Insulin

CHICAGO -- Harmful reactions to some of the most widely used medicines -- from insulin to a common antibiotic -- send more than 700,000 Americans to emergency rooms each year, landmark government research shows. Accidental overdoses and allergic reactions to prescription drugs were the most frequent cause of serious illnesses, according to the study, the first to reveal the nationwide scope of the problem. People 65 and older faced the greatest risks. "This is an important study because it reinforces the really substantial risks that there are in everyday use of drugs," said...

While type 2 diabetes was virtually nonexistent in children nearly 30 years ago, about 4,000 new cases are now diagnosed nationally every year in those under age 20, and a study suggests the condition is much tougher to manage in teens than adults. The nationwide study involved 700 overweight children under 17 who were recently diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, including some from the Boston area. Researchers found that 46 percent of the participants treated with the drug metformin - either alone, with intensive weight-loss counseling, or in combination with another medication,...

When Jay Radcliffe revealed three weeks ago that he'd found serious security holes in a popular type of insulin pump that diabetics wear, he kept two important details secret: the pump maker's name, and the specific technique he used to hack the device. The problems he found carry exceptional risks, such as being able to program a special remote control to command strangers' pumps to dispense the wrong dosage of insulin. But Radcliffe said he was ignored in repeated attempts to alert the company to the defects.

Nine years ago, Vince Wilfork and his wife Bianca had an unusual idea for how to combat diabetes: They decided to throw a party. Allow the big man to explain: "My father was diabetic throughout my childhood," the New England Patriots lineman said last week. "The first year we did it, it was basically a remembrance thing. My wife said, ‘Maybe this is something we can do every year to bring attention to the cause.' " Wilfork was 7 when David Wilfork Sr. was diagnosed with diabetes.

INDIANAPOLIS -- Eli Lilly & Co. said yesterday it will halt construction of a Virginia insulin plant as part of a shift in the drug maker's focus toward biotech products. The Indianapolis company said it will stop building the Prince William County, Va., center because production can be handled by existing plants and a center being built in Italy. All 120 employees in Prince William will be given a chance to transfer or will receive severance packages. The company also will offer exit packages to 250 of the 1,000 employees at its plant in Lafayette.

While type 2 diabetes was virtually nonexistent in children nearly 30 years ago, about 4,000 new cases are now diagnosed nationally every year in those under age 20, and a study suggests the condition is much tougher to manage in teens than adults. The nationwide study involved 700 overweight children under 17 who were recently diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, including some from the Boston area. Researchers found that 46 percent of the participants treated with the drug metformin - either alone, with intensive weight-loss counseling, or in combination with another...

New research gives clear proof that weight-loss surgery can reverse and possibly cure diabetes, and doctors say the operation should be offered sooner to more people with the disease — not just as a last resort. The two studies, released on Monday, are the first to compare stomach-reducing operations to medicines alone for "diabesity" — Type 2 diabetes brought on by obesity. Millions of Americans have this and can't make enough insulin or use what they do make to process sugar from food.

TRENTON, N.J. - An experimental artificial pancreas will soon be tested in diabetes patients, potentially sparing them the most dangerous complications and frequent blood sugar checks and insulin injections. If all goes well, a commercial model could be on the market in four years, said Aaron Kowalski, research director of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation’s artificial pancreas project. The device, being developed by the foundation and health care giant Johnson & Johnson, potentially could help about 6 million diabetics in the United...

COLUMBIA, S.C. — Dr. William R. Kirtley, a medical research pioneer who helped develop drugs that greatly improved the lives of diabetics, has died. He was 96. Jane Kirtley said her father died Sunday in a hospital near his Hilton Head Island home. Dr. Kirtley was part of a team at Eli Lilly & Co. that conducted groundbreaking research on diabetes drugs after World War II. Jane Kirtley said her father helped refine injectable insulin and develop pills to help diabetics naturally produce insulin.

WASHINGTON — The Food and Drug Administration has approved a new diabetes pill from Boehringer Ingelheim and Eli Lilly for patients who can’t control their blood sugar with older medicines. Tradjenta was approved for adults with type 2 diabetes, which affects 24 million people in the United States who have trouble breaking down carbohydrates because their bodies have become resistant to the protein insulin. They are at higher risk for heart attacks, kidney problems, blindness, and other serious complications.

Q. This past year has been hell in my marriage. My husband has gone out of his way to mistreat me. It has been eight years since we have had sex. He claims it's due to a physical problem, but that's not true. I once spotted him fondling a female guest during a dinner prayer and getting excited. He told me I repulse him and that's why he won't do anything about his sex problem. I asked him to leave, and he refused, saying he'd let the house rot to the ground before I'd get it. So I moved out. He gave my cellphone number to our preacher and church members and told them he...

New research gives clear proof that weight-loss surgery can reverse and possibly cure diabetes, and doctors say the operation should be offered sooner to more people with the disease — not just as a last resort. The two studies, released on Monday, are the first to compare stomach-reducing operations to medicines alone for "diabesity" — Type 2 diabetes brought on by obesity. Millions of Americans have this and can't make enough insulin or use what they do make to process sugar from food.

Emerson College performing arts professor Robbie McCauley has had a glittering performance career of her own. In 1976, she originated the role of Clara in Adrienne Kennedy's "A Movie Star Has to Star in Black and White," which the experimental theater director Joseph Chaikin staged at the New York Shakespeare Festival. She played the Lady in Red in the original 1976 Broadway production of Ntozake Shange's "For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When the Rainbow Is Enuf.

Federal regulators have warned Johnson & Johnson that it could face fines and other sanctions for selling faulty insulin pumps and delaying disclosures of serious injuries to diabetics who used them. The Food and Drug Administration ordered J&J's Animas Corp. unit to promptly provide a plan to rectify its failure to report within 30 days cases where its device may have caused or contributed to death or serious injury. In a warning letter sent to Animas on Dec. 27 and posted online by FDA Tuesday, the agency wrote that inspectors found Animas, which is based in West...

GE Healthcare said Wednesday that it will partner with M+W Group to build manufacturing plants to produce biotech drugs for emerging market nations. The General Electric Co. division said it will work with M+W, a global engineering, construction, and project management company, to build the plants for government and health care companies. GE Healthcare said manufacturing plants will help those organizations meet rising demand for vaccines, insulin and biotech drugs for cancer and rheumatoid arthritis.

LONDON - An estimated 366 million people worldwide suffer from diabetes, and the global epidemic is getting worse, health officials said yesterday. The International Diabetes Federation described the number of cases as "staggering," with one person dying from diabetes every seven seconds. The federation called for concrete measures to stop the epidemic, urging officials focusing on chronic diseases at a United Nations meeting next week to commit to specific targets to prevent cases and to invest in more research.

CHICAGO -- Diabetics who stick with insulin injections and blood-sugar monitoring have better odds of survival than those who choose a pancreas transplant, a drastic but increasingly common option, a study suggests. Diabetes occurs when the body cannot produce or properly use insulin, a blood sugar-regulating hormone produced in the pancreas. In most cases, a pancreas transplant can essentially cure diabetes. Patients who received pancreas-only transplants had a one-year survival rate of 97 percent and a four-year rate of 85 percent, compared with 98 percent and 92 percent of those who tried to...

LOS ANGELES -- A few diabetics have been able to give up their daily insulin shots after getting transplants of pancreas cells, according to the broadest study of this experimental treatment. But for most patients, the results fell short of the cure researchers have been seeking. Nearly half of the 36 patients who received the cell transplant achieved insulin independence by one year after the treatment. The benefits were mixed for the others, and about three-quarters of the whole group relapsed and needed insulin injections again.

NEW HAVEN - For the second day in a row, Patricia Dillon sat in the dark yesterday at her residence for the disabled and elderly, worrying how she will keep her insulin cold without electricity. The diabetic, 52, who had no power because of a failed generator, was among hundreds of thousands of people in Connecticut facing outages potentially lasting days, a week or even longer in the wake of Tropical Storm Irene. "I'm very tired, stressed out, aggravated, scared," Dillon said, her voice cracking.

SAN FRANCISCO - When Jay Radcliffe revealed three weeks ago that he had found serious security holes in a popular type of insulin pump that diabetics wear, he kept two important details secret: the pump maker's name, and the specific technique he used to hack the device. The problems he found carry exceptional risks, such as being able to program a special remote control to command strangers' pumps to dispense the wrong dosage of insulin. But Radcliffe said he was ignored in repeated attempts to alert the company to the defects.