Nominate @ipumpcharity in #nonprofit for a Shorty Award.

If you have a Twitter account please nominate iPump for a Shorty Award to help us spread the word about how we help people with diabetes. Last year tens of thousands of people with diabetes lost their jobs and insurance. The need for assistance programs to help those struggling with the high cost of diabetes has never been greater.

Since 2006, iPump has shipped supplies to help more than 20,000 people – all with a full-time volunteer staff of one (we also have other volunteers kick in free labor from time to time and a dedicated volunteer Board of Directors.) To continue to grow, we need to raise awareness and funding to hire staff to meet the demands of our thriving organization.

You can start by nominating us for a Shorty Award directly at http://shortyawards.com/ipumpcharity or simply tweet the phrase: I nominate @ipumpcharity for a Shorty Award in #nonprofit because… (and tweet why you are nominating us.)

Please ask others to help as well.

Thank you for your time and kind support.

Lahle Wolfe
Volunteer CEO, iPump, Inc.
(and Founder, Islets of Hope and Pre-Diabetes.com)

Source: World Diabetes Day USA Team

“TAKE THE BIG BLUE TEST

At 2 pm your time, test your blood sugar, do 14 minutes of exercise, test again and share their results online. (If you are busy at 2 pm, then do it whenever you are free.)

Here’s how to participate:

1. Test your blood sugar.

2. Run, jog, walk the dog or do anything you’d normally do as part of your exercise routine for 14 minutes.

3. Test your blood sugar again.

4. Post your readings and what physical activity you did. If you have a camera, you can also add a photo of your reading(s) or you exercising.

5. If you have a Twitter account, you can also post your readings on Twitter (use the #bigbluetest hashtag) and link back to http://bigbluetest.org.

Places to report your blood sugars:

• http://tudiabetes.com/forum/topics/the-big-blue-test-on-world
• http://www.diabetesdaily.com/bigbluetest
• http://www.diabeticrockstar.com/page/world-diabetes-day
• http://bigbluetest.diabeticconnect.com/

… or at your favorite participating social network!”

According to Manny Hernandez, founder of TuDiabetes:

Through eight diabetes communities (TuDiabetes, Children With Diabetes, Diabetes Daily, Diabetic Connect, Diabetic Rockstar, dLife, Juvenation and My Diabetes Central) and Twitter, TuDiabetes,com is calling on people with diabetes to test their blood sugar, exercise for 14 minutes, test again and share their results on Nov. 14, 2009 at 14 hours (local time, 2 pm wherever they live).

Please keep an eye on @tudiabetes and/or http://bigbluetest.org for updates about these.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Thousands Take The Big Blue Test

On World Diabetes Day

BERKELEY, CA: October 21, 2009 – November 14 is World Diabetes Day. On that day, at 14:00 hours (2 pm, local time), thousands of people with diabetes will test their blood sugar, do 14 minutes of exercise, test again and share their results online.

The event is called The Big Blue Test because the blue circle is the international symbol for diabetes. The idea of a shared “blood sugar test-in” started with an activity organized in July 2009 by TuDiabetes.org, a community for people touched by diabetes. More than a thousand people participated then. Now, we seek to reach thousands of people with diabetes through eight diabetes social networks^* and Twitter. The activity incorporates 14 minutes of physical activity to reinforce the importance of exercise.

“People with diabetes have to test their blood sugar routinely. It can be a very lonely activity.” said Manny Hernandez, co-founder of TuDiabetes and a person with diabetes himself. “We want people to take The Big Blue Test, to shed light on this chronic condition and the importance of exercise on World Diabetes Day.”

Currently, more than 250 million people have diabetes worldwide. Millions more have diabetes but do not know it yet. People with diabetes need to test their blood sugar levels several times a day and exercise regularly.

Participating in this event to raise diabetes awareness on November 14 is easy:

1. Test your blood sugar.
2. Run, jog, walk the dog or do anything you’d normally do as part of your exercise routine for 14 minutes.
3. Test your blood sugar again.
4. Go to http://bigbluetest.org (or your preferred diabetes social network^*) and post your readings and what physical activity you did. If you have a camera, you can also add a photo of your reading(s) or you exercising.
5. If you have a Twitter account, you can also post your readings on Twitter (use the #bigbluetest hashtag) and link back to http://bigbluetest.org.

“We hope to see most readings posted at 14 hours (2 pm) local time, on November 14. If you are early or late, it’s OK,” said Hernandez. “What matters most is that you test your blood sugar often and that you exercise regularly. If you don’t have diabetes, you can take The Big Blue Test. Either way, tell others to test, exercise and share on Nov. 14.”

(*) Participating diabetes social networks:

• TuDiabetes (campaign organizer)
• Children With Diabetes
• Diabetes Daily
• Diabetic Connect
• Diabetic Rockstar
• dLife
• Juvenation
• My Diabetes Central

About TuDiabetes.org

TuDiabetes.org was co-founded in 2007 by Manny Hernandez, a diabetes advocate and social media expert diagnosed with type 1 diabetes in 2002. The community is run by the Diabetes Hands Foundation, a 501c3 nonprofit that connects people touched by diabetes and raises diabetes awareness.

TuDiabetes has been featured on Regis Philbin’s Hallmark Heroes, NPR’s Diane Rehm Show, Sabado Gigante with Don Francisco, Diabetic Living magazine, Diabetes Positive magazine, El Pais (Spain), Diabetes Hoy (Mexico), the Office of Minority Health web site and many other media outlets and blogs.

For more information please visit: www.TuDiabetes.org.

For information about the Diabetes Hands Foundation, visit: www.DiabetesHandsFoundation.org, email PR@tudiabetes.org or call 650.283.4862.

# # # Please feel free to distribute this press release widely.

The long-term answer to improving the health of the nation’s population and curbing costs, experts agree, is to help people make smarter decisions day in and day out about their own health. And the most powerful potential tool in the march toward intelligent consumerism in health care may be the Web.

…The ideal, health experts say, would be to combine personal data with health information to deliver tailored health plans for individuals. That is what Mr. Bosworth and his San Francisco-based company, Keas (pronounced KEE-ahs) Inc., mean to do.

Using the Keas system, for example, a person with Type 2 diabetes might receive reminders, advice on diet and exercise, questions and prompts presented on the Web site or delivered by e-mail or text messages — all personalized for the person’s age, gender, weight and other health conditions.

Source: Steve Lohr. The New York Times. Adding Health Advice to Online Medical Records. October 6, 2009

To raise diabetes awareness, Mathers is traveling with the Partnership for Prescription Assistance bus, a mobile patient assistance advocacy initiative.  Mathers and the Partnership for Prescription Assistance will in Cedar Rapids, Cedar Falls, Iowa City, and Burlington on October 13, 2009.

“The yield of opportunistic targeted screening was fair; obesity alone was the best predictor of undiagnosed diabetes,” the study authors write. “Opportunistic screening for Type 2 diabetes in primary care could target middle-aged and older adults with obesity.”

Read the Article

“…Although the document is subject to revision, it is expected to recommend against the use of fasting insulin levels — or any laboratory test — to screen for insulin resistance in children, and against the use of medication to treat children with insulin resistance in the absence of specific diagnoses such as Type 2 diabetes or polycystic ovarian syndrome [PCOS].”

Women and young girls diagnosed with PCOS have a four-fold increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes than that found in the general population.  Additionally, the majority of females diagnosed with PCOS are already insulin resistant.  And, it has long been known that obesity – even in children, can lead to insulin resistance, pre-diabetes, and even type 2 diabetes.  In fact, many children gain weight precisely because they are insulin resistant.

A fasting blood sugar test can detect elevated blood sugar levels but it cannot detect insulin resistance.  Untreated insulin resistance can lead to the onset of type 2 diabetes, infertility, and many other significant medical problems.

To turn a blind eye to children who are clearly at risk for insulin resistance, pre-diabetes, and type 2 diabetes for the sake of “cost efficiency” is nothing short of criminal.

Islets of Hope (owner of Pre-diabetes.com) gives a resounding thumbs down to the committee making this recommendation.

Source: Diabetes In Control. International Committee Advises: Don’t Measure Fasting Insulin in Children. September 27, 2009.

Researchers have long suspected that overweight people tend to have large fat deposits in their pancreases, but they’ve been unable to confirm or calculate how much fat resides there because of the organ’s location — that’s until now … Findings from the new study suggest that measuring pancreatic fat content in people could one day serve as an effective clinical tool to identify those at high risk of diabetes and monitor interventions designed to prevent the disease.

Read Full Article

Sitagliptin (marketed as Januvia and Janumet) – acute pancreatitis.

Audience: Diabetes healthcare professionals, patients

[Posted 09/25/2009] FDA notified healthcare professionals and patients of revisions to the prescribing information for Januvia (sitagliptin) and Janumet (sitagliptin/metformin) to include information on reported cases of acute pancreatitis in patients using these products.

Eighty-eight post-marketing cases of acute pancreatitis, including two cases of hemorrhagic or necrotizing pancreatitis in patients using sitagliptin, were reported to the Agency between October 2006 and February 2009. It is recommended that healthcare professionals monitor patients carefully for the development of pancreatitis after initiation or dose increases of sitagliptin or sitagliptin/metformin.

Sitagliptin has not been studied in patients with a history of pancreatitis. Therefore, it is not known whether these patients are at an increased risk for developing pancreatitis and the medication should be used with caution and with appropriate monitoring in patients with a history of pancreatitis. Considerations for healthcare professionals, information for patients, and a Data Summary are provided.

[09/25/2009 - Information for Healthcare Professionals - FDA]

Source:  FDA Website

Januvia is used in the treatment of type 2 diabetes and acts to help lower blood glucose levels.

Diabetes Education and Prevention is the World Diabetes Day theme for the period 2009-2013. The campaign calls on all those responsible for diabetes care to understand diabetes and take control. For people with diabetes, this is a message about empowerment through education. For governments, it is a call to implement effective strategies and policies for the prevention and management of diabetes to safeguard the health of their citizens with and at risk of diabetes. For healthcare professionals, it is a call to improve knowledge so that evidence-based recommendations are put into practice. For the general public, it is a call to understand the serious impact of diabetes and know, where possible, how to avoid or delay diabetes and its complications. The key messages of the campaign are:

• Know the diabetes risks and know the warning signs
• Know how to respond to diabetes and who to turn to
• Know how to manage diabetes and take control

How can you help?  It is easy to get involved – spread the word, offer financial, support, or even purchase an attractive blue candle to burn symbolizing the solidarity among the diabetes community on World Diabetes Day.

Visit WorldDiabetesDay.org to learn more.