A new study has found a combination of insulin and vitamin C may stop the damage caused by type 1 diabetes.
Scientists from at the Harold Hamm Oklahoma Diabetes Center found that this particular combination stopped blood vessel damage, known as endothelial dysfunction, caused by the disease in patients with poor glucose control.
“We had tested this theory on research models, but this is the first time anyone has shown the therapy’s effectiveness in people,” explains Dr. Michael Ihnat, principal investigator and a pharmacologist at the OU College of Medicine Department of Cell Biology. Read the rest of this entry »
A new study finds changes in temperature and humidity can trigger asthma attacks in kids.
Researchers at the University of Michigan School of Medicine in Ann Arbor looked at pediatric emergency room visit data and weather records over a two year period. They found that changes in humidity either way resulted in more asthma patients as did jumps in temperature.
Previously, the National Institutes of Health listed changes in weather as an asthma trigger. But scientists involved in the study say they’re the first to investigate the effect of the temperature on attacks. Read the rest of this entry »
New research suggests flaxseed may help improve cholesterol.
A study appearing in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition finds people who took one tablespoon of whole flaxseed everyday were able to reduce both their total cholesterol and their LDL, or bad, cholesterol levels. Flaxseed oil, in comparison, did not produce the same results.
Women, particularly post-menopausal women, had the greatest reduction in their cholesterol, compared to men and other people who previously had higher cholesterol levels, according to Reuters. Read the rest of this entry »
Alcohol, a drug that is a major cause of accidents, may actually protect the brain from a life-threatening injury when an accident does occur, according to a study published this week in Archives of Surgery.
In the study of 38,000 patients with moderate to severe traumatic brain injuries who were admitted to U.S. hospitals between 2000 and 2005, 38% had alcohol in their blood. Such patients had a lower risk of dying of their injuries than those who hadn’t been drinking.
“This study really brings up more questions than it answers,” says coauthor Ali Salim, MD, the program director of the General Surgery Residency Educational Program at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, in Los Angeles. Read the rest of this entry »
A new report suggests sugary,calorie-packed drinks are making some Americans fatter.
Researchers from the Center for Public Health Advocacy and the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research interviewed 42,000 Californians of all ages for the study.
They found that 24 percent of adults drink one or more non-diet sodas a day. They say those people are 27 percent more likely to be overweight than those who do not drink soda.
The results for children were even worse – with 41 percent of kids between the ages of two and 11, and 62 percent of adolescents (between the ages of 12 and 17), drinking at least one sugar-sweetened drink a day. Read the rest of this entry »
Worries about the economy have led many American women to think twice about having a baby, a survey released on Wednesday found, with nearly half of those surveyed saying they want to delay pregnancy or limit the number of children they have.
At the same time, many women said they were skimping on birth control, switching to a cheaper method or even going without as a way of saving money, according to the survey by researchers at the not-for-profit Alan Guttmacher Institute, which studies sexual and reproductive health.
“The recession has put many women — including middle-class women who are having trouble making ends meet — in an untenable situation,” Dr. Sharon Camp, Guttmacher’s president and chief executive, said in a statement. Read the rest of this entry »
