Glucose

Fingertip pricks serve their purpose in helping people with diabetes monitor their blood sugar levels. But, come on, it would be nice to have a method that doesn't involve drawing blood. Researchers reported progress this week on a technology that would provide non-invasive, continuous blood glucose monitoring. The technology uses microbeads coated with a fluorescent dye that are designed to bind with glucose molecules. The beads are injected into the body, and the sensing dye provides a continuous readout of glucose levels measured across the skin from the fluorescent intensity.

Sound familiar? Your normally cheerful spouse has suddenly, and inexplicably, turned cranky and an otherwise pleasant day is fast becoming a scene from "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf. " When you see those storm clouds gathering in your significant other's eyes, you might do well to give them some carbohydrates -- and fast. At least that's the advice of a team of researchers who examined the connection between low blood sugar levels and aggression in married couples. The paper , which was published Monday in PNAS, found that when blood glucose levels dropped, spouses were far more likely to stick pins into voodoo dolls representing their mates.

UC San Diego researchers have developed an implantable glucose sensor for diabetics that has worked for a year in pigs and that could be a major step forward toward the development of an artificial pancreas. As many as 800,000 people already use external insulin pumps that, through programming, inject a continuous background level of insulin and higher jolts at mealtimes or when a physical blood test indicates. The goal of many researchers has been to develop a continuous glucose monitor that can be implanted and send electronic signals to control how much insulin the pump secretes, thereby mimicking the action of the pancreas.

SAN FRANCISCO -- Google is searching for a better way for millions of diabetics to manage their disease by developing a contact lens that monitors glucose levels in tears. The contact lenses are the latest project from Google's secretive X lab that also came up with the driverless car, the Internet-connected eyewear Glass, and Project Loon, which is using balloons to bring the Internet to far-flung places. The "smart" contact lens uses a tiny wireless chip and miniature glucose sensor that is folded into two layers of soft contact lens material.

Many food activists and public health researchers are ready to pin a substantial portion of blame for the nation's obesity epidemic on the skyrocketing consumption of high-fructose corn syrup, widely used to sweeten processed foods and beverages in the U.S. since the 1980s. But food and beverage makers are fighting back . Glucose and fructose are both simple sugars--and equal parts of each is the recipe for table sugar. (High-fructose corn syrup is a bit more intensely sweet because it's made up of 55% fructose.)

Abbott Laboratories said Monday that it had received approval from the Food and Drug Administration for a new blood glucose monitoring system -- an announcement that came as its stock rose to a six-month high. The go-ahead added to Abbott's momentum after the release of positive results from the first trial of its ZoMaxx device, a drug-coated stent intended to unclog arteries to the heart, Sunday at the American College of Cardiology's annual meeting in Atlanta.

The can-you-be-fit-and-fat debate just got more fuel courtesy of a study presented recently at the annual scientific meeting of the American College of Gastroenterology in San Diego. Researchers zeroed in on football players, especially linemen, to determine whether they have greater risk factors for cardiovascular diseases and Type 2 diabetes: high blood pressure, high cholesterol and high fasting blood glucose levels. The study included 69 professional football players and 155 professional baseball players, all currently playing.

Michel Montignac, a French businessman turned diet guru who believed people could lose weight without counting calories, has died. He was 66. Montignac died Aug. 22 at a clinic in Annemasse, France. His website and a website for his daughter, Sybille, confirmed the death but no other details were disclosed. "You know French people don't exercise and also we don't count calories … at least to the extent Americans do," Montignac told "CBS This Morning" in 1993 after he opened a restaurant in Paris.

High-fructose corn syrup is often singled out as Food Enemy No. 1 because it has become ubiquitous in processed foods over about the last 30 years – a period that coincides with a steep rise in obesity. One of the primary sources of HFCS in the American diet is soda – in fact, many public health advocates refer to soda as “liquid candy.” That nickname is more apt than advocates realized, according to a study published online this month by the journal Obesity.

Sound familiar? Your normally cheerful spouse has suddenly, and inexplicably, turned cranky and an otherwise pleasant day is fast becoming a scene from "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf. " When you see those storm clouds gathering in your significant other's eyes, you might do well to give them some carbohydrates -- and fast. At least that's the advice of a team of researchers who examined the connection between low blood sugar levels and aggression in married couples. The paper , which was published Monday in PNAS, found that when blood glucose levels dropped, spouses were far more likely to stick pins into voodoo dolls representing their mates.

People with elevated blood sugar levels - even those not high enough for diabetes or pre-diabetes - are more likely to have memory problems than people with lower levels, a study of 141 people has shown. The results suggest that people within the normal range could help prevent cognitive problems as they age by lowering their blood sugar levels, said the author of the study, Agnes Floel of Charite University Medicine in Berlin. The work was published online Wednesday in the journal Neurology.

Nova Diabetes Care is recalling up to 62 million glucose test strips that show an incorrect high sugar level reading, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said Wednesday. The voluntary recall was announced by the company Friday for products sold as under the brand names of Max Blood Glucose Test Strips and Nova Max Plus Glucose Meter Kits. The strips were sold in the U.S. and in 13 countries and Puerto Rico, the FDA said in statement. Top 10 riskiest industries for investors  The federal agency warned that the inaccurate reading could cause users to administer an incorrect dosage error, leading some to seek immediately medical attention.

In the war against pests, the lowly cockroach makes for a fearsome adversary. It can go weeks without water, survive decapitation for a time - and, like any proper super-villain, can send humans screaming from a room. Now researchers have discovered how some roaches have eluded humans' once-infallible traps: They have evolved so that glucose-sweetened bait tastes bitter. The discovery, published in Friday's edition of the journal Science, solves a 20-year mystery and sheds light on the cockroach's powerful ability to adapt.

When James Watson and Francis Crick deciphered the structure of DNA in 1953, their discovery answered a crucial question in biology: How is genetic information passed down from parent to child? Their work also created conundrums, however. They and others showed that every cell of an organism contains all of its genetic material. How, then, does an individual cell know which genes to use and when? And how does information from DNA get to the cell's protein-making machinery? The seminal insight into those questions came from three biologists at the Pasteur Institute in Paris - Dr. Francois Jacob, Jacques Monod and Andre Lwoff.

After gastric bypass surgery, people with  Type 2 diabetes often see their disease completely  disappear  - within weeks, before they've lost much or any weight. It doesn't work for everyone, though.  What are the factors that matter? A study by a team of scientists from the University of Massachussetts looked into that. Here are their findings, which were presented at the annual meeting of the American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery. The scientists looked at remission of diabetes in 139 patients, ages 48 to 57, who'd had gastric bypass surgery.

Diabetes affects more than 25 million Americans. New medications and strategies to treat the disease are greatly needed. But the jury is still out on the experimental medication dapagliflozin. The medication looks to have significant benefits and risks, according to a study published Monday. Dapagliflozin is being developed by Bristol-Myers-Squibb Co. in partnership with AstraZeneca. It represents a new class of diabetes medications called selective renal sodium glucose contransporter inhibitors.

Young and diabetic: An article in Monday's Health section, about an 8-year-old with Type 1 diabetes, said that one day when she felt shaky, a test found her blood glucose "a bit higher than normal" and her mother recommended a glucose tablet. In fact, the level was lower than normal. A glucose tablet wouldn't be given for high blood glucose.

The basics In the simplest terms, diabetes means having too much glucose in your blood. Glucose is a type of sugar and a source of energy for the body. But if insulin, glucose’s “traffic cop,” isn’t doing its job, glucose accumulates in the bloodstream and all sorts of health problems can occur. Normally, most of the food a person eats gets converted into glucose, the body’s energy of choice. The circulatory system shuttles the glucose around so that hungry cells in the muscles, liver and elsewhere can snatch it out of the blood as it passes by. The liver cells are the hungriest for that glucose, because the liver is the body’s between-meal glucose storage facility.

A short while ago, Lars came in for a visit. He's a friendly, happy-go-lucky guy with a desk job in some sort of marine industry. The bulk of his visits have revolved around his passion for softball. He plays on three teams year round, and from time to time his competitive edge gets the better of him and he twists an ankle or pulls a muscle and comes in to get patched up. I remind him he's 45, not 25, that it's not Game 7 of the World Series, that he should go a little easy on himself.

Smart phones have already supplemented the doctor’s office and personal computers as sources of health advice — and now it appears car companies are driving into the on-the-go consumer health market. Ford is developing a way to display pollen counts and other allergen levels to drivers using its existing link to smart phone apps, the car company announced Wednesday. Ford has also made a prototype to synchronize glucose monitoring devices via Bluetooth. The car displays glucose levels and sounds an alert if they fall too low. A statement from Ford explains how this technology can help diabetics and allergy sufferers: “For people with diabetes and their caregivers, constant knowledge and control of glucose levels is critical to avoiding hypoglycemia or low glucose, which can cause confusion, lightheadedness, blurry vision and a host of other symptoms that could be dangerous while driving.