(HealthDay)—Self-reported short and long sleep are both associated with adverse measures of glycemia among adults with prediabetes, according to a study published online May 10 in Diabetes Care. Read more »

The World Health Organization ranks Type 2 diabetes among the most common causes of death in the world. Current treatments can help the body use insulin at various stages of the disease, but they can also be expensive and subject patients to lifelong medication regimens and side effects. Thanks to new therapeutic ultrasound technology, one promising alternative looks to reshape how early Type 2 diabetes is managed. Read more »

A revolutionary new study using only materials derived from humans has revealed that insulin-producing beta cells can change their function in diabetes—and that this change may be reversible. Read more »

UCLA bioengineers and their colleagues have developed a new type of insulin that could help prevent hypoglycemia in people who use the drug to manage diabetes. Read more »

A researcher from the University of Houston has created a form of recombinant insulin that could potentially address some of the biggest concerns about the lifesaving drug, including its price. Read more »

Identifying a reliable biomarker to predict the onset of autoimmunity in type 1 diabetes (T1D) has eluded scientists. As a result, T1D is typically diagnosed long after the majority of insulin-producing cells have been irreversibly destroyed. Unlike the onset of other autoimmune diseases which can be seen on the body or felt through symptoms, the attack on the islets cannot be observed because they reside deep within the pancreas. Read more »

Elwyn was a healthy 13 month-old toddler when she started drinking water from the bathtub. Over time, she became increasingly thirsty and demanded more and more breast milk. For her parents, this seemed like typical behaviour related to a growth spurt. One day, however, they noticed that she was abnormally weak and rushed her to the emergency department. She was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes and had already developed a life-threatening complication of the disease known as diabetic ketoacidosis. She was immediately transferred to the intensive care unit, where she was treated for several days. Now two years old, Elwyn is still recovering, but doing better. Read more »

Type 1 diabetes mellitus (DMT1) contributes to 10 percent of the total of cases of diabetes mellitus worldwide, mainly in young people, and is regarded as a growing health risk. DMT1 is characterised by the self-immune destruction of the pancreatic cells that produce insulin (pancreatic islets), which leads to severe insulin deficiency and which is followed by the raising of blood glucose levels. Right now, the therapy based on insulin injections is the treatment applied in type 1 diabetic patients. As a result, in addition to the medical complications, this treatment requires multiple daily measurements of blood glucose and the lifelong sub-cutaneous administration of insulin. Read more »

A new Journal of Diabetes study from China, which has the highest number of people with diabetes among all countries, found that type 2 diabetes was linked with an elevated risk of 11 types of cancer in men and 13 types of cancer in women. Read more »

A team of researchers led by Harvard University scientists has improved the laboratory process of converting stem cells into insulin-producing beta cells, using biological and physical separation methods to enrich the proportion of beta cells in a sample. Their findings, published in the journal Nature, may be used to improve beta cell transplants for patients with type 1 diabetes. Read more »

Hospitalizations for a feared complication of diabetes, diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA), rise sharply as adolescents transition to adulthood in the U.S, but not in Canada, according to a new study published May 8 in the Journal of General Internal Medicine. DKA can generally be prevented with regular use of insulin. The increased DKA rate in the U.S. occurs around age 18, a time when many adolescents change or lose insurance coverage, a disruption that places them at risk for skipping medical visits or being unable to afford insulin. Read more »

Mmmm, cheese – a food as nutritious as it is delicious. Or is it? Read more »

Many in-development cures for type 1 diabetes have understandably focused on tackling the autoimmune aspect of the disease before figuring out a way to replace the destroyed beta cells. But what if focusing on the beta cells first could prevent their destruction altogether? Read more »

(HealthDay)—Serum free fatty acid (FFA) concentrations can distinguish children's fed and fasting states, according to a study published online May 3 in Pediatrics. Read more »

On his regular rounds at the University of Southern California's Keck Hospital, Dr. David Armstrong lives a brutal injustice of American health care. Read more »

Two new studies from the Diabetes Center of Excellence at UMass Medical School investigate functions of the insulin-producing beta cells that are destroyed in patients with type 1 diabetes, and a reliable method to measure beta cell replication in individuals. Read more »

The holy month of Ramadan, which sees Muslims all over the world fast during daylight hours, begins this weekend. Does having type 2 diabetes exclude a person from fasting? Not necessarily. The decision belongs to the person, but getting some advice from health professionals can help. Read more »

As if people living with diabetes didn't have enough health concerns, here's another: increased risk of metastatic cancer. New Cornell University research points to a possible explanation for this health double whammy. Read more »

Patients with diabetes and low blood glucose have higher rates of death following hospital discharge, according to a study published in the Endocrine Society's Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism. Read more »

Taking a folic acid supplement daily before pregnancy may reduce the risk of gestational, or pregnancy-related, diabetes, according to a study by researchers at the National Institutes of Health and other institutions. The findings appear in Diabetes Care. Read more »