Diabetes Research

Insulin resistance, a condition in which insulin produced by the body becomes less effective in reducing blood glucose levels, appears to be associated with an increased risk of stroke in individuals without diabetes, according to a report in the October issue of Archives of Neurology, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

Simply taking more steps every day not only helps ward off obesity but also reduces the risk of diabetes, finds a study published on the British Medical Journal website. While several studies have shown that physical activity reduces body mass index and insulin resistance -- an early stage in the development of diabetes -- this is the first study to estimate the effects of long-term changes in daily step count on insulin sensitivity.

Why do heavy coffee drinkers have a lower risk of developing Type 2 diabetes, a disease on the increase around the world that can lead to serious health problems? Scientists are offering a new solution to that long-standing mystery in a report in ACS' Journal of Agricultural & Food Chemistry.

Bone cells known as osteoblasts were recently shown to have a role in controlling the biochemical reactions that generate energy via secretion of the molecule osteocalcin. A team of researchers, led by Stavroula Kousteni, at Columbia University, New York, has now determined that the protein FoxO1 regulates this function of osteoblasts in mice.

Obesity is the main culprit in the worldwide avalanche of Type 2 diabetes. But how excess weight drives insulin resistance, the condition that may lead to the disease, is only partly understood. Scientists at Joslin Diabetes Center now have uncovered a new way in which obesity wreaks its havoc, by altering the production of proteins that affect how other proteins are spliced together.

A group of scientists from across the world have come together in a just-published study that provides new insights into how fructose causes obesity and metabolic syndrome, more commonly known as diabetes. In this study which was performed in lab animals, researchers found that fructose can be metabolized by an enzyme that exists in two forms.

New findings out of Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center reveal that a common test may be useful in predicting early death in individuals with diabetes. The study appears in the May issue of Diabetes Care.

For the first time, researchers in Sweden have found out what effect multiple, rather than just single, foods with anti-inflammatory effects have on healthy individuals. The results of a diet study show that bad cholesterol was reduced by 33 per cent, blood lipids by 14 per cent, blood pressure by 8 per cent and a risk marker for blood clots by 26 per cent. A marker of inflammation in the body was also greatly reduced, while memory and cognitive function were improved.

A team of researchers, led by King's College London and the University of Oxford, have found that a gene linked to type 2 diabetes and cholesterol levels is in fact a 'master regulator' gene, which controls the behaviour of other genes found within fat in the body.

For better or worse, a popular class of anti-diabetic drugs does more than lower blood sugar. One known as rosiglitazone (trade name Avandia) has been in the spotlight for its possible link to increased cardiovascular events, but it also seems to come with unexplained vascular benefits and an unwelcome tendency for weight gain.