Diabetes
Will Diet Soda Protect You from Diabetes?
With so many Americans being told they are overweight or obese, lots of people are trying hard to cut calories. One popular way to do that is to substitute artificial sweeteners such as aspartame for …
Is Cinnamon Dangerous for Your Mouth?
Cinnamon has a reputation for controlling blood sugar. But there is a tremendous amount of confusion about the safety of this spice. For example, is cassia cinnamon (Chinese cinnamon) worse than Ceylo…
Could Your Diabetes Drug Prevent Death from Canc…
One of the most popular medications for type 2 diabetes, metformin, may reduce the likelihood of death from cancer. What Is Metformin? Metformin (Fortamet, Glucophage, Glumetza, Riomet) was original…
How to Protect Your Heart If You Have Diabetes
People with diabetes are at high risk of heart disease, which is a major complication of this metabolic disorder. The common diabetes drug metformin (Fortamet, Glucophage, Glumetza, Riomet) appears to…
Can Cinnamon Capsules Help Fight Diabetes?
Many people would love to find a natural way to control their blood sugar and overcome diabetes. While we don't advocate ignoring the doctor's advice, one reader has found that changing her diet and a…
What Do You Need to Know About Actos and Bladder…
Diabetes drugs are big business because so many people need help controlling their blood sugar. But one popular drug has come under fire. What's the latest update on Actos and bladder cancer? The diab…
What Are the Best Treatments for Type 2 Diabetes…
What are the best treatments for older adults diagnosed with type 2 diabetes? Lowering Blood Sugar-How Much Is Enough? For years, physicians have had to rely on evidence from clinical trials of drugs …
Will Potatoes Every Day Lead to Diabetes?
Are there any dangers to indulging in potatoes? A new study suggests moderation is wise. Harvard researchers have been following health professionals and their eating habits for years. Over 150,000 wo…
Insulin Sensitivity Restored by Catching Up on L…
Sleep loss over a period of months can make a person more susceptible to serious health conditions such as high blood pressure or diabetes. If you use the weekends for catching up on lost sleep, howev…
Atorvastatin Lowers Cholesterol but Raises Blood…
As many as 40 million people may be taking statin-type cholesterol-lowering drugs daily in the U.S. Although medications like atorvastatin, lovastatin, simvastatin, pravastatin, and rosuvastatin can b…
Patients Want Doctors to Look at Them, Not the C…
If you have seen a doctor in the last several years, the chances are good that he or she has entered your data into a computer during the visit. Electronic health records have become ubiquitous in hea…
Doctors Despise EDTA Chelation But Science Suppo…
Q. Are you familiar with EDTA (ethylene diamine tetra acetic acid)? My newspaper has a large ad today on this for artery cleaning. It sounds too good to be true...and I know the rest of that sentence.…
Should You Fire Your Doctor?
How do you know if the doctor you are seeing is right for you? Checking to make sure that there are actually papers hanging on the wall stating that the practitioner graduated from medical school and…
People with Diabetes Who Skip Breakfast Have Blo…
Perhaps you have heard that breakfast is the most important meal of the day, but find you don't have time or appetite for it. Or maybe you have been paying attention to the controversy among nutrition…
HIIT Undid Heart Damage from Diabetes
A small study from England shows that people with diabetes can reverse some of the heart complications of the disease with a special approach to exercise called HIIT. HIIT (High-Intensity Intermittent…
Are You Afraid of Saturated Fat? Studies Say Not…
How many studies will it take before doctors and nutrition experts change their minds about saturated fat? For the last 50 years, Americans have been told that eating sat fat was the quickest way to h…
Metformin Reduces Vitamin B12 Absorption
What happens when a medication interferes with the usual absorption of a nutrient? This problem might be more common than you imagine. Many vitamins and minerals require an acidic environment before t…
Diabetes Drugs Trigger Severe Joint Pain
The FDA has just issued a warning about a serious complication of certain popular diabetes drugs. Gliptins, known as DPP-4 inhibitors, include medications like Januvia and Onglyza. Januvia was approve…
New FDA Warning About Januvia Joint Pain Side Ef…
On August 28, 2015, the FDA issued the following caution: "The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is warning that the type 2 diabetes medicines sitagliptin, saxagliptin, linagliptin, and aloglipt…
Low-Carb Diet Helps People with Diabetes
Every year, about 1.5 million Americans are diagnosed with diabetes. Most of them have type 2 diabetes, in which the body produces insulin but doesn’t use it well. Could a low-carb diet help people …
Are Your Drugs Secretly Causing Your Diabetes?
Q. My husband is really struggling with high blood sugar. I suspect some of his medications may be causing it to stay up. We are on a fixed income and his diabetes drugs are terribly expensive. We are…
Skipping Breakfast Destabilizes Blood Sugar
People with type 2 diabetes have to be very thoughtful about what and when they eat. That's because food has a profound impact on blood sugar levels. A new study suggests that skipping breakfast could…
For Better Blood Sugar Control, Eat Carbs Last
Eating your bread at the start of your meal could be a mistake, especially if you have diabetes. That's the conclusion of a small metabolic study carried out at the Comprehensive Weight Control Center…
Cataracts and Diabetes Could Be Complications of…
It can be extremely frustrating to discover that a medication you have been taking conscientiously to prevent illness has resulted in a new health problem. Unfortunately, this has been the experience …
Cinnamon Plus Statins Could Be Extremely Harmful…
A Trip to the ER A woman showed up in the emergency department at the Providence Hospital and Medical Center in Southfield, Michigan "complaining of abdominal pain associated with vomiting and diarrhe…
Diabetes Drug Actos and Billion-Dollar Settlemen…
People with type 2 diabetes may not need insulin to control their blood sugar, but they often need some medicine. Unfortunately, despite a proliferation of medications designed to help people with thi…
Bitter Melon Lowers Blood Sugar
Type 2 diabetes is usually treated with medications, but the risk/benefit ratio of the newer ones may be dubious (as we wrote here and here). That's especially the case when the expense is f…
With Diabetes, Slightly Overweight People Do Bet…
People with type 2 diabetes are often exhorted to lose the extra pounds they may be carrying around. But a new study shows that a little extra weight is linked to a lower risk of premature death in pe…
Drug That Could Prevent Diabetes May Be Underpre…
Doctors worry about people whose blood sugar is elevated but not yet high enough to warrant a diagnosis of full blown diabetes. Such individuals are said to have prediabetes. Staving Off Diabetes Wh…
Egg Lovers Have Lower Likelihood of Diabetes
For years people have been warned about the dangers of eating eggs. Doctors worried that eggs would raise cholesterol and boost the risk for type 2 diabetes. What the Study Shows Now a study of more t…
Statins Raise the Risk of Developing Diabetes
Statin drugs to lower cholesterol are prescribed very widely and are generally seen as well tolerated. Although many people, especially younger individuals, seem to do well with low doses of statins, …
Do Diabetes Drugs Help or Hurt the Heart?
New drugs for type 2 diabetes have become extremely popular in recent years. One, Januvia, earned more than $4 billion last year. But questions have been raised about whether drugs like Januvia, Ongly…
New Statin Study Confirms Scary Link to Diabetes
Statin-type cholesterol-lowering drugs like atorvastatin, lovastatin and simvastatin are supposed to prevent heart attacks and strokes. New research from Finland suggests that such drugs may increase …
Diabetes Drug Dust-Up Reveals FDA Deficiencies
A week ago the FDA put out a report that "suggested significant or near-significant increases in all-cause mortality" associated with the diabetes drug Onglyza (saxagliptin). In other words, more pat…
Beer and Licorice Diet Bad for Health
Q. My husband's doctor says he's fine except for being borderline diabetic. My husband retired recently and is now in the house all day. He hardly eats during the day. He thinks he's too fat, though h…
Do Januvia Side Effects Include Cancer of the Pa…
Q. My wife is taking Januvia to control her blood sugar. Without Januvia her sugar level is 130 or more. With Januvia it is in the range of 110, which is close to normal. I heard an interview on the r…
Vitamin D Level Matters for Diabetes Outcomes
Vitamin D levels may have an important impact on the risk of vascular complications from diabetes. People with this metabolic disorder are more likely to have heart attacks, strokes and other cardiova…
Drugs May Be Driving the Diabetes Epidemic
Diabetes has become one of the world's most troubling diseases. The American Diabetes Association estimates that nearly 28 million Americans have type 2 diabetes. About 8 million have not been diagnos…
Are Saturated Fat, Cholesterol and Salt Really D…
Doctors today pride themselves on practicing "evidence-based medicine." That means using the best scientific data derived from research to make recommendations for policy and treatment. When it comes …
If You Need Just One Diet Rule, Here It Is
People who find complicated dietary guidelines daunting can benefit by following just one. According to a new study, increasing fiber intake offers multiple health benefits. Investigators in Massachus…