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Diabetes is a vicious and life-threatening disease. It is a condition where your blood sugar is continuously and seriously elevated (and your triglycerides are also). The excess circulating blood sugar is very destructive inflaming tissues in the heart and circulation, in the eyes, brain, kidneys, …
The collective expression of obesity, insulin resistance, metabolic syndrome, systemic inflammation and Type 2 diabetes is now commonly referred to by the term diabesity. This multi-faceted condition is predicted to be the single most pervasive global health epidemic of our time with as many as …
It seems like every few months there is a new study or product released to the public that claims to make you lose a great amount of weight as fast as possible. Scientists have tested everything from miracle herbs and roots to coffee and nuts. But could scientists have finally discovered the cure-all plant that could eliminate obesity in its entirety?
In a paper published in the journal Cell, scientists claim to have discovered a plant named Thunder God Vine that, not only reduces food intake, but can dramatically decrease body weight by 45 percent – in mice.
Endocrinologist at Boston Children’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School and lead study author, Omut Ozcan, says the substance appears to work by enhancing a fat-derived hormone called leptin that signals to the body when it has enough fuel and energy. “During the last two decades, there has been an enormous amount of effort to treat obesity by breaking down leptin resistance, but these efforts have failed. The message from this study is that there is still hope for making leptin work,” Ozcan stated.
In the study, within only one week of treatment, with an extract made from thunder god vine (which they called Celastrol), the mice reduced their food intake by 80 percent as compared with those who did not receive the extract. Celastrol, according to the lead study author, boosts the sensitivity of the hormone leptin. After three weeks, those mice lost almost half of their initial body weight. Scientists also report other positive health effects like lower cholesterol levels and improved liver function.
Though this study sounds promising, the scientists say more studies need to be done to test the extract in humans. Ozcan explains, “Celastrol is found in the roots of the thunder god vine in small amounts, but the plant’s roots and flowers have many other compounds. As a result, it could be dangerous for humans.”
Source: http://www.foxnews.com, http://www.washingtonpost.com
Share your story – How do you feel about this new discovery? Would you try it out if it was released to the public as a weight loss supplement?
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In modern medicine, antibiotics are usually the first line of defense when it comes to treating infections of any kind. Unfortunately, scientists have discovered in more recent years that antibiotics can have some very dangerous side effects.
A well-known problem with the use of antibiotics is antibiotic resistance – this means your body has essentially become immune to antibiotics and no longer responds to this treatment. Instead, the infection is conditioned to withstand the impact of the antibiotic.
In a 2014 study presented at the American College of Rheumatology Annual Scientific Meeting in Boston, researchers have linked antibiotic use in children to increased risk of Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis. Juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA), also known as juvenile rheumatoid arthritis (JRA), is a condition that happens in children before the age of 16. Much like the arthritis symptoms seen in aging people, JIA causes joint inflammation, pain, swelling and stiffness in children. It may also cause more serious symptoms such as rashes and inflammation in the eye. What’s worse is that JIA is an autoimmune disease, which refers to any condition where the body attacks its own cells and tissues for unknown reasons. According to health specialists, an estimated 300,000 kids in the US suffer from some kind of arthritis, with JIA being the most common.
Past studies have come up short as far as finding out the cause of JIA. However, some research did show that that the body’s microbiome, an array of microorganisms that regulate metabolic and immune function, may play a role in the development of autoimmune diseases, such as rheumatoid arthritis and inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).
“Previous studies have shown that genetics explains less than half of cases of JIA,” said the study’s lead author, Dr. Daniel Horton of Nemours Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children in Wilmington, DE. “Other studies have not consistently identified any one particular environmental trigger.” Because of the link between the microbiome and development of autoimmune conditions, scientists identified antibiotics (which disrupt the body’s microbiome and balance of healthy bacteria) as a potential cause for JIA. Researchers found that kids who were exposed to antibacterial antibiotics (not antifungals or antivirals) were at higher risk of developing JIA than those who had not been exposed – and the risk seemed to grow for those who were exposed to antibiotics repeatedly.
Dr. Horton and his team’s study adds to the existing prior research that highlights the harmful impact antibiotics can have, particularly in kids. Despite this research, antibiotics remain one of the most over-prescribed drugs in the US – in fact, in another study published in the journal Pediatrics suggested that doctors write 11.4 million unnecessary antibiotic prescriptions for children and teenagers each year.
“While antibiotics are certainly essential to treating some infections, these drugs are also overprescribed for other infections – frequently respiratory – that will usually resolve without treatment,” said Dr. Horton. “If the link between antibiotics and juvenile arthritis can be confirmed, antibiotic avoidance – in the right clinical situation – might be one of the few ways we have to prevent this life-changing disease.”
Source: Medical News Today