There are more than 30 million people in the U.S. who have diabetes, and that includes close to 200,000 Americans under the age of 20 who have been diagnosed with the disease. Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes are different diseases, but both are caused by a lack of insulin. Both forms of the disease are increasing in children, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Monitoring and managing blood sugar levels is important for diabetics, and this can be particularly challenging for children and adolescents.

On the next Mayo Clinic Radio program, Dr. Ana Creo, a pediatric endocrinologist, and Janet Hansen, a nurse and diabetes educator, will discuss pediatric diabetes. Also on the program, Tim Myer, a Mayo Clinic cystic fibrosis patient, will share how a new medication helped him get off the lung transplant list. Dr. Mark Wylam, a Mayo Clinic pulmonologist and Myer's physician, will join the discussion. And Dr. Jonathan D'Cunha, a Mayo Clinic thoracic surgeon, will explain when thoracic surgery might be needed.

To hear the program, find an affiliate in your area.

Use the hashtag #MayoClinicRadio, and tweet your questions.

Mayo Clinic Radio is on iHeartRadio.

Access archived shows or subscribe to the podcast.

Mayo Clinic Radio produces a weekly one-hour radio program highlighting health and medical information from Mayo Clinic.

Check out the new podcast, Mayo Clinic Q&A.

The post Mayo Clinic Radio: Pediatric diabetes appeared first on Mayo Clinic News Network.

On the next Mayo Clinic Radio program, Dr. Ana Creo, a pediatric endocrinologist, and Janet Hansen, a nurse and diabetes educator, will discuss pediatric diabetes. Also on the program, Tim Myer, a Mayo Clinic cystic fibrosis patient, will share how a new medication helped him get off the lung transplant list. Dr. Mark Wylam, a Mayo Clinic pulmonologist and Myer's physician, will join the discussion. And Dr. Jonathan D'Cunha, a Mayo Clinic thoracic surgeon, will explain when thoracic surgery might be needed.

To hear the program, find an affiliate in your area.

Use the hashtag #MayoClinicRadio, and tweet your questions.

Mayo Clinic Radio is on iHeartRadio.

Access archived shows or subscribe to the podcast.

Mayo Clinic Radio produces a weekly one-hour radio program highlighting health and medical information from Mayo Clinic.

Check out the new podcast, Mayo Clinic Q&A.

The post Mayo Clinic Radio: Pediatric diabetes / new cystic fibrosis medication / thoracic surgery appeared first on Mayo Clinic News Network.

The latest episode of the Mayo Clinic Q&A podcast, features a milestone in the treatment of cystic fibrosis (CF).

Tim Myer has lived with cystic fibrosis his whole life. He was awaiting a lung transplant, when a new medication approved by the Food and Drug Administration changed everything.

"There are about 30,000 patients in the U.S. with cystic fibrosis. This drug will expand treatment to 27,000, or 90% of all patients with CF in the U.S.," says Dr. Mark Wylam, a Mayo Clinic pulmonologist, and Myer's physician.

Myer and Dr. Wylam share the story on this week's Mayo Clinic Q&A podcast.

Mayo Clinic Q&A is available on 
podcast platforms including Apple, Google, Spotify, Stitcher, 
TuneIn and iHeart. 

Click the media player below:

News Release: Mayo Clinic News Network launches new podcast to help consumers: Mayo Clinic Q&A

The post Mayo Clinic Q&A podcast: A milestone in the treatment of cystic fibrosis appeared first on Mayo Clinic News Network.

When Tim Thomforde was diagnosed with COPD, his quality of life began to gradually decline, and he had to abandon many of the activities he enjoyed. Since undergoing a double lung transplant two years ago, however, Tim has had experiences he never dreamed possible when he was struggling with COPD.

For Tim Thomforde, the difference between life before and after his double lung transplant has been striking. Tim went from being in a wheelchair on oxygen for nine years to walking his dog at 14,000 feet on top of a mountain in Colorado following his transplant in August 2017.

"It was pretty amazing because when they pulled the tube out, I could take deep breaths," Tim says. "It was like waking up from a bad dream. It had been 12 years since I felt I could really breathe."

In 2008, at age 50, Tim was diagnosed with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or COPD, which was the result of 30 years of smoking and the emphysema he developed because of it. COPD is a chronic inflammatory lung disease that destroys the lungs' air sacs, causing obstructed airflow from the lungs. Symptoms include breathing difficulty, especially with activity, as well as coughing, mucus production and wheezing.

Tim remembers vividly celebrating his 50th birthday with family and friends, and then having oxygen tanks delivered to his farm in Luray, Kansas. "When I first got on oxygen, I felt pretty good again. But it held me back because I was always worried about my tank being empty," Tim says. "As time progressed, my breathing got worse. So many things would trigger me — the hot, humid air, any kind of perfume or dust. I was afraid to do many of the things I used to do. It changed my whole life."

Prepping for transplant

Tim was referred to Mayo Clinic by his physician in Hays, Kansas, to begin discussions about a lung transplant. "His lung function was in the 15% to 20% normal range when I first met him in October 2008," says Mark Wylam, M.D., a pulmonologist at Mayo Clinic in Rochester.

"I couldn't walk to the bathroom without getting short of breath," Tim says. "When I would try to cook breakfast, I had to get the pan out and go rest before I could make eggs and toast." Although Tim's quality of life was poor, he had to quit smoking and get as physically healthy as possible before he could be listed for a transplant.

"Getting a transplant is like climbing a mountain. You have to prepare and make changes in your diet and physical fitness to be able to do this, which is why early referral is critical," Dr. Wylam says. "Every day you're on the list is a day to get more fit, so the body is strong enough to undergo the transplant."

"I trust (Dr. Wylam) and know he has my best interest at heart."

Tim Thomforde

Tim was put on the transplant list in July 2014, six months after he quit smoking. While he waited for a new set of lungs, Tim was on several medications and participated in pulmonary rehabilitation at Mayo to stay in shape. Because Tim's blood type is AB negative, finding a compatible donor was difficult.

"Organs are matched to your blood type, and only about 3% of the total population has AB blood," Dr. Wylam says. "That's why patients with this blood type tend to wait longer on the transplant list."

During the wait, Tim relied on his care team at Mayo. "Dr. Wylam is such a great guy. He's great at explaining things. He tells me what he's thinking. I trust him and know he has my best interest at heart," Tim says. "In 2016, I wanted to spend Thanksgiving on my farm with my family. But I was worried I might get the call that they'd found me a set of lungs. Dr. Wylam said he'd come and get me if the lungs came in."

Relishing life renewed

On Aug. 12, 2017, Tim got the call he'd been waiting for. And on his 59th birthday, Tim received a new set of lungs during his transplant, performed by Mayo surgeon Richard Daly, M.D.

"From the day I woke up from my surgery until now, I have not required any supplemental oxygen. My oxygen saturation is between 97% and 100%, and my lung capacity has increased from under 1 liter to 5 liters," Tim says. "My near-death situation has turned into a new life, and the most thoughtful and heroic gift from my donor made this possible."

"I am eternally grateful for this kind act and for the care I received at Mayo Clinic."

Tim Thomforde

In the two years since his transplant, Tim has done lots of traveling, and he's been able to enjoy getting back to the activities he loves.

"Just a few months after the transplant, I walked my dog to the peak of a 14,000-foot-tall mountain. I got to finally meet my 9-year-old grandson in California. I spent a week with my children and grandchildren at a lake cabin. That was the first time all my kids and grandkids were all together," Tim says. "Reading stories to my grandkids, making s'mores, and taking them fishing. That's how they're going to remember their grandpa — not the main who was hooked up to an oxygen tank all the time. I don't take any of this for granted."

"There's nothing like a lung transplant to rebirth an individual to full capacity. I enjoy being a lung transplant doctor because of that stark difference we can make in people's lives," Dr. Wylam says. "The transplant patient is completely liberated from their disease and able to have a normal life."

Tim calls every day a miracle. "There are no words to show my appreciation and the appreciation of my family for this generous, lifesaving gift from my donor," he says. "I am eternally grateful for this kind act and for the care I received at Mayo Clinic."

HELPFUL LINKS

• Learn more about COPD.
• Read about the Lung Transplant Program at Mayo Clinic.
• Visit the Mayo Clinic Transplant Center.
• Connect with others talking about transplants on Mayo Clinic Connect. 
• Explore Mayo Clinic.
• Request an appointment.

The post Sharing Mayo Clinic: A double lung transplant means a new chance at life appeared first on Mayo Clinic News Network.

Shortly before they said their "I dos," Jennifer Jones received a special necklace from her fiancé, Rob Ronnenberg. The necklace included three birthstones: his, hers and that of Lacey, a woman they had never met.

That might seem like a strange gift for a bride-to-be. But Lacey, an organ donor whose lungs made Jennifer's walk down the aisle possible, is as essential to Jennifer as the air she can now breathe. The necklace, Rob wrote to Jennifer in a note accompanying the gift, would serve as a beautiful reminder of their connection to each other, an acknowledgement that "Lacey will always be an important part of our lives and I will cherish every day and every breath we have together."

It was a heartfelt, tearful scene made for the movies. Or, for TV. Which is exactly where it played out on Feb. 26, in a ceremony that aired live on "My Great Big Live Wedding with David Tutera." The couple we introduced you to last year caught the attention of the reality show's producers when a video of Jennifer's first breath after her lung transplant went viral. "When they first contacted us, we thought it was a joke," Rob tells us.

Read the rest of the story.

________________________________________________

This story originally appeared on the In the Loop blog.

The post In the Loop: From a first breath viral video to a walk down the aisle on reality TV appeared first on Mayo Clinic News Network.

ROCHESTER, Minn. – Researchers at Mayo Clinic have identified a possible cause for a rare infection in heart and lung transplant recipients: the donor.

The way in which heart and lung transplant recipients acquired a specific species of bacteria, Mycoplasma hominis, had been previously undefined, and the bacterium was difficult to test. Originally, this bacterium was considered to reside exclusively in, and be a potential pathogen of, the area of the reproductive and urinary organs – the genitourinary tract.

“This finding could affect how we approach the evaluation of organ donors,” says Mark Wylam, M.D., who led the team of Mayo Clinic researchers on this study. “If potential transmission of these harmful bacteria can be identified and addressed, the recipient will face a decreased risk of infection and its serious complications. This study shows us that surveillance of both donor and recipient are important in recognizing M. hominis and the infection it can cause.”

Heart and lung transplant recipient infection caused by M. hominis may present with pleurisy (inflammation of membrane in chest cavity and lungs), surgical site infection and mediastinitis (inflammation of tissue in mid-chest). M. hominis resists most antibiotics, and the three antibiotic treatment recommendations for these infections are neither standard for post-transplant recipient care nor are they standard in therapy regimens for surgical site infections.

The study, published recently in EBioMedicine, investigates Mayo Clinic lung and heart-lung transplants between 1998 and July 2015. Seven previously unreported cases of transplant recipients with M. hominis infection were discovered. In each case, pre-transplant sputum cultures had tested negative for M. hominis. Also, a literature review since 1950 found 15 cases of M. hominis infection in lung, heart or heart-lung transplant recipients. The way the germ spread remained uncertain. Given its normal residence in the genitourinary tract, some speculated that infection arose from urinary catheter placement during the transplant surgery.

Mayo investigators noted two particular cases of M. hominis infection that each had received a single lung transplant from the same donor, and no other patients in the hospital were infected by M. hominis. The samples of the M. hominis taken from each infected individual were genetically indistinguishable, suggesting the infections had the same source. This finding, in addition to two other observations, supported the likelihood that M. hominis could be passed from transplant donor to recipient.

Common testing methods have proven insufficient in identifying the bacteria, but the use of polymerase chain reaction detection developed by Robin Patel, M.D., director of Mayo Clinic’s Infectious Diseases Research Laboratory and chair of the Division of Clinical Microbiology, offers a more time-sensitive and specific test for the bacteria. With this method, researchers zoom in on a certain portion of DNA and then create multiple copies to amplify the segment. Polymerase chain reaction detection reduces the time to detect M. hominis to a few hours, compared to the two to five days needed for a culture media test.

“The true rate of M. hominis infection may actually be higher than what we’ve seen reported,” says Dr. Wylam. “Better detection methods like PCR tests have given us more insight into how common this bacterium is in the airway, which is especially important in heart or lung transplant recipients. More research is needed to learn about these bacteria when it’s found far from its natural home in the genitourinary tract, and especially when it is transmitted to cardiothoracic transplant recipients.”

###

About Mayo Clinic
Mayo Clinic is a nonprofit organization committed to clinical practice, education and research, providing expert, whole-person care to everyone who needs healing. For more information, visit mayoclinic.org/about-mayo-clinic or newsnetwork.mayoclinic.org/.

MEDIA CONTACT
Kelly Reller, Mayo Clinic Public Affairs, 507-284-5005, newsbureau@mayo.edu

The post Researchers find link between donor, bacterial infection in heart, lung transplant recipients appeared first on Mayo Clinic News Network.

Here's the podcast: MayoClinicRadio 09-12-15 PODCAST

The post Nutrition Update/Improving Sexual Health/Mineral Oil Risks: Mayo Clinic Radio appeared first on Mayo Clinic News Network.

Myth or Matter-of-Fact: The MIND diet combines the best of two diets that help improve brain power.

Mayo Clinic Radio is available on iHeartRadio.

Click here to listen to the program at 9:05 a.m. CT Saturday, September 12, and follow #MayoClinicRadio.

To find and listen to archived shows, click here.

Mayo Clinic Radio is a weekly one-hour radio program highlighting health and medical information from Mayo Clinic.

The post Mayo Clinic Radio appeared first on Mayo Clinic News Network.

Myth or Matter-of-Fact: The MIND diet combines the best of two diets that help improve brain power.

Miss the show?  Here's the podcast: MayoClinicRadio 09-12-15 PODCAST

Follow #MayoClinicRadio and tweet your questions.

Mayo Clinic Radio is available on iHeartRadio.

Mayo Clinic Radio is a weekly one-hour radio program highlighting health and medical information from Mayo Clinic.

To find and listen to archived shows, click here.

The post Mayo Clinic Radio: Nutrition Update/Improving Sexual Health/Mineral Oil Risks appeared first on Mayo Clinic News Network.

Though it's been challenging at times, Nicole has never allowed her condition to stop her from living her life, and she dedicated herself to caring for others as a nurse at Mayo Clinic in Rochester. In late 2012, Nicole’s life was interrupted for six months while she waited for a double lung transplant. That transplant finally came in early May 2013, but getting there wasn't easy.

For starters, in a story in a local newspaper, one of Nicole's pulmonary physicians at Mayo Clinic, Mark Wylam, M.D., said that to simply stay on the transplant list, Nicole couldn't leave the hospital during her six-month wait for a transplant. Not even to simply have lunch or a cup of coffee with family or friends. "It takes a special person to get through all of that," Dr. Wylam told the newspaper. "She did remarkably well."

Nicole was hospitalized in November 2012, and to help pass all those months of waiting, she says she spent most of her days talking with visitors and watching recorded videotapes of her young son Aidan's football games. And since she couldn't work, Nicole would take regular "walking trips" to see her nursing colleagues in the Emergency Department at Mayo Clinic Hospital – Rochester, Saint Marys Campus. "I was the one in pajamas walking around," Nicole says with a smile.

During those trips to the Emergency Department, Nicole says her co-workers always spoke to her openly and honestly about what she should expect with her transplant. "They never talked down to me," she says. "They talked at my level."

Nicole says she appreciated the "extra steps" that Mayo Clinic, as a whole, took to care of her during her extended stay in the hospital. "The care that I received at Mayo was above and beyond anything I could ever have imagined," she says. "From the nurses in the ED, who I love like a second family, to the nurses who had me as a patient for almost seven months. The care they gave me not only saved my life, but also my spirit."

Today, Nicole is back to work as a member of the Emergency Room staff, a position she says brings her great joy each and every day. "I love to know that what I do matters," she says. "I help make a difference to someone who is hurt and needs help."

And she says she'll never forget who helped make it possible for her to continue doing her life's work. "I am forever thankful for my donor family," she says. "My health is doing well – no signs of rejection and my lung function has been stable. Life is perfect!"

For others who may be where Nicole was – lying in a hospital bed waiting for a chance at having their own transplant – she says the most important thing is to never give up hope. "Hope keeps you going," she says. "Have faith in yourself and your transplant team."

And when the day finally comes, Nicole says you can take great comfort in knowing that you'll receive the best possible treatment and care at Mayo Clinic. "My transplant team has been wonderful," she says. "Any questions that I have are answered right away, and the whole team is very knowledgeable and reassuring. You're not a number here, but a patient who's treated like family."

HELPFUL LINKS

• Learn more about cystic fibrosis.
• Learn about Mayo Clinic's transplant programs.
• Join the discussion in the Transplant group on Mayo Clinic Connect.
• Request an appointment at Mayo Clinic.

The post Nicole’s Journey From Nurse to Transplant Patient and Back appeared first on Mayo Clinic News Network.