Diabetes Archive

Infections aren't the only conditions that can cause discomfort.

Certain urinary symptoms are quite common, particularly in women: painful burning with urination, an urgent need to urinate like you can't hold it (urinary urgency), and urinating frequently (urinary frequency).

These symptoms can be caused by any of the following conditions.

Over seven million people have diabetic retinopathy, the most common form of vision loss in working-age adults with diabetes. It’s recommended that people with diabetes should work to keep blood pressure in the normal range and their A1c level below 7% to avoid complications such as diabetic retinopathy.

News briefs

A research team from Harvard reports that it has harnessed the powerful gene editing tool called CRISPR to recognize and kill viruses. The findings were published online Oct. 2, 2019, by Molecular Cell. CRISPR can alter strands of both DNA and RNA (a molecule related to DNA), which are built like strings of beads. Each bead consists of one of four chemicals called bases. CRISPR can recognize a specific sequence of bases (such as one that is characteristic of a particular virus), latch on to that sequence and cut it, and change the sequence to a different one. This can scramble the genetic sequence of a virus in such a way that the virus no longer can make copies of itself. The Harvard team used this technique to kill several viruses that are made of RNA — including influenza virus — in a laboratory dish. The next step will be to see if the CRISPR technique can also be used to kill viruses in a living animal. That will be much harder. However, if it works, the technique might someday help humans fight viral infections.

Image: © Bill Oxford/Getty Images

Research we're watching

Replacing just one sugary drink each day with water may reduce your risk of developing diabetes, according to a study published online Oct. 3, 2019, by Diabetes Care. Researchers from Harvard's T.H. Chan School of Public Health looked at more than two decades' worth of data collected in three long-term studies, involving more than 192,000 adults. By tracking beverage intake over time, they found that people who increased their consumption of sugary drinks (including 100% fruit juice) by more than 4 ounces a day over four years had a 16% increase in diabetes risk over the next four years. Turning to "diet" versions might not help, either: an 18% jump in diabetes risk occurred in people who increased their intake of artificially sweetened drinks by more than 4 ounces a day over the same period, although some of that risk could have reflected other factors, said researchers.

The bottom line: If you want to reduce diabetes risk, it's better to skip sweet drinks and stick to unsweetened tea, coffee, or water. When people drank one of those beverages once a day instead of a sweetened drink, diabetes risk dropped by 2% to 10%.

Research we're watching

If you suffer from migraine headaches, there's a new option available to relieve your pain. In October 2019, the FDA approved lasmiditan (Reyvow) to treat migraine pain in adults. Taken as a pill, it works for migraines either with or without an aura (a visual disturbance within the hour before migraine pain starts). Lasmiditan is not designed to prevent migraines. Lasmiditan is the first migraine treatment in a class of drugs known as serotonin (5-HT) 1F receptor agonists. In studies, researchers found that it could relieve pain and other migraine symptoms within two hours.

Migraines affect an estimated 28 million women in the United States, according to the American Migraine Foundation, and the World Health Organization ranks them among the top 10 disabling conditions. Pain and other symptoms, which may include nausea, sensitivity to light and temporary vision changes, result in lost work days, reduced productivity, and diminished quality of life for many people.

In the journals

Over-the-counter pain medicines that contain caffeine can be effective at stopping some headaches. But drinking a large amount of caffeinated beverages might actually trigger a headache for some people with migraines, according to a study published in the August 2019 issue of The American Journal of Medicine.

Researchers recruited almost 100 people with migraines who suffered from fewer than 15 headaches per month. For six weeks, they recorded the timing and characteristics of each migraine and their intake of caffeinated beverages.

Eosinophilic esophagitis is an allergic inflammation of the esophagus that most typically develops as an allergic response to certain foods. The exact cause is unclear, but if left untreated it can lead to permanent scarring or narrowing of the esophagus.

Although hard-to-read heart attacks happen to both men and women, they are more common in women. One reason for this is that men's symptoms initially set the standard for recognizing heart trouble. Now a growing body of research shows that women can experience heart attacks differently than men.

Understanding sex differences in heart disease is important. Heart disease is the leading cause of death for women. Although it mostly affects older women, it isn't rare in younger women. One in 10 of all women who die from heart disease or a stroke are under age 65, and this age group accounts for one-third of heart- or stroke-related hospitalizations. Even so, younger women and their doctors don't necessarily suspect a heart attack even when all the signs are there.

Take the lowest dose of NSAIDs and stop using them as soon as possible.

Blood thinners are usually given to people at risk for developing blood clots from conditions, such as abnormal heart rhythms. Use of these lifesaving medications requires caution with other drugs, especially painkillers called nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), such as ibuprofen (Advil) or naproxen (Aleve). But plenty of people take the risk to relieve aches and pains. "Many of the patients who need blood thinners are older and therefore at risk for arthritis, so it's not infrequent for a patient to be on both a blood thinner and an NSAID," says cardiologist Dr. Deepak L. Bhatt, a Harvard Medical School professor.

A higher-than-normal blood sugar level puts you at risk for developing diabetes and heart disease.

If you're hoping to avoid heart disease, you probably pay close attention to your blood cholesterol levels. But you also should keep an eye on your blood sugar, because an elevated blood sugar level is an early warning sign of diabetes, one of the main risk factors for cardiovascular disease.

A fasting blood sugar level of 100 to 125 milligrams per deciliter (mg/dL) means you may have a common precursor to diabetes, called prediabetes. (Normal blood sugar values range from 70 to 99 mg/dL.) An estimated one in three American adults has prediabetes, although most of them don't know it.