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Continuous glucose monitoring to improve health in non-diabetics

For instance, in the Hall et al. study cited above, those with a glucotype associated with the largest fluctuations in blood glucose – roughly 24% of all normoglycemic participants tested – were found to spend roughly 15% of their time (over a 2-4 week test period) with glucose levels exceeding the threshold for prediabetes, demonstrating how even those considered metabolically healthy can have subclinical metabolic dysregulation that would likely be missed by a one-time blood glucose measurement.

How Deep Sleep Brain Waves Can Impact Blood Sugar Levels - Neuroscience News

The research suggests that the coupling of deep-sleep brain waves, specifically sleep spindles and slow waves, can predict an increase in insulin sensitivity and therefore improve glucose control. Deep-sleep brain waves could potentially be used as a reliable predictor for next-day blood sugar levels, offering a novel, non-invasive tool for managing glucose control. The study found that this particular set of deep-sleep brain waves predicted next-day glucose control more effectively than factors such as sleep duration or sleep efficiency.

People with diabetes who eat less processed food at night may live longer: Study finds eating carbs earlier in the day is linked to better heart health -- ScienceDaily

The researchers analyzed data from 4,642 people with diabetes from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey to determine their risk of dying from heart disease. They found people with diabetes who ate potatoes or starchy vegetables in the morning, whole grains in the afternoon, and dark vegetables such as greens and broccoli and milk in the evening were less likely to die from heart disease. Those who ate a lot of processed meat in the evening were more likely to die from heart disease.

Close the blinds during sleep to protect your health: Even moderate light exposure during sleep harms heart health and increases insulin resistance -- ScienceDaily

"We showed your heart rate increases when you sleep in a moderately lit room," said Dr. Daniela Grimaldi, a co-first author and research assistant professor of neurology at Northwestern. "Even though you are asleep, your autonomic nervous system is activated. That's bad. Usually, your heart rate together with other cardiovascular parameters are lower at night and higher during the day." There are sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems to regulate our physiology during the day and night. Sympathetic takes charge during the day and parasympathetic is supposed to at night, when it conveys restoration to the entire body. How nighttime light during sleep can lead to diabetes and obesity Investigators found insulin resistance occurred the morning after people slept in a light room. Insulin resistance is when cells in your muscles, fat and liver don't respond well to insulin and can't use glucose from your blood for energy. To make up for it, your pancreas makes more insulin. Over time, your blood sugar goes up.

How the timing of dinner and genetics affect individuals’ blood sugar control: Connections among food intake, melatonin levels and genetics may be important for diabetes risk -- ScienceDaily

The team found that melatonin levels in participants' blood were 3.5-fold higher after the late dinner. The late dinner timing also resulted in lower insulin levels and higher blood sugar levels. (This connection makes sense because insulin acts to decrease blood sugar levels.) In the late dinner timing, participants with the MTNR1B G-allele had higher blood sugar levels than those without this genetic variant. "We found that late eating disturbed blood sugar control in the whole group. Furthermore, this impaired glucose control was predominantly seen in genetic risk variant carriers, representing about half of the cohort," says lead author Marta Garaulet, PhD, a professor of physiology and nutrition in the Department of Physiology at the University of Murcia. Experiments revealed that the high melatonin levels and carbohydrate intake associated with late eating impairs blood sugar control through a defect in insulin secretion.

Uncovered: Key to how exercise protects against consequences of aging -- ScienceDaily

The team of scientists at the Monash University Biomedicine Discovery Institute (BDI), led by Professor Tony Tiganis, reveals that reductions in skeletal muscle reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation during ageing is instrumental in the development of insulin resistance. According to Professor Tiganis, skeletal muscle constantly produces ROS and this is increased during exercise. "Exercise-induced ROS drives adaptive responses that are integral to the health-promoting effects of exercise," he said. In a paper published Dec. 15 in the journal Science Advances, the research team show how an enzyme called NOX-4 is essential for exercise-induced ROS and the adaptive responses that drive metabolic health.

Prediabetes may not be as benign as once thought: Study shows greater risk of serious cardiac events; suggests need for more aggressive treatment -- ScienceDaily

Of particular concern was the finding that even when patients in the prediabetes group were able to bring their blood sugar level back to normal, the risk of having a cardiovascular event was still fairly high. Events occurred in just over 10.5% of these patients compared with 6% of those with no diabetes or prediabetes. "Even if blood sugar levels went back to normal range, it didn't really change their higher risk of having an event, so preventing prediabetes from the start may be the best approach," Michel said.

Anti-aging compound improves muscle glucose metabolism in people: Further studies underway to determine extent of clinical benefits -- ScienceDaily

The researchers studied 25 postmenopausal women who had prediabetes, meaning they had higher than normal blood sugar levels, but the levels were not high enough to be diagnosed as having diabetes. Women were enrolled in this trial because mouse studies showed NMN had the greatest effects in female mice. NMN is involved in producing an important compound in all cells, called nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD). NAD plays a vital role in keeping animals healthy. Levels of NAD decline with age in a broad range of animals, including humans, and the compound has been shown to contribute to a variety of aging-associated problems, including insulin resistance in studies conducted in mice. Supplementing animals with NMN slows and ameliorates age-related decline in the function of many tissues in the body.

Eating before 8:30 a.m. could reduce risk factors for type 2 diabetes: Intermittent fasting study finds eating earlier was associated with lower blood sugar levels and insulin resistance -- ScienceDaily

The researchers analyzed data from 10,575 adults who participated in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. They divided participants into three groups depending on total duration of food intake: less than 10 hours, 10-13 hours, and more than 13 hours per day. They then created six subgroups based on eating duration start time (before or after 8:30 a.m.). They analyzed this data to determine if eating duration and timing were associated with fasting blood sugar levels and estimated insulin resistance. Fasting blood sugar levels did not differ significantly among eating interval groups. Insulin resistance was higher with shorter eating interval duration, but lower across all groups with an eating start time before 8:30 a.m.

Prediabetes may be linked to worse brain health: People with prediabetes, whose blood sugar levels are higher than normal, may have an increased risk of cognitive decline and vascular dementia, according to a new study led by UCL researchers. -- ScienceDaily

Participants were divided into five groups on the basis of the results -- "low-normal" level of blood sugar, normoglycaemia (having a normal concentration of sugar in the blood), prediabetes, undiagnosed diabetes and diabetes. A result between 42-48 mmol/mol (6.0-6.5%) was classified as prediabetes. The researchers used data from repeated assessments of visual memory to determine whether participants had cognitive decline or not. Though absolute rates of cognitive decline were low, people with prediabetes and diabetes had a similarly higher likelihood of cognitive decline -- 42% and 39% respectively. Looking at dementia diagnoses, researchers found that prediabetes was associated with a higher likelihood of vascular dementia, a common form of dementia caused by reduced blood flow to the brain, but not Alzheimer's disease. People with diabetes, meanwhile, were three times more likely to develop vascular dementia than people whose blood sugar levels were classified as normal, and more likely to develop Alzheimer's disease.

Short term low carbohydrate diet linked to remission of type 2 diabetes: But further trials are needed to determine longer term effects, say researchers -- ScienceDaily

Patients with type 2 diabetes who follow a strict low carbohydrate diet for six months may experience greater rates of remission compared with other recommended diets without adverse effects, suggests a study published by The BMJ today. The researchers acknowledge that most benefits diminished at 12 months, but say doctors might consider short term strict low carbohydrate diets for managing type 2 diabetes, while actively monitoring and adjusting diabetes medication as needed.

Study of 50,000 people finds brown fat may protect against numerous chronic diseases -- ScienceDaily

In collaboration with Heiko Schoder and Andreas Wibmer at Memorial Sloan Kettering, the researchers reviewed 130,000 PET scans from more than 52,000 patients, and found the presence of brown fat in nearly 10 percent of individuals. (Cohen notes that this figure is likely an underestimate because the patients had been instructed to avoid cold exposure, exercise, and caffeine, all of which are thought to increase brown fat activity). Several common and chronic diseases were less prevalent among people with detectable brown fat. For example, only 4.6 percent had type 2 diabetes, compared with 9.5 percent of people who did not have detectable brown fat. Similarly, 18.9 percent had abnormal cholesterol, compared to 22.2 percent in those without brown fat.

Are high-protein total diet replacements the key to maintaining healthy weight? -- ScienceDaily

Subjects were then randomly assigned into one of two groups: one group was fed the high-protein total diet replacement, which consisted of 35% carbohydrate, 40% protein, and 25% fat. The second group, the control group, was fed a diet with the same number of calories, but consisting of 55% carbohydrate, 15% protein, and 30% fat, a typical North American dietary pattern. Participants received the prescribed diets for a 32-hour period while inside a metabolic chamber. Compared to the standard North American dietary pattern, the findings of this inpatient metabolic balance study revealed that the high-protein total diet replacement led to "higher energy expenditure, increased fat oxidation, and negative fat balance." In particular, the results of the study provide further evidence that a calorie is not just a calorie. That is, a diet with a higher proportion of protein might lead to an increase in energy expenditure and fat oxidation compared to a diet consisting of the same number of calories, but with a lower proportion of protein as well as a higher proportion of carbohydrate or fat.

Bursts of exercise can lead to significant improvements in indicators of metabolic health -- ScienceDaily

The MGH study drew on data from the Framingham Heart Study to measure the levels of 588 circulating metabolites before and immediately after 12 minutes of vigorous exercise in 411 middle-aged men and women. The research team detected favorable shifts in a number of metabolites for which resting levels were previously shown to be associated with cardiometabolic disease. For example, glutamate, a key metabolite linked to heart disease, diabetes and decreased longevity, fell by 29%. And DMGV, a metabolite associated with increased risk of diabetes and liver disease, dropped by 18%. The study further found that metabolic responses may be modulated by factors other than exercise, including a person's sex and body mass index, with obesity possibly conferring partial resistance to the benefits of exercise.

Internal clocks drive beta cell regeneration -- ScienceDaily

To explore the connection between internal biological clocks and beta cell regeneration, Charna Dibner's team first observed two groups of mice with only 20% beta cells remaining after targeted massive ablation. Mice in a first group were arrhythmic, whereas the control group had perfectly functional clocks. "The result was very clear: the mice bearing dysfunctional clocks were unable to regenerate their beta cells, and suffered from severe diabetes, while the control group animals had their beta cells regenerated; in just a few weeks, their diabetes was under control," says Volodymyr Petrenko, a researcher in Dr. Dibner's laboratory and the leading scientist in this study. By measuring the number of dividing beta cells across 24 hours, the scientists also noted that regeneration is significantly greater at night, when the mice are active.

Insomnia identified as a new risk factor for type 2 diabetes in new study which also confirms many other risk and protective factors -- ScienceDaily

The other 18 risk factors for T2D were depression, systolic blood pressure, starting smoking, lifetime smoking, coffee (caffeine) consumption, blood plasma levels of the amino acids isoleucine, valine and leucine, liver enzyme alanine aminotransferase (a sign of liver function), childhood and adulthood body mass index (BMI), body fat percentage, visceral (internal) fat mass, resting heart rate, and blood plasma levels of four fatty acids. The 15 exposures associated with a decreased risk of type 2 diabetes were plasma alanine (an amino acid), high density lipoprotein (good cholesterol) and total cholesterol, age at beginning puberty in women (menarche), testosterone levels, sex hormone binding globulin levels (adjusted for BMI), birthweight, adulthood height, lean body mass (for women), four plasma fatty acids, circulating vitamin D and years of education.

Does high blood sugar worsen COVID-19 outcomes? -- ScienceDaily

"Improving blood sugar control was important in reducing the amount of secondary infections and kidney issues this cohort of patients are susceptible to," Gianchandani says. "This might help shorten ICU stays and lessen the amount of patients that need a ventilator." It's important to note this algorithm wasn't developed as a result of a clinical trial, but is based solely on preliminary observations in the patients the team followed. A larger, randomized and controlled study is necessary to determine how this algorithm impacts mortality, time to recovery, the length of ICU stays and rate of severe complications.

Sugary drink tax models show health gains, cost reductions, but vary by tax design -- ScienceDaily

Boston researchers created a nationally representative microsimulation model to test three types of taxation on sugary drinks: a flat "volume tax" by drink volume ($0.01 per ounce), the only type used in U.S. cities to-date; a "tiered sugar content tax" by 3 levels of sugar content (ranging from $0.00 for less than 5 grams of added sugars per 8 ounces, to $0.02 per ounce of added sugars for more than 20 grams of added sugars per 8 ounces); and a "fixed sugar content tax" by absolute sugar content ($0.01 per teaspoon of added sugars, regardless of the number of ounces). Under the simulation scenario, the researchers found all three tax structures would generate tax revenue, lower health care costs and prevent cardiovascular disease events and diabetes cases. However, the tiered tax and sugar content tax could generate the largest health gains and cost savings. Any of the tax designs could be effective public health policy tools that may be able to reduce consumption of sugary drinks, and thus improve health and overall well-being, the researchers noted.

Viruses from feces can help combat obesity and diabetes -- ScienceDaily

In recent years, faecal transplants from healthy donors to sick patients have become a popular way of treating a serious type of diarrhea caused by the bacterium Clostridioides difficile in humans. Recent trials in mice suggest that a similar treatment, in which only the virus in stool is transplanted, may help people suffering from obesity and type 2 diabetes. The majority of virus particles transmitted are so-called bacteriophages -- viruses that specifically attack other bacteria and not humans. "When we transmit virus particles from the faeces of lean mice to obese ones, the obese mice put on significantly less weight compared to those that do not receive transplanted faeces," says Professor with Special Responsibilities (MSO) and senior author of the study, Dennis Sandris Nielsen of the University of Copenhagen's Department of Food Science.

Small rises in blood glucose trigger big changes in insulin-producing cells -- ScienceDaily

In a paper recently published in Molecular Metabolism, Weir's lab laid out a wealth of new data about how beta cells behave at slightly raised levels of blood glucose. The work provides major additional evidence of a "glucose toxicity" effect that helps to drive the development of both type 1 and type 2 diabetes. Studying beta cells in lab rats whose blood glucose levels were slightly elevated, Weir's lab found changes in gene expression that affect not just how well the cells function but their ability to divide and grow, as well as their vulnerability to autoimmunity and inflammation. Weir, professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, has long studied a puzzling type 2 diabetes phenomenon called first-phase insulin release and how this release is shut down as the disease progresses. In healthy people with normal blood glucose levels, Weir explains, the body responds quickly to glucose with a big spike of insulin secretion. "If then you take people who have slightly higher glucose levels, above 100 mg/dl, which is still not even diabetes, this first-phase insulin release is impaired," he says. "And when the level gets above 115 mg/dl, it's gone. So virtually all the beta cells don't respond to that acute stimulus." Fortunately, the cells eventually do wake up and respond to other stimuli well enough to keep blood glucose in a prediabetic range.

Verily tangos with a health tech partner — and steps on a few toes - STAT

In his presentation, Conrad described tremendous potential for its work with Dexcom to help patients connect factors like diet and exercise with their blood sugar levels. And he showed an image of the new device, which is smaller than a quarter and called the G7. Conrad also announced — for the first time — that the device contained an accelerometer, so patients could see in real time how exercise impacted their disease. The Dexcom CEO said he was not pleased about Conrad’s decision to share the image or to announce the accelerometer. He didn’t want competitors to know about either detail, he said. More importantly, he isn’t certain the accelerometer will make it into the version of the device slated to launch at year’s end, he added. “That is a competitive thing that I actually did not want disclosed,” said Sayer, who is known as a straight shooter. “I’d rather that not even be public. We haven’t told anybody and we weren’t planning to.”

Need to control blood sugar? There's a drink for that: Ketone supplement may control glucose by mimicking some aspects of a ketogenic diet -- ScienceDaily

"There is mounting evidence that a low carbohydrate ketogenic diet is very effective in controlling blood sugar and even reversing Type 2 diabetes," says Little. "We wanted to know what would happen if artificial ketones were given to those with obesity and at risk for Type 2 diabetes but who haven't been dieting." To test the idea, Little and his team asked 15 people to consume a ketone drink after fasting overnight. After 30 minutes, they were then asked to drink a fluid containing 75 grams of sugar while blood samples were taken. "It turns out that the ketone drink seemed to launch participants into a sort of pseudo-ketogenic state where they were better able to control their blood sugar levels with no changes to their insulin," explains Little. "It demonstrates that these supplements may have real potential as a valuable tool for those with Type 2 diabetes."

dmca/2019-11-08-abbott.md at master · github/dmca · GitHub

It has come to Abbott’s attention that a software project titled “Libre2-patched-App” has been uploaded to GitHub, Inc.’s (“GitHub”) website and creates unauthorized derivative works of Abbott’s LibreLink program (the “Infringing Software”). The Infringing Software is available at https://github.com/user987654321resu/Libre2-patched-App. In addition to offering the Infringing Software, the project provides instructions on how to download the Infringing Software, circumvent Abbott’s technological protection measures by disassembling the LibreLink program, and use the Infringing Software to modify the LibreLink program.

Abbott Labs kills free tool that lets you own the blood-sugar data from your glucose monitor, saying it violates copyright law / Boing Boing

First, they say that creating a tool that interoperates with the Freestyle Libre's data is a copyright infringement, because the new code is a derivative work of Abbott's existing product. But code that can operate on another program's data is not a derivative work of the first program -- just because Apple's Pages can read Word docs, it doesn't mean that Pages is a derivative of MS Office. In addition, as Diabettech points out, EU copyright law explicitly contains an exemption for reverse engineering in order to create interoperability between medical devices (EU Software Directive, Article 6). More disturbing is Kirkland/Abbott's claim that the project violates Section 1201 of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which prohibits bypassing "access controls" for copyrighted works. Factual data (like your blood sugar levels) are not copyrightable -- and if they were, you would hold that copyright. It's your blood. What's more, DMCA 1201 also contains an interoperability exemption.

The Price of Insulin Has Soared. Biohackers Want to Fix It | Time

Ultimately, it’s not clear that the Open Insulin Project’s real goal is to facilitate insulin minilabs across the U.S. The group intends to put the plan for their designer insulin-­producing yeast online as soon as it’s done, but only for “research purposes,” says Di Franco. And without brewing facilities or the ability to check and purify the hormone, the plans themselves are a long way—scientifically and legally—from the point where anyone will be injecting homegrown insulin. Di Franco has offered up his own body as a proving ground once the lawyers sign off: “I’d be thrilled to be the first person to take the insulin,” he says.

The absurdly high cost of insulin, explained - Vox

But not all insulins are patent-protected. For example, none of Eli Lilly’s insulins are, according to the drugmaker. In those cases, Luo said, potential manufacturers may be deterred by secondary patents on non-active ingredients in insulins or on associated devices (such as insulin delivery pens).