Insulin resistance related to diabetes

Indians, regardless of their body weight, have cells which are more resistant to insulin, a reason which makes them more prone to type 2 diabetes, says a new study.

In a study published in the March issue of Diabetes, Mayo clinic college researchers examined whether Indians have observable differences in the way their cells convert nutrient fuel to make energy available and whether these differences may increase the risk for diabetes.

Type 2 diabetes is a chronic condition that affects the way the body utilises sugar (glucose). People with type 2 diabetes dont produce enough insulin — a hormone that regulates the absorption of sugar into cells — and their cells resist the effects of insulin (insulin-resistant).

Mayo researchers studied 13 diabetic Indians, 13 nondiabetic Indians, and 13 nondiabetic northeast Americans of European descent who were matched for gender, age and body mass to Indian study participants. Study participants were fed the same diet and underwent tests for insulin resistance and muscle biopsy to see whether differences occurred at the cellular level among the different study subject groups. Researchers observed that the Indian subjects, irrespective of their diabetic status, had a greater degree of insulin resistance than the American subjects of Northern European origin, even though the study subjects were not obese, a condition commonly associated with insulin resistance.

Snoring and heart disease

Snoring can cause more than a disrupted night’s sleep — it may trigger high blood pressure which can lead to heart disease or even a stroke.

Researchers at Semmelweis University in Budapest in Hungary have carried out a study and found that loud snoring with breathing pauses is associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease.

According to the study’s co-author Istvan Mucsi, “Our findings suggest that loud snoring with breathing pauses carries a significantly increased risk for heart disease and is close to obstructive sleep apnea syndrome on the spectrum of sleep disordered breathing...” Factors such as age, sex, body mass index, diabetes, level of education, smoking, and alcohol consumption were all taken into consideration by the researchers.

Mood disorder

Scientists have discovered the presence of certain chemicals in blood, which they claim can be an indicator of mood disorders.

According to them, the breakthrough will soon lead to simple blood tests and a much faster method to determine the impact of medicines on mood disorders. There are currently no clinical examinations to assess a person’s state of mind.

“This discovery is a major step towards bringing psychiatry on par with other medical specialities that have diagnostic tools to measure disease states and effectiveness of treatments,”

“Although psychiatrists have been aware that bipolar illness and other psychiatric conditions produced molecular changes in the brain, there was no way to measure those changes while the patient was living.

“Blood now can be used as a surrogate tissue to diagnose and assess the severity of the illness,”according to lead researcher Alexander Niculescu of the Indiana University School of Medicine.

Invisible warships

The next generation of warships might be virtually invisible to the human eye, thanks to the development of new stealth technologies.

These new technologies would in fact allow the ships to dodge roaming radars, put heat-seeking missiles off the scent, disguise their own sound vibrations and even reduce the way they distort the Earth's magnetic field.
Wars throughout the twentieth century prompted advances in stealth technologies. Some of the earliest but most significant strides towards invisibility involved covering ships with flamboyant cubist patterns - a technique known as "dazzle painting".

During the Second World War, the US military even worked out a way of using lights to make the brightness of a ship match that of the background sea.

Special paint and foam-coating have also been used to cover ships, which convert radio-waves into heat and stop radio waves being reflected, rendering the radar signals used to detect the warships useless.