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Mitochondrial dysfunction in β-cells can cause their immaturity and impaired insulin production, contributing to diabetes. Researchers identified a stress response triggered by damaged mitochondria that prevents these cells from functioning properly, but blocking the response with a drug restored their ability to control glucose in mice. Mitochondrial stress disrupts insulin production in diabetes, but reversing the damage may restore β-cell function. Mitochondria are essential for generating the energy that fuels cells and enables them to function. However, mitochondrial defects are linked to the development of diseases such as type 2 diabetes. Patients with this disorder either cannot produce enough insulin...

Patients improved their insulin responses after being taken off medications and adjusting lifestyle. Type 2 diabetes patients who went on a low-carbohydrate diet saw their insulin production double, potentially eliminating their need for medication, according to a new study published Tuesday in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism. Type 2 diabetes occurs when insulin-producing pancreatic beta cells become less effective. Insulin is needed to regulate blood sugar levels, and when there is not enough being produced, blood sugar levels rise, causing various diseases linked to Type 2 diabetes. No conventional drug for Type 2 diabetes has been shown to...

New research points to a novel way to prevent the death of insulin-producing beta cells A study led by researchers from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai has homed in on a newly discovered molecular mechanism that could prevent insulin resistance in type 2 diabetics. The research indicates disrupting the expression of a certain protein could protect beta cells and prevent patients from becoming insulin resistant. Type 2 diabetes can develop when insulin-producing beta cells in the pancreas become dysfunctional, often following long-term high blood glucose levels. Eventually, those crucial beta cells begin to die, with the body...

RALEIGH, N.C. - Researchers say they've found more evidence of a link between a rapid rise in obesity and a corn product used to sweeten soft drinks and food since the 1970s. The researchers examined consumption records from the U.S. Department of Agriculture for 1967-2000 and combined it with previous research and their own analyses. The data showed an increase in the use of high-fructose corn sweeteners in the late 1970s and 1980s "coincidental with the epidemic of obesity," said one of the researchers, Dr. George A. Bray, a longtime obesity scientist with Louisiana State University System's Pennington Biomedical Research...

AMID calls for a major initiative on obesity, research suggests that parents should seek an alternative to the quick-fix carbohydrate breakfast out of a box, writes Robert Matthews The experts warned that it would happen, and last week it did. The first cases of adult-type diabetes were found in teenage children, triggered by a condition now reaching worrying proportions in the UK: obesity. A year ago, medical researchers revealed that the prevalence of fat children has doubled since the mid-1980s, with more than one in 10 in this country now classed as overweight. The finding prompted dire warnings about the...