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Cord Blood for Diabetics

November 19th, 2008

From ivanhoe.com

Nearly three million children and adults in this country live with type 1 diabetes; a disease that will shorten their lifespan and put them at risk for kidney failure, blindness and heart disease. A medical first may come from umbilical cord blood.

Nothing stops 11-year-old Barrett Ross from playing his favorite sport, football … not even having type 1 diabetes.

“I’m just like a regular kid,” he told Ivanhoe “I just get a couple more shots and a couple more pricks than other kids.”

Barrett gives himself insulin shots and pricks his finger up to eight times a day. He also carefully monitors everything he eats. When Barrett was first diagnosed, his parents enrolled him in a clinical trial testing umbilical cord blood infusions.

“I contacted them immediately through e-mail and told them that Barrett was diagnosed within the last 24 hours and that we had saved cord blood,” Christine Ross, Barrett’s mom, recalled.

When parents choose to bank their newborn’s umbilical cord blood, it can later be used for research. At the University of Florida, 20 children were given a one-time infusion of their own cord blood. Researchers say stem cells in the blood may slow the immune attack of diabetes so the pancreas destroys fewer “good” cells that produce insulin. Some of the kids who had the infusion required less insulin and had better blood sugar control.

“It is very exciting,” Desmond Schatz, M.D., a pediatric endocrinologist at The University of Florida in Gainesville, said. “I take care of children with diabetes all the time. I know what it is that they go through.”

Barrett used to take 30 units of insulin a day. After the infusion he needs less than 10, and after two years of diabetes, his body is still producing some insulin.

“The results that we have experienced as a result of this study, in my mind are staggering,” Brian Ross, Barrett’s dad, said.

It’s just one more way Barrett proves nothing can slow him down.

“Diabetes can’t stop you from anything,” Barrett declared.

Researchers hope cord blood infusions could one day become part of a standard treatment plan for kids with type 1 diabetes. A decade ago, less than one percent of Americans banked cord blood. Today that figure has grown to about four percent. All parents have the option of banking a newborn’s cord blood, but it can cost up to $2,000 up front and about $100 a year to store it.

Diabetes Cases Almost Double in U.S. in 10 Years, Led by South

November 3rd, 2008

From bloomberg.com
New cases of diabetes almost doubled over 10 years in the U.S., a trend worsened by high rates of obesity and inactivity in the South, a study of 33 states found.

The U.S. rate of diabetes increased to 9.1 cases for every 1,000 people in 2005-2007 from 4.8 in 1995-1997, according to the study by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It’s the first study to describe the geographic distribution of diabetes cases, the Atlanta-based agency said.

Diabetes is the seventh-leading cause of death in the U.S. and can lead to heart diseases, blindness, kidney failure and amputation, according to the National Institutes of Health, a federal agency. Studies have shown that obesity, idleness and too much sugary soda and fruit juice can increase risk of contracting the disease.

“We must step up efforts to prevent and control diabetes, particularly in the southern U.S.,” said Karen Kirtland, the lead author of the report and a diabetes researcher at the CDC. “Changes such as weight loss combined with moderate physical activity are important steps.”

States with the highest rates, adjusted for age, were mostly in the South: Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas. Minnesota had the fewest cases, with five of every 1,000 people, and West Virginia had the most, with 13. The report didn’t explore why the rate varied.

Sugar Buildup

Most people with diabetes have resistance to insulin, which the body uses to convert blood sugar to energy. In people with diabetes, sugar builds up over time, harming nerves and blood vessels. Two-thirds of diabetics eventually die from heart attack or stroke, according to NIH, in Bethesda, Maryland.

The increasing rate of diabetes in the report is consistent with other studies, the CDC said. The agency said in June that the number of Americans with diabetes jumped 15 percent in two years to 24 million in 2007. A quarter of people ages 60 and older had diabetes, the CDC said.

Diabetes treatments include insulin made by Eli Lilly & Co. and Novo Nordisk A/S, the world’s biggest insulin maker. A generic pill metformin helps control the amount of glucose in the blood. Other treatments, such as Lilly’s Byetta and Takeda Pharmaceutical Co.’s Actos, help control blood sugar.

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CDC: About 8 percent of Americans have diabetes
August 5th, 2008

From Associated Press

The number of Americans with diabetes has grown to about 24 million people, or roughly 8 percent of the U.S. population, the government said Tuesday.

A report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, based on data from 2007, said the number represents an increase of about 3 million over two years. The CDC estimates another 57 million people have blood sugar abnormalities called pre-diabetes, which puts people at increased risk for the disease.

The percentage of people unaware that they have diabetes fell from 30 percent to 25 percent, according to the study.

Dr. Ann Albright, director of the CDC Division of Diabetes Translation, said the report has “both good news and bad news.”

“It is concerning to know that we have more people developing diabetes, and these data are a reminder of the importance of increasing awareness of this condition, especially among people who are at high risk,” Albright said in a statement.

“On the other hand, it is good to see that more people are aware that they have diabetes.”

A message left Tuesday night seeking further comment from the CDC wasn’t immediately returned.

The disease results from defects in insulin production that cause sugar to build up in the body. It is the seventh leading cause of death in the country and can cause serious health problems including heart disease, blindness, kidney failure and amputations.

Among adults, diabetes increased in both men and women and in all age groups, but still disproportionately affects the elderly. Almost 25 percent of the population 60 years and older had diabetes in 2007.

After adjusting for population age differences between various groups, the rate of diagnosed diabetes was highest among American Indians and Alaska Natives (16.5 percent). This was followed by blacks (11.8 percent) and Hispanics (10.4 percent), which includes rates for Puerto Ricans (12.6 percent), Mexican Americans (11.9 percent), and Cubans (8.2 percent).

By comparison, the rate for Asian Americans was 7.5 percent, with whites at 6.6 percent.

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Diet, exercise can delay diabetes for years: study
May 26th, 2008

From Reuters

Drinking less alcohol, eating more vegetables and exercising can prevent or delay the onset of diabetes, researchers said on Friday in a study showing that lifestyle changes can make a big difference.

Diet and exercise reduced the incidence of diabetes by about 43 percent over 20 years among 577 high-risk Chinese adults, the researchers reported in the journal Lancet.

At the end of the 20 years, 80 percent of those who changed what they ate and exercised more had diabetes, compared with 93 percent who made no changes, said Guangwei Li of the China-Japan Friendship Hospital in Beijing and Ping Zhang at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The findings came as part of a series of studies addressing new research about diabetes, which affects 246 million adults worldwide, and accounts for 6 percent of all global deaths.

“The challenge is to translate research findings into substantial clinical improvements for patients. Although prospects are hopeful, they are not assured,” the Lancet wrote in a commentary.

Type 2 diabetes accounts for about 90 percent of all diabetes cases and is closely linked to obesity and physical inactivity. Type 1 diabetes is an auto-immune disease often diagnosed at an early age.

The International Diabetes Federation estimates more than 380 million people will have a form of diabetes by 2025 as more developing nations adopt a Western lifestyle.

The researchers followed 577 Chinese adults at risk of diabetes over a 20-year period to see how prodding people to change their lifestyles could affect their health.

The volunteers were assigned to either a control group or one of three groups that included an improved diet, better exercise or a combination of both.

The researchers did not say what specific foods or amount of exercise contributed to the health improvements but said the findings provide an effective strategy to deal with a disease that kills about 3 million people worldwide each year.

“This study has shown that … group-based interventions targeting lifestyle changes such as diet and exercise produce a durable and long-lasting reduction in incidence of type 2 diabetes,” the researchers wrote.

Another team reported that insulin infusions or multiple daily injections given early to people with newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes helped the body’s insulin-producing cells and restored blood sugar control faster than standard pills.

Too much glucose, or blood sugar, in the blood — a hallmark of diabetes — can damage the eyes and kidneys, and also leads to heart disease, stroke and limb amputations.

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New Clue to Milk and Diabetes Link?
May 11th, 2008

FromWebMD

The reaction of an infant’s immature immune system to a protein found in cow’s milk infant formula may explain the suspected link between early consumption of cow’s milk and an increased risk of developing type 1 diabetes later, according to a new study.

But experts who reviewed the study for WebMD say the research is mixed on the suspected link and the new report does not offer conclusive proof of cause and effect. While these experts strongly support breastfeeding, they say those mothers who can’t or choose not to breastfeed shouldn’t be alarmed by the report.

The Formula-Diabetes Theory

The protein under study, called beta-lactoglobulin, is found in cow’s milk but not human breast milk. It is similar in structure to the human protein glycodelin, writes Marcia F. Goldfarb, author of the new report.

The report is published in the letters section of the Journal of Proteome Research. Goldfarb directs Anatek-EP, a contract protein research laboratory in Portland, Maine.

An infant’s immature immune system may destroy the glycodelin in an effort to destroy the look-alike “foreign” protein beta-lactoglobulin, Goldfarb says.

Glycodelin controls the production of the body’s T-cells, which help protect against infection. If glycodelin is destroyed, there could be an overproduction of T cells, she says.

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