BREAKING NEWS: EDITORS’ PICKS

• The Major Link Between Obesity and Diabetes. From Dr. Louis Venter. May 6, 2016 
   
• Leptin plays a direct role in cardiovascular disease in obesity. Circulation, October 7, 2015
  While high levels of the satiety hormone leptin don’t help obese individuals lose weight, they do appear to directly contribute to their cardiovascular disease.
   
• Adiponectin supplementation in pregnant mice prevents the adverse effects of maternal obesity on placental function and fetal growth. PNAS, 2015 Sept
  As obesity rates for pregnant women continue to climb, scientists have discovered that increasing a specific hormone during pregnancy can reduce or eliminate the chances that the baby will become obese as well.
   
• High dietary fiber intake linked to health promoting short chain fatty acids. Gut, September 29, 2015
  Eating a lot of fibre-rich foods, such as fruit, vegetables, and legumes–typical of a Mediterranean diet–is linked to a rise in health promoting short chain fatty acids (SCFAs), which include acetate, propionate, and butyrate, are produced by bacteria in the gut during fermentation of insoluble fibre from dietary plant matter. SCFAs have been linked to health promoting effects, including a reduced risk of inflammatory diseases, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease.
   
• Progress of Diabetic Severity and Risk of Dementia. Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, July 9, 2015
  People who have diabetes and experience high rates of complications are more likely to develop dementia as they age than people who have fewer diabetic complications.
   
• Measuring kidney health could better predict heart disease risk. Lancet Diabetes and Endocrinology. May 29, 2015
  Simple measures of kidney function and damage may be just as good at predicting who is at risk for heart failure and death from heart attack and stroke as traditional tests of cholesterol levels and blood pressure, new research suggests.
   
• Genetically elevated triglyceride level associated with protection against type 2 diabetes. PLOS Genetics, May 28, 2015
  It demonstrates that triglyceride-increasing alleles are associated with decreased type-2 diabetes incidence. The studied genes therefore appear to both increase triglyceride levels and decrease type-2 diabetes risk. Although no single gene appeared to be driving this trend, several, including a variant near the APOA1 gene, stood out as potentially interesting to this finding.
   
• Diabetes debate: Triglycerides form in liver despite insulin resistance. PNAS, January 5, 2015
  Triglycerides are produced in the liver independent of insulin action in the liver, solving one of the great mysteries of type 2 diabetes.
   
• Leptin also influences brain glial cells to control appetite. Nature Neuroscience, June 1, 2014
  Twenty years after the hormone leptin was found to regulate metabolism, appetite, and weight through brain cells called neurons, researchers have found that the hormone also acts on other types of cells, glial cells, which provide the main barrier between the periphery and the brain, and therefore could be targeted for drugs that treat metabolic disorders, including obesity and diabetes.
   
• Obesity rates climbing worldwide. The Lancet, May 28, 2014
  Worldwide, there has been a startling increase in rates of obesity and overweight in both adults (28% increase) and children (up by 47%) in the past 33 years, with the number of overweight and obese people rising from 857 million in 1980 to 2.1 billion in 2013, according to a most comprehensive global study to date.
   

• Clinical trial reaffirms diet beverages play positive role in weight loss. Obesity, May 27, 2014
  This study clearly demonstrates that diet beverages can in fact help people lose weight, directly countering myths in recent years that suggest the opposite effect — weight gain.
   
• Muscle Molecule (ß-aminoisobutyric acid) After Exercise Spurs Fat Cells to Slim Down, Discovery could lead to drugs to fight obesity, diabetes. Cell Metabolism, 7 January 2014.
  Exercise stimulates muscles to release a molecule: ß-aminoisobutyric acid (BAIBA), which induces white fat cells to become more like brown fat cells, altering their gene activity patterns. And it stimulates other cell types, stoking fat metabolism in the liver. Medium report. 
   
• New Obesity Guidelines: Promise and Potential. JAMA. January 2014.
   
• Sugar intake not directly related to liver disease. Gastroenterology, November 1, 2013
  Despite current beliefs, sugar intake is not directly associated with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, according to a new study. Rather, high-calorie diets promote the progression of this serious form of liver disease.
   
• How diabetes drug delays aging in worms. CELL. March 28, 2013
  A widely prescribed type 2 diabetes drug, Metformin, slows down the aging process by mimicking the effects of dieting, according to a study using worms to investigate how the drug works.