Move over drugs, here comes probiotics therapy to treat diabetes!

With the metabolic syndrome becoming a major scourge affecting the quality of life for millions of people across the world, its treatment involving insulin injection or consumption of powerful drugs are unavoidable chore of daily life for these unfortunate victims. Is there no hope for them to lead a normal life by getting the diabetes cured permanently in spite of vast strides medical science has made during the last 3 decades? While about 70 million persons are considered suffering from diabetes, be it Type I or Type II, there may be many who might not be even knowing that they are diabetics because of the silent way it creeps in unannounced and without any strong symptoms. Of course the pharma industry is raking in money through a variety of treatment regimes including sale of human insulin injections and about half a dozen synthetic drugs. It is against such a depressing background that the recent news about the exciting work in Cornell University in the US developing a probiotic treatment regime that may eventually come in the form of a pill that is to be consumed by diabetics every day for avoiding glucose build up in the blood. Here is a take on this "breaking story" report.

"Researchers at Cornell University have successfully treated diabetic rats by engineering a strain of lactobacillus, a rod-shaped bacteria common in the human gut, resulting in up to 30 percent lower blood glucose levels. The technology could pave the way for a new treatment for both type 1 and type 2 diabetes that could one day see managing diabetes be as easy as taking a daily probiotic pill.. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), diabetes is one of the leading causes of death and disability worldwide. In the US, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) reports that around 29 million people have the disease, many of whom aren't even aware they have it. The Cornell study could take us one step closer to a safe, effective way for people to control the disease. In their proof of principle study the researchers modified a strain of humanlactobacillus to secrete a protein called Glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1), which helps manage blood sugar levels, and administered it orally to diabetic rats for 90 days. The upper intestinal epithelial cells of the diabetic rats were converted into cells that acted very much like pancreatic beta cells, which in healthy people monitor blood glucose levels and secrete insulin to balance glucose levels. The rats with high blood glucose developed insulin-producing cells within the upper intestine in numbers sufficient to replace 25 to 33 percent of the insulin capacity of nondiabetic healthy rats. "The amount of time to reduce glucose levels following a meal is the same as in a normal rat, and it is matched to the amount of glucose in the blood, just as it would be with a normal-functioning pancreas," says John March, professor of biological and environmental engineering at Cornell University and the paper's senior author. "It's moving the center of glucose control from the pancreas to the upper intestine." Conversely, the engineered probiotic did not appear to affect the blood glucose levels of healthy rats".

The beauty of this work lies in the fact that it works both for Type I and II diabetic patients giving hope that insulin injection may become a part of history if and when the innovation is commercialized. Probiotic bacteria is receiving increasing attention these days because of their ability to get modified through genetic engineering for highly targeted applications. Though there may be some resistance because of the genetic modification of the bacteria, its benefits far outweigh any other consideration. One can only hope that the development publicised so early will not raise hopes too high because it may take quite some time before taking its place on the drug store shelves as human trials are yet to be undertaken to confirm that the technology really works. 

V.H.POTTY
http://vhpotty.blogspot.com
http://foodtechupdates.blogspot.com

Crazy scientific research! Pray for the "pill", the silver bullet that can trim body weight!

Have you given up on your determination to shed excess body wight because nothing seems to work, whether dieting, exercising, or regularly visiting well being centers? Well there is some crazy researchers in a US university trying to help people like you, trying to develop a "pill" which probably can be included in the medicine chest for regular use along with umpteen number of other pills required these days to ward of bad effects of life style diseases like diabetes, blood pressure, heart disease etc. Though such a scenario is far fetched just now, the ever optimistic scientists are upbeat about the chances of such a pill emerging in not too distant a future. Keep your fingers crossed. The basis of such an optimism is that they were able to identify, after screening thousands of chemicals two specific ones capable of shifting the fat making process in the body through white fat cells to brown fat cells, the latter considered a friendly source of harmless fats that burn easily without getting deposited around the abdomen. Though it may be some what premature to hail these findings, the pioneering scientists deserve a pat on their back. Read further below:  

"Researchers at Harvard University say they have identified two chemical compounds that could replace "bad" fat cells in the human body with healthy fat-burning cells, in what may be the first step toward the development of an effective medical treatment – which could even take the form of a pill – to help control weight gain. Not all fat is created equal. While white fat cells store energy as lipids and contribute to obesity, heart disease and type 2 diabetes, the less common brown fat cells pack energy in iron-rich mitochondria, have been shown to lower triglyceride levels and insulin resistance in mice, and appear to be correlated with lower body weight in humans. Brown fat makes up about five percent of the body mass of healthy newborns, helping them keep warm, and is still present in lower quantities in our neck and shoulders as adults, where it helps burn the white fat cells. Associate professor Chad Cowan and colleagues at Harvard say they have developed a way to identify the chemical compounds that induce fat stem cells to produce "good" brown-like fat cells instead of the "bad" white ones. The scientists say they have already used their system to pinpoint two such compounds that can accomplish this in humans. Other drugs (viagra included) have been known to be able to turn white fat cells into brown, but their effect is only temporary. This new method, however, is reportedly showing a stable conversion of fat cells over time, which has an exciting potential for long-term health improvement. But turning these two chemicals into a practical treatment is not going to be a straightforward process. Aside from the lengthy medical trials still to come, the two compounds identified so far both target the same molecule  –  a molecule that contributes to the inflammatory response. The concern here is that tinkering with it by using the compounds over the long term and without modifications could end up compromising the immune system. Cowan's team achieved this result by screening a catalog of only about one thousand compounds. But now, as the first two are being tested on mice to investigate the long-term effects on metabolism and immune system, the researchers are approaching pharmaceutical companies to gain access to a much larger database of over a million compounds, with the hope of finding a candidate that doesn't have the potential adverse effects of the first two."

One interesting question many binge eaters may have is whether such a pill as and when developed and promoted commercially will allow eating to full "heart's" content without facing the adverse consequences that is the rule of the day!. It is very common to day for people to pop in a Unienzyme dragee or antacids like Digene or Gelusil after a heavy meal and will this new pill help the people to eat much more than what they really need or eat foods which are known to cause over weight? No way, because any pill one takes based on synthetic chemicals is likely to have side effects and consumption of such pills must be limited to the bare minimum, that too for therapeutic purpose only.

V.H.POTTY
http://vhpotty.blogspot.com/
http://foodtechupdates.blogspot.com

FOODS THAT INTERFERE WITH DRUG ACTION-NEW FINDINGS!

In an alarming report food-drug interaction is claimed to be a serious concern that deserves much more attention and focus in future. Who ever will suspect that Grapefruit consumption can cause problem to those who take regular medications for managing life style diseases like blood pressure which can even pose life threatening risks in some cases? After all citrus fruits in general are considered a valuable source of Vitamin C and many health boosting phyto chemicals and if the reports are true, there is an urgent need to open up investigations for bringing out such dangers with regard to other foods also. Here is a gist of the findings of some scientists which deserve serious attention by nutritionists and medical community alike.

The fruit can cause overdoses of some drugs by stopping the medicines being broken down in the intestines and the liver. The researchers who first identified the link said the number of drugs that became dangerous with grapefruit was increasing rapidly. They were writing in the Canadian Medical Association Journal. The team at the Lawson Health Research Institute in Canada said the number of drugs which had serious side effects with grapefruit had gone from 17 in 2008 to 43 in 2012. They include some drugs for a range of conditions including blood pressure, cancer and cholesterol-lowering statins and those taken to suppress the immune system after an organ transplant.Continue reading the main story "Start QuoteOne tablet with a glass of grapefruit juice can be like taking five or 10 tablets with a glass of water" Dr David Bailey. Chemicals in grapefruit, furanocoumarins, wipe out an enzyme which breaks the drugs down. It means much more of the drug escapes the digestive system than the body can handle. Three times the levels of one blood pressure drug, felodipine, was reported after patients had a glass of grapefruit juice compared with a glass of water. The side effects are varied depending on the drug, but include stomach bleeds, altered heart beat, kidney damage and sudden death. Dr David Bailey, one of the researchers, told the BBC: "One tablet with a glass of grapefruit juice can be like taking five or 10 tablets with a glass of water and people say I don't believe it, but I can show you that scientifically it is sound. "So you can unintentionally go from a therapeutic level to a toxic level just by consuming grapefruit juice." The report said: "We contend that there remains a lack of knowledge about this interaction in the general health care community." They added: "Unless health care professionals are aware of the possibility that the adverse event they are seeing might have an origin in the recent addition of grapefruit to the patient's diet, it is very unlikely that they will investigate it." Other citrus fruits such as Seville oranges, often used in marmalade, and limes have the same effect. Neal Patel, from the Royal Pharmaceutical Society said: "Grapefruit isn't the only food that can cause issues, for example milk can stop the absorption of some antibiotics if taken at the same time. "Although some of these interactions may not be clinically significant, some may lead to more serious outcomes.

Inter disciplinary interactions among scientists are increasingly becoming more and more relevant in the light of the above findings. Already mankind is facing a health crisis due to shifting dietary habits with predominance of calorie rich foods, over use of antibiotics and use in feeds to animals, emergence of more and more virulent pathogens resistant to most antibiotics known to day, wide scale food contamination episodes linked food and environmental deterioration. If drug-food interactions become a serious concern, a total rethinking may be necessary on future life styles, if a major calamity is to be averted.

V.H.POTTY
http://vhpotty.blogspot.com/
http://foodtechupdates.blogspot.com

DEFYING THE FATE-SCIENTISTS' WAY!

Reams of papers have come out on the possibility of extending the life of human beings for a few more years than what is fated, though many believe that their life span is decided the day they were born. Even amongst the scientific community there is serious reservation on the feasibility of significantly increasing the life span, in spite of supportive evidence coming from studies with small experimental animals. As long as these findings are not confirmed through human studies, skeptics will always dominate the discussion on this subject. The fact that clinical studies are now going on to get an affirmative answer, gives hope for future generations. Look at the report below.

"People find it almost impossible to maintain such a diet, so this recipe for longevity remained a scientific curiosity for many decades. Then came the discovery of the single gene changes, many of which are involved in the body's regulation of growth, energy metabolism and reproduction. The single gene changes thus seem to be pointing to the same biochemical pathways through which caloric restriction extends life span".

Since the calorie restriction approach is unlikely to be accepted due to the practical difficulties, drug route may eventually succeed in man's quest for eternity. If successful, the faith of many scientists in the ability of human body to preserve itself through internal resources may be justified. However use of chemicals to prolong life may be beset with other consequences about which we have to be weary.

V.H.POTTY
http://vhpotty.blogspot.com/
http://vhpotty.foodtechupdates.blogspot.com