2.5 million Britons have disease

A diabetes group in the UK is warning that the country is facing an epidemic of diabetes as the number of people afflicted has hit 2.5 million, with more than 167,000 more cases diagnosed in the past year. That’s more than double the rate of increase from the year before. It’s expected the number of people with diabetes will double by 2010; another half a million people have diabetes but don’t know it. Diabetes UK says the rising numbers are fueled by increases in obesity levels, and around five million people in the UK are obese.

Aspirin doesn’t help hearts of diabetics

Aspirin is often used to guard against heart attacks, but a British study has found the measure doesn’t help people with diabetes. The study found aspirin was effective for those who’d already had a heart attack or stroke, but it didn’t help people with diabetes or those who had peripheral arterial disease. Over eight years in which people either got daily aspirin, an antioxidant pill or a placebo, the number of heart attacks and strokes was about the same among all groups.

Fatty acid regulation could help Alzheimer’s patients

Research in mice found that symptoms of Alzheimer’s could be prevented by turning off a mechanism in the brain that interacts with fatty acids. Researchers have long thought eating too much omega-6 fatty acid and too little omega-3 could cause the disease, and this study found that turning off the mechanism by which these fats interact with the brain prevented memory loss and behavioral problems associated with Alzheimer’s. It is thought that the same mechanism works in the human brain, and that fatty acid levels could be regulated through a special diet or drugs to someday prevent the disease.

Exercise can prevent, help heal brain aging

Any fatty acid based remedy for Alzheimer’s is far off, but one thing people can do today to prevent or even reverse decline in mental function is get regular aerobic exercise. In a review of previously published studies, researchers from the University of Illinois Beckman Institute in Urbana found that working out hard enough to become breathless could help both those with and without symptoms of Alzheimer’s to speed the sharpness of their thought as well as increase actual brain tissue volume. People who are physically fit show less deterioration in gray matter, which is critical to thinking, than people who are less fit.

Pleasure sensor doesn’t always work in overweight

How your brain reacts to a treat could predict how much weight you’ll gain, a study from the journal Science suggests. When people don’t get enough gratification from food, they often overeat to compensate, while those who get pleasure from the food eat a smaller amount. Researchers say the difference is genetic, and people could be tested for the abnormality and steered toward sports or hobbies that will give them the pleasure response they won’t get from food.

Half of parents of overweight kids say child is fine

Finally, it seems to be the season for studies about parental denial of childhood obesity. The latest one comes from Victoria, Australia, where 49 percent of parents with overweight kids said their kids were normal weight, and 43 percent of parents didn’t identify their skinny kids as underweight. Twice as many parents worried about their child being overweight rather than underweight, and parents of boys were less likely to peg them as overweight.

(By Sarah E. White for CalorieLab Calorie Counter News)

Subscribe to our RSS feed | Weekly e-mail updates | Follow us on Twitter

This entry was posted on Monday, October 20th, 2008 and is filed under Childhood obesity, Diabetes, Exercise and fitness, Foreign stories (non-U.S.), Kids and families, Nibbles: diet news shorts, Obesity research and studies. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed. Permalink.