Vegan Diet may be Better for Diabetics

WebWire - Vegan Diet Tops Traditional Diabetic Diet

George Washington University and the University of Toronto created a research study to compare the diabetic diet recommended by the American Diabetes Association to a traditional vegan diet, free of animal products. The goal was to examine how the diets may reduce the need for drugs in diabetes management, kidney function, cholesterol levels, and weight loss. Of the 99 diabetic participants, half were randomly put on a vegan diet and the other half on the ADA diabetic diet.

After just 22 weeks, positive improvements in both groups were observed, though the vegan diet outscored the ADA diabetic diet in every reported category. The vegan dieters lost almost 50 percent more than the ADA dieters. In addition, LDL (“bad”) cholesterol dropped by 21 percent in the vegan group, compared to just 9 percent in the ADA group.

Type 2 Diabetes Gene Ups Risks by 80 Percent

Type 2 Diabetes Gene Ups Risk by 80 Percent

Massachusetts General Hospital researcher Jose C. Florez, MD, PhD, and colleagues did genetic tests on 3,548 study participants. They looked for TCF7L2 gene variants recently linked to type 2 diabetes. They found that 1 in 10 of those with high blood sugar had two copies of the diabetes genes, and 4 in 10 had one copy. Study participants with two copies of the diabetes gene had an 81 percent increased risk of type 2 diabetes.

However, the study also showed that a person can greatly reduce that risk through diet and lifestyle change. Study participants were able to lower their risk of type 2 diabetes if they lost 5 to 7 percent of their body weight and exercised 30 minutes, five days a week.

"Even the participants at highest genetic risk benefited from healthy lifestyle changes as much as, or perhaps more than, those who did not inherit the variant," Florez said in a news release. "People at risk of diabetes, whether they're overweight, have elevated blood glucose levels, or have this particular gene variant, can benefit greatly by implementing a healthy lifestyle."

Additional diabetic resources:

• Diabetes and Exercise - American Diabetes Services
• Getting Started - Exercise - American Diabetes Association
• Do you qualify for Free Diabetic Testing Supplies from FreedoMed

Diabetic Research Funded by Shopping Website

Diabetic Girl Hopes to Fund Cure Through Her Website: Shop2Cure.com

Allie Beatty, the founder and developer of Shop2Cure.com, has been a type I diabetic for over 20 years. She as created Shop2Cure.com to raise monies to fund these organizations doing diabetic related research:

• American Diabetes Association - mission is to prevent and cure diabetes, and to improve the lives of all people affected by diabetes. The American Diabetes Association funds research, publishes scientific findings, provides information and other services to people with diabetes, their families, health care professionals and the public and advocates for scientific research and for the rights of people with diabetes.
• Join Lee Now - is the fundraising arm of The Iacocca Foundation. It was developed in response to the discovery made in 2003, when researchers that The Iacocca Foundation had supported for several years made history by reversing and curing type 1 diabetes in mice. The next step is to translate this research to humans, with a price tag of $11.5 million. Join Lee Now has raised over $10 million and the launch of Phase I of clinical trials is $1.5 million shy of potentially curing type I diabetes

Using Shop2Cure.com is as simple as clicking through banner ads that provide coupons, promotions, free shipping or information to hot selling products to shop their affiliates. Shop2Cure.com earns advertising revenues based on the total dollar amount of the purchase. Eighty percent of Shop2Cure.com earnings are donated to nonprofit organizations.

Diabetic Women Need Fracture Prevention Strategy

Diabetic women need fracture prevention strategy - Reuters.com

After 22 years of following women with type 1 or 2 diabetes, researchers detected a statistically significant increased risk of hip fracture amongst diabetic women, creating a need to develop fracture prevention strategies.

The Nurses' Health Study followed 109,983 women aged 34 to 59 years from 1980 to 2002. These women were surveyed about their history and treatment of diabetes and other potential risk factors for hip fracture. During the study 1.2% of the diabetic women fractured a hip in that 22 year period, which shows that hip fractures occur seven times higher in women with type 1 diabetes and almost twice as high in those with type 2 diabetes.

The study also found that the risk of hip fracture increased with insulin treatment. However, the role of insulin in hip fractures is still unclear. Some researchers believe that it my indicate a more severe disease process or insulin may exert negative effects on the bones, but more studies need to be done to figure out the role of insulin in fracture risk.

For more information about diabetes, visit American Diabetes Services.