Which works best in fighting the risk factors for diabetes ?exercise or diet? Exercise and diet work equally well in reducing the risk factors for diabetes, a new study finds.
Natural compounds derived from a sea anemone extract and a shrub plant have been found to block the autoimmune disease response in type-1 diabetes and rheumatoid arthritis, according to University of California, Irvine researchers.
Significant errors in insulin dose can result when blood glucose meters are miscoded according to new clinical study. When persons with diabetes use miscoded blood glucose meters to determine how much insulin to take, significant errors in insulin dose can result that may potentially lead to short- and long-term health complications, according to findings of a new study presented at the Sixth Annual Diabetes Technology Meeting in Atlanta, Georgia.
Scientists at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC have identified a protein that is critical to the development of inflammation during lung infection in patients with cystic fibrosis. The identification of this protein, called interleukin-23, is an important finding that gives researchers a specific target for developing new therapies.
Overweight aged male mice whose high calorie (fat) diet was supplemented by resveratrol, a natural compound found in common foods like grapes, wines and nuts, had better health and survival than aged overweight mice who did not receive it, according to a study published online in the Nov. 1 issue of Nature. The study was conducted and supported in part by the National Institute on Aging (NIA) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
Researchers have used a single compound to increase the lifespan of obese mice, and found that the drug reversed nearly all of the changes in gene expression patterns found in mice on high calorie diets–some of which are associated with diabetes, heart disease, and other significant diseases related to obesity. The research, led by investigators at Harvard Medical School and the National Institute on Aging, is the first time that the small molecule resveratrol has been shown to offer survival benefits in a mammal. The study is reported in the November 1 advanced online edition of Nature.
The approach, called calorie restriction, involves eating about 30 percent fewer calories than normal while still getting adequate amounts of vitamins, minerals and other nutrients. Aside from direct genetic manipulation, calorie restriction is the only strategy known to extend life consistently in a variety of animal species, a report of study in a laboratory at the Wisconsin National Primate Research Center, highlighted by Michael Mason in the New York Times.
Diabetes is a growing health problem. Giving antioxidants is recognised as one way of helping people with diabetes to control their blood sugar levels. The herbal medicine extracted from seeds of the Milk Thistle, Silybum marianum (silymarin) is known to have antioxidant properties and research published this week in Phytotherapy Research shows that this extract can help people significantly lower the amount of sugar bound to haemoglobin in blood, as well as reducing fasting blood sugar levels.
There is new hope of succour for women suffering from pregnancy diabetes with the European Commission (EC) approving the use of insulin drug ”NovolRapid,” as the first modern insulin that has a label stating can be used in pregnancy.
A new obesity pill that helps to control blood sugar levels could treat patients with type 2 diabetes, researchers say. They found that the Sanofi-Aventis drug Acomplia, which is also known as rimonabant, also reduced risk factors for heart disease in patients with type 2 diabetes who had not responded to standard treatments.