What was only a dream for diabetics a few months ago became a fact today. A team from Institute and Clinic of General and Transplant Surgery of Baby Jesus Clinical Hospital in Warsaw had conducted revolutionary surgery of autogenous transplantation of islet cells under stomach’s mucosa(1). Read full text »

Canadian researchers have discovered that the neglected diabetes drug – AC253 has a potential to restore the memory in brain cells affected by Alzheimer’s. The study on laboratory rodents published this year in the Journal of Neuroscience shines a spark of hope upon those who fight against the disease. Perhaps the new treatment will not only be able to stop the progress but also to reverse the damage caused by it. Read full text »

Alcohol became an important cause of death among patients with type 1 diabetes. This trend is increasing from the 1980s of the last century. The results of the study assessing the risks associated with alcohol consumption were published in the British Medical Journal. Read full text »

Wrtitten for www.physiciansweekly.com by Craig D. Williams, PharmD
Clinical Associate Professor
Department of Pharmacy Practice
Oregon State University College of Pharmacy
Oregon Health & Science University


Craig D. Williams, PharmD, has indicated to Physician’s Weekly that he has worked as a paid speaker and has received grants/research aid from Merck and Co.
Clinicians should take an active role in helping their patients with type 2 diabetes protect themselves from developing cardiovascular disease, or CVD, in the future.


Cardiovascular disease (CVD) has been well documented as a major cause of morbidity and mortality for individuals with diabetes. Adults with diabetes have a two- to four-fold higher risk of CVD when compared with those without diabetes. “The common conditions coexisting with type 2 diabetes—especially hypertension and dyslipidemia— are clear risk factors for CVD,” says Craig D. Williams, PharmD. “Diabetes itself also confers independent risk of CVD.”

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Nowadays, especially in industrial countries it is more common to hear about psychiatric disorders. There are more and more described neuro-psychatric diseases. An interesting disease is Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS), first described in 1956 in England, and in the year 1988 it was recognized as individual syndrome by Center for Disease Control (CDC). Read full text »

Metformin is one of the most popular antidiabetic drugs. It is usually well-tolerated and widely used as a first line treatment in type II diabetes. However, there is more to metformin than meets the eye. The world of science held its breath when in 2010 the American Diabetes Association and American Cancer Society agreed, that taking metformin is clearly associated with a lower risk of cancer (1). For the last years various tests have been performed to warrant the theory. Does metformin prevent cancer in both diabetic and non-diabetic patients? Can the biguanide help those who already suffer from cancer? What are the possible mechanisms explaining the beneficial effects of metformin? We can find all the answers in a thorough review prepared by Bost et al., published in the January volume of “Current opinion in oncology” (2). Read full text »

Patients with diabetes are at higher risk of developing dementia. Such results can be found in the study published on September 20 in Neurology. This is a medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. Diabetes is a very common disease and in the light of this news, its control becomes more important than ever. Read full text »

Bariatric operations are cost-effective not only for individuals with major obesity, but also in case of moderately obese patients. This conclusion was brought after summary of 170 studies, performed by the team from the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, USA. Scientist suggest that anyone with a BMI above 30 kg/m2 should have an access to this kind of treatment. Read full text »

Eating nuts every day could help control type 2 diabetes and prevent its complications. This is a conclusion from a study carried out by scientists from University of Toronto, published in Diabetes Care journal. Replacing the carbohydrates with 2 ounces (60 grams) of nuts daily, significantly altered blood glucose level and blood lipids profile in type 2 diabetes patients. Read full text »

Last year scientists discovered new evidence that drinking coffee may help prevent diabetes. However, the mechanism of this interaction remained unclear. Additional laboratory tests on animals showed that caffeine may be responsible for the anti-diabetic function. This year researches at UCLA (University of California – Los Angeles) reported a possible molecular mechanism of coffee’s protective effect. Read full text »