Blueberries, Not Fruit Juice, Cut Type-2 Diabetes Risk

Blueberries, not fruit juice, cut type-2 diabetes risk

Eating more fruit, particularly blueberries, apples and grapes, is linked to a reduced risk of developing type-2 diabetes, suggests a study in the British Medical Journal.
Blueberries cut the risk by 26% compared with 2% for three servings of any whole fruit - but fruit juice did not appear to have the same effect.
The research looked at the diets of more than 187,000 people in the US.
But Diabetes UK said the results of the study should be treated with caution.
Researchers from the UK, US and Singapore used data from three large studies of nurses and health professionals in the US to examine the link between fruit consumption and the risk of contracting type-2 diabetes.
In these studies, 6.5% of participants (12,198 out of 187,382) developed type-2 diabetes.
The studies used food frequency questionnaires to follow up the participants every four years, asking how often, on average, they ate a standard portion of each fruit.
The fruits used in the study were grapes or raisins, peaches, plums or apricots, prunes, bananas, cantaloupe, apples or pears, oranges, grapefruit, strawberries and blueberries.
The researchers' analysis of the data showed that three servings per week of blueberries, grapes and raisins, and apples and pears significantly reduced the risk of type-2 diabetes.
While all fruit was shown to reduce the risk, these fruits appeared to be particularly effective.
The researchers said this could be due to the fact these fruits contain high levels of anthocyanins, which have been shown to enhance glucose uptake in mice. The same fruits contain naturally-occurring po Continue reading

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Type 1 diabetes vaccine hailed as 'significant step'

It may be possible to reverse type 1 diabetes by training a patient's own immune system to stop attacking their body, an early trial suggests.
Their immune system destroys the cells that make insulin, the hormone needed to control blood sugar levels.
A study in 80 patients, published in the journal Science Translational Medicine, showed a vaccine could retrain their immune system.
Experts described the results as a "significant step".
Normally a vaccine teaches the immune system to attack bacteria or viruses that cause disease, such as the polio virus.
We're very excited by these results, which suggest that the immunologist's dream of shutting down just a single subset of dysfunctional immune cells without wrecking the whole immune system may be attainableProf Lawrence Steinman, Stanford University Medical Centre
Researchers at the Stanford University Medical Centre used a vaccine with the opposite effect - to make the immune system cease its assault.
In patients with type 1 diabetes, the immune system destroys beta cells in the pancreas. This means the body is unable to produce enough insulin and regular injections of the hormone are needed throughout life.
It is a different disease to type 2 diabetes, which can be caused by an unhealthy diet.
The vaccine was targeted to the specific white blood cells which attack beta cells. After patients were given weekly injections for three months, the levels of those white blood cells fell.
'New concept'
Blood tests also suggested that beta cell function was better in patients given the vaccine than in those treated only with insulin Continue reading

More weight loss operations for diabetes

An expansion of weight loss surgery in England is being proposed to tackle an epidemic of type 2 diabetes.
New draft guidelines from the National Institute of Health and Care Excellence (NICE) aim to reduce debilitating complications.
Diabetes UK estimates 850,000 people could be eligible for surgery, but NICE expects it to be tens of thousands.
Type 2 diabetes is closely linked to lifestyle and obesity.
Wales and Northern Ireland are not bound by the guidance, but do tend to follow them closely.
The inability to control blood sugar levels can result in blindness, amputations and nerve damage.
A mounting body of evidence suggests a gastric bypass improves symptoms in around 60% of patients.
Around a tenth of NHS budgets is spent on diabetes.
The surgery can cost between £3,000 and £15,000 and the move by NICE has raised concerns that the NHS will not be able to afford the treatment, even if there are savings in the longer term.
Current guidance says surgery is an option for people with a BMI above 35 who have other health conditions.
What is bariatric surgery?
Bariatric surgery, also known as weight loss surgery, is used as a last resort to treat people who are dangerously obese and carrying an excessive amount of body fat.
This type of surgery is only available on the NHS to treat people with potentially life-threatening obesity when other treatments have not worked.
Around 8,000 people a year are currently receiving the treatment.
The two most common types of weight loss surgery are:
Gastric band, where a band is used to reduce the size of the stomach so a smaller amoun Continue reading

Statin scam exposed: Cholesterol drugs cause rapid aging, brain damage and diabetes

(NaturalNews) Statins, the widely prescribed class of drugs said to lower "bad" cholesterol and reduce the risk of heart problems, has recently come under fire after a study revealed that they destroy human health more than they work to improve it.
Sadly, many people take statin drugs, which are commonly known by brand names including Lipitor, Crestor and Zocor. Prescription drug spending in the U.S. shot up to about $374 billion in 2014, representing the highest level of spending since 2001. Statins undoubtedly made up a significant portion of this spending, and now consumers who take such drugs have much more to worry about than the dent it's making in their wallets.
The study, which was published in the American Journal of Physiology, states that statins' "...impact on other biologic properties of stem cells provides a novel explanation for their adverse clinical effects." Specifically, the study states that such adverse effects include advancing the "process of aging" and also notes that "...long-term use of statins has been associated with adverse effects including myopathy, neurological side effects and an increased risk of diabetes." Myopathy refers to skeletal muscle weakness.
Statins make cells unable to repair properly, create nerve problems and destroy memory
Experts involved in the study suggest that the health problems associated with statins have likely been downplayed through the years. In reality, those taking such cholesterol-lowering drugs have been experiencing cataracts, fatigue, liver problems, muscle pain and memory loss. Simply put, the drugs have bee Continue reading

Scientists Have Created a Painless Patch That Can Control Diabetes Without Injections

Scientists have been struggling for decades to free diabetics from regular insulin injections. One of the main goals has been to figure out how to transplant healthy beta cells - the insulin-producing cells that fail as a result of diabetes - into patients, but this is an invasive procedure in itself that comes with the risk of rejection.
Now researchers have come up with a simpler option - they've created a synthetic patch that's covered in natural beta cells, which can be stuck painlessly to a patient's skin to secrete insulin when it's required and safely control blood sugar levels, no injection or monitoring required.
The patch hasn't been tested on humans as yet, but it's already been shown to safely control the blood sugar levels of mice for at least 10 hours at a time, and the concept is an upgrade of the 'smart insulin patch' that was reported last year by the same team.
The main difference is while the previous patch contained synthetic insulin, the new patch contains real, live beta cells, which means it's able to more safely manage a patient's blood sugar levels for longer, without the risk of over- or under-doing it.
And because the beta cells are kept on a patch safely outside of the patient's body, there's no chance of them being rejected by the immune system.
"This study provides a potential solution for the tough problem of rejection, which has long plagued studies on pancreatic cell transplants for diabetes," said lead researcher Zhen Gu from the University of North Carolina. "Plus it demonstrates that we can build a bridge between the physiological signals Continue reading