Diabetes Treatment News
Diabetes treatment claims are false: FTC
Claims by a California company that its dietary supplements can treat diabetes and insulin resistance are false and misleading, according to the U.S. Federal Trade Commission.
The FTC has filed suit against Wellness Support Network and its principals, Robert and Robyn Held, calling on a judge to halt the claims and force the company to refund consumers and give up all ill-gotten gains.
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WSN products are promoted on a number of websites including its own realfoodnutrients.com. It continues to claim Nobel Prize-winning technology and more than 60 independent American University studies backing its Diabetes Support Pack.
The Diabetes Support Pack contains three products, which consist primarily of vitamins, minerals and plant extracts. The Insulin Resistance Pack consists of the same three products. They each sell for $76.70 for a 30-day supply.
Among the claims the FTC says are false or not supported by evidence:
The Diabetes Support Pack is proven as an effective treatment for diabetes, reduces or eliminates the need for insulin or other diabetes medications, and is proven to cause an average 31.9 per cent drop in blood glucose levels.
The Insulin Resistance Pack reverses and manages insulin resistance, is proven to be an effective treatment for insulin resistance, prevents diabetes, and is proven to cause an average 31.0 per cent drop in glucose levels.
This is not the first time WSN has run afoul of regulators.
Four years ago the company was sent a warning letter by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration stating its website violated the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act by making therapeutic claims.
The warning letter also stated: “Your products are not generally recognized as safe and effective for the above referenced conditions.”
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As of Friday afternoon, it appeared the company had not taken action on either complaint.
Study on insulin-creating cell may lead to better diabetes treatment
A new study has revealed that beta cells-responsible for making insulin in the human body-do not replicate after the age of 30, indicating that scientists are closer to advancements in diabetes treatment.
Type 1 diabetes is caused by a loss of beta cells by auto-immunity while type 2 is due to a relative insufficiency of beta cells.
By using radioactive carbon-14 produced by above ground nuclear testing in the 1950s and ’60s, researchers have determined that the number of beta cells remains static after age 30.
Bruce Buchholz of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory scientist and collaborators from the National Institutes of Health used two methods to examine adult human beta cell turnover and longevity.
Using LLNL’s Center for Accelerator Mass Spectrometry, Buchholz measured the amount of carbon 14 in DNA in beta cells and discovered that after age 30, the body does not create any new beta cells, thus decreasing the capacity to produce insulin as a person ages.
Because DNA is stable after a cell has gone through its last cell division, the concentration of carbon 14 in DNA serves as a date mark for when a cell was born and can be used to date cells in humans.
“We found that beta cells turnover up to about age 30, and there they remain throughout life. The findings have implications for both type 1 and type 2 diabetes,” said Buchholz.
Type 1 diabetes is an auto-immune disease in which the body attacks beta cells. Both genetic predisposition and environmental triggers that are poorly understood have been implicated in the disease development.
However, in Type 2 diabetes (often called adult onset diabetes) is common in older people whose ability to secrete sufficient insulin to regulate blood sugar deteriorates as they age and is often due to increased demand in obese people.
“It could be due to loss of beta cells with age. The body doesn’t make new ones in adulthood and there might not be enough cells to control blood sugar,” he said.
Buchholz said there is active research in stem cell therapies to replace lost beta cells for both types of diabetes.
“But with these new findings, it isn’t clear how easy it will be to get the body to make more beta cells in adulthood, when it is not a natural process,” he said.
The findings appeared in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism. (ANI)
Insulin jabs could banish unsightly scars
Giving injections of the hormone insulin is the latest treatment for reducing unsightly scars.
Insulin is best known for its role in controlling blood-sugar levels. However, insulin injections similar to those used for treating diabetes are now being given to stop or reduce the formation of excessive scar tissue after surgery.
It’s thought the hormone can also speed up healing and even repair old scars.
More than six million people have surgery every year in Britain, and many are left with unsightly scarring; some patients suffer from depression as a result.
The scars themselves can remain permanently tender and painful.
When the skin is damaged, the healing process creates scar tissue to seal the opening as quickly as possible to reduce blood and tissue loss and prevent infection.
However, this fibrous scar tissue is inferior to normal skin because quality is sacrificed for speed of creating a barrier.
It is less elastic, less resistant to ultra-violet light and has no sweat glands or hair.
It is also red because of increased blood flow; in some cases it might stay that way for many years.
Preventing or reducing scar tissue has been the focus of much research, and one of the latest approaches is to use insulin.
The hormone is produced by the pancreas and works to mop up sugar from the blood. However, some studies have shown that in small quantities it can also reduce scarring.
In one study, women having breast reduction surgery had insulin injected into the wound on one side and a placebo injected into the other. The results showed that breasts treated with insulin had significantly less scarring.
Another series of tests at the University of California showed that cuts treated with insulin healed faster. Those on arms healed 2.4 days faster than the wounds treated with saline (a salt water solution).
There have also been suggestions that insulin might have a beneficial effect on old scars.
In one study, a woman who had a deep scar on her arm was given insulin jabs into the area. Researchers say after 82 days of daily insulin injections, the there was no evidence of the scar.
It’s thought insulin reduces the amount of fibroblasts, the scar tissue-producing cells, that collect just after the wound has healed, and improves the quality of collagen they produce.
As a result, the wound is closed, but thanks to the insulin, the building up of scar tissue then stops or slows. This also encourages the growth of more normal tissue. In effect, insulin switches off the wound-healing process before it can form a scar.
It might work in other ways, too. In the treatment of old scars, for example, it is thought to trigger the production of fats and proteins which regenerate the scar tissue.
Now in a new clinical trial starting this month at the Queen Victoria Hospital NHS Trust, East Grinstead, up to 75 women will have injections of insulin after surgery.
The women, undergoing breast reduction surgery, will have a single injection of insulin or placebo along the edge of a 1in section of a scar. The effects will then be compared over the following 12 months.
‘This looks like a new and exciting application for a well-established hormone,’ says Andrew McCombe, consultant ear, nose and throat surgeon at Frimley Park Hospital. ‘The potential could be immense. Poor quality wounds are a serious issue for both patients and surgeons.’
Cashews could hold the key to tackling diabetes, according to new research.
The seed of the plant contains a powerful extract that might help the body use insulin more efficiently.
Diabetes affects more than three million Britons, most of whom have type 2 diabetes, caused by poor diet and obesity (type 1 is related to immune system problems).
This makes their body less responsive to the hormone insulin, needed to mop up excess blood-sugar.
When researchers fed the cashew seed extract to rats, it boosted the cells’ ability to take up insulin, reported the Journal Of Molecular Nutrition and Food research.
Extracts of other plant parts had no such effect, the researchers from Canada and Cameroon said.