Endocrinology News and Research

Latest Endocrinology News and Research

More insulin-producing cells from a single transcription factor switch

Researchers have found a way in mice to convert another type of pancreas cell into the critical insulin-producing beta cells that are lost in those with type I diabetes. The secret ingredient is a single transcription factor, according to the report in the August 7th issue of Cell, a Cell Press journal.

7 Aug 2009

Reform could strain community health centers

While the health care reform debate rages on Capitol Hill, sitting just a mile away is the Walker-Jones Health Center in Northeast Washington, one of about 1,200 federally-qualified community health centers across the country that provide free and reduced-cost care to millions of Americans.

7 Aug 2009

Changes in mtDNA can cause premature ageing

The normal ageing process has long been linked to problems with cell respiration, the process through which the cells extract energy from nutrients. Researchers at the Swedish medical university Karolinska Institutet have now shown how certain proteins that are synthesised in the cellular mitochondria - popularly known as the cells' power plants - become unstable and disintegrate, which in turn can impair cell respiration and cause premature ageing.

7 Aug 2009

Pending health care reform should not distract from making medical technology investments

In spite of the tremendous attention being paid this summer to health care reform, it is critical that investments in medical technology startups not go into a “holding pattern,” but continue unabated. So says ONSET Ventures partner Rob Kuhling.

6 Aug 2009

Psoriasis sufferers at risk for other medical conditions

Emerging research reveals that people with psoriasis are at risk for developing other serious medical conditions including heart disease, diabetes and obesity. According to a new study by the National Psoriasis Foundation, of 5,000 people with psoriasis, nearly two-thirds report having at least one other critical health problem.

6 Aug 2009

Rush University Medical Center hosts conference examining Chicago breastfeeding rates

Over 100 certified breastfeeding peer counselors, lactation consultants, nurses, physicians, dietitians and community health workers are expected to gather at Rush University Medical Center on Thursday, August 6 from 8 a.m. until 1 p.m. in Room 500 at 1725 W. Harrison Street, Chicago, to attend the Griffin Inaugural Conference on Breastfeeding: The Primary Foundation for Health.

6 Aug 2009

New approach targets gut hormone to lower blood sugar levels

A research team led by Dr. Tony Lam at the Toronto General Research Institute and the University of Toronto discovered a novel function of a hormone found in the gut that might potentially lower glucose levels in diabetes.

6 Aug 2009

Unstable proteins can cause premature ageing

The normal ageing process has long been linked to problems with cell respiration, the process through which the cells extract energy from nutrients.

6 Aug 2009

Noninvasive MRI helps diabetes diagnosis and treatment

Noninvasive imaging (MRI) may aid physicians in the early diagnosis, staging and treatment of diabetes, according to a study performed at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston, MA. This is the first study of its kind to apply noninvasive imaging techniques to diabetes research.

6 Aug 2009

In Massachusetts, a radical idea for changing how doctors are paid

Dr. Richard Lopez is chief physician at Atrius Health in Boston. He says "global payments" allow health care providers to innovate to keep patients out of the hospital. (Richard Knox/NPR)

6 Aug 2009

Endocrine Reviews gets top Impact Factor ranking

In its recently released annual Journal Citation Report (JCR) for 2008, Thomson Reuters awarded Endocrine Reviews the top Impact Factor ranking among the 93 journals competing in the “Endocrinology & Metabolism” category.

6 Aug 2009

Medicare proposes capping home health care agency payments

The Miami Herald reports: "Fueled by massive fraud, home healthcare providers in Miami-Dade County are raking in more Medicare money than their colleagues in the rest of the country combined -- thanks to bogus billings for patients with diabetes, authorities say.

5 Aug 2009

Biological mechanisms contribute to stress resilience

It is important to understand what biological mechanisms contribute to an individual’s capacity to be resilient under conditions of extreme stress, such as those regularly experienced by soldiers, police, and firefighters.

5 Aug 2009

Research looks at enzyme that causes genetic diseases

Researchers from CIC bioGUNE's Structural Biology Unit and Columbia University (New York) have conducted a joint research project, published in the prestigious scientific journal Structure, to gain in-depth knowledge of the structure of pyruvate carboxylase when it is in solution (in the "natural" state).

5 Aug 2009

Tips to avoid heat stroke

The first sign of dangerous heat stroke can be just that – no sweat. As the temperature rises, your body’s natural cooling mechanism, sweat (or more kindly, perspiration), evaporates and helps to cool your body. But on those hot, humid cut-the-air-with-a knife days, evaporation is slowed and your body may not be able to keep itself cool.

5 Aug 2009

Innovative diabetes drug discovery partnership

The Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation said today that it has entered into a novel collaborative research agreement with the Genomics Institute of the Novartis Research Foundation (GNF) to create a diabetes drug discovery and development platform.

5 Aug 2009

Discovery of novel function of hormone found in gut that may lower glucose levels in diabetes

5 Aug 2009

Health care reform must avoid conflicts-of-interest

As President Obama and Congress weigh changes in the nation’s health care system they must avoid creating a system where physicians are financially motivated to pressure patients into mandated treatments that conflict with their values and needs, two Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center physicians warn.

5 Aug 2009

Depression may make patients become 'couch potatoes'

Feelings of depression could be one reason patients fail to follow their doctors’ orders on exercising and eventually become less physically active, a new research review finds.

4 Aug 2009

No recess rest in health reform ad wars

Major groups are promising that the August recess will be filled with advertising wars trying to manage the message of the health care reform debate, Politico reports.

4 Aug 2009