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American Morning

House Call: Hormone Replacement Therapy, Diabetes

Aired January 07, 2003 - 07:53   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: This morning, that hormone replacement therapy might offer a surprising new benefit.
Let's turn to Dr. Sanjay Gupta, who has more on that in today's other top health story.

Yes, tell that to any woman out there who is very conflicted about being on HRT, who is afraid of getting different forms of female cancers, and now she learns that it might reduce her risk of diabetes. Help us with this one -- Sanjay.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: I know. Well, there's a lot of information still coming out of a large hormone replacement trial. We've been talking so much about them, Paula, as you are saying.

This study basically shows that if you took hormone replacement therapy and you're a woman who had coronary artery disease, you reduce your risk of getting diabetes by 35 percent. But, Paula, as exactly as you say, the researchers are not saying that hormone replacement therapy will be the new way to stave off diabetes, but rather it might provide some insight into ways to prevent diabetes besides hormone replacement therapy.

Does estrogen, does progesterone have some sort of role in preventing diabetes? The researchers say yes. Hormone replacement therapy is not the answer, but there might be other answers down the road.

There's also another interesting story, Paula, about diabetes. Diabetes, typically when you check your blood sugars, you do it with a simple blood test, and what that blood test gives you is your blood sugar at any given point in time. There is another test out there. It's called A1C. And what this test does is it gives you an idea of how your blood sugar has been doing over the last three months. So, it gives you a sort of a larger profile of your blood sugars.

Previously, you could only get this test done in hospitals or other laboratories, but the FDA has now approved a new home version of the test called the A1C Now Monitor, and that should be available in pharmacies soon. So, this is a good thing for diabetics to be able to test that blood sugar at home.

And finally, Paula, one other story that's out there that's sort of interesting, kids and caffeine. People know that caffeine actually serves to give you a little jolt, help to keep you awake. But adolescents who drink caffeine on average about 53 milligrams, that's more than a 12-ounce coke, are sleeping less at night and taking more naps during the day.

This is the result of sort of a large study looking at caffeine and kids. They found that adolescents 70 percent of the time get their caffeine from soft drinks, and 20 percent of the time, they're getting their caffeine from coffee. So, kids are drinking more coffee, sleeping less at night and taking more naps as a result of that -- Paula.

ZAHN: Maybe that explains why they are so tough from the age of 13 to about 17, huh?

GUPTA: Yes, kids are drinking -- teenagers are drinking espresso. I never drank that stuff when I was a teenager.

ZAHN: No.

GUPTA: I think it's sort of interesting.

ZAHN: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) you didn't want to go near that stuff. Sanjay Gupta, see you in a little bit.

GUTPA: I'll be back.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.






Aired January 7, 2003 - 07:53   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: This morning, that hormone replacement therapy might offer a surprising new benefit.
Let's turn to Dr. Sanjay Gupta, who has more on that in today's other top health story.

Yes, tell that to any woman out there who is very conflicted about being on HRT, who is afraid of getting different forms of female cancers, and now she learns that it might reduce her risk of diabetes. Help us with this one -- Sanjay.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: I know. Well, there's a lot of information still coming out of a large hormone replacement trial. We've been talking so much about them, Paula, as you are saying.

This study basically shows that if you took hormone replacement therapy and you're a woman who had coronary artery disease, you reduce your risk of getting diabetes by 35 percent. But, Paula, as exactly as you say, the researchers are not saying that hormone replacement therapy will be the new way to stave off diabetes, but rather it might provide some insight into ways to prevent diabetes besides hormone replacement therapy.

Does estrogen, does progesterone have some sort of role in preventing diabetes? The researchers say yes. Hormone replacement therapy is not the answer, but there might be other answers down the road.

There's also another interesting story, Paula, about diabetes. Diabetes, typically when you check your blood sugars, you do it with a simple blood test, and what that blood test gives you is your blood sugar at any given point in time. There is another test out there. It's called A1C. And what this test does is it gives you an idea of how your blood sugar has been doing over the last three months. So, it gives you a sort of a larger profile of your blood sugars.

Previously, you could only get this test done in hospitals or other laboratories, but the FDA has now approved a new home version of the test called the A1C Now Monitor, and that should be available in pharmacies soon. So, this is a good thing for diabetics to be able to test that blood sugar at home.

And finally, Paula, one other story that's out there that's sort of interesting, kids and caffeine. People know that caffeine actually serves to give you a little jolt, help to keep you awake. But adolescents who drink caffeine on average about 53 milligrams, that's more than a 12-ounce coke, are sleeping less at night and taking more naps during the day.

This is the result of sort of a large study looking at caffeine and kids. They found that adolescents 70 percent of the time get their caffeine from soft drinks, and 20 percent of the time, they're getting their caffeine from coffee. So, kids are drinking more coffee, sleeping less at night and taking more naps as a result of that -- Paula.

ZAHN: Maybe that explains why they are so tough from the age of 13 to about 17, huh?

GUPTA: Yes, kids are drinking -- teenagers are drinking espresso. I never drank that stuff when I was a teenager.

ZAHN: No.

GUPTA: I think it's sort of interesting.

ZAHN: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) you didn't want to go near that stuff. Sanjay Gupta, see you in a little bit.

GUTPA: I'll be back.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.