Author Interviews, Diabetes, Supplements / 08.01.2020

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Jonathan P. Little PhD Associate Professor Canadian Institutes of Health Research New Investigator Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research Scholar Faculty of Health and Social Development School of Health and Exercise Sciences The University of British Columbia Syilx Okanagan Nation Territory Kelowna, BC  Canada MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Ketones are energy-yielding molecules that are bodies naturally produce during periods of starvation or when we restrict carbohydrate intake. Recently, scientists from Oxford and the NIH have created exogenous ketone supplements, which now enable us to be able to drink ketones. This puts our body into a unique state – we can consume a drink that raises blood levels of ketones without having to starve or restrict carbohydrate intake. Some are even touting ketone supplements as a “fourth macronutrient”. Ketone supplements are primarily marketed for athletes to provide an alternative fuel for improving endurance exercise performance. We were actually studying how ketone supplements impacted exercise performance when we noticed that they consistently lowered blood glucose after participants consumed them. We went to the literature and found some classic papers where it was shown that infusing ketones did in fact lower glucose and the mechanism seemed to involve reducing liver glucose output. This was very exciting to us because we also study type 2 diabetes, a condition where blood sugars are too high and elevated liver glucose output is one of the major reasons. So we came up with the hypothesis that ketone supplements might be a unique strategy to help with blood glucose control. In the recent study, we tested this out in a randomized crossover experiment in 15 participants with overweight/obesity who were at risk for type 2 diabetes. Participants drank the ketone monoester supplement or a placebo and 30 minutes later they consumed an oral glucose tolerance test drink containing 75 grams of sugar. Blood samples were collected for 2 hours after the glucose test drink. (more…)
Abuse and Neglect, Artificial Sweeteners, Diabetes / 14.09.2017

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr. Richard L. Young PhD Associate Professor Adelaide Medical School The University of Adelaide Group Leader, Intestinal Nutrient Sensing Group Centre for Nutrition & Gastrointestinal Diseases South Australian Health & Medical Research Institute North Terrace, Adelaide | SA MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: This study was a clinical trial in healthy subjects dosed a sweetener combination (sucralose and acesulfame-K) at a  dose to equal 1.5 L of artificial sweetened drink per day. This was given in capsules to dissolve in the proximal intestine (3 capsules per day, 2 weeks) and was a randomised, placebo-controlled double-blind study. Sweetener treatment increased glucose absorption (assessed by serum 3-O-methy glucose), increased glycemic responses to duodenal glucose infusion and decreased GLP-1 responses. These data show that intake of these sweeteners in healthy subjects may increase glycemic responses, and are the first to document an effect of these sweeteners to increase glucose absorption in humans. (more…)
Author Interviews, Diabetes, Heart Disease / 13.01.2017

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr. Abhinav Sharma MD Duke Clinical Research Institute, Duke University, Durham, NC Mazankowski Alberta Heart Institute, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada Renato D. Lopes, MD, PhD, MHS Duke Clinical Research Institute Durham, NC  MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: Impaired fasting glucose (IFG) has been demonstrated to be a risk factor for cardiovascular death; however, there is growing research suggesting that IFG also increases the risk of non-cardiovascular deaths such as cancer. The data on the distribution of causes of death among patients with impaired fasting glucose and cardiovascular risk factors have not been described. Our analysis used data from the Nateglinide and Valsartan in Impaired Glucose Tolerance Outcomes Research (NAVIGATOR) trial. We identified that while myocardial death is the most common adjudicated cause of death, overall, non-cardiovascular deaths were more common that cardiovascular deaths. Among non-cardiovascular, cancer deaths were the most common cause of death. Furthermore, the burden of non-cardiovascular deaths increases relative to cardiovascular death over time. (more…)
Author Interviews, Diabetes, Mediterranean Diet, Memory / 24.10.2013

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Lucia Kerti MA From the Departments of Neurology Charité–University Medicine, Berlin MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study? Answer: The results of our study on 141 healthy older people suggest that chronically higher blood glucose levels may have a negative influence on memory performance even in the absence of type 2 diabetes or even pre-diabetes. Moreover, our findings indicate that elevated blood glucose levels  impair the functioning of brain areas like the hippocampus, a structure particularly relevant for memory. An important novel aspect in our study was the additional analysis of diffusion tensor imaging-based mean diffusivity within the hippocampal, which allowed us to  obtain information on microstructure.  We here provided first-time data of an association between higher blood glucose levels and lower hippocampal microstructure. Decreased hippocampal microstructure as measured by mean diffusivity may reflect a disruption of neuronal membranes and increased extracellular water content, leading to decreased signaling within and between hippocampal cells. Thus, information transfer between cells, indispensable for memory encoding, storage and retrieval, would be compromised. In sum, our data suggest that chronically higher blood glucose levels even within the "normal range" may decrease memory functions, possibly in part mediated by microstructural changes within the hippocampus. (more…)
Author Interviews, Cancer Research, Diabetes, NYU, Weight Research / 26.09.2013

Niyati Parekh, PhD, RD Assistant Professor of Nutrition and Public Health, Director of Doctoral Program in Clinical Nutrition, Department of Nutrition, Food Studies and Public Health, Steinhardt School and Department of Population Health, NYU Langone School of Medicine, New York University 411 Lafayette Street NY. NY-10003.MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Niyati Parekh, PhD, RD Assistant Professor of Nutrition and Public Health, Director of Doctoral Program in Clinical Nutrition, Department of Nutrition, Food Studies and Public Health, Steinhardt School and Department of Population Health, NYU Langone School of Medicine, New York University 411 Lafayette Street NY. NY-10003. MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study? Dr. Parekh: The objective of the study was to investigate disturbances in blood glucose levels in relation to risk of obesity-related cancers. We observed an increased risk of obesity-related cancers, specifically colon cancer among persons with abnormal glucose values. These findings were stronger among persons who had this abnormality for longer duration (>10years). (more…)