Endocrinology, Metabolism, and Diabetes

Salon quoted Paresh Dandona, MD/PhD, SUNY Distinguished Professor in the Department of Medicine, in an article on Rep. Matt Gaetz’s comments on the rising costs of insulin. Gaetz, who voted against a bill that would cap insulin costs at $35 per month, argued for weight loss as a potential solution rather than capping drug prices. Alleviating and treating diabetes is not as simple as eating healthier and exercising more, said Dandona. Those factors may “help control diabetes and it may reduce the insulin dose, but it doesn't eliminate its use,” he said. “To expect that somehow magically insulin requirements will vanish if patients lose weight is really talking in cuckoo land.”

An article in Technology.org reports on a study co-authored by Paresh Dandona, MD, PhD, SUNY Distinguished Professor of Medicine in the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, on how lower doses of insulin-sensitizing drug can patients with Type 2 diabetes. Dandona says this recommendation stems directly from the findings of the Insulin Resistance Intervention in Stroke (IRIS) trial. “Unfortunately, many clinicians are reluctant to use pioglitazone because of adverse effects, particularly weight gain and edema, and the drug is seldom prescribed by neurologists in their stroke patients,” he says. The study was also reported on in MedicalXpress.

Healio quoted Paresh Dandona, MD, PhD, SUNY Distinguished Professor of endocrinology in the Jacobs School, about research suggesting that lower doses (15 mg and 30 mg) of the diabetes medication pioglitazone are as effective as 45 mg for preventing new-onset diabetes, stroke and heart attack. “The  study demonstrated that pioglitazone not only reduced the cardiovascular complications, but also reduced the progression of prediabetes to diabetes,” said Dandona.

An article in Healio about a new UB study finding that a combination of anti-inflammatory and antithrombotic actions induced by IV insulin infusion could provide “potent inhibition” of the effects of COVID-19 in hospitalized patients quotes study co-authors Paresh Dandona, SUNY Distinguished Professor and chief of endocrinology, and Husam Ghanim, research associate professor of endocrinology, both in the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences. “Our data show that if you combine high doses of steroids with insulin, insulin takes away the pro-inflammatory effect of the steroid. In combination, you have a very nice, additive, potent mixture,” Dandona told Healio.

MedWire News covered research led by Paresh Dandona, MD, PhD, SUNY Distinguished Professor of medicine in the Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism, suggesting that add-on treatment with the sodium-glucose cotransporter (SGLT)2 inhibitor dapagliflozin reduces levels of some vasoconstrictors and increases some vasodilators in people with type 2 diabetes and led to a reduction in systolic blood pressure.

Multiple news outlets published stories on new research co-authored by Paresh Dandona, MD, PhD, SUNY Distinguished Professor of medicine in the Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism. In a single-site study, conducted over 11 years in Bremerhaven, Germany, Dandona and colleagues found that testosterone therapy reversed Type 2 diabetes in one-third of the study participants.

One-third of a cohort of men with Type 2 diabetes and hypogonadism who received testosterone undecanoate therapy experienced a sustained remission of their diabetes, according to findings from a single-center study. “The message is clear. All people with type 2 diabetes and/or obesity should have their testosterone measured and, if appropriate, be treated with testosterone for hypogonadism,” says Paresh Dandona, MD, PhD, SUNY Distinguished Professor of medicine and chief of endocrinology, diabetes and metabolism.

For people living with type 1 diabetes, new treatments may be finally on the horizon. Paresh Dandona, MD, PhD, SUNY Distinguished Professor of medicine and chief of endocrinology, diabetes and metabolism, describes how the University at Buffalo Endocrinology Research Center is helping to revolutionize the treatment of this condition. He explains why two non-insulin medications currently used in type 2 diabetes, SGLT-2 inhibitors and GLP-1 receptor agonists, are among the most promising new therapies. “The hope is that non-insulin therapies will soon be approved for type 1 diabetes. By unlocking the potential of these therapies, we can do more than manage blood glucose levels – we can improve people’s lives,” writes Dandona.

Paresh Dandona, MD, PhD, SUNY Distinguished Professor of medicine and chief of endocrinology, diabetes and metabolism, is quoted in an article about the death of Erie County Holding Center inmate Connell Burrell. A Type 2 diabetic, Burrell’s blood sugar crashed to dangerously low levels after he was given a large dose of jail-provided insulin. Holding Center nurses tried to restore his glucose with, among other things, a peanut butter sandwich. “That treatment was wrong, in my view,” Dandona said. “To be given a sandwich to chew is an impossible undertaking.”

An article spotlights the work of Paresh Dandona, MD, PhD, SUNY Distinguished Professor of medicine and chief of endocrinology, diabetes and metabolism, and his colleagues at the Diabetes-Endocrinology Center of Western New York in Amherst.

An article in the Buffalo News’ special Prospectus section details that health care is the region’s largest employer and discusses health care trends in 2019. The article highlights UB’s Center for Successful Aging, described as “an effort that involves almost 50 researchers from 19 UB departments and a dozen schools within the university. The aim this year is to work more closely with community centers, civic organizations and other schools.”​ Also mentioned is Paresh Dandona, MD, PhD, SUNY Distinguished Professor and chief of the Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism in the Department of Medicine, who with his team are now studying how drugs developed for Type 2 diabetes patients can help those with Type 1 diabetes.

A feature story on a website covering news in diabetes, covers the work of Paresh Dandona, MD, PhD, SUNY Distinguished Professor of medicine and chief of endocrinology, diabetes and metabolism, that has shown that drugs developed for Type 2 diabetes are also effective in treating patients with Type 1 diabetes. Dandona now is recruiting patients with Type 1 diabetes in a major Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation-funded clinical trial to further test these drugs.

Paresh Dandona, MD, PhD, SUNY Distinguished Professor of medicine and chief of endocrinology, diabetes and metabolism, was interviewed about his $1.6 million grant from the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, in which he is enrolling Type 1 diabetes patients in a study of his “triple therapy” approach involving insulin plus two additional drugs that he has found help even out blood sugar control in Type 1 diabetics.

An article about the rapid revolution of technology-aided care that is available through remote patient monitoring interviews Anne B. Curtis, MD, SUNY Distinguished Professor and Charles and Mary Bauer Professor and chair of medicine; Ajay Chaudhuri, MD, clinical director of medicine and director of the endocrinology, metabolism and diabetes fellowship program; and Andrew H. Talal, MD, professor of medicine in the Division of Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition; about the devices that can reduce patients’ trips to the doctor’s office.

New diabetes research by Paresh Dandona, MD, PhD, SUNY Distinguished Professor of medicine and chief of the Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism found that taking a fiber supplement can help patients with type 2 diabetes boost their insulin secretion even after eating a high-fat, high-carbohydrate meal.