Abbott faces Class I recall of 4.2M glucose readers on battery fire risks by Peter Green for MedTechDive.com, 6 April 2023.
Abbott has initiated a recall for readers for its FreeStyle Libre glucose monitoring systems, which are at risk of catching fire if improperly stored or charged, according to the Food and Drug Administration.
The agency categorized the recall as Class I, the most serious category of problems with medical devices, which can cause serious injury or death. Abbott noted that users do not need to send the devices back to the company, but can continue to use them, as long as they use chargers and cables supplied by Abbott with the device.
Abbott said the readers, which are handheld devices that take information from a continuous glucose monitor attached to a patient’s body, use rechargeable lithium-ion batteries. Those batteries may get extremely hot, spark, or catch fire if not properly stored, charged, or used with the USB cable and power adapter that Abbott provided.
The issue affects readers used with the FreeStyle Libre, FreeStyle Libre 14 day, and FreeStyle Libre 2 Flash Glucose Monitoring Systems, but does not affect the sensors, which are worn on the body. The recall affects 4.2 million units made between November 2017 and February 2023.
Abbott reported 206 incidents — including at least seven fires, one injury, and no deaths — to the FDA. It warned that if a reader is damaged by high heat, a user may delay or miss a critical diabetes treatment.
Read more: Abbott faces Class I recall of 4.2M glucose readers on battery fire risks
Study identifies two different regulatory T cell populations from Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, 7 April 2023.
A regulatory class of human T cells descends from two different origins, one that relates to autoimmunity and one that relates to protective immunity, according to a new study led by the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP). The findings, published today in Science Immunology, could pave the way for new treatments for autoimmune diseases that target the immune system selectively.
“When it comes to autoimmunity, the prevailing wisdom has been that the only way to stop inflammation is to suppress the immune system broadly, making patients more susceptible to infection,” said senior author Neil D. Romberg, MD, an attending physician in the Division of Allergy and Immunology at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. “However, that is only true if all T cells come from the same place. What this study shows is that there are two different T cell lineages, which means you might be able to have your cake and eat it too—suppressing inflammation due to autoimmunity while allowing T cells that fight infection to thrive.”
Read more: Study identifies two different regulatory T cell populations
Why Is Gut Health Taking Over TikTok? by Dani Blum for NYTimes.com, 20 April 2022.
Every few months, like clockwork, hundreds of videos promising tips and tricks to “hack” your gut flood TikTok. In March, influencers pushed shots of aloe vera juice: “My digestive system, like my gut health? Never been better,” one gushed in a video with one million likes while tapping on a purple bottle of the drink. Another, with the username “OliveOilQueen,” advocated drinking extra virgin olive oil every day in a video viewed more than 3.5 million times, claiming that doing so cleared her skin, made her periods less painful, and fixed her frequent bloating. Videos tagged with #guttok have garnered nearly 400 million views. They’re crammed with suggestions for cucumber-ginger juices and boiled apples, bone broth in the morning, and sludgy sweet potato soups at night.
There’s not enough data to prove whether any of these supposed fixes improve digestive functions, gastrointestinal experts said. Some purported gut-health helpers, like coconut oil, have high-fat content that can loosen stool and irritate your stomach, said Beth Czerwony, a registered dietitian with the Cleveland Clinic’s Center for Human Nutrition. Others, such as aloe vera juice, may cause diarrhea in some people. And since the Food and Drug Administration largely does not regulate supplements, gastroenterologists are reluctant to recommend the pills, powders, and products promoted by influencers.
“If somebody is claiming to have something that will immediately turn gut health around, you should be skeptical of that,” said Justin Sonnenburg, a professor of microbiology and immunology at Stanford. Instead, his research points to long-term lifestyle habits that can benefit the gut — ones that rarely go viral or make their way to social media acclaim.
Read more: Why Is Gut Health Taking Over TikTok?
Episode 122: Rohit Kulkarni, MD, PhD, Joslin Diabetes/Harvard Medical School from TheSugarScience Podcast- curating the scientific conversation in type 1 diabetes, 24 February 2022.
In this episode, Dr. Kulkarni joins us to discuss cross-talk between pancreatic endocrine and exocrine cells to decipher T1D. Dr. Kulkarni is a Senior Investigator at the Joslin Diabetes Center, Professor of Medicine and Faculty Member of the BBS Graduate Program at Harvard Medical School, and Associate Director of the iPS Core (DRC). He is Principle Faculty at Harvard Stem Cell Institute and an Associate Member of the Broad Institute of MIT/Harvard. Following his medical degree Dr. Kulkarni trained in Sir Steve Bloom’s laboratory and the Diabetes Unit at Hammersmith Hospital in London and then moved to Boston to complete a Post-Doctoral Fellowship in the laboratory of Prof. C. Ronald Kahn. He is a recipient of the Ernst Oppenheimer Laureate Award, Visiting Professorship in Endogenous Pancreas Preservation, and James H. Horner Distinguished Professorship. He is an elected member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation and the American Association of Physicians. Dr. Kulkarni has been on the Joslin Staff and Harvard Medical School Faculty since 1999. The research interests of the Kulkarni Lab are focused on two major complementary areas with the long-term goal of designing therapeutic strategies to generate new beta cells to prevent and/or cure type 1 and type 2 diabetes.
TheSugarScience Ask the Expert is a ~30-minute digital cafe experience where scientists and grad students can meet and exchange with thought leaders in the field of type 1 diabetes.
Sign up for a seat in the cafe! https://thesugarscience.org/ask-the-expert/
Counting Carbs Is a Crapshoot! – another great video by Drs. Steve Edelman and Jeremy Pettus, 31 March 2023.
After 75 combined years of living with diabetes, counting carbs is still a crapshoot for Drs. E+P. We proved it in this latest food challenge, as they tried to guess the calories and carb counts for six popular meals. If you’ve ever been discouraged trying to count carbs (and who hasn’t!) this video is for you and Drs. E+P also share some carb-counting tips along the way.
I drink at least 2 gallons of olive oil per week. Sheryl says that because I do this two things will be true at our house. 1. we will not pay for extra virgin olive oil. She only allows the really cheap stuff, often with pits still in it. and 2. I have to buy my own underwear at Walmart every week.
Turns out one can get those in 36 packs. Who ho now I am down to once a month.