Cartilage Grown in Lab Might One Day Help Younger Arthritis Sufferers

By Randy Dotinga
HealthDay Reporter

TUESDAY, July 19, 2016 (HealthDay News) — Scientists report progress toward developing lab-grown cartilage that could postpone or possibly eliminate the need for hip replacement surgery in younger arthritis patients.

The cartilage hasn’t been tested in humans yet, and it’s too early to know anything about side effects or cost. Still, the researchers said it’s promising because the cartilage is only partially artificial — it also includes the patient’s stem cells — and the synthetic “scaffolding” may vanish over time, leaving only human tissue in its place.

In addition, the implant is designed to fight off swelling, said lead researcher Bradley Estes. He is vice president of research and development at Cytex Therapeutics, the Durham, N.C.-based company developing the cartilage.

“We have an implant that can functionally replace the diseased tissue, while also fighting off inflammation that could potentially destroy the new tissue,” he said.

The implant is geared toward arthritis patients who are too young to be good candidates for hip replacement surgery, mostly because they are expected to live too long for the hip replacement to last their lifetime.

“Currently, there is a gap in treatment options for the treatment of arthritis, particularly for the active, young patient who’s younger than 65 years of age,” Estes said.

“If a patient were to be diagnosed with arthritis at an early age, typical treatment options include physical therapy, anti-inflammatory medications and analgesics. These don’t address the underlying problem — arthritis — so the patient is left with inadequate treatment until the time that they’re properly indicated for a total joint replacement,” Estes explained.

Scientists have been trying to find a way to engineer a kind of artificial cartilage that could be used to “resurface” joints, he said.

In the new study, the authors reported on laboratory tests of an artificial cartilage designed to replace the surface of the hip joint.

The researchers used 3-D textile technology to create the cartilage. It “mimics natural cartilage,” Estes said, and includes a mix of plastic material and a patient’s stem cells that are supposed to produce cartilage. The cells, he said, are also “programmed” to reduce inflammation.

According to the study, the artificial cartilage shows signs that it can replace cartilage that has deteriorated. The plan is to create cartilage that could last 10 to 15 years and be used on joints other than the hip, Estes said.

Jerry Hu is director of the Clinical Translational Program at the University of California, Davis department of biomedical engineering. He said the artificial cartilage shows promise and “can potentially be used for more than knee and hips because there is cartilage in your fingers and shoulders, too.”

However, he cautioned that “it may be some time before the technology gets translated to the clinic, due both to the need of demonstrating safety and effectiveness in animals as well as the same for humans. Unfortunately, this does not mean that people can ask their doctors for this form of treatment any time soon.”

The researchers next plan to move to testing in animals, Estes said. “If things go well, we hope to start safety testing in humans in the next three to five years,” he added.

Several of the study authors have a financial interest in Cytex Therapeutics, which holds patents for the development of these devices.

According to background information in the study, there are more than 27 million people in the United States with the chronic “wear-and-tear” form of arthritis known as osteoarthritis — the type that commonly affects younger people. The study authors suggest that the incidence of osteoarthritis is on the rise.

The study was published in the July 18 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

More information

The Arthritis Foundation has more about treating hip and knee pain.

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Cancer Experts Endorse CDC’s HPV Vaccine Guidelines

TUESDAY, July 19, 2016 (HealthDay News) — The American Cancer Society has endorsed the U.S. government’s HPV vaccination recommendations, which include immunizing all preteens against the sexually transmitted human papilloma virus.

In a new report, the cancer society says 11- and 12-year-old girls as well as boys should be vaccinated to guard against cancers associated with HPV. This is in line with updated guidelines from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“HPV vaccination has the potential to prevent tens of thousands of cancers and hundreds of thousands of pre-cancers each year,” said the lead author of the report, Debbie Saslow. She is the cancer society’s director of cancer control intervention for HPV vaccination and women’s cancers.

“It is critical that all stakeholders — families, health care providers, and others — make HPV vaccination a priority, so that prevention of the vast majority of cervical, vaginal, vulvar, anal, penile, and oropharyngeal cancers can become a reality,” Saslow said in a cancer society news release.

Recent studies showing the HPV vaccine can protect both young men and young women from these diseases led the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices to update its vaccine recommendations to include males.

Having reviewed the new research, the cancer society’s scientists and advisors concurred with the CDC.

The report was published online July 19 in CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians.

Among the CDC’s recommendations on HPV vaccination:

• HPV vaccination should begin for girls and boys at 11 or 12 years, but children as young as 9 can start receiving the three-dose vaccine series.
• Young women between 13 and 26 years and young men between 13 and 21 who have never been vaccinated against HPV or have not had all three doses should become fully vaccinated.
• Teens older than 11 or 12 who have not been fully vaccinated against HPV should receive the vaccine as soon as possible.
• Adults between 22 and 26 who were not vaccinated against HPV should be advised that vaccination against the virus at older ages is less effective in reducing the risk for cancer. The CDC does not recommend routine HPV vaccination for people in this age group.
• HPV vaccination is recommended up to age 26 for gay men and for people with weakened immune systems, including those who are infected with HIV.

More information

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention provides more on the HPV vaccine.

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3 Sculpting Exercises to Steal From Carrie Underwood’s Routine

Remember that photo Carrie Underwood posted the other day? You know the one where she looks freaking amazing. O.K., that’s pretty much every shot of her. Let me be more specific: the one where she’s sporting an uber cute bikini and looking incredibly fit and fabulous.

Yeah, that one. Well, the pic inspired us (and others apparently—she got 145k likes!) so much that we reached out to her trainer, Erin Oprea, author of The 4 x 4 Diet: 4 Key Foods, 4-Minute Workouts, Four Weeks to the Body You Want ($26; amazon.com). We begged Oprea to reveal the country star’s exercise secrets. Here, she shares three of her favorite moves that she uses not only when training Underwood, but with all her clients to help get them totally toned.

Squat into curtsy lunge

“You’ll get a great burn in your booty and legs and thanks to the curtsy, you’ll hit your side booty too,” says Oprea.

How to do it: Start standing with feet shoulder-width apart, a 10- to 20-pound weight in each hand. Lower down, bringing hips just below parallel. As you push into heels and rise to standing, immediately step your left foot diagonally behind you to the right. Do 10-20 reps, and then switch legs, stepping right foot diagonally back. Complete this sequence 3 times, 3 times a week. (Oprea suggests Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.)

Erin’s tip: If you don’t have any dumbbells handy, use your body weight and add 5 more reps.

courtesy of Erin Oprea

RELATED: How to Perk Up Your Booty in 3 Weeks

Bird-dog plank

“This will give you a great ab workout that you’ll feel diagonally through your core,” explains Oprea.

How to do it: Get into the up part of a pushup with feet wider than normal. Maintaining a flat back and keeping core engaged, extend right arm and left leg straight out, so that they are parallel with the floor. Bring right elbow and left leg in to meet, and then extend both back out. Do 8-12 reps, and then switch sides. Do 3 sets, 3 days a week.

Erin’s tip: Do this move each time you finish a round of Squat into curtsy lunge.

courtesy of Erin Oprea

RELATED: Tighten Your Core in 21 Days With This Plank Challenge

Shoulder rotations

“These really get you on your way to some killer shoulders,” notes Oprea.

How to do it: Stand with feet together, a 3- to 8-pound dumbbell in each hand, and extend arms straight out to sides at shoulder height. Bend elbows, bringing hands in towards armpits, and then extend hands back out. Do 20 reps. Next, with weights in hands (palms face up) and elbows bent to 90 degrees, rotate shoulders forward until elbows are at shoulder height and palms are facedown. Do 20 reps. Do 3 sets of this combo 3 times a week.

Erin’s tip: Go straight from the first set of moves right into the second move without stopping.

courtesy of Erin Oprea

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Implant Proves Effective at Combating Opioid Dependence

By Dennis Thompson
HealthDay Reporter

TUESDAY, July 19, 2016 (HealthDay News) — Addicts are twice as likely to kick their dependence on heroin or prescription painkillers if they receive a new long-acting implant rather than a daily treatment pill, a new clinical trial shows.

The implant, sold under the name Probuphine, is placed in the upper arm of recovering addicts and releases a steady six-month dose of buprenorphine.

Buprenorphine is an anti-addiction drug designed to combat the cravings that come with opioids like heroin or powerful prescription painkillers like Percocet or OxyContin.

Only 14 percent of patients with the implant slipped back into drug abuse during the clinical trial, compared with 28 percent of patients who took buprenorphine in its traditional pill form.

“Everybody did really well, but the implants did a little bit more well,” said lead researcher Dr. Richard Rosenthal, medical director of Mount Sinai Hospital’s Center for Addictive Disorders in New York City. “The implants are not only non-inferior, but if you’re looking at total abstinence, they are better.”

The results were published July 19 in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

People who receive the implant no longer have to worry about remembering to take their daily pill, ensuring that they don’t miss a dose, explained Dr. Wilson Compton, deputy director of the U.S. National Institute on Drug Abuse.

“This is a way to reduce that natural tendency to sometimes miss your medication, which in people with addiction can be a life-threatening situation,” said Compton, who wrote an accompanying editorial in the journal. “By not taking it on a daily basis, they may put themselves at great risk for relapse.”

The steady flow from the implant also can reduce fluctuations that occur when taking a medication once or twice daily, Rosenthal added.

“Anything you take by mouth is going to have a peak and trough in terms of its blood level, every day,” he said. “When you’re dealing with psychoactive medications, those differences in peaks and troughs probably translate to changes in mood and craving in people who are opioid-dependent.”

The trial was funded by Braeburn Pharmaceuticals, the maker of Probuphine.

The United States is experiencing an epidemic of opioid drug abuse, which in 2014 resulted in 28,647 overdose deaths from heroin or prescription painkillers — more than any year on record, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Probuphine in May as another means by which opioid addicts could receive buprenorphine, which up to then had been provided in pill form or as a film dissolved in the mouth.

Buprenorphine provides effects that are similar to, but weaker than, opioids like heroin or methadone, according to the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA).

But those effects level off at moderate doses, lowering the risk of misuse and addiction, SAMHSA adds.

This so-called “double-dummy” study compared the new implant against buprenorphine pills dissolved under the tongue. Researchers recruited 177 addicts with “stable abstinence” — meaning they’d been taking buprenorphine for at least six months and had been on the same dose for at least three months.

“These are a higher-functioning group of people. Most of them were prescription pain med-dependent,” Rosenthal said. “This is a more educated, employed and domiciled group of people” than the usual street addicts.

All participants were provided an implant and given daily pills to take, Rosenthal said. But, half of the people received a fake implant and real pills, while the other half received fake pills but a functioning implant.

About 86 percent of the patients with the functioning implant remained drug-free during the six-month trial, compared with 72 percent of people taking oral buprenorphine.

The six-month implant is pricey, costing about $4,900 — or more than $800 a month, Rosenthal said. By comparison, buprenorphine pills cost $130 to $190 a month.

But the implant provides an important new option for doctors, Compton said.

“I think it’s an important advance, because it may open up treatment to some patients who weren’t responding to the oral medication,” he said.

More information

For more on buprenophine, visit the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.

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Which Diabetes Drug Is Best?

By Amy Norton
HealthDay Reporter

TUESDAY, July 19, 2016 (HealthDay News) — No single drug to treat type 2 diabetes stands out from the pack when it comes to reducing the risks of heart disease, stroke or premature death, a new research review finds.

The analysis of hundreds of clinical trials found no evidence that any one diabetes drug, or drug combination, beats out the others.

Researchers said the results bolster current recommendations to first try an older, cheaper drug — metformin (Glumetza, Glucophage) — for most patients with type 2 diabetes.

“There are very few things experts agree on, but this is one of them,” said Dr. Kevin Pantalone, a diabetes specialist at the Cleveland Clinic and a member of the Endocrine Society.

“Metformin, in the absence of contraindications or intolerability, should be the first-line agent to treat patients with type 2 diabetes,” he said.

Metformin can cause upset stomach and diarrhea, so some patients are unable to stick with it day to day, explained Pantalone, who wasn’t involved in the study. And people with kidney disease generally shouldn’t take it, he said.

More than 29 million Americans have diabetes — mostly type 2, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The disease, which is often linked to obesity, causes blood sugar levels to be chronically high. Over time, that can lead to complications, such as heart disease, stroke, kidney failure and nerve damage, the CDC says.

There are numerous classes of medications that lower blood sugar levels.

What’s been unclear is whether any of those drugs work better than others in warding off diabetes complications and extending people’s lives.

The new analysis found no obvious winners.

But the researchers also cautioned against drawing conclusions: The trials in the review were not specifically designed to see whether any of the medications prolong people’s lives.

Mainly, they looked at “biochemical” effects — like whether the drugs lower blood sugar, explained Suetonia Palmer, the lead researcher on the work.

“So what we know is that currently, there is no good evidence that one drug can improve life expectancy better than another — either when they are used as the only drug for treatment, or when added to metformin,” said Palmer. She’s an associate professor in the Department of Medicine at the University of Otago, in New Zealand.

For the study, Palmer’s team pulled together results from 301 clinical trials testing nine classes of diabetes drugs.

The medications included older standbys such as metformin, insulin, and sulfonylureas such as glipizide (Glucotrol) and glimepiride (Amaryl). Other trials looked at newer, more expensive classes, including thiazolidinediones such as pioglitazone (Actos) and rosiglitazone (Avandia); and DPP inhibitors, such as sitagliptin (Januvia) and saxagliptin (Onglyza).

Many trials tested only a single medication, but over 100 studies used a drug in combination with metformin.

Overall, metformin worked as well, or better than other drugs when it came to reducing blood sugar levels, the review found.

When it came to preventing complications or lengthening people’s lives, no single drug or drug combination stood out.

But the problem, according to Palmer, was a lack of evidence — which is different from proof that all the drugs are equal, she said.

Pantalone agreed. “This [analysis] included many studies that were of short duration,” he said, noting that some ran for only six months.

“I think the important finding was that there was no signal that one therapy may be more harmful than another from a cardiovascular standpoint,” Pantalone said.

That’s important, he explained, because the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has only required diabetes drugs to undergo cardiovascular safety testing since 2008. So older medications never went through that process.

Plus, Pantalone said, there is evidence from recent trials that two newer diabetes drugs can, in fact, curb the risk of death from heart disease or stroke. Those drugs are an injectable medication called liraglutide (Victoza) and an oral medication called empagliflozin (Jardiance).

However, metformin remains the recommended first-line drug. It not only lowers blood sugar, Pantalone said, but also carries a low risk of hypoglycemia (potentially dangerous drops in blood sugar).

If another drug needs to be added, Pantalone said, the decision should be based on a person’s overall health and the side effects of the different medications.

Some drugs, like insulin and sulfonylureas, are more likely to cause hypoglycemia, for instance. Others can cause weight gain, Pantalone said.

Whatever medication is used, he stressed, lifestyle changes for people with type 2 diabetes remain key.

“Lifestyle modification, through diet changes and regular exercise, is a critical component to any treatment regimen,” Pantalone said.

The study was published July 19 in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

More information

The American Diabetes Association has more on drugs for type 2 diabetes.

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Hormone Therapy Won’t Help Memory After Menopause

By Steven Reinberg
HealthDay Reporter

TUESDAY, July 19, 2016 (HealthDay News) — Women who take estrogen after menopause may believe it helps them maintain their memory and thinking skills, but a new study suggests they are mistaken.

Researchers found no change in mental ability associated with estrogen therapy among women who used it after menopause, no matter when they started taking it.

“There is no important benefit, there is no important risk cognitively associated with the use of hormone therapy over at least five years,” said lead researcher Dr. Victor Henderson. He is a professor of health research and policy, and neurology and neurological science at Stanford University School of Medicine, in Palo Alto, Calif.

“If a postmenopausal woman is considering taking hormone therapy with the thought that it might improve memory or other aspects of cognition, she should know that there is no evidence that it does benefit cognition,” he said.

Some studies have suggested that hormone therapy protected cognition (thinking skills), and some animal studies suggested that the timing of hormone therapy was important. But neither of these appear to matter, Henderson said.

Over the long term, the use of hormone therapy may even have a negative effect on mental ability, researchers have found. Henderson said the long-running U.S. health study known as the Women’s Health Initiative found that hormone therapy among older women increased the risk for dementia.

In the new study by Henderson and colleagues, nearly 570 healthy women, aged 41 to 84, were randomly assigned to take estradiol or an inactive placebo every day. Estradiol is the main type of estrogen produced by women in their reproductive years.

In addition, the women were divided into two groups: an early menopause group (within six years of their last period); and a late group (at least 10 years after menopause). The women also used a vaginal progesterone gel or placebo gel, unless they had had a hysterectomy. The average treatment lasted nearly five years.

The investigators tested the verbal memory and thinking skills of the participants at the beginning of the trial, 2.5 years later and five years later.

Compared with starting scores on memory tests, women improved in verbal memory with practice, with and without hormone therapy, the study authors said. Scores were the same for those with and without hot flashes, and for women who had a uterus or had a hysterectomy.

Dr. Jennifer Wu is an obstetrician and gynecologist at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City. She explained that “formerly, people said you could use hormone therapy for memory, for bone health, for cardiac health. But we found it increases the risk to the heart, we have other drugs for bones that are safer, and it doesn’t do anything for cognition. So, a lot of the traditional reasons for hormone therapy have gone away.”

Wu, who was not involved with the new study but was familiar with the findings, said, “We have to be very cautious about starting hormone replacement therapy. The only patients that should be started on hormone therapy are patients with unremitting, severe menopausal symptoms — hot flashes, night sweats and insomnia.”

When starting hormone therapy, women should be given the smallest dose and for the shortest time possible, because of the increased risk of heart attack and breast cancer, Wu said.

“There is real risk to hormone replacement therapy with few benefits,” she added.

The report was published online July 20 in the journal Neurology.

More information

For more about menopause, visit the North American Menopause Society.

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U.S. Teen Diabetes Rate Exceeds Prior Estimates

By Steven Reinberg
HealthDay Reporter

TUESDAY, July 19, 2016 (HealthDay News) — More American teens have diabetes or prediabetes than previously thought, and many don’t know they have the blood-sugar disease, a new study finds.

Nearly 1 percent of more than 2,600 teens studied had diabetes — with almost one in three cases undiagnosed, researchers found. Also, almost 20 percent of the group had prediabetes — higher than normal blood sugar levels but not high enough to be classified as diabetes.

“These findings are important because diabetes in youth is associated with early onset of risk factors and complications,” said lead researcher Andy Menke of Social & Scientific Systems in Silver Spring, Md.

One prior study estimated the prevalence of diabetes in teens at about 0.34 percent, but the current study shows it’s double that — 0.8 percent.

The researchers couldn’t distinguish between teens who had type 1 or type 2 diabetes. However, previous research among children and teens with diabetes found that 87 percent had type 1 diabetes, previously called juvenile diabetes, the researchers said.

While type 1 diabetes, an autoimmune disease, isn’t preventable, type 2 is usually related to lifestyle factors. Type 2 is generally seen in adults, but experts say it’s risen among younger people as obesity rates have soared.

“It is alarming to see such a high incidence of [childhood] diabetes when it should be close to zero,” said Dr. Joel Zonszein, director of the Clinical Diabetes Center at Montefiore Medical Center in New York City.

“The very high prevalence of prediabetes, diabetes and especially undiagnosed diabetes in adolescents is worrisome,” he said.

The majority of those with prediabetes will develop diabetes if nothing is done to change their lifestyle, Zonszein said.

Blacks and Hispanics were more likely than whites to have prediabetes or not know they had diabetes, the study found.

“There are effective treatments, but those treatments are not useful to people who have not been diagnosed,” Menke said.

Untreated, diabetes can lead to heart disease, circulatory problems, vision loss and amputation of feet and legs.

In general, people with undiagnosed diabetes tend to have type 2 diabetes. “Symptoms will depend on diabetes type and may be subtle,” Menke said, adding they may mimic signs of other conditions.

Classic symptoms include increased urination, increased thirst, weight loss (due to dehydration), and perhaps increased hunger and blurry vision, he said.

“Previous studies have found that both type 1 and type 2 diabetes are increasing among adolescents,” Menke said.

Because type 2 is considered lifestyle-related, Menke called for better education on reducing risk factors for type 2 and improved screening for adolescents at high risk.

According to the U.S. National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, being overweight or obese is the main cause of type 2 diabetes. People at high risk can prevent or delay its onset by losing 5 percent to 7 percent of their weight, the agency says.

The agency recommends at least 30 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity five days a week, and reducing daily calorie consumption.

Parents can help by keeping kids and teens active and preparing healthy meals that are low in fat, sugar and salt. Limiting portion sizes is also key. Parents should also ask their doctor if their kids are at a healthy weight or if they are at risk for diabetes, the agency says.

For the study, Menke and his colleagues used data from the 2005-2014 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey on 2,606 adolescents ages 12 to 19, who were randomly selected for fasting blood sugar tests.

Of 62 teens with diabetes, 29 percent didn’t know it. Prevalence of prediabetes was 18 percent, and more common in boys.

Among the diabetic teens, nearly 5 percent of whites had not been diagnosed versus 50 percent of blacks and 40 percent of Hispanics.

“It is disturbing that we continue to see study after study, showing a high incidence and prevalence of prediabetes and diabetes in younger and younger populations, and how poorly it is diagnosed and treated,” Zonszein said. “I see this study and others as a call to arms.

“If we were able to screen, prevent and treat HIV/AIDS, we can or should certainly be able to do it in diabetes, a much more common and costly disease,” he said.

The report was published July 19 in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

More information

For more on type 2 diabetes, visit the American Diabetes Association.

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New Clues to Zika’s Threat to Fetus, and How to Stop It

TUESDAY, July 19, 2016 (HealthDay News) — Maternal infection with the mosquito-borne Zika virus can pose serious dangers to the fetus.

Now, scientists say they’ve gained new insight into how the virus infects the fetus, and a potential means of preventing infection.

Zika can cause serious birth defects if a woman becomes infected while pregnant. Thousands of babies have been born in Brazil with abnormally small heads and brains, a condition called microcephaly.

“Very few viruses reach the fetus during pregnancy and cause birth defects,” noted study lead researcher Lenore Pereira, a professor of cell and tissue biology at the University of California, San Francisco.

Gaining a better understanding of how Zika does this “may be the most essential question for thinking about ways to protect the fetus when the mother gets infected,” she said in a university news release.

Based on work in the laboratory, Pereira’s team discovered that Zika infects numerous types of cells in the placenta and amniotic sac, the fluid-filled sac that surrounds and protects the fetus in the womb. The virus also takes two distinct routes to reach a developing fetus.

There is a placental route, established in the first trimester of pregnancy, or a route across the amniotic sac that only becomes available in the second trimester, the research team reported.

In their tests, the researchers also found that an older antibiotic called duramycin effectively blocked the virus from replicating in the type of cells that they believe help transmit Zika along both routes.

In prior lab work, duramycin has been found to help fight off dengue and West Nile viruses, which are flaviviruses — the same group of viruses that comprises Zika.

“Duramycin efficiently blocks infection of numerous placental cell types and intact first-trimester human placental tissue by contemporary strains of Zika virus recently isolated from the current outbreak in Latin America,” study co-author Eva Harris said in the news release. She is professor of infectious diseases and vaccinology at the University of California, Berkeley’s School of Public Health.

Early science like this often fails to pan out in humans, so more research is necessary. However, Harris believes that “duramycin or similar drugs could effectively reduce or prevent transmission of Zika virus from mother to fetus across both potential routes and prevent associated birth defects.”

The findings were published July 18 in the journal Cell Host & Microbe.

More information

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention provides more information on mosquito-borne diseases.

This Q&A will tell you what you need to know about Zika.

To see the CDC list of sites where Zika virus is active and may pose a threat to pregnant women, click here.

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Healthy Fats Can Help Prevent Type 2 Diabetes: Study

TUESDAY, July 19, 2016 (HealthDay News) — Eating more healthy fats, like nuts, seeds and vegetable oils, while limiting animal fats and refined carbohydrates, can help prevent or control type 2 diabetes, new research suggests.

The large study found these dietary changes can lower blood sugar levels and improve insulin sensitivity.

“The world faces an epidemic of insulin resistance and diabetes. Our findings support preventing and treating these diseases by eating more fat-rich foods like walnuts, sunflower seeds, soybeans, flaxseed, fish and other vegetable oils and spreads, in place of refined grains, starches, sugars and animal fats,” said study co-leader Dr. Dariush Mozaffarian. He is dean of the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University in Boston.

“This is a positive message for the public. Don’t fear healthy fats,” Mozaffarian said in a university news release.

Researchers analyzed results of 102 trials including 4,660 adults to evaluate how different types of dietary fat and carbohydrates affected key risk factors for type 2 diabetes.

The analysis, published July 19 in PLOS Medicine, involved studies that provided participants with meals with different amounts of saturated, monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats and carbohydrates. The researchers assessed how these dietary differences affected measures of metabolic health, including blood sugar and insulin levels, as well insulin sensitivity and production.

Following a diet rich in monounsaturated or polyunsaturated fat instead of meals high in carbohydrates or saturated fat helps improve blood sugar control, the researchers found.

Previous studies have estimated that each 0.1 percent drop in HbA1C — an indicator of long-term blood sugar control — could reduce the incidence of type 2 diabetes by 22 percent and heart disease by 6.8 percent, the researchers said.

“Among different fats, the most consistent benefits were seen for increasing polyunsaturated fats, in place of either carbohydrates or saturated fat,” said the study’s first author, Fumiaki Imamura, of the Medical Research Council Epidemiology Unit at the University of Cambridge in England.

The study authors said their findings should help inform doctors and patients about the effects of diet on metabolic health and the risk for type 2 diabetes.

“Until now, our understanding of how dietary fats and carbohydrates influence glucose, insulin and related risk factors has been based on individual studies with inconsistent findings,” Imamura said. “By combining results from more than 100 trials, we provide the strongest evidence to date on how major nutrients alter these risks.”

More information

The U.S. National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases provides more information on how to prevent type 2 diabetes.

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Radiologists Don’t Face Higher Risk of Radiation-Related Death: Study

TUESDAY, July 19, 2016 (HealthDay News) — Radiologists who graduated from medical school after 1940 are not at greater risk of death from chronic exposure to low levels of radiation, a new study reports.

The researchers, from the U.S. National Cancer Institute (NCI), credited improvements in radiation protection, safety equipment and monitoring.

Led by Amy Berrington de Gonzalez, chief of the NCI’s Radiation Epidemiology Branch, the team analyzed records from the American Medical Association (AMA) Physician Masterfile. This database was created in 1906 and includes information about more than 1.4 million U.S. doctors, residents and medical students.

The researchers compared rates of cancer and death among almost 44,000 radiologists and nearly 65,000 psychiatrists who graduated from medical school between 1916 and 2006. Psychiatrists were selected because they were unlikely to be exposed to radiation while on the job.

The study was published online July 19 in the journal Radiology.

“There’s been a big change in practice over the past few decades, with more doctors performing fluoroscopically guided procedures, making it more and more difficult to find a physician comparison group that did not have exposure to radiation,” study co-author Dr. Martha Linet said in a journal news release. Linet is senior investigator at the NCI’s Radiation Epidemiology Branch.

Radiologists who graduated medical school before 1940 faced increased death rates from conditions related to radiation exposure, such as acute myeloid leukemia, melanoma and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, the study found.

The researchers noted, however, that male radiologists who graduated after 1940 fared better than the psychiatrists. The newer radiologists had no evidence of increased radiation-related deaths.

Linet said most findings of increased health risk involved earlier radiologists.

“We do feel there is evidence that decreases in dose in the United States and other countries seem to have paid off, reducing risks in recent graduates,” Linet said.

More information

The U.S. National Library of Medicine provides more information on radiation exposure.

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