_____________________________________________________________________________ «¤»¥«¤»§«¤»¥«¤»§«¤»¥«¤»§«¤»¥«¤»§«¤»¥«¤»§«¤»¥«¤»§«¤»¥«¤»¤»§«¤»¥«¤»§«¤»¥«¤»¥«¤» ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ www.medical.says.it http://med.tux.nu www.medical.makes.it _____________________________________________________________________________ \\\\\___ M E D I C A L L I N K S ___\"-._ /////~~~ internetaction@yahoo.com ~~~/.-' _____________________________________________________________________________ DIABETES DIALOGUE - WINTER 2005 - CANADIAN DIABETES ASSOCIATION _____________________________________________________________________________ The Diabetes research in Canada is alive and well and taking place throughout the nation. _____________________________________________________________________________ The good news, according to Dr. David Hill, the Canadian Diabetes Association’s Chair of the National Board of Directors, is that Canada has a disproportionately high number of diabetes researchers compared to other countries. _____________________________________________________________________________ 'Amazingly, Canada has a far higher profile in diabetes research than you would ever expect, looking at the population base. We succeed in attracting and retaining a really good group of scientists.' _____________________________________________________________________________ Many advances in diabetes research have been made thanks to the Canadian Diabetes Association’s annual $6 million contribution to research. Every year, the Association receives 40 to 50 grant applications and puts each one through a rigorous peer review. 'The population of diabetes researchers in this country and certainly those that are represented in the Canadian Diabetes Association-funded community are just a hotbed of good ideas,' says Dr. Hill, who is also Scientific Director of the Lawson Health Institute in London, Ontario. 'The most important thing we can do is capture as many of these good ideas as we can.' _____________________________________________________________________________ Unfortunately, there just isn’t enough money to pursue all of the worthwhile research ideas. Every year, $115 to $120 million is allocated to diabetes research from various sources, including federal and provincial coffers, health charities and the private sector. Still, not all of the promising research gets funded. Dr. Hill says that some of the applications that get turned down constitute ideas with the potential to make substantial gains in the fight against diabetes. _____________________________________________________________________________ 'We’re missing 20 per cent of the good ideas,' he says. 'That’s wasting an intellectual resource, it’s wasting the education resource that’s been put into training these people. And it’s short-changing people in Canada who have diabetes.' _____________________________________________________________________________ The Canadian Diabetes Association is funding studies for the following four researchers, each of whom is exploring an exciting new way to prevent or manage diabetes. _____________________________________________________________________________ COVER STORY _____________________________________________________________________________ By Kinneret Globerman - Meet four Canadian diabetes researchers, working to make life better for you. ___________________________________________________________________________ Discoverers Diabetes _____________________________________________________________________________ Dr. Lorraine Lipscombe _____________________________________________________________________________ Do women with diabetes plan their pregnancies? Do pregnant women with type 1 diabetes take better care of themselves during pregnancy than those with type 2 diabetes? What kind of education or counselling do pregnant women with diabetes receive? These are just a few of the questions that Dr. Lorraine Lipscombe, an endocrinologist and researcher at Sunnybrook and Women’s College Health Sciences Centre in Toronto, hopes to answer in her study that compares pregnant women with type 1 diabetes to pregnant women with type 2 diabetes. The pregnancies of 200 women with diabetes will be examined through surveys and patients’ medical charts. _____________________________________________________________________________ There are always risks in pregnancy, and some studies have shown that increased risks are associated with diabetes in pregnancy - both for the mother and for her fetus - such as stillbirth, pre-eclampsia and the propensity for childhood obesity. But Dr. Lipscombe, 35, suspects that sometimes type 2 diabetes is not treated as seriously as type 1. 'With type 2 diabetes, I think a lot of healthcare practitioners and even patients think, ‘Oh, it’s just a touch of diabetes, I only have to take pills,' she says. 'And because people with type 1 diabetes are more apt to be hooked up with a diabetes care team, they have more contact with people who might be able to educate them.' By identifying potential gaps in the education of pregnant women with diabetes in terms of planning their pregnancies, Dr. Lipscombe hopes to eventually develop educational and counselling programs to reduce the rate of birth defects and improve the outcomes for the babies of women with diabetes. _____________________________________________________________________________ 'Diabetes touches so many parts of people’s lives. It’s a chronic condition that affects lifestyle, quality of life, long-term outcomes and pregnancy. I really like to help people live with it better,' she says. _____________________________________________________________________________ At press time, Dr. Lipscombe was eight months pregnant and even more aware of the importance of knowing what precautions to take to have a healthy pregnancy. _____________________________________________________________________________ 'I now understand how pregnant women with diabetes must feel when they are told too late that their pre-pregnancy diabetes control may affect the fetus,' she says. 'I hope my study eventually improves the pre-pregnancy education that these women receive.' _____________________________________________________________________________ Dr. Ronald J. Sigal _____________________________________________________________________________ Somewhere gathering dust lie Dr. Ron Sigal’s two trumpets. When he was a research fellow in epidemiology and genetics at Harvard University, he also belonged to a symphony orchestra. But his interest in hormones led him to exchange his trumpets for a stethoscope. Having focused his clinical training on internal medicine and endocrinology, he became fascinated by the physiology of hormones and the fact that as an endocrinologist he could affect people’s lives. _____________________________________________________________________________ 'I liked very much the way it’s clinically possible to help the majority of people who see you,' says Dr. Sigal, 46. 'You can help them to lead completelym normal lives even if they come to you very sick, which is less the case in most other areas of medicine.' _____________________________________________________________________________ At the University of Ottawa in the nation’s capital, Dr. Sigal is exploring the effects of resistance training and aerobic exercise in individuals with type 1 diabetes to see whether either form of exercise improves blood glucose management in previously inactive people. (Resistance exercise, such as weight-lifting, works the muscles, while aerobic exercise, such as walking and swimming, works the heart and lungs.) Research has shown that exercise generally improves blood glucose management in those with type 2 diabetes, but few studies have exam-ined how exercise affects individuals with type 1 diabetes. 'It’s quite a different disease,' says Dr. Sigal. _____________________________________________________________________________ 'It’s a very exciting career to have ' to be able to think of new ideas, to be able to test them. I’m very pleased with the increased amount of exposure and respect for lifestyle-related research.' _____________________________________________________________________________ Peter E. Light _____________________________________________________________________________ Dr. Peter Light (PhD), 40, has always been attracted to biology. Originally from England, he once entertained the idea of becoming a medical doctor. But Dr. Light became captivated by learning how things work, by fathoming what others before him had failed to understand. _____________________________________________________________________________ Dr. Light is now conducting research into how increased levels of dietary fat reduce insulin release, leading to higher blood glucose levels in those with type 2 diabetes. _____________________________________________________________________________ People with type 2 diabetes often have high levels of fat in their blood. Dr. Light is hoping to discover how cells that produce insulin respond to different types of dietary fat. 'We all know the potential health benefits of reducing saturated fat [found in animal and dairy products] in our diet, but this might be another piece of evidence toward why it may trigger diabetes,' he explains.With his results, a scientifically proven diet could be developed as a preventive tool against type 2 diabetes and obesity ' the incidence of both is 'increasing like crazy!' says Dr. Light. _____________________________________________________________________________ In the hopes of reducing those numbers, Dr. Lighthas initiated an education program in Edmonton high schools. The pharmacology professor with the University of Alberta visits schools to speak to teens about the risks of type 2 diabetes and the importance of preventive measures such as proper nutrition and exercise as deterrents. _____________________________________________________________________________ Dr. Light has already contributed to the understanding of type 2 diabetes in two previous studies. _____________________________________________________________________________ One discovery linked being overweight with an increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes if the indi vidual carries a specific genetic abnormality that may be further activated by sustained exposure to fats within the cells that produce insulin. _____________________________________________________________________________ 'Diabetes is a disease I will continue to research because there are so many facets to understanding it com-pletely,' he says. 'The fascinating thing about research is that you may have a plan for it, but it takes unexpected twists and turns, depending on the results you get. It can take you to potentially the most interesting and exciting new area. I’m looking forward to the journey.' _____________________________________________________________________________ Samantha Bowker _____________________________________________________________________________ Samantha Bowker, a PhD student at the University of Alberta, says she stumbled into scientific research. _____________________________________________________________________________ Bowker, 32, started out in the Arts, obtaining a bachelor’s degree in economics and Spanish. But after awhile, she found economics boring and realized that she could only go so far with Spanish. So Bowker looked to the sciences. Aiming for a Master’s degree in epidemiology (the study of disease origin and spread), she focused her thesis on the natural disease progression of Human Immunodeficiency V irus (HIV) in individuals infected with both HIV and hepatitis C, and found her niche in life. 'I think research is very chal--lenging, which is always something I look for,' she says. _____________________________________________________________________________ Now Bowker is studying the relationship between cancer and type 2 diabetes. Following the same approach of looking at two disease progressions simultaneously, Bowker is exploring the role that diabetes medications play in the relationship between these two diseases. _____________________________________________________________________________ 'It’s increasingly being recognized that patients with type 2 diabetes have an increased risk of developing various types of cancer,' explains Bowker. 'Patients with type 2 diabetes tend to have elevated insulin levels. _____________________________________________________________________________ Insulin is a growth-promoting hormone and, as such, it has mitogenic effects [causing cell change]. Several studies have demonstrated that elevated insulin levels and insulin-resistance in patients with type 2 diabetes are associated with tumour growth. We would like to further explore the relationship between type 2 diabetes and cancer, and whether there are drugs that reduce insulin resistance [such as metformin] that can also reduce the rate of cancer in patients with type 2 diabetes.' _____________________________________________________________________________ Bowker isn’t banking on finding all of the answers. She’s realistic that research takes time and patience. But as long as she’s challenged and feels that she is somehow contributing to the body of research out there, she’ll carry on. _____________________________________________________________________________ 'The fact that my research could potentially affect millions of people, not just in Canada but globally, and affect the decision-making process of doctors, would be very rewarding. Often you just feel like such a small person and yet potentially the impact could be a lot larger than you initially thought.' _____________________________________________________________________________ Le texte de cet article est présenté en français sur le site Web: www.diabetes.ca _____________________________________________________________________________ Please Note: If you are viewing this document in any language other than English, the results are subject to the limitations of the machine translation. ____________________________________________________________________________ Reprinted under the Fair Use http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html Doctrine of International Copyright Law ____________________________________________________________________________