Glucose

When roasted at 475 degrees, coffee beans are sometimes described as rich and full-bodied. But for the full-bodied person who is not so rich, unroasted coffee beans - green as the day they were picked - may hold the key to cheap and effective weight loss, new research suggests. In a study presented Tuesday at the American Chemical Society's spring national meeting in San Diego, 16 overweight young adults took, by turns, a low dose of green coffee bean extract, a high dose of the supplement, and a placebo.

Diabetes affects more than 25 million Americans. New medications and strategies to treat the disease are greatly needed. But the jury is still out on the experimental medication dapagliflozin. The medication looks to have significant benefits and risks, according to a study published Monday. Dapagliflozin is being developed by Bristol-Myers-Squibb Co. in partnership with AstraZeneca. It represents a new class of diabetes medications called selective renal sodium glucose contransporter inhibitors.

In an age of long commutes, late sports practices, endless workdays and 24/7 television programming, the image of Mom hanging up her dish towel at 7 p.m. and declaring "the kitchen is closed" seems a quaint relic of an earlier era. It also harks back to a thinner America. And that may be no coincidence. A new study, conducted on mice, hints at an unexpected contributor to the nation's epidemic of obesity - and, if later human studies bear it out, a possible way to have our cake and eat it too, with less risk of weight gain and the diseases that come with it. Just eat your cake - or better yet, an apple - earlier.

A short while ago, Lars came in for a visit. He's a friendly, happy-go-lucky guy with a desk job in some sort of marine industry. The bulk of his visits have revolved around his passion for softball. He plays on three teams year round, and from time to time his competitive edge gets the better of him and he twists an ankle or pulls a muscle and comes in to get patched up. I remind him he's 45, not 25, that it's not Game 7 of the World Series, that he should go a little easy on himself.

Yes, he's had numerous stints on reality TV and millions of records sold -- but singer Bret Michaels may be best known as the star of a real-life medical drama. In April 2010, he had an emergency appendectomy. Less than two weeks later, he had a brain hemorrhage. A month after that, he had a stroke, caused by a hole in his heart. He had surgery to repair the heart defect in January. Michaels also has Type 1 diabetes, which was diagnosed when he was 6 years old. He spoke about how he deals with that disease in a recent interview with Diabetes Health magazine.

Many food activists and public health researchers are ready to pin a substantial portion of blame for the nation's obesity epidemic on the skyrocketing consumption of high-fructose corn syrup, widely used to sweeten processed foods and beverages in the U.S. since the 1980s. But food and beverage makers are fighting back . Glucose and fructose are both simple sugars--and equal parts of each is the recipe for table sugar. (High-fructose corn syrup is a bit more intensely sweet because it's made up of 55% fructose.)

Fingertip pricks serve their purpose in helping people with diabetes monitor their blood sugar levels. But, come on, it would be nice to have a method that doesn't involve drawing blood. Researchers reported progress this week on a technology that would provide non-invasive, continuous blood glucose monitoring. The technology uses microbeads coated with a fluorescent dye that are designed to bind with glucose molecules. The beads are injected into the body, and the sensing dye provides a continuous readout of glucose levels measured across the skin from the fluorescent intensity.

UC San Diego researchers have developed an implantable glucose sensor for diabetics that has worked for a year in pigs and that could be a major step forward toward the development of an artificial pancreas. As many as 800,000 people already use external insulin pumps that, through programming, inject a continuous background level of insulin and higher jolts at mealtimes or when a physical blood test indicates. The goal of many researchers has been to develop a continuous glucose monitor that can be implanted and send electronic signals to control how much insulin the pump secretes, thereby mimicking the action of the pancreas.

High-fructose corn syrup is often singled out as Food Enemy No. 1 because it has become ubiquitous in processed foods over about the last 30 years – a period that coincides with a steep rise in obesity. One of the primary sources of HFCS in the American diet is soda – in fact, many public health advocates refer to soda as “liquid candy.” That nickname is more apt than advocates realized, according to a study published online this month by the journal Obesity.

Abbott Laboratories said Monday that it had received approval from the Food and Drug Administration for a new blood glucose monitoring system -- an announcement that came as its stock rose to a six-month high. The go-ahead added to Abbott's momentum after the release of positive results from the first trial of its ZoMaxx device, a drug-coated stent intended to unclog arteries to the heart, Sunday at the American College of Cardiology's annual meeting in Atlanta.

Smart phones have already supplemented the doctor’s office and personal computers as sources of health advice — and now it appears car companies are driving into the on-the-go consumer health market. Ford is developing a way to display pollen counts and other allergen levels to drivers using its existing link to smart phone apps, the car company announced Wednesday. Ford has also made a prototype to synchronize glucose monitoring devices via Bluetooth. The car displays glucose levels and sounds an alert if they fall too low. A statement from Ford explains how this technology can help diabetics and allergy sufferers: “For people with diabetes and their caregivers, constant knowledge and control of glucose levels is critical to avoiding hypoglycemia or low glucose, which can cause confusion, lightheadedness, blurry vision and a host of other symptoms that could be dangerous while driving.

Other than driving a race car 200 mph while monitoring a life-threatening illness, Charlie Kimball is a normal guy. Kimball will drive in the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach on Sunday. He is 26 and is two races into his rookie season on the Izod IndyCar circuit. He already has a top-10 finish, and is somebody with almost unlimited promise for a lucrative racing future on the highest level. Except for the diabetes. "It was Oct. 16, 2007," Kimball recalls. "I went to a doctor because I had a skin rash.

Yes, he's had numerous stints on reality TV and millions of records sold -- but singer Bret Michaels may be best known as the star of a real-life medical drama. In April 2010, he had an emergency appendectomy. Less than two weeks later, he had a brain hemorrhage. A month after that, he had a stroke, caused by a hole in his heart. He had surgery to repair the heart defect in January. Michaels also has Type 1 diabetes, which was diagnosed when he was 6 years old. He spoke about how he deals with that disease in a recent interview with Diabetes Health magazine.

Many food activists and public health researchers are ready to pin a substantial portion of blame for the nation's obesity epidemic on the skyrocketing consumption of high-fructose corn syrup, widely used to sweeten processed foods and beverages in the U.S. since the 1980s. But food and beverage makers are fighting back . Glucose and fructose are both simple sugars--and equal parts of each is the recipe for table sugar. (High-fructose corn syrup is a bit more intensely sweet because it's made up of 55% fructose.)

If you want to improve the health and fitness of your heart and blood vessels, you can. Basic lifestyle changes involving diet, exercise and smoking can make a big difference. It also helps to keep an eye on some key numbers, including blood pressure, cholesterol, body mass index and blood glucose. Last year, the American Heart Assn. winnowed all this advice into a checklist called Life's Simple Seven. For each item on the list, the AHA set criteria that define ideal cardiovascular health.

Abbott Laboratories announced a recall Wednesday of as many as 359 million glucose test strips used to monitor diabetics' blood sugar because the strips may give false low readings. The strips may not absorb enough blood quickly enough to give a proper reading, which can lead users to try to raise sugar levels unnecessarily, or to fail to treat elevated glucose levels, the company said in a statement. The chemically treated paper strips were manufactured at an Abbott facility in the United Kingdom between January and May 2010, according to company spokesman Scott Davies.

Michel Montignac, a French businessman turned diet guru who believed people could lose weight without counting calories, has died. He was 66. Montignac died Aug. 22 at a clinic in Annemasse, France. His website and a website for his daughter, Sybille, confirmed the death but no other details were disclosed. "You know French people don't exercise and also we don't count calories … at least to the extent Americans do," Montignac told "CBS This Morning" in 1993 after he opened a restaurant in Paris.

The can-you-be-fit-and-fat debate just got more fuel courtesy of a study presented recently at the annual scientific meeting of the American College of Gastroenterology in San Diego. Researchers zeroed in on football players, especially linemen, to determine whether they have greater risk factors for cardiovascular diseases and Type 2 diabetes: high blood pressure, high cholesterol and high fasting blood glucose levels. The study included 69 professional football players and 155 professional baseball players, all currently playing.

High-fructose corn syrup is often singled out as Food Enemy No. 1 because it has become ubiquitous in processed foods over about the last 30 years – a period that coincides with a steep rise in obesity. One of the primary sources of HFCS in the American diet is soda – in fact, many public health advocates refer to soda as “liquid candy.” That nickname is more apt than advocates realized, according to a study published online this month by the journal Obesity.

Kids with obese parents are known to be at increased risk of childhood obesity themselves. Moms with unhealthy diets have been shown to pass along metabolic problems to their kids, but exactly how dads fit into the equation is unclear. In humans, this is particularly difficult because fathers and children often share not just genes, but a home environment as well. Thankfully, we have rats to help sort this out. Australian researchers fed some male rats a high-fat diet and kept others on a healthy diet.