Discover the Science of Health
We are all familiar with the negative consequences of getting too little sleep, but they may be more serious than just feeling a bit groggy. A new study published in the journal Science Translational Medicine has shown that sleep restriction, along with a disruption of one’s internal body clock, can raise the risk of obesity and type 2 diabetes [1]. This could explain the increased rates of these conditions in shift workers and others who work at night.
Question: I’ve heard high-fructose corn syrup is bad, but I’ve also seen ads that say it’s just sugar. What’s the truth?
National Institutes of Health researchers and their colleagues have identified how resveratrol, a naturally occurring chemical found in red wine and other plant products, may confer its health benefits. The authors present evidence that resveratrol does not directly activate sirtuin 1, a protein associated with aging. Rather, the authors found that resveratrol inhibits certain types of proteins known as phosphodiesterases (PDEs), enzymes that help regulate cell energy.
These findings may help settle the debate regarding resveratrol’s biochemistry and pave the way for resveratrol-based medicines. The chemical has received significant interest from pharmaceutical companies for its potential to combat diabetes, inflammation, and cancer. The study appears in the February 3rd issue of the journal Cell [1].
Diabetes is a group of metabolic diseases in which a person has high blood sugar, either because the body does not produce enough insulin, or because cells do not respond to the insulin that is produced. Ask anyone with the condition and they will tell you: using a spring-loaded needle to prick their fingers monitor blood glucose (i.e.sugar) levels several times a day is painful procedure.
Researchers from the University of Washington (UW) and Microsoft Research Connections are working together to develop a non-invasive, technological solution that promises to improve both the health and overall quality of life for people with diabetes: a contact lens that, instead of correcting vision, monitors blood glucose levels.
It’s obvious that obese people more have fat than non-obese people, but it’s not as clear how it happens. Do obese individuals have more adipocytes (fat cells) than lean people, or do they have the same number of adipocytes, just larger ones? It turns out to be both. But the way that comes to pass is just being worked out by scientists. Engineering Professor Dr. Amit Gefen and his colleagues at Tel Aviv University recently demonstrated in a mouse cell line model that preadipocytes (precursors to fat cells) subjected to prolonged periods of “mechanical stretching loads” — the kind of weight we put on our body tissues when we sit or lie down — differentiate significantly faster, and retain significantly larger fat droplets, than those that are not. The research was published in the American Journal of Physiology — Cell Physiology [1].
