The National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) has launched a new health education program to promote sound “mind and body” health practices among individuals who live with serious mental illness. The “Hearts and Minds” initiative focuses on combating risk factors like high blood pressure, high cholesterol, smoking and obesity for major illnesses such as heart disease, cancer and diabetes. The program has significant implications for African Americans living with mental illness, who face these risk factors as well as additional disparities in access to and quality of health care…

Diabetes is one of the most significant health issues facing Alabama today and is expected to remain so in the years ahead. Two events are planned to educate and inform the public about diabetes on March 23, Diabetes Alert Day. In Central Alabama the Alabama Department of Public Health will sponsor a 30-minute special television call-in program titled “Diabetic Breakthroughs-A Central Alabama Diabetes News Special.” The program will feature an expert medical panel who will answer questions from the public…

Sernova Corp. (TSX VENTURE:SVA) today reported interim results from a key porcine diabetes study evaluating the safety and efficacy of the Cell Pouch System™. Interim results, to be presented at the American Society of Artificial Internal Organs 56th Annual Conference, Baltimore, MD, May 27th-29th in a podium presentation, confirm that the Cell Pouch System™ establishes a biological environment capable of preserving the functionality of therapeutic cells…

A drug widely used to treat joint pain improved blood glucose control in patients with type 2 diabetes, researchers said.

MANCHESTER, England (MedPage Today) — Topical testosterone replacement reduced insulin resistance and glycated hemoglobin in men who were deficient in the hormone and at risk for, or diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, researchers reported here.

An experimental oral drug has lowered blood sugar levels and inflammation in mice with Type 2 diabetes, suggesting that the medication could someday be added to the arsenal of drugs used by millions of Americans with this disease, according to new research. The drug consists of a synthetic molecule that stops the biological activity of a protein called macrophage migration inhibitory factor, or MIF. This protein is implicated in a number of diseases because it is associated with the production of inflammation in the body…

Multitudes of people worldwide begin each day with a cup of steaming hot coffee. Although it is sometimes referred to as “the devil’s brew,” coffee contains several nutrients (eg, calcium) as well as hundreds of potentially biologically active compounds (eg, polyphenols) that may promote health. For instance, observational studies have suggested a beneficial link between coffee consumption and type 2 diabetes. Determining whether or not this association is causative, however, requires controlled intervention trials…

ATLANTA (MedPage Today) — Sodium bicarbonate hydration appears no better than the old standard, saline, in preventing kidney damage from use of radiology contrast agents in at-risk diabetes patients, according to one of the first head-to-head comparison trials.

ATLANTA (MedPage Today) — Lower is not better for blood pressure control in patients with diabetes and coronary artery disease, a secondary analysis of a randomized trial showed.

ATLANTA (MedPage Today) — The FDA said it will conduct a full review of findings from a study which concluded that neither aggressive lipid-lowering therapy nor tight blood pressure control reduced cardiovascular events in persons with diabetes.