Parents may want to consider giving their obese children diabetes natural supplements, as a new study suggests that treatments for the disease may help decrease body mass index (BMI) levels.

Despite obese adolescents not being diagnosed with diabetes, certain diabetic medications can help them lose weight, according to findings published in Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine. Childhood obesity rates continue to be a growing epidemic in America.

According to researchers, 31.9 percent of children are considered either overweight or obese.To help find ways to treat the problem, the scientists began exploring other options.

It was found that patients who took certain diabetic medications for a 52-week clinical period lost 0.9 points of their BMI, whereas teens who were exposed to a diet and exercise program only lost 0.2 points during this time.

However, the scientists are still quick to point out that despite these findings, more research still should be conducted to determine if there are any side effects before physicians start recommending the treatment.ADNFCR-1960-ID-19591149-ADNFCR

Although diabetes natural remedies may help curb the severity of the disease, smokers may be at a higher risk for developing type 2 diabetes.

A new study adds onto the previous notion that smokers are more likely to develop the illness. Researchers from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine suggest that quitting smoking may increase a patient’s chances of developing type 2 diabetes even more.

The scientists found that individuals who quit smoking had a 70 percent higher risk of developing type 2 diabetes in the first six years without cigarettes compared to patients who had never smoked. Lead author Dr. Hsin-Chieh “Jessica” Yeh revealed that the easiest way to avoid the ailment is to simply never pick up smoking.

Researchers also indicated that those who smoked the most and gained the largest amount of weight post-cigarettes were the most likely to develop the disease.

On average, participants of the study who quit smoking gained an average of 8.4 pounds during the first three years of the research.

The protective association was even stronger for women who had gestational diabetes during pregnancy, according to the study’s lead author, Erica Gunderson, PhD, an epidemiologist and research scientist at Kaiser Permanente’s Division of Research in Oakland, Calif.

Breastfeeding a child lowers risk by 39 to 56 percent (depending on the duration of breastfeeding) for women without gestational diabetes, and 44 to 86 percent (depending on the duration of breastfeeding) for women with gestational diabetes, researchers said. Investigators looked at durations that included 0-1 month of lactation up to greater than 9 months of lactation.

Previous research has shown that lactating women have more favorable blood levels of glucose and lipids within several weeks after delivery than women who were not lactating. Other studies have reported much weaker protective associations of breastfeeding with the presence of Metabolic Syndrome and diabetes in middle-aged and older women.

Funded by the U.S. National Institutes of Health, this 20-year prospective study is the first to measure all components of Metabolic Syndrome both before pregnancy and after weaning in women of childbearing age, enabling researchers to examine breastfeeding in relation to new onset of Metabolic Syndrome, explained Gunderson.

“The findings indicate that breastfeeding a child may have lasting favorable effects on a woman’s risk factors for later developing diabetes or heart disease,” she said, explaining that the benefits don’t appear to be due to differences in weight gain, physical activity, or other health behaviors. However, in this study, less belly fat and higher levels of good cholesterol (HDL-C) were characteristic of women who did not develop Metabolic Syndrome, Gunderson said.

Among the 704 women who were aged 18 to 30 years at enrollment, had never previously given birth and were free of Metabolic Syndrome before all their pregnancies, there were 120 new cases of Metabolic Syndrome after pregnancies during 20 years of follow-up.

“The Metabolic Syndrome is a clustering of risk factors related to obesity and metabolism that strongly predicts future diabetes and possibly, coronary heart disease during midlife and early death for women,” Gunderson said.

“Because the Metabolic Syndrome affects about 18 to 37 percent of U.S. women between ages 20-59, the childbearing years may be a vulnerable period for its development. Postpartum screening of risk factors for diabetes and heart disease may offer an important opportunity for primary prevention.”

Recent studies suggest a stronger link between Metabolic Syndrome to diabetes than coronary heart disease.

Another recent Kaiser Permanente study by Gunderson published in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology in August 2009 found that women with gestational diabetes are 2.5 times more likely to develop Metabolic Syndrome after pregnancy.

Gunderson explained that further research is needed to learn more about the mechanism(s) through which lactation may influence risk of cardiovascular disease or diabetes. Further research also is needed to learn about whether lifestyle modifications, including lactation duration, may affect development of coronary artery disease and type 2 diabetes, particularly among high-risk groups, such as women with a history of gestational diabetes.

This study was part of the Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults (CARDIA) Study, a multi-center, longitudinal, population-based, observational study designed to describe the development of risk factors for coronary heart disease in young black and white adults recruited from four geographic areas in the United States: Birmingham, Ala..; Chicago; Minneapolis; and Oakland.

This study is part of Kaiser Permanente’s larger ongoing effort to research and promote the health benefits of breastfeeding. For example, Kaiser Permanente’s South Sacramento, Hayward and Fremont facilities have received the international recognition by the World Health Organization and UNICEF as Baby-Friendly™ birth facilities for offering an optimal level of care for breastfeeding mothers and their babies.

Additional investigators on the study include: David R. Jacobs, Jr., University of Minnesota Division of Epidemiology and Community Health and University of Oslo, Department of Nutrition; Vicky Chang, Kaiser Permanente Division of Research; Cora E. Lewis, University of Alabama Birmingham, Division of Preventive Medicine and the Diabetes Research and Training Center; Juanran Feng, Kaiser Permanente Division of Research; Charles P. Quesenberry, Jr., Kaiser Permanente Division of Research; and Stephen Sidney, Kaiser Permanente Division of Research.

The study was funded by U.S. National Institutes of Health (Contracts # N01-HC-48047, N01-HC-48048, N01-HC-48049, N01-HC-48050, and N01-HC-95095, from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, and Career Development Award, Grant number K01 DK059944 from the National Institute of Diabetes, Digestive and Kidney Diseases) and a Research Award from the American Diabetes Association.

According to a study found in Diabetes Care, women who drink more than five ounces of sugar-sweetened cola a week before becoming pregnant significantly increase their risk of developing the disease during a pregnancy.

The study found that women who consumed five soda servings a week were likely to develop gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM), or a glucose intolerance that begins during pregnancy.

“Compared with women who consumed less than 1 serving per month, those who consumed more than 5 servings per week of sugar-sweetened cola had a 22% greater GDM risk,” noted lead author Dr. Liwei Chen.

GDM is one of the most common pregnancy complications that could create a problematic delivery or bring on illnesses such as type 2 diabetes.

It was also found that mothers experiencing GDM are also putting their children at risk for obesity, glucose intolerance and early onset diabetes.

Some nutritionists feel that by cutting out soda and taking natural diabetes supplements such as magnesium may help curb the risk factor.

Researchers from a study conducted by Loyola University have found that in addition to the 20.7 percent of type 2 diabetes patients that are morbidly obese, 62.4 percent of the patients are at least 30 pounds overweight.

There has long been a link between obesity and type 2 diabetes, with multiple studies suggesting that a lot of excess weight could lead to the development of the disease.

It was noted that between the survey periods of 1976-1980 and 2005-2006, there was a 141 percent increase in the morbid obesity rate among adults suffering from the disease.

“The rate of morbid obesity among people with diabetes is increasing at a very alarming rate, and this has substantial public health implications,” said lead author Dr. Holly Kramer.

While diabetes natural remedies that include diet and lifestyle changes may help those who are a few pounds heavier, nutritionists are suggesting that those who are morbidly obese may require weight-loss surgery.

Usnews.com reports that some dietary supplements offer multiple health benefits, including preventing individuals from developing certain diseases and cancers.

The website reports that while vitamin D supplements help with bone health, they may also help prevent certain cancers, and previous studies suggest it may even ward off tuberculosis, diabetes and even the common cold.

Fish oil supplements continue to be reported for health benefits, including improving heart-related conditions. Usnews.com cites a study found in The Lancet that revealed there was a slightly lower rate of deaths and hospitalizations in heart failure patients who were taking a 1,000 milligram fish oil supplement daily.

The American Heart Association suggests taking the supplements for those who don’t enjoy eating seafood twice a week. The recommended dosage for those who are at a high risk for heart attack is 1,000 milligrams.

The article is quick to point out that while these natural supplements are beneficial to humans, the dosages may vary due to age, race and gender.

That’s according to estimates released by the American Institute for Cancer Research. The estimates suggest that heart disease, diabetes, and joint problems aren’t the only illnesses in which rampant obesity is causing havoc.

The group says overweight and obesity could be the cause of more than 6% of all the estimated 1.6 million cancer cases diagnosed in the U.S. each year.

A 2007 report from the American Institute for Cancer Research and the World Cancer Research Foundation reviewed hundreds of studies and found what researchers called “convincing evidence” that obesity was tied to several cancers. Those included cancer of the esophagus, pancreas, and kidneys. It also included colorectal cancer and endometrial cancer (a form of uterine cancer).

Researchers also said it was “probable” that excess abdominal fat was a cause of breast cancer in postmenopausal women.

Experts took estimates of obesity’s influence on cancer and applied them to a breakdown of the approximately 1.6 million U.S. cancer cases per year.

The researchers estimate that excess body fat is the cause of 33,000 breast cancer cases each year, nearly one-sixth the total cases in postmenopausal women. Obesity could be to blame for nearly 21,000 cases of endometrial cancer and more than 13,000 cases of colorectal cancer per year.

Researchers stressed that the figures are only estimates, and that individual cancer cases can have many, inter-connected causes.

“We believe these estimates are as good as it is possible to achieve, given the available data,” says Tim Byers, MD, PhD, interim director of the University of Colorado Cancer Center and a co-author of the report.

Cancer is more often blamed on influences like smoking and other toxic exposures than it is blamed on obesity. Smoking does cause many more malignancies than excess body fat.

But Larry Kolonel, MD, PhD, deputy director of the Cancer Research Center of Hawaii, says there are strong reasons to believe that excess fat can give rise to cancer. Fat cells produce estrogen, which are now known to be a factor in breast cancer and endometrial cancer. Fatty tissue also affects the way the body metabolizes insulin, which can alter how sugar is processed and how it ultimately gets to cells.

Fatty tissue, also known as adipose tissue, produces hormones on its own that could play a role in promoting cancer cells, Kolonel says. It also has been shown to produce chronic, low-grade inflammation in the body. That inflammation can spark immune responses that may also be linked.

“It is not implausible that adipose tissue can be a risk factor or a causal factor for cancers,” he says.

The estimates suggest maintaining a normal weight could prevent half of all endometrial cancers, a third of all esophageal cancers, and a quarter of all kidney cancers.

“We can have a very substantial influence,” Kolonel says.

The Diabetes Prevention Program (DPP) randomised clinical trial took place for 2.8 years. During this time, diabetes incidence in high-risk adults was reduced by 58 percent with intensive lifestyle intervention and by 31 percent with metformin, compared with placebo. The Diabetes Prevention Program Outcomes Study is a long-term follow-up study. The authors investigated the persistence of these lasting effects.

All active DPP participants were eligible for follow-up. Of the 3,150 participants, 2,766 (88 percent) were monitored: 910 from the lifestyle group, 924 from the metformin group, and 932 from the placebo group. On the basis of the benefits from the intensive lifestyle intervention in the DPP, all three groups were offered group-implemented lifestyle intervention.

Metformin treatment was continued in the original metformin group (850 mg twice daily as tolerated). The original lifestyle intervention group was offered additional lifestyle support. The primary outcome was development of diabetes according to American Diabetes Association criteria.

During the 10-year follow-up since randomisation to DPP, results indicated that the original lifestyle group lost 7 kg of body weight, on average. Later they then partly regained to plateau at an average weight loss of 2 kg since randomisation. The modest weight loss with metformin was maintained. Diabetes incidence rates during the DPP were 4.8 cases per 100 people per year in the intensive lifestyle intervention group, 7.8 in the metformin group, and 11.0 in the placebo group.

During follow-up, when all study participants were offered lifestyle intervention similar to the successful intervention in the DPP, diabetes incidence rates in the former placebo and metformin groups fell to rates similar to that of the original lifestyle intervention group, whose rate remained low during the entire study. Diabetes incidence rates during the follow-up study were 5.9 per 100 person-years for lifestyle, 4.9 for metformin, and 5.6 for placebo. Diabetes incidence in the ten years since DPP randomisation was reduced by 34 percent in the lifestyle group and 18 percent in the metformin group compared with placebo.

The authors explain: “In this study, onset of diabetes was delayed by about 4 years by lifestyle intervention and 2 years by metformin compared with placebo.”

They write in conclusion: “Our results have shown that a reduction in diabetes cumulative incidence by either lifestyle intervention or metformin therapy persists for at least 10 years. Further follow-up will provide crucial data for long-term clinical outcomes, including mortality… The long-term reductions in bodyweight and diabetes are encouraging, but further quantification of long-term outcomes is crucial to establish the benefits of diabetes prevention.”

In a supplementary comment, Dr Anoop Misra, Department of Diabetes and Metabolic Diseases, Fortis Hospitals, New Delhi, India, remarks: “Prevention of diabetes is a long and winding road. There seems to be no short cut, and a persistent and prolonged intensive lifestyle intervention seems to be the most effective mode to travel on it.

However, more research needs to be done with dietary (eg, high-fibre, low-glycaemic-index foods), physical activity (aerobic plus resistance exercise), and pharmaceutical (especially glucagon-like peptide-based therapies) manipulations to prevent diabetes. We need more effective drugs for those who cannot follow intensive lifestyle therapy because of infirmity. Because of the high prevalence and rapid increase in the metabolic syndrome and diabetes, there is a need to apply these findings to, and generate data from, other ethnic groups and developing countries.”

A new study from Canada hints that the risk of diabetes may be two to three times higher among people with severe sleep apnea who also suffer daytime sleepiness.

“This raises the intriguing possibility that sleepiness (or sleep disruption) may have an independent effect on the risk for diabetes,” Dr. Willis H. Tsai, of Rockview General Hospital in Calgary, Alberta, noted in an email to Reuters Health.

Obstructive sleep apnea, or OSA, is a disorder in which the tissues at the back of the throat temporarily collapse during sleep, causing repeated stops and starts in breathing during the night. This leads to poor-quality sleep and, often, daytime drowsiness.

Tsai’s team looked at associations between diabetes and OSA among 1,346 men and 803 women assessed for OSA when they were about 50 years old on average.

Sleep evaluations showed that 25 percent had severe OSA — that is 30 or more bouts of disturbed breathing per night. Another 21 percent, without OSA, suffered 5 or fewer of these bouts nightly. The remaining participants had between 6 and 29 nighttime bouts of disturbed breathing, and were classified as having mild to moderate OSA.

About 8 percent of the participants in the study also reported having diabetes. And those with severe OSA were much more likely to have diabetes even after the investigators allowed for other OSA risk factors such as age, body weight, gender, neck circumference, and smoking status.

Tsai and colleagues note the increased risk for diabetes was primarily among participants with severe OSA who reported daytime sleepiness.

Severe OSA has been linked to an increased risk of heart disease and death. More recently, OSA has been linked to resistance to the blood-sugar-lowering hormone insulin. “Insulin resistance” is a precursor to diabetes.

If further research confirms the link between OSA and diabetes seen in the current study, a history of daytime sleepiness might help doctors identify OSA patients at increased risk for developing diabetes, Tsai’s group suggests.

Sources: reuters.com

Scientists from at the Harold Hamm Oklahoma Diabetes Center found that this particular combination stopped blood vessel damage, known as endothelial dysfunction, caused by the disease in patients with poor glucose control.

“We had tested this theory on research models, but this is the first time anyone has shown the therapy’s effectiveness in people,” explains Dr. Michael Ihnat, principal investigator and a pharmacologist at the OU College of Medicine Department of Cell Biology.

The team is now studying the therapy in patients with type 2 diabetes as well.

According to the National Institutes of Health, type 1 diabetes accounts for about 5 to 10 percent of diagnosed diabetes cases in the U.S. It develops most often in children and young adults but can appear at any age.

Those who like to count on natural health resources may note that high blood sugar can be controlled or prevented through a diet rich in fish and fresh vegetables and low in processed foods and sweets.