Adiponectin levels are an important predictive biomarker of glycemic control in patients with Type 2 diabetes receiving treatment with peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor (PPAR) agonists, researchers report.

Adiponectin plays an important role in insulin sensitivity and has a strong and inverse association with risk for diabetes. Research is now focusing on whether levels of the adipokine can also predict how patients will respond to certain antidiabetes drugs.

To provide insight into the relationship between adiponectin levels and glucose lowering in patients with Type 2 diabetes, The Biomarkers Consortium, a public-private partnership managed by the Foundation for National Institutes of Health, analyzed data on 2688 patients with Type 2 diabetes from completed clinical trials of four pharmaceutical companies.

The shared data were from trials involving PPAR and non-PPAR drugs. The data were blinded by independent statisticians so that individual sponsor data could not be identified.

Maria Vassileva (Foundation for the National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, USA) and colleagues report in the journal Clinical Pharmacology & Therapeutics that levels of adiponectin significantly increased after PPAR-agonist treatment, but not after treatment with non-PPAR drugs.

Both types of drug were associated with a treatment-related decrease in levels of glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) and fasting plasma glucose.

The increase in adiponectin after PPAR-agonist treatment correlated with decreases in glycemic efficacy parameters, including levels of fasting glucose and HbA1c, after adjusting for baseline variables.

Changes in adiponectin concentration after PPAR-agonist treatment were similar irrespective of baseline HbA1c concentration. “This suggests the potential utility of adiponectin not only for predicting glycemic response in Type 2 diabetes patients, but also for evaluating PPAR responses in healthy, nondiabetic volunteers or prediabetic subjects,” write the authors.

Early (6??”8 weeks) increases in the level of adiponectin after treatment with PPAR agonists showed a negative correlation with later changes in levels of HbA1c, indicating that the level of adiponectin is predictive of overall glycemic efficacy.

The authors suggest that if their results are confirmed by a prospective study, adiponectin concentration could be used as a predictive diagnostic tool to identify nonresponders early and to enable optimal use of PPAR agonists in patients with Type 2 diabetes.

MedWire (www.medwire-news.md) is an independent clinical news service provided by Current Medicine Group, a part of Springer Science+Business Media. © Current Medicine Group Ltd; 2009

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Once you have become diagnosed with diabetes you will be faced with many decisions concerning the care and control of your condition. You are going to have to obtain many diabetes supplies. With everything happening so fast, you will be a little confused at first as to exactly what you are going to need. Here are some pointers on how to determine your needs, to ensure you cover the various categories of supplies and what you may require from them.

There will be three main categories of diabetes supplies that you will need to take a close look at.

Category 1 - Diabetes Medical Supplies

The first priority of course will be your insulin. Then you need a way to administer the insulin to your body. You will no doubt have been told about these by your heath care support worker. The decision of what you want to use will be up to you. Here you may have a choice of two methods of dispensing the insulin.

Method 1: By manual injection using needles and syringes. In this case you will need to have a supply of needles, plus the syringes. Also ideally you will need some alcohol wipes to clean the injection site. You also may have the option of using prepared dosage pens or needle free injectors.

The supplies you choose to use from method 1, should be a joint decision between you and your health care support worker. Also your agent where you are going to purchase your diabetic supplies, will answer any questions you have concerning the supplies.

Method 2: Technology is always designing new diabetic medical supplies and equipment to assist the diabetic. One of these products is The diabetic pump. This may be an option your Doctor has recommended. Aside from the pump, you will need the accessories it requires. For example the infusion sets, batteries and chargers, along with some other minor items.

Category 2 - Diabetic testing Supplies

You will have to monitor your blood sugar levels carefully and consistently. In order to do this you are going to require some diabetic testing supplies. Once again you will have some options as to what method you want to use to accomplish this. Naturally you are going to want the most accurate method possible. Talk to your agent where you are going to obtain you diabetes medical supplies. He will be able to advise you best. He will show you the various meters that are available, or the strips and lancing supplies for another method.

Category 3 - Miscellaneous Diabetes Supplies

Aside from the diabetes medical supplies, and testing supplies, you are going to require an assortment of other supplies. Here you will not be so restricted as to having to have them in most cases. Many will be an optional choice

Having diabetes is bad enough, then when it is compounded with all the diabetes supplies you need, and how to use them, can be overwhelming. Hopefully the information we have provided you here will make this task not quite so stressful.

Well, as most of you know who are reading this article diabetis number one cause is diet (hence the name). Now, let’s take a look at the typical American diet; It’s chalked full of fast food, highly preserved foods, starch, sugar and soda pop. All of this equaling to a diet void of nutrients and high in empty starchy, sugary calories. Not making for a good fight against a diabetic disorder. As opposed to some other Nations such as people who live in the tropics or different parts of Asia whose diets consist of what the native land has to offer such as boundless fruits and vegetables; coupled with soy and rice which lacks gluten (starch). It seems like the prices of produce has sky rocketed since the economy has taken a downturn these past few years closely contesting the price of gold or oil.

Did you know that there are literally hundreds upon hundreds of different types of melons that can be found in the rainforest? We only have access to about 1-2% of that melon population here in the U.S. There’s even a melon that seems to possess anti-aging properties which have now been harnessed in a beauty tonic to battle facial wrinkles. Now think about what putting such wonder foods in your body could do for it as opposed to putting things in it that are one molecule away from plastic (margarine, used in preserved foods and many fast foods). Produce is packed full of amazing nutrients for your body such as flavonoids, caratenoids, and bioflavanoids just to name a few, and every fruit or vegetable has different combinations of those ‘wonder ingredients’ which is what makes them all look and taste differently. Now it makes sense why mother was always so adamant about saying ‘eat your vegetables bobby.’

Now that we have a little background into what causes diabetes let’s take a little closer look into some of the facts behind the disease. Just thought it might be interesting to put a different perspective on the dilemma in a blunt fashion, as most are not that brash to just come right out and say so. There are essentially four different main types of diabeties including; gestational, pre-diabetes, and type-1 and type-2 diabeties; type-2 being the most common.

Since type-2 is the most common let’s take a look at some of the diabeties symptoms associated with this version of the illness;

Increased thirst

Increased hunger (especially after eating)

Dry mouth

Frequent urination

Unexplained weight loss (even though you are eating and feel hungry)

Fatigue (weak, tired feeling)

Blurred vision

Headaches

Loss of consciousness (rare)

All of the named symptoms are due to levels of high blood sugar.

Here is the adverse side of the symptoms for low blood sugar;

Nausea.

Extreme hunger.

Feeling nervous or jittery.

Cold, clammy, wet skin and/or excessive sweating not caused by exercise.

A rapid heartbeat (tachycardia).

Numbness or tingling of the fingertips or lips.

Trembling.

If any of these symptoms seem relevant and you have not been checked out or diagnosed with the illness it is recommended that you set an appointment with your primary care physician to get some tests run.

The treatments that are available for diabetis include some of the following; Insulin treatment-normally injected with a hypodermic oral diabetic medications-There are several prescription drug options. Alternative medicine-biofeedback, acupuncture, and much more. in severe cases transplants- islet cell and pancreas transplants.

Lastly, here are some important diabetic facts you should know;

- At least 171 million people worldwide are affected by diabetes, and this number is estimated to double by 2030.

- Six deaths every minute are attributed to complications of diabetes; that equals out to 3.2 million deaths a year!

- Recent studies in China, Canada, USA and several European countries have shown that feasible lifestyle interventions can prevent the onset of diabetes in people who are determined to be at high risk.

*Perhaps the most important of all the information that has been provided here is the latter statement of what can help to prevent the complete onset of diabetes in individuals who have been pre-determined to be at risk for the illness.