Category Archives: Diabetes

ELKINS The West Virginia University Extension Service in Barbour and Randolph counties will be offering free Dining with Diabetes classes in Philippi and Elkins.

Elkins classes will be held from 6 to 8 p.m. on March 13, 20, 27 and April 3 at the WVU Randolph County Extension Office. Philippi classes will be held from 10 a.m. to noon on March 14, 21, 28 and April 4 at the Philippi Senior Center.

Dining with Diabetes is a once-a-week class that runs for four weeks with a three-month follow-up class in May. This class is open to those with diabetes and their family members. The classes are free, but space is limited and pre-registration is required by March 8. Participants are encouraged to attend all class sessions.

Those in the class will learn how to prepare meals that are healthy, easy and tasty. Recipes will be demonstrated and participants will have the opportunity to taste each one. Participants will also learn up-to-date information on nutrition, meal planning and exercise as well as how to understand common diabetes-related medical tests. Recipes and handouts will be given to each participant.

Diabetes is a very serious and costly disease, but research has shown that those who learn to manage their blood glucose (sugar) levels, eat healthy and exercise regularly can lower their risk of complications and lead a healthier and more productive life.

The WVU Extension Service cooperates with Davis Medical Center registered dieticians to deliver the program.

For more information or to register for the morning Philippi classes, call the WVU Barbour County Extension office at 304-457-3254 by March 8. For more information or to register for the evening Elkins classes, call the WVU Randolph County Extension office at 304-636-2455 by March 8.

ELKINS Anthony Blackburn, 26, of Elkins, was sentenced to 19 month incarceration for illegally possessing a ...

ELKINS Jason Wayne Russell, 39, of Moorefield, was sentenced to 33 months incarceration for distributing ...

ELKINS Jacob Daniel Anthony, 22, of Weston, was sentenced to five years probation for possession of stolen ...

BUCKHANNON The Office of Admission at West Virginia Wesleyan College will hold the 26th annual Orange & ...

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Dining and Diabetes classes offered - The Inter-Mountain

Nacho Fernandez came through the ranks at Real Madrid.

Real Madrid defender Nacho Fernandez has said he was told at the age of 12 that he would not be able to have a career in football because of his type one diabetes.

Nacho, 27, made his 100th senior appearance for the Liga leaders in Saturday's win at Osasuna.

But it once seemed his dream of playing professionally would never happen, he told UEFA in quotes reported by Madrid's official website.

"I had been playing for two years at Real Madrid and it was a tough time," he said. "I remember, when I went into the hospital, the doctor who saw me wasn't the one who should have seen me.

"That doctor told me that I couldn't continue playing football and it was a really bad weekend for me.

"But three days later I saw Dr Ramirez, someone I'm very fond of. He told me the opposite -- that I had not finished with football at all."

Asked whether being diabetic meant there were limits on what he could do, Nacho said: "I am lucky to play football, I like to play all kinds of sports, exactly because of that, because it is very important to do physical activity.

"I have no limitations. There are meals that I have to be a little more careful with but I eat everything and I am lucky to have it well controlled.

"It makes you be a more responsible person and take more care of yourself."

Nacho has spent his whole career at the Bernabeu after coming through the ranks and said that meant "you know that when you wear this shirt you have that responsibility."

"You are playing for the best team in the world and, from a young age, you are learning things that the club teaches you," he added.

"When you reach the first team, the dimensions are much greater and people look at you through a magnifying glass."

He praised coach Zinedine Zidane, saying he was doing "a very good job."

"I like him because he's a bit like me, a quiet person that does not get bothered when a problem comes along," he said. "Thanks to him we have achieved important things, and I hope it continues this way."

Dermot Corrigan is a Madrid-based football writer who covers La Liga and the Spain national team for ESPN FC. Follow him on Twitter @dermotmcorrigan

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Real Madrid's Nacho Fernandez feared diabetes would end football dreams - ESPN FC

A recent study reported that diabetes is the third leading cause of death in the United States, up from seventh in 2010.

This study also reported that life expectancy has slowed down or even decreased, mainly due to the rise of diabetes and obesity in our country. Per recent Centers for Disease Control statistics, 21.95 million people in the United States, or 9.3 percent of the population, in 2014 had diabetes. In those 65 years old and older, more than 25 percent have diabetes, and that percentage is expected to double by 2050 if current trends continue.

If glucose levels are high over long periods of time, heart disease, blindness, kidney disease, nerve damage and other complications can result. But prevention of these complications is possible. The American Diabetes Association recommends that most non-pregnant adults with diabetes maintain a hemoglobin A1c (a 3-month blood sugar average) less than 7 percent, with daily blood sugars less than 130 mg/dl after fasting and less than 180 mg/dl two hours after eating.

Diabetes costs $245 billion a year; $69 billion of those costs are indirect, such as lost productivity and increased absenteeism from work. Patients with diabetes have medical costs twice as much as those without diabetes. The risk of death in adults with diabetes is 50 percent higher than for adults without diabetes. Prediabetes (often a precursor to type 2 diabetes) currently has a prevalence of 86 million, or 30 percent of the population, and nine out of 10 of those folks are unaware they have it. In the Medicare population, more than half have prediabetes, based on estimates from the Centers for Disease Control.

Recent statistics estimate that 90 percent of the cases of type 2 diabetes can be prevented through lifestyle change, specifically Diabetes Prevention Programs. Structured DPPs are effective interventions lasting one year and taught by a lifestyle coach. Participants in the DPP learn about healthy eating, ways to incorporate exercise, how to manage stress and set up their environment and life for success.

The goal of the DPP is to have participants lose 7 percent of their body weight over the course of a year through nutrition interventions and exercising at least 150 minutes per week. The results from the DPP suggest over a 50 percent reduction in acquiring type 2 diabetes for those at risk. In 2018, Medicare will pay for the DPP as long as the program goes through the CDC accreditation process.

The potential is there to slow the rate of type 2 diabetes in our country. If you or someone you love is concerned about having prediabetes, ask your doctor to do a simple blood test such as a hemoglobin A1C or take the CDC risk test found at cdc.gov/diabetes/prevention/pdf/prediabetestest.pdf.

We can turn the tide of diabetes in our country by screening all people with risk factors for diabetes and getting them into a DPP. Such opportunities exist in Missoula and Western Montana. As Robert Ratner, M.D., chief scientific officer for the American Diabetes Association once said, We must prevent diabetes or our health system will be consumed by it. Now is the time!

Jennifer Troupe, MS, RD, is the manager of Providence Endocrinology, Diabetes and Nutrition Center

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Nurse's Notes: The state of diabetes in America - The Missoulian

Published on February 14th, 2017 | by James Ayre

February 14th, 2017 by James Ayre

A new study led by USC researchers has found that Latino children who live in places with high levels of air pollution are more likely to develop Type 2 diabetes as a result of high levels of air pollution apparently working to make insulin-creating cells less efficient.

While the research was focused solely on low-income Latino children, the findings are very likely to have relevance to others living in areas with high levels of air pollution in particular, in areas with high levels of nitrogen dioxide (NOx) and particulate matter 2.5 (PM2.5) in the air, the pollutants that were especially high in the regions in question.

Exposure to heightened air pollution during childhood increases the risk for Hispanic children to become obese and, independent of that, to also develop Type 2 diabetes, stated Michael Goran, co-director of the Diabetes and Obesity Research Institute at the Keck School of Medicine of USC. Poor air quality appears to be a catalyst for obesity and diabetes in children, but the conditions probably are forged via different pathways.

The press release provides more:

Scientists tracked childrens health and respective levels of residential air pollution for about 3.5 years before associating chronic unhealthy air exposure to a breakdown in beta cells, special pancreatic cells that secrete insulin and maintain the appropriate sugar level in the bloodstream.

By the time the children turned 18, their insulin-creating pancreatic cells were 13% less efficient than normal, making these individuals more prone to eventually developing Type 2 diabetes, researchers said.

Additionally, as might be expected, the fully functioning beta cells were overworking themselves to make up for the less efficient ones, but then that burns them out. Going on:

As the cells failed to secrete insulin efficiently, regulation of sugar in the bloodstream overwhelmed the system, heightening the risk of Type 2 diabetes.

Each year the participants fasted and then came to the Childhood Obesity Research Center at USC for a physical exam and to have their glucose and insulin levels measured over a span of 2 hours. When they turned 18, the participants had nearly 27% higher blood insulin after having fasted for 12 hours. During their 2-hour glucose test, they had about 36% more insulin than normal, indicating that the body was becoming less responsive to insulin. This observation illustrated that increased exposure to air pollution was associated with increased risk factors for Type 2 diabetes.

Interestingly, when the data was adjusted for socioeconomic status and body fat, the effect of long-term exposure to air pollution (as measured at age 18) was greater than that of a 5% gain in body weight. Thats pretty amazing, and makes it clear that the modern diabetes epidemic is notsimply a matter of drinking too much branded sugar water.

Using data provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, we can see that diabetes occurrence in the US has roughly quadrupled during just the last 4 decades. If this trend was to continue, then 1 out of every 3 US residents would have diabetes by 2050. Thats 1 out of every 3 US residents, not just 1 out of every 3 adult residents kids, babies, everyone.

Diabetes is occurring in epidemic proportion in the US and the developed world, commented Frank Gilliland, senior author and a professor of preventive medicine at the Keck School of Medicine. It has been the conventional wisdom that this increase in diabetes is the result of an uptick in obesity due to sedentary lifespans and calorie-dense diets. Our study shows air pollution also contributes to Type 2 diabetes risk.

It should probably be noted here that there are an estimated ~8.1 million people in the US whohave diabetes buthavent been diagnosed for whatever reasons. So, essentially, roughly 28% of people who have diabetes in the US may not know it (having not been diagnosed by a medical professional).

The new research was published in the journal Diabetes.

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Tags: air pollution, diabetes, NOx, PM 2.5, USC

James Ayre 's background is predominantly in geopolitics and history, but he has an obsessive interest in pretty much everything. After an early life spent in the Imperial Free City of Dortmund, James followed the river Ruhr to Cofbuokheim, where he attended the University of Astnide. And where he also briefly considered entering the coal mining business. He currently writes for a living, on a broad variety of subjects, ranging from science, to politics, to military history, to renewable energy. You can follow his work on Google+.

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Study: Air Pollution & Heightened Risk Of Type 2 Diabetes Tied Together (In Obese Latino Children, & Possibly Others ... - CleanTechnica

John Marshall, Natalie Haley and Maleeyah Grumbs were honored at Saturday's DAR tea.(Photo: Beth Smith)

Henderson County high school student Maleeyah Gumbs had one piece of information -- the topic of the essay.

With that, the 17-year-old senior sat down and composed an award winning essay entitled, "How Do the Combined Actions of Many Good Citizens Keep Our Nation Moving Forward."

Gumbs, the daughter of Angelyn Gumbs, was honored Saturday for her essay by the Daughters of the American Revolution General Samuel Hopkins Chapter. The essay alone wouldn't be enough though to present her with the Good Citizen Award. In fact, Gumbs was also honored forliving as an example of a good citizen through activities such as being part of the Family, Career and Community Leaders of America, Colonelette Dance Team, Rise and Mentor, and being an active member of her youth group at First United Methodist Church.

"I didn't get the topic until I was in the room and about to write the essay," she said. "I was nervous."

"I was surprised," Gumbs said when she was notified that she'd won the award.

Gumbs was one of three Henderson County residents to be lauded by the DAR at the organization's 121st annual tea and award ceremony.

Natalie Haley, an eighth-grader at Holy Name School and the daughter of Tracy and Jenny Haley, was named the winner of the American History Essay.

The topic of Haley's essay was "Celebrating a Century: America's National Parks" which worked out well since she visited Yellowstone National Park for fall break in October of 2016.

Haley said her favorite part of the trip to Yellowstone was visiting "the hot springs. They smelled like sulphur. I didn't like that part because it didn't smell very good, but they are really pretty, and I got a lot of good pics."

The HNS student said winningthe American History Essay Award was a "surprise, because our whole class had done it and there's a lot of good writers in the class. It's such an honor to win."

Finally on Saturday, the DAR presented John Marshall, a local pharmacist and president of the Henderson County Diabetes Coalition, with the Community Service Award.

In presenting the award, Karen Goldie, the chairman of the community service committee, said that Marshall has volunteered many hours with the diabetes coalition which exists "to advocate, educate and support those with diabetes."

He has also spent numerous hours, she said, volunteering with the Hunting Down Diabetes 10K run and the 5K run/walk.

"John has worked many hours on this run. He's been diligent about signing people up as sponsors, arranging for awards and countless other tasks too numerous to even detail here ... He rolls with the punches. If there are any problems, he works through them and keeps going."

Marshall is also a Lions Club member and serves during the club's auction and the Arts and Crafts Fair.

"I was floored to receive this award," Marshall said. "I never really thought I was ever really considered for it."

Working with the diabetes coalition, he said, "is a passion. I want to help people find ways to pay for their insulin and diabetic supplies and to work with the kids (with diabetes) and make sure they have everything they need."

Read or Share this story: http://www.thegleaner.com/story/news/2017/02/13/dar-awards-tea-honors-local-youths-diabetes-coalition-president/97844860/

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DAR Awards Tea honors local youths, diabetes coalition president - The Gleaner

February 13, 2017 A depiction of the double helical structure of DNA. Its four coding units (A, T, C, G) are color-coded in pink, orange, purple and yellow. Credit: NHGRI

Why do some people get Type 2 diabetes, while others who live the same lifestyle never do?

For decades, scientists have tried to solve this mystery - and have found more than 80 tiny DNA differences that seem to raise the risk of the disease in some people, or protect others from the damagingly high levels of blood sugar that are its hallmark.

But no one "Type 2 diabetes signature" has emerged from this search.

Now, a team of scientists has reported a discovery that might explain how multiple genetic flaws can lead to the same disease.

They've identified something that some of those diabetes-linked genetic defects have in common: they seem to change the way certain cells in the pancreas "read" their genes.

The discovery could eventually help lead to more personalized treatments for diabetes. But for now, it's the first demonstration that many Type 2 diabetes-linked DNA changes have to do with the same DNA-reading molecule. Called Regulatory Factor X, or RFX, it's a master regulator for a number of genes.

The team reporting the findings in a new paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences comes from the University of Michigan, National Institutes of Health, Jackson Laboratory for Genomic Medicine, University of North Carolina, and the University of Southern California.

They report that many diabetes-linked DNA changes affect the ability of RFX to bind to specific locations in the genomes of pancreas cell clusters called islets. And that in turn changes the cells' ability to carry out important functions.

Islets contain the cells that make hormones, including insulin and glucagon, which keep blood sugar balanced in healthy people. In people with diabetes, that regulation goes awry - leading to a range of health problems that can develop over many years.

"We have found that many of the subtle DNA spelling differences that increase risk of Type 2 diabetes appear to disrupt a common regulatory grammar in islet cells," says Stephen C.J. Parker, Ph.D., an assistant professor of computational medicine and bioinformatics, and of human genetics, at the U-M Medical School. "RFX is probably unable to read the misspelled words, and this disruption of regulatory grammar plays a significant role in the genetic risk of Type 2 diabetes."

Parker is one of four co-senior authors on the paper, which also includes Michael Boehnke, Ph.D., of the U-M School of Public Health's Department of Biostatistics, Francis Collins, M.D., Ph.D., director of the National Institutes of Health, and Michael L. Stitzel, Ph.D. of the Jackson Laboratory.

Prior to their current faculty positions Parker and Stitzel worked in Collins' lab at the National Human Genome Research Institute. Parker's graduate student, Arushi Varshney, is one of the paper's co-first authors with Laura Scott, Ph.D., and Ryan Welch, Ph.D., of the U-M School of Public Health's Department of Biostatistics and Michael Erdos, Ph.D., of the National Human Genome Research Institute.

They performed an extensive examination of DNA from islet samples isolated from 112 people. They characterized differences not just in DNA sequences, but also in the way DNA was packaged and modified by epigenetic factors, and the levels of gene expression products that indicated how often the genes had been read and transcribed.

This allowed them to track the "footprints" that RFX and other transcription factors leave on packaged DNA after they have done their job.

RFX and other factors don't bind directly to the part of a gene that encodes a protein that does a cellular job. Rather, they bind to a stretch of DNA near the gene - a runway of sorts.

But when genetic changes linked to Type 2 diabetes are present, that runway gets disrupted, and RFX can't bind as it should.

Each DNA change might alter this binding in a different way, leading to a slightly different effect on Type 2 diabetes risk or blood sugar regulation. But the common factor for many of these changes was its effect on the area where RFX is predicted to bind, in the cells of pancreatic islets.

So, says Parker, this shows how the genome - the actual sequence of DNAcan influence the epigenome, or the factors that influence gene expression.

The researchers note that a deadly form of diabetes seen in a handful of babies born each year may be related to RFX mutations. That condition, called Mitchell-Riley syndrome, involves neonatal diabetes and malformed pancreas, and is known to be caused by a rare autosomal recessive mutation of one form of RFX.

Explore further: Unique mapping of methylome in insulin-producing islets

More information: Genetic regulatory signatures underlying islet gene expression and type 2 diabetes, PNAS, http://www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.1621192114

Throughout our lives, our genes are affected by the way we live. Diet, exercise, age and diseases create imprints that are stored in something called methylome. Now, for the first time, researchers at the Lund University ...

Variations in non-coding sections of the genome might be important contributors to type 2 diabetes risk, according to a new study.

Problems with insulin secretion experienced by people with Type 2 diabetes, parallel similar problems with insulin-secreting beta cells in many individuals with Down syndrome. A new study, published on May 19 in PLOS Genetics ...

Personalized treatment for people with diabetes could be a step closer after researchers discovered how a single gene mutation fundamentally alters pancreatic development.

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Why do some people get Type 2 diabetes, while others who live the same lifestyle never do?

It is now possible to reprogram cells from the liver into the precursor cells that give rise to the pancreas by altering the activity of a single gene. A team of researchers at the Max Delbrck Center for Molecular Medicine ...

Keeping blood sugar levels within a safe range is key to managing both type 1 and type 2 diabetes. In a new finding that could lead to fewer complications for diabetes patients, Yale School of Medicine researchers have found ...

Latino children who live in areas with higher levels of air pollution have a heightened risk of developing Type 2 diabetes, according to a new USC-led study.

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Diabetes in your DNA? Scientists zero in on the genetic signature of risk - Medical Xpress

In this Wednesday, Jan. 11, 2017 photo, diabetes educator Kimberly P. Miller, BSN, RN, CDE, holds a Medtronic Minimed diabetes insulin pump in her office at CHI Memorial, in Chattanooga, Tenn. (Tim Barber/Chattanooga Times Free Press via AP) less In this Wednesday, Jan. 11, 2017 photo, diabetes educator Kimberly P. Miller, BSN, RN, CDE, holds a Medtronic Minimed diabetes insulin pump in her office at CHI Memorial, in Chattanooga, Tenn. (Tim ... more Photo: Tim Barber, AP In this Wednesday, Jan. 11, 2017 photo, diabetes educator Kimberly P. Miller, BSN, RN, CDE, talks about location options for new diabetes insulin pumps in her office at CHI Memorial, in Chattanooga, Tenn. (Tim Barber/Chattanooga Times Free Press via AP) less In this Wednesday, Jan. 11, 2017 photo, diabetes educator Kimberly P. Miller, BSN, RN, CDE, talks about location options for new diabetes insulin pumps in her office at CHI Memorial, in Chattanooga, Tenn. (Tim ... more Photo: Tim Barber, AP In this Wednesday, Jan. 11, 2017 photo, diabetes educator Kimberly P. Miller, BSN, RN, CDE, holds a Medtronic Minimed diabetes insulin pump in her office at CHI Memorial, in Chattanooga, Tenn. (Tim Barber/Chattanooga Times Free Press via AP) less In this Wednesday, Jan. 11, 2017 photo, diabetes educator Kimberly P. Miller, BSN, RN, CDE, holds a Medtronic Minimed diabetes insulin pump in her office at CHI Memorial, in Chattanooga, Tenn. (Tim ... more Photo: Tim Barber, AP

Local doctors encouraged by new diabetes treatment

CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. (AP) While the number of Tennesseans fighting diabetes continues to grow, doctors are encouraged by new treatment options they say may help prevent, or at least lessen, the impact of the chronic disease.

About 9 percent of the U.S. population has diabetes but the rate in Tennessee is close to 15 percent, said Kimberly Miller, a nurse and diabetes educator in CHI Memorial's Diabetes and Nutrition Center. Tennesseans are fatter than the national average and get less exercise, two factors that often lead to Type 2 diabetes, the most common form of the disease.

Untreated, diabetes can cause eye, kidney, and heart problems, or even death.

But diabetes specialists hope new technology and improvements in some old-fashioned techniques will help lower the number of people who get the disease and make it easier for those who have it to control their illness.

Diabetes is caused when the body is unable to manufacture sufficient insulin, or becomes resistant to it. Insulin is needed to break down sugars in food to provide energy to the cells in the body.

In its early stages, diabetes can be treated with exercise and changes in diet. But for certain types of diabetics, where the body is producing little or no insulin or has become resistant, a more aggressive approach is needed.

The normal way of treating full-blown diabetes is for patients to inject insulin before every meal and at bedtime. To gauge the proper dose, patients must test their blood sugar levels using a blood sample inserted into a device. Then they must inject insulin through a syringe, normally in the stomach or abdomen.

The process is time-consuming, painful and awkward. But new medical devices show promise for getting rid of at least some of the blood work, although they are not appropriate for all diabetics.

One category of device measures blood sugar levels automatically. The patient wears a patch or has a small tube (a catheter) inserted under the skin that measures blood sugar on a regular basis and transmits readings to a larger piece of equipment that displays the levels.

With a monitor, a patient can see their blood sugar, or glucose, levels rising or falling in time to take preventive action, Miller said. Some devices also transmit data remotely so family members or friends can help monitor patients and call for help if their blood sugar levels are getting out of line and the patient is doing nothing to correct them.

"The devices have been around for some time, but they used to be very inaccurate and difficult to use," said Dr. Ashley Shoemaker, a Vanderbilt University Medical Center professor whose clinic treats some 2,500 diabetic children annually. "Now they have become accurate enough that people are allowed to make medical decisions based on their numbers."

But once the patient gets a reading, he or she still needs to measure the proper amount of insulin and inject it. And until recently, patients also needed to take a blood sample a couple of times a day to be certain the device was working properly, Shoemaker said.

Being able to constantly monitor blood sugar levels is particularly important for people with Type 1 diabetes, sometimes referred to as juvenile diabetes, she said. Type 1 diabetes is rarer than Type 2, occurring in only about 5 percent of the population, but it can be harder to control because the pancreas does not produce any insulin at all, so regulating the insulin level artificially is critical.

Some Type 1 diabetics are now using a pump that can inject insulin on a regular basis. By giving regular small doses instead of irregular large doses, the pump can level out a patient's blood sugar levels.

"They are really small," said Dr. Asma Khan, an endocrinologist and diabetes specialist with Erlanger hospital. "The needle that goes under the skin is very thin, and then there is a tube that goes into the pump, that then goes into their pocket."

But not every patient likes the pump, she said. "Having something attached to their body, for some people that is strange," she said. "Some people feel that an injection is easier than working with the pump, which has buttons, and takes some working with."

The Holy Grail of a self-contained unit that would constantly monitor a patient's blood sugar level and adjust the insulin injections automatically, with no need of calibration, is still several years away, diabetes specialists agreed.

A new device from Medtronics set to go on sale in March, the MiniMed 670G, is getting a lot of attention, because it promises to combine the glucose monitor with the insulin pump. Other manufacturers are expected to offer their own comparable gear in a few months, Shoemaker said.

"I don't think we're that close to a cure or anything that's going to completely take the patient out of the loop," said Vanderbilt's Shoemaker. "As the technology continues to advance, we are hopeful that the human factor will become less and less burdensome."

But University of Tennessee College of Medicine diabetes specialist Dr. Jim Bailey believes that an increased focus on traditional ways of dealing with the disease may have a greater impact, although he wants to combine those old-fashioned ways with a modern twist.

Bailey agrees that devices such as the sensor patch and insulin pump are important for some people whose body is producing no insulin or is rejecting it. But he believes most diabetics should spend more time focusing on their diet and exercise.

"The most important cures for diabetes are ways to support people changing their lifestyle around healthy eating and physical activity," he said. "Those are the only real cures for diabetes."

Bailey knows that if doctors just tell people to eat more broccoli and fewer french fries, it is unlikely that patients will comply they need more incentive to change bad habits. So he has been testing two alternative approaches: one using text messages and the other a live person, a health coach.

First, the patient discusses his goals with his doctor. Then the doctor's office sends out regular text messages, as many as twice a day, asking patients how they are doing in meeting those goals. "They are motivational text messages tailored to the patient's interests," he said, "whether it is working on weight loss and healthy eating or in increasing a patient's activity or in taking their medicines correctly."

The health coaches take a similar approach.

"Doctors only have time for a short little visit and only a little bit of time to work on goal setting and working on lifestyle changes and how patients are taking their medicines," Bailey said. But the health coach can spend much more time with the patient. "What has been shown is that coaches really can help people increase their vegetable intake, decrease sugary food intake, increase their physical activity and get better control of their diabetes and feel better as well," he said.

Early studies have shown that both text messages and health coaches can work. Bailey won a $5 million grant last year to test the two approaches with diabetics in West Tennessee to see which approach works better.

"For the vast majority of diabetics, they can get control of their diabetes without insulin if they have enough support and the ability to change their diet and their physical activity," he said. "But it is hard."

___

Information from: Chattanooga Times Free Press, http://www.timesfreepress.com

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Local doctors encouraged by new diabetes treatment - SFGate

When she was just 11 months old, Billie Sue Wozniaks daughter Juno was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes, an autoimmune disease that affects 1.25 million people and approximately 200,000 children under age 20 in the United States.

The disease had affected several members of Billie Sues family, including her uncle, who passed away at the age of 30.

My first thought was, Her life is going to be short, the 38-year-old from Reno, Nevada recalled. The more that I learned, the more I found that many people with type 1 live longer and the treatment advances are really exciting.

While looking for treatments, Wozniak learned about encapsulation therapy, in which an encapsulated device containing insulin-producing islet cells derived from stem cells is implanted under the skin. The encapsulation device is designed to protect the cells from an autoimmune attack and may help people produce their own insulin.

After learning of the therapy through JDRF, Wozniak saw an ad on Facebook for Store-A-Tooth, a company that offers dental stem cell banking. She decided to move forward with the stem cell banking, just in case the encapsulation device became an option for Juno.

In March 2016, a dentist extracted four of Junos teeth, and sent them to a lab so her stem cells could be cryopreserved. Wozniak plans to bank the stem cells from Junos molars as well.

Its a riskI dont know for sure if it will work out, Wozniak said.

Dental stem cells: a future of possibilities

For years, stem cells from umbilical cord blood and bone marrow have been used to treat blood and bone marrow diseases, blood cancers and metabolic and immune disorders.

Although there is the potential for dental stem cells to be used in the same way, researchers are only beginning to delve into the possibilities.

Dental stem cells are not science fiction, said Dr. Jade Miller, president of the American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry. I think at some point in time, were going to see dental stem cells used by dentistson a daily practice.

Dental stem cells have the potential to produce dental tissue, bone, cartilage and muscle. They may be used to repair cavities, fix a tooth damaged from periodontal disease or bone loss, or even grow a tooth instead of using dental implants.

In fact, stem cells can be used to repair cracks in teeth and cavities, according to a recent mouse study published in the journal Scientific Reports.

Theres also some evidence that dental stem cells can produce nerve tissue, which might eliminate the need for root canals. A recent study out of Tufts University found that a collagen-based biomaterial used to deliver stem cells to the inside of damaged teeth can regenerate dental pulp-like tissues.

Dental stem cells may even be able to treat neurological disorders, spinal cord and traumatic brain injuries.

I believe those are the kinds of applications that will be the first uses of these cells, said Dr. Peter Verlander, Chief Scientific Officer for Store-A-Tooth.

When it comes to treating diseases like type 1 diabetes, dental stem cells also show promise. In fact, a study in the Journal of Dental Research found that dental stem cells were able to form islet-like aggregates that produce insulin.

Unlike umbilical cord blood where theres one chance to collect stem cells, dental stem cells can be collected from several teeth. Also, gathering stem cells from bone marrow requires invasive surgery and risk, and it can be painful and costly.

The stem cells found in baby teeth, known as mesenchymal cells, are similar to those found in other parts of the body, but not identical.

There are differences in these cells, depending on where they come from, Verlander said.

Whats more, mesenchymal stem cells themselves differ from hematopoietic, or blood-forming stem cells. Unlike hematopoietic stem cells, mesenchymal stem cells can expand.

From one tooth, we expect to generate hundreds of billions of cells, Verlander said.

Yet the use of dental stem cells is not without risks. For example, theres evidence that tumors can develop when stem cells are transplanted. Theres also a chance of an immune rejection, but this is less likely if a person uses his own stem cells, Miller said.

The process for banking stem cells from baby teeth is relatively simple. A dentist extracts the childs teeth when one-third of the root remains and the stem cells are still viable. Once the teeth are shipped and received, the cells are extracted, grown and cryopreserved.

Store-A-Tooths fees include a one-time payment of $1,749 and $120 per year for storage, in addition to the dentists fees for extraction.

For families who are interested in banking dental stem cells, they should know that theyre not necessarily a replacement for cord blood banking or bone marrow stem cells.

Theyre not interchangeable, we think of them as complementary, Verlander said.

Although the future is unclear for Junowho was born in 2008her mom is optimistic that shell be able to use the stem cells for herself and if not, someone else.

Ultimately, however, Wozniak hopes that if dental stem cells arent the answer, there will be a biological cure for type 1 diabetes.

I hold out hope that somewhere, someone is going to crack the code, she said.

Julie Revelant is a health journalist and a consultant who provides content marketing and copywriting services for the healthcare industry. She's also a mom of two. Learn more about Julie at revelantwriting.com.

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Can banking baby teeth treat diabetes? - Fox News

Science Daily

Giving the messages from fat cells a positive spin to prevent diabetes Science Daily Losing weight appears to reset the chemical messages that fat cells send to other parts of the body that otherwise would encourage the development of Type 2 diabetes, substantially reducing the risk of that disease, a team led by Children's National ...

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Giving the messages from fat cells a positive spin to prevent diabetes - Science Daily

McHENRY The Culvers in McHenry is partnering with JDRF Illinois to host a fundraiser Thursday to help raise money for type 1 diabetes research.

The fundraising event, called The Family Mini Mix Up, will be from 4 to 8 p.m. at 1101 Adams Drive, McHenry.

Along with collecting donations from guests, Culvers will offer specially priced $2 mini concrete mixers, with $1 from each mixer sold benefiting JDRF.

According to the Illinois chapter of JDRF, guests who have dined at Chicago-area Culvers restaurants since mid-January have donated their spare change to the organization.

Were grateful to the entire Culvers team for all of their support and encourage the community to dine with us on Feb. 16, JDRF Illinois Executive Director Mimi Crabtree said. Living with type 1 diabetes is difficult and even life-threatening. Those affected serve as an inspiration by facing the diseases challenges with courage and perseverance, and they dont let it stand in the way of achieving their goals.

McHenry is one of several participating Culvers restaurants across the state. Other participating locations include Island Lake, Arlington Heights and Lake Zurich.

For information about JDRF or type 1 diabetes, visit http://www.jdrf.org.

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McHenry Culver's to host fundraiser for diabetes research - Northwest Herald