Every week “In the News…” brings you the top stories and headlines around the diabetes community. Top stories this week include: how new nanotechnology might help make stem cell transplants a reality (without immuosuppresive drugs), a worldwide A1C survey, the FDA releases more info about issues with Medtronic, lung function and type 2 and some info about diabetes camp.
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Episode Transcription Below (or coming soon!)
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Hello and welcome to Diabetes Connections In the News! I’m Stacey Simms and these are the top diabetes stories and headlines of the past seven days. If you’re new we go live on social media first and then All sources linked up at diabetes dash connections dot com when this airs as a podcast.
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Looking to get organized? Check out my new guide with top tips to clear your diabetes clutter. Everything from how to start to where to donate and how to keep it from taking over your house. Head over to the home page to get organized.
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Lots of news in the last few months about stem cells and type 1.. but transplantation still means rejection without immune-suppressive drugs. Researchers at Northwestern University say they may have a way around those problems. They’re using nano-carriers to generate a new form of immune-suppression that can target specific cells related to the transplant.. without suppressing wider immune responses. This paper was published in the journal Nature Nanotechnology. one of the researchers, Jacqueline Burke, was diagnosed with type 1 at age nine. She’s one of the study authors and hopes it has a major impact on the future of diabetes research.
https://news.northwestern.edu/stories/2022/01/nanotherapy-type-1-diabetes/
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Possible new link between lung function and the onset of diabetes. This is a big study out of South Korea.. almost 20-thousand healthy adults followed over almost four years. At the beginning of the study none of them had diabetes. After adjusting for other factors, the team found that the group with the best lung function had a lower risk of developing diabetes. More study is needed, but these researchers think that managing lung health – which isn’t really ever looked at as a risk factor - could help prevent diabetes.
http://www.koreabiomed.com/news/articleView.html?idxno=12981
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Big study of people with type 1 from 22 different countries showing that most don’t have an A1C under 7.5%. As you’d imagine, that varies widely by country and by age. This was info from more than 500-thousand people gathered over 4 years. Highest A1Cs were generally in people aged 15-24
There’s a lot of data here and I’ll link it up. But the researchers don’t seem to try to delve into what’s going on or why this is the case.
https://www.healio.com/news/endocrinology/20220119/hba1c-remains-suboptimal-for-most-people-with-type-1-diabetes
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It’s not a surprise that hotter weather could mean more health issues for some.. but a new study from Brazil is closely watching heat and diabetes. Every 5-degree Celsius increase in daily temperature correlated with a 6-percent increase in hospitalizations due to diabetes.. this was between 2000 and 2015. The oldest patients were at an increased risk for diabetes-related hospitalization when exposed to heat. The study authors say it’s the first nationwide study to look at this issue.
https://www.healio.com/news/nephrology/20220118/increase-in-heat-exposure-correlates-with-increase-in-hospitalization-due-to-diabetes
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Medtronic still in a bit of hot water with the US FDA.. Medtronic took more than three years to replace and start recalling insulin pumps with defective retainer rings after first becoming aware of the problem.. this according to an FDA warning letter sent to the company in December and recently made public. The company also failed to investigate more than 800 complaints about defective updated retainer rings and failed to promptly notify the FDA within 30 days after discovering that issues with the device could lead to serious injury or death. Medtronic says, quote “We take these issues very seriously and hold ourselves to the highest standards of quality and patient safety,"
https://www.startribune.com/fda-medtronic-slow-to-update-recall-defective-insulin-pumps-for-diabetes-patients/600136525/
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Medical write up of what might be the oldest person to be newly diagnosed with type 1. This was a 93-year-old woman. Her A1C was 12.9 but I didn’t see in the write up why they had a high clinical suspicion of type 1. They checked her diabetes auto antibodies and confirmed the diagnosis. On recovery, she was discharged home on once daily insulin with aim to self-manage with support. I was only able to find a summary of this.. maybe we’ll learn more soon.. but just another reminder than type 1 can be diagnosed at any age.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35027384/
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It’s that time of year.. diabetes camp registration is opening up! Our local sleepaway camp announced they’ll start signups in February and your camp may have already done so. Please check soon – a lot of these camps have strict limits and are met pretty quickly. I’m a huge fan of diabetes camp – Benny isn’t going this year because he’s been accepted by his regular camp as a CIT and he’ll be gone for … 8 weeks.
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Before I let you go, our long format episode this week is with Joanne Milo.. diagnosed almost 60 years ago, she was told like a lot of people with type 1 that she wouldn’t live to see 40. What happens now that that group is reaching 70, 80 or 90?! Joanne is also a leader in Loop and Learn and we talk about embracing that DIY tech. Next week we’re talking to Tandem about their newly announced 5 year plan leading to a tubeless patch pump.
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That’s In the News for this week.. if you like it, please share it! Thanks for joining me! See you back here soon.