Health Expert Dr. Bill Quick shares health management news and commentary at HealthCentral.com. HealthCentral.com is one of the top health destinations on the Web, with more than 35 condition-specific, wellness and general health Web properties. http://www.healthcentral.com/profiles/c/110/index http://www.healthcentral.com/profiles/c/110/rss self application/xml en-us 15 120 19 http://www.healthcentral.com/images/hc_logo_sm.gif http://www.healthcentral.com/profiles/c/110/index http://www.healthcentral.com/diabetes/c/110/160964/diabetes-news Tue, 21 May 2013 12:12:45 -0400 Dr. Bill Quick Reviewing the diabetes news recently, I stumbled across three stories that the reader might be interested in knowing about. Or maybe not?   1) Although there’s a quarterback in the National Football League with type 1 diabetes (Jay Cutler), the New England Patriots released a defensive tackle (Kyle Love) who was apparently recently diagnosed with type 2 diabetes.  His agent indicated that the Patriots cited medical reasons for... http://www.healthcentral.com/diabetes/c/110/160964/diabetes-news http://www.healthcentral.com/diabetes/c/110/160721/bad-insulin-toss-vial Sun, 05 May 2013 11:10:14 -0400 Dr. Bill Quick Recently, the question was asked: “Does anyone have any tricks for knowing when it’s time to toss a vial of insulin?” The writer was concerned about whether a vial contains bad insulin – that is, insulin that has a diminished ability to decrease blood sugar levels compared to what was expected. There are lots of discussions on the Internet about how to identify bad insulin, so I’ll focus on what to do with the... http://www.healthcentral.com/diabetes/c/110/160721/bad-insulin-toss-vial http://www.healthcentral.com/diabetes/c/110/160612/meeting-goals-diabetes-care Mon, 29 Apr 2013 10:46:36 -0400 Dr. Bill Quick A recent diabetes report, Achievement of Goals in U.S. Diabetes Care 1999–2010, examined how people with diabetes said they are doing. The participants had been enrolled in two big U.S. surveys, the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey and the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, and who had self-reported that they had diabetes. (Unfortunately, whether the participants had type 1 or type 2 diabetes was not... http://www.healthcentral.com/diabetes/c/110/160612/meeting-goals-diabetes-care http://www.healthcentral.com/diabetes/c/110/160520/diet-surgery Thu, 25 Apr 2013 11:25:46 -0400 Dr. Bill Quick A recent study, Rapid Improvement of Diabetes After Gastric Bypass Surgery, Is It the Diet or Surgery? caught my eye. As long-term readers know, I’ve been an adamant advocate for limiting the use of weight loss surgery for diabetes management to patients participating in clinical trials (see Weight-Loss Surgery Does Not Cure Diabetes).   In the recent study, ten patients with T2DM who were planning to undergo weight loss... http://www.healthcentral.com/diabetes/c/110/160520/diet-surgery http://www.healthcentral.com/diabetes/c/110/160163/diabetic-unproven-concept Fri, 05 Apr 2013 11:12:02 -0400 Dr. Bill Quick A year ago, I wrote Diabetes Alert Dogs Are An Unproven Concept. A recent brief report in Diabetes Care, Diabetic Alert Dogs: A Preliminary Survey of Current Users doesn’t change my mind. As I previously pointed out, there aren’t any published peer-reviewed studies to support the claims that DADs (diabetes alert dogs) are useful, nor is there any information about how or why these dogs could react to changing glucose... http://www.healthcentral.com/diabetes/c/110/160163/diabetic-unproven-concept http://www.healthcentral.com/diabetes/c/110/160094/april-metformin-aging-worms Mon, 01 Apr 2013 10:31:51 -0400 Dr. Bill Quick This morning, April 1st, I stumbled across a news item that sounded suspiciously like an April Fool’s joke: Study Reveals How Diabetes Drug Delays Ageing In Worms. My suspicion was increased when I saw a typo in the story that implied the researchers were excessively manly: “according to a stud [sic] using worms to investigate how the drug works” Sic, sic, sic.   The original research was published 28 March, in... http://www.healthcentral.com/diabetes/c/110/160094/april-metformin-aging-worms http://www.healthcentral.com/diabetes/c/110/160050/oral-insulin Fri, 29 Mar 2013 14:57:40 -0400 Dr. Bill Quick Over the years, oral insulin has been a holy grail for diabetes drug companies. And like the grail, it hasn’t been found… yet. But it sounds infinitely profitable, so although swallowed insulin is rapidly inactivated in the gut, several drug companies continue their search for some way to keep swallowed insulin active.   The latest hype about oral insulin comes from a press release from a small Irish drug technology... http://www.healthcentral.com/diabetes/c/110/160050/oral-insulin http://www.healthcentral.com/diabetes/c/110/159993/time-sign-diabetes-camp Tue, 26 Mar 2013 13:24:26 -0400 Dr. Bill Quick I wrote about diabetes camps a few years ago, and I think the thoughts are worth repeating, so here goes…     It may still be snowing in the northern US, but it's time to think of summer fun at diabetes camp. If you have a child with diabetes, or if you have time to volunteer to help and have fun, you should be looking for a nearby diabetes camp, and signing up now. The main reason for diabetes camps is camaraderie: some... http://www.healthcentral.com/diabetes/c/110/159993/time-sign-diabetes-camp http://www.healthcentral.com/diabetes/c/110/159957/insulin Sun, 24 Mar 2013 11:55:47 -0400 Dr. Bill Quick Someone recently asked:   "I take my insulin shot before each meal, and then eat. About an hour after, I feel dizzy and hot. Is my dose too much or not enough?"   My reply:   I don’t know if the sensations of feeling dizzy and hot that you notice after eating are associated with your insulin doses -- or with the amount and type of food you are eating, or with any exercise you might be doing around mealtime. I should... http://www.healthcentral.com/diabetes/c/110/159957/insulin http://www.healthcentral.com/diabetes/c/110/159899/mimetics-pancreatitis Thu, 21 Mar 2013 14:48:14 -0400 Dr. Bill Quick The FDA recently issued a Drug Safety Communication about pancreatitis occurring with diabetes drugs called the incretin mimetics. These drugs fall into two subclasses: those that are called GLP-1 agonists, which include exenatide (Byetta, Bydureon) and liraglutide (Victoza), and those that are called DPP-4 inhibitors (glucagon-like peptide-1 agonists), which include sitagliptin (Januvia, Janumet,... http://www.healthcentral.com/diabetes/c/110/159899/mimetics-pancreatitis