International Efforts To Develop Rice Varieties To Combat China’s Diabetes Epidemic

International efforts to develop rice varieties to combat China’s diabetes epidemic

THE number of diabetes patients is rising all across China and groups of scientists all over the world are working to develop new rice strains to prevent more people from succumbing to the disease.
China registered the highest number of cases in the world in 2016 – 109.6 million adults were recorded to suffer from diabetes, and by 2040, another 40 million could join their ranks. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 90 percent of that number comprises sufferers of type-2 diabetes, which is largely a result of lifestyle choices.
It’s a shocking number when you consider as many as half of China’s adult population is already pre-diabetic and are at high-risk of developing the preventable type-2 diabetes, as well as other cardiovascular diseases.
The landscape of diabetes innovation is changing and China is rising to the top of the leaderboard. More at https://t.co/zfvKO6mqtX pic.twitter.com/sdutLfqR4D
— Resolute Innovation (@team_resolute) May 2, 2017
Chinese companies have been at the forefront of a series of inventions aimed at helping patients with diabetes or those seeking to prevent the disease in the first place. Chinese companies have overtaken German ones for the first time as the leader of diabetes innovations sector.
A researcher from East China Normal University, HYe Haifeng , has produced a device that marries telecommunications technology with cell-based therapy and optogenetics. It can work through a smartphone to control engineered cells to produce insulin when needed.
But some scientists are taking a more preventive approach to help with Chi Continue reading

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Can You Reverse a Type-2 Diabetes Diagnosis? Isn't it controversial?

Reversing diabetes may not be entirely up to you, but actually doing it is entirely up to you (with support).
Our first post about the possibility of reversing diagnosis of type-2 diabetes generated some of the skepticism—in some cases blowback—we thought it might. Discussion is good.
We were careful in our word choice backing up our principal assertion, namely, that “There is hard evidence that type-2 diabetes does not have to be seen as an irreversible, necessarily progressive condition in everyone diagnosed with it.” We remain clear in our provisos:
It’s probably not possible for all people who have been correctly diagnosed with type-2 diabetes. Nothing is that simple.
The pancreases of people who have lived with type-2 diabetes for years, and who have treated it only with medication, are unlikely to get back to normal functioning.
Obesity, “tummy fat” in particular, poses a high risk for progression to type-2 diabetes. As everyone who has fought the fat knows, it’s one thing to get it off and another thing altogether to keep it off.
Physical inactivity aggravated by obesity heightens the problem.
A serious attempt to reverse type-2 diabetes entails working out a precise eating plan, in consultation with your doctor and, ideally, a professional dietician—and sticking to it.
It also entails, for all of those for whom this is in any way possible, a regimen of physical exercise, usually of an aerobic variety, amounting to a total of 150 to 175 minutes of exercise a week, with a maximum of two “days off.”
Perhaps most important, it is not, literally, a Continue reading

Sodium-Glucose Co-Transporter-2 Inhibitors: An Update on the Evidence for Treatment of Type 2 Diabetes

Introduction
Sodium-glucose co-transporter-2 (SGLT-2) inhibitors are a class of antihyperglycemic agents that can be used to improve glycemic control in the treatment of type 2 diabetes (T2D). SGLT-2 inhibitors block SGLT-2–mediated reabsorption of glucose into circulation. By this mechanism, plasma glucose levels are reduced and glucose is excreted in the urine. Not only do SGLT-2 inhibitors have glucose-lowering effects, but their efficacy in nonglycemic clinical parameters, such as lowering blood pressure and helping in weight loss, may be beneficial for patients with T2D.1
Within the family of sodium-dependent glucose transporters, sodium-glucose co-transporter-1 (SGLT-1) and SGLT-2 transporters are key regulators of glucose reabsorption filtered by the kidney, with expression on 2 regions of the renal proximal convoluted tubule. The majority of glucose reabsorption (90%) is attributed to SGLT-2 within the S1 segment, and the SGLT-1 receptor aids in glucose reabsorption downstream from SGLT-2 in the S3 segment.2 In patients with T2D, an increased filtered load of glucose increases its reabsorption through the SGLT-2 transporters of the kidney. Instead of excreting excess filtered glucose in urine, increased reabsorption causes elevated plasma glucose, thereby leading to the hyperglycemic state.
The American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists (AACE) and American College of Endocrinology (ACE) currently recommend that an SGLT-2 inhibitor may be used as first-line therapy in the management of T2D for patients with glycated hemoglobin (A1C) <7.5%, although stronger Continue reading

Why Is Meat a Risk Factor for Diabetes?

Bill, I think a lot of McDougall’s program as well. The thing I like about Barnard’s book is that he had recipes that featured low glycemic index plant foods that help to keep blood sugar under control while the diet helps your muscles do a little house cleaning and get the fat out. My understanding is only under high levels of circulating FFA do those fats get stash fat in the muscles, so given an opportunity the fat out of the muscles when the circulating levels of FFA drop. That means the effectiveness of the diet isn’t predicated on losing a bunch of weight, which is good since you say that you are already lean.
The trouble is that the source of the free fatty acids is mainly from saturated fat, the very type of fat that is highest in most low-carb diets. So instead of fixing the root cause of diabetes, a low-carb diet that is high in saturated fat may in fact *be* the root cause of diabetes. Thus the recommended diabetic diet might in fact be the cause for why once developed diabetes only progresses and never reverses or stays the same! It is like treating somebody for a toxic effects of a low level poison by putting them on a diet containing the poison.
Also non-estrified fatty acids (NEFA) that come from saturated fat also reduced insulin output from the pancreas.
So the same high saturated fat diet that is causing insulin resistance looks to be also reducing the body’s ability produce more insulin to compensate.
The good news is that without the suppressive effect of saturated fat, you body might be able to produce more insulin than you think it can. And eve Continue reading

Type 2 diabetes warning: Too much red meat and poultry can increase risk

Dinner time favourites such as beef and lamb are high in iron, a mineral associated with triggering the debilitating disease.
But even chicken thighs and drumsticks can be bad for you, say experts.
The darker the meat, the greater the risk, with scientists finding a direct link between consumption and Type 2 diabetes.
Almost 12 million Britons are thought to be at risk of developing the condition, which is linked to lifestyle factors such as poor diet.
Analysis of more than 60,000 people shows those eating the most red meat increase their risk by 23 per cent while for those who eat a lot of dark poultry meat the risk increases by 15 per cent.
Experts suggest cutting out dark meat and replacing it with chicken breast, fish, shellfish and vegetables.
Dietitian Pav Kalsi, clinical adviser to charity Diabetes UK, said: “We know eating more red and processed meats is associated with a higher risk of Type 2 diabetes.
“Simple changes to diet include eating less processed and red meat and instead getting protein from plant sources such as pulses, beans and lentils and from lean poultry and oily fish.
“Eating more fruit and vegetables and whole grains, as well as cutting down on the amount of sugar, salt and fat in your diet can help too.”
The new study, one of the biggest of its kind, looked at the diets of 63,257 people aged between 45 and 74 who took part in the Singapore Chinese Health Study between 1993 and 1998.
Scientists from Duke-NUS Medical School in Singapore then followed the group over the next 11 years, identifying 5,207 new cases of Type 2 diabetes.
They say t Continue reading