The drug metformin is among the most widely prescribed drugs for the treatment of type 2 diabetes and results in an array of therapeutic benefits. Although it has been used for over 30 years, only recently have studies begun to reveal the molecular events responsible for its therapeutic effects.
Although the American Society for Nutrition?s popular ?controversy session? at Experimental Biology 2007 focuses on the health effects of coffee drinking, panel chair Dr. James Coughlin, a toxicology/safety consultant at Coughlin & Associates, says that recent advances in epidemiologic and experimental knowledge have transformed many of the negative health myths about coffee drinking into validated health benefits.
A new study examining the overall and gender-related effects of laparoscopic gastric banding surgery (LGBS) on insulin resistance, body composition, and metabolic risk markers six months after surgery has found significant improvements in insulin resistance. The improvements occurred despite continuing obesity.
Increasing intake of antioxidant-rich cherries may help lower the risk of metabolic syndrome and cardiovascular disease, suggests a new study presented today at the Experimental Biology annual meeting.
By giving ordinary adult mice a drug – a synthetic designed to mimic fat – Salk Institute scientist Dr. Ronald M. Evans is now able to chemically switch on PPAR-d, the master regulator that controls the ability of cells to burn fat.
A UK collaboration of scientists has identified three new genes that predispose individuals to develop type 2 diabetes 1, bringing scientists a step closer towards understanding what causes this complex disease.
Vitamin C is possibly the most important small molecule whose biosynthetic pathway remained a mystery. That is until now. A group of Dartmouth and UCLA researchers, who normally work on genes involved in aging and cancer in animals, discovered the last piece of the puzzle, they report in a study published online April 26 in the Journal of Biological Chemistry.
Scientists from the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT, Lund University and Novartis today announced the discovery of three unsuspected regions of human DNA that contain clear genetic risk factors for type 2 diabetes, and another that is associated with elevated blood triglycerides.
Ten genetic variants associated with type 2 diabetes, a disease which impacts more than 170 million people worldwide, have been identified or confirmed by a US-Finnish team led by scientists at the University of Michigan School of Public Health.
Research increasingly shows promise to both slow and relieve the effects diabetic retinopathy, the most common complication of diabetes.