Endocrine Facts & Figures Debuts

Society Publishes Comprehensive Report on HORMONE HEALTH STATISTICS

The Society has published the first chapter of a new report compiling the latest peer-reviewed statistics on hormone health conditions into a single resource.

“Endocrine Facts and Figures” provides patients, physicians, researchers, journalists, policy makers, and consumers with a comprehensive source of epidemiological data and trends on a breadth of endocrine diseases and related conditions.

“The Endocrine Society has created a compendium of data for anyone seeking to better understand the impact of hormone health conditions,” says Society past-president Robert A. Vigersky, MD, who chaired the Endocrine Facts and Figures Advisory Panel. “Endocrine diseases like obesity and diabetes affect millions of people. This report combines the best peer-reviewed data on these conditions in a single location.”

The initial chapter focuses on obesity, a condition that affects 35.1% of adults and 16.9% of children in the U.S. The report discusses important research breakthroughs and treatment options for obesity. In addition, the chapter provides statistics on metabolic syndrome, a related condition that occurs when a person has a cluster of risk factors, including excess body fat, which increase the chances of developing heart disease, stroke, and diabetes.

Future chapters scheduled to be published later this year will examine thyroid conditions, bone and calcium diseases, cardiovascular and lipid disorders, hypothalamic-pituitary disorders, adrenal health, cancers and neoplasias, reproductive and development disorders, and diabetes. The chapters are scheduled to be published on a monthly basis throughout the remainder of the year.

The Endocrine Society’s world-renowned physician and scientific experts compiled the data from peer-reviewed publications. The 2015 edition will focus on data from the U.S. Future updates will incorporate additional data from other countries.

In addition to Vigersky, other members of the Endocrine Facts and Figures Advisory Panel are Ursula B. Kaiser, MD, of Brigham and Women’s Hospital, in Boston; Sherita H. Golden, MD, MHS, of Johns Hopkins University, in Baltimore, Md.; Joanna L. SpencerSegal, MD, PhD, of the University of Michigan, in Ann Arbor, Mich.; R. Michael Tuttle, MD, of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, in New York; and Endocrine Society past-president William F. Young, Jr., MD, MSc, of the Mayo Clinic, in Rochester, Minn. George A. Bray, MD, of Pennington Biomedical Research Center, in Baton Rouge, La., and Marc-Andre Cornier, MD, of the University of Colorado, in Denver, served as expert reviewers for the obesity chapter.

To sign up for updates and to access digital versions of the report and related resources, visit endocrinefacts.org.

BBC News Receives Society Award for Excellence in Science and Medical Journalism

A team of BBC News journalists received the Endocrine Society’s annual Award for Excellence in Science and Medical Journalism.

BBC News Online health editor James Gallagher, medical producer Rachael Buchanan, and the BBC Visual Journalism team were honored at the Society’s 97th Annual Meeting & Expo in San Diego for the winning package, “The Day of the Body Clock.” The package included television, radio, and online coverage from May 13, 2014.

The BBC News team leveraged the news organization’s 24-hour nature to explore the way hormones influence the body’s daily rhythms. The journalists created an interactive body clock website, which shared information about hormones at different times of day. The website provided customized information based on the viewer’s time zone.

In addition, BBC News developed stories for its television stations, radio stations, and websites that delved into hormonal fluctuations at different times of day.

Established in 2008, the award was created to recognize outstanding reporting that enhances the public understanding of health issues pertaining to the field of endocrinology. The Award for Excellence in Science and Medical Journalism consisted of a presentation at the Society’s awards banquet, as well as travel and accommodations to attend the Society’s Annual Meeting.

More information on the Endocrine Society Award for Excellence in Science and Medical Journalism is available at: https://www.endocrine.org/news-room/journalism-award

Society Champions EDC Research in Wall Street Journal Letter

The Endocrine Society defended the importance of researching bisphenol A (BPA) and other endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) in a letter to the editor published in the Wall Street Journal on February 18.

The Society took quick action to respond to the newspaper’s February 12 editorial, which argued BPA was a safe chemical and called for a halt to spending federal funds supporting research in this area. The newspaper printed a letter to the editor from Society member and Endocrinology editor-in-chief Andrea C. Gore, PhD, which described the preponderance of scientific evidence demonstrating that BPA has harmful health effects.

“Despite this, the Food and Drug Administration continues to judge BPA using standards that have little relevance to endocrine disruptors,” Gore wrote. “Unlike poisons, endocrine disruptors can have different — and often more insidious — effects at low levels of exposure.”

The Wall Street Journal has a circulation of more than 3.6 million.

Gore’s letter was the lone response to the BPA editorial published in the newspaper. The letter helps solidify the Society’s position as a key thought leader on the emerging issue of EDCs.

Society Honors 22 with 2015 HELMSLEY AWARDS

The Endocrine Society selected 22 winners of the Helmsley Charitable Trust Abstract Awards in Type 1 Diabetes, which recognize the outstanding work of trainees and early-career professionals in the diabetes field. The award honors researchers who are studying innovations in clinical care for people with type 1 diabetes as well as the underlying mechanisms and causes of the condition.

The award winners presented their work at ENDO 2015 last month in San Diego. As part of the award, all honorees received travel grants to attend the annual meeting.

The Endocrine Society’s 2015 Helmsley Charitable Trust Abstract Award winners are:

• Shivani Agarwal, University of Pennsylvania Health System, “A Multivariate Model of Demographic and Psychosocial Predictors of HbA1C in Adolescents with Type 1 Diabetes”
• Sophia Ali, MD, State University of New York at Buffalo, “Reversal of Effects of Liraglutide as Additional Treatment to Insulin in Patients with Type 1 Diabetes after Cessation of Therapy”
• Shipra Bansal, SUNY Downstate Medical Center, “Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practices of U.S. Residents Regarding Insulin Pump in Diabetics”
• Sena Cantas Orsdemir, MD, Baystate Medical Center, in Springfield, MA, “Are Families of Children with Type 1 DM Ready for Televisits?”
• Julia Cartaya, MD, Joslin Diabetes Center, in Boston, MA, “Predictors of Visits with a Registered Dietitian (RD) for Youth and Young Adults with Type 1 Diabetes (T1D)”
• Tamara Casteels, CeMM Research Center for Molecular Medicine of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, in Austria, “Epigenome-Wide Screen for Alpha to Beta Cell Transdifferentiation”
• E. Danielle Dean, PhD, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, “Hepatic-Derived Factor Stimulates Alpha Cell Proliferation”
• Aoife Egan, MB, BCh, BAO, National University of Ireland Galway, “A Regional Prepregnancy Care Program for Women with Pregestational Diabetes: Is It Worthwhile?”
• Mohamed Elsayed, Beckman Research Institute of City of Hope, in Duarte, CA, “MethylationSpecific PCR Assay for Detection of Beta Cell Death in Newly Onset Type 1 Diabetes” • Manivel Eswaran, MD, MS, University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston, TX, “Type 1 Diabetes and Bone Marrow Transplantation”
• Sana Hasan, DO, University of Nebraska Medical Center, “The Effect of All Trans Retinoic Acid on Insulitis and Beta Cell Apoptosis in NOD Mice”
• Mark Huising, PhD, University of California, Davis, “Urocortin3 Triggers Somatostatin-Mediated Negative Feedback to Control Insulin Secretion”
• Chad Hunter, PhD, University of Alabama at Birmingham, “Single-Stranded DNA Binding Protein 3 (SSBP3) Participates in Ldb1 and Islet-1 Mediated Transcriptional Complexes in Pancreatic Beta Cells”
• Philippe Klee, University Hospitals of Geneva, Switzerland, “Choline Protects Human and Murine Beta-Cells in Vitro Against Cytokines By Decreasing Mitochondrial Permeability Transition”
• Michelle Mangual, MD, San Juan City Hospital in Puerto Rico, “Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus Related to Acute Liver Failure: a Challenging Diagnosis”
• Sara McMillin, PhD, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, in Baltimore, MD, “Assessing the Relative Contributions of Three Transcriptional CoActivators to Hepatic Gluconeogenesis in Vivo”
• Geetha Mukerji, MD, MSc, Women’s College Hospital Institute for Health System Solutions and Virtual Care, in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, “Improving Transitions of Care in Young Adults with Type 1 Diabetes”
• Kadapalakere Reddy, MBBS, State University of New York at Buffalo, “Metastatic Germ Cell Testicular Tumor with High Testosterone Levels. Is That True?”
• Kanika Shanker, MD, Emory University, in Atlanta, Georgia, “Autoimmune Hypoglycemia in a Young Girl with Autoimmune Overlap Syndrome”
• David Weber, MD, MSCE, University of Rochester, in Rochester, NY, “Sex Differences in Bone Density and Body Composition in Children Newly Diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes”
• Feng Wu, MD, Center for Stem Cell Biology, Roger Williams Medical Center, Boston University School of Medicine, in Massachusetts, “Bone Marrow Stem Cells Support Human Islet Beta Cell Function in an Encapsulated Microenvironment”
• Mingfeng Zhang, PhD, Beckman Research Institute of City of Hope, in Duarte, CA, “Induction of Mixed Chimerism for Cure of Overt Type 1 Diabetes in NOD Mice, Using Clinically Available Reagents without Radiation”

The Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust aspires to improve lives by supporting exceptional nonprofits and other mission-aligned organizations in health, selected place-based initiatives, and education and human services. Since 2008, when the Trust began its active grantmaking, it has committed more than $1 billion. The Helmsley Type 1 Diabetes Program is the largest private foundation funder of T1D in the nation focused on understanding the disease, developing better treatments, and improving care and access. For more information, visit www.helmsleytrust.org.