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Posts with tag Massachusetts General Hospital
Posted Aug 30th 2007 7:37AM by Allie Beatty
Filed under: Type 1, Childhood, Research, Fundraisers, Opinion, Blogs, Allie Beatty, Support, Personalities
In two weeks, Bernard Farrell will be riding in the Bike the Miles annual fundraiser to support Dr. Faustman's research to cure Type 1 diabetes. His participation is especially intrinsic because it is one day away from his 35th anniversary of becoming a Type 1 diabetic.
Bernard plans to raise $10,000 for Dr. Faustman's research. Last year he raised $7,500. The entire event raised a whopping $301,000! All of this funding is going toward the human trials to cure Type 1 diabetes. After discovering that the insulin-producing islet cells of the pancreas are capable of regeneration, Dr. Faustman now needs to test her treatment, already known to be safe in humans, to see if the effects are as positive as they were in the animal model.
It goes without say that this is terribly important for Bernard as much as it is for every man, woman and child touched by Type 1 diabetes. Bike the Miles is an annual event that was started by Susan Root and Jacqueline Fusco in 2004. Both, Susan and Jacqueline, have children who are Type 1 diabetics. Please visit Bernard's site to support his ride and the drive to cure Type 1 diabetes!
Posted Oct 22nd 2006 1:10PM by Allie Beatty
Filed under: Type 1, Type 2, Childhood, Adult Onset, Drugs, Events
What is all the diabetic buzz about these days? Byetta and Exubera are certainly two biggies. My intention is to tantalize your interest in these juicy topics and leave a little to the imagination. Don't fret, I have a direct route to the quickest answers to any burning questions about these monster topics.
Byetta is getting a lot of attention nowadays. It comes from a poisonous lizard, the Gila monster. So quite literally, it really is monstrous. But don't let that discourage you from looking into it as a potential enhancement to your diabetes management. Many people have been pleased with its appetite suppressing, weight reducing attributes. Call it a shot of heroism -- since you must take it by injection. Traditional drugs to treat type 2 diabetes tend to cause a surge in appetite and weight gain. Could Byetta be the brute force to reckon with these dispiriting effects?
Exubera, what do you have to say for yourself? You can start by bragging that over 90% of the patients who tested you in clinical trials have chosen to continue using you. So the question is does this stuff work? It sounds like the answer is a resounding YES. Exubera is the newest form of insulin to hit the market since the debut of insulin, around 1890 (but please, don't quote me). You inhale it! The common concerns for this delivery of insulin include: how accurate is the dosing? What will be the long-term effects on your lungs? How long does the inhaled dose last? Will it need to accompany injections of longer-acting insulin? View the dLife TV interview with Dr. David Nathan, of Massachusetts General Hospital, and Ed a type 2 diabetic who has used Exubera for 9 years.
dLifeTV clears the air with answers to some of the common questions about Byetta and Exubera. Watch dLifeTV, airing every Sunday evening on CNBC, 7:00 PM on the East coast, 6:00 PM Central time and every Sunday morning on DIRECTV channel 251 at 7.30 AM Eastern time zone.
Posted Aug 12th 2006 3:28PM by Diane Rixon
Filed under: Type 2, Diet, Lifestyle
A new study reported this week that babies are more likely to be overweight than babies born twenty years ago. We're not talking cute and chubby. We're talking overweight in a bad way, and this change reflects the overall problem with rising obesity levels in the US. It's a big problem because being overweight early in life predisposes children to a host of health problems, including Type 2 diabetes.
The researchers, who published their findings in the journal
Obesity, also say that one of the reasons why so many babies are so fat is that many mothers are diabetic and/or overweight before or during pregnancy. The solution, according to the experts, is to educate women about healthy living. Says Laura Riley, a doctor at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, "Pregnant women need to be much more aware of what the implications are of what they do." Problem is, it's going to take a lot more to change peoples' lifestyle habits than handing out nutrition pamphlets at the doctor's office...
Posted Jul 21st 2006 3:19PM by Diane Rixon
Filed under: Type 2, Lifestyle
Genetics affects diabetes risk...but lifestyle is still the most important factor at play. That's the conclusion of a new study, which showed that a certain gene variant gives people a substantially increased risk for developing Type 2 - an eighty percent higher risk, in fact.
But before you throw up your hands and say "I can't fight Mother Nature," bear this in mind: the researcher also said that a healthy lifestyle is enough to pretty much cancel out that genetic risk. In essence, lifestyle trumps genetics, says study author Dr. Jose C. Florez, from Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School. And the lifestyle changes required are nothing too major: just losing a little weight and exgaging in moderate daily exercise is enough to do the trick. "Environment can overcome the genetics you have received," says Florez.
The gene in question is known as TCF7L2 and had been identified with Type 2 diabetes by a previous study. This latest study aimed to see if variants in the gene could be usued to predict who would have Type 2 diabetes. Health information was gathered for nearly 3,500 people and, for those people, the researchers gathered genetic information along with a check on insulin secretion and sensitivity. This was repeated one year later. This data was used to calculate risk in each participant.
