Officials at the University of Missouri Health Care have announced a new policy to prohibit smoking on all property owned by its hospitals.
A smoking ban announced by University of Missouri Health Care includes all outdoor areas and vehicles parked on hospital property. In fact, MU health employees can even be disciplined for smelling like cigarette smoke.
The reason is quite simple: the smell of tobacco triggers cravings among patients suffering from respiratory illness who are trying to quite smoking.
Note that the ban is not a law but simply a hospital policy – lawmakers are not involved. The only problem I see is enforcement. From an objective sense, what constitutes smelling like smoke?

It’s an interesting question, considering that the prevalence of diabetes in the U.S. population almost doubled between 1980 and 2004 and the average HbA1c for diabetic patients seeing primary care physicians is 9.7%. For those under the care of endocrinologists HbA1c levels are not much better, averaging 9.3%.
Dr. Charles Grim, IHS Directors, testified before the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs:

”In spite of our best efforts and successes so far in treating diabetes, the epidemic of diabetes continues to increase. Although diabetes is also increasing in the U.S. population as a whole, the increase in the Indian population is far more dramatic. “

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Some 1.2 percent of children in an area of Sweden have been shown to have Type-2 diabetes. The first case of adult-onset diabetes in a Swedish teenager was recorded just two years ago.
I suppose the question to be asked is whether or not methods for diagnosing have improved or the standards for the disease have changes. This seems like a sudden and instantaneous change despite a more gradual evolution of diet.
Nevertheless, the reports are certainly sad and call for a greater attention to diet and exercise.
More news on the domestic epidemic can be found here.

It can help:

The Northwest Arkansas American Diabetes Association is preparing now for its fifth annual “Kiss A Pig” Gala to raise research dollars for a cure for diabetes. The identities of the “kiss a pig” candidates will be revealed in a Jan. 9 media kickoff.
Seventeen community leaders will take on being candidates and run the race in raising the most sponsorship dollars during the campaign period. Whoever wins gets to kiss the pig, on stage, during the gala.

Read the rest.

Diabetes is a growing, silent scourge:

The prevalence of diabetes has more than doubled in the United States since 1990, fed by a combination of rising obesity, lifestyle changes and genetics, specialists say.
There are an estimated 20.8 million diabetics in the country today, and the president of the American Diabetes Association says there could be as many as 100 million in the coming decades.
[snip]
The 2005 federal estimate of 20.8 million diabetics includes 14.6 million diagnosed cases and 6.2 million undiagnosed cases, according to Jeff Lancashire, a spokesman for the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), which is part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The number of diagnosed cases rose from 6.7 million in 1990, according to the CDC.

A goal of this blog is to evoke thought in the minds of those who have ignored the obvious and whose risk of developing diabetes is high. Another objective is to provide hope for those who are suffering. Technological advances are all around an our understanding of the disease is increasing – help is coming!

Yes, it is an epidemic:

By 2050, 12 percent of US citizens will have diabetes, a total of 48.3 million people, federal health officials from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta estimate.
And the number could be higher if the rate of obesity among Americans continues to rise, they warn. The estimates also assume that the incidence of diabetes seen in 2004 will remain constant.

Diabetes, as a widespread chronic disease, touches each one of our lives to varying degrees but always in a profound manner. As a nation, it is high time we prioritize the diagnosis of insulin resistance, prevention of type II diabetes, reduction of the risk of developing complications related to diabetes, and technologies that will provide therapeutic treatment or even an end of diabetes.

Immy Fryzel, the Orlando Predators’ offensive specialist, was recently diagnosed with diabetes following weight loss and dehydration:

Fryzel, 24, said he worried that the problem was something more serious. He considered the test results, to some extent, a relief.

His blood sugars were three times normal.

Diabetes in dogs and cats is not that uncommon and treatment typically requires both monitoring of glucose and daily injections of insulin to metabolize dietary glucose. One of the challenges faced by pet owners is that traditional blood glucose meters, designed for human blood, can be inaccurate when applied to animals
Hand-held glucose meters measure glucose in the entire blood sample — glucose that is present in the plasma and the red blood cells (RBCs). The glucose from the RBCs equilibrates with the glucose from the plasma portion as the test is being performed. However, in cats and dogs, the distribution of glucose between the RBCs and plasma is significantly different than in humans. This causes the meters that are calibrated to human blood to read low. The AlphaTRAK glucose monitor has been developed to account for these differences in RBCs, thus providing extremely accurate glucose results.
Chicago-based Abbott Laboratories has developed a solution and is now marketing a product aimed at helping pets with diabetes–the AlphaTrak, a handheld blood glucose monitoring system designed specifically for cats and dogs. The device allows veterinarians and pet owners to test pets’ blood sugar rapidly, conveniently and accurately using a small blood sample.
“This is an important step forward for blood glucose testing of diabetic dogs and cats,” said Dr. Susan Sallee, a veterinarian at Grayslake Animal Hospital in Grayslake, Ill., one of the participating AlphaTRAK clinical trial
sites. “While some larger veterinary clinics do have onsite general chemistry instruments for blood analysis, many do not, and using human meters to test pets is often one of the only options many vets and pet owners have for immediate results. But those results can be deceptive, and it’s critical that we be as accurate as possible to avoid hypoglycemia and other dangerous blood glucose complications.”
Read more here, Resources for pet owners: Diabetes Information
Photo: Mocha, a cat from Grayslake, Ill., is having her blood glucose tested with the AlphaTRAK, the first complete hand-held blood glucose monitoring system designed specifically for diabetic dogs and cats. Veterinarians and pet owners can test pets’ blood sugar levels rapidly, conveniently and accurately with the new meter, which Abbott launched this week at the Western Veterinary Conference in Las Vegas.

Insulin resistance is an inability of the cells to properly use insulin, a hormone needed to process glucose (blood sugar) for energy. Insulin resistance causes high blood glucose (hyperglycemia), which can lead to type 2 diabetes. In people with type 1 diabetes, insulin resistance can lead to double diabetes.
Bisphenol-A is the building block of polycarbonate plastic, a hard plastic used to make numerous consumer products, including most baby bottles and 5-gallon water bottles. Bisphenol-A is also used in epoxy resins, in the plastic lining of some food cans, in some dental sealants, and as an additive in other consumer products. Spanish scientists studying adult mice found that injections of the synthetic chemical or a female estradiol hormone reduced glucose and increased insulin in the bloodstream. After four days, mice treated with BPA or estradiol had chronic hyperinsulinemia (high levels of insulin in the blood) and altered test results for insulin and glucose tolerance.
The scientists assert that the study shows a link between environmental estrogens and insulin resistance, and that heavy exposure to estrogens increases the risk of type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure and dyslipidemia (unhealthy levels of blood fats such as cholesterol).
While Bisphenol A was first synthesized in 1891, the first evidence of its estrogenicity came from experiments in the 1930′s feeding BPA to ovariectomised rats. Bisphenol A mimics the sex hormone estradiol in the body, acting “like birth control pills.” The body is exquisitely sensitive to sex hormones, needing only tiny amounts to trigger major changes. That’s why scientists are concerned about the impact of even the extremely low levels of bisphenol A found in people.

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Although Genes and an European epidemic long ago may explain why diabetes – linked to an affluent diet – most drastically affects indigenous peoples, and why rates are soaring worldwide, such knowledge hasn’t affected the growing diabetes epidemic. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in 2005, an estimated 20.8 million persons in the United States, or about 7 percent of the population, had diabetes, although the illness had been diagnosed in only about two thirds of these people.
Now there may be hope on the horizon for Type 1 diabetes patients:

(…) Encapsulating insulin producing cells in tiny seaweed bubbles and injecting them into people with type 1 diabetes could one day remove the need for daily insulin injections, an Australian researcher says [Image(NIH) Researchers have put insulin producing cells like this into tiny capsules as a treatment for type 1 diabetes].
(…) Professor Bernie Tuch of the University of New South Wales launched a trial of the technology this week, using capsules made from the seaweed derivative alginate and measuring just 300 micrometres across.
(…) Tuch says if the trial works, it will mean that insulin producing cells, or islets, can be transplanted, effectively reversing type 1 diabetes, without the need for immunosuppressive drugs.
(…) This is because the capsules protect the transplanted cells from being sought out and destroyed by the body’s immune system.
(…) The capsules also contain tiny holes that let the insulin flow out while allowing oxygen and nutrients in.
(…) “The concept of the seaweed is that it forms a coating around the islets … with holes that are small enough to prevent immune cells entering,” Tuch says.

Problems remain, but there are indications of promise …

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This just makes me sick:

Jury selection took place Monday in the case of Cheryl Musso, formerly known as Botzet. Musso is charged with first degree murder in the death of her 11 year old daughter Ariel.
Ariel was a diabetic. Prosecutors say her mother neglected to give her the insulin shots when she needed them. During the screening process, potential jurors are being asked if they know anyone who suffers from diabetes.
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