No less an authority than the New York Times wrote in May 2006 that Halle Berry has type 1 diabetes, listing her as one of several "stars who have type 1 - Gary Hall, the Olympic gold medal-winning swimmer; Adam Morrison, the Gonzaga University basketball star; [and] Halle Berry." Ms. Berry is also described as having type 1 by other sources. Health24.com, for example, reported that "it was during the taping of the television sitcom called "Living Dolls" in 1989 that Halle went into a diabetic coma. Shortly afterwards she was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes." Join discussion...

A new report suggests that treating gum disease in patients who have diabetes with procedures such as cleanings and periodontal scaling is linked to 10 to 12 percent lower medical costs per month. The findings are encouraging but the study was not designed to firmly establish cause and effect, said George Taylor, University of Michigan associate professor of dentistry, who also has an appointment in epidemiology in the U-M School of Public Health. Taylor led the research project to investigate whether routine, non-surgical treatment for gum disease is linked to lower medical care costs for people with diabetes. Join discussion...

Having the so-called metabolic syndrome may raise the risk of chronic kidney disease in people with type 2 diabetes, researchers from China report. Metabolic syndrome refers to a cluster of risk factors for diabetes and heart disease -- including abdominal obesity, high blood pressure, high blood sugar, low levels of "good" HDL cholesterol and high triglycerides (another type of blood fat). The syndrome is typically diagnosed when a person has three or more of these conditions. Join discussion...

Young people with type 1 and type 2 diabetes are often overweight and many turn to unhealthy weight loss practices, such as using over-the-counter diet aids without a doctor's advice, fasting and taking laxatives, new research shows. Dr. Jean M. Lawrence, of Kaiser Permanente Southern California, Pasadena, and colleagues studied 1742 female and 1615 males, of whom 520 had type 2 diabetes and 2837 had type 1 diabetes. The subjects' average age was 15 years. Join discussion...

Almost 75 percent of children and adolescents with type 1 diabetes have insufficient levels of vitamin D, researchers at the Joslin Diabetes Center in Boston report. A deficit in vitamin D can lead to bone problems later in life, especially among those with type 1 diabetes. While vitamin D is usually gotten from exposure to sunlight or from the diet, researchers suggest that supplements are needed to boost vitamin D levels. Join discussion...

Diabetes Forecast, the consumer magazine of the American Diabetes Association, will ring in the New Year with the release of its special 2009 Resource Guide. The annual Guide provides consumers with a comprehensive overview of diabetes products to help them get the most out of their diabetes care. Join discussion...

In people with type 1 diabetes, adequate control of blood sugar over the long haul helps reduce the risk of diabetes-related eye and kidney disease, new data suggest. The findings stem from a look at 1,441 type 1 diabetic patients followed for roughly 9 years as part of the pivotal Diabetes Control and Complications Trial (DCCT). Join discussion...

Compared with other overweight children, overweight siblings of children with type 2 diabetes mellitus have a significantly higher prevalence of abnormal glucose tolerance, a risk factor for diabetes, according to researchers at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. Join discussion...

Continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) therapy, primarily used as a treatment for obstructive sleep apnea, improves glycemic (blood sugar) control during sleep in patients who also have type 2 diabetics, according to a report in the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine. The average decrease in nocturnal glucose level in diabetic patients was about 20 mg/dL. "The decrease was small in those with good glycemic control and much greater in those whose control was poor," Dr. Arthur Dawson from Scripps Clinic, La Jolla, California, told Reuters Health. This finding "suggests that treating obstructive sleep apnea could have a major impact on the management of those type 2 diabetics who, for whatever reason, cannot get their glucose levels down to the optimal range." Join discussion...

A study published by the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA ) on 16 December 2008 has found that those with type 2 diabetes who had a diet high in low-glycemic foods such as nuts, beans and lentils had greater improvement in glycemic control and risk factors for coronary heart disease than those on a diet with an emphasis on high-cereal fibre. Join discussion...