New Diabetes Treatment? New Source Of Insulin-producing Cells Identified

ScienceDaily (Nov. 25, 2008) — Researchers at the Joslin Diabetes Center have shown that insulin-producing pancreatic beta cells can form after birth or after injury from progenitor cells within the pancreas that were not beta cells, a finding that contradicts a widely-cited earlier study that had concluded this is not possible.
The study, published online the week of November 24 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Early Edition, identifies the source... read more

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Scripps Research Team Defines New Painkilling Chemical Pathway - Discovery Could Lead To New Pain Treatments

Marijuana kills pain by activating a set of proteins known as cannabinoid receptors, which can also regulate appetite, inflammation, and memory. The body also has chemicals known as endocannabinoids that naturally activate these same receptors, namely N-arachidonoyl ethanolamine (AEA) and 2-arachidonoylglycerol (2-AG). These natural components of the cannabinoid system remain the focus of intense efforts to develop new treatments not only for chronic pain, but also for obesity, anxiety, and depression. However, until the new... read more

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Longevity Linked to Heart Disease Protection

Older adults whose parents lived 100 years or longer are healthier than others their age and have dramatically lower risks of heart attack, stroke, diabetes or dying from any other cause, researchers at the Boston University School of Medicine report in a new study.
Still, the healthy seniors appeared to be just as susceptible as their peers to other illnesses, including hypertension, heart arrhythmias, dementia, cancer, depression, bone fractures, glaucoma, macular degeneration, osteoporosis and... read more

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In India a New Garlic-based tablet to treat diabetes

The drug is based on vanadium and allaxin, a compound found in garlic. The study has been published in the new Royal Society of Chemistry journal Metallomics. When Hiromu Sakurai and colleagues from the Suzuka University of Medical Science, Japan, gave the drug orally to type I diabetic mice, they found it reduced blood glucose levels.

In previous work they had discovered the vanadium-allaxin compound treated both diabetes types when injected, but this new... read more

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Hypertension Triples Women's Diabetes Risk

Compared to women with optimal blood pressure, those with high blood pressure are up to three times more likely to develop type 2 diabetes, a U.S. study finds.

The link between high blood pressure and diabetes risk was independent of factors known to increase the odds of getting diabetes and cardiovascular disease, said the researchers from Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School and the Harvard School of Public Health.

Reporting in the Oct.... read more

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Dogs Could Be a Diabetic's Best Friend

Irish researchers hope to prove that a dog's keen sense of smell gives it the ability to watch over the blood sugar levels of diabetics.

Canines have already shown themselves capable of leading the blind, alerting the deaf, and helping the physically disabled with daily tasks.

But researchers at Queen's University in Belfast, Northern Ireland, are taking the "helpful companion" idea one step further by gathering scientific evidence that could verify dogs can reliably... read more

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Low-Carb Diets Better Than Low-Fat Diets at Preventing Diabetes

A diet low in carbohydrates but high in animal fat and protein doesn't seem to increase the risk of type 2 diabetes in women, a new study claims.

"One study is never enough to change a recommendation, but this study is interesting in that it shows that a low-fat diet is no better than a low-carbohydrate diet in preventing type 2 diabetes," said Thomas Halton, lead author of a study in the current issue of... read more

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'Diabulimia' Triples Risk of Death Among Women With Diabetes

Women with type 1 diabetes who take less insulin than they should to try to lose weight triple their risk of dying compared to women who do not skip insulin doses, a new study finds.

"This is a very important women's health issue in diabetes," said Ann E. Goebel-Fabbri, lead author of a study in the March issue of Diabetes Care. "It happens at shockingly high rates, and, if we can detect this problem... read more

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Lung Capacity Declines Faster With Diabetes

Diabetes, the leading cause of heart disease, stroke, blindness, kidney failure and non-traumatic amputations, can also cause the lungs to deteriorate quicker than they normally do with age, a new study shows.

Although everyone experiences a decline in lung function as they grow older, research published in the April issue of Diabetes Care concluded that the lungs of people with type 2 diabetes deteriorate more quickly than normal.

The Johns Hopkins team that conducted... read more

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Normal Weight Doesn't Always Equal Healthy Weight

Despite appearances to the contrary, more than half of normal-weight Americans have a high percentage of body fat. And, like their overweight contemporaries, this makes them susceptible to heart disease, diabetes and other metabolic disorders, a new study says.

Men whose body fat is greater than 20 percent and women whose body fat is greater than 30 percent are suffering from "normal weight obesity," the study authors said, even though their weight may be... read more

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