Diabetes Prevention in the Real World: Effectiveness of Pragmatic Lifestyle Interventions for the Prevention of Type 2 Diabetes and of the Impact of Adherence to Guideline Recommendations

Diabetes Care: April 2014

A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis

OBJECTIVE To summarize the evidence on effectiveness of translational diabetes prevention programs, based on promoting lifestyle change to prevent type 2 diabetes in real-world settings and to examine whether adherence to international guideline recommendations is associated with effectiveness.

Take Heart: Mediterranean Diet Combats Diabetes, Study Says

HealthDay News: March 27, 2014

Adhering to a so-called Mediterranean diet may reduce your risk of diabetes, especially if you’re at high risk for heart disease.

That’s the finding of researchers who reviewed 19 studies that included more than 162,000 people in different countries for an average of 5.5 years.

The analysis revealed that a Mediterranean diet — which is rich in fish, nuts, vegetables and fruits — was associated with a 21 percent lower risk of diabetes compared with other eating patterns.

A Mediterranean diet reduced the risk of diabetes even more — by 27 percent — among people at high risk for heart disease. Diabetes prevention is especially important for people at risk of heart disease, according to the authors of the study, which is to be presented Saturday at the American College of Cardiology annual meeting, in Washington, D.C. Read More

Texas Medical Center Scientist Examines Type 2 Diabetics’ Hand Dexterity

Bionics: March 25, 2014

While most clinicians and scientists focus on harm to the lower extremities in type 2 diabetics, researchers at the University of Houston Department of Health and Human Performance are concerned with impairment in dexterity and sensory function in the hands. “It’s a very basic concept that no one’s looked at before,” said Stacey Gorniak, assistant professor and researcher at the Texas Medical Center. “No one has examined what it is like if a patient living with type 2 diabetes touches an object compared to someone who’s healthy.”

Nine percent of the Texan population is impacted bytype 2 diabetes, which is sometimes accompanied by diabetic neuropathy, a nerve disorder that presents with numbness, pain, and tingling. Gorniak wondered whether diabetics experience neuropathy in their hands in addition to their feet and if the condition changes how they interact with the world. “Is it different? It really is,” said Gorniak. “We’re not just seeing the traditional diabetic issues with the feet and the legs, but we’re actually seeing effects to the hands. We found changes to the central nervous system that are not correlated with disease duration or disease severity, but simply due to the presence of the disease.” Read More

Changes Over Time in High Out-of-Pocket Health-Care Burden in U.S. Adults With Diabetes, 2001–2011

Diabetes Care: March 25, 2014

OBJECTIVE High out-of-pocket (OOP) costs can be an obstacle to health-care access and treatment compliance. This study investigated trends in high OOP health-care burden in people with diabetes.

Association of type 2 diabetes with brain atrophy and cognitive impairment

Neurology: 3/19/14

Objective: We investigated the associations of diabetes and hypertension with imaging biomarkers (markers of neuronal injury and ischemic damage) and with cognition in a population-based cohort without dementia.

Comparing Diabetes Medications Where Do We Set the Bar?

JAMA: March 2014

More than 25 million Americans have type 2 diabetes mellitus and face decisions about which medications to use to lower glucose levels. These decisions are increasingly complex (now involving 12 different classes of glucose-lowering agents) and increasingly costly (resulting in over $18 billion in annual expenditures1). Yet, despite the enormous health and economic implications of these decisions, there are few comparative effectiveness outcomes studies to guide clinical practice. The major goals of glycemic control in type 2 diabetes are to prevent severe hyperglycemia and to reduce the risk of long-term diabetic complications, with the majority of the effort devoted to the latter.  Read More

Hyperglycemia Has a Greater Impact on Left Ventricle Function in South Asians Than in Europeans

Diabetes Care: April 2014

OBJECTIVE Diabetes is associated with left ventricular (LV) diastolic and systolic dysfunction. South Asians may be at particular risk of developing LV dysfunction owing to a high prevalence of diabetes. We investigated the role of diabetes and hyperglycemia in LV dysfunction in a community-based cohort of older South Asians and white Europeans.