Insulin pumps can help folks with type 1 diabetes get better control of their disease and minimize how often they inject insulin, and use of the devices has taken off in the past 20 years. That’s the good news from a new study. The not-so-great news is that a large gap in who is using these insulin pumps remains. Specifically, white patients are twice as likely to receive an insulin pump as Black patients, and better-educated, wealthier people are also more likely to be using one. “The big message is that over a 20-year period, we saw a pretty large increase in insulin pump use across all patients, but no change in distribution by race or socioeconomic status,” said study author Dr. Estelle Everett, an assistant professor at the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles. “Despite the overall increase, most populations are really not able to benefit from insulin pump use and these are the groups who have more challenges managing their diabetes and a higher risk of complications, so they may actually gain the most benefit from diabetes technology,” she said. Unfortunately, such race and socioeconomic disparities exist throughout medicine. “This study is another example of a larger issue in the medical field,” Everett said. People with type 1 diabetes produce little to no insulin, the hormone tasked…  read on >  read on >

Surprisingly, most people suffering from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) are in excellent mental health, Canadian researchers report. Two-thirds of COPD patients don’t suffer from common mental health issues such as depression, anxiety or addiction to drugs, the new study found. The key to well-being seems to be having the support of loved ones and not being isolated or lonely, according to a new study. COPD is a progressive, debilitating chronic lung disease that includes emphysema and chronic bronchitis. The condition has previously been tied to mental health problems, researchers noted. “This is not an easy disorder,” said senior researcher Esme Fuller-Thomson, director of the Institute for Life Course and Aging at the University of Toronto. But to see that two-thirds of people who have COPD — which can make it hard to breathe and interfere with their ability to work and participate in family activities — are overcoming those difficulties to the point that they are mentally flourishing is heartening, she said. For the study, Fuller-Thomson and her colleague Sally Abudiab, a graduate of the University of Toronto’s Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work, looked at the mental health of 703 COPD patients. They found that 67% of the participants were in excellent mental health. According to Fuller-Thomson, that meant being happy and satisfied with their life most of the time, having social and psychological…  read on >  read on >

Patients who undergo angioplasty and stenting to open clogged arteries in and around the heart should also be screened for depression, according to a new study. Researchers found that depressed patients were less likely than their mentally healthy peers to take their prescribed medications, including beta-blockers, antiplatelets and statins. These medications reduce the likelihood of another heart attack or cardiovascular event after angioplasty and stenting (also called percutaneous coronary intervention, or PCI). “It is well-appreciated that depression carries adverse cardiovascular risk. We wanted to understand better why that is the case,” said Dr. Jared Magnani, a cardiologist and associate professor of medicine at the University of Pittsburgh. “We found that 10% to 20% of individuals with depression were less likely to take their medicine after PCI, which is significant because this group is at a higher risk for serious complications or dying from a heart attack,” he said in a university news release. Using medical claims data that included prescriptions filled at pharmacies, the researchers examined the records of more than 124,000 patients who had the procedure and were also diagnosed with depression. Patients were followed for a year. Medication adherence may depend on social factors, such as having the money to cover medication costs, the study authors noted. Pharmacy access is another challenge. Prior research has found that a high percentage of people with…  read on >  read on >

For those who care about their teeth, a new study sounds a pretty clear alarm: using tobacco in any form — including the increasingly popular practice of vaping — is a recipe for a dental nightmare. The warning comes from the U.S. National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR), after scientists analyzed several years of tracking data that looked at associations between smoking and poor dental health among thousands of American men and women. The bottom line: regular users of cigarettes, electronic cigarettes (vapes), cigars, pipes, hookahs and/or smokeless tobacco face a notably higher risk for various forms of dental trouble. Depending on the type of tobacco involved, that includes a significantly heightened likelihood for six different types of dental concerns, including gum disease; precancerous oral lesions; bone loss surrounding the teeth; loose teeth; and/or tooth loss due to tooth decay or gum disease. And vaping, which is sometimes viewed as a safer form of tobacco use, was linked to a 27% higher risk for bleeding following brushing or flossing. “We’ve always known that smoking increases your odds for gum disease,” said Dr. Purnima Kumar, a spokesperson for the American Dental Association. Though not a part of the study team, Kumar — who is also chair of the department of periodontics and oral medicine at the University of Michigan School of Dentistry, in Ann…  read on >  read on >