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An estimated 300 000 Georgians, or nearly one in twelve, suffer from diabetes. Now, the government is taking measures to combat the incurable metabolic disorder.

On August 22, deputy Minister of Labor, Health and Social Affairs Davit Meskhishvili, joined by director of the National Diabetes Center Ramaz Kurashvili, held a press conference to announce the ministry’s new information campaign.

The Health Ministry will be publishing magazines and brochures to better inform the country about diabetes, and promote healthy lifestyles to ward off type-2 diabetes. Georgians are at risk, says Meskhishvili, because of unhealthy diets and lifestyles.

“This disease is not only widespread in Georgia, but in developed countries as well. Someone dies from diabetes every five seconds,” Meskhishvili told the Messenger.

Meskhishvili explains that the estimate of 300 000 diabetes sufferers in Georgia is a rough guess, as many afflicted Georgians don’t seek medical care.

The ministry will attack diabetes from the twin angles of prevention and treatment. Along with promoting a non-smoking, healthy lifestyle, the ministry will provide free insulin treatments to poor diabetes patients.

“For families below the poverty line which have someone sick with diabetes, the whole health care package will be free,” Meskhishvili declared.

Kurashvili, the National Diabetes Center director, told the Messenger there are a number of risk factors for diabetes.

“There are two risk factors: stable and unstable. Stable risk factors for diabetes are the color of skin. For instance, there is bigger risk in black and yellow-skinned people to get sick than for whites. If the person has a family history of diabetes, then there is also a chance that genetic predisposition will lead to getting sick. Diabetes risk also increases with the age,” Kurashvili says.

‘Instable factors,’ he adds, are unhealthy lifestyles which include tobacco, alcohol and too much food. High blood pressure, insomnia, fatigue and stress are all linked to diabetes, Kurashvili says. Educating those at risk for diabetes is crucial, he says. And he knows the condition’s effects.

“My parents are sick with diabetes. My father is 96 years old, and he has had diabetes for 15 years. My mother is 85, and has fought it for a long time as well,” Kurashvili told the Messenger, adding that with proper care, diabetes is manageable.

But to buy the necessary treatment and see doctors may cost more than many Georgians can afford, particularly pensioners. Although insulin shots will be available free, people with type-2 diabetes need saccharine, medicine and regular checks of their blood sugar level.

73-year-old Nina Obolashvili has had diabetes for five years, losing some weight and eyesight. When she was first diagnosed with diabetes, she went to the doctor for treatment, but the expense became too much for her family. She self-medicates now, and says it helps that she lives in a village, eats natural food and leads an active lifestyle.

“It’s good when you can afford doctors and regular health checks, but not everyone can, especially in the regions. My children provide me with medicine, and I get a check-up once a year,” Obolashvili told the Messenger.

Source: The Messenger

A Missouri man who took the antibiotic Tequin is suing Bristol-Meyers Squibb and Schering Corporation for blood sugar problems he developed while taking the drug. Patrick Bills alleges that he developed both hyperglycemia and new onset diabetes while taking Tequin for a skin infection.

Tequin, a once-popular antibiotic, was introduced by Bristol Myers Squibb in 1999 to treat bacterial infections like pneumonia, bronchitis, urinary tract infections and sinusitis. By 2001, 3.3 million prescriptions were being written every year in the US for Tequin. It was that same year that researchers began noticing that Tequin could play havoc with blood sugar levels. Between April 2002 and March 2004, researchers at St. Michaels Hospital in Toronto followed 1.4 million patients aged 66 years and older. The researches found that 788 of those patients had to be treated for dangerously low or high blood sugar within 30 days of Tequin therapy. The research found that there was a four times greater risk of life-threatening blood sugar problems among patients treated with Tequin. When the Canadian study was published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2006, it found that previously-healthy Tequin users had a 17-percent higher chance of developing serious diabetes.

According to a press release issued by his attorneys, Bills began taking Tequin in 2005 for a skin infection. Shortly after, he began experiencing symptoms like extreme thirst, frequent urination and vision changes. In January 2006, Bills was diagnosed with sever hyperglycemia and diabetes. The lawsuit contends that Bills’ illnesses are a direct result of his treatment with Tequin. The suit claims that before taking the antibiotic, Bills had been healthy, and had not experienced any symptoms related to blood sugar problems.

The lawsuit alleges that Bristol-Meyers Squibb ignored mounting evidence of blood sugar problems related to Tequin. It wasn’t until February 2006 that, under pressure from the Food and Drug Administration, the company added a warning label that Tequin should not be taken by diabetics. But the company did not address potential problems for non-diabetics. In May 2006, Bristol-Meyers Squibb announced to its shareholders that it was taking Tequin off the market. Bills’ lawsuit charges that this move was made with little public fanfare, and that Tequin that had already been shipped was allowed to remain on pharmacy shelves. The complaint also alleges that physicians were not given adequate warning by the company and continued to write prescriptions for Tequin.

The lawsuit lists nine different counts against the pharmaceutical company and is seeking both compensatory and punitive damages for Bills.

June 20, 2007
NEW YORK (Reuters) - The widow and son of a Texas man who was taking a GlaxoSmithKline Plc diabetes drug at the time of his fatal heart attack has sued the drugmaker, claiming that it failed to warn of the drug’s heart risks, according to court papers.

The claim involves rosiglitazon?, which is sold under the brand names Avandia and Advandamet. Investors have been bracing for a flood of litigation against Glaxo after a widely publicized medical report last month suggested that Avandia increases the risk of heart attack and death.

The lawsuit was filed on Tuesday by relatives of Larry Alan Stanford in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas. Stanford was taking Advandamet, which combines Avandia with another commonly prescribed diabetes medicine.

“Glaxo knew or should have known that its rosiglitazone drug greatly increased plaintiffs’ risks of having a heart attack and/or other negative cardiovascular consequences or of causing sudden cardiac death,” the lawsuit said.

The rate of premature death among American men with diabetes has dropped dramatically over the last few decades, but the same can’t be said for women with the disease, a study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has found.

The proportion of early deaths among diabetic women remained unchanged between 1971 and 2000, say CDC researchers, whose findings were published online Monday in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

“Among men we found very encouraging trends,” said Edward Gregg, an epidemiologist at the CDC who led the study. “Among women, however, we found no improvement at all . . . So women with diabetes seem to be left behind in this improvement in health.”

Analyzing data for 20,000 people from across the United States, researchers found that annual death rates from all causes in men with diabetes fell to 24.4 per 1,000 from 42.6 per 1,000 - a 43 per cent reduction.

The death rate from cardiovascular disease (CVD), the most common cause of death in diabetics, fell for men to 12.8 per 1,000 from 26.4. These drops paralleled declining death rates among both men and women without diabetes in the U.S. population (down to 9.5 per 1,000 from 14.4) over the three-decade period.

Not only have mortality rates for women with diabetes not declined, but the difference in death rates for diabetic and non-diabetic women has actually widened over the three decades as females without diabetes started living longer.

Gregg said the gender disparity came as somewhat of a surprise to researchers, and they aren’t sure why it exists.

A number of reasons have been postulated, including the suggestion that overall, doctors are less aggressive in treating cardiovascular disease and its risk factors in women.

“The other possibility is that cardiovascular disease among women - and for that matter diabetes - may take a slightly different form biologically than it does in men and the treatments that we have don’t quite match that as well as they do in men,” Gregg said Monday from Atlanta.

The gender gap found in the U.S. diabetic population can’t necessarily be extrapolated to Canada, said Toronto endocrinologist Dr. Lorraine Lipscombe.

In a study she co-authored as a researcher at the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences, published in March, Lipscombe said death due to the complications of diabetes in Ontario fell for both men and women between 1995 and 2005.

“In our study we did not find any difference between men and women and we found an overall decline of about 25 per cent,” said Lipscombe.

Because the Ontario research contained more recent data than the U.S. study, it might reflect more current medical practices, she said. “Maybe we are getting better at taking care of women with diabetes.”

Medical practice in Canada and the U.S. may also vary somewhat, reflecting public versus private health-care systems.

“There is a lot of evidence from the United States that men are more aggressively treated . . . We also know that doctors are more likely to think of cardiovascular disease in men,” she said.

“Evidence thus far from Ontario suggests that there isn’t that same gender disparity in Canada.”

Members of Congress plotted a campaign against diabetes yesterday, introducing legislation that would allot $120 million to research and projects in the upcoming year to discover possible ways to prevent the spread of the disease and its complications.

“We know that diabetes can either be prevented or effectively managed through proper diet and exercise in many cases,” said Rep. Vito Fossella (R-Staten Island/Brooklyn), who co-sponsored the legislation along with Sens. Hillary Clinton (D-New York) and Susan Collins (R-Maine), and Rep. Eliot Engel (D-New York).

Diabetes is a disease marked by the body’s inability to digest glucose. The rate of Type 2 diabetes — which is believed to be caused by a genetic predisposition for the disease mixed with obesity, lack of exercise and other lifestyle choices — has dramatically spiked throughout the nation.

An estimated 60 million or more Americans are living with diabetes or at risk of developing the disease. On Staten Island, an estimated 12.5 percent of all residents have the disease, according to a recent city Health Department study.

Currently, money flows more easily toward treating complications from diabetes — such as amputations and dialysis — than it does toward weight-loss, nutrition education and other preventive and maintenance programs, Sen. Clinton said.

The legislation proposed yesterday would provide $90 million to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Division of Diabetes Translation for diabetes su?veillance, research and educational activities. It would also allot $30 million for three four-year projects that would examine how best to translate diet and exercise interventions into effective clinical practice.

“Diabetes and obesity prevalence are increasing at alarming rates,” said Dr. Thomas Frieden, the city’s health commissioner. “It is essential that the federal government begin to give a higher priority to prevention and lifestyle modification programs.”

The reigning Mr. Universe was sprayed with Mace and wrestled to the ground by police officers, who mistakenly believed he was intoxicated when the diabetic bodybuilder actually was going through insulin shock.

Despite the misunderstanding, Doug Burns was arrested for misdemeanor assault and resisting arrest for the incident at a downtown movie theater Sunday night. Redwood City Police Capt. Chris Cessina said officers reported that Burns, 43, had assumed a fighting stance and it took four officers to bring him into submission.

“The fact is Mr. Burns assaulted our officer,” Cessina said. “If he had just stood there and let us help him, maybe they would have called the medics if he didn’t seem to fit the description of being under the influence.”

Burns, who was trying a new diabetes drug that night, said he was preparing to see a film when he felt dizziness and poor vision — a sign of low blood sugar — and hurried to a snack counter.

A security guard noticed Burns’ strange behavior and asked him to leave, thinking he was intoxicated, Cessina said. When he refused, the guard called police.

When officers arrived, Burns allegedly lunged at one of them, pushing him to the ground with both hands, and took a fighting stance, Cessina said. Burns continued being combative until four officers wrestled him down, the captain said.

During the scuffle, the officers did not notice Burns’ Medic Alert bracelet. An on-scene medical test later confirmed that Burns had low blood sugar during the incident, Cessina said.

Burns, a board member of the American Diabetes Association who often speaks to raise awareness about the condition, said he doesn’t remember the incident clearly, but could explain the behavior that police described.

“I could understand if I was belligerent or had track marks, but I was nicely dressed and I don’t think I fit the profile or smelled like alcohol,” Burns told the San Mateo Daily Journal.

An officer asked him to sign a citation while he was incoherent, Burns said, and he hasn’t had a chance to review it. A court date has not yet been set in the case.

Burns was diagnosed with diabetes when he was 7, according to his Web site. He has been a public representative for the disease and has worked with the group Children With Diabetes.

Burns is a personal trainer for AXIS Performance Center in Palo Alto and specializes in strength and conditioning, nutrition and people with special needs.

Source: NBC

Less than a week after a study documented a startling rise in diabetes rates, the Health Council of Canada has issued recommendations aimed at promoting a “prevent it, find it, manage it” approach to primary health care.

The council, formed in the aftermath of the Romanow commission, says Canada needs to speed up changes in how health care is organized and delivered to people with chronic health problems such as diabetes.

“Promotion of healthy living to prevent chronic health conditions requires a strategic combination of public policy, targeted clinical care and a range of community-based campaigns to motivate people to change their eating and exercise habits,” states the 70-page report issued Monday by the council.

“Canada faces an unprecedented need for public investments in prevention.”

In terms of treating people already diagnosed with chronic health problems, the report says there’s strong evidence that delivering care through teams made up of nurses, pharmacists, nutritionists and doctors helps people with diabetes improve their blood sugar levels.

Yet, the report said “few Canadians have routine access to teams of health care professionals where they receive health care.”
As well, the recommendations said there should be electronic health records and support systems for patients to reduce the risk of complications.

“The way we provide health care today leaves too many people vulnerable to serious health problems that could be avoided,” Dr. Ian Bowmer, vice-chair of the Health Council of Canada, said in a statement.

“If we don’t support prevention and change the way we deliver care for chronic health conditions, we are not optimizing care and are putting the quality of life of Canadians at risk.”

The report urges programs be established to identify and target groups at risk for diabetes, citing the Kahnawake Schools Diabetes Prevention Program and a Latin American diabetes program in London, Ont.

Last week, a study by the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences published in the Lancet said cases of diabetes have risen so dr?matically in Ontario that the proportion of adults with the disease has already surpassed the World Health Organization’s predicted global rate for a quarter-century from now.

The study found that in 2005, almost nine per cent of Ontarians over age 20 had diabetes, up from 5.2 per cent a decade earlier. Experts said the provincial figures mirror what is believed to be happening in the rest of Canada.

That almost 70 per cent jump means that diabetes among our population far exceeds the 6.4 per cent worldwide prevalence rate — and the 8.4 per cent rate for developed countries alone — projected by the WHO for 2030.

Source: The Canadian Press