A Survey Comparing the Management of Diabetes, Hypoglycaemia and Hyperglycaemia by Type 1 and Type 2 Insulin Users

Aim: The opinions and attitudes of type 1 (T1) and type 2 (T2) insulin users toward their diagnosis, management, treatment and complications as a result of their diabetes were sought. Methods: A bottom-up survey design consisting of 66 open and closed questions was used to determine both positive and negative experiences of patients currently using insulin by injection only. Results: 707 insulin users (71% T1 and 29% T2) predominately from the UK completed the questionnaire. A comparison between T1 and T2 insulin users found that exercise, diet, BG testing and excursions from normoglycaemia were the most common source of difficulty amongst these insulin dependent patients. The majority of T1 participants were found to use a basal bolus insulin regimen (Lantus/Levemir and a short-acting insulin such as Novorapid®, Humalog® or Actrapid® but only 34% of T2 insulin users used a similar system with 35% using biphasic insulin aspart 30 (Novomix®) which may have due to lesser hypoglycaemic events. Conclusions: The results from this survey which focus on the common needs of insulin users show that careful follow-up after diagnosis, frequent testing and education about calorie turnover from intake and exercise are required for both T1 patients but more so for T2 patients whose needs become similar to those of T1 patients once they begin to inject insulin

Effects of royal jelly supplementation on regulatory T cells in children with SLE

Background and objective: To our knowledge, no previous studies have focused on the immunomodulatory effects of fresh royal jelly (RJ) administration on systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) in humans. Our aim was to study the effect of fresh RJ administration on the disease course in children with SLE with some immunological markers (CD4+ and CD8+ regulatory T cells and T lymphocytes apoptosis). Methods: This was an open-label study in which 20 SLE children received 2 g of freshly prepared RJ daily, for 12 weeks. Results: The percentages of CD4+ CD25+high FOXP3+cells (CD4+ regulatory T cells) and CD8+CD25+high FOXP3+cells (CD8+ regulatory T cells) were significantly increased after RJ treatment when compared with baseline values. Apoptotic CD4 T lymphocytes were significantly decreased after RJ therapy when compared with baseline values and the control group. Conclusion: This is the first human study on the effect of RJ supplementation in children with SLE. Our results showed improvements with 3-month RJ treatment with regard to the clinical severity score and laboratory markers for the disease. At this stage, it is a single study with a small number of patients, and a great deal of additional wide-scale randomized controlled studies are needed to critically validate the efficacy of RJ in SLE