Diabetes breath test may be possible | Tech news blog – CNET News.com

A new study shows that children with type-1 diabetes exhale significantly higher levels of methyl nitrate when their blood sugar is high. That might not sound like earth-shattering news, but it could mean that diabetics have a noninvasive way to check their blood-sugar levels down the road.

Yup, it’s time for a diabetic breathalyzer. We’re being treated like drunks now! ;-)

Still, I bet it gets to market faster than the inhalable insulin spray we’ve been promised for 20 years.

Living the Scientific Life (Scientist, Interrupted): Bone Hormone Linked to Obesity and Type 2 Diabetes

Even though bones seem to be metabolically inactive structures, nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, bones are rebuilt constantly through the action of cells known as osteoblasts while old bone is destroyed by other cells known as osteoclasts. Bones also produce red and white blood cells, help maintain blood pH and store calcium. However, exciting new research has shown that bones also act as an endocrine organ. Not only do bones produce a protein hormone, osteocalcin (pictured), that regulates bone formation, but this hormone also protects against obesity and glucose intolerance by increasing proliferation of pancreatic beta cells and their subsequent secretion of insulin. Osteocalcin was also found to increase the body’s sensitivity to insulin and as well as reducing its fat stores.

In other words, we’ve cured diabetes yet again!  Someone get out the score card and let me know how many cures this makes for the calendar year 2007, please.

Random thoughts for a Wednesday:

• “Boogie,” the Wii rhythm game I mentioned last week as “danceteria,” is in stores today. That was fast. (Or, more likely, I was slow.)
• The handiest UNIX function ever? “Cal.” I don’t even need a calendar hanging at my desk at work. I just type “cal” into the perpetually-open UNIX window and get what I need. I’m such a geek.
• Sign of the times: Pictures of victims of a recent multiple murder were shown on the local TV news with credits going to the local newspapers for two of them and “Facebook” for the third. Not even “Facebook.com.” Everyone just knows what “Facebook” is now.
• Word I want stricken from the dictionary today: “Anyway.” It’s nowhere near as badly misused and overused as “like,” but I’m starting to get sick of it being used as a transition device.
• Ooh, relatively cheap dSLR camera!
• Sign you’ve been diabetic too long: You wake up from a restless sleep in the middle of the night, look at the clock, see “3:41″ and think, “Holy crap, my blood sugar is high.” Ironically, it was, but not THAT badly.

Diabetic Man Kicked Off Train, Now Missing – News Story – KIRO Seattle

A 65-year-old St. Louis man is missing after Amtrak personnel, mistaking his diabetic shock for drunk and disorderly behavior, kicked him off a train in the middle of a national forest, according to police in Williams, Ariz.Police said Roosevelt Sims was headed to Los Angeles but was asked to leave the train shortly before 10 p.m. Sunday at a railroad crossing five miles outside Williams, reported KPHO-TV in Phoenix. “He was let off in the middle of a national forest, which is about 800,000 acres of beautiful pine trees,” Lt. Mike Graham said.

Crossing our fingers for him. . .  I’ve always said it: the closest I’ll ever come to being drunk is having low blood sugar.  The similarities are surreal. (You know, from what I’ve heard about what it’s like to be drunk. . . )

ScienceDaily: ‘Virus Sponge’ Could Improve Flu Treatments, Diabetes Care, Vaccine Development

Researchers at the University of Maryland’s A. James Clark School of Engineering have created a “virus sponge” that could filter a patient’s blood in a process similar to kidney dialysis, removing the virus from the patient’s body. The concept could also be used to make vaccine production more efficient and in a pill to reduce glucose levels in diabetics, among other applications.

OK, so it’s more of an alternative treatment than a cure, but we’ll see if this one ever comes to market. . .

Brazilian and American stem cell research (always politically correct and the cure for everything else) has now cured diabetes. Here’s more on the same story.

In other news: A diabetes blogger wants Apple’s help in designing better equipment for diabetics. That would be cool. Me, I just want Aventis to stop putting insulin in such cheap crappy thin glass vials that break if you so much as exhale on them, forcing me to renew my prescription early and being denied insurance coverage on it and costing me $80 a bottle. Thanks, Aventis! Why don’t you try a little quality control once in a while? Eli Lilly’s Humalog bottles wouldn’t break if you threw them at a brick wall. They know what they’re doing.

Previous cures for diabetes around the world:

• Diabetes has been cured again! (December 16, 2006)
• Juvenile Diabetes Reversal (November 27, 2006)
• Chinese Diabetes Remedy (June 9, 2006)
• Still curing diabetes (March 28, 2006)
• Canadians Cure Diabetes (March 20, 2006)
• Yet Another Cure for Diabetes (February 27, 2004)

• The Grand Canyon Skywalk: Bitter Big Time Disappointment. $75 per person! And you can’t take your camera out.
• You can now hack with Perl on the AppleTV.
• Even better – TVShows automatically subscribes you to BitTorrent feeds of your favorite TV shows. Remember kids: It’s wrong to steal. But if you have an Apple TV, I would understand how tempting this might be.
• Video game makers are rushing to make Wii titles, as they jumped onto the bandwagon a little late.
• Geek Fight: Smalltalk versus Ruby!
• Is the Google Brain Drain coming? Will Google be the victim of its own successes? The IPO money can start flowing freely out the door now, temping many to take the money and run. I think it’s only natural for some to want to make their own way in the world, start up their own ventures, or just plain old retire. But I also think (I Am NOT A Google Employee) that Google has created an environment that is very inviting to its employees, and that’ll keep the brains on campus. I wish other employers would learn that lesson.

Monitor your blood sugar readings on-line.

I’m learning Ruby on Rails right now. I could have come up with this idea and made a fortune from the Diabetes community, right? ::sigh::

Oh, and the site that includes this feature is, indeed, built on Ruby on Rails.

Nevermind.

ESPN.com – MLB – Padres’ Wells has diabetes but vows to ‘beat it’

David Wells revealed Sunday that he has been diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes, but he vows to beat the disease and he has already drastically changed his lifestyle in order to do so.

A man his size?  Type 2 diabetes?  SHOCKING!

Wow, I didn’t know it could hurt to put my tongue that far into my cheek. . .

I used to work for Novartis a few years back. This news makes me happy:

Biology Goes Open Source – Forbes.com

Novartis, the Basel, Switzerland, drug giant, has helped uncover which of the 20,000 genes identified by the Human Genome Project are likely to be associated with diabetes. But rather than hoard this information, as drug firms have traditionally done, it is making it available for free on the World Wide Web. “It will take the entire world to interpret these data,” says Novartis research head Mark Fishman. “We figure we will benefit more by having a lot of companies look at these data than by holding it secret.” Researchers at Novartis partnered with Switzerland’s Lund University and the Cambridge, Mass.-based Broad Institute, a joint venture between the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard that is funded by billionaire Eli Broad. This international team compared the genomes of 1,500 people who had diabetes with 1,500 who were disease-free. All the patients were from Sweden. To do this quickly, the scientists used gene chips from biotech Affymetrix that allowed them to track 500,000 places in the genetic code where past experience has shown that there are likely to be differences. The result: a library of genetic differences that are likely to increase a patient’s risk of diabetes.

Diabetes breakthrough

In a discovery that has stunned even those behind it, scientists at a Toronto hospital say they have proof the body’s nervous system helps trigger diabetes, opening the door to a potential near-cure of the disease that affects millions of Canadians. Diabetic mice became healthy virtually overnight after researchers injected a substance to counteract the effect of malfunctioning pain neurons in the pancreas. “I couldn’t believe it,” said Dr. Michael Salter, a pain expert at the Hospital for Sick Children and one of the scientists. “Mice with diabetes suddenly didn’t have diabetes any more.” The researchers caution they have yet to confirm their findings in people, but say they expect results from human studies within a year or so. Any treatment that may emerge to help at least some patients would likely be years away from hitting the market.

Give it another year or two and we’ll see how this cure will also kill us and we’ll all be back to the drawing board.

Nintendo Says You Need To Be In Shape To Play The Wii – Gizmodo

A Nintendo PR rep said, “If people are finding themselves sore, they may need to exercise more.” Wow, how’s that for motivation. You know you’re out of shape when a Nintendo PR rep tells you to hit the gym. The rep also said that the Wii is not Jenny Craig and should not be viewed as such. Ouch.

Also, there’s the chance you’re just not playing it right. If you’re flailing all about with the Wii, you might just be working too hard at it. For me, Wii Sports Tennis is the most active game, having to continuously judge whether the hit coming at you is a forehand or a backhand — then having to judge the spin and what counter-spin you want to use — then adjust your timing to hit across the court or straight up — and then how quick to flick your wrist at it — all the while figuring out which of two players on your side should hit the ball back – But, most of all, it’s learning that flailing your arm wildly will not lead to a faster return on your swing. It’s mostly in the wrist, not the arm. That said, it’s a lot more fun to play the game standing up and pretending you’re a tennis player in a slight crouch with your spare art counter balancing you all the way. . .

I’ve not had any pains from playing the Wii, but then I only ever play it for an hour or so at a time, maximum. If it’s any longer than that, I’ll switch up games to exercise different muscles.

Here’s the funny thing, though: It affects my blood sugar. Exercise is good for a diabetic. And all that standing up and lunging around and swinging your arms is a good way to keep yourself active, and a nice way to help regulate your blood sugar. It’s in no way a substitute for a long walk or a stint on the elliptical machine, but it’s ten times better than sitting in front of the computer or watching TV passively. I noticed a slight moderation in my blood sugar levels in the hours after playing with the Wii. I don’t have any hard statistics to back that up, but I’m certain that the limited activity on the Wii has been a help to my overall health, within reason. I’ll keep playing it because it’s fun, but enjoying it a little extra for the help it provides my pancreas.

One other thing: I’ve never had the Wiimote fly out of my hand to the point where the wrist strap had to catch it, posing the potential of it breaking and the Wiimote flying into my TV. If you play the games with just a modicum of self-control, I’m sure you won’t have that problem, either.

New data from NIH lab confirms protocol to reverse type 1 diabetes in mice

New data published in the Nov. 24 issue of Science provide further support for a protocol to reverse type 1 diabetes in mice and new evidence that adult precursor cells from the spleen can contribute to the regeneration of beta cells. In 2001 and 2003, researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) demonstrated the efficacy of a protocol to reverse of type 1 diabetes in diabetic mice. Three studies from other institutions published in the March 24, 2006 issue of Science confirmed that the MGH-developed protocol can reverse the underlying disease but were inconclusive on the role of spleen cells in the recovery of insulin-producing pancreatic islets.

This research is being done by the team that Lee Iacocca’s organization is financing.

And how about that: Good news for juvenile diabetics, for a change.

Researchers develop blood sugar-monitoring contacts – Engadget

They’ve reportedly developed special molecules that can detect glucose at very low levels which, when incorporated into a pair of contact lenses, should be adequate for detecting the amount of glucose in the wearer’s tears — which is about one tenth the amount in blood. What’s more, unlike previous versions of the technology — which required an additional device to read the results — Geddes’ new lenses will be able to simply display the results as a dot in the wearer’s field of vision, changing colors to indicate low or high blood sugar levels.

It’s like a video game HUD for your blood sugar! Very cool.

(Thanks, Adam!)

I’ve been lucky thus far that I’ve never had a problem with bringing my insulin or needles on board a plane with me. I’ve never had my bag inspected or anyone ask to see any documentation. (I have everything labeled.) With the latest round of “no liquids allowed” rules, I’m glad I don’t have to hop on a plane in the next six months.

I think this guy is a bit more fragile a diabetic than I, but it’s a scary story, anyway:

Airline’s medicine ban leaves passenger in coma – 01 Nov 2006 – Health & fitness

A diabetic man fell into a coma because airport staff refused to let him take his insulin on board a flight from Auckland to Christchurch.Qantas yesterday apologised to Tui Peter Russell, who had a severe attack on the plane and was in hospital for two weeks. Mr Russell said check-in staff at Auckland Airport told him he could not take his medication on board because it was dangerous.