Diabetes its tyes and treatment

Diabetes is a disorder of metabolism—the way our bodies use digested food for growth and energy. Most of the food we eat is broken down into glucose, the form of sugar in the blood. Glucose is the main source of fuel for the body.
After digestion, glucose passes into the bloodstream, where it is used by cells for growth and energy. For glucose to get into cells, insulin must be present. Insulin is a hormone produced by the pancreas, a large gland behind the stomach.
When we eat, the pancreas automatically produces the right amount of insulin to move glucose from blood into our cells. In people with diabetes, however, the pancreas either produces little or no insulin, or the cells do not respond appropriately to the insulin that is produced. Glucose builds up in the blood, overflows into the urine, and passes out of the body in the urine. Thus, the body loses its main source of fuel even though the blood contains large amounts of glucose.

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Circadian rhythm sleep disorder And Treatment

Circadian rhythm sleep disorders are a family of sleep disorders affecting the timing of sleep.


People with circadian rhythm sleep disorders are unable to sleep and wake at the times required for normal work, school, and social needs.

They are generally able to get enough sleep if allowed to sleep and wake at the times dictated by their body clocks.

Unless they have another sleep disorder, their sleep is of normal quality.

Humans have biological rhythms, known as circadian rhythms, which are controlled by a biological clock and work on a daily time scale.

Due to the circadian clock, sleepiness does not continuously increase as time passes.

Instead, the drive for sleep follows a cycle, and the body is ready for sleep and for wakefulness at different times of the day.


Types of circadian rhythm sleep disorders


Two of these disorders are extrinsic (from Latin extrinsecus, from without, on the outside) or circumstantial:
Jet lag, which affects people who travel across several time zones.
Shift work sleep disorder, which affects people who work nights or rotating shifts.

Intrinsic type

Four of them are intrinsic (from Latin intrinsecus, on the inside, inwardly), "built-in":
Delayed sleep phase disorder (DSPD), aka delayed sleep phase syndrome (DSPS), characterized by a much later than normal timing of sleep onset and offset and a period of peak alertness in the middle of the night.
Advanced sleep phase syndrome (ASPS), characterized by difficulty staying awake in the evening and difficulty staying asleep in the morning.
Non-24-hour sleep-wake syndrome (Non-24), in which the affected individual's sleep occurs later and later each day, with the period of peak alertness also continuously moving around the clock from day to day.
Irregular sleep-wake rhythm, which presents as sleeping at very irregular times, and usually more than twice per day (waking frequently during the night and taking naps during the day) but with total time asleep typical for the person's age.

Treatment for circadian rhythm sleep disorders

Possible treatments for circadian rhythm sleep disorders include:
Behavior therapy or advice about sleep hygiene where the patient is told to avoid naps, caffeine, and other stimulants. They are also told to not be in bed for anything besides sleep and sex
Bright light therapy is used to advance or delay sleep, depending on how the circadian rhythm is shifted. Patients are exposed to high-intensity light (up to 10,000 lux) for a duration of 30–60 minutes at a time, the time of day depending on whether an advance or a delay is required.
Blue blocking glasses therapy is used to block blue wavelength light from reaching the eye during evening hours so that melatonin production is increased.
Medications such as melatonin and modafinil (Provigil), or other short term sleep aids or wake-promoting agents can be beneficial; the former is a natural neurohormone responsible partly and in tiny amounts for the human body clock. Tasimelteon has been proven effective in Phase III trials.
Sleep phase chronotherapy progressively advances or delays the sleep time by 1–2 hours per day

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Discovery Points to New Approach to Fight Dengue Virus

Researchers have discovered that rising temperature induces key changes in the dengue virus when it enters its human host, and the findings represent a new approach for designing vaccines against the aggressive mosquito-borne pathogen.

The researchers found that the dengue virus particles swell slightly and take on a bumpy appearance when heated to human body temperature, exposing "epitopes," or regions where antibodies could attach to neutralize the virus.

The discovery is significant because it could help to explain why vaccines against dengue have been ineffective, said Michael G. Rossmann, Hanley Distinguished Professor of Biological Sciences at Purdue University.

Scientists have been designing vaccines targeting the virus's smooth appearance found at the cooler temperatures of mosquitoes and ticks.

"The bumpy form of the virus would be the form present in humans, so the optimal dengue virus vaccines should induce antibodies that preferentially recognize epitopes exposed in that form," Rossmann said.

The findings are detailed in a research paper appearing online this week in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.



The researchers used a technique called cryo-electron microscopy to see the three-dimensional structure of the virus at temperatures ranging from 28-37 degrees Celsius (37 degrees Celsius is 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit, or human body temperature). Findings showed that the virus has a smooth appearance while at the cooler temperatures found in mosquito or tick vectors, but then it morphs into the bumpy form at warmer temperatures before fusing to the host cell and delivering its genetic material.



"These findings were a big surprise," said Richard J. Kuhn, professor and head of Purdue's Department of Biological Sciences and director of the Bindley Bioscience Center. "No one expected to see the virus change its appearance as it moves from the mosquito to humans."



The paper was co-authored by postdoctoral researcher Xinzheng Zhang; lab manager Ju Sheng; postdoctoral researcher Pavel Plevka; Kuhn; Michael S. Diamond, a researcher at Washington University School of Medicine; and Rossmann.



Findings also could apply to related infections in the flavivirus family, which includes a number of dangerous insect-borne diseases such as West Nile, yellow fever, tick-borne encephalitis and Japanese encephalitis.



Dengue (pronounced DEN-gē) is a leading cause of serious illness and death among children in some Asian and Latin American countries, causing 50 million to 100 million infections per year. Globally, dengue has grown dramatically in recent decades, placing about half the world's population at risk of infection.



The researchers determined that the bumpy form of the virus is more efficient at infecting mammalian cells. The team was able to measure the virus's infectivity using a laboratory procedure where cells are infected in a culture dish. The bumpy shape is an intermediate stage before the virus becomes unstable, releasing its genetic material. The virus is made of subunit molecules that separate when the virus particle expands into its bumpy form, revealing exposed membrane surfaces between the subunits where antibodies might bind.



The work is funded by the National Institutes of Health and Purdue through university support for a structural biology electron microscope facility



( from universities, journals, and other research organizations )

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Sniffing Rosemary Improves Memory by Amanda Onion

A key to improving memory may lie in a common herb — rosemary.

A study presented at the British Psychological Society’s annual conference in Harrogate showed that the smell of the essential oil from the herb appears to enhance the ability to remember events and complex tasks.

The researchers from the University of Northumbria had 66 adults enter one of two rooms — a room with no scent and a room with a rosemary scent. The participants were then tested on their memory functions by finding hidden objects and passing objects to researchers at particular times.

The subjects in the rosemary-scented room performed better on the memory tasks than those in the room with no smell.

“In this study we focused on prospective memory, which involves the ability to remember events that will occur in the future and to remember to complete tasks at particular times. This is critical for everyday functioning,” explained author Dr Mark Moss.

Previous work had already hinted toward the effect of rosemary on memory, showing that compounds in the rosemary aroma could improve long-term memory and mental arithmetic.

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Fish Fossil Shows Why Humans Have Two Arms, Legs by Jennifer Viegas

An unusual prehistoric fish with fins near its butt has helped to solve the mystery over why most animals, including humans, have paired limbs.

The fish, Euphanerops, is possibly the first creature on the planet to have evolved paired appendages, which in this case were fins. The 370-million-year-old species is described in the latest issue of Biology Letters.

"Fins are the world's first limb-like appendages," lead author Robert Sansom told Discovery News. "Paired limbs would subsequently develop from paired fins in the transition from sea to land, but the first evolution of paired appendages was a big, important step in the evolution and development of vertebrates," which are animals with a backbone or spinal column.

PHOTOS: Faces of Our Ancestors

Sansom, a researcher at both the University of Leicester and the University of Manchester, and colleagues Sarah Gabbott and M.A. Purnell analyzed 36 Euphanerops specimens unearthed in Quebec, Canada. This was a jawless fish that lived long before dinosaurs first emerged.

Many living fish have a single anal fin, located at the center back of the fish’s underside near its rear end. The fin is thought to help maintain control of body position.

Euphanerops, however, evolved two such fins. Some subsequent fish did not evolve the paired appendages, so fish with all sorts of fin combinations existed for a while.

"What this research leads us to believe is that, at this early stage (in evolutionary history), vertebrates were trying out lots of different body plans, some familiar, some less familiar, and only some that survived," Sansom explained.

The change happened at a radical point in fish history when some of them were starting to evolve jaws and teeth. (There is currently a big chicken and egg-type debate among fish experts as to which evolved first: teeth or jaws.) These attributes likely emerged for reasons similar to fish gaining fins -- improved hunting and escape skills.

As Sansom shared, "The evolution of paired appendages and more sophisticated fins will probably be for improved locomotion, potentially related to an arms race between tracking down prey and avoiding predators."

He continued, "Paired fins allow for more sophisticated control of movement."

This movement, which at first just happened underwater, later helped some species make the transition from water to land.

Heather King of the University of Chicago and colleagues studied living lungfish to see how that transition might have happened.

"Lungfish are very closely related to the animals that were able to evolve and come out of the water and onto land, but that was so long ago that almost everything except the lungfish has gone extinct," she explained.

King and her team found that lungfish could, as their name suggests, blow up with air like a balloon, giving their body buoyancy. Their scrawny back paired appendages can then either sort of hop or actually walk by alternating the movement of these limbs.

Co-author Neil Shubin said, "This shows us -- pardon the pun -- the steps that are involved in the origin of walking."

Since those first steps from water to land were taken, some animals evolved four limbs for walking. Even for these animals, like dogs and cats, the limbs come in pairs. For that innovation, we can probably thank the unusual, long-extinct jaw-less fish Euphanerops.

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Acne Cure Natural Ways

Dissaya Nu Pornpattananangkul, a doctoral bioengineering student at the University of California San Diego (UCSD) has invented an innovative system for treating acne and keeping skin clean.

acne cure natural waysThe new technique uses nanoparticles (nano-bombs) that seek and destroy bacteria causing acne. The "nano-bombs" use natural ingredients to treat acne without the side effects of burning or the red skin associated with drugs.

These nanoparticles carry liposomes with lauric acid into the skin microenvironment. The nanoparticles locate acne bacteria and the lauric acid then attacks and kills the bacteria.

A liposome is a tiny bubble made out of the same material as a cell membrane and it is filled with lauric acid. Lauric acid is a saturated fatty acid which has antimicrobial properties. It is found in coconut oil, palm kernel oil, human milk, cow's milk and goat's milk. Nanotechnology has created a new frontier for medical inventions.

Source: ucsd.edu

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New Culprit in Red Meat Linked with Heart Disease

A nutrient called l-carnitine, which is found in red meat and is also popular as a dietary supplement, may play a role in the development of heart disease.

The high amounts of saturated fat and cholesterol in red meat have long been blamed for increasing people's risk of heart disease. But now, new research points a finger at another culprit in meat that may be more closely tied to this leading killer.

A new study reveals that a nutrient called l-carnitine, which is found in red meat and is also popular as a dietary supplement, may also play a role in the development of heart disease.

In a series of experiments in people and mice, scientists for the first time demonstrated that carnitine from foods as well as from supplements influenced cardiovascular risk.

"We now have an understanding of a new nutritional pathway that helps explain the long-standing recognition of a link between red meat and the development of heart disease," said study researcher Dr. Stanley Hazen, section head of preventive cardiology at the Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland, Ohio. The pathway involves the gut bacteria that metabolize carnitine in people who regularly eat meat, he said.

Hazen and his research team suspected there must be something else in red meat, besides its cholesterol and saturated fat, that explains its association with heart disease. "This study suggests carnitine may be a piece of this link," he said.

The findings were published online in the journal Nature Medicine.

Two years ago, Hazen and his research team discovered that microorganisms in the intestines can convert substances found in choline, a common dietary fat, to a by-product known as TMAO, trimethylamine-N-oxide.

This new study looked at l-carnitine, which has a similar chemical structure to choline.

Carnitine is a nutrient found at high levels in red meat, but fish, poultry, milk and other dairy products are also good food sources of it. Carnitine is also a popular over-the-counter diet supplement, often billed as helping to boost energy and bulk up muscle. It's found in some energy drinks and muscle milks.

The researchers looked at fasting levelsof blood carnitine in nearly 2,600 men and women. The findings showed that carnitine levels could quite strongly predict participant's risk of existing coronary artery disease, as well as the risk of having a major cardiac event, such as heart attack, stroke, or death over a three-year period, but only in adults who had high blood levels of TMAO.

Hazen's group also compared mice fed their normal chow, which is basically a vegetarian diet, with mice whose food was supplemented with carnitine.

"We saw that carnitine supplements doubled the rates of atherosclerosis in the mice," Hazen said. It did this by dramatically increasing levels of TMAO, which is produced by gut bacteria that metabolize l-carnitine.

As for how carnitine in red meat may be linked with heart disease, Hazen explained that chronic ingestion of carnitine fundamentally shifts the metabolism of cholesterol. "It's changing it in a way that will make you more prone to heart disease," he said. Eating carnitine causes more cholesterol to be deposited onto artery walls, and less to be eliminated from the body.

What to do

Besides looking at animal models, researchers also looked at what happens when people eat carnitine, comparing 51 people who normally eat meat to 23 people who were vegetarian or vegan (who consume no animal products). The researchers found that adults who avoid meat and eat fewer animal products produced much lower concentrations of TMAO in the blood compared with the meat eaters.

"If you're eating a lot of red meat, this study argues to consider cutting back," Hazen said. He recommended decreasing the frequency of eating red meat, and its portion size.

For people taking carnitine supplements, Hazen said he's unaware of a compelling study that shows a dramatic benefit from them. And taking the supplement could be influencing a person's long-term risk of heart disease, he suggested.

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Exercise that involves vertical movements like jumping rope may fight feelings of hunger , research shows

Exercise that involves vertical movements like jumping rope may fight feelings of hunger better than other forms of exercise, a new study from Japan suggests.

Studies have shown that exercise suppresses appetite for a short period, and research has suggested that appetite-regulating hormones released by the gut are involved in this effect.

The authors of the new study wondered if the "gut disturbance" that happens during exercise that moves the center of mass up and down would change levels of hormones like ghrelin, which is released when we're hungry, more than other types of exercise.

NEWS: Got 'Fat Genes'? You Can Still Lose Weight

Studies have suggested that running suppresses appetite more than cycling, they said, and jumping rope moves the whole body up and down more than running. There is also no movement in a horizontal direction, so jumping rope is a more weight-bearing exercise than running. Therefore, it's possible that jumping rope "leads to greater gut disturbance than running," and could induce greater suppression, the researchers said.

To test their idea, the researchers looked at 15 healthy men whose average age was 24. On separate days, the men either skipped rope for 30 minutes or rode a stationary bicycle, or rested. The researchers adjusted the cycling sessions so the amount of energy each man expended while cycling matched the energy he burned while jumping rope.

At several points during and after the exercise, the researchers measured levels of appetite hormones, and asked the men how hungry they felt, along with how much they wanted to eat salty, sweet, sour and fatty foods.

Studies have suggested that running suppresses appetite more than cycling, they said, and jumping rope moves the whole body up and down more than running. There is also no movement in a horizontal direction, so jumping rope is a more weight-bearing exercise than running. Therefore, it's possible that jumping rope "leads to greater gut disturbance than running," and could induce greater suppression, the researchers said.

To test their idea, the researchers looked at 15 healthy men whose average age was 24. On separate days, the men either skipped rope for 30 minutes or rode a stationary bicycle, or rested. The researchers adjusted the cycling sessions so the amount of energy each man expended while cycling matched the energy he burned while jumping rope.

At several points during and after the exercise, the researchers measured levels of appetite hormones, and asked the men how hungry they felt, along with how much they wanted to eat salty, sweet, sour and fatty foods.

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Results showed that the men reported feeling less hungry during both the cycling and the rope skipping, compared with the control, resting sessions. This feeling of less hunger continued until 15 minutes after they stopped exercising.

In addition, the men reported feeling less hungry when they were jumping rope, compared with when they were cycling, at 25 minutes into the exercise sessions.

Moreover, the researchers found a similar trend in the men's desire to eat fatty foods — the men reported less craving for fatty foods while they were exercising, and this was more pronounced during the rope-jumping session.

And further, after the cycling session was over, the men rated themselves as hungrier than they did after the control trials, but after the rope-skipping sessions, they did not. This suggests that cycling, but not jumping rope, causes hunger that leads to "compensating" for the energy that was burned, the researchers said.

However, the gut hormone levels were not different after the cycling sessions compared with the rope-jumping sessions. It may be that some other mechanism explains the difference in hunger levels, the researchers said.

"Taken together, our results suggest that aerobic exercise, particularly rope-skipping exercise, may regulate the desire to eat fatty foods, and thus improve dietary behavior regarding fatty foods in adults," they said.

Barry Braun, associate professor and director of the energy metabolism laboratory at the University of Massachusetts, said that the study was well-designed in that the researchers matched the energy expended between the rope-skipping versus cycling conditions.

However, there were only "very small differences" in hunger between the two exercise protocols, Braun said.

"It is possible that more vertical motion leads to more gut distress (although that was not measured) and that resulted in less hunger during the exercise itself, but the effect is subtle," he wrote in an email. Rather than gut hormones, the small decrease in hunger seen in the study could also have been due to larger rise in body temperature during the rope-skipping, he said.

The study presents "an interesting idea, from an 'I wonder why?' perspective," Braun said.

The new study was published online Feb. 10 in the journal Appetite.

More from MyHealthNewsDaily.com:

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Exercise that involves vertical movements like jumping rope may fight feelings of hunger , research shows

Exercise that involves vertical movements like jumping rope may fight feelings of hunger better than other forms of exercise, a new study from Japan suggests.

Studies have shown that exercise suppresses appetite for a short period, and research has suggested that appetite-regulating hormones released by the gut are involved in this effect.

The authors of the new study wondered if the "gut disturbance" that happens during exercise that moves the center of mass up and down would change levels of hormones like ghrelin, which is released when we're hungry, more than other types of exercise.

NEWS: Got 'Fat Genes'? You Can Still Lose Weight

Studies have suggested that running suppresses appetite more than cycling, they said, and jumping rope moves the whole body up and down more than running. There is also no movement in a horizontal direction, so jumping rope is a more weight-bearing exercise than running. Therefore, it's possible that jumping rope "leads to greater gut disturbance than running," and could induce greater suppression, the researchers said.

To test their idea, the researchers looked at 15 healthy men whose average age was 24. On separate days, the men either skipped rope for 30 minutes or rode a stationary bicycle, or rested. The researchers adjusted the cycling sessions so the amount of energy each man expended while cycling matched the energy he burned while jumping rope.

At several points during and after the exercise, the researchers measured levels of appetite hormones, and asked the men how hungry they felt, along with how much they wanted to eat salty, sweet, sour and fatty foods.

Studies have suggested that running suppresses appetite more than cycling, they said, and jumping rope moves the whole body up and down more than running. There is also no movement in a horizontal direction, so jumping rope is a more weight-bearing exercise than running. Therefore, it's possible that jumping rope "leads to greater gut disturbance than running," and could induce greater suppression, the researchers said.

To test their idea, the researchers looked at 15 healthy men whose average age was 24. On separate days, the men either skipped rope for 30 minutes or rode a stationary bicycle, or rested. The researchers adjusted the cycling sessions so the amount of energy each man expended while cycling matched the energy he burned while jumping rope.

At several points during and after the exercise, the researchers measured levels of appetite hormones, and asked the men how hungry they felt, along with how much they wanted to eat salty, sweet, sour and fatty foods.

PHOTOS: Get Fit: 9 Gadgets That Will Get (and Keep) You Going

Results showed that the men reported feeling less hungry during both the cycling and the rope skipping, compared with the control, resting sessions. This feeling of less hunger continued until 15 minutes after they stopped exercising.

In addition, the men reported feeling less hungry when they were jumping rope, compared with when they were cycling, at 25 minutes into the exercise sessions.

Moreover, the researchers found a similar trend in the men's desire to eat fatty foods — the men reported less craving for fatty foods while they were exercising, and this was more pronounced during the rope-jumping session.

And further, after the cycling session was over, the men rated themselves as hungrier than they did after the control trials, but after the rope-skipping sessions, they did not. This suggests that cycling, but not jumping rope, causes hunger that leads to "compensating" for the energy that was burned, the researchers said.

However, the gut hormone levels were not different after the cycling sessions compared with the rope-jumping sessions. It may be that some other mechanism explains the difference in hunger levels, the researchers said.

"Taken together, our results suggest that aerobic exercise, particularly rope-skipping exercise, may regulate the desire to eat fatty foods, and thus improve dietary behavior regarding fatty foods in adults," they said.

Barry Braun, associate professor and director of the energy metabolism laboratory at the University of Massachusetts, said that the study was well-designed in that the researchers matched the energy expended between the rope-skipping versus cycling conditions.

However, there were only "very small differences" in hunger between the two exercise protocols, Braun said.

"It is possible that more vertical motion leads to more gut distress (although that was not measured) and that resulted in less hunger during the exercise itself, but the effect is subtle," he wrote in an email. Rather than gut hormones, the small decrease in hunger seen in the study could also have been due to larger rise in body temperature during the rope-skipping, he said.

The study presents "an interesting idea, from an 'I wonder why?' perspective," Braun said.

The new study was published online Feb. 10 in the journal Appetite.

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