The U.S. FDA has issued an alert on 19 Marc 09 o remind the public that Insulin Pens and Insulin Cartridges Must Not Be Shared.

Originally, this alert was sent to health care professionals reminding them that single-patient insulin pens and insulin cartridges should not be used to administer medication to multiple patients due to the potential risk of transmitting blood-borne pathogens such as HIV and the hepatitis viruses. However, I felt that this is something all diabetic patients should be aware of, so that if it happend to them, they are also well aware of the risks.

What’s the rationale for this alert?
Well, insulin pens are pen-shaped injector devices that contain a disposable needle and either an insulin reservoir or an insulin cartridge. The devices typically contain enough insulin for a patient to self-administer several doses of insulin before the reservoir or cartridge is empty. All insulin pens are approved only for single-patient use (one device for only one patient).

Apparently, the FDA was aware of incidents at two undisclosed hospitals involving more than 2,000 people in which the cartridge component of the insulin pens were used to administer insulin to multiple patients, although the disposable needles were reportedly changed among patients.

“Insulin pens are designed to be safe for one patient to use one pen multiple times with a new, fresh needle for each injection,” said Amy Egan, M.D., deputy director of safety at the FDA’s Division of Metabolism and Endocrinology Products in the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research. “Insulin pens are not designed, and are not safe, for one pen to be used by more than one patient, even if needles are changed between patients due to the risk of transmitting blood-borne pathogens.”

Patients exposed to shared insulin pens are being contacted by the two hospitals and are being offered testing for hepatitis and HIV. Some of the potentially exposed patients have reportedly tested positive for the hepatitis C virus, although it is not known if the virus was spread as a result of insulin pen sharing.

The FDA is working with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and professional organizations to address infection control issues related to insulin pens.

For us, as Diabetes patients, please be aware of the risks of sharing insulin catridges. If you see it being done at health care centres, stop the staff immediately and report the incident to the FDA. Also, don’t share the catridges amongst family members. Better safe than sorry!

Technorati Tags: health

Share This

Professor Herbert Herzog, Director of the Neuroscience Research Program at

Australia-based Garvan Institute of Medical Research, together with scientists

from the US and Slovakia, have done obesity research which have shown that

neuropeptide Y (NPY), a molecule the body releases when stressed, can

‘unlock’ Y2 receptors in the body’s fat cells, stimulating the cells to grow in

size and number. By blocking those receptors, it may be possible to prevent

fat growth, or make fat cells die.

“We have known for over a decade that there is a connection between chronic

stress and obesity,” said Professor Herzog. “We also know that NPY plays a

major role in other chronic stress-induced conditions, such as susceptibility

to infection. Now we have identified the exact pathway, or chain of molecular

events, that links chronic stress with obesity.”
“There is not much we can do about the increased levels of NPY caused by

stress, but we can do something about the damage it causes. If we can

interfere before it causes fat to amass, it could have a major impact on

cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and cancer (which all have links with

obesity). When we have a stress reaction, NPY levels rise in our bodies,

causing our heart rate and blood pressure to go up, among other things.

Stress reactions are normal, unavoidable, and generally serve a useful

purpose in life. It’s when stress is chronic that its effects become damaging,”

he said.
Scientists at Georgetown University (Washington DC), part of this

collaborative study, have found a direct connection between stress, a high

calorie diet and unexpectedly high weight gain. Stressed and unstressed

mice were fed normal diets and high calorie (high fat and high sugar, or so

called comfort food) diets. The mice on normal diets did not become obese.

However, stressed mice on high calorie diets gained twice as much fat as

unstressed mice on the same diet. The novel and unexpected finding was

that when stressed and non-stressed animals ate the same high calorie

foods, the stressed animals utilized and stored fat differently.
“Our findings suggest that we may be able to reverse or fidn treatments for

obesity caused by stress and diet, including the worst kind of obesity; the

apple-shaped type, which makes people more susceptible to heart disease

and diabetes,” said Professor Zofia Zukowska, the senior author of paper

published in Nature Medicine. “Using animal models, in which we have either

blocked the Y2 receptor, or selectively removed the gene from the abdominal

fat cells, we have shown that stressed mice on high calorie diets do not

become obese. Even more surprisingly, in addition to having flatter bellies,

adverse metabolic changes linked to stress and diet, which include glucose

intolerance and fatty liver, became markedly reduced. We do not know yet

exactly how that happens, but the effect was remarkable,” said Professor

Zukowska.
Professor Herzog believes that these research findings will have a profound

effect on the way society will deal with the obesity epidemic. “There are

millions of people around the world who have lived with high levels of stress for

so long their bodies think it’s ‘normal’. If these people also eat a high fat and

high sugar diet, which is what many do as a way to reduce their stress, they

will become obese. Until now, the pharmaceutical industry has focused on

appetite suppressants with only moderate success. Our hope is that in the

near future pharmaceutical companies, using the results of our research, will

develop antagonists against the Y2 receptor that will bring about a reduction

in fat cells.” . This could be a good approach in finding a treatment for obesity

and the key to obesity prevention.

Technorati Tags: diet

Share This

It’s official, a low-carb diet is better at burning fat than just cutting calories.

American scientists who were working to find out how diet affects the operation of the liver put 14 overweight people on either a low carbohydrate or low calorie diet.

They found those eating fewer carbs lost almost double the weight over two weeks, and several changes in liver function were identified as part of the reason why.

“Energy production is expensive for the liver,” says Dr Jeffrey Browning, assistant professor at the UT Southwestern Medical Centre, in Dallas, Texas.

“It appears that for the people on a low-carbohydrate diet, in order to meet that expense, their livers have to burn excess fat.”

The average weight loss for the low-calorie dieters was about 2.2kg, while the low-carb dieters lost about 4.3kg on average.

Technorati Tags: diet, weight loss

Share This

A scientist has revealed how people could extend their lives by as much as 30 years in his extraordinary new book, The Anti-Ageing Protocol - a formula that is set to radically change our views - and experiences - of old age.

Technorati Tags: diet, health

Share This

Do you know which dangerous food ingredients to watch out for in your groceries? These are the “deadly ingredients,” as I call them, and they can directly promote heart disease, migraines, obesity, outrageous food cravings, osteoporosis, diabetes and even birth defects.
The top three most dangerous ingredients I’ve found in my research are:

1) Sodium nitrite — causes cancer, found in processed meats like hot dogs, bacon, sausage. Used to make meats appear red (a color fixer chemical).

2) Hydrogenated oils — causes heart disease, nutritional deficiencies, general deterioration of cellular health, and much more. Found in cookies, crackers, margarine and many “manufactured” foods. Used to make oils stay in the food, extending shelf life. Sometimes also called “plastic fat.”

3) Excitotoxins — aspartame, monosodium glutamate and others (see below). These neurotoxic chemical additives directly harm nerve cells, over-exciting them to the point of cell death, according to Dr. Russell Blaylock. They’re found in diet soda, canned soup, salad dressing, breakfast sausage and even many manufactured vegetarian foods. They’re used to add flavor to over-processed, boring foods that have had the life cooked out of them.

Grocery Warning exposes the truth that food companies will never admit to and the mainstream media will never print (because they receive advertising funds from food companies, of course!).

It reveals, in shocking detail, exactly which ingredients compromise your health (and how they do it). Based on thousands of hours of research, and quotations from the top doctors, authors and nutritionists, Grocery Warning tells you the truth about foods and groceries that will empower you with life-changing information.
Did you know, for example, that:
Feeding children hot dogs increases their risk of brain cancer by 300%?
Strawberry yogurt, fruit punch and other red-looking grocery products are often colored with dead, ground-up cochineal beetles? The ingredient is called “carmine,” and it’s made from insects. It’s listed right on the label of many of your favorite foods.
Food companies now “hide” MSG in safe-sounding ingredients like yeast extract or torula yeast?
Many Florida oranges are actually dipped in an artificial orange dye in order to make them more visually appealing? It’s the same dye that’s been banned for use in foods because of cancer risk.
Girl Scout cookies are still made with hydrogenated oils that contain trans fatty acids?
Many so-called “healthy” or vegetarian foods also contain the very same offending ingredients as conventional groceries?
Eating just one serving of processed meats each day increases your risk of pancreatic cancer by 67%?
One artificial color additive causes behavioral disorders in children? And that 80% of children diagnosed with ADHD can be outright cured of the condition in two weeks by avoiding certain ingredients?
The #1 ingredient in Slim Fast meal replacement shake (powder form) is sugar?
Some guacamole dips don’t even contain avocado? Instead, they’re made with hydrogenated soybean oil and artificial colors.

The truth about metabolic disruptors:

Nearly all modern diseases are caused by what I call “metabolic disruptors.” These are common ingredients, such as white flour and sugar, that prevent your body from healing. Unfortunately, metabolic disruptors are used in almost all commercially prepared foods, which means most products on your grocer’s shelves contribute to poor health. But if you know what to look for, you can fill your cart with foods that will help you live a longer more vibrant life.

Here’s what else you’ll find in Grocery Warning:
Which common ingredient has been shown to ravage the cardiovascular system and promote heart disease while destroying brain cells.
Why some popular beverages have been linked to blindness and seizures, dementia, Alzheimer’s and behavioral disorders.
How a single food ingredient is killing more than 30,000 Americans each year and yet remains perfectly legal due to food industry politics and influence on federal regulators.
How food manufacturers alter natural fats and convert them into disease-promoting ingredients that ravage your health and make it virtually impossible to lose weight, no matter what you eat!
The one natural, alternative sweetener that has no calories, no blood sugar effects, no chemical toxicity, and tastes great!
What “homogenized” means on milk products and the shocking truth of how this artificial alteration of dairy fats poses a very real threat to your health.
How to reverse osteoporosis and other bone disorders through dietary and lifestyle changes that create high-density bones throughout your body.
The truth behind the margarine scam and how the food industry convinced an entire nation to eat disease-promoting margarine for decades, based on shoddy scientific evidence and political influence.
The one natural oil that’s lacking from the diets of virtually all Americans, but can significantly improve brain function.
Why at least one prominent doctor is accusing the FDA of committing crimes against humanity for not protecting the public from the immediate health dangers posed by three different ingredients found in virtually every grocery store.

Back to the “hidden” ingredients

So how do food companies manage to hide excitotoxins and taste additives to their foods? It’s easy: They just keep changing the words to confuse consumers. Once customers learned to avoid MSG / monosodium glutamate, the food companies started using yeast extract.

Other hidden sources of MSG include:

• Autolyzed vegetable protein
• Hydrolyzed vegetable protein
• Calcium caseinate
• Sodium caseinate
• Textured protein

The ingredients “stacking” trick
Food companies also use the ingredients stacking trick to intentionally leave you with the wrong impression about what’s really in their food products.

For example, one company makes a nutrition bar that’s absolutely loaded with sugar, but they way they’ve arranged the ingredients prevents sugar from appearing as the #1 ingredient. Instead, the first ingredient is rice. But looking down the label, you’ll find all the following forms of sugar, all in the same nutrition bar:

• Sugar
• Sucrose
• High-fructose corn syrup
• Corn syrup solids
• Dextrose

Add all these up, and the #1 component in the bar is, indeed, sugar (or sugary substances). But the manufacturer has used ingredients stacking to make you think the top ingredient is actually rice.
It’s a clever, dishonest technique used by food companies to lie with food labels.

Remember, the longer the ingredients label, the less healthy the food. Read those ingredients lists before buying foods, and if you discover chemical names that you can’t pronounce, don’t buy the food!

Technorati Tags: diet, health

Share This