New diabetes report adds to confusion about treatment

WASHINGTON | One week after researchers announced that pushing down blood sugar levels as close as possible to normal might be dangerous for high-risk diabetes patients, a similar study has found no such risk. The seemingly conflicting findings, released Wednesday, stoked the new uncertainty about the best strategy for treating type 2 diabetes, one of the most common health problems in the United States and elsewhere. This unfortunately just makes things more confusing,” said Richard Kahn of the American Diabetes Association. I think patients will be confused. I think doctors will be confused. So I think the message is: Don't do anything until we get this sorted out. Federal health officials said there were a variety of possible explanations for the differing findings, and they planned to meet with their counterparts at the new international study to try to explain the results. Hopefully when we sit down and look at the data we'll come up with some mutual conclusions,” said Denise Simons-Morton of the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute. More than 21 million Americans have type 2 diabetes, which has become more common because of the increase in obesity.

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Hypoglycemia Alert Dogs Offer Assistance to People with Diabetes

ALEXANDRIA, Va. (Map) - ALEXANDRIA, Va., Feb. 15 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Glucose monitors, test strips, and lancets: people with diabetes are all too familiar with the equipment used to test their blood glucose (sugar) levels. Now some people are adding a different kind of aid to their diabetes management regimen. The March 2008 issue of Diabetes Forecast, the consumer magazine of the American Diabetes Association (ADA), features an article about assistance dogs that are trained to sense episodes of human hypoglycemia, or low blood glucose, and sound a life-saving alert.

According to the article, these dogs seem to sense a dangerous drop in blood glucose before it begins, allowing the people they work with to prevent an episode altogether. Some dogs seem to sense high blood glucose, too.

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Safety Medical Products Announces Approval to Supply Syringes in National Diabetes Programme

Safety Medical Products announced that it has been granted approval by the Federal Department of Health and Ageing to become a supplier of syringes to the National Diabetes Services Scheme (NDSS). Approx 12m syringes were distributed through the NDSS in the 12 months to June 2007, where total sharps consumption increased by 9.9% over the previous financial year, at a cost of more than $9m. The success in gaining approval to supply syringes to the NDSS demonstrates the Company's ability to provide world class products at competitive prices and is considered a stepping stone in gaining access to other programmes such as the Federal Government funded Clean Needle Programme.

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