.pngseshunarayana2020-08-11 12:31:122020-08-11 12:31:12Sleeping More On Weekends May Lead to Obesity, Diabetes and Hypertension
By creating a controlled-release mechanism for a drug and optimising its circulation time in the body, the new biopolymer injection has the potential to replace daily or weekly insulin shots with a once-a-month or twice-a-month treatments for type 2 diabetes, researchers said.
Scientists, including one of Indian origin, have developed a technology that may provide weeks of glucose control for diabetes with a single injection, which would be a dramatic improvement over current therapies.
In primates, the treatment has been shown to last for weeks, rather than days, researchers at Duke University in the US said. By creating a controlled-release mechanism for a drug and optimising its circulation time in the body, the new biopolymer injection has the potential to replace daily or weekly insulin shots with a once-a-month or twice-a-month treatments for type 2 diabetes, they said. Many current treatments for type 2 diabetes use a signalling molecule called glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP1) to cause the pancreas to release insulin to control blood sugar. However, this peptide has a short half-life and is cleared from the body quickly.
Researchers, including Ashutosh Chilkoti, from Duke University, have created a technology that fuses GLP1 to a heat-sensitive elastin-like polypeptide (ELP) in a solution that can be injected into the skin through a standard needle. Once injected, the solution reacts with body heat to form a biodegradable gel-like “depot” that slowly releases the drug as it dissolves. In animal experiments, the resulting therapy provided glucose control up to three times longer than treatments currently on the market. Researchers systematically worked to vary the design of the delivery biopolymer at the molecular level and found a sweet spot that maximised the duration of the drug’s delivery from a single injection.
“By doing so, we managed to triple the duration of this short-acting drug for type 2 diabetes, outperforming other competing designs,” said Chilkoti, senior author of study published in the journal Nature Biomedical Engineering. Researchers optimised their solution to regulate glucose levels in mice for 10 days after a single injection, up from the previous standard of 2-3 days. In further tests, the team found that the optimised formulation improved glucose control in rhesus monkeys for more than 14 days after a single injection, while also releasing the drug at a constant rate for the duration of the trial.
“What is exciting about this work was our ability to demonstrate that the drug could last over two weeks in non- human primates,” said Kelli Luginbuhl, a PhD student in the Chilkoti lab and co-author of the study.
00seshunarayanahttps://imedworks.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/MedWorks-Logo-02-300x300.pngseshunarayana2020-08-11 12:20:012020-08-11 12:20:01Daily insulin shots for diabetes may be replaced by a monthly treatment
Hearing loss is more common if you have poorly controlled diabetes.
If you have diabetes, you have at least twice the chance of experiencing hearing loss than someone who does not have the condition, according to the American Diabetes Association.
If you have prediabetes, your risk for hearing loss is 30 percent higher compared with those who do not have diabetes. Two other things that can increase the chance that you’ll experience hearing loss are age and smoking.
So just why are people with diabetes at a higher risk for hearing loss? “We believe it’s years of poorly controlled blood sugar,” says Dr. Deena Adimoolam, an endocrinologist and assistant professor of diabetes, endocrinology and bone disease at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York.
In short, the effects of high blood glucose over time can damage your hearing. “Although the exact reason for diabetes-related hearing loss is unknown, it’s suspected that there are two major causes,” says Dr. Jagmeet S. Mundi, an ear, nose and throat specialist with Mission Hospital in Mission Viejo, California. “This includes damage to the small blood vessels that provide blood flow to the inner ear and direct nerve damage to the inner ear structures. The combination of the two leads to hearing loss in these patients.”
Symptoms of Diabetes-Related Hearing Loss
For the most part, the symptoms of diabetes-related hearing loss will be like those of everyone else. One difference is that hearing professionals can track a consistent difference in the ability of those with diabetes to hear low- or middle-frequency sounds. However, that may not be something you notice. In fact, you may not detect any difference at all, at least not for a long time.
“People are notoriously bad at noticing the problem. It takes an extremely long time for people to blame [hearing loss] on themselves,” Konrad-Martin says.
It may be a loved one observing that your hearing is not that great anymore in certain situations, such as at a noisy restaurant or even in a quieter environment.
Other hearing loss symptoms include:
Thinking that people talking are mumbling
Not hearing when people speak directly to you
Turning up the volume on devices frequently
Speaking more loudly than necessary
Increased sensitivity to loud noises (this also could be the sign of a condition called hyperacusis)
A ringing sound in the ears (this also is associated with a hearing problem called tinnitus)
Feeling as if you can hear what someone says, but it’s not as clear as you’d like. “Think of it like a picture going out of focus,” Konrad-Martin says.
Although hearing loss is common as you get older, hearing professionals often find that the degree of hearing loss in someone with diabetes is more severe than someone of the same age who does not have diabetes.
Diabetes-Related Hearing Loss: Treatment and Prevention
If you think you are experiencing hearing loss, talk to your health care provider or schedule a visit to an audiologist. An audiologist specializes in hearing loss and can screen you with a full hearing exam.
It’s important to talk to your health care provider if your hearing loss occurs suddenly – a sign linked to uncontrolled diabetes – or if there are more subtle changes over time. Both situations require a closer evaluation.
Many people with hearing loss use a hearing aid. If that sounds intimidating to you, don’t worry. Today’s hearing aids tend to be smaller and easier to use than in the past. “People are generally happy with their hearing aids now,” Konrad-Martin says.
Depending on the circumstance, hearing loss can sometimes be reversed with the use of steroids, Mundi says.
An audiologist can also help coach you on ways to hear better in specific situations, such as in a noisy room.
Hearing loss can make life more challenging, so it’s important to try to prevent it. One additional reason to prevent it when you have diabetes is that you’re also at higher risk for vision loss. So, if you experience both hearing and vision loss, you’re hit with a sensory double whammy.
One way to prevent hearing loss related to diabetes is to keep your blood sugar under control. Take your medications as your doctor prescribes, stay physically active and make healthier food choices. These are all basic but important ways to improve your health and cut the risk for diabetes complications. “If you can maintain control of your blood sugar, you can prevent worsening of hearing loss,” Adimoolam says.
A diabetic patient can have all fruits. Rest depends on parameters like blood sugar levels (fasting and PP), HBA1C, Weight, physical activity any co morbidity etc
00seshunarayanahttps://imedworks.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/MedWorks-Logo-02-300x300.pngseshunarayana2020-08-11 11:41:382020-08-11 11:41:38Healthy diet plan for diabetic patients
Insulin has been successfully encapsulated using Cholestosomes that can be administered orally with tiny vesicles that can deliver insulin where it needs to go without injecting. US scientists have developed an oral method of administering insulin that can be a less painful alternative to millions of people worldwide with diabetes who have to inject themselves with the drug to manage their blood-sugar levels. The team has successfully encapsulated insulin using Cholestosomes – a neutral, lipid-based particle – that can be administered orally with tiny vesicles that can deliver insulin where it needs to go without injecting. The biggest obstacle to delivering insulin orally is ushering it through the stomach intact. Proteins such as insulin are no match for the harsh, highly acidic environment of the stomach. They degrade before they get a chance to move into the intestines and then the bloodstream where they’re needed, the study said. However, the new vesicles that are made of naturally occurring lipid molecules are normal building blocks of fats, the researchers said, adding that they are unlike other lipid-based drug carriers, called liposomes. “Most liposomes need to be packaged in a polymer coating for protection. Here, we are just using simple lipid esters to make vesicles with the drug molecules inside,” said lead researcher Mary McCourt, Professor at Niagara University in New York, US. Computer modelling showed that once the lipids are assembled into spheres, they form neutral particles resistant to attack from stomach acids. Drugs can be loaded inside, and the tiny packages can pass through the stomach without degrading. When cholestosomes reach the intestines, the body recognises them as something to be absorbed. The vesicles pass through the intestines, into the bloodstream, and then cells take them in and break them apart, releasing insulin. Studies with rats showed that certain formulations of cholestosomes loaded with insulin have high bioavailability, which means the vesicles travel into the bloodstream where the insulin needs to be, the researchers concluded. The results were presented at the 252nd National Meeting and Exposition of the American Chemical Society (ACS), in Philadelphia, recently.
00seshunarayanahttps://imedworks.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/MedWorks-Logo-02-300x300.pngseshunarayana2020-08-10 21:44:552020-08-10 21:44:55This new insulin pill could make diabetes treatment ‘painless’
If what some scientists are saying is true, preventing both heart disease and diabetes could be as simple as popping a single pill. Soon, preventing both heart disease and diabetes could be as simple as popping a single pill, if predictions by a team of scientists prove true.
A large analysis of genetic data found that both the conditions, which are the leading causes of death and illness across the world, are linked by the same genes. The team led by researchers in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania first looked into what causes Type 2 diabetes (T2D) and then clarified how T2D and coronary heart disease (CHD) are linked.
Examining genome sequence information for more than 250,000 people, the researchers first uncovered 16 new diabetes genetic risk factors and one new CHD genetic risk factor; hence providing novel insights about the mechanisms of the two diseases.
They then showed that most of the sites on the genome known to be associated with higher diabetes risk are also associated with higher CHD risk. For eight of these sites, the researchers were able to identify a specific gene variant that influences risk for both diseases. The shared genetic risk factors affect biological pathways including immunity, cell proliferation, and heart development.
The findings add to the basic scientific understanding of both these major diseases and point to potential targets for future drugs. “Identifying these gene variants linked to both type 2 diabetes and CHD risk in principle opens up opportunities to lower the risk of both outcomes with a single drug,” said co-senior author Danish Saleheen. “From a drug development perspective, it would make sense to focus on those pathways that are most strongly linked to both diseases,” Saleheen said.
The researchers found evidence that, on the whole, the genetic link between the diseases appears to work in one direction, so that risk genes for type 2 diabetes are much more likely to be associated with higher CHD risk than the other way around. Additionally, there could be some pathways where pharmacological lowering of one disease increases the risk of the other.
The scientists also found that diabetes-linked gene variants tend to differ in their apparent effects on CHD risk, depending on their mechanisms. Variants that increase the chance of obesity or high blood pressure, for example, appear to boost CHD risk more strongly than variants that alter insulin or glucose levels. The dual-effect risk loci also include the region covering the gene FABP4, which is already being investigated for its potential as a diabetes and heart-disease drug target. In mouse studies, inhibition of this gene’s protein has been shown to have anti-atherosclerotic, i.e., helps fight thickening and hardening with fat on the inside of arteries and anti-diabetic effects.
Saleheen, co-senior author Benjamin F. Voight and their colleagues now plan further investigations of the dual-risk genes uncovered in the study. The researchers also hope to learn more about the biology of the newly discovered dual-risk genes by studying people who have mutations in those genes, Saleheen said. The study is published in Nature Genetics.
A new study analyzes rare tumors in which insulin-producing beta cells are produced in excess in order to find a “genetic recipe” for regenerating these cells. And the findings might change the current therapeutic practices for treating diabetes. Beta cells play a crucial role in the development of diabetes. These tiny cells found in our pancreas produce insulin, and a loss of beta cells is known to be a cause of type 1 diabetes.
Additionally, recent studies have shown that beta cells also play a crucial role in the development of type 2 diabetes. For instance, a study that Medical News Today reported on found that the release of pro-inflammatory proteins kills off insulin-producing beta cells in the early stages of type 2 diabetes.
But the “problem” with beta cells, medically speaking, is that they replicate in early childhood but cease to proliferate after that.
New research, however, carried out by scientists at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City, NY, uncovers a “genomic recipe” for regenerating these key cells.
The study was led by Dr. Andrew Stewart, the director of the Diabetes, Obesity, and Metabolism Institute at the Icahn School of Medicine, and the findings were published in the journal Nature Communications.
Studying rare tumors to fight diabetes For the new research, Dr. Stewart and team analyzed a very rare type of benign tumor called insulinomas. These are “pancreatic beta cell adenomas” that secrete too much of the hormone insulin.
The tumors are small and proliferate slowly. The researchers used whole-exome and RNA-sequencing analysis to examine the genetic makeup of 38 such tumors.
Speaking to Medical News Today about the rationale for choosing to study insulinomas, Dr. Stewart said, “In order to discover drugs that would make human pancreatic beta cells regenerate in people with diabetes, we wanted to understand how human beta cells normally replicate.”
“Unfortunately,” he added, “human beta cells only replicate in the first year of life, so obtaining beta cells from babies is difficult. On the other hand, insulinomas […] are a prefect model: they are rare, they are benign […] tumors of the human beta cell[s], and make large amount of insulin, so much [that] they cause low blood glucose (hypoglycemia).”
00seshunarayanahttps://imedworks.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/MedWorks-Logo-02-300x300.pngseshunarayana2020-08-10 18:19:582020-08-10 18:19:58How pancreatic tumors could help to fight diabetes
Late night eating habits disrupt the working of the body’s biological clock as it is out-of-sync with the 24-hour cycle.
Are you in the habit of late night snacking? Beware, as people with this habit have a higher risk of developing various heart diseases and diabetes, says new research. Late night eating habits disrupt the working of the body’s biological clock. It is out-of-sync with the 24-hour cycle, resulting in high blood-fat levels and heart problems, the researchers found.
“The fact that we can ignore our biological clock is important for survival; we can decide to sleep during the day when we are extremely tired or we run away from danger at night,” said Ruud Buijs, Professor at the University of Mexico in Mexico City. “However, doing this frequently — with shift work, jet lag, or staying up late at night — will harm our health in the long-term, especially when we eat at times when we should sleep,” Buijs added.
The researchers studied rats who were subjected to a challenge. They were fed during the beginning of rest phase (day) and the beginning of active phase (night). The results showed that after feeding the rats at the beginning of their rest period, the level of blood fat spiked more drastically than when fed during the beginning of their active phase.
The research, published in the journal Experimental Physiology, revealed no change in the blood fat levels when the researchers removed the part of the rat’s brain that controls the 24-hour cycle. It was evident that the presence of blood fat in high levels not only affected the metabolism rate but also increased the chance of various heart diseases and diabetes.
00seshunarayanahttps://imedworks.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/MedWorks-Logo-02-300x300.pngseshunarayana2020-08-07 10:37:592020-08-07 10:37:59Midnight Eating Habits May Increase Your Risk of Diabetes & Cardiac Issues
Sitting for more than eight hours can lead to postural problems like disc damage, strained neck and swayed back in the long run. It can also lead to some other serious health concerns. If there is a constant ache in your neck, sitting at your desk for long hours may be one of the reasons. Besides this, uninterrupted sitting for a long period of time can lead to a number of health problems.
Sitting for more than eight hours can lead to postural problems like disc damage, strained neck and swayed back in the long run. It can also lead to some other serious health concerns like:
Heart problems Sitting for long hours can lead to high blood and increased cholesterol levels. These conditions can lead to various heart problems.
More chances of diabetes Lack of movement by the body leads to a slower response of cells in the body muscle to insulin produced by the pancreas. Thus, they produce more insulin that can cause diabetes.
Muscle degeneration risk In order to maintain strength and flexibility of the muscles, it is important to use them or the muscle fibres can weaken and break down. Sitting for long at your desk can lead to developing hyperlordosis, tight hips, and lump glutes.
Elevated stress levels When the muscles are indulged in movement, breathing quickens that increases the oxygen supply to the brain and blood. This releases mood-enhancing hormones, called endorphins that help you feel happy, thereby reducing stress. However, a sedentary lifestyle leads to elevated stress levels.
Back problems Long hours of sitting can lead to imbalances in the spinal structure including disc damage, inflexible spine, strained neck, sore shoulders and back. While physiotherapy is recommended to deal with the pain, some easy exercises can help correct the damage.
Perform Yoga Several yoga postures engage almost all the muscles in the body giving them a good work up. Performing yoga asanas in the morning and evening can be beneficial.
Take a stroll Instead of sitting at your desk the whole day, make sure that you take a five-minute stroll every hour to improve your blood circulation.
Stretch now and then Make sure to stretch your limbs now and then, while sitting. When you are at home, stretch hip flexors every morning/evening for five minutes.
Correct posture A number of back problems can be avoided with the right sitting posture. Try sitting in an upright position without crouching and make sure you give your back a good rest.
Neck exercise Performing neck exercises can help relieve the stiffness. While sitting straight, drop the head slowly to one side, then the other. Performing this daily for five minutes can help provide relief.
00seshunarayanahttps://imedworks.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/MedWorks-Logo-02-300x300.pngseshunarayana2020-07-29 09:58:242020-07-29 09:58:24Sitting for long hours is setting you up for heart risks, diabetes, stress and back problems; here’s how
