Blood sugar & diabetes
Benefits of a type 1 diabetes pill faded within a year of patients stopping it
Baricitinib preserved insulin production in newly diagnosed type 1 diabetes, raising hopes of a course of treatment rather than a lifetime of it. Following 88 patients after the drug stopped answered that.
Sep 8, 2026
Turning on glucose monitor alarms helped hospital patients; making them predictive added nothing
Continuous glucose monitors are moving into hospital wards, with no agreement on whether their alarms should be switched on. Randomizing 533 inpatients tested the alarms rather than the sensor.
Sep 8, 2026
Hip fractures were five times more common in type 1 diabetes, peaking in people in their forties
Bone is not on the checklist for type 1 diabetes, and fracture screening is aimed at people decades older. Comparing 5,035 patients against 12,286 controls found the excess risk starts early.
Sep 8, 2026
Children exposed to diabetes in the womb developed it five times as often
Gestational diabetes is described as ending at delivery. Following 2.85 million children to a median age of 16, exposure before birth tracked far higher diabetes rates, and control around conception shifted the odds.
Sep 6, 2026
Eye drops improved vision in diabetic macular swelling, a condition normally treated by injection
Treatment for diabetic macular edema means a needle into the eye, repeatedly, for years. Drops had never been considered effective. In 148 patients, a steroid suspension beat placebo drops on reading-chart letters.
Sep 4, 2026
Each 20-point drop in blood pressure tracked 24% fewer kidney failure deaths
Kidney disease kills more people in Mexico than almost anywhere, and blood pressure was suspected rather than measured. Following 133,470 adults in Mexico City, the relationship ran in a straight line with no threshold to hide under.
Sep 2, 2026
Fenofibrate tracked 68% less diabetic macular edema across 4,571 matched patients
A cheap old cholesterol drug has been tied to slower diabetic eye disease since two trials noticed it by accident. Across matched patients with early retinopathy, fenofibrate users developed less of every problem studied but one.
Sep 2, 2026
Mediterranean living tracked half the heart deaths in adults with type 2 diabetes
The Mediterranean diet is sold as a shopping list. This index scored the rest of it too, including naps and eating with other people, and all three parts of the score pulled in the same direction.
Sep 2, 2026
Sitting at the top of the 'normal' BMI range carried 78% more type 2 diabetes across 1.8 million people
Guidelines draw the risk line at a BMI of 25 and treat everything below it as fine. Pooling 11 cohorts, researchers found people at 22.5 to 24.9 already carried substantially more diabetes than people lower in the same band.
Aug 31, 2026
A diabetes drug tracked a third fewer deaths in over-75s, alongside a stroke signal nobody can explain
Trials of SGLT2 inhibitors barely recruited the very old. A Japanese target trial emulation of 8,486 people aged 75 and over found lower death and dialysis rates than a rival drug class, and more strokes.
Aug 30, 2026
Sudden vision loss hit 3 more GLP-1 users per 10,000 over 18 months than two rival diabetes drugs
An Annals of Internal Medicine target trial emulation compared GLP-1 users against two other diabetes drug classes. Ischemic optic neuropathy was more common on GLP-1s, concentrated in men, over-50s and those with eye or heart disease.
Aug 28, 2026
Gum disease tracked 18 to 25% more new diabetes across 28 studies and 300,000 people
A WHO-funded Lancet Public Health review found the link between oral disease and diabetes runs both ways. Periodontitis predicted later type 2 diabetes, and so did tooth loss. The reverse direction was real but less consistent.
Aug 28, 2026
Walkable streets tracked lower diabetes risk, but clearly only in richer areas
Diabetes Care followed 12,403 New York women who had gestational diabetes. One in five developed type 2 diabetes within 12 years. Walkable streets tracked lower risk, and clearly so only in the most affluent neighborhoods.
Aug 17, 2026
Weight lost early in prediabetes still counted 34 years on
The Da Qing study followed 540 Chinese adults with impaired glucose tolerance for 34 years. Those who lost at least 5% of their weight in the first six years later had a third fewer deaths and half as many heart failure admissions.
Aug 14, 2026
Melatonin worsened blood sugar, but only in gene carriers
A tightly controlled Diabetes Care trial gave the same 21 adults both 5 mg of melatonin and a placebo. Glucose tolerance worsened in the 10 who carry a common diabetes risk variant, and not in the 11 who do not.
Aug 6, 2026
An oral GLP-1 pill cut weight 9% in a phase 2 trial
A trial in Nature Communications tested a once-daily GLP-1 tablet in 235 Chinese adults with obesity. The top dose beat placebo by about 7 percentage points over 26 weeks, with the usual gut side effects.
Aug 4, 2026
GLP-1 drugs carried higher hair loss risk than two rivals
Comparing 12,004 people starting a GLP-1 drug against those starting other diabetes medicines, researchers found more diagnosed hair loss. The absolute risk stayed low.
Aug 2, 2026
Lifestyle cut chronic disease. Metformin did not.
Two decades after the Diabetes Prevention Program, 1,173 participants were checked for accumulated illness. The lifestyle arm came out ahead. The drug arm matched placebo.
Aug 2, 2026
Mild cold lowered blood sugar. Colder did nothing.
A Diabetologia trial put people in a water-cooled suit until they shivered. In type 2 diabetes, the gentler cold cut 24-hour glucose. The harder cold did not.
Aug 1, 2026
GLP-1 drugs tracked with fewer fractures, but only with diabetes
A JAMA Network Open study of 133,606 matched patients found GLP-1 drugs linked to lower fracture risk in type 2 diabetes, and higher risk in people without it.
Jul 29, 2026
Mazdutide took off 16.7% of body weight in a phase 3 trial
A JAMA phase 3 trial of 461 Chinese adults with obesity found the dual glucagon and GLP-1 drug mazdutide cut body weight by 16.65% over 60 weeks against 1.50% on placebo.
Jul 29, 2026
The weight came back. The visceral fat loss didn't.
A Circulation follow-up scanned 366 people 5 and 10 years after two diet trials and found that despite complete weight regain, visceral fat stayed partly down, and 10% less of it cut diabetes risk 28%.
Jul 29, 2026
Stopping GLP-1 drugs tracked with more anxiety after
A Nature Metabolism study of Shanghai health records found GLP-1 drugs carried no extra psychiatric risk during treatment, but higher risk of depression and anxiety after people stopped.
Jul 28, 2026
Bariatric surgery cost less downstream than GLP-1 drugs
A JAMA Network Open study matched 2,721 pairs of Israeli patients over up to 12.5 years and found those on GLP-1 drugs ran up $109 more per month in other health costs than surgery patients.
Jul 27, 2026
Losing 15% early after a diabetes diagnosis cut complications
A Diabetes Care study of 72,480 UK patients found those who lost at least 15% of their weight within two years of a type 2 diabetes diagnosis had fewer heart and kidney complications later.
Jul 26, 2026
Oral GLP-1 pill elecoglipron hit 10% weight loss in a trial
A Lancet phase 2 trial of 310 adults found the oral GLP-1 drug elecoglipron produced up to 10.5% weight loss in 26 weeks against 0.6% on placebo, with no injections and no food restrictions.
Jul 26, 2026
Sarcopenic obesity tripled type 2 diabetes risk
A Diabetes Care analysis of 479,607 UK Biobank participants found people with both low muscle strength and high body fat had over three times the type 2 diabetes risk, far above either problem alone.
Jul 26, 2026
Food-as-medicine groceries improved blood sugar in diabetes
A Circulation randomized trial gave 460 Medicaid-insured adults with type 2 diabetes six months of weekly grocery deliveries and saw a modest but real improvement in long-term blood sugar.
Jul 25, 2026