Diabetes Drug Actos Banned For Risk Of Bladder Cancer

Drug stores in France & Germany have pulled Actos off their shelves after a study found the diabetes drug raised the risk of bladder cancer.

The French Medicines Agency has banned Actos as well as Competact, a pill that combines Actos & metformin and has advised doctors not to prescribe the drug to patients. German health officials followed suit after seeing the French report.

Manufactured by Tackeda, Actos or pioglitazone is prescribed for type 2 diabetes patients to control their blood sugar levels.

The French study found that people taking the popular diabetes drug Actos had a 22% higher risk of developing bladder cancer than those diabetics on other drugs.

Patients on Actos should consult their physician about this drug’s risks & benefits.

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Diamond ‘Pacemaker’ for Diabetics Helps Check Sugar Overload

A pacemaker-style gadget that sends mild electric signals to the stomach has been developed by scientists. This innovative medical device could help effectively manage type-2 diabetes.

When this thumb-sized gadget known as the Diamond (Diabetes Improvement And Metabolic Normalization Device) is implanted under a person’s skin, it stimulates the patient’s stomach muscles while he is eating.

This facilitates the boosting of muscle movement, leading to more insulin being released. Insulin is a hormone that’s responsible for the removal of excess sugar in a person’s blood.

Earlier studies on the Diamond pacemaker suggested that it results in long-term reduction of blood sugar levels in obese type-2 diabetics.

Developed by MetaCure, the gadget sends electrical stimulation via 2 wires located in the muscular layer of a person’s stomach. The wires are channeled under the skin to the impulse generator.

The Diamond pacemaker senses automatically when a person is eating, by recognizing when the stomach begins to naturally contract & fires tiny painless electrical pulses into the stomach muscles.

This fools the brain into believing more food has gone into the patient’s stomach than what he has actually eaten. To handle this supposedly huge meal, the brain increases insulin production plus triggers the release of appetite-suppressing hormones. This means that a person feels full much earlier than usual. The Diamond’s rechargeable battery usually lasts for 5 years.

The device’s wireless charger system lets a person recharge the gadget at home by resting the charger over his stomach for forty-five minutes, once every week.

The DIAMOND device & electrodes are implanted under general anesthesia via a laparoscopic procedure.    

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Have Flour, Almonds to Satiate Hunger Pangs

The trick to controlling hunger pangs lies in having almonds and wheat flour – they make you feel full, leading to less food intake & help prevent overeating.

Although hunger pains may strike folks at different times all through the day, decreasing or satiating them is a common issue for people either trying to shed pounds or maintain a particular weight.

Foods that increase satiety include:

- Whole grains like rye, oats, barley and corn. The high-volume & low-energy density plus the rather lower palatability of the whole-grains may promote a feeling of fullness.

 - Fiber like resistant starch & oligosaccharides. In healthy individuals, resistant starch isn’t digested in the smallintestine and hence presents the benefits of soluble as well as insoluble fiber.

Oligosaccharides – complex carbohydrates found in legumes and beans – help maintain normal blood sugar levels when consumed as part of a meal. Akin to resistant starch, they escape digestion in the small intestine & finish up being  metabolized & ejected from the large intestine.

- Protein plays a significant role in managing hunger and hunger satiating protein foods include soy, which triggers the release of CCK (cholecystokinin), a hormone that helps suppress appetite; whey, which stimulates numerous gastrointestinal hormones which are believed to regulate the brain’s appetite control; egg, which supplies protein in the form of easily available, vital amino acids; & potato protein extract that promises optimal satiety by facilitating CCK’s release.

- Almonds.  One ounce of almonds has 6 gms of protein & they are often recommended as snacks by weight loss programs due to their role in satiety. 

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Gastric Bypass Helps Improve Diabetes Quickly

Gastric bypass weight loss surgery, according to a new study, appears to improve type 2 diabetes much before there is significant weight loss.

When patients who underwent weight loss surgery were compared with those who lost similar amount of weight due to dieting, researchers discovered that the gastric bypass surgery patients showed reduced levels of amino acids – compounds associated with obesity, insulin resistance & diabetes.

In this study, the surgery patients also showed better blood sugar control. A month after bariatric surgery, all the patients were put off all diabetes medication. However, half the test subjects on strict diet still required treatment after losing similar amount of weight.

The study showed that bariatric surgery is much better than dieting when it comes to controlling glucose levels.

People opting for gastric bypass undergo a surgery called Roux-en-Y, wherein doctors surgically shrink the stomach size to prevent patients from eating too much.

The most interesting discovery was that amino acids, especially the branched-chain amino acids, significantly decreased following gastric bypass surgery as compared to similar weight loss on account of dieting.

Understanding how weight loss surgery affects metabolism may help determine effective diabetes treatments, a global epidemic that’s closely linked with obesity & an inactive lifestyle.

Vitamin D Deficiency Triggers Diabetes

Blood vitamin D levels below the normal range are associated with a heightened probability of developing diabetes.

Australian researchers have found that people with below-normal vitamin D levels definitely had a 57% greater possibility of developing type 2 diabetes as against those with normal Vitamin D levels.

The insulin produced by the body to regulate blood sugar levels is not optimally utilized in type 2 diabetes. Vitamin D helps by increasing insulin release.

Vitamin D is tied to reducing the risks of heart disease, asthma, and certain cancers. Nonetheless, there is not much evidence to show that taking Vitamin D supplements minimizes the risk.

The recommended daily intake of Vitamin D for adults is about 600 IU. The body manufactures Vitamin D in response to sunlight & it occurs naturally also in certain foods, like salmon, cod and eggs. The vitamin plays a vital role in calcium absorption.

Sedentary lifestyles and obesity are still the major risk factors in case of type 2 diabetes & may lead to depleted vitamin D levels.

 The surest way of reducing diabetes risk is by exercising and eating healthy.

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