July 31, 2000 Research Update

Fructosamine Test Leads to Better Control in Diabetes Patients

Fructosamine has benefits over glycosalated hemoglobin (HbA1c) in that it can monitor control of sugar over a period of a few weeks, whereas the other tests check your previous 3 months' average.

A test that allows diabetes patients to monitor their fructosamine levels at home, coupled with a system to notify their physician if the levels become too high, leads to lower glycosylated hemoglobin levels. Fructosamine is a glycosylated protein that can be monitored over a 2 to 3 week period, while glycosylated hemoglobin can only be monitored every 3 months, according to Dr. Steven V. Edelman of the University of California, San Diego, and colleagues. Dr. Edelman noted that the test is widely used among diabetes specialists to monitor diabetes during pregnancy. "Basically it's immediate feedback," he told Reuters Health, noting that he is diabetic himself and uses the fructosamine test. "You can do it on the same meter [as glucose] with a drop of blood, you don't have to go to the lab and get your arm stuck and wait for the interpretation of the results."

Insulin and gall stones

Well, I think with the link to gall stones, that pretty much implicates insulin as a conspiratory in just about all diseases known to man. I remember a "discussion" with a woman representing the American Diabetic Association at a health event. She say no problem eating processed sugars because she could just use her "fast acting insulin." She just doesn't get it.

Gut -- Abstracts: Misciagna et al. 47 (1): 144 http://gut.bmjjournals.com/cgi/content/abstract/47/1/144

US cancer institute funds trial of complementary therapy

This doctors' results in patients with pancreatic cancer is nothing short of incredible. It's nice to see some of our tax money going to good research that may actually help us one day!!

bmj.com Josefson 320 (7251): 1690a http://bmj.com/cgi/content/full/320/7251/1690/a

Homocysteine as Indicator of Survival in Acute Coronary Syndromes

Has everyone worried about heart disease had their doctor check their homocysteine levels?? Better yet...is everyone taking a high quality multivitamin that may indeed lower your risk of heart disease?

Serum Homocysteine Concentration as an Indicator of Survival in Patients With Acute Coronary Syndromes http://archinte.ama-assn.org/issues/v160n12/abs/ioi90583.html

Thirty-Eight Studies Find Soy Products Lower Cholesterol

It seems that soy's effect on cholesterol may actually be better researched than many of the pharmaceutical drugs on the market. As a side note, it is important to mention that soy is not ALL good. It does have a tendency to interact with other essential nutrients. It is important to not fall prey to every soy product on the market.

Increasing evidence supports the use of soy products to lower blood cholesterol, a heart-health publication edited by cardiologists reports. Heart and Health Reports cited a summary of 38 recent studies of the effect of soy on cholesterol: "This summary found that an average intake of 46 grams of soy protein per day reduced total cholesterol by an average of 9 percent, [low-density lipoprotein (LDL)] cholesterol by l3 percent, and triglycerides by 11 percent," the publication said. Patients who had the highest cholesterol to start with had the greatest cholesterol-lowering benefit from soy, with some studies showing that soy raised high-density lipoprotein cholesterol.

Inhaled Steroids on the Linear Growth of Children With Asthma

With the incidence of asthma on the rise, there will unquestionably be effects from the long term use of certain medications to be seen in the future. There are many natural ways to deal with asthma that don't require potentially harmful medication.

Pediatrics -- Abstracts: Sharek and Bergman 106 (1): e8 http://www.pediatrics.org/cgi/content/abstract/106/1/e8