| Welcome to the June
2007 edition of Access Digest. Have you read any
newspaper articles or seen any TV stories about
diabetes drugs and medications? Of course you
have, and you know how hard it is to keep up with
advances in medicine. We agree, so we've taken
the time to see what's new for people with diabetes. As
always, talk to your doctor about any drugs that
you think might benefit you.
Our Lifestyle Tip for June is about Mastering
Diabetes and our Recipe of the Month is
Teriyaki Tofu Kabobs.
As always, when you see "Read More" at
the end of an article, or something that is underlined,
you can click on it to be linked to another
Web site where you'll find more information. When
you find a site that you may want to visit again
in the future, you can bookmark it.
Each month we receive
questions from our readers. We post some of the
more frequent questions and answers for everyone
to read. If you have questions or comments of
your own, please e-mail them to us at the end
of this issue.
We hope you enjoy this issue of our newsletter.
Thank you for choosing Access Diabetic
Supply as your choice for diabetic supplies. |
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More Heart Attacks With
Avandia |
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Study Shows 43% More Heart
Attacks With Avandia; Drugmaker Disagrees
The diabetes drug Avandia may increase a person's
risk of heart attack and death due to heart disease,
a new study warns. But Avandia maker GlaxoSmithKline
says the study is flawed and that better data
-- some already submitted to the FDA, some from
an ongoing clinical trial -- show Avandia poses
no significant risk to patients' heart health.
The FDA says that based on this "contradictory
evidence about the risks in patients treated with
Avandia," patients taking the drug -- especially
those who have had heart attacks or who have underlying
heart disease -- should talk with their doctors
about whether to continue taking the drug. The
new warning comes from an analysis of publicly-available,
short-term clinical studies comparing Avandia
to other diabetes treatments. It shows that Avandia
increases heart attack risk by 43% -- and increases
risk of death from heart disease by 64%.
However, the overall risk was small. Among the
15,560 Avandia patients there were 86 heart attacks
and 39 deaths, compared with 72 heart attacks
and 22 deaths among the 12,283 patients not taking
Avandia.
Read More
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FDA OKs New Drug for Type 2 Diabetes |
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The FDA has approved Janumet, a new drug
for people with type 2 diabetes. Janumet is approved
for use in addition to diet and exercise for patients
with type 2 diabetes whose blood sugar is not
adequately controlled by the diabetes drugs metformin
or Januvia. Janumet is taken orally twice daily
with meals. It's the first and only tablet that
combines Januvia and metformin, notes Merck, the
drug company that makes Janumet and Januvia.
According to a Merck news release, the FDA approved
Janumet based on clinical data including Januvia
and metformin as separate tablets. Another study
shows that Janumet is equivalent to Januvia and
metformin taken together, notes Merck. Merck says
it compared Janumet to metformin in a six-month
study of 701 people whose blood sugar was mildly
to moderately elevated, despite taking metformin.
Read More |
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New Diabetes Drugs
To Watch |
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Diabetes afflicts 17 million Americans. Bad
diets and a lack of exercise are expected to almost
double the prevalence of the disease by 2015, and
drug companies are pushing potential treatments
to market.
Many new drugs are in development. The competition
to develop drugs that target more than one of the
cellular signals called peroxisome proliferation
activation receptors (PPARS) is one of the most
heated in the drug industry. Such medicines could
control both cholesterol and blood sugar. Unfortunately,
two recent attempts faltered after causing cancer
in laboratory animals. Eli Lilly and GlaxoSmithKline
are working on similar drugs, but trail the separate
efforts of Bristol and AstraZeneca.
Read More |
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New Type 2 Diabetes
Drug Triggers Insulin Production |
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When diet and exercise
aren't enough to control type 2 diabetes, patients
can try certain oral drugs to lower their blood
glucose. Often though, patients who take diabetes
drugs are aren't able to lower their blood glucose
to a healthy level, even if they take more than
one type of drug. Some patients aren't able to get
their blood glucose to a healthy level by taking
oral drugs to treat type 2 diabetes. So researchers
wanted to see if adding another drug, Exenatide,
would help them. Exenatide triggers insulin production
after a meal, but only when blood glucose is high.
Like insulin, it has to be injected.
One study looked at 733 adults with type 2 diabetes
who were taking both metformin and a sulfonylurea
to treat high blood glucose, while another study
looked at 272 patients who were taking only metformin.
Metformin and sulfonylureas are two of the most
common types of diabetes drugs. Sulfonylureas spur
the pancreas to produce more insulin, while metformin
lowers the amount of glucose produced by the liver.
Read More |
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Healthy Living: Lifestyle Tip &
Recipe of the Month |
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June Lifestyle Tip:
Mastering Diabetes Through Lifestyle Change
If you're like most people with diabetes, you
know that exercising, eating right and managing
your stress will help you manage your diabetes.
During your last check-up, your doctor probably
mentioned those things to you, again.
We’ve found that knowing what to do isn’t the
problem for people with diabetes – it’s figuring
out how to put it all together -- and maintain
your daily life.
This healthy lifestyle “how-to” program has been
helping people for 35 years, thanks to the diabetes
expertise of leaders from the renowned Joslin
Diabetes Center at the Harvard Medical School.
Read More |
| March Recipe: Teriyaki Tofu Kabobs |
| This
month our featured recipe is an Asian-inspired,
grilled treat of tofu, peppers and pineapple.
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|
| Ingredients: Teriyaki Tofu Kabobs |
| Ingredient |
Measure |
| Bamboo skewers |
Eight
(8) |
| Extra firm tofu, drained
and cut |
3/4 pound (32 cubes) |
| Red
pepper |
One (1),
cut into 16 squares |
| Canned pineapple chunks, (reserve 1/2
cup juice) |
One (1)
cup |
| Lite soy sauce |
One (1) tablespoon (Tbsp) |
| 1 clove
garlic, minced |
One (1) |
| Minced ginger |
Two (2) teaspoons (tsp) |
|
Preparation
Soak
skewers in water for 30 minutes
to keep them from burning
as you cook the skewers.
Meanwhile, put the tofu, red
pepper, and pineapple chunks
in a plastic bag or container
with a lid. Add reserved pineapple
juice, soy sauce, garlic,
and ginger. Marinate for at
least 30 minutes.
Drain, reserving marinade
to baste. Thread the tofu,
red pepper, and pineapple
on the skewers.
Prepare an outdoor grill or
oven broiler with the rack
set 6 inches from the heat
source. Grill or broil the
kabobs about 5 minutes per
side, basting with the marinade.
Serve with brown rice. |
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Nutritional
Information - Teriyaki Tofu
Kabobs |
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|
| Recipe makes four servings; amount per
serving (2 kabobs): |
| Calories: |
107 |
| Protein: |
7
g |
| Sodium: |
147 mg |
| Cholesterol: |
0
mg |
| Fat: |
2 g |
| Carbohydrates: |
17
g |
| Exchanges: |
1 Carbohydrate, 1 Very Lean Meat |
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Questions & Answers - Ask the
Experts |
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Each month our staff answers questions and
asks for your feedback. However, if you have urgent
questions about your order or your meter, we encourage
you to call our customer care department at 1-800-276-5712.
We do our best to answer all questions, but we
also encourage you to consult your physician.
Below are a few of the typical questions
our customer care department has answered on this
month's theme. Each question is linked to a Web
site that gives an answer and provides more detail.
We hope you find this section helpful. |
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Access Diabetic Supply |
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