Thursday, November 6, 2008

Diabetes rate doubles in U.S. in last 10 years

ATLANTA - The nation's obesity epidemic is exacting a heavy toll: The rate of new diabetes cases nearly doubled in the United States in the past 10 years, the government said Thursday.

The highest rates were in the South, according to the first state-by-state review of new diagnoses. The worst was in West Virginia, where about 13 in 1,000 adults were diagnosed with the disease in 2005-07. The lowest was in Minnesota, where the rate was 5 in 1,000.

Nationally, the rate of new cases climbed from about 5 per 1,000 in the mid-1990s to 9 per 1,000 in the middle of this decade.

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Sugar Studied for Treatment of Diabetes

COLLEGE PARK, Md. -- Researchers at the University of Maryland are studying the use of a sweetener to treat diabetes. Doctors are researching a low-calorie sweetener called tagatose, a sugar found naturally in dairy and used in sodas, cereals and toothpaste. Diabetes patients given the sweetener saw improvements in their blood sugar and reductions in weight. Doctors found that those who consumed tagatose before meals did not have the typical spikes in blood sugar after eating. Doctors believe it works because of how it is metabolized in the body. Sources.

DEPRESSION INCREASES MORTALITY RATE IN PEOPLE WITH DIABETES

A new study of Medicare beneficiaries with diabetes discovered individuals who were depressed experienced a higher death rate than diabetics who were not depressed. The findings are published in the October 2008 Journal of General Internal Medicine.

Lead author Dr. Wayne Katon, professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the University of Washington (UW), noted that previous research indicates that depression and diabetes is a potentially lethal mix among young to middle-aged patients. Depression also puts patients at greater risk of complications from their diabetes. This more recent study suggests that depression is also a risk factor for mortality in older patients with diabetes. Most Medicare beneficiaries, like the ones in this study, are over age 65. The mean age of the participants was 75.6 years. The study tracked 10,704 Medicare beneficiaries with diabetes who were enrolled in a disease management program in Florida.

They were surveyed at the start of the study with a health assessment questionnaire. Evidence of depression among members of the group came from physician diagnosis, patient reports of having a prescription for an antidepressant in the year before the survey, or patient answers to a brief screening test. For the next two years, the research team recorded the death and cause of death of participants through bi-monthly checks of Medicare claims and eligibility files, or from phone calls with the participants’ families. The research team found that patients with both diabetes and depression had an increased risk of about 36 percent to 38 percent of dying from any cause during the two-year follow-up. Participants with a physician diagnosis of depression were significantly younger than their cohorts, more likely to be female, had more severe medical illness, were less likely to be African-American, and more likely to be Hispanic.

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