Red and green, the colors of Yule: the poinsettia and the evergreen, the holly berry and the ivy, the winter coats and cycling helmets…

Winter coats and cycling helmets????

In early on the 11th for my shift, I walked over to the supermarket at the other end of the strip mall to pick up a few things. On the checkout line next to me, I noticed a woman shorter and older than me, wearing a bright red cycling helmet.

"I’m glad to see I’m not the only person who cycles to my errands," I said.

"It’s new," she said, referring to her helmet. "It’s red, so I hope they can see me." 

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Frozen shoulder is more common in people with diabetes than you may realize.  My own painful experience with frozen shoulder, also known as adhesive capsulitis, happened a few years ago.  I slipped and fell down the stairs at home, hitting the wall and nearly every stair from top to bottom.  I injured an ankle and lost my big toenail in the accident.  As I began healing, I also noticed that my left arm wouldn’t go above my head.

Numerous studies have identified an increased risk of cancer in type 2 diabetes.

When I was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, it was after many appointments for recurrent and persistent yeast infections.

John Buse, M.D., Ph.D., of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine, has been named the new chair of the National Diabetes Education Program , a joint program of the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, NDEP announced today.

You can get some free help losing weigh and managing your diabetes in the new year.

Her shiny black coat glistening in the sunshine and her soft brown eyes searching for direction, 20-month-old Echo sits near Dee Hollerud in the Can Do Canines training facility where Hollerud volunteers.

FRIDAY, Dec. 30 — Doctors diagnosed Ronda Keys with type 2 diabetes when she was 19 years old and a student at the University of Maryland.

OBJECTIVE

We investigated the effect of early-phase insulin secretion on the incidence of type 2 diabetes in individuals with impaired glucose tolerance (IGT) participating in the Finnish Diabetes Prevention Study. We examined how a lifestyle intervention affected early-phase insulin secretion (ratio of total insulin area under the curve [AUC] and total glucose AUC [AIGR] from 0 to 30 min) during a 4-year follow-up intervention trial and whether AIGR_0–30 response was modified by insulin sensitivity (IS) and obesity.

RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS

A total of 443 participants with IGT originally randomized to a lifestyle intervention or control group were studied. IS and AIGR_0–30 were estimated from an oral tolerance glucose test administered annually during the 4-year follow-up trial and were related to the risk of diabetes onset over a 6-year follow-up.

RESULTS

Lifestyle intervention resulted in higher IS (P = 0.02) and lower unadjusted AIGR_0–30 (P = 0.08) during the 4-year follow-up. A higher IS and a lower BMI during the follow-up were associated with a lower unadjusted AIGR_0–30 during the follow-up, independently of study group (P < 0.001). A greater increase in IS on the median cutoff point of a 0.69 increase was associated with higher IS-adjusted AIGR_0–30 during the follow-up (P = 0.002). In multivariate models, IS and IS-adjusted AIGR_0–30 were both inversely associated with diabetes incidence (P < 0.001). Participants who progressed to type 2 diabetes were more obese and had lower IS and Matsuda IS index-AIGR_0–30 than nonprogressors.

CONCLUSIONS

Our results indicate that the reduction in the risk of developing type 2 diabetes after lifestyle intervention is related to the improvement of IS along with weight loss. Improved IS may also have beneficial effects on preservation of β-cell function.

OBJECTIVE

To evaluate the changes in circulating endotoxin after a high–saturated fat meal to determine whether these effects depend on metabolic disease state.

RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS

Subjects (n = 54) were given a high-fat meal (75 g fat, 5 g carbohydrate, 6 g protein) after an overnight fast (nonobese control [NOC]: age 39.9 ± 11.8 years [mean ± SD], BMI 24.9 ± 3.2 kg/m², n = 9; obese: age 43.8 ± 9.5 years, BMI 33.3 ± 2.5 kg/m², n = 15; impaired glucose tolerance [IGT]: age 41.7 ± 11.3 years, BMI 32.0 ± 4.5 kg/m², n = 12; type 2 diabetes: age 45.4 ± 10.1 years, BMI 30.3 ± 4.5 kg/m², n = 18]. Blood was collected before (0 h) and after the meal (1–4 h) for analysis.

RESULTS

Baseline endotoxin was significantly higher in the type 2 diabetic and IGT subjects than in NOC subjects, with baseline circulating endotoxin levels 60.6% higher in type 2 diabetic subjects than in NOC subjects (P < 0.05). Ingestion of a high-fat meal led to a significant rise in endotoxin levels in type 2 diabetic, IGT, and obese subjects over the 4-h time period (P < 0.05). These findings also showed that, at 4 h after a meal, type 2 diabetic subjects had higher circulating endotoxin levels (125.4%) than NOC subjects (P < 0.05).

CONCLUSIONS

These studies have highlighted that exposure to a high-fat meal elevates circulating endotoxin irrespective of metabolic state, as early as 1 h after a meal. However, this increase is substantial in IGT and type 2 diabetic subjects, suggesting that metabolic endotoxinemia is exacerbated after high-fat intake. In conclusion, our data suggest that, in a compromised metabolic state such as type 2 diabetes, a continual snacking routine will cumulatively promote their condition more rapidly than in other individuals because of the greater exposure to endotoxin.