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...

A new study found that a diet of "low-glycemic foods" -- such as beans, nuts, peas, lentils and pasta -- was superior to a high-cereal-fiber diet when it comes to lowering blood sugar and other risk factors for heart disease in people with diabetes Join discussion...

For 2,000 years diabetes has been recognized as a devastating and deadly disease. In the first century A.D. a Greek, Aretaeus, described the destructive nature of the affliction which he named "diabetes" from the Greek word for "siphon." Eugene J. Leopold in his text Aretaeus the Cappodacian describes Aretaeus' diagnosis: "...For fluids do not remain in the body, but use the body only as a channel through which they may flow out. Life lasts only for a time, but not very long. For they urinate with pain and painful is the emaciation. For no essential part of the drink is absorbed by the body while great masses of the flesh are liquefied into urine." Join discussion...

Until fairly recently, low testosterone in men (I call it "low T") was treated only in patients with severe and obvious T deficiencies, such as men with congenital hormonal conditions that affected their pituitary gland or those who had lost both testicles to trauma, tumors, or infections. However, as the medical community has learned more about the benefits of T therapy for men with less obvious causes of low T (e.g., improved sexual desire and function, energy, and body composition), there has been concomitant interest in how T relates to other medical conditions, including diabetes. It turns out that the relationship between low T and diabetes is quite involved, although the final chapter on the ultimate nature of the relationship is still to be written. Join discussion...

More cases of blood cancers classified as non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, or NHL, seem to occur among people with diabetes than those without, researchers report. "Although the relative risk is moderate, given the rapidly increasing incidence and prevalence of diabetes, the number of incident cases of NHL attributed to diabetes can potentially be very high," Dr. Anastassios G. Pittas and colleagues point out in their report in the medical journal Diabetes Care. Join discussion...

A new study suggests that sugar may be as addictive as hard drugs such as cocaine and heroin. Researchers at Princeton studied binge eating and addiction in rats and found that when the animals ate large amounts of sugar there were chemical changes in the brain that mirrored the type that happen when addicts use drugs. Join discussion...

Two inflammatory disorders, type 1 diabetes and celiac disease, cosegregate in populations, suggesting a common genetic origin. Since both diseases are associated with the HLA class II genes on chromosome 6p21, we tested whether non-HLA loci are shared. Join discussion...

Infants born to mothers who develop diabetes during pregnancy are at increased risk for metabolic changes associated with heart attacks and stroke, Chinese researchers report in the journal Pediatrics. Such children "had significantly higher blood pressure levels and lower HDL 'good' cholesterol levels at follow-up," lead investigator Dr. Wing Hung Tam told Reuters Health. Tam of the Chinese University of Hong Kong and colleagues studied 63 children born to mothers with diabetes during pregnancy, or gestational diabetes," and 101 children whose mothers did not have diabetes. Join discussion...

A study of more than 36,000 people has linked sleep disorders to Type 2 diabetes. Researchers say an abnormality in the MTNR1B gene appears to boost the body's fasting blood sugar level and to cause a 20 percent increase in the risk of Type 2 diabetes. The MTNR1B gene is associated with the body-clock hormone melatonin. Previous studies have found a link between sleep problems and obesity, and obesity and Type 2 diabetes, and researchers say that understanding this genetic link may lead to new and better treatment options for all three conditions Join discussion...