2 1/2 C cooked chicken, cut into bite sized pieces
1 (10 oz) bag shredded cabbage
1 C sliced mushrooms
2 carrots, shredded
2 tbsp chopped cilantro
1 cucumber, thinly sliced
3 green onions, thinly sliced
1 tangerine, divided into sections
1/2 C non-fat Oriental style salad dressing
Black pepper, to taste In a large bowl combine chicken, cabbage, mushrooms, carrot, cilantro, cucumber, and dressing. Toss well. Top with green onions and tangerine sections. Makes 4 servings.
Nutritional Information (1 serving):
Calories: 220
Carbohydrate: 16 grams
Protein: 27 grams
Fat: 7 grams
Eating black soya beans could lower fat and cholesterol levels and may help prevent diabetes, a study suggests.
Yellow soya is already known to lower cholesterol, but black soya is used in traditional oriental medicine as a treatment for diabetes.
The Korean study found rats who got 10% of their energy from black soya gained half the weight of those who had none, Chemistry and Industry reports?
UK diabetes experts warned black soya alone would not prevent the condition.
In the study, also reported in the Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture, the researchers from Hanyang University, Seoul, fed 32 rats a high-fat diet.
The animals were divided into four groups. One group was given no black soya protein while the other groups derived either two, six or 10% of their energy from the food.
After 28 days, it was found that the animals which ate the most black soya had gained half as much weight as those who had had none.
The group who had eaten most black soya also levels of total blood cholesterol that were 25% lower and of LDL “bad” cholesterol that were 60% lower than those who ate none.
The researchers, led by Shin Joung Rho, said the study showed that eating black soya prevented weight gain and improved cholesterol levels, but did not suggest why the food might have the effects.
Fat storage
But David Bender, of the Royal Free and University College Medical School, London, suggested the protein might affect fat metabolism in the liver and fatty tissue, reducing synthesis of new fatty acids and cholesterol.
He said: “The key problem in type 2 diabetes is impairment of insulin action, mainly as a result of excess abdominal adipose tissue - so loss of weight often improves glycaemic control.”
But he said eating black soya was unlikely to be a useful treatment for obesity.
“If food intake is greater than energy expenditure then the excess will have to be stored somehow, and that will be storage as fat - even if black soya is inhibiting fatty acid synthesis to some extent.”
Libby Dowling of Diabetes UK said: “The results of this study are interesting.
“However more research needs to be done to determine if the results found in rats would be replicated in humans.
“Weight is certainly a key issue when it comes to type 2 diabetes - 80% of people are overweight when diagnosed with the condition - and keeping the right weight for your height is important in helping to reduce your risk of developing type 2 diabetes.”
She added: “Black soya beans are low in fat, high in soluble fibre and a good source of protein but they alone will not stop someone from developing diabetes.
“Regular physical activity and a healthy, balanced diet are proven to be very effective in reducing the risk of developing the condition.”
Eli Lilly and company launched a new tool in the fight to manage diabetes. It is a pen that delivers insulin and it will keep a log of your most recent doses.
Twenty-three-year-old financial planner Jonathan Bostrom knows how important keeping track of details is to his professional life and to managing his diabetes.
“I got to make sure I have that certain amount of food that I need, certain calorie? and carbohydrates and that I eat it in a certain amount of time,” he said.
Jonathan uses a pump to control his insulin doses. It keeps track of when he takes a dose and how much he has taken.
“I’ll take it right before breakfast, lunch and dinner and bedtime snack,” Jonathan said.
Now Eli Lilly and company has launched an insulin pen, another form of delivering insulin. It is the first pen on the market with a memory; it remembers a diabetic’s last 16 doses.
“Having the ability to just push a button and know when you took it and how much you took is clearly an advancement in the management of diabetes,” said Scott MacGregor of Eli Lilly.
Lilly hopes the Memoir Pen, that is used with their billion dollar a year insulin product, Humalog, will help boost the use of pens for insulin delivery. Now, less than 20 percent of Americans who use insulin use a pen to inject it.
“We hope that the introduction of our pens will help move the U.S market in that direction and we want to be the leaders in pen device technology,” MacGregor.
As someone who has had diabetes for 13 years, Jonathan believes the answer to managing diabetes lies primarily in self-discipline, with a helping hand from technology.
“OK, I have a great amount of discipline in taking care of myself and these tools are going to help me get further to that goal of really nailing my blood sugar where I want it to be so that I avoid those problems in the future,” said Jonathan.
The Memoir Pen costs $100 plus the cost of insulin cartridges. The price could hold back some people and some insurance companies from jumping on board with the pen. But Lilly believes it will catch on because they say it is more accurate than using a vial and syringe. source
Despite claims by zinc supplement manufacturers that the pills can help prevent type 2 diabetes, there is no proof for that notion in randomized clinical trials, a new report concludes.
But even though there is no evidence from clinical studies, that doesn’t mean that zinc has no role in diabetes prevention, say the authors of a research review article in the current issue of The Cochrane Library journal. Laboratory research suggests that zinc does help promote the production and action of insulin, the review authors point out.
The problem is a lack of good clinical trials on the issue, the review authors said.
They analyzed 192 clinical trials involving zinc, insulin and their use in type 2 diabetes. However, just one of the studies met their content and quality criteria for inclusion in the review. That four-week study of 56 obese women found that zinc did not have an effect on factors associated with the development of diabetes.
“It is important to recognize that this systematic review was left with one trial that treated 56 people with either zinc or a placebo for four weeks and found no effect. This single trial is too small and too short to really tell us anything about the effectiveness of zinc,” Dr. John Buse, an American Diabetes Association spokesman who was not involved in the review, said in a prepared statement.
“Basically, we know nothing that can definitively guide clinicians in providing advice regarding zinc supplementation in diabetes,” Buse said.
2 diced carrots
1 chopped medium onion
2 chopped stalks of celery
6 cups low-sodium chicken broth
6 oz uncooked noodles
2 cooked and cubed skinless chicken breasts
1/4 teaspoon salt
Put carrots, onion, celery, and broth into a dutch oven. Heat to boiling. Cover and boil gently about 10 minutes. Add noodles. Cook until the noodles are tender. Add chicken and salt. Heat to boiling. Makes 6 servings.
Nutritional Information (1 serving):
Calories: 213
Carbohydrates: 26 grams
Protein: 18 grams
Fat: 4 gram
Saturated fat: 4 grams
Cholesterol: 51mg
Fiber: 2 gram
Sodium: 208 mg
Potassium: 447 mg
Calcium: 29 mg
Exchanges: 1 1/2 starch, 2 lean meat
(from the South Dakota Diabetes Control Program cookbook)
Children born to women who experience certain complications during pregnancy an? delivery are at increased risk for developing specific patterns of wheezing, according to a new report.
“This study adds weight to the epidemiological data which suggest that early development has significant consequences in disease risk not only in childhood (our study), but also throughout life,” Dr. Franca Rusconi told Reuters Health.
Rusconi from the University of Florence, Italy and colleagues in the SIDRIA Collaborative Group evaluated the associations between maternal medical complications and procedures during pregnancy and at delivery and the risks of various wheezing disorders — transient early wheezing, persistent wheezing and late-onset wheezing — in 15,609 children between 6 and 7 years old.
The team found that 9.5 percent of the children had transient early wheezing, 5.4 percent had persistent wheezing, and 6.1 percent had late-onset wheezing. Preeclampsia or high blood pressure requiring therapy was associated with an increased risk of all three wheezing types, the investigators report, increasing the odds by 40 percent, 59 percent, and 47 percent, respectively. Maternal diabetes was associated with a 72 percent increased risk of persistent wheezing.
Prescription of antibiotics for urinary tract infections and antibiotics administered at delivery were associated with early-onset transient and persistent wheeze, the results indicate. Prescription of antibiotics for respiratory infections was strongly associated with both persistent and late-onset wheezing, the researchers note.
Amniocentesis or chorionic villus sampling, cesarean section, and weight gain during pregnancy were not significantly associated with childhood wheezing, the investigators report in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.
Although a maternal history of asthma and/or allergy was also associated with wheezing in childhood, this history did not modify the association between maternal complications or procedures in pregnancy and at birth and wheezing phenotypes, the report indicates.
Children are at risk from serious health problems due to weaknesses in diabetes care in the UK, a report has warned today.
The study of nationwide services from the charity Diabetes UK argues that although there have been improvements in some services, such as retinal screening, gaps in care remain in others.
Children are particularly affected by these gaps, for example four out of five children have poor diabetes control putting them at risk of further complications.
As cash-strapped primary care trusts make cuts, the charity warns there has been an increase in the number of children to each Paediatric Diabetes Specialist Nurse (PDSN).
“There is huge scope for improving the treatment and care of people with diabetes and reducing the costs to the health service and to society as a whole,” the report states.
Douglas Smallwood, chief executive of Diabetes UK, said: “We are very concerned that some children are struggling to see a specialist nurse. With the inevitable explosion of children with type two diabetes, additional resources are needed or nurses will be faced with ever increasing caseloads.”
Commenting on one aspect of the impact of diabetes services, Tim Statham, chief executive of the National Kidney Federation, said: “We know that a lot of people with diabetes become kidney patients. I think probably about a quarter of diabetes patients are at risk of kidney failure, so I suppose it follows that if you don’t treat diabetes effectively then it makes it more likely that they will come to us eventually.”
Diabetes UK is now calling for further investment in PDSNs, stronger links between specialist diabetes teams and schools and greater efforts to ensure the transferral of children to adult services is smooth.
Responding to the report, the national clinical director for diabetes, Sue Roberts, said that the government realised diabetes care is “a very important issue” and that guidance would be published next month following a study into it.
“I hope and expect that this will make a real contribution to improving the quality of life and outcomes for children and young people with diabetes, and their families, in England,” she added.
1 small onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
1 tablespoon margarine
4 small chicken breasts, boned, skinned, cut into pieces (4 oz. each)
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper, if desired
2 tablespoon cilantro, snipped
In a skillet cook onions and garlic in margarine until onion is tender Add chicken, salt, and pepper. Cook and stir over medium-high heat about 5-10 minutes. Stir in cilantro. Garnish with a lemon wedge if desired. Makes 4 servings.
Nutritional Information (1 serving):
Calories: 180
Carbohydrates: 3 grams
Protein: 27 grams
Fat: 6 grams
Saturated fat: 1 gram
Cholesterol: 73 mg
Fiber: 1 gram
Sodium: 159 mg
Potassium: 272 mg
Calcium: 22 mg
Exchanges: 3 1/2 lean meat, 1 vegetable
(from the South Dakota Diabetes Control Program cookbook)
When Professor Bob Elliott boards a plane from New Zealand to Moscow later this month, he will be taking extra care of his hand luggage.
In a secure container he will be carrying millions of insulin-producing pig islet cells.
Many believe they have the potential to transform the lives of patients with Type 1 diabetes.
A trial about to start?in Russia will help determine if this is true.
Go back 10 years, and a similar trial took place in Auckland, New Zealand, where Professor Elliott is medical director of the biotech company Living Cell Technologies.
He said the trial was running without problems, but they felt compelled to stop.
“It was a purely precautionary measure because of limited research suggesting pig retroviruses could infect patients,” he said.
“Now we are confident this isn’t the case. After more animal studies and carefully following patients for nearly a decade, the scare has gone.”
Simple procedure
It means the research is back on. It involves transplanting millions of pig islet cells into each patient.
For the study, the cells are poured through a funnel into the abdomen after checking the condition of the intestines with a laparoscope.
In the future, it may only require a simple needle puncture. Either way, it will take just a few minutes.
The islet cells should start to produce insulin in response to the body’s demands.
This control is lacking in patients with Type 1 diabetes.
It means they need insulin injections to keep blood sugar levels constant.
Otherwise they face serious health consequences - falling unconscious, or in the long term, blindness or organ damage.
Advantages
Islet cell transplantation is already being tried with human cells, but there are big differences.
Human cells are in limited supply, but pig herds could be expanded to meet demand.
There is also the issue of immunosuppression. Anti-rejection drugs are needed with human cell transplants, but Professor Elliott said that is not the case with pig cells.
The clusters of cells are protected by encapsulation in a seaweed-based gel.
The company believes it is leading the world with this technology.
Professor Elliott said: “If you need anti-rejection drugs the treatment isn’t worthwhile - the side effects can be unpleasant, it would be getting rid of one problem and introducing another.”
Less need for insulin
The study’s aim is at least a 25% reduction in need for insulin to maintain blood sugar control.
Measurements will be taken at six months and one year, with patients then observed for the rest of their lives.
The researchers hope the reduction will be much greater in some, but even a 25% drop could reduce the dangerous fluctuations in blood sugars to a significant extent.
This is what patients like 51-year-old Michael Helyer really want.
He took part in the first New Zealand trial. He received only a third of the dose now thought to be necessary, but experienced a 30% reduction in insulin requirement.
Ten years later, some of the pig cells are still producing insulin. Mr Helyer leads a busy life running his own music store and is certain the treatment has helped.
“It’s not about having fewer injections, it’s about getting more control. You can’t live a normal life if you’re in fear of (blood sugar) levels getting too high or low all the time.”
Failed attempts
The use of pig islet cells has been tried before, but with different methods.
In Sweden, pig foetal cells were injected into a vein with immunosuppressants, but there was little success.
In Mexico, cells were transplanted into tubes under the skin, along with Sertoli cells from piglet testes, which are thought to offer a form of immunoprotection.
A trial of 12 patients showed some improvement, but the results of further patients have not yet been documented. The procedure has since been stopped.
Cautious welcome
With this chequered past, it is not surprising there is some scepticism. Jo Brodie, Islet Project Co-ordinator at Diabetes UK, agrees the research has potential, but also has reservations.
“A great deal more work is needed.?Also, there are still ethical and safety issues that need addressing.”
Living Cell Technology is going to great lengths to address these. Not least in its source of pig cells.
They come from a herd isolated on a remote subantarctic island. They were abandoned by a sealing ship 200 years ago.
Some of the descendants of this pure breed were transported to New Zealand to live in “pig palaces”.
These are bio secure facilities to ensure the pigs are totally disease-free.
But the company is limited in where it can conduct its research.
There is a moratorium on the use of animal tissue in humans (xenotransplantation) in countries like Canada and Australia. Others, such as New Zealand, are currently deciding whether further trials can take place.
But Professor Elliott is comfortable with Russia for the trial.
Surgeons there are experienced in xenotransplantation, and a growing clinical research industry means international regulatory standards are in place.
He believes the study will provide data other countries won’t be able to ignore.
He just wants to get started. This is his life work.
“This is what all my diabetes patients want. If the trial is a success, we will be inundated.”
Changing to a healthier lifestyle appears to be at least as effective as taking prescription drugs in reducing the risk of developing Type 2 diabetes, says a new BMJ study conducted by researchers in the Department of Health Sciences at the University of Leicester.
Type 2 diabetes is a growing problem – in England around 1.3 million people have diabetes and around 5% of total NHS resources are used for the care of people with diabetes.
Researchers from the University of Leicester reviewed studies involving over 8000 people which measured the effects of different interventions – lifestyle, diabetes drugs and anti-obesity drugs – on people with impaired glucose tolerance (1). They found that lifestyle changes, e.g. switching to a healthier diet and increasing exercise to be at least as effective as taking prescription drugs. On average, lifestyle changes helped to reduce the risk of developing type 2 diabetes by around half. Lifestyle changes were also less likely to have adverse side-effects. However, the researchers say that both lifestyle changes and prescription drug taking must be sustained in order to prevent the development of Type 2 diabetes.
The authors say that as global rates of Type 2 diabetes are likely to double by 2030, interventions to prevent the condition will have an important role to play in future health policies. The study findings have large implications for public health policy, however, the authors note that if lifestyle changes are to be truly effective more needs to be done to support people to adopt healthier lifestyles.
This study forms part of a larger research project on Evidence Synthesis Methods for Public Health Policy Decision Making based within the Department of Health Sciences at the University of Leicester. It is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and the Medical Research Council (MRC) as part of their joint Public Health Initiative.
Professor Keith Abrams, one of the lead researchers on the project said:
‘This study shows that either adopting lifestyle changes or being prescribed appropriate medication for people with IGT significantly reduces the rate at which they will develop Type 2 diabetes. We are now investigating what the optimum screening strategy is for identifying people with IGT, and what the long term clinical and cost-effectiveness implications are of both screening and treatment.’