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Question marks have been raised over whether the levels of bisphenol A (BPA) that people are routinely exposed to are high enough to cause the diseases that have been linked to the controversial chemical. An analysis by Justin Teeguarden, a systems toxicologist at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, US, makes the bold claim that many of the animal tests that demonstrate that BPA may be a contributory factor in diseases like type 2 diabetes, obesity and heart disease have been elucidated using concentrations much greater than those ever found in humans.‘The old saw that correlation is not causation may hold...

Like the sun, insulin levels rise and fall in a daily rhythm. Disrupting that cycle may contribute to obesity and diabetes, a new study suggests. Many body systems follow a daily clock known as a circadian rhythm. Body temperature, blood pressure and the release of many hormones are on circadian timers. But until now, no one had shown that insulin — a hormone that helps control how the body uses sugars for energy — also has a daily cycle. Working with mice, researchers at Vanderbilt University in Nashville have found that rodents are more sensitive to insulin’s effects at certain...

Diets lean on meat and rich in healthy fats like olive oil were most effective at promoting weight loss and lowering blood sugar among people with diabetes in a review of evidence from the last 10 years. Benefits were also seen with diets low in carbohydrates, high in protein or low in simple sugars. "If you look at different types of diets, these four can improve various aspects of diabetes control," lead author Dr. Olubukola Ajala, a diabetes specialist at Western Sussex Hospitals in the UK, told Reuters Health. More than 24 million Americans have type 2 diabetes. People with...

The American Academy of Pediatrics has issued the first-ever guidelines for the management of type 2 diabetes in children and teens. Type 2 diabetes is rising rapidly among children and teens because of soaring obesity rates. It now accounts for up to 1 in 3 new cases of diabetes in those younger than 18. These guidelines are for children between the ages of 10 and 18. "Few providers have been trained in managing type 2 diabetes in children and, to date, few medications have been evaluated for safety and [effectiveness] in children," says co-author Janet Silverstein, MD, professor of pediatrics...

The energy in–energy out hypothesis is not set in stone, argues Gary Taubes. It is time to test hormonal theories about why we get fat. “It is better to know nothing,” wrote French physiologist Claude Bernard in An Introduction to the Study of Experimental Medicine (1865), “than to keep in mind fixed ideas based on theories whose confirmation we constantly seek.” Embracing a fixed idea is one of the main dangers in the evolution of any scientific discipline. Ideally, errors will be uncovered in the trial-by-fire of rigorous testing and the science will right itself. In rare cases, however, an...

Thousand of epigenetic switches in the liver control whether genes turn on or off in response to circadian cycles. The figure illustrates daily changes, every six hours, in five different...When it's dark, and we start to fall asleep, most of us think we're tired because our bodies need rest. Yet circadian rhythms affect our bodies not just on a global scale, but at the level of individual organs, and even genes. Now, scientists at the Salk Institute have determined the specific genetic switches that sync liver activity to the circadian cycle. Their finding gives further insight into the mechanisms behind...

Weight loss surgery, which in recent years has been seen as an increasingly attractive option for treating Type 2 diabetes, may not be as effective against the disease as it was initially thought to be, according to a new report. The study found that many obese Type 2 diabetics who undergo gastric bypass surgery do not experience a remission of their disease, and of those that do, about a third redevelop diabetes within five years of their operation. The findings contrast with the growing perception that surgery is essentially a cure for Type II diabetes. Earlier this year, two widely...

Countries using high-fructose corn syrup have diabetes rates 20 percent higher than countries that do not, a new international analysis finds. High-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) in national food supplies around the world might help explain the rising rates of type 2 diabetes around the world, researchers at the University of Southern California and the University of Oxford report in the journal Global Public Health. After studying 42 countries, researchers found that those that use HFCS in their food supply had a 20 percent higher prevalence of diabetes than those that did not use HFCS, suggesting an association with diabetes independent...

Scientists at Indiana University and international collaborators have found a way to link two hormones into a single molecule, producing a more effective therapy with fewer side effects for potential use as treatment for obesity and related medical conditions. The studies were carried out in the laboratories of Richard DiMarchi, the Standiford H. Cox Distinguished Professor of Chemistry and the Linda & Jack Gill Chair in Biomolecular Sciences in the IU Bloomington College of Arts and Sciences, and of Matthias Tschöp, professor of medicine and director of the Institute of Diabetes and Obesity, Helmholtz Center Munich, Germany. Results were published...

THE HYPOTHESIS In Type 2 diabetes, insulin-producing cells revert to an earlier developmental state. THE INVESTIGATORS Chutima Talchai and Dr. Domenico Accili, Columbia University... The hormone insulin helps shuttle glucose, or blood sugar, from the bloodstream into individual cells to be used as energy. But the body can become resistant to insulin, and the beta cells of the pancreas, which produce the hormone, must work harder to compensate. Eventually, the thinking goes, they lose the ability to keep up. “We used to say that the beta cells poop out,” said Alan Saltiel, director of the Life Sciences Institute at the...

Shedding pounds may be a better way to promote cardiovascular health than avoiding the saltshakerThe latest news reports about salt are enough to make a parent ponder a household ban on pizza and cold cuts. A study published last week in Pediatrics found that children eat, on average, 3.4 grams of sodium daily—more than twice the amount recommended for adults by the Institute of Medicine (IOM). News outlets, including the Associated Press and USA Today, explained that, according to the study, the quarter of American kids who eat the most sodium are twice to three times as likely to develop...

Columbia University Medical Center (CUMC) researchers have identified a mechanism that can give energy-storing white fat some of the beneficial characteristics of energy-burning brown fat. The findings, based on studies of mice and of human fat tissue, could lead to new strategies for treating obesity and type 2 diabetes. The study was published August 2 in the online edition of the journal Cell. Humans have two types of fat tissue: white fat, which stores excess energy in the form of triglycerides, and brown fat, which is highly efficient at dissipating stored energy as heat. Newborns have a relative abundance of...

Finding raises hopes for new anti-obesity medications New York, NY (June 7, 2012) — Researchers at Columbia University Medical Center (CUMC) have identified a brain receptor that appears to play a central role in regulating appetite. The findings, published today in the online edition of Cell, could lead to new drugs for preventing or treating obesity. “We’ve identified a receptor that is intimately involved in regulating food intake,” said study leader Domenico Accili, MD, professor of Medicine at CUMC. “What is especially encouraging is that this receptor belongs to a class of receptors that turn out to be good targets...

CAPE GIRARDEAU, MO (KFVS) - Recent data shows a shocking jump in youth diabetes. A new study in the Journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics said 1 out of 4 youth in the U.S. is diabetic or pre-diabetic. The study looked at kids under 20 years old. It showed between 2000 and 2008, the percentage of teens with pre-diabetes and diabetes jumped from nine to 23 percent. Local Diabetes Educator Janet Stewart at Southeast Health said in the past decade she's seen the number of kids with Type 1 or Type 2 diabetes jump almost 30 percent. She said...

Obesity and the form of diabetes linked to it are taking an even worse toll on America’s youths than medical experts had realized. As obesity rates in children have climbed, so has the incidence of Type 2 diabetes, and a new study adds another worry: the disease progresses more rapidly in children than in adults and is harder to treat. “It’s frightening how severe this metabolic disease is in children,” said Dr. David M. Nathan, an author of the study and director of the diabetes center at Massachusetts General Hospital. “It’s really got a hold on them, and it’s hard...

Shift workers getting too little sleep at the wrong time of day may be increasing their risk of diabetes and obesity, according to researchers.The team is calling for more measures to reduce the impact of shift working following the results of its study.Researchers controlled the lives of 21 people, including meal and bedtimes.The results, published in Science Translational Medicine, showed changes to normal sleep meant the body struggled to control sugar levels.Some participants even developed early symptoms of diabetes within weeks.Shift work has been associated with a host of health problems. Doctors at Brigham and Women's Hospital, in the US,...

Poor diet, a lack of exercise, excess weight and genetics are the usual risk factors for Type 2 diabetes. But a new line of research suggests that in some cases, there may be a surprising contributor: the stomach bacterium known as Helicobacter pylori.People who acquire H. pylori — typically in childhood — are at a greater risk of ulcers and gastric cancer. But H. pylori also is thought to affect two digestive hormones involved in hunger and satiety.The belief is that the bacterium increases levels of ghrelin, the "hunger hormone," which is known to promote weight gain. At the same...

Fat people have less than thin people. Older people have less than younger people. Men have less than younger women. It is brown fat, actually brown in color, and its great appeal is that it burns calories like a furnace... --snip-- The brown fat also kept its subjects warm. The more brown fat a man had, the colder he could get before he started to shiver. Brown fat, Dr. Carpentier and Jan Nedergaard, Dr. Cannon’s husband, wrote in an accompanying editorial, “is on fire.” On average, Dr. Carpentier said, the brown fat burned about 250 calories over three hours. But...

Arsenic has long been recognized as a poison and a contaminant in drinking water, but now concerns are growing about arsenic in foods, especially in fruit juices that are a mainstay for children. Controversy over arsenic in apple juice made headlines as the school year began when Mehmet Oz, M.D., host of “The Dr. Oz Show,” told viewers that tests he’d commissioned found 10 of three dozen apple-juice samples with total arsenic levels exceeding 10 parts per billion (ppb). There’s no federal arsenic threshold for juice or most foods, though the limit for bottled and public water is 10 ppb....

Bethesda, Md. (Dec. 12, 2011)—Regular exercise has proven benefits in preventing and treating type 2 diabetes, but many patients find it tough to meet the American Diabetes Association guidelines of 150 minutes of moderate to vigorous exercise a week. A new study, conducted by researchers at McMaster University, suggests that there could be a better way. In a small proof-of-principle study in eight type 2 diabetes patients, the researchers found that exercising at a very high intensity, but for a mere 30 minutes a week within a 75 minute total time commitment, lowered overall blood sugar concentrations, reduced post-meal blood...