hypoglycemia tagged posts

Insulin production has, for the last 50 or so years, come with some risks to the patient. Even so, the medication is lifesaving for the estimated 537 million adults living with diabetes worldwide, with that number expected to grow.

Recent clinical studies show that injection via insulin pens can cause insulin to reach the bloodstream so quickly that hypoglycemia, or blood sugar levels that dip below the healthy range, may result. Automated insulin pumps can deliver precise insulin and minimize this risk but are expensive and available only to a small portion of diabetes patients around the world.

Now, a plant-based, oral delivery of proinsulin could address these drawbacks, accord...

Researchers describe a key player in the defense mechanism that safeguards against excessive insulin in the body, which can be as harmful as too little. Just over a century has passed since the discovery of insulin, a time period during which the therapeutic powers of the hormone have broadened and refined. Insulin is an essential treatment for type 1 diabetes and often for type 2 diabetes, as well. Roughly 8.4 million Americans use insulin, according to the American Diabetes Association.

One hundred years of research ...

Comparison of sugar and lipid concentration fluctuations in blood in a dysbiosis mouse model and non-antibiotic administered mice. Both sugar and lipid concentrations decreased in mice that received antibiotics only. Credit: Professor Sumio Ohtsuki

Intestinal bacteria have attracted recent attention since they were discovered to influence various physiological functions and diseases in humans. Researchers from Kumamoto University in Japan analyzing the influence of changes in intestinal bacteria on sugar and lipid metabolism have found that secondary bile acids produced by the bacteria can influence blood glucose and lipid concentrations as well as parts of their molecular mechanisms...