Fighting Diabetes, Proactively!

For all those who have been regular readers of diabetesmoz, you know I have not been posting about events for a while. I have been a little busy, but now I am back. And here is an event people of the greater cleveland area would like to attend and support. “Swim for Diabetes” will raise funds for the Diabetes Association of Greater Cleveland at Ehrnfelt Recreation Center pool, 18100 Royalton Road. The swim will be 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. April 5.

Verizon Wireless is the sponsor of the event.
Those who raise $60 or more will receive a commemorative T-shirt. Those who raise $100 and turn in pledges by May 18 will receive a ticket to the Cleveland Indians vs. Milwaukee Brewers game on June 17.
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And another walk to cure diabetes in Forida area.

If you are taking either of the diabetes drugs rosiglitazone and pioglitazone, take care when you climb stairs.

Two common diabetes drugs — rosiglitazone and pioglitazone — are linked to higher fracture rates in women, according to a meta-analysis in CMAJ by a team of researchers from the University of East Anglia in the United Kingdom and Wake Forest University in the United States.

[Source: 1, 2]

Researchers at the Cambridge Institute for Medical Research at the University of Cambridge in the U.K. seem to have found a genetic link between type 1 diabetes and celiac disease, suggesting that the two diseases may be triggered by similar environmental factors.

Researchers had previously seen genetic links between type 1 diabetes and celiac disease, which, together, affect about 1 percent of the population, Todd said.

But the new research shows there is “considerable overlap, and much more than we anticipated” he said. “Almost every celiac disease susceptibility gene had an effect in type 1 diabetes.”

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The main cause of is Type 1 diabetes is the failure “Islets”, the insulin-producing cells in the pancreas.

Researchers have been trying to go to the basics and transplant healthy Islets into Diabetic patients. Looks like the transplants are rejected, but a team of Israeli scientists seem to have found a way to successfully transplant healthy islet.

The Israeli team then opted for a new approach, ignoring the rejection of the grafted cells and focusing instead on inflammation caused by the transplant itself. Lewis grafted healthy islets into diabetic mice and treated them with an anti-inflammatory drug called alpha-1-antitrypsin, or AAT. Within months, they discovered three encouraging results:

Source: sfgate

Nick Westerfer a 20 year old sophomore at Bloomsburg University and a 2006 graduate of Troy High School, organized a 5K Run/Walk. The event is is named after his grandmother, Edith Westerfer, who passed away in January 1996, and his grandfather, Louis Fresta, who died in January 2005, from diabetes. Westerfer wanted to do something in their honor and something to raise money for and send to the American Diabetes Association .
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