NEWS
October 23, 2013 | By Mary MacVean
People with elevated blood sugar levels - even those not high enough for diabetes or pre-diabetes - are more likely to have memory problems than people with lower levels, a study of 141 people has shown. The results suggest that people within the normal range could help prevent cognitive problems as they age by lowering their blood sugar levels, said the author of the study, Agnes Floel of Charite University Medicine in Berlin. The work was published online Wednesday in the journal Neurology.
BUSINESS
July 31, 2013 | By Ricardo Lopez
Nova Diabetes Care is recalling up to 62 million glucose test strips that show an incorrect high sugar level reading, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said Wednesday. The voluntary recall was announced by the company Friday for products sold as under the brand names of Max Blood Glucose Test Strips and Nova Max Plus Glucose Meter Kits. The strips were sold in the U.S. and in 13 countries and Puerto Rico, the FDA said in statement. Top 10 riskiest industries for investors The federal agency warned that the inaccurate reading could cause users to administer an incorrect dosage error, leading some to seek immediately medical attention.
SCIENCE
May 24, 2013 | By Amina Khan, Los Angeles Times
In the war against pests, the lowly cockroach makes for a fearsome adversary. It can go weeks without water, survive decapitation for a time - and, like any proper super-villain, can send humans screaming from a room. Now researchers have discovered how some roaches have eluded humans' once-infallible traps: They have evolved so that glucose-sweetened bait tastes bitter. The discovery, published in Friday's edition of the journal Science, solves a 20-year mystery and sheds light on the cockroach's powerful ability to adapt.
CALIFORNIA | LOCAL
April 24, 2013 | By Thomas H. Maugh II, Special to the Los Angeles Times
When James Watson and Francis Crick deciphered the structure of DNA in 1953, their discovery answered a crucial question in biology: How is genetic information passed down from parent to child? Their work also created conundrums, however. They and others showed that every cell of an organism contains all of its genetic material. How, then, does an individual cell know which genes to use and when? And how does information from DNA get to the cell's protein-making machinery? The seminal insight into those questions came from three biologists at the Pasteur Institute in Paris - Dr. Francois Jacob, Jacques Monod and Andre Lwoff.
NEWS
June 20, 2012 | By Rosie Mestel, Los Angeles Times / For the Booster Shots blog
After gastric bypass surgery, people with Type 2 diabetes often see their disease completely disappear - within weeks, before they've lost much or any weight. It doesn't work for everyone, though. What are the factors that matter? A study by a team of scientists from the University of Massachussetts looked into that. Here are their findings, which were presented at the annual meeting of the American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery. The scientists looked at remission of diabetes in 139 patients, ages 48 to 57, who'd had gastric bypass surgery.
NEWS
March 19, 2012 | By Shari Roan, Los Angeles Times / For the Booster Shots blog
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.