Just two weeks without much activity can have a dramatic impact on health from which it is difficult to recover, according to researchers who studied overweight older adults at risk of developing Type 2 diabetes. Not only did an abrupt, brief period of inactivity hasten the onset of the disease and elevate blood sugar levels […]
Effective therapeutics to counteract the formation of amyloid plaques in Alzheimer’s disease and type 2 diabetes are not yet available. Scientists at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) have now come a little bit closer to a solution: They have described a new class of designed macrocyclic peptides that are highly potent inhibitors of amyloid […]
Drinking excessive amounts of fluids can be a medically unremarkable habit, but it could also signify a rare hormone disorder. A new procedure now enables a fast and reliable diagnosis. Researchers from the University of Basel and University Hospital Basel reported these findings in the New England Journal of Medicine. Drinking more than three liters per […]
Some people respond well to both aerobic exercise and strength training, while others don’t. And some of us respond well to only one of those things, but not both. Scientists at Joslin Diabetes Center now have uncovered a surprising molecular “switch” that may help to explain why this happens. “We’ve identified an exercise-activated biological pathway […]
Almost two-thirds of non-diabetic patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD) may be insulin resistant, despite having normal blood sugar, report scientists in the Journal of Parkinson’s Disease. Their findings suggest that insulin resistance in PD is a common and largely undetected problem, especially in patients who are overweight. Reduced glucose tolerance has long been recognized as a […]
Of the more than 24 million people in the U.S. who have asthma, 10 percent have severe asthma — a form of the disease that does not respond to treatment. The immunological mechanisms underlying severe asthma and asthmatic lung inflammation are not well understood. A new study by investigators from Brigham and Women’s Hospital published […]
FOXP2, a gene implicated in affecting speech and language, is held up as a textbook example of positive selection on a human-specific trait. But in a paper published August 2 in the journal Cell, researchers challenge this finding. Their analysis of genetic data from a diverse sample of modern people and Neanderthals saw no evidence for […]
A clinical trial recently showed that nearly half of individuals with type 2 diabetes achieved remission to a non-diabetic state after a weight-loss intervention delivered within 6 years of diagnosis. Now a study published August 2nd in the journal Cell Metabolism reveals that this successful response to weight loss is associated with the early and sustained improvement […]
More than 60 years after the drug thalidomide caused birth defects in thousands of children whose mothers took the drug while pregnant, scientists at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute have solved a mystery that has lingered ever since the dangers of the drug first became apparent: how did the drug produce such severe fetal harm? The answer, […]
A preliminary study published in the August issue of Mayo Clinic Proceedings suggests that, for some people, specific activities of gut bacteria may be responsible for their inability to lose weight, despite adherence to strict diet and exercise regimens. “We know that some people don’t lose weight as effectively as others, despite reducing caloric consumption and increasing […]