RedScrubs
The Resource for Medical Professionals

The American Heart Association (AHA) released a scientific position paper in the Journal Circulation, in March, 2008 on the role of high blood sugars and Acute Coronary Syndrome (ACS). Hyperglycemia, although frequently documented in ACS patients, remains largely unappreciated as a risk factor and is undertreated in both the acute care and outpatient care settings. The researchers believe this is due largely in part to a lack of evidence-based research.

Sirtis, a biopharmaceutical company, announced on March 21, 2008, the first patent covering a broad class of compounds that activate the enzyme SIRT1, a new class of chemical compounds that lower glucose and improve insulin sensitivity. The patent covers the first new chemical entities (NCEs) that Sirtis plans to take to human trials the first half of 2008.

Research highlighting the high cost of diabetes is likely to be helpful in terms of policy debates and decision making in addressing health care and prevention issues associated with diabetes. A 2008 update on the costs of diabetes care revealed that we have spent an estimated $174 billion dollars in 2007 including $116 billion dollars in excess medical expenditures and $58 billion dollars in reduced productivity.

The leaves of the Banaba plant have been consumed traditionally in the Phillipines for the treatment of diabetes for years. Scientists, curious about this activity, decided to strike out and find the active components in this plant and to see if it really did have an effect on diabetes.

The American Diabetes Association has revised its medical nutrition therapy guidelines from those published in 2002 and 2004. The entire set of revised guidelines may be found in the January issue of Diabetes Care, 2008.

An article in Medical News Today, March 10, 2008, stated that the first meta-analysis had been conducted between the glycemic index (g.i.), glycemic load (g.l.) and risk of diabetes/heart disease. However, an earlier meta-analysis was found in Diabetes Care, 2003. In the meta-analysis done in 2003, 356 subjects were looked at for HbA1c and fructosamine as it related to blood sugar control while eating low g.i. foods. Systematically taking out each study did not change the results.

A new study just released at the American Stroke Association’s international Stroke Conference, 2008, announced the relationship between waist circumference, weight, HbA1C and risk for stroke in women aged 35-64. Previous studies revealed that stroke prevalence in women in their midlife was more than twice that of men according to Dr. Towfighi, MD, assistant professor at the Neurology Department at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles.

To determine if this was a continuing trend, researchers looked at the data from NHANESIII taken in the years between 1999-2004. NHANES is the National Health and Nutrition Survey. Researchers did find a similar relationship in the more recent data taken from the NHANES III 1999-2004 study. It was found that 1.79 % of women aged 35-54 who participated in this study reported having a stroke while only .63 of the women who participated in the earlier NHANES study (1988-1994) reported having a stroke.

HbA1C is a test commonly used by people who have diabetes to determine their overall blood sugar control over the past several weeks. Recently, it was brought to the attention of researchers at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center that the test was not accurate in their diabetic dialysis population.

Last week, the researchers at the Dept. of Biology at the Faculty of Science and Science Education of the University of Haifa released their discovery of a substance that they think may help to control diabetes. This substance comes from yeast and they are calling it the Glucose Tolerance Factor (GTF).