Insulin and glucagon are potent regulators of glucose metabolism. For decades, we have viewed diabetes from a bi-hormonal perspective of glucose regulation. This perspective is incomplete and inadequate in explaining some of the difficulties that patients and practitioners face when attempting to tightly control blood glucose concentrations. Intensively managing diabetes with insulin is fraught with frustration and risk. Despite our best efforts,glucose fluctuations are unpredictable, and hypoglycemia and weight gain are common. These challenges may be a result of deficiencies or abnormalities in other glucoregulatory hormones. New understanding of the roles of other pancreatic and incretin hormones has led to a multi-hormonal view of glucose homeostasis.
OBJECTIVE -To compare a simple meal plan emphasizing healthy food choices with a traditional exchange-based meal plan in reducing HbA 1c levels in urban African Americans with type 2 diabetes. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS -A total of 648 patients with type 2 diabeteswere randomized to receive instruction in either a healthy food choices meal plan (HFC) or an exchange-based meal plan (EXCH) to compare the impact on glycemic control, weight loss, serum lipids, and blood pressure at 6 months of follow-up. Dietary practices were assessed with food frequency questionnaires.RESULTS -At presentation, the HFC and EXCH groups were comparable in age (52 years), sex (65% women), weight (94 kg), BMI (33.5), duration of diabetes (4.8 years), fasting plasma glucose (10.5 mmol/l), and HbA 1c (9.4%). Improvements in glycemic control over 6 months were significant (P Ͻ 0.0001) but similar in both groups: HbA 1c decreased from 9.7 to 7.8% with the HFC and from 9.6 to 7.7% with the EXCH. Improvements in HDL cholesterol and triglycerides were comparable in both groups, whereas other lipids and blood pressure were not altered. The HFC and EXCH groups exhibited similar improvement in dietary practices with respect to intake of fats and sugar sweetened foods. Among obese patients, average weight change, the percentage of patients losing weight, and the distribution of weight lost were comparable with the two approaches.CONCLUSIONS -Medical nutrition therapy is effective in urban African Americans with type 2 diabetes. Either a meal plan emphasizing guidelines for healthy food choices or a low literacy exchange method is equally effective as a meal planning approach. Because the HFC meal plan may be easier to teach and easier for patients to understand, it may be preferable for low-literacy patient populations. Diabetes Care 26:1719 -1724, 2003M inority groups have a high prevalence of type 2 diabetes (1-4). In the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey III and BRFSS (Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System), the age-standardized prevalence of diabetes was 1.6-fold higher in African Americans than in Caucasians (5,6). The disproportionate frequency of diabetes in African Americans is especially impressive in women (4,7), even after correcting for the prevalence of obesity (4,8 -10). The problem of diabetes for African Americans is particularly striking above the age of 45 years, when the prevalence of diabetes in African Americans is almost twice that in Caucasians (11); diabetes is present in 29% of African Americans 65-74 years of age (5). It is especially alarming that the frequency of altered metabolism is rising even in younger African Americans; recent studies found the prevalence of impaired glucose tolerance to be 20% in a group with an average age of 34 years (12) and 8.6% in girls between 5 and 10 years old (13).Medical nutrition therapy is essential in preventing the development of diabetes (14 -16), and medical nutrition therapy is well recognized as a cornerstone of management in patients who have diabetes. Med...
A substantial number of persons anticipated a barrier to diabetes education. Interventions at multiple levels that address the demographic and socioeconomic obstacles to diabetes education are needed to ensure successful self-management training.
Limited access to health care is associated with adverse outcomes, but few studies have examined its effect on glycemic control in minority populations. Our observational cross-sectional study examined whether differences in health care access affected hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) levels in 605 patients with diabetes (56% women; 89% African American; average age, 50 years; 95% with type 2 diabetes) initially treated at a municipal diabetes clinic. Patients who had difficulty obtaining care had higher A1c levels (9.4% vs. 8.7%; p=0.001), as did patients who used acute care facilities (9.5%; p<0.001) or who had no usual source of care (10.3%; p<0.001) compared with those who sought care at doctors' offices or clinics (8.6%). In adjusted analyses, HbA1c was higher in persons who gave a history of trouble obtaining medical care (0.57%; p=0.04), among persons who primarily used an acute care facility to receive their health care (0.49%; p=0.047), and in patients who reported not having a usual source of care (1.08%; p=0.009). Policy decisions for improving diabetes outcomes should target barriers to health care access and focus on developing programs to help high-risk populations maintain a regular place of health care.
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