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.

Antioxidant vitamins counter cognitive decline, but experts say eating healthy is better 

From HealthDay

Older adults with type 2 diabetes are apt to have memory problems after eating a meal loaded with fat, but a new study has found the damage can be undone if they take antioxidant vitamins along with the unhealthy food.

However, the researchers emphasize, it is better to eat healthy foods and not rely on vitamins to undo the cognitive harm.

“What we are aiming for is for people to actually eat healthier meals,” said study author Michael Herman Chui, a third-year medical student at the University of Toronto. His report is published in the July issue of Nutrition Research.

“From this study, we could conclude that if people continue to eat this kind of meal long-term, the memory impairment would potentially be long-lasting,” he said. His co-author is Dr. Carol E. Greenwood, a senior scientist at Baycrest Centre for Geriatric Care, a research and care facility affiliated with the University of Toronto.

In 2003, Greenwood published a paper finding that memory problems occurred after type 2 diabetics ate a meal of rapidly absorbed carbohydrates — in this case, half a bagel and white grape juice.

In the recent study, Greenwood and Chui added fat to the meal. They looked at the effects of the meal on the cognitive performance of 16 adults with type 2 diabetes, average age 63. The meal included 3,356 calories and had more than 50 grams of fat, more than 63 grams of carbs and more than 25 grams of protein. It included Danish pastry, cheddar cheese and yogurt with whipped cream.

They tested their cognitive performance on various tests 60 minutes and 105 minutes after eating the meal. On a second occasion, the researchers conducted the same tests after the participants ate the same meal but also took 1,000 milligrams of vitamin C and 800 IUs of vitamin E. On a third occasion, they tested the participants again after they had only water.

Eating the high-fat meal without vitamins caused performance to fall in verbal recall and working memory when tested 105 minutes later, compared to the water-only meal. After eating the high-fat meal, participants showed more forgetfulness of words and paragraph information in recall tests.

But when they ate the high-fat meal and took the vitamins, their performance was as good as after the water-only session, Chui said.

The vitamins are thought to work by reducing oxidative stress, which is triggered when levels of free radicals, unstable molecules that can damage brain and other tissues, are elevated. Eating unhealthy foods induces oxidative stress. Having type 2 diabetes is also associated with oxidative stress, which in turn is associated with vascular problems.

The study produced interesting results, said Lona Sandon, an assistant professor at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas. But she offered several caveats: The study was small, with only 16 participants. Comparing performance after a meal with vitamins to performance after having only water is not the best idea, she said.

“Of course, they would perform poorly with water only; there is no glucose getting to their brains,” she explained.

“Type 2 diabetics are encouraged to avoid high-fat meals and choose plenty of fruits and vegetables high in antioxidants,” she said.

More study is definitely needed, said Connie Diekman, director of university nutrition at Washington University in St. Louis. Among the unanswered questions: “The meal consumed was not a typical meal, so would the vitamins have similar effect on a more typical meal?”

If anything, Sandon said, the study reinforces standard advice that those with type 2 diabetes should avoid high-fat, rapidly absorbed carbohydrate meals for heart health, blood sugar control, and possibly brain health.

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.

From WebMD

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.

Many have high percentages of body fat, leaving them prone to heart disease, diabetes

From HealthDay

Despite appearances to the contrary, more than half of normal-weight Americans have a high percentage of body fat. And, like their overweight contemporaries, this makes them susceptible to heart disease, diabetes and other metabolic disorders, a new study says.

Men whose body fat is greater than 20 percent and women whose body fat is greater than 30 percent are suffering from “normal weight obesity,” the study authors said, even though their weight may be normal for their size.

“The prevalence of people with a high amount of body fat despite a normal weight is relatively high,” said lead researcher Dr. Francisco Lopez-Jimenez, a cardiologist with the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. “Many of these people have metabolic abnormalities.”

These findings should alert doctors that body weight isn’t the only way to protect against health problems caused by excess pounds, Lopez-Jimenez said. Even normal-weight people should be advised to exercise and eat a healthful diet to reduce their level of fat, especially belly fat, he added.

The findings were expected to be presented Tuesday at the American College of Cardiology’s annual meeting, in Chicago.

For the study, Lopez-Jimenez and his colleagues collected data on 2,127 people who participated in the U.S. government’s Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. Specifically, the researchers looked at risk factors for heart disease, diabetes, and metabolic syndrome, a precursor of diabetes.

The researchers found that 61 percent of the participants had levels of body fat that indicated “normal weight obesity.” In addition, Lopez-Jimenez’s group found changes in blood chemistry that can affect heart and metabolic health, including high cholesterol; high levels of leptin, a hormone found in fat and other tissues that’s involved in appetite regulation; and high rates of metabolic syndrome.

Lopez-Jimenez said the study shows that just because your weight may be normal for your size, it doesn’t mean you aren’t at risk for heart disease and diabetes.

“If you have a normal weight, don’t feel that everything is just OK,” Lopez-Jimenez said. “If you have an excess amount of fat, you might have metabolic abnormalities as well,” he said.

One expert agrees that normal body weight is not synonymous with good health.

“Body weight is a very blunt instrument; it is not a reliable gauge of obesity, or health, at the individual level,” said Dr. David L. Katz, director of the Prevention Research Center at Yale University School of Medicine. “For example, a muscular man may have a very high body weight, yet be perfectly fit and healthy. Many people whose body weight is in the normal range are anything but.”

And some people are vulnerable to weight gain in all the wrong places, such as in and around the vital organs of the abdomen, notably the liver, Katz said.

“Even a small amount of extra fat where it matters most can wreak metabolic havoc, increasing risk for diabetes and heart disease, while leaving you with a body weight that looks perfectly innocent,” Katz said. “Excess body fat in the belly is a menace, whatever your weight. This study should sensitize patients and providers alike to this concern.”