A significant number of people from ethnic minority backgrounds can be persuaded to take part in research studies, according to a report published in the online open access journal, BMC Public Health. This contradicts previous research that suggests that ethnic minorities are less likely to volunteer for clinical research, possibly due to famous breaches of medical ethics, such as the Tuskegee Syphilis Study.
How environmental stress contributes to cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes is under study at the Medical College of Georgia. The study, which follows 523 pairs of twins, is funded by a $1.7 million continuation grant from the National Institutes of Health.
An observational study of a large United Kingdom primary care database showed that switching patients from Pfizer?s Lipitor? (atorvastatin calcium) Tablets to simvastatin was associated with a 30 percent increase in the relative risk of major cardiovascular events, including heart attacks, strokes and certain types of heart surgeries, or death compared to patients who remained on Lipitor therapy.
Steady increases in consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages over the last several decades, as well as rates of Type 2 diabetes mellitus, led nutritional epidemiologists at the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging (USDA HNRCA) at Tufts University and colleagues to explore the relationship between sugar-sweetened beverage consumption and insulin resistance, a precursor to Type 2 diabetes.
With the help of genetically engineered mice whose livers turned into glowing light bulbs, researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies have illuminated the underpinnings of an insidious and growing health concern — type 2 diabetes.
In a study published in the September 6, 2007, issue of the journal Nature, researchers showed that two key proteins join together at the precise location where energy of motion is turned into electrical impulses. These proteins, cadherin 23 and protocadherin 15, are part of a complex of proteins called ?tip links? that are on hair cells in the inner ear. The tip link is believed to have a central function in the conversion of physical cues into electrochemical signals.
If you eat the right grains for breakfast, such as whole-grain barley or rye, the regulation of your blood sugar is facilitated after breakfast, lunch, and dinner. It was previously not known that certain whole-grain products have this effect all day. This is due to a combination of low GI (glycemic index) and certain type of indigestible carbohydrates that occur in certain grain products.
A Cardiff University study has found that removing indoor mould improves the symptoms of people with asthma. Asthma UK figures show the prevalence of asthma in Wales is among the highest in the world, with 260,000 people receiving treatment for their asthma with the rate of hospital admissions for adults 12 per cent more than anywhere else in the UK.
Scientists at the leading Swedish medical university Karolinska Institutet have now disclosed the mystery how the insulin-secreting cells maintain an appropriate number of ATP sensing ion channel proteins on their surface. This mechanism, which is described in the latest issue of Cell Metabolism, explains how the human body can keep the blood glucose concentration within the normal range and thereby avoid the development of diabetes.
Non-Caucasian patients seeking medical care for primary biliary cirrhosis have more severe liver disease compared to Caucasian patients, a new study has found. The reasons for this disparity are not clear, say the authors.