Diabetes in the News
Mental illness hampers diabetes care
People with serious mental illness have higher rates of type 2 diabetes than the general public, but a new study finds that, compared to mentally healthy people, these patients often understand much less about their disease.
Sufferers of schizophrenia or major mood disorders were found to have a generally poor amount of knowledge about diabetes, according to researchers with the Sheppard Pratt Health System and the University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore.
Both disorders impair cognitive function and can disrupt normal attentiveness, learning and motivations -- attributes considered essential in the self-management of type 2 diabetes.
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Metabolic syndrome termed a growing U.S. health threat
New guidelines for the prevention and treatment of metabolic syndrome are outlined in a scientific statement published in the Sept. 13 issue of the journal Circulation.
Metabolic syndrome affects more than 26 percent of adult Americans (more than 50 million people). It consists of multiple, interrelated factors that increase the risk of atherosclerosis by 1.5 to 3 fold and the risk of type 2 diabetes by 3 to 5 fold.
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U.S. death trends show successes, failures
The overall U.S. death rate decreased by 32 percent between 1970 and 2002. But the absolute number of deaths continued to rise, according to a new report.
The largest declines were seen in heart disease and stroke, while death rates for diabetes and lung disease or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) increased.
Cancer deaths also declined, but not nearly enough, stated the authors of the report, appearing in the Sept. 14 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.
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Why cholesterol is such a killer
New research is illuminating the details of cholesterol's dangerous effect on human health.
Researchers at Michigan State University found that cholesterol build-up lying on artery walls can crystallize into a solid, expand and then burst, sending material shooting into the bloodstream.
That chain of events kick-starts the body's natural clotting process, essentially shutting down the artery, explained lead researcher George Abela, a professor in the university's department of medicine and chief of the department's cardiology section.
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New diabetes gene discovered
Scientists have discovered a gene that plays a role in the most common type of type 2 diabetes, and they say the discovery could pave the way to a targeted treatment.
Defects in the gene, called ARNT, caused mice to develop abnormalities in insulin secretion, the researchers report in the Aug, 12 issue of Cell.
"This gene, ARNT, is the first gene identified to be abnormal in the pancreatic islet cells, the cells that make insulin, in people with the common type of type 2 diabetes," said study leader Dr. C. Ronald Kahn, president and director of the Joslin Diabetes Center at Harvard Medical School.
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