Diabetes Archive

A Mediterranean diet rich in extra-virgin olive oil cuts the chance of developing diabetes by almost a third, according to the latest data from the PREDIMED study in The Annals of Internal Medicine. PREDIMED was a large study in Spain that tested the ability of Mediterranean-style eating to prevent cardiovascular disease.

In the study, 7,500 people, ages 55 to 80, were divided up and put on one of three diets: a reduced-fat diet, a Mediterranean diet supplemented with nuts, or a Mediterranean diet supplemented with minimally processed (extra-virgin) olive oil. Roughly half of the participants did not have diabetes when the study started.

For people at high risk of diabetes who also have (or are prone to) heart disease, a daily walk may lower their risk of cardiovascular events, according to a study in The Lancet.

The findings are based on data from 9,306 people who took part in a larger study to evaluate two medications. Participants were required to follow a low-fat diet, get regular exercise, and track their steps with a pedometer at the beginning of the study (the baseline) and after one year.

Keeping your blood sugar level in check may help ward off dementia.

Here's another reason to keep your blood sugar under control: increased levels of any kind are now linked to an increased risk of developing dementia. "For the first time, we have a convincing link between dementia and elevated blood sugars, even in the nondiabetic range," says Dr. David Nathan, a Harvard Medical School professor and the director of the Diabetes Center and Clinical Research Center at Massachusetts General Hospital.

Surprising findings from a study in Denmark: researchers say that being overweight puts you at risk for heart attack and heart disease, regardless of whether you have high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and high blood sugar. Those conditions in combination are known as metabolic syndrome, and it's a common belief that people who are overweight but still metabolically healthy don't face additional health risks. But the study, published Nov. 11, 2013, in JAMA Internal Medicine, changes that thinking. "Maintaining a healthy body weight is of paramount importance to reduce the risk of getting diseases like heart disease and type 2 diabetes. Overweight individuals without apparent metabolic problems may simply be in the early stages of disease development," says Dr. Chandra Jackson of the Harvard
School of Public Health.

Q. At my last physical, the doctor did not collect urine for tests. Shouldn't that always be part of a physical?

A. Urinalysis used to be routine during check-ups, typically to test for traces of blood, protein, or sugar. This helped to identify people with hidden kidney disease or diabetes. Currently, most diseases that we can detect with urinalysis can be diagnosed much earlier with blood tests. Since blood testing is more common in doctors' offices now and urinalysis adds little new information, many doctors do not do it routinely.

If you have cardiovascular disease, exercise may boost your survival just as much as medications. That's according to a study in the medical journal BMJ that pooled data from more than 300 trials involving nearly 340,000 individuals. Researchers compared death rates among people with a history of stroke, coronary artery disease, heart failure, and prediabetes who were enrolled in trials that treated participants with exercise or medications.

They found that for stroke survivors, exercise lowered the odds of dying much more than taking medicines such as anti-clotting drugs, which are given to prevent future strokes. For people with coronary artery disease or early signs of diabetes, the benefits of exercise versus drugs were about the same. But for people with heart failure, diuretic drugs (used to treat fluid buildup and control blood pressure) were more effective than exercise and all other types of drug treatment.

High cholesterol, high blood pressure, diabetes, and stiffening of the arteries are well-known contributors to cardiovascular disease. These same factors may also promote the development of beta-amyloid plaques in the brain characteristic of Alzheimer's disease. In a study published in Neurology, researchers conducted brain scans on 91 elderly men and women. Although none of the participants showed signs of dementia, about half had significant amounts of amyloid deposits in their brains.

Study participants also underwent tests for cardiovascular health. One measured arterial stiffness, an indicator of the health of the body's vascular system. People with the stiffest arteries showed more amyloid plaque in the brain as well as a greater number of lesions in brain's "white matter," a marker of trouble in the small arteries.

Millions of women have no idea they're at risk for diabetes. Find out if you're one of them, and take action to prevent this disease.

Right now, 79 million Americans—including one out of every two adults over age 65—are at risk for a disease that could steal their sight, damage their nerves, destroy their kidneys, and lead to a heart attack or stroke. What's more, half of those at risk don't know their health is in jeopardy.

Heart disease is the leading cause of death for people with diabetes. Diabetes drugs lower blood sugar, but that benefit must be weighed against possible harm to the heart—an evaluation now required by the FDA. Dr. Deepak L. Bhatt, editor in chief of the Harvard Heart Letter and professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, co-led the most comprehensive study ever done of a diabetes drug's heart effects.

The drug, saxagliptin (Onglyza), was approved in 2009 for people with diabetes after clinical trials showed it improved blood sugar control. Data from those trials also suggested that it reduced heart disease. But the new two-year study, reported by Dr. Bhatt's team in The New England Journal of Medicine, found Onglyza did not reduce heart risk compared with placebo in 16,492 people with diabetes and at high risk of heart disease. Importantly, however, the drug did not increase the risk of cardiovascular disease or stroke.

When it comes to adding fruit to your diet, go with the whole fruit but not juice. A Harvard study in the Aug. 29, 2013, BMJ found that drinking a serving of fruit juice every day was associated with as much as a 21% increased risk of developing diabetes. Why? "The juicing processes lead to lower contents of beneficial phytochemicals and dietary fiber. In addition, juice fluids are absorbed more rapidly and lead to more dramatic changes after eating in blood sugar and insulin levels than solid whole fruits," explains senior author Dr. Qi Sun, assistant professor in the Department of Nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health. The good news is that eating at least two servings per week of whole fruits—especially blueberries, grapes, and apples—was associated with a 23% lower risk of developing diabetes.