Diabetes

Scientists at the University of Virginia Health System have identified an enzyme believed to be an important instigator of the inner-body conflict that causes Type 1 diabetes. A chronic condition that affects nearly three million American children and adults, Type 1 diabetes is more severe than Type 2. Type 1 diabetes, also called autoimmune diabetes, arises when the body’s infection-fighting white blood cells start destroying the beta-cells that produce insulin in the pancreas……..

Insulin, it turns out, may be as important for the mind as it is for the body. Research in the last few years has raised the possibility that Alzheimers memory loss could be due to a novel third form of diabetes. Now researchers at Northwestern University have discovered why brain insulin signaling — crucial for memory formation — would stop working in Alzheimers disease. They have shown that a toxic protein found in the brains of individuals with Alzheimers removes insulin receptors from nerve cells, rendering those neurons insulin resistant. (The protein, known to attack memory-forming synapses, is called an ADDL for amyloid -derived diffusible ligand.)……..

Mayo Clinic scientists helped clarify a growing concern about the link between diabetes mellitus therapys and heart attack with the first large, population-based study showing that a group of common medications does not reduce diabetic patients heart attack survival rates. These results were presented today at the American Heart Associations Scientific Sessions 2007 in Orlando, Fla……..

Scientists at UT Southwestern Medical Center have observed that patients suffering from the metabolic syndrome – a cluster of conditions that increases the risk for heart disease, stroke and diabetes – also have a propensity to develop highly acidic urine, which increases the risk of developing kidney stones……..