An overwhelming majority of people (90%) who have periodontal (gum) disease are also at high risk for diabetes and should be screened for diabetes, a New York University nursing-dental research team has found. The researchers also determined that half of those at risk had seen a dentist in the previous year, concluded that dentists should consider offering diabetes screenings in their offices, and described practical approaches to conducting diabetes screenings in dental offices.

The study, led by Dr. Shiela Strauss, Associate Professor of Nursing and Co-Director of the Statistics and Data Management Core for NYU’s Colleges of Dentistry and Nursing, examined data from 2,923 adult participants in the 2003-2004 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey who had not been diagnosed with diabetes. The survey, conducted by the National Center for Health Statistics of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, was designed to assess the health and nutritional status of adults and children in the United States.More »

Sulphonylureas, a type of drug widely used to treat type 2 diabetes, carries a greater risk of heart failure and death compared with metformin, another popular antidiabetes drug.

The findings, published on the British Medical Journal website, suggest clinically important differences in the cardiovascular safety profiles of different antidiabetes drugs, and support recommendations that favour metformin as first-line therapy for type 2 diabetes.More »

Researchers from Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) in collaboration with researchers from Lahey Clinic Northshore, Peabody, Mass., believe that androgen deficiency might be the underlying cause for a variety of common clinical conditions, including diabetes, erectile dysfunction, metabolic syndrome and cardiovascular disease (CVD).

These findings appear in the September/October issue of the Journal of Andrology.

Androgens are a steroid hormone, such as testosterone, that controls the development and maintenance of male characteristics. In a number of studies, androgen deficiency has been linked to an increased mortality in men. Testosterone (T) is an anabolic hormone with a wide range of beneficial effects on men's health. However, according to the BUSM researchers, the therapeutic role of T in men's health remains a hotly debated issue for a number of reasons, including the purported risk of prostate cancer.More »

LITTLE FALLS, N.J.- Older patients with diabetes who take antipsychotics may have an increased risk of hyperglycemia, especially soon after treatment, researchers say.

Current use of both typical and atypical antipsychotics was associated with a 1.5-fold increased risk of hospitalization for hyperglycemia, Lorraine L. Lipscombe, MD, of Women's College Hospital in Toronto, and colleagues reported in the July 27 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine.More »