Scientists at Monash University in Australia have developed a process for rapidly and efficiently separating blood plasma at the microscopic level without any moving parts, potentially allowing doctors to do blood tests without sending samples to a laboratory.
Last month, New York City outlawed the use of partially hydrogenated oils, known as trans fats, in restaurants, a ban now under consideration in other cities, including Boston and Chicago. But novel research conducted in Malaysia and at Brandeis University shows that a new method of modifying fat in commercial products to replace unhealthy trans fats raises blood glucose and depresses insulin in humans, common precursors to diabetes. Furthermore, like trans fat, it still adversely depressed the beneficial HDL-cholesterol.
The ability of Africans and Europeans to digest milk as adults is a textbook example of a trait arising independently in two populations in response to the same strong selective pressure. This ability — known as lactase persistence — is analyzed in the January issue of Nature Genetics.
In a community-based study led by Allen?nurse researchers explored the beneficial effects of soy. The array of results garnered from the multi-year study focused on cholesterol reduction, metabolic syndrome, and recruitment for clinical trials.
Nutrition 21, Inc., today announced the results of a recent placebo controlled, double-blind, randomized, single center study that demonstrated that Diachrome, a patented combination of chromium picolinate and biotin, safely improves blood glucose levels and cholesterol metabolism in people with type 2 diabetes.
Scientists have shown in the past that psychological stress is linked to weight gain and fat storage — especially added fat around the waistline, where it raises the risk of heart disease. Researchers at UCSF are set to explore whether a stress-reduction program could reverse that fat storage. They seek 50 “apple-shaped,” overweight women to help them find out.
A new study on risk factors of new-onset diabetes mellitus (NODM) following liver transplant found that a history of obesity, impaired fasting glucose and hepatitis C infection (HCV) paired with the use of a particular immunosuppressant are associated with an increased risk of NODM. Since all of these factors can be detected prior to undergoing a transplant, treatment should be tailored to the patient’s risk.
Most of us think of chromium as the shiny metal in the bumpers of cars. Chrome bumpers are long gone, but the metal plays a crucial role in human health, reports the January 2007 issue of Harvard Men?s Health Watch.
A University of Vermont study suggests that the astrocytic BK channel is an important participant in the cellular process responsible for signaling regional blood flow changes in the brain, providing a new key to understanding such disorders as stroke, migraine and Alzheimer’s disease.
A professor at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee has been helping the Department of Energy analyze the genome of a “paper-eating” bacterium that could have uses in producing ethanol, but also shed light on how “gliding” bacteria move. The two functions could be related.