Diabetes

Gary Robins writes,"the La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology has created the first videos of the cell destruction that occurs in type 1 diabetes, an advance that could lead to better treatments for a disease that afflicts 3 million Americans."

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Most people know that diabetes  has reached epidemic proportions in the United States. But there's less awareness about prediabetes, a condition that frequently precedes diabetes. With prediabetes, a person's blood glucose levels are higher than normal, but not yet elevated enough to qualify as diabetes.

In the United States, a new case of diabetes is diagnosed every 30 seconds. And many of those people will be given drugs to treat the disease. You can control high blood sugar with medications, but they are not a cure and they can have side effects. They are also expensive, costing $400 or more a month for many patients.

Could dairy be a new weapon in the war on diabetes?

A new study in the Annals of Internal Medicine (AIM) says trans-palmitoleate from dairy fat might be useful in preventing diabetes.

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Dr. Gerald F. Joseph, MD tells us that an increasing number of women in the US have diabetes. Women with diabetes face some additional health risks during pregnancy such as having a very large baby, cesarean birth, or pregnancy-induced high blood pressure.

Childhood overweight is associated with various health-related consequences. Overweight children and adolescents may experience immediate health consequences and may be at risk for weight-related health problems in adulthood.

Psychosocial Risks

Madeline Ellis writes about the complexities of Crohns' Disease in July 2008 Medical Updates. She says that in what could be the largest study ever undertaken into the underlying genetics of common diseases, a team of scientists and clinicians have identified new genetic links that increase susceptibility to Crohn's disease, one of a group of diseases called inflammatory bowel disease (IBS) that causes inflammation, pain, and ulcers.