YOU MUST FILE A TORT CLAIM AT UCLA MEDICAL CENTER RATHER THAN THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA
The University of California works hard to
conceal the tort claim process.
You can't sue if you don't file a tort claim within 6
months, so the Regents try to prevent those who have
been harmed from filing a tort claim.
At first I was duped by the following document published by the
Regents of the University of California:
[Maura Larkins' warning: the following is deceptive, produced by the Regents to avoid tort claims.]
"The Office of The General Counsel of The Regents (“OGC”)...
THE REGENTS IS NOT SUBJECT TO CLAIM-FILING PROVISIONS OF THE TORT
CLAIMS ACT
California Government Code section 905.6 exempts The Regents of the
University of California from claim-filing provisions of the Tort Claims Act. A
claimant who wishes to file suit against The Regents may serve OGC as
specified in section 1 above."
But if you go to "section 1 above", you see an address in San Francisco. It's
the wrong address for filing a tort claim. Clearly, the Regents want you to
come to them for health care, but if they harm you, they don't want to repair
the damage.
I did more research and deciphered the truth with much difficulty. You have
to present a tort claim to the specific campus medical center that is
involved.
Wednesday, May 21, 2014
Tuesday, April 29, 2014
Amicus Therapeutics Inc. Conducts Successful Trial For Fabry Genetic Disorder (excess fat in cells) Drug
Amicus Therapeutics Inc. Conducts Successful Trial For Fabry Genetic Disorder Drug
By Rebekah Marcarelli r.marcarelli@hngn.com
HNGN
Apr 29, 2014
An Amicus Therapeutics Inc. drug that would reduce abnormal fat that accumulates in cells when a rare genetic disorder is present proved succeeded in trials. The condition can lead to "heart attack, stroke and kidney failure," Reuters reported. The company plans to file for U.S. marketing approval in the wake of these results. The drug, dubbed migalastat, could be an effective monotherapy for Fabry disease patients who have endure a year of previous treatment. Share This Story The researchers conducted a 24-month study in which for the first six months participants either received the fat-fighting drug or a placebo. All of the patients were then treated with migalastat for a six-month follow up period and 12-month extension phase, Reuters reported. The drug is administered intravenously. The drug did not show a significant reduction after six months, but the compant plans to report the results at 12 months. "It may be that (the drug) needs more time to work, as shown by today's results," Janney Montgomery Scott analyst Kimberly Lee told Reuters. The drug is also being tested as a combination treatment to be used with other common treatment methods for the condition. Fabry disease is genetic; it causes a type of fat called "globotriaosylceramide, or GL-3," to build up in cells, especially in the kidney. This lipid accumulation is accompanied by a reduction in the enzyme α-galactosidase A (α-Gal A), which can lead to "cell damage, leading to pain, hearing loss, kidney failure, heart attacks and strokes," Reuters reported. Migalastat could combat these devastating effects by binding to the α-Gal A enzyme and helping it to break down the accumulating lipids. Lee believes the new drug could generate $250 million globally if used as a monotherapy; if the drug is used as a combination therapy it could be worth up to twice as much, Reuters reported.
By Rebekah Marcarelli r.marcarelli@hngn.com
HNGN
Apr 29, 2014
An Amicus Therapeutics Inc. drug that would reduce abnormal fat that accumulates in cells when a rare genetic disorder is present proved succeeded in trials. The condition can lead to "heart attack, stroke and kidney failure," Reuters reported. The company plans to file for U.S. marketing approval in the wake of these results. The drug, dubbed migalastat, could be an effective monotherapy for Fabry disease patients who have endure a year of previous treatment. Share This Story The researchers conducted a 24-month study in which for the first six months participants either received the fat-fighting drug or a placebo. All of the patients were then treated with migalastat for a six-month follow up period and 12-month extension phase, Reuters reported. The drug is administered intravenously. The drug did not show a significant reduction after six months, but the compant plans to report the results at 12 months. "It may be that (the drug) needs more time to work, as shown by today's results," Janney Montgomery Scott analyst Kimberly Lee told Reuters. The drug is also being tested as a combination treatment to be used with other common treatment methods for the condition. Fabry disease is genetic; it causes a type of fat called "globotriaosylceramide, or GL-3," to build up in cells, especially in the kidney. This lipid accumulation is accompanied by a reduction in the enzyme α-galactosidase A (α-Gal A), which can lead to "cell damage, leading to pain, hearing loss, kidney failure, heart attacks and strokes," Reuters reported. Migalastat could combat these devastating effects by binding to the α-Gal A enzyme and helping it to break down the accumulating lipids. Lee believes the new drug could generate $250 million globally if used as a monotherapy; if the drug is used as a combination therapy it could be worth up to twice as much, Reuters reported.
Monday, April 28, 2014
Why Chocolate Is Good for Us
Why Chocolate Is Good for Us
By GRETCHEN REYNOLDS
New York Times
April 24, 2014
This column appears in the April 27, 2014, issue of The New York Times Magazine.
In recent years, large-scale epidemiological studies have found that people whose diets include dark chocolate have a lower risk of heart disease than those whose diets do not. Other research has shown that chocolate includes flavonols, natural substances that can reduce the risk of disease. But it hasn’t been clear how these flavonols could be affecting the human body, especially the heart. New findings from Virginia Tech and Louisiana State University, however, suggest an odd explanation for chocolate’s goodness: It improves health largely by being indigestible.
Researchers at Louisiana State reached this conclusion after simulating the human digestive system in glass vessels. One represented the stomach and the small intestine, with their digestive enzymes, and a second reproduced a large-intestine-like environment, with gut microbes from human volunteers. The scientists then added cocoa powder to the stomach vessel.
The “stomach” and “small intestine” broke down and absorbed some of the cocoa. But while many of the flavonols previously identified in chocolate were digested in this way, there was still plenty of undigested cocoa matter. Gut bacteria in the simulated colon then broke that down further into metabolites, small enough to be absorbed into the bloodstream and known to reduce cardiac inflammation. Finally, the last undigested cocoa matter, now mostly fiber, began to ferment, releasing substances that improve cholesterol levels. And there was another health-giving twist to this entire process: The gut microbes that digested the cocoa were desirable probiotics like lactobacillus. Their numbers appeared to increase after the introduction of the cocoa, while less-salutary microbes like staphylococcus declined in number.
These findings are broadly consistent with those from Virginia Tech, published in March in The Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry. Researchers there began by feeding healthy lab mice a high-fat diet. Some of the mice were also given unsweetened cocoa extract; others were fed various types of flavonols extracted from the cocoa. After 12 weeks, most of the mice had grown fat and unwell, characterized by insulin resistance, high blood sugar and incipient diabetes. A few, however, had not gained weight. These animals had ingested one of the flavonol groups whose chemical structure seems to be too large to be absorbed by the small intestine.
What the results suggest, says Andrew Neilson, an assistant professor at Virginia Tech and the senior author of the mouse study, is that “there is something going on with cocoa in the colon,” but what that means for chocolate lovers is not clear. Future experiments, he hopes, will tease out why one flavonol group impeded weight gain and the others did not. Do not hold your breath for a cocoa-based diet pill anytime soon, though. Cocoa’s biochemical impacts are “extremely complex,” he says.
Sadly, Dr. Neilson also points out that cocoa is not a chocolate bar, something whose added ingredients and processing reduce the number and type of flavonols, increase calories (cocoa itself has very few) and possibly change the response of gut bacteria to the cocoa. “The evidence does not show that you can eat a chocolate bar every day and expect to improve your health,” he says. A few tablespoons of unsweetened cocoa powder sprinkled onto oatmeal or a handful of cocoa nibs — bits of the cacao bean, availab
le at natural-food stores — would be better, he says less than sweetly.
By GRETCHEN REYNOLDS
New York Times
April 24, 2014
This column appears in the April 27, 2014, issue of The New York Times Magazine.
In recent years, large-scale epidemiological studies have found that people whose diets include dark chocolate have a lower risk of heart disease than those whose diets do not. Other research has shown that chocolate includes flavonols, natural substances that can reduce the risk of disease. But it hasn’t been clear how these flavonols could be affecting the human body, especially the heart. New findings from Virginia Tech and Louisiana State University, however, suggest an odd explanation for chocolate’s goodness: It improves health largely by being indigestible.
Researchers at Louisiana State reached this conclusion after simulating the human digestive system in glass vessels. One represented the stomach and the small intestine, with their digestive enzymes, and a second reproduced a large-intestine-like environment, with gut microbes from human volunteers. The scientists then added cocoa powder to the stomach vessel.
The “stomach” and “small intestine” broke down and absorbed some of the cocoa. But while many of the flavonols previously identified in chocolate were digested in this way, there was still plenty of undigested cocoa matter. Gut bacteria in the simulated colon then broke that down further into metabolites, small enough to be absorbed into the bloodstream and known to reduce cardiac inflammation. Finally, the last undigested cocoa matter, now mostly fiber, began to ferment, releasing substances that improve cholesterol levels. And there was another health-giving twist to this entire process: The gut microbes that digested the cocoa were desirable probiotics like lactobacillus. Their numbers appeared to increase after the introduction of the cocoa, while less-salutary microbes like staphylococcus declined in number.
These findings are broadly consistent with those from Virginia Tech, published in March in The Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry. Researchers there began by feeding healthy lab mice a high-fat diet. Some of the mice were also given unsweetened cocoa extract; others were fed various types of flavonols extracted from the cocoa. After 12 weeks, most of the mice had grown fat and unwell, characterized by insulin resistance, high blood sugar and incipient diabetes. A few, however, had not gained weight. These animals had ingested one of the flavonol groups whose chemical structure seems to be too large to be absorbed by the small intestine.
What the results suggest, says Andrew Neilson, an assistant professor at Virginia Tech and the senior author of the mouse study, is that “there is something going on with cocoa in the colon,” but what that means for chocolate lovers is not clear. Future experiments, he hopes, will tease out why one flavonol group impeded weight gain and the others did not. Do not hold your breath for a cocoa-based diet pill anytime soon, though. Cocoa’s biochemical impacts are “extremely complex,” he says.
Sadly, Dr. Neilson also points out that cocoa is not a chocolate bar, something whose added ingredients and processing reduce the number and type of flavonols, increase calories (cocoa itself has very few) and possibly change the response of gut bacteria to the cocoa. “The evidence does not show that you can eat a chocolate bar every day and expect to improve your health,” he says. A few tablespoons of unsweetened cocoa powder sprinkled onto oatmeal or a handful of cocoa nibs — bits of the cacao bean, availab
le at natural-food stores — would be better, he says less than sweetly.
Friday, April 25, 2014
Scientists reverse memory loss in mice with Alzheimer's
Scientists reverse memory loss in mice with Alzheimer's
April 24, 2014
Relaxnews
Spanish scientists have for the first time used gene therapy to reverse memory loss in mice with Alzheimer's, an advance that could lead to new drugs to treat the disease, they said Wednesday. The Autonomous University of Barcelona team injected a gene which causes the production of a protein that is blocked in patients with Alzheimer's into the hippocampus -- a region of the brian essential to memory processing -- in mice that were in the initial stages of the disease. "The protein that was reinstated by the gene therapy triggers the signals needed to activate the genes involved in long-term memory consolidation," the university said in a statement. Gene therapy involves transplanting genes into a patient's cells to correct an otherwise incurable disease caused by a failure of one or another gene. The finding was published in The Journal of Neuroscience and it follows four years of research. "The hope is that this study could lead to the development of pharmaceutical drugs that can activate these genes in humans and allow for the recovery of memory," the head of the research team, Carlos Saura, told AFP. Alzheimer's, caused by toxic proteins that destroy brain cells, is the most common form of dementia. Worldwide, 35.6 million people suffer from the fatal degenerative disease, which is currently incurable, and there are 7.7 million new cases every year, according to a 2012 report from the World Health Organisation. In 2010 the total global societal cost of dementia was estimated to be $604 billion, according to Alzheimer's Disease International, a federation of Alzheimer associations around the world.
April 24, 2014
Relaxnews
Spanish scientists have for the first time used gene therapy to reverse memory loss in mice with Alzheimer's, an advance that could lead to new drugs to treat the disease, they said Wednesday. The Autonomous University of Barcelona team injected a gene which causes the production of a protein that is blocked in patients with Alzheimer's into the hippocampus -- a region of the brian essential to memory processing -- in mice that were in the initial stages of the disease. "The protein that was reinstated by the gene therapy triggers the signals needed to activate the genes involved in long-term memory consolidation," the university said in a statement. Gene therapy involves transplanting genes into a patient's cells to correct an otherwise incurable disease caused by a failure of one or another gene. The finding was published in The Journal of Neuroscience and it follows four years of research. "The hope is that this study could lead to the development of pharmaceutical drugs that can activate these genes in humans and allow for the recovery of memory," the head of the research team, Carlos Saura, told AFP. Alzheimer's, caused by toxic proteins that destroy brain cells, is the most common form of dementia. Worldwide, 35.6 million people suffer from the fatal degenerative disease, which is currently incurable, and there are 7.7 million new cases every year, according to a 2012 report from the World Health Organisation. In 2010 the total global societal cost of dementia was estimated to be $604 billion, according to Alzheimer's Disease International, a federation of Alzheimer associations around the world.
San Diego Kaiser Permanente CFO Lynnette Seid personally created a hoax set of X-ray images
Lynette Seid, CFO and chief administrator
for San Diego Kaiser medical records
See also: Is Kaiser Permanente violating the California Business and Professions Code with false advertising about digitized x-rays?
Lynette Seid is not only Kaiser Permanente San Diego Area's Chief Financial Officer. She's also the chief administrator in charge of medical records.
I asked for my VUCG results to take to an out-of-plan doctor, and in response, Lynette Seid created this set of X-ray images.
It pretends to be a set of 13 images, but it actually consists of only 7 distinct images.
Four of the images appear twice, labeled with different numbers, but with the exact same time stamp:
#1 is identical to #4;
#2 is identical to #3,
#7 is identical to #9, and
#8 is identical #12.
One image appears three times!
(#10, #11 and #13 are identical).
Some of the copies have labels added (“scout,” “voiding,” and “post-void”), but the time stamped on each image identifies it precisely.
Image #6 is of particular interest; it is the one new image that Kaiser was willing to produce for an out-of-plan doctor.
See the 13 images--or rather, 7 images--here.
Nice work, Lynette!
Lynette Seid (Mulan7224) on Twitter
Life is truly wonderful when you love what you do and you have someone very special to share your life!
[Maura Larkins response: Seriously, Lynette? You love doing stuff like this? Do you get paid a lot to do it? And get lots of appreciation from other extremely highly-paid executives? Perhaps you are blocking out the reality that life isn't truly wonderful when one's medical records are concealed by happy folks like you.]
See all posts re Lynette Seid.
Tuesday, April 22, 2014
Health Insurance Complaints Skyrocket in CA, says DMHC (Department of Managed Health Care)
"Kaiser, the state’s third largest provider, doesn’t allow users to post directly to its Facebook page. It’s also where some callers complained they were receiving a pre-recorded message that ended with a dial tone when they called customer service."
Sadly, long before the new health care law went into effect, Kaiser was preventing patients from making complaints.
DMOC isn't likely to do much. There's a long history between DMHC and Kaiser.
Health Insurance Complaints Skyrocket in CA
Having trouble reaching your health insurance company? You're not alone. State regulators say in January alone, they've seen a 53% jump in complaints, in part because calls about Covered California. A little known state hotline can help
By Vicky Nguyen, Felipe Escamilla, Liza Meak, and Scott Pham
NBC News
Apr 22, 2014
The Investigative Unit has learned complaints to state regulators have skyrocketed as people find themselves unable to reach anyone at several major health insurance companies. Vicky Nguyen reports in a video that aired on April 21, 2014.
Even if you aren’t one of the 1.2 million people signing up for Covered California, chances are you’re feeling the pinch when calling your insurance company. The Investigative Unit has learned complaints to state regulators have skyrocketed as people find themselves unable to reach anyone at several major health insurance companies.
For some health insurance companies, the influx of calls is so bad, they’re hanging up on customers after a pre-recorded message, while others put callers on hold indefinitely.
“I’ve been put on hold anywhere from 15-40 minutes,” said Don Tran, a full-time grad student at San Jose State.
Tran said he wanted to cancel his individual health plan with Blue Shield of California because he was eligible for less expensive coverage through his employer. But getting in touch with Blue Shield turned out to be much more difficult than he anticipated. “It’s been over a month and a half and I still haven’t been able to reach anybody,” Tran said.
Tran's story is a familiar one to Marta Green, spokeswoman for the California Department of Managed Health Care. The agency regulates [or at least, it collects a lot of money from the taxpayers in exchange for promising to regulate] health care plans and protects consumers.
“We have seen our call volume go up quite a bit,” Green said. She attributes much of the increase to the sudden spike in health insurance enrollment due to Covered California.
The rise in complaint volume was so extreme, the department began tracking the number of complaints from people who said they couldn't even reach their insurance providers.
“It was never an issue before this year,” Green said. But the department is only tracking “can’t reach plan” complaints for customers enrolled in Covered California. Of the roughly 1,000 complaints received between January and March of 2014, 1 in 10 people said they were trying to cancel or couldn’t reach their plan.
Green said there’s little consequence at this point for health plans that aren’t responsive to consumers. “If a health care plan is found to have violated the law, they can face enforcement action…[but] there is no specific law in relation to wait times.” Green said consumers can call, email or even send postal mail to the department regarding any issues with their health insurance. She said the department is committed to helping consumers resolve their problems, a process that can take anywhere from a day to a month.
“Every complaint we receive is investigated,” Green said. She encouraged consumers to call the department’s hotline, 1-888-466-2219, where they are guaranteed to reach a human being during business hours.
Don Tran took his complaint online, joining dozens of others NBC Bay Area found on social media, who are posting pictures of their wait times and airing their complaints on Facebook and Twitter. A check of the Facebook pages for the two largest providers in California—Anthem and Blue Shield – revealed new complaints daily.
Kaiser, the state’s third largest provider, doesn’t allow users to post directly to its Facebook page. It’s also where some callers complained they were receiving a pre-recorded message that ended with a dial tone when they called customer service.
“It’s a real hassle,” Tran said, adding that Blue Shield only responded after he posted several comments on social media. Now, more than 2 months later, he finally has his cancellation notice, but didn't get a reimbursement check until a few days ago.
Blue Shield of California spokesman Sean Barry said via email the company has expanded its customer service staff, adding, “We’re committed to delivering a high-quality customer experience. We have put several measures in place to reduce the delays in resolving issues by phone, receiving new ID cards and making payments.”
He directed customers to this customer service home page with a list of contacts to help resolve issues.
Darrel Ng echoed a similar sentiment. In an emailed statement, the Anthem Blue Cross spokesman said, “At the beginning of the year, hundreds of thousands of Californians were added to the insurance rolls on Jan. 1 as our nation’s health care delivery system went through a complete transformation. Because of that, in the first two business days of January, our company received a million calls nationally. Since then, we hired and trained hundreds of additional customer service agents and reassigned hundreds of other internal assets to assist on our phone lines. Through those efforts, the average hold time for customer service was under 3 minutes in March and is down to less than 90 seconds thus far in April.”
Kaiser Permanente spokesperson Karl Sonkin emailed this statement. "Prior to the deadline for Affordable Care Act Kaiser Permanente experienced a higher volume of calls to our Member Services Call Center during peak hours than we typically receive in the first part of the year, and that had resulted in longer than normal hold times. However, now that the enrollment deadline has passed our call volumes have returned to more typical levels and we are no longer experiencing delays."
[Maura Larkins' comment: This seem to be Kaiser's way of saying that patients will be experiencing the same treatment that they received for years before the Affordable Care Act.]
Sadly, long before the new health care law went into effect, Kaiser was preventing patients from making complaints.
DMOC isn't likely to do much. There's a long history between DMHC and Kaiser.
Health Insurance Complaints Skyrocket in CA
Having trouble reaching your health insurance company? You're not alone. State regulators say in January alone, they've seen a 53% jump in complaints, in part because calls about Covered California. A little known state hotline can help
By Vicky Nguyen, Felipe Escamilla, Liza Meak, and Scott Pham
NBC News
Apr 22, 2014
The Investigative Unit has learned complaints to state regulators have skyrocketed as people find themselves unable to reach anyone at several major health insurance companies. Vicky Nguyen reports in a video that aired on April 21, 2014.
Even if you aren’t one of the 1.2 million people signing up for Covered California, chances are you’re feeling the pinch when calling your insurance company. The Investigative Unit has learned complaints to state regulators have skyrocketed as people find themselves unable to reach anyone at several major health insurance companies.
For some health insurance companies, the influx of calls is so bad, they’re hanging up on customers after a pre-recorded message, while others put callers on hold indefinitely.
“I’ve been put on hold anywhere from 15-40 minutes,” said Don Tran, a full-time grad student at San Jose State.
Tran said he wanted to cancel his individual health plan with Blue Shield of California because he was eligible for less expensive coverage through his employer. But getting in touch with Blue Shield turned out to be much more difficult than he anticipated. “It’s been over a month and a half and I still haven’t been able to reach anybody,” Tran said.
Tran's story is a familiar one to Marta Green, spokeswoman for the California Department of Managed Health Care. The agency regulates [or at least, it collects a lot of money from the taxpayers in exchange for promising to regulate] health care plans and protects consumers.
“We have seen our call volume go up quite a bit,” Green said. She attributes much of the increase to the sudden spike in health insurance enrollment due to Covered California.
The rise in complaint volume was so extreme, the department began tracking the number of complaints from people who said they couldn't even reach their insurance providers.
“It was never an issue before this year,” Green said. But the department is only tracking “can’t reach plan” complaints for customers enrolled in Covered California. Of the roughly 1,000 complaints received between January and March of 2014, 1 in 10 people said they were trying to cancel or couldn’t reach their plan.
Green said there’s little consequence at this point for health plans that aren’t responsive to consumers. “If a health care plan is found to have violated the law, they can face enforcement action…[but] there is no specific law in relation to wait times.” Green said consumers can call, email or even send postal mail to the department regarding any issues with their health insurance. She said the department is committed to helping consumers resolve their problems, a process that can take anywhere from a day to a month.
“Every complaint we receive is investigated,” Green said. She encouraged consumers to call the department’s hotline, 1-888-466-2219, where they are guaranteed to reach a human being during business hours.
Don Tran took his complaint online, joining dozens of others NBC Bay Area found on social media, who are posting pictures of their wait times and airing their complaints on Facebook and Twitter. A check of the Facebook pages for the two largest providers in California—Anthem and Blue Shield – revealed new complaints daily.
Kaiser, the state’s third largest provider, doesn’t allow users to post directly to its Facebook page. It’s also where some callers complained they were receiving a pre-recorded message that ended with a dial tone when they called customer service.
“It’s a real hassle,” Tran said, adding that Blue Shield only responded after he posted several comments on social media. Now, more than 2 months later, he finally has his cancellation notice, but didn't get a reimbursement check until a few days ago.
Blue Shield of California spokesman Sean Barry said via email the company has expanded its customer service staff, adding, “We’re committed to delivering a high-quality customer experience. We have put several measures in place to reduce the delays in resolving issues by phone, receiving new ID cards and making payments.”
He directed customers to this customer service home page with a list of contacts to help resolve issues.
Darrel Ng echoed a similar sentiment. In an emailed statement, the Anthem Blue Cross spokesman said, “At the beginning of the year, hundreds of thousands of Californians were added to the insurance rolls on Jan. 1 as our nation’s health care delivery system went through a complete transformation. Because of that, in the first two business days of January, our company received a million calls nationally. Since then, we hired and trained hundreds of additional customer service agents and reassigned hundreds of other internal assets to assist on our phone lines. Through those efforts, the average hold time for customer service was under 3 minutes in March and is down to less than 90 seconds thus far in April.”
Kaiser Permanente spokesperson Karl Sonkin emailed this statement. "Prior to the deadline for Affordable Care Act Kaiser Permanente experienced a higher volume of calls to our Member Services Call Center during peak hours than we typically receive in the first part of the year, and that had resulted in longer than normal hold times. However, now that the enrollment deadline has passed our call volumes have returned to more typical levels and we are no longer experiencing delays."
[Maura Larkins' comment: This seem to be Kaiser's way of saying that patients will be experiencing the same treatment that they received for years before the Affordable Care Act.]
Study found abnormal rhythms when blood sugar dipped at night in people with type 2 disease
Low Blood Sugar & Heartbeat in People With Diabetes
Study found abnormal rhythms when blood sugar dipped at night in people with type 2 disease
WebMD News from HealthDay
By Serena Gordon
April 22, 2014
Low blood sugar levels -- known as hypoglycemia -- in people with diabetes may cause potentially dangerous changes in heart rate, according to a small new study.
This study's findings may help explain why a large-scale study found that very tight control of blood sugar levels in people with type 2 diabetes led to higher-than-expected death rates. It may also help explain why some otherwise healthy people with type 1 diabetes die during their sleep -- sometimes called "dead-in-bed syndrome" -- without an apparent cause, researchers say.
"We found that hypoglycemia was fairly common and that nocturnal episodes in particular were generally marked by a pattern whereby glucose levels dropped to low levels for some hours during which patients slept," said Dr. Simon Heller, senior study author and a professor of clinical diabetes and honorary consultant physician at the University of Sheffield, in England.
"These periods of hypoglycemia were associated with a high risk of marked slow heart rates [bradycardia] accompanied by [abnormal] beats. We have therefore identified a mechanism which might contribute to increased mortality in individuals with type 2 diabetes and high cardiovascular risk during intensive insulin therapy," Heller said.
Low blood sugar levels are not uncommon in people with diabetes, a disease that can produce dangerously high blood sugar levels. That's because the very treatments that can help prevent high blood sugar levels -- and the serious complications that accompany long-term high blood sugar levels -- can cause blood sugar levels to drop too low.
Although some oral diabetes medications can cause low blood sugar levels, the most common treatment to drop blood sugar levels too low is insulin. Insulin is a naturally occurring hormone that helps usher sugar into cells to be used as fuel.
"Your body needs fuel to survive and run properly," said Dr. Simon Fisher, an associate professor of medicine, cell biology and physiology at Washington University in St. Louis. "During hypoglycemia, the body is low on energy. When hypoglycemia is more severe, the brain [which runs on sugar] can get confused and stop functioning. If the blood sugar gets low enough, hypoglycemia can be fatal."
Fisher is also a co-author of an editorial accompanying the study in the May issue of Diabetes.
Low blood sugar is a well-recognized problem for people with type 1 diabetes, who must take multiple daily injections of insulin because their bodies no longer produce the hormone, according to study author Heller. But, low blood sugar generally isn't considered to be as significant a problem in type 2 diabetes, noted Heller, who added that the researchers were somewhat surprised to see that people with type 2 diabetes had low blood sugar levels about 10 percent of the time.
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