Scientists Stumble Onto Possible Treatment For Diabetes While Experimenting With Deep Brain Stimulation
A patient with type 2 diabetes was being treated with deep brain stimulation for repetitive thoughts and behaviors of OCD. After the procedure he noticed that his blood sugar control improved, and his daily need for insulin injections decreased by roughly 80 percent.
Los Angeles Times:
Deep Brain Stimulation May Offer Treatment For Type 2 Diabetes, Study Suggests
A surprising (but welcome) side effect of a therapy for obsessive-compulsive disorder may pave the way for a new approach to treating type 2 diabetes — and offer new insights into the links between obesity and the metabolic disease that afflicts close to 1 in 10 American adults. The therapy in question is deep brain stimulation of the nucleus accumbens, a structure best known for its role in motivation, reward and addiction. It now appears that deep brain stimulation also increases the liver's and muscles' ability to take up and use insulin, researchers reported this week. (Healy, 5/26)
In other public health news —
San Francisco Chronicle:
As Juul Vaping Surges Among Teens, Health Concerns Grow
Yet health officials have been sounding the alarm over the escalating use of e-cigarettes, and especially Juuls, among young people for a few years. The products, they say, come in hundreds of fruit and candy flavors — mango, sweet tart, watermelon, caramel cappuccino — making them attractive to teens. (Tucker, 5/26)