Cut Your Risk of Diabetes from Huffington Post

Do you eat the typical American diet, high in soft drinks (including diet soda), white flour, French fries and processed meats like cold cuts and hot dogs?

Eating that way can increase your risk of developing diabetes by 300 percent.

Are you carrying around extra weight? That raises the risk of getting diabetes a lot. A woman who is mildly obese -- for example, weighing 190 at 5'6" tall -- has a 55 percent chance of getting diabetes. A man who is mildly obese, for instance, who weighs 225 pounds and is 6 feet tall -- has a 57 percent chance of developing diabetes.

This can be prevented, and I will share with you the exciting research on nutrition and foods that can help prevent and reverse diabetes in a moment. But first, a closer look at the problem.

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Coffee Drinkers At Reduced Risk Of Type 2 Diabetes from Medical News Today

Why do heavy coffee drinkers have a lower risk of developing Type 2 diabetes, a disease on the increase around the world that can lead to serious health problems? Scientists are offering a new solution to that long-standing mystery in a report in ACS' Journal of Agricultural & Food Chemistry.

Ling Zheng, Kun Huang and colleagues explain that previous studies show that coffee drinkers are at a lower risk for developing Type 2 diabetes, which accounts for 90-95 percent of diabetes cases in the world. Those studies show that people who drink four or more cups of coffee daily have a 50 percent lower risk of Type 2 diabetes. And every additional cup of coffee brings another decrease in risk of almost 7 percent. Scientists have implicated the misfolding of a substance called human islet amyloid polypeptide (hIAPP) in causing Type 2 diabetes, and some are seeking ways to block that process. Zheng and Huang decided to see if coffee's beneficial effects might be due to substances that block hIAPP.

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Insight: Diabetes breakthrough stalled in safety debate from Rueters

By Julie Steenhuysen

CHICAGO | Thu Dec 1, 2011 8:33am EST

(Reuters) - It's a dream of medical science that looks tantalizingly within reach: the artificial pancreas, a potential breakthrough treatment for the scourge of type 1 diabetes.

Meant to mimic the function of a real pancreas, the artificial version is a complex device that combines a pager-sized continuous glucose monitor and sensor that tracks blood sugar with a pump that automatically delivers the correct dose of insulin at just the right time.

That technology could make a major difference to the three million Americans with the disease who must vigilantly monitor their blood sugar, even at night, and risk deadly consequences if they are slow to notice a dangerous change.

But it is caught up in America's long-running tug of war between supporters of more rapid medical innovation and those who seek better safety for new devices. A fresh confrontation is about to break open this week as the Food and Drug Administration lays out a path toward regulatory approval for such devices, expected as early as Thursday.

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Can pollution increase risk of diabetes? From yahoo news

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - People who live in areas with high levels of traffic-related air pollution may face a slightly increased risk of developing diabetes, Danish researchers conclude in a new study.

They found that people living in urban areas with high levels of nitrogen dioxide, a pollutant found in traffic exhaust, were four percent more likely to be diagnosed with diabetes than people living in neighborhoods with cleaner air.

Healthier people seemed to be in greater peril from the influence of air pollution, with diabetes risk jumping by 10 percent in physically active people and 12 percent in non-smokers.

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