by Bianca Garilli, ND Insulin resistance (IR) develops as a response to long term elevation of insulin levels or hyperinsulinemia (HI) after exposure to chronic increases in blood sugar levels. Additionally, IR in conjunction with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and an increase in ectopic adipose storage including visceral adiposity tissue (VAT), are shown to increase the risk and further the progression of dyslipidemia, type 2 diabetes (T2D), obesity and cardiovascular disease (CVD). Recently, studies have indicated that elevations of…

The struggle to find the best diet for weight management and metabolic health improvement has largely failed. This failure may imply that no diet fits all needs, which justifies a search for biomarkers that can predict success in weight loss and physiological response, and can allow the most efficient diet to be selected on an individual basis. Researchers from the Texas A&M University recently conducted a series of metabolic studies to understand how genetic differences in mice influence health responses to…

by Lewis Chang, PhD  Body mass index (BMI) is positively associated with cardiometabolic risk and insulin resistance in children according to a recent population-based study, but cardiorespiratory fitness may mitigate risk.1 Swedish researchers from the Department of Biosciences and Nutrition at Karolinska Institutet (Huddinge, Sweden) and colleagues from Spain and Chile conducted a pooled study including cross-sectional data from three projects (n=1247, aged 8-11 years old) to evaluate the impact of BMI on cardiometabolic risk and homeostatic model assessment of insulin…

by Bianca Garilli, ND Obesity has both genetic and environmental underpinnings. Research has elucidated key fat-regulating genes, one of which is the fat-mass and obesity-associated (FTO) gene located on chromosome 16q12.2. Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) on the FTO gene have been associated with an increased risk for obesity.1 Certain obesity-related SNPs have been shown to be specific to a person’s ethnic and racial makeup. As body mass index (BMI) continues to increase at an alarming rate across the globe, it is…

Regular exercise at any intensity level—even just one hour per week—can help reduce depression, a large population study found.1 A group of researchers from University of New South Wales (Australia), King’s College London (England), and Norwegian Institute of Public Health (Norway) examined data from the Nord-Trøndelag Health (HUNT) Study—a large-scale, long-term, population-based health surveys in Norway—to understand whether exercise provided protection against depression and anxiety and whether intensity and amount of exercise mattered. After evaluating longitudinal data from nearly 34,000…

Abnormally high blood sugar in individuals with type 2 Diabetes (T2D) is associated with impaired cognitive performance, a Dutch epidemiological study finds.1 Hyperglycemia is known to cause various long-term complications such as damage to retina, nerve and kidney, cardiovascular disease, and infections. Dutch researchers from the Department of Internal Medicine at Maastricht University Medical Centre and Department of Neurology at University Medical Centre Utrecht were interested in whether differences in glucose metabolism status were associated with cognitive performance, in patients of…

Small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO) is a disorder characterized by an excessive concentration of bacteria in the small intestine (exceeding 105 organisms/mL). Patients with SIBO commonly report abdominal pain, flatulence, bloating, and diarrhea, and may experience malabsorption and weight loss in more severe cases.1 The standard regimen to manage SIBO has been antibiotic therapy, but this may disrupt the normal balance of the gut microbiota and can increases the risk of developing antibiotic resistance. Further, the antibiotics used are often bacteriostatic, not…

It is estimated that by 2050, 1 in 3 U.S. individuals will have type 2 diabetes(T2D) and cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the most common cause of death for in these patients.  Prevention of CVD among individuals with T2D is therefore of great public health importance. The scientific statements from the American Diabetes Association (ADA), American Heart Association (AHA) and American College of Cardiology (ACC) regarding CVD prevention for patients with T2D, and risk factors for CVD, were recently synthesized and published in…

by Ashley Jordan Ferira, PhD, RDN The latest findings from the landmark Swedish Obese Subjects (SOS) trial demonstrate that bariatric surgery significantly reduces the incidence of female-specific cancers, with the most pronounced cancer risk reductions seen for endometrial cancer and in women with high insulin levels pre-surgery.1-2 The health and economic burdens of obesity in the US, and globally, are immense. Based on the latest 2015-2016 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey findings from the Centers for Disease Control and…

A retrospective cohort study found that infertility in women was associated with an increased risk of death from certain endocrine related disease such as diabetes and breast cancer [1]. As infertility in women may be a sign of endocrine or inflammatory disruption, scientists have had concerns about its long-term effects on women’s health. Researchers from the Reproductive Endocrinology & Infertility at the University of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, PA) set out to study the link between infertility and mortality in women in the PLCO…