More than half the smokers (54.1% or approximately 415,000 adults) in the survey area—which encompasses Berks, Bucks, Chester, Delaware, Lancaster, Montgomery, Philadelphia and Schuylkill counties—have attempted to quit smoking in the past year. And 60.6% smokers with the chronic diseases of diabetes, asthma, high blood pressure or heart disease tried to quit smoking in the past year, versus 48.6% of smokers without those diseases.

Cigarette smoking predicts incident type 2 diabetes, but smoking cessation leads to higher short-term risk. For smokers at risk for diabetes, smoking cessation should be coupled with strategies for diabetes prevention and early detection.

Evidence suggests that stressful experiences might affect diabetes, in terms of both its onset and its exacerbation. In this article, the authors review some of this evidence and consider ways in which stress might affect diabetes, both through physiological mechanisms and via behavior. They also discuss the implications of this for clinical practice and care.

ATLANTA—New strategies to prevent and treat diabetes and heart disease failed to improve care in two major studies, frustrating researchers' efforts to find more-effective approaches to the world's burgeoning diabetes epidemic.

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Three aggressive treatment strategies doctors had expected would prevent heart attacks among people with Type 2 diabetes and some who are the verge of developing it have proved to be ineffective or even harmful, new studies show.

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A study published in the December issue of Diabetes Care suggests that the number of Americans with diabetes is expected to nearly double by 2034, posing a "significant strain" to the U.S. health care system, Reuters reports. To project future diabetes rates, researchers from the University of Chicago analyzed data for patients between age 24 and age 85 who participated in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey and the National Health Interview Survey.

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Susan Lopez-Payan, with additional reporting by Kristin Lund May 5, 2009 Diabetes Health