We all lead busy lives, and most of us don't have time to read dozens of scientific journals every month, even if we are able to decipher what the authors are saying.
So the best way to keep informed might be to follow the popular science press and let them do the difficult work of reading complex scientific information and translating it into... Read more
Most of us have learned a lot about insulin, the hormone produced by the beta cells that works to let muscle and fat cells take up glucose from the blood, hence keeping our blood glucose (BG) levels at healthy levels.
We know that if we have diabetes we don't have enough insulin to keep those BG levels in healthy ranges. Even if we have... Read more
The popular science press was bursting today with a story saying that blueberries reduce the risk of heart disease.
The story stemmed from a University of Michigan presentation at the Experimental Biology convention in New Orleans on April 19. It has not been published.
In this study, the researchers fed rats that were highly susceptible to... Read more
Fat makes you fat, and obesity causes diabetes. Everyone knows that, right?
But maybe Everyone is wrong.
Not everyone who is obese gets diabetes. To get type 2 diabetes, you need to have "diabetes genes" that won't let your pancreas increase in mass when you eat more carbohydrate, and usually eating more food means eating more carbohydrate,... Read more
Hemochromatosis is an iron-overload disease. People with the hemochromatosis gene absorb more iron from their diet than other people, and this can damage many body organs, including the pancreas. The latter damage can cause diabetes.
Most people consider hemochromatosis to be found primarily in people of Celtic descent. I thought so too, as... Read more