Rigorous control of blood sugar won’t save diabetics the heart ravages which come with the disease, new studies show.

Instead diabetics need to treat themselves as we heart patients do, with statins, blood pressure control, diet, exercise and a baby aspirin before bedtime. Their current regimen for controlling blood sugar may be as good as it gets.

The results of the studies shocked some researchers, and there was some disagreement over the Australian study, which showed the strict regimen cut back on eye and kidney damage.

The Australia study was done by the ADVANCE Collaborative Group, and covered far more people in far more countries than the American study, which was called ACCORD.

Critics noted that the Australian study was backed by Servier Labs, a French company which provided one of the drugs studied. Defenders quickly noted Servier had no influence on how the study was done or its results.

But in sicker patients those with strict sugar controls actually had higher death rates, from heart attack and stroke, than those without. This was seized by some Americans as evidence that strict control is counter-productive.

As with the earlier ENHANCE study on cholesterol, which led many to question the link between a cholesterol number and heart disease, the real lesson here may be that diabetes, like heart disease, is complicated.

It’s also likely that doctors will decide not to change their advice to diabetics in light of this study, as they haven’t changed their recommendations to heart patients based on ENHANCE.

All of which leads me to question what I’ll tell friends like the neighbor above, who are diabetics. Rather than depress him with the failure of ADVANCE and ACCORD I think I’ll just say we have more in common than before — under the skin.

Experts are developing a flexible surgical robot, known as the i-Snake, which they say could revolutionise keyhole surgery.

It could enable surgeons to do complex procedures previously possible only through more invasive techniques.

A team at Imperial College London has been granted £2.1 million for the work.

They envisage using the i-Snake - a long tube housing special motors, sensors and imaging tools - for heart bypass surgery.

But it could also be used to diagnose problems in the gut and bowel by acting as the surgeon’s hands and eyes in hard to reach places inside the body.

The Imperial College team, which includes health minister and surgeon Lord Ara Darzi, will test the device initially in the laboratory before it is used on patients.

Minimally invasive surgery has obvious advantages - it can mean smaller scars, reduced hospital stays and shorter recovery times.

Surgeons are also looking at ways to avoid skin incisions altogether.

One approach is Natural Orifice Transluminal Endoscopic Surgery or Notes. This means operating in the peritoneal space through natural orifices or cavities, such as the bowel.

Lord Darzi said: “The unrivalled imaging and sensing capabilities coupled with the accessibility and sensitivity of i-Snake will enable more complex diagnostic and therapeutic procedures than are currently possible.

“The cost benefits that i-Snake will introduce include earlier, cheaper and less invasive treatment, faster recovery and procedure times and intangible benefits through an increase in patient care and quality of life.”

Dr Ted Bianco, director of technology transfer at the Wellcome Trust, said: “Gone are the days when the surgeon’s knife ruled in the operating theatre. The future of surgery is in smart devices like i-Snake.”

Information Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7155635.stm