Diabetes Care reports on a new study which shows vinegar reduces post-meal hyperglycemia in type 1 diabetics.  While previous studies have shown that vinegar improves insulin sensitivity in healthy or insulin-resistant subjects, information on the effect of vinegar in type 1 diabetes has been absent. Subjects in the study, tested under similar metabolic conditions, were randomly assigned to consume vinegar or placebo five minutes before a meal composed of bread, cheese, turkey ham, orange juice, butter, and a cereal bar (566 kcal;...

Strictly controlling blood glucose levels in type 2 diabetics with long-term, serious coexisting health problems such as heart disease and hypertension does not lower their risk of a heart attack or stroke, according to a study conducted at UC Irvine Health Policy Research Institute by Dr. Sheldon Greenfield and Sherrie Kaplan. Researchers found, however, that firm glucose control — defined as keeping hemoglobin levels, or A1C, below 7 percent — may reduce cardiovascular issues for diabetics with fewer and less severe health problems. The...

Whether flesh and blood or plastic and silicon; the cure for late stage diabetics will be a new pancreas. How to build a mechanical version is the question addressed in a recent review by M. Hoshino and colleagues. We refer to a fully automated system as a closed loop system. The goal would be for every thing from glucose sensing to insulin administration to be automated, requiring little if any input from the user. The first issue is detecting blood glucose and then figuring out what is going on. To do this we need a glucose sensor....

I’ve had type 2 diabetes for 12 years. I’m 62 and slightly overweight.

Glucose, that innocuous sweet molecule, is reactive. Chemically, what happens is that glucose has a slight reducing capacity (i.e. the capacity to accept electrons) and it is quite happy to accept electrons from the epsilon amino group of the amino acid, lysine. Lysine is found in virtually every protein and when that electron is shared it creates an irreversible chemical bond between the glucose and the protein. The protein has become glycosylated and your diabetes complications have begun. Clinically, glycosylation is a very useful...

Freedom Meditech says it has successfully tested a new way to measure blood sugar levels via the eyes, according to a company press release. It hopes this method will provide a painless way to test blood sugar and one day replace finger sticks. The study is in the pre-clinical stage and has so far only been tested on rabbits. The eye-scanning technology produces blood sugar readings in five minutes.  Though slower, this method appears to be more accurate than current blood glucose monitors, which have an estimated mean error rate...

While Merck Co’s drug, Januvia, has been making headlines for its possible connection to cases of acute pancreatitis, Market Watch reports that European Union regulators have approved a new drug in the same class of DPP-4 inhibitors.  Astra Zeneca PLC and Bristol-Myers Squibb Co’s drug, Onglyza, also known as saxagliptin, was approved by US regulators earlier this year.  Onglyza is a once a day pill that treats Type 2 diabetes.  It is approved for use in combination with metformin, sulphonylurea, or thiazolidinedione,...