StemCell Therapy

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The Wilkes-Barre and Greater Scranton YMCAs are launching a free diabetes prevention program.

The two nonprofits are starting to sign people up now for these free classes that begin on March 15.

Newswatch 16's Ryan Leckey visited the Wilkes-Barre YMCA on Monday tolearn more about the program and how you can signup.

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Several other YMCAs across northeastern and central Pennsylvania have already started similar programs or plan to in the months to come including the YMCA in Carbondale.

If you don't live in the Wilkes-Barre or Scranton area, you're encouraged to call your local YMCA to see if the facility is offering the program.

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To find learn more about the yearlong program, how to signup, and to take the test to see if you're at risk for type II diabetes, head here!

For furtherquestions, contact Shadia Lahlou, the Senior Director of Chronic Disease Programs. Her email is slahlou@greaterscrantonymca.org and her phone is570-342-8115.

Take a look at this live Q & A about the program from Ryan Leckey's Facebook page.

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Watching Your Sugar: Area YMCAs Launch Free Diabetes Prevention Program - wnep.com

By Marlene Cimons By Marlene Cimons February 19

Women typically dont develop heart disease or high blood pressure, one of its major risk factors until after menopause. But if you have diabetes, that rule no longer applies, says Christine Maric-Bilkan, a program officer in the vascular biology and hypertension branch of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute.

Diabetes dramatically increases the risk of heart disease at any age overall, people with diabetes are twice as likely to have heart disease or a stroke as are other people and its impact tends to be greater in women than in men, she says. Diabetes, a disease in which the body either doesnt produce enough insulin (Type 1) or cannot use it properly (Type 2), can cause spikes in blood sugar. Over time, these spikes can damage nerves and blood vessels, putting diabetics at elevated risk of heart disease and stroke.

Uncontrolled diabetes also contributes to vision loss, kidney failure and amputations, according to the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases.

[What you need to know about those new, deadly heart-surgery infections]

People with diabetes are up to four times as likely to develop cardiovascular disease as are people who do not have diabetes, according to the Cleveland Clinic. Women with diabetes are twice as likely to suffer a second heart attack and four times as likely to suffer heart failure as are women who do not have the disease, according to the American Diabetes Association.

The risk of developing hypertension doubles in men and quadruples in women if you have diabetes, Maric-Bilkan says. (Hypertension is a major contributor to heart disease.)

There is something about diabetes that takes away the protective factor against heart disease that premenopausal women seem to have, something probably related to estrogen, she says. Women are not impacted by heart disease as much as men at younger ages, but once they have diabetes, that protection is lost and diabetes has an overall greater impact on women, compared with men, at all ages.

In 2011, Maric-Bilkan tested a small group of premenopausal Finnish women with Type 1 diabetes and found that they all had lower-than-normal estrogen levels.

[Diabetes was once a problem of the rich. Now it belongs to the poor.]

I dont know if they got diabetes because their estrogen levels were reduced, or the reverse, she says. One thought is that its the estrogen that gives protection, but men with diabetes, who also have a greater risk of heart disease, have high estrogen and low testosterone, the opposite of women. So the high estrogen doesnt protect men. Diabetic women have more testosterone than non-diabetic women, so it may have to do with the balance of hormones.

She stresses that the risk of death from heart disease is exceptionally high in women with early-onset [Type 1] diabetes compared with women in the general population, according to a study she authored.

Women with diabetes need to understand that the risk of getting heart disease is significant, and they need to be aware of it, she says.

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Women with diabetes are especially prone to developing heart ... - Washington Post

There are a lot of barriers standing between the average youth soccer player and a career as a professional. Theres competition, fitness, skills, bad coaching. Jordan Morris had one more barrier to deal with. He was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes when he was nine.

You dont see a ton of professional soccer players with diabetes, Morris tells Sounder at Heart. My dad recently told me he didnt even think Id be able to play soccer in college.

Having Type 1 diabetes means that Morris pancreas doesnt produce insulin. After eating, sugar and other nutrients enter the blood stream, and insulin helps the body absorb that sugar and turn it into energy. Morris wears an insulin pump, a cell phone-sized device that gives him a steady stream of insulin throughout the day, and more whenever he eats.

Zach Galifianakis surrounded by math in the Hangover

A lot of being a diabetic is trying to keep the amount of sugar in the blood within a specific range. That requires constantly paying attention to insulin, exercise, and food intake. It can feel a bit like living in that gif of Zach Galifianakis enshrouded in a swirling cloud of calculations. Insulin lowers blood sugars. With some exceptions, exercise also lowers them and food has the opposite effect.

Even for diabetics with the best control, the disease is a major health issue. Low blood sugars can make a diabetic feel lightheaded or blur their vision. Serious low blood sugars, although rare, can cause loss of consciousness. On the other hand, high blood sugars can mean headaches or nausea and, if left untreated, can lead to comas.

When I was newly diagnosed, it was scary, Morris says. It was tough. There were a lot of questions going through my mind.

Morris profusely credits his parents (his dad is the Sounders team doctor, and his mom was a nurse) for helping him early on. He had to learn to check his blood sugar multiple times a day: when he eats, exercises, wakes up, goes to bed, or just feels off. Before meals he has to count how many carbs hes going to have, so that he knows how much insulin to give himself, because the body converts most carbs into sugar. He carries a backpack around with diabetes supplies he might need in an emergency.

In his journey from high school to college to Major League Soccer, he has gotten better at dealing with the disease, largely because of how well he has gotten to know his body. Things like how sensitive a diabetic is to insulin (in other words, how much insulin they give themselves for how many carbs they eat, or how much their blood sugar is off), can change based on things as simple as the time of day. So knowing your body helps. Morris has a specific food that he knows works well when he has low blood sugar: fruit snacks. Nowadays, most of his diabetes management is up to him.

Its pretty much all me doing it, Morris says. [The Sounders] obviously do normal dietary stuff with athletes, but in terms of my diabetes, its me kind of having to deal with it, because I know my body best.

Even with all the knowledge that he has stored up, with all he knows about how his body reacts to different stimuli, dealing with the diabetes is still difficult. He has to deal with the fact that no matter how much calculation he does, things can still go wrong.

I think the toughest part about diabetes is its so unpredictable, he says. You can eat the same things, do the same work out a couple days in a row and your blood sugar will turn out differently at the end. Its just different days lead to different blood sugars.

And being a professional adds new difficulties too. Adrenaline raises blood sugars, meaning that on gameday, when hes looking up from the turf at a sea of screaming fans, the same thing that energizes him to play his best is also going to cause a spike in his blood sugars if he doesnt counter it with the exact right amount of insulin.

He fine-tuned how he deals with the adrenaline over the 2016 season. During a game against Portland, his blood sugar went low and he had to scramble over to the sidelines to eat some gummies. He said that during the MLS Cup final in Toronto he came into the locker room feeling sick, checked his blood sugar, and found out it was high. That was annoying.

If things arent right with your blood sugar, youre not going to be as efficient on the field, he said. Obviously as a professional athlete everything should be focused on the game, and not on your diabetes.

Dave Tenney, the Sounders High Performance Director, is impressed with Morris diabetes management. Whatever Jordan says, I trust him, because I know what hes been through and that hes learned to listen to his body better than the average (21)-year-old, Tenney told the Seattle Times last October.

Morris says hes proud of how he has dealt with his diabetes, and of course for making it to MLS, too. Now that hes a Sounder, he says hes trying to be a role model for younger kids. Diabetic athletes Jay Cutler and Adam Morrison gave him hope growing up, and he likes giving that same hope to a new generation of young diabetics.

When I was a kid, I told myself I wasnt going to let it hold me back, and now that my dreams become a reality, its pretty special to see that thats happened. I think it taught me how to be responsible at such a young age. I had to deal with this disease that you have to be constantly aware of. I definitely dont think Id be the person I am today without it.

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Type 1 diabetes didn't stop Jordan Morris - Sounder At Heart - Sounder At Heart

February 20, 2017 by Jos Cibelli, The Conversation More Dollies, cloned from the same cell line. Credit: Kevin Sinclair, University of Nottingham, CC BY-ND

In 1997 Dolly the sheep was introduced to the world by biologists Keith Campbell, Ian Wilmut and colleagues. Not just any lamb, Dolly was a clone. Rather than being made from a sperm and an egg, she originated from a mammary gland cell of another, no-longer-living, six-year-old Fynn Dorset ewe.

With her birth, a scientific and societal revolution was also born.

Some prominent scientists raised doubts; it was too good to be true. But more animals were cloned: first the laboratory mouse, then cows, goats, pigs, horses, even dogs, ferrets and camels. By early 2000, the issue was settled: Dolly was real and cloning adults was possible.

The implications of cloning animals in our society were self-evident from the start. Our advancing ability to reprogram adult, already specialized cells and start them over as something new may one day be the key to creating cells and organs that match the immune system of each individual patient in need of replacements.

But what somehow got lost was the fact that a clone was born at day zero created from the cell of another animal that was six years old. Researchers have spent the past 20 years trying to untangle the mysteries of how clones age. How old, biologically, are these animals born from other adult animals' cells?

Decades of cloning research

Dolly became an international celebrity, but she was not the first vertebrate to be cloned from a cell taken from the body of another animal. In 1962, developmental biologist John Gurdon cloned the first adult animal by taking a cell from the intestine of one frog and injecting it into an egg of another. Gurdon's work did not go unnoticed he went on to share the 2012 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. But it was Dolly who had captured our imagination. Was it because she was a warm-blooded animal, a mammal, much closer to human? If you could do it in a sheep, you could do it on us!

Dolly, along with Gurdon's frogs from 35 years earlier and all the other experiments in between, redirected our scientific studies. It was amazing to see a differentiated cell an adult cell specialized to do its particular job transform into an embryonic one that could go on to give rise to all the other cells of a normal body. We researchers wondered if we could go further: Could we in the lab make an adult cell once again undifferentiated, without needing to make a cloned embryo?

A decade after Dolly was announced, stem cell researcher Shynia Yamanaka's team did just that. He went on to be the Nobel corecipient with Gurdon for showing that mature cells could be reprogrammed to become pluripotent: able to develop into any specialized adult cell.

Now we have the possibility of making individualized replacement cells potentially any kind to replace tissue damaged due to injury, genetic disorders and degeneration. Not only cells; we may soon be able to have our own organs grown in a nonhuman host, ready to be transplanted when needed.

If Dolly was responsible for unleashing the events that culminate with new methods of making fully compatible cells and organs, then her legacy would be to improve the health of practically all human beings on this planet. And yet, I am convinced that there are even better things to come.

Dolly's secrets still unfolding

In the winter of 2013, I found myself driving on the wrong side of the road through the Nottingham countryside. In contrast to the luscious landscape, I was in a state gloom; I was on my way to see Keith Campbell's family after his sudden death a few weeks earlier. Keith was a smart, fun, loving friend who, along with Ian Wilmut and colleagues at the Roslin Institute, had brought us Dolly 15 years earlier. We had met at a conference in the early 1990s, when we were both budding scientists playing around with cloning, Keith with sheep, me with cows. An extrovert by nature, he quickly dazzled me with his wit, self-deprecating humor and nonstop chat, all delivered in a thick West Midlands accent. Our friendship that began then continued until his death.

When I knocked at the door of his quaint farmhouse, my plan was to stay just a few minutes, pay my respects to his wife and leave. Five hours and several Guinnesses later, I left feeling grateful. Keith could do that to you, but this time it wasn't him, it was his latest work speaking for him. That's because his wife very generously told me the project Keith was working on at the time of his death. I couldn't hide my excitement: Could it be possible that after 20 years, the most striking aspect of Dolly's legacy was not yet revealed?

See, when Dolly was cloned, she was created using a cell from a six-year-old sheep. And she died at age six and a half, a premature death for a breed that lives an average of nine years or more. People assumed that an offspring cloned from an adult was starting at an age disadvantage; rather than truly being a "newborn," it seemed like a clone's internal age would be more advanced that the length of its own life would suggest. Thus the notion that clones' biological age and their chronological one were out of sync, and that "cloned animals will die young."

Some of us were convinced that if the cloning procedure was done properly, the biological clock should be reset a newborn clone would truly start at zero. We worked very hard to prove our point. We were not convinced by a single DNA analysis done in Dolly showing slightly shorter telomeres the repetitive DNA sequences at the end of chromosomes that "count" how many times a cell divides. We presented strong scientific evidence showing that cloned cows had all the same molecular signs of aging as a nonclone, predicting a normal lifespan. Others showed the same in cloned mice. But we couldn't ignore reports from colleagues interpreting biological signs in cloned animals that they attributed to incomplete resetting of the biological clock. So the jury was out.

Aging studies are very hard to do because there are only two data points that really count: date of birth and date of death. If you want to know the lifespan of an individual you have to wait until its natural death. Little did I know, that is what Keith was doing back in 2012.

That Saturday afternoon I spent in Keith's house in Nottingham, I saw a photo of the animals in Keith's latest study: several cloned Dollies, all much older than Dolly at the time she had died, and they looked terrific. I was in awe.

The data were confidential, so I had to remain silent until late last year when the work was posthumously published. Keith's coauthors humbly said: "For those clones that survive beyond the perinatal period [] the emerging consensus, supported by the current data, is that they are healthy and seem to age normally."

These findings became even more relevant when last December researchers at the Scripps Research Institute found that induced pluripotent stem cells reprogrammed using the "Yamanaka factors" retain the aging epigenetic signature of the donor individual. In other words, using these four genes to attempt to reprogram the cells does not seem to reset the biological clock.

The new Dollies are now telling us that if we take a cell from an animal of any age, and we introduce its nucleus into a nonfertilized mature egg, we can have an individual born with its lifespan fully restored. They confirmed that all signs of biological and chronological age matched between cloned and noncloned sheep.

There seems to be a natural built-in mechanism in the eggs that can rejuvenate a cell. We don't know what it is yet, but it is there. Our group as well as others are hard at work, and as soon as someone finds it, the most astonishing legacy of Dolly will be realized.

Explore further: How much do you know about Dolly the Sheep?

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

This week marked the 20th anniversary of the birth of arguably the most famous sheep that ever chewed grass. Dolly was created at The Roslin Institute, Scotland, which receives long-term strategic funding from BBSRC.

It's now 20 years since the birth of Dolly the sheep, the first mammal to be cloned. This groundbreaking scientific achievement was accompanied by warnings that Dolly might age prematurely because she had been cloned from ...

(AP)Keith Campbell, a prominent biologist who worked on cloning Dolly the sheep, has died at 58, the University of Nottingham said Thursday.

Three weeks after the scientific world marked the 20th anniversary of the birth of Dolly the sheep new research, published by The University of Nottingham, in the academic journal Nature Communications has shown that four ...

There's a three- or four-way dispute among British scientists about who deserves the credit for Dolly, the first cloned sheep.

A petition has called on Britain's Queen Elizabeth II to take away the knighthood she bestowed on Ian Wilmut for his cloning of the sheep Dolly.

The winter habits of Britain's basking sharks have been revealed for the first time.

What looks like a caterpillar chewing on a leaf or a beetle consuming fruit is likely a three-way battle that benefits most, if not all of the players involved, according to a Penn State entomologist.

By tagging individual bumblebees with microchips, biologists have gained insights into the daily life of a colony of bumblebees (Bombus impatiens) in unprecedented detail. The team found that while most bees are generalists ...

Climate change from political and ecological standpoints is a constant in the media and with good reason, said a Texas A&M AgriLife Research scientist, but proof of its impact is sometimes found in unlikely places.

At what point on the journey along the branches of the evolutionary tree does a population become its own, unique species? And is a species still distinct, if it mates with a different, but closely related species? Evolutionary ...

New research involving Monash University biologists has debunked the view thatmalesjust pass on genetic materialand not much else to their offspring. Instead, it found a father's diet can affect their son's ability ...

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More lessons from Dolly the sheepis a clone really born at age zero? - Phys.Org

WATERBURY, Vt. A nonprofit group co-founded by a University of Utah professor working to cure blindness in Nepal and other developing countries is one of eight semifinalists for a $100 million grant from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.

The Himalayan Cataract Project, based out of a rented office in a church parsonage in Vermont, has been working for years to train local health care providers to perform cataract and laser surgery in Nepal and other countries.

The organization was co-founded in 1995 by Nepalese Dr. Sanduk Ruit and Dr. Geoff Tabin, formerly of the University of Vermont Medical Center and now at the University of Utah.

"They had a shared motivation that the right to sight is a human right and that no one anywhere in the world should receive care of a different or lower quality," said Job Heintz, chief executive officer of the nonprofit formed in 2003 to carry out the doctors' vision. It now has 10 employees and an annual budget of about $9 million.

The organization has provided eye care for thousands of patients over the years by training health care providers and providing equipment and other infrastructure.

"The quality of eye health care has dramatically risen, nowhere better than in Nepal," Heintz said.

The Chicago-based MacArthur Foundation recently announced that the Cataract Project was chosen as semifinalist from among 1,904 proposals for the $100 million grant program. The foundation says the competition is for "proposals promising real progress toward solving a critical problem of our time in any field or any location."

The winner would receive the entire $100 million.

Other semifinalists include Catholic Relief Services in Baltimore, which is working to change the way children are cared for in orphanages; and the Carter Center in Atlanta, which is working to eliminate river blindness in Nigeria.

The winner will be chosen in December.

The Cataract Project got its start at the Tilganga Eye Centre in Kathmandu, Nepal, which performed its first outpatient cataract surgery in 1994. Ruit and Tabin started the Cataract Project a year later.

The Tilganga Centre now sees about 1,000 patients a day for a variety of eye care needs.

Tabin worked at what is now the University of Vermont Medical Center from 1995 to 2005. The project opened Vermont offices in Waterbury and Norwich in 2003.

The Cataract Project already has expanded its operations to a number of other countries, but the grant would be to expand operations in Nepal, Ethiopia and Ghana.

If it wins the grant, the organization would increase the work it currently does, such as training doctors and support staff in their home countries and at other locations, including the United States.

"We know what we would do with every dollar," Heintz said.

Excerpt from:
Nonprofit seeking to cure blindness up for $100M grant - Deseret News

February 20, 2017 6:42am NASDAQ:IBB

The biotech sector has gotten a lot of attention lately both in the financial markets and in Washington. The sector, which was one of the worst performing areas of the market in 2016 posting a loss of more than 20%, has started posting gains again and is looking like the rally may be poised to continue.

The biggest play in the sector, the iShares Nasdaq Biotechnology ETF (IBB), is up more than 10% on the year (its smaller equal weight counterpart, the SPDR S&P Biotech ETF (XBI), is up over 17%).

The sector has alternatively gotten good and bad news from the White House. For many months, there has been talk of lowering drug prices through open competition or price caps putting pressure on the big drug manufacturers. On the other hand, President Trump spoke recently of his desire to reform the entire drug approval process in order to speed the approval of life-saving medications and cutting the red tape at the FDA. That notion was welcomed by the equity markets even though it received a tepid response from big pharma companies.

One thing working in favor of biotech right now is M&A and the big prize could be Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMY). A StreetInsider article from this week called the company in play and listed Roche (RHHBY), Novartis (NVS), Gilead (GILD) and Pfizer (PFE) all as potential buyers. Acadia Pharmaceuticals (ACAD) could also be up for grabs with Biogen (BIBB) rumored to be a possible bidder. In its quarterly analyst meeting, Amgens (AMGN) CEO Bob Bradway discussed how his company was going to be on the lookout for acquisitions both big and small.

Even Gilead, the big biotech that just caught Wall Street off guard when it significantly lowered 2017 revenue guidance due to weak sales in its hepatitis C drugs, even provided some reason for optimism. The stock dropped roughly 10% on its weak forecast, from a pre-earnings level of around $73 down to a post-announcement low in the $65 area. Since then, however, it has, somewhat surprisingly, begun rallying anew. The stock closed Friday at $70, gaining back nearly of what was lost. Does this signal something of a capitulation point and indicate that buyers are ready to return?

From a technical standpoint, the fund just broke out to the upside from a wedge pattern that has been forming over the past several months.

I wrote earlier this month that I felt the Biotech ETF could close out February above $300 if it could break through the resistance level around $285. It has and now it feels like that $300 level is well within reach.

Despite its rally so far this year, the fund is still about 13% off of its 2016 highs and 26% off of its all-time highs. Valuations in the sector look very reasonable right now as well. Thomson Reuters estimates put the forward P/E of the sector at less than 13, a level it hasnt seen in several years.

Gileads results notwithstanding, the Q4 earnings season has been pretty good for biotech. Big players such as Amgen, Celgene (CELG), Illumina (ILMN) and Vertex Pharmaceuticals (VRTX) all top 10 holdings in the fund popped strongly after announcing earnings. If the sector can continue posting generally good revenue and earnings results and get a little help from the White House along the way, this could be a nice spot to add a few shares.

The iShares Nasdaq Biotechnology ETF (NASDAQ:IBB) closed at $294.35 on Friday, up $1.37 (+0.47%). Year-to-date, IBB has gained 10.92%, versus a 5.17% rise in the benchmark S&P 500 index during the same period.

IBB currently has an ETF Daily News SMART Grade of A (Strong Buy), and is ranked #2 of 36 ETFs in the Health & Biotech ETFs category.

About the Author: David Dierking

David Dierking is a freelance writer focusing primarily on ETFs, mutual funds, dividend income strategies and retirement planning. He has spent more than 20 years in the financial services industry and his background includes experience in investment management, portfolio analytics and asset/liability management at both BMO Financial Group and Strong Capital Management.

He has written for Seeking Alpha, Motley Fool, ETF Trends and Investopedia and was also included in the panel for ETFReference.coms 101 ETF Investing Tips from the Experts. He has a B.A. in Finance from Michigan State University and lives in Wisconsin with his wife and two daughters.

You can connect with David on Twitter and LinkedIn. Also be sure to visit his new website, ETFFocus.com.

Tags: biotech david dierking NASDAQ:IBB

Categories: NASDAQ:IBB

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This Biotech ETF Looks Primed To Rally Again - ETF Daily News (blog)

Cardiovascular disease describes a set of conditions which affect the heart or blood vessels - which includes life-threatening problems such as heart attacks and stroke.

Rheumatoid arthritis is a long-term condition that causes pain, swelling and stiffness in the joints and mainly affects the hands feet and wrists.

The National Rheumatoid Arthritis Society (NRAS) - has set out to help people with rheumatoid arthritis to understand why they are at increased risk of cardiovascular disease - and the impact the condition can have on the heart.

Dr Holly John, consultant rheumatologist, said: The increased risk of CVD for RA sufferers has the same level of severity as those who suffer with type 2 diabetes.

GETTY

Its astonishing how many people with RA don't know that their condition could be detrimental to their heart.

The NRAS has launched a programme Love Your Heart, developed in partnership with Dr Holly John.

The organisation is making the programme widely available to everyone with this serious autoimmune condition so that they have the opportunity to lower their CVD risk.

Dr John said: Once aware, its very easy to manage risk factors from home with a healthier lifestyle, so Love Your Heart will be able to significantly raise awareness of this and help to address this major co-morbidity which can shorten the lives of those with RA.

GETTY

Its astonishing how many people with rheumatoid arthritis don't know that their condition could be detrimental to their heart

Dr Holly John

While experts said it is not clear exactly why people with rheumatoid arthritis are at increased risk, experts suggest people can reduce their risk of the condition by making sure arthritis is well controlled and even stopping smoking, eating more healthily and exercising regularly.

People with diabetes also have a higher chance of developing diabetes.

Blood vessels are damaged by high blood glucose levels, high blood pressure, smoking or high levels of cholesterol.

This is why it is important for people with diabetes to manage these levels by making lifestyle changes such as eating a healthy diet, taking part in regular activity, reducing weight if you are overweight and stopping smoking.

Getty

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Top 10 foods for better heart health

GETTY

The online programme will help sufferers understand why RA increases risk, calculate a score as to why rheumatoid arthritis increases risk and learn how to reduce the risk of CVD.

Ailsa Bosworth, Founder of NRAS said: In spite of the numbers of people with rheumatoid arthritis in the UK - 690,000- it does not have the public awareness of diseases such as Parkinsons and Multiple Sclerosis.

"It is still a relatively misunderstood and invisible disease.

Getting to a diagnosis can therefore often be challenging as people dont recognise the symptoms as a medical emergency. Equally, the increased risk of CVD is relatively unknown andso Im really excited to be working with Dr. John and hope that the Love your Heart programme will help all those with RA, like myself, to lead a longer and healthier life by addressing those risk factors that are within our own control.

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Diabetes or rheumatoid arthritis - conditions put YOU at greater risk of THIS disease - Express.co.uk

Home General Health Weekly health news roundup: Arthritis treatment, diabetic kidney disease, numbness, and tingling in legs

In case you missed it, here is Bel Marra Healths weekly health news roundup, featuring information on arthritis treatment, diabetic kidney disease, and numbness and tingling in the legs.

Researchers from Washington University in St. Louis are developing a new treatment for arthritis that can ease symptoms and make existing medications more effective. Injuries such as a twisted ankle, broken hip, and torn knee cartilage can have long-term side effects including arthritis, joint degeneration, osteoarthritis, and inflammation that could result in chronic pain. The team, led by professor Lori Setton, have found that silk particles can aid in the delivery of existing medications to affected areas that are sometimes hard to reach. Continue reading

Diabetic kidney disease is very difficult to treat, though a new study from Karolinska Institutet has shown promising results in preventing this disease from worsening.

The disease is also referred to as diabetic kidney failure, and is the biggest reason patients undergo dialysissometimes, they may even require kidney transplantation. It is often detected through the leakage of plasma proteins into the urine, as well as through issues in the filtration of waste from the blood and reduced urine production. Patients withdiabetic kidney diseasehave a buildup of lipid droplets in the kidneys, though previous research had not been able to determine the reason for this or whether it accelerated the deterioration of the kidneys. Continue reading

Numbness and tingling can occur in one or both legs and comes with a variety of symptoms. Continue reading to learn why this sensation occurs, potential complications that may arise, and when you should notify your doctor, as well as some common remedies to treat your pain. Continue reading

As we age, bone health becomes a big concern. The older we get, the more susceptible we become to bone diseases likeosteoporosis. The loss of bone density puts our bones at risk for fractures and breaks, which can negatively impact the quality of our life.

Developing a disability in old age as a result of broken bones can leave us bed-ridden, which has been linked to aggravation of existing health conditions or even contributing to the development of new problems. Old-age disability is also associated with a loss of autonomy, as we are no longer able to do things for ourselves and have to rely on the help of others. Breaking a bone is even linked to mental health issues, as a bed-ridden patient is more likely to become depressed or anxious. Continue reading

Menopause is a natural part of aging for women, beginning on average at the age of 51. The period that is often referred to as menopause is actually called perimenopause, one of the three stages of menopause. Perimenopause is the time when a womans body begins to transition into menopause, and it is marked by hot flashes, night sweats, and vaginal dryness. This lasts until the last menstrual period, which is typically three to five years after perimenopause begins. Perimenopause often begins in the 40s, but some women can even enter it in their 30s, and it can last for up to 10 years.

There are a few reasons for early perimenopause, the biggest being smoking, having never been pregnant, and living at high altitudes. Also, if you have your ovaries removed, your menopause will appear suddenly. Continue reading

Related: New research links Crohns disease to arthritis

Related Reading:

Osteoarthritis (degenerative arthritis): Causes, symptoms, and treatment

Rheumatoid arthritis and feet: The connection and feet arthritis pain relief tips

Excerpt from:
Weekly health news roundup: Arthritis treatment, diabetic kidney ... - Bel Marra Health

Chronological aging shows the natural life cycle of the cells as opposed to cells that have been unnaturally replicated multiple times or otherwise manipulated in a lab.

In order to preserve the cells in their natural state, Penn researchers developed a system to collect and store them without manipulating them, making them available for this study. They found stem cells collected directly from human fat -- called adipose-derived stem cells (ASCs) -- can make more proteins than originally thought. This gives them the ability to replicate and maintain their stability, a finding that held true in cells collected from patients of all ages.

Our study shows these cells are very robust, even when they are collected from older patients, said Ivona Percec, MD, director of Basic Science Research in the Center for Human Appearance and the studys lead author. It also shows these cells can be potentially used safely in the future, because they require minimal manipulation and maintenance.

Stem cells are currently used in a variety of anti-aging treatments and are commonly collected from a variety of tissues. But Percecs team specifically found ASCs to be more stable than other cells, a finding that can potentially open the door to new therapies for the prevention and treatment of aging-related diseases.

Unlike other adult human stem cells, the rate at which these ASCs multiply stays consistent with age, Percec said.

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Stem Cell therapy is future of anti-ageing - Bangalore Mirror

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AJ Foyt planning to undergo stem cell therapy USA TODAY Foyt, 82, told IndyCar.com Saturday during a Verizon IndyCar Series test at Phoenix International Raceway that he plans to undergo stem cell therapy, likely in Cancun, Mexico, with injections into both ankles and shoulders as well as his blood. Foyt ... New Nanofiber Stem Cell Therapy Developed By Kyoto UniversityUniversity Herald Local Physician Offers Latest in Stem Cell TherapyPR Leap (press release) Stem Cell Therapy Market Is Expected to Reach USD 60.94 Billion by 2022Digital Journal all 12 news articles »

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AJ Foyt planning to undergo stem cell therapy - USA TODAY

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Las Vegas, Nevada (PRWEB) February 20, 2017

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Over 85% of patients benefit from the regenerative medicine procedures. Call (844) GET-STEM for more information and scheduling with the top stem cell therapy in Las Vegas.

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I stare at a computer for entirely too many hours a day more than Id care to think about and by the end of the week, I feel it. At least, my eyes do.

Eye strain from staring at a computer is so common it has its own name: computer vision syndrome. And its pretty widespread, though estimates of its prevalence vary. The symptoms will probably sound familiar: blurry vision, headaches, dry eyes, watery eyes, and tired eyes.

For most people, these symptoms are temporary

For most people these symptoms are temporary, and if you stop using a computer for a while, theyll go away. The bad news is that these symptoms can occur if youre looking at a computer for two hours. If youre like me, you look at computers a lot more than that.

Computers are harder on the eyes than printed pages in part because we blink less. Our blink rate drops by a third when were reading on screens, leaving our eyes dry, according to the University of Iowa. There are some other reasons, too, the American Optometric Association says: the contrast between characters isnt as strong on a screen as in a book, and letters are less precisely rendered. All of these things make the eyes work harder, leaving them tired. Staring at the screen from a less-than-ideal angle only exacerbates the discomfort. Ideally, you should be looking slightly down at your screen at a 15 to 20 degree angle and it should be placed about 20 to 28 inches from your eyes.

It helps to take rest breaks. Every 20 minutes youre on the computer, take 20 seconds to stare at something 20 feet away optometrists call this the 20-20-20 rule. After two hours of continuous computer use, take 15 minutes away from the screen to rest your eyes. Some people who dont ordinarily wear glasses may also benefit from getting computer-specific specs. These glasses reduce glare and increase contrast, so your eyes dont have to work as hard when youre working with spreadsheets or writing fire tweets. Working at a computer also gets more difficult as you age and your eyes are less flexible. Contact lens wearers may deal with more dryness and blurriness, because you already blink less while wearing contacts. I often wear my glasses instead of my contacts I find that helps. I also use lubricating eye drops, so my eyes dont feel as parched.

If youre having trouble after a long day of staring at the computer, it might be worth saying hello to your eye doctor people with undiagnosed alterations in their vision are more at risk for eye strain. But the good news is that your vision is probably going to be fine in the long run. Just try to be kind to your eyes.

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You aren't going to go blind from staring at a computer too long - The ... - The Verge

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A study found a bout of low intensity exercise boosts neurons that process visual information.

But the same benefit was not seen in more vigorous physical activity - which was no more effective than remaining sedentary.

The finding adds to growing evidence that remaining relatively fit helps cut the risk of poor vision.

Previous research has found people who have regular activity three or more times a week are almost three and a half times less likely to develop visual impairment.

In the latest study participants rode stationary bikes while wearing a wireless heart rate monitor and an EEG (electroencephalogram) which measures electrical activity in the brain.

At the same time the 18 volunteers performed a simple viewing task using high contrast stimuli composed of alternating black and white bars presented at one of nine spatial orientations.

These were performed while at rest and during bouts of both low and high intensity exercise.

Interestingly, just the light work out improved the visual cortex, the part of the brain that plays an important role in processing visual information.

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Psychologist Dr Tom Bullock, of the University of California, Santa Barbara, said: We found the peak response is enhanced during low intensity exercise relative to rest and high intensity exercise.

His team had fed the recorded brain data into a computational model that allowed them to estimate the responses of the neurons activated by the visual stimuli.

They were able to generate a 'tuning curve,' which estimates how well the brain cells are representing the different orientations.

Dr Bullock said: We also found the curve narrows in, which suggests a reduction in bandwidth.

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Common health myths and old wives' tales

Together, the increased gain and reduced bandwidth suggest these neurons are becoming more sensitive to the stimuli presented during the low intensity exercise condition relative to the other conditions.

The researchers said it is universally accepted the benefits of exercise go well beyond fitness, from reducing the risk of disease to improving sleep and enhancing mood.

Physical activity gives cognitive function a boost as well as fortifying memory and safeguarding thinking skills.

But the study, published in the Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, suggests it can also improve vision.

Recent research neuron firing rates in the regions of mouse and fly brains associated with visual processing increase during physical activity, so Dr Bullock and colleagues wanted to know if the same might be true for humans.

Professor Barry Giesbrecht said: We show the increased activation - what we call arousal - changes how information is represented, and it is much more selective.

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That is important to understand because how that information then gets used could potentially be different.

There's an interesting cross-species link that shows these effects of arousal might have similar consequences for how visual information is processed.

That implies the evolution of something that might provide a competitive advantage in some way.

But they don't know the mechanism by which this is occurring. He said: There are some hints that it may be driven by specific neurotransmitters that increase global cortical excitability and that can account for the change in the gain and the increase in the peak response of these tuning profiles.

From a broader perspective, this work underscores the importance of exercise.

Professor Giesbrecht added: In fact, the benefits of brief bouts of exercise might provide a better and more tractable way to influence information processing - versus, say, brain training games or meditation - and in a way that is not tied to a particular task.

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Exercise is GOOD for eyesight: Going for a brisk walk could improve your vision - Express.co.uk

The myth stems from the1960s, when a company sold faulty colour televisions that emitted excessive amounts of radiation due to a factory error

MOST of us will be familiar with our parents telling us off for sitting too close to the TV for fear wed end up with square eyes.

But it turns out there is zero truth to the myth that putting our faces too close to the screens is damaging toour eyesight.

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While it may land you with a headache, its certainly not going to impair your vision.

So where did this bizarre ruse come from?

The myth actually dates back to a time in the late 1960s, when for a brief period sitting too close to the TV could actually cause you some harm that is, if you owned aGeneral Electric set.

In 1967, the company admitted that many of their colour televisions were emitting excessive radiation,due to a factory error.

At the time, healthofficials estimated the amount of dodgy x-rayscoming from these defective TVs was around 10 to 100,000 times higher than was then deemed acceptable.

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As a result, they recommended keeping kids a safe distance away.

They pointed out that as long as you put several feet between you and the TV, and didnt watch it for more than an hour at a time at close range, most likely youd be fine.

Eventually General Electric recalled the faultyTVs and fixed the problem by addinga leaded glass shield around the tubes.

This made pressing your nose up against the screen perfectly safe once again, though the stigma has lingered to this day.

Alamy

While sitting close to the TVmay not make a person nearsighted, the reason they feel the necessity to sit in such close proximity may be because they are nearsighted and undiagnosed.

If you or your child habitually sit too close to the television for comfort, it might be worthwhile getting your eyes tested.

Watching too much TV may also cause eye strain and fatigue make sure you turn it off early enough to get a good nights sleep.

Think youve got expert vision?Only people with superb eyesight can see these virtually invisible objects in this test.

Last year we told how toddlers who watch too much TV grow into antisocial misfits who can become violent at 13.

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It's a myth that sitting too close to the TV damages your eyesight, and here's why - The Sun

Remember the lines in that great old song? Jeepers, creepers, whered you get those peepers? Jeepers, creepers, whered you get those eyes?

When it comes to aging, that phrase should be Jeepers, creepers, take care of those eyes!

Myth: Live long enough and you wont be able to see a thing.

Despite lyrical language about our eyes, loss of vision typically feels inevitable, as we get older. By middle age, most of us are feel the need to carry reading glasses everywhere and joking about needing longer arms to help read the fine print of this newspaper and just about everything else. Add a couple of decades, and we resign ourselves to living with the fuzzy blur of cataracts until were eligible to have them surgically removed.

We anticipate changes in our sight as normal aging. But specific changes in vision are not well understood. Consequently, many of us often think aberrations are normal and not likely to seek guidance from an eye care specialist.

Reality: Age-related vision changes are relatively limited while eye diseases common in later life can result in permanent vision loss if untreated.

The eye ages in several important ways. Normal age-related changes result in specific differences in vision, some of which are easily apparent and others of which are harder to see, if you'll pardon my pun.

The change that gets almost all our attention is presbyopia literally "old eyes." Beginning early in adulthood, the lens of the eye begins to lose flexibility making it harder to focus from near to far and back again. Sometime in the 40s, this lose becomes noticeable. Around age 60 or so, flexibility plateaus, resulting in no further loss of near vision.

Presbyopia is worse with fatigue. The tiny muscles in the eye that work to flex the lens and focus our eyes get tired just like other muscles. Close work think of using a computer, reading for long periods, or doing things like sewing makes the eyes dry, which in turn makes presbyopic vision worse.

Other visual differences that come with age are more noticeable in particular situations. Sensitivity to glare is more bothersome at night while driving and in buildings with shiny floors and bright lights.

Some changes in vision that occur more frequently as we age are actually signs of eye diseases. They create serious risk to sight if ignored. While cataracts are the most familiar eye condition in later life, knowing about the less familiar diseases of glaucoma and macular degeneration is critical.

Cataracts are a clouding of the lens of the eye, creating foggy looking vision with difficult seeing colors clearly as well. Cataracts occur when normal aging changes combine with damage from personal habits like smoking, diseases like diabetes and environmental exposures especially ultraviolet light (UV).

By 80, the majority of us have cataracts or have had them surgically removed. Surgery is the welcome part of having cataracts. Surgery removes the damaged lens and inserts a new, prosthetic version, literally restoring vision.

Curative treatment is not yet possible with glaucoma and macular degeneration. These two less common but more problematic eye diseases require early detection and continuous treatment to stabilize vision and protect against blindness.

Glaucoma is a disease where pressure inside the eyeball itself gets too high. There are two primary forms but open angle glaucoma is the most common. It is painless and there are no initial symptoms.

High pressures in the eye damage the optic nerve over time creating gradual loss of peripheral or side vision over time. Untreated, glaucoma can progress to complete blindness. African Americans, Mexican Americans and people over 60 are at greater risk.

Age-related macular degeneration or AMD results in visual loss that is the opposite of that in glaucoma. The macula is a special spot in the center of the retina, at the back of the eyeball. The macula contains specialized cells for sharp, central vision.

With AMD, ability to see what is right in front of us fades. Reading, driving, and anything for which we need to see what is right in front of us is lost. Advanced AMD does not create total blindness but it does make those with advanced disease functionally blind. Smoking along with family history increase likelihood of developing AMD.

Tips: Young or old, take care of your eyes.

Protecting our eyes is essential to our vision as we age. Guidance on how to protect and preserve vision is helpful, no matter what your age:

Email me at mythsofaging@gmail.com and tell me what you think about sight in later life. Follow me on Twitter @SarahHKagan for tweets about myths of aging, health, and aging well. Until next time, be well and stay active.

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Eying vision changes and problems related to aging - Burlington County Times

Pennsylvania non-profit agency in Williamsport is celebrating its 60-year anniversary. North Central Sight Services Inc. (NCSS) has launched its diamond anniversary, announcing an exciting year that observes the values of the agency-employment, prevention and independence.

Robert Garret, president and CEO, said that since 1910 the Pennsylvania Association for the Blind had been actively working to set up agencies that serviced the needs of people who are blind. In February 1957, they incorporated the Lycoming County Association for the Blind (LCAB). Members of the Harry Plankenhorn Foundation were involved and the local Lions Clubs 14G were too, in terms of putting together the Board of Directors for the fledging organization, Garrett said.

In those early days the agency would send out what Garrett described as visitors who would go to homes of people who were blind with talking book machines containing books on record from the Library of Congress. Other supports also were provided, such as transportation and limited employment opportunities at the 901 Memorial Avenue operation re-caning chairs and making door mats from recycled tires.

The agency had much-needed help from the community to remain solvent. We got a mortgage on the Memorial Avenue building and the Lions Club paid that off in about five years. It was actually quite amazing. We were also recipient of a rather large donation from the United Way to keep the organization going, Garrett said.

In 1974, the organization, under the leadership of Leroy Price, received a grant to expand services to the blind. We received additional seed money from the Federal Government to provide more extensive services for elderly people who were blind so they could stay independent living in their own home, Garrett said. At this time Price hired three people to provide services to those people and Garrett was one of them.

In 1982, Price retired and David Franklin took over and grew the industry. Knowing that more than 50 percent of blindness is preventable, Franklin also established and expanded the Prevention of Blindness Department at the agency.

The goal of prevention at NCSS is to promote public awareness about potential blinding eye diseases, prevention measures and the overall importance of eye health. They provide educational presentations and information about eye safety and eye health for all age groups. Their child and adult vision screenings are designed to detect symptoms of decreased vision, which may lead to serious eye diseases.

In 1986, Garrett was named the fourth executive director of the LCAB. In 1988 the agency changed its name to North Central Sight Services due to its expanding reach of services. Over the next few years, their service region further expanded to Centre and the Northern Tier counties, and the industry operations grew and prospered: they affiliated with the National Industries for the Blind; conducted a capital campaign in 1989 and raised just under $1 million to renovate the entire building and add an addition, increasing square footage by one third; and started producing tractor feed labels for the Federal Government that required hiring additional employees, followed by selling digital media and diskettes in 1990.

In 2005, NCSS bought the 63,000 square foot facility at 2121 Reach Road and, after renovations, moved in January 2007. NCSS has continued to see growth, but not without its challenges.

Like every business, weve had our ups and downs. We did give up Susquehanna and Potter counties about two years ago. It just was not fiscally feasible. We are now looking at other sources of revenue for our services, Garrett said.

As revenue from federal government contracts has curtailed, NCSS has had to diversify to achieve its mission. As the environment has changed, we are moving more toward services, doing a lot more document management and destruction and those kinds of things. The revenue is not near as large as it was when we were doing that huge amount of business with the federal government. So weve diversified, but in doing so its also brought some challenges, Garrett said.

The major challenge NCSS faces is one of increasing costs to provide services. As vision screening and accommodative equipment technology has advanced, its price tag also has seen an equivalent increase. The eSight program is one such technology. eSight Eyewear is electronic glasses that allow people with severe vision loss to actually see, and, thereby, make the most of their remaining vision and regain functionality.

We dedicated all of our fundraising efforts in 2016 toward the eSight mission to provide a device to help someone see a whole lot better on the job as they did before. Its not cheap. eSight is $15,000 for the unit, but it can provide a whole new way of seeing for people. We believe thats really important, Garrett said.

The diamond anniversary celebration was kicked off with the creation of the #NCSS60 hashtag on social media. Meagan Proffitt, marketing and public relations nanager, said its a good way to track the anniversary on social media as they go through the year. What were going to be doing is short videos that include interviews and comments from clients and community members about what NCSS means to not only people who work here but the people in the community, Poffitt said.

The year-long celebration has many events slated for 2017 to mark the milestone achievement. Dining in the Dark is an event to be held at LeJeune Chef Restaurant on the campus of Pennsylvania College of Technology on March 18. All guests are guided to their seats and served dinner completely blindfolded. This allows participants to understand in a very small way, and for a short period of time, what daily life can be like for someone who is blind or visually impaired.

Weve also added a second one this year. Well be hosting that on Feb. 25 at the Lock Haven Moose Lodge No. 100, Proffitt said.

Other scheduled events include the Lions Journey for Sight 5K Walk on May 7 and the Golf for Sight Tournament to be played on June 2 at the Wynding Brook Golf Club in Milton.

For more information or to help NCSS achieve its mission of providing employment, prevention and independence of people with blindness and visual impairment, you may donate directly through their website, http://www.ncsight.org/; call 866-320-2580; give to the United Way of Lycoming, Clinton or Bradford counties; or participate in the First Community Foundation Partnerships Raise the Region event on March 7-8.

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North Central Sight Services celebrates diamond anniversary - Williamsport Sun-Gazette

Storm has the best type of personality under his circumstances, taking well to constructive criticism, adopting a positive attitude to all life has served him.

A LIFE in darkness wasnt the norm for Toti local, Storm Schwartz (26). A diagnosis of Retinitis Pigmentosa (RP) at age 10 led to the deterioration of his vision and by 18 the young man was completely blind.

Fortunately an American company, Second Sight offers an operation that will allow Storm to regain some of his eye-sight again, albeit at a high cost.

Schwartz used to come to our youth church with his sister and friends. He was and still is an inspiration to others, a kind boy from an early age who always saw the best in others.

When Storm was diagnosed I remember him squinting his eyes to see, until his vision was completely gone. Then he needed to hold onto someones shoulder to be led around, said youth pastor of Lions Gate Church, Peter Buchner.

It was difficult to adjust and adapt to a life without vision, to use a cane. I had to swallow my pride, ask for help, rely on people constantly, listen hard and find a new form of independence, explained Storm.

Storm attended Rehoboth Christian School in Illovo, from his early grades he struggled to read and couldnt understand why. When diagnosed he continued at the school, arriving early every day to familiarise himself with his surroundings, using certain structures as landmarks. Storm then moved to Browns School to continue his learning, where he scraped through each grade. Storm finished his schooling through Glenwood-based Open Air School, for learners with physical impairments. By this time he needed a scribe as he was completely blind. He matriculated and passed all his exams by memory alone. Storm has the best type of personality under his circumstances, taking well to constructive criticism and adopting a positive attitude to all life has served him.

I remember over-hearing a school teacher say hell never make matric, hes not an academic. It was then that I decided I could and would prove her wrong and I did, said Storm.

The Toti local has thrived in all work he has done. From being a commercial crime companys switch board operator to making biltong, he proved himself a fast learner and diligent worker. In addition, he achieved the highest results for his level one brail test. Storm aspires to be a motivational speaker and journalist. He has been on numerous journalism and business courses throughout the country, meeting many people along his journey. He enjoys staying active at Virgin Active, attending park walks with his family along the Toti promenade and swimming in Baggies Beachs tidal pool.

Storm Shwartz doing Toti promenades Park Run with aunt, Belinda Simeon

Storm played blind cricket where a ringing ball is used and has represented the KZN team in Cape Town where his team placed third overall. He continued through to SA trials.

We enjoy watching movies. Ill explain to him whats visually happening, then hell burst out laughing and I wouldnt have caught onto the joke, so hell explain to me what my ears missed, said grandfather, Alan Symons, previously a pastor at Lions Gate Church.

I have always said that Stormie is differently abled, as his inability to see hasnt stopped him from having incredible insight. He is the most intuitive person I know, the best listener youll find. I am so proud of him and I believe Im going to live to have him see me again, during this lifetime, said Alan.

We too often take for granted all the beauty around us, which our eyes enable us to see.

I miss seeing my family, the ocean, expressions on faces, my friends and those I know, said Storm.

Words cant express how grateful I am for the help that has already come in and all the support I feel over this time.

Storm wrote about his condition and his hope of affording the life-changing surgery, using voice-activated software on his laptop:

I was born with full vision and at the age of 10, was diagnosed with Retinitis Pigmentosa (RP), by 18 I had lost 100% of my total vision. I have been blind for eight years. After recently having testing done, we found out the reason for my RP is genetic. Extensive tests have been run and due to my strong optic nerve, I am a perfect candidate to have the Argus II Retinal Prosthesis done. Second Sight Medical Products Inc. is giving a second chance to blind people with RP to see again. This developer, manufacturer and marketer of implantable visual prosthetics provides a form of useful vision to blind patients. Unfortunately this procedure is only available overseas and at a great cost to a South African.

Living in hope, Schwartz explained that the procedure alone would cost $150,000. Which excludes pre and post-op diagnosis, flights, visas, accommodation and assistance. He would need in the region of a staggering R3,75-m to see again.

If anyone is able to assist towards his costs, contact him on 061 855 2010.

Storm Shwartz doing Toti promenades Park Run with aunt, Belinda Simeon

DID YOU KNOW? Click on the words highlighted in red to read more on this and related topics. To receive news links via WhatsApp, send an invite to 061 694 6047 The South Coast Sun is also on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest why not join us there?

Do you have more information pertaining to this story? Feel free to let us know by commenting on our Facebook page or you can contact our newsroom on 031 903 2341 and speak to a journalist.

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By PEG MEENTS Over the past decade, Dining with Diabetes has been a very popular Ohio State University Extension program. Here in Hancock County, weve collaborated with Blanchard Valley Health System. Registered dietitians and exercise physiologists participate, and there are also dedicated volunteers who provide support. Program participants learn strategies to manage diabetes through menu planning, carbohydrate counting, portion control, label reading, and taste-testing healthy recipes. One of the most difficult challenges for people with diabetes is often figuring out what they can eat, and when. A newly revised version of the program is being introduced this year and it will be exciting to see what new recipes and recommendations are offered. The program will now have four classes, and our series in Hancock County begins March 8 and will be held every Wednesday through March 29 from 10 a.m. to noon in the Cardiac Rehab department at Blanchard Valley Hospital. Program fee is $40, and thanks to the Blanchard Valley Hospital Foundation scholarship, assistance can be provided if needed. Enrollment deadline is Feb. 28, and a minimum of six participants is needed so, if interested, please contact OSU Extension Hancock at 419-422-3851 or email meents.1@osu.edu The recipes in the Dining with Diabetes collection incorporate healthy cooking techniques. Food and fellowship are always a great combination. We learn from each other and share our successes as well as struggles. While this program is intended for persons with diabetes and their family members or caregivers, much of the focus is on establishing healthful eating patterns which many people can benefit from. Heart-healthy eating and modest weight loss will be included, as persons with diabetes have a greater risk for cardiovascular disease and modest sustainable weight loss can significantly improve blood sugar control. Since I am relatively new in my position with Extension, this will be my first time working as a part of this team. Julie Russell and Natasha Wappelhorst from Blanchard Valley Health System have been involved and are anxious to begin the March series. Past participants of Dining with Diabetes sing the praises of how this program has helped them to add months or years to their life. But while program supporters are dedicated, participation is fundamental to the continuation of Dining with Diabetes here locally. So lets think spring and make a plan for healthy eating and warmer days when we can get outside to walk. If Dining with Diabetes sounds like a program that you could benefit from, I hope that you will enroll and make the commitment to fully participate in the food and fellowship! Meents is program coordinator for family and consumer sciences at the Ohio State University Extension office, Findlay.

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Weekend: Dining with Diabetes gets 2017 updates - The Courier

Researchers have found that abdominal fat may either cause or relate to the cause of type 2 diabetes and coronary heart disease. People who are genetically at a greater risk of having a higher waist-to-hip ratio adjusted for body mass index are likely to have an increased risk of developing these conditions.

New research detailing these findings was published in JAMA.

Body mass index (BMI) is used to measure body fat based on height and weight, and it is a common method of working out whether a person is overweight or obese. Obesity is a major risk factor for both type 2 diabetes and coronary heart disease.

Regardless of BMI, body fat distribution can vary from one person to the next. Some people carry more fat around their visceral organs, called abdominal adiposity (fat), while others carry fat on their thighs and hips.

Previous observational studies have indicated that abdominal fat is associated with type 2 diabetes and coronary heart disease. However, it remains unclear whether these associations represent a causal relationship.

Dr. Sekar Kathiresan, of Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, and colleagues conducted a study to investigate whether being genetically inclined to have an increased waist-to-hip ratio (WHR) adjusted for BMI (a measure of abdominal fat) was linked to cardiometabolic traits (such as lipids, glucose, insulin, and systolic blood pressure), and type 2 diabetes and coronary heart disease.

The team gathered data from four genome-wide association studies conducted between 2007 and 2015, which included up to 322,154 participants, and individual-level, cross-sectional data from the UK Biobank collected between 2007 and 2011, which included data from a further 111,986 people. Estimates for cardiometabolic traits were based on this combined data set.

Analysis did show that being genetically predisposed to a higher WHR adjusted for BMI was connected with increased levels of quantitative risk factors, including lipids, glucose, insulin, and systolic blood pressure, and a greater risk of developing type 2 diabetes and coronary heart disease.

Kathiresan and co-authors say that the results permit several conclusions. Firstly, the findings agree with previous studies that associate abdominal fat with cardiometabolic disease.

Secondly, the findings suggest that the distribution of body fat, beyond BMI measurement, could partly explain the disparity in risk of type 2 diabetes and coronary heart disease that is reported in both individuals and subpopulations.

"For example, increased abdominal adiposity at a given BMI has been proposed as an explanation for the excess risk of coronary heart disease observed in South Asians," the authors explain. "Similarly, greater abdominal adipose tissue at a given BMI has been proposed to underlie the excess risk of coronary heart disease at a given BMI among men compared with women," they add.

Lastly, WHR adjusted for BMI may lead to novel therapeutic strategies for the reduction of abdominal fat and decreasing the risk of type 2 diabetes and coronary heart disease.

"Although a substantial focus of drug development has been toward therapeutics to reduce overall adiposity, there has been little effort toward the development of therapies that modify body fat distribution to reduce abdominal adiposity," say the authors. Kathiresan and team conclude:

"These results provide evidence supportive of a causal association between abdominal adiposity and the development of type 2 diabetes and coronary heart disease."

Limitations of the study include the fact that there is a small chance that the findings from the study represent a "shared genetic basis" between WHR adjusted for BMI and coronary heart disease, instead of a causal relationship.

Learn how obesity may lead to heart attacks and stroke.

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Abdominal fat may cause type 2 diabetes, heart disease - Medical News Today

Drug pricing is a drawing a lot of column space across both mainstream and financial news media right now, and some of the bigger players in the pharmaceutical and healthcare spaces are taking a hit as a result. It's an industry wide pressure factor, but there is particular focus right now on the diabetes market leaders including Sanofi SA (NYSE:SNY), Novo Nordisk A/S (NYSE:NVO) and Eli Lilly and Co. (NYSE:LLY). All of them are under investigation as part of a lawsuit rooted in allegations of price-fixing for insulin products.

How the suit will play out is anyone's guess.

It's going to be tough to prove anything as the very definition of "price-fixing" is quite ill defined and subjective anyway. Nonetheless, if prosecutors do manage to bring something to the table and the ruling goes against the companies in question, while for any one company the ramifications may be minimal, they are likely to be big for the direction of the diabetes industry as a whole.

Investors are picking up on this as a number of smaller diabetes plays are drawing increased speculative volume as the bigger players come under increased pressure. If these smaller companies can play their cards right, now could be a great time to wrestle some speculative attention away from the more established entities, and for smaller players to gain strength near to medium term.

One company that is attempting to do exactly that right now, and that looks to have an attractive pitch, is Oramed Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ:ORMP).

The company's CEO, Nadav Kidron, featured on CNBC's Squawk Box earlier this week and highlighted both the potential impact of the company's insulin product on the treatment landscape, and the way that product plays into the great insulin pricing debate that now rages. Both sides of the story reinforce an already intriguing investment pitch, and make Oramed a compelling contender in the insulin/diabetes space going forward.

A quick introduction

Oramed has spent the last twelve months or so slowly crawling out from under the radar in the biotech space. The firm is an Israeli biotech that has developed a technology capable of enabling oral delivery for compounds that wouldn't normally be viable orally because of their pharmacologic composition and the pharmacokinetics associated with their administration. Oramed's flagship candidate is oral insulin, and with Novo Nordisk recently dropping out of the oral insulin space, Oramed is now pretty much all alone.

There are a few problems with oral insulin as a concept, and these problems are the root of the fact that no company has been able to bring an oral insulin to market to date.

The first is that insulin is very unstable in its naked form, and as a result, it is extremely difficult to get it to the liver without it being broken down along the way. Our gastrointestinal tract is built to break things down, and even the most resilient of material falls foul to enzymes in the stomach. On its own, insulin doesn't stand a chance. The second is that even if insulin does get past the stomach, uptake and absorption through the intestine are very tough to achieve. Without intestinal absorption through to the liver, the insulin is essentially useless.

ORMD-0801

Oramed's drug candidate ORMD-0801 has a built in combination of protease inhibitors and absorption enhancers to try and get the insulin through intact. As has been noted in past coverage of this company, the technology behind the absorption enhancers is unclear, with Oramed holding its cards close to its chest on the proprietary tech that underpins the process. What we can assume with relative certainty, however, is that the protease inhibitors distract the enzymes (the proteases) that would normally break down the insulin, while the absorption enhancers enhance intestinal permeability to facilitate uptake and get the insulin where it needs to be.

From there, ORMD-0801 employs the portal vein to get the insulin to the liver. This vein is the same transport route taken by naturally-produced insulin in its journey from the pancreas to the liver. By mimicking this route, the theory is that the liver can regulate the insulin administered similar to what happens in a normal healthy person. Intramuscular insulin needs to be measured manually each time it is injected with overdoses and underdoses a chronic problem, since the insulin cannot be regulated automatically.

Many will read this and say that oral insulin isn't going to replace injectable insulin, as this sort of delivery doesn't facilitate long-acting insulin administration. That's true, but there's a key point here that many who have looked at this company and denounced its prospects have missed - Oramed isn't trying to replace long acting (basal) insulin; at least not right now and not with ORMD-0801.

Application to type 1 diabetes

Type I diabetes patients will generally inject long-acting insulin daily, and also rapid acting insulin (bolus) before meals. The goal of this bolus administration is to stabilize blood sugar levels before meals. The problem is that administering both types of insulin through injection results in a large number of daily injections, and it's a really unpleasant and tough regimen to stick to. The latter administration type, the bolus admin, is what Oramed is trying to replace with ORMD-0801, with the goal (at least at the beginning) being to reduce the daily injection count.

And the data that the company has collected to date supports this replacement.

Patients that took one capsule of 8mg insulin before meals, three times daily, demonstrated an 11.5% reduction in mean glucose pretreatment to post treatment. In a Phase IIa study that followed up on this data, across 21 type 1 patients, Oramed was able to show a consistently lower blood glucose level (as measured by FPG) in dosed patients compared to placebo.

Application to type 2 diabetes

In type II diabetes, the drug has shown a similar promise. Again, here, Oramed is not trying to replace current standard of care. Instead, it's trying to delay the point at which patients need to start administering standard of care. Type II diabetes treatment is lifestyle-based initially, and then moves on to active injection therapy. Oramed is trying to add a middle stage between these two points with ORMD-0801, to reduce insulin resistance and stimulate insulin secretion with the goal of a delay in onset of severity.

And this takes us full circle to the price-fixing issue in diabetes treatment. It's this delay that the CEP pointed to as potentially providing cost-saving to the consumer and market as a whole in the interview linked above. This could become a key point in the ongoing conversation about insulin and drug-pricing as a whole.

Again, data is in place that supports this hypothesis. In a Phase IIa designed to confirm safety and tolerability across 30 type 2 patients, ORMD-0801 demonstrated a reduction not just in fasting glucose levels, but also in nighttime mean glucose levels and daytime glucose levels, when compared to placebo.

A follow up to this, a Phase IIb, replicated these results, but to a more impressive degree. Against a primary endpoint of a reduction in mean nighttime glucose, ORMD-0801 hit across a patient population of 180 patients. The dose was one pill, nightly, for a month.

China

There's a licensing deal in place right now with a Chinese entity that brought in a little over $600K revenues for the last quarter and that promises to bring in up to $38 million in milestone payments related to ORMD-0801's development. There's also the promise of 10% royalties on what amounts to a 500 million patient population of prediabetic Chinese patients. Remember, this is a prophylaxis target, not a responsive one at core.

Risk

The primary risk right now is the standard development stage biotechnology company risk - operational cash. Cash on hand was $2.3 million as of November 30, 2016, but as per the most recent company presentation, here, this had risen to $44 million by start Feb, 2017. Even with this degree of cash on hand, however, chances are we are going to see some degree of dilution near term unless Oramed can complete a direct offering, especially as the company moves towards the initiation of a registration trial in the type II target later this year. Pivotal trials are expensive, especially in an indication like type 2 diabetes, and the company will have one eye funding commercialization as and when the trial closes and an NDA submission follows.

If data comes out as supportive of an efficacy thesis, however, and ORMD-0801 reaches commercialization, this dilution should have minimal impact on an early stage holding.

So where are the catalysts coming from?

The primary catalyst is the initiation of a phase III trial in the type 2 indication. Based on company communication, the type 2 target is the first that will move into a registration study, and initiation is expected at some point during late 2017.

During the same timeframe, Oramed also intends to initiate a phase II multi site study to investigate the efficacy of its GLP-1 analogue, which is built on the same technology as the insulin assets.

Both events are value creating.

Disclosure: I/we have no positions in any stocks mentioned, and no plans to initiate any positions within the next 72 hours.

I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it (other than from Seeking Alpha). I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.

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Here's Where Oramed Fits Into The Diabetes Space - Seeking Alpha