July 2008 - A new therapy developed at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center improves transplant rates and outcomes for patients awaiting living- and deceased-donor kidney transplantation, according to a study published in the July 17 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.

The therapy may provide an option for many patients "sensitized" to transplant antigens (human leukocyte antigens, or HLA) who previously would not have been candidates for transplantation because of their intense immune response to these HLA targets.

July 2008 - People at high risk for dementia who took cholesterol-lowering statins are half as likely to develop dementia as those who do not take statins, a new study shows.

July 2008 - Drinking more sugar-sweetened beverages or eating fewer fruits and vegetables both may be associated with an increased risk of type 2 diabetes, whereas eating a low-fat diet does not appear to be associated with any change in diabetes risk, according to three reports in the July 28 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

July 2008 - For patients receiving kidney transplants, treatment with cholesterol-lowering "statin" drugs may lead to longer survival, reports a study in the November 2008 Journal of the American Society of Nephrology (JASN).

July 2008 - Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and three collaborating institutions are using a new laboratory model of the membrane surrounding neurons in the brain to study how a protein long suspected of a role in early-stage Alzheimer's disease actually impairs a neuron's structure and function. The team's findings are reported in a new paper in the Biophysical Journal.*

July 2008 - In a study using laboratory animals, researchers found that medications commonly prescribed for erectile dysfunction opened a mechanism called the blood-brain tumor barrier and increased delivery of cancer-fighting drugs to malignant brain tumors.

The experiments were conducted at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center's Maxine Dunitz Neurosurgical Institute and published in Brain Research.

July 2008 - A medication called cinacalcet, an important part of treatment to control high levels of parathyroid hormone (PTH) in patients receiving dialysis for end-stage renal disease (ESRD), works by resetting the balance between calcium and PTH levels, according to a study in the November Journal of the American Society of Nephrology (JASN).

July 2008 - For the first time, a consensus of diabetes and metabolic disorder experts have recommended a comprehensive treatment regimen for patients with pre-diabetes. The recommendations call for specific guidelines on both lifestyle, and pharmaceutical intervention where appropriate. The recommendations are made in a Consensus Statement released this morning by the American College of Endocrinology (ACE) and the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists (AACE).

July 2008 - The age of your neighborhood may influence your risk of obesity, according to a new study from the University of Utah.

The study, to be published in the September issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, linked the body mass index (BMI) of nearly a half million Salt Lake County residents to 2000 Census data. The study found that residents were at less risk of being obese or overweight if they lived in walkable neighborhoods�those that are more densely populated, designed to be more friendly to pedestrians and have a range of destinations for pedestrians.

July 2008 - One of the reasons people on low-carbohydrate diets may lose weight is that they reduce their intake of fructose, a type of sugar that can be made into body fat quickly, according to a researcher at UT Southwestern Medical Center.

Dr. Elizabeth Parks, associate professor of clinical nutrition and lead author of a study appearing in a current issue of the Journal of Nutrition, said her team's findings suggest that the right type of carbohydrates a person eats may be just as important in weight control as the number of calories a person eats.

July 2008 - A recent study shows that popular fish oil supplements have an effect on the healing process of small, acute wounds in human skin. But whether that effect is detrimental, as researchers initially suspected, remains a mystery.

The omega-3 fatty acids found in fish oils are widely considered to benefit cardiovascular health and other diseases related to chronic inflammation because of their anti-inflammatory properties. But insufficient inflammation during the initial stage of wound healing may delay the advancement of later stages.

July 2008 - Every aging baby boomer listens for the footsteps of Alzheimer's, and for good reason: It's estimated that 10 million American boomers will develop the disease. The need to develop preventative strategies, ideally long before Alzheimer's destructive, clinical symptoms appear, is critical.

August 2008 - Individuals with mild cognitive impairment appear more likely to have earlier onset, longer duration and greater severity of diabetes, according to a report in the August issue of Archives of Neurology, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

July 2008 - Recent research by Kalidas Shetty of the University of Massachusetts Amherst and Lena Galvez Ranilla of the University of San Paolo, Brazil, shows that when it comes to managing Type 2 diabetes, all sweeteners may not be the same. Some sweeteners, including date sugar and less refined, dark brown sugars, showed potential for managing Type 2 diabetes and related complications - information that could help Type 2 diabetics make better dietary choices.

July 2008 - Farm-raised tilapia, one of the most highly consumed fish in America, has very low levels of beneficial omega-3 fatty acids and, perhaps worse, very high levels of omega-6 fatty acids, according to new research from Wake Forest University School of Medicine.

July 2008 - A great deal of scientific evidence shows that cholesterol-reducing medications known as statins can help prevent coronary artery disease. Although the safety of these medications has been well documented, as many as 40 percent of patients who receive a prescription for statins take the drug for less than one year.

Doctors believe that several factors -- including cost, adverse effects, poor understanding of statin benefits and patients' reluctance to take prescription medications long term -- may explain why some patients stop taking these medicines.

July 2008 - How will the epidemic of childhood obesity today affect the future health of Americans? As concern about children's health grows along with their waistlines, medical experts fear that the childhood obesity epidemic could lead to large numbers of younger adults developing type 2 diabetes, causing serious and lasting health complications for future generations of Americans.

July 2008 - Keeping a food diary can double a person's weight loss according to a study from Kaiser Permanente's Center for Health Research. The findings, from one of the largest and longest running weight loss maintenance trials ever conducted, will be published in the August issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

July 2008 - A study by researchers at the Joslin Diabetes Center has shown that adherence to prescribed dietary recommendations is associated with better glucose control in children with type 1 diabetes.

"In recent years, diabetes management has been focused around new medications and technologies," said Lori Laffel, M.D., senior author of the paper, which is published in the July issue of Diabetes Care. "In this study, we were encouraged to identify the unique importance of diet on blood sugar control in children and teens with type 1 diabetes."

July 2008 - Having a higher than normal level of fetuin-A, a protein produced in the liver and secreted into the blood stream, is associated with an increased risk of the development of diabetes, according to a study in the July 9 issue of JAMA.

August 2008 - Individuals with mild cognitive impairment appear more likely to have earlier onset, longer duration and greater severity of diabetes, according to a report in the August issue of Archives of Neurology, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

August 2008 - Cholesterol, both good and bad, gets plenty of attention when the subject is reducing the risk of heart disease. Yet triglycerides, a form of fat that circulates in the blood, merit similar attention, according to the August issue of Mayo Clinic Health Letter.

Some studies suggest that the increase in heart disease risk from elevated triglycerides may rival that of high low-density lipoprotein (LDL) or "bad" cholesterol. Another concern is that high triglyceride levels increase the risk of pancreatitis, a painful, life-threatening inflammation of the pancreas.

August 2008 - Some obese individuals do not appear to have an increased risk for heart disease, while some normal-weight individuals experience a cluster of heart risks, according to two reports in the August 11/25 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

August 2008 - People who use monosodium glutamate, or MSG, as a flavor enhancer in their food are more likely than people who don't use it to be overweight or obese even though they have the same amount of physical activity and total calorie intake, according to a University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Public Health study published this month in the journal Obesity.

August 2008 - Those who drink in excess of the U.S. Dietary Guidelines (i.e., men who usually drink more than two drinks per day or women who usually drink more than one drink per day) or those who binge drink are at increased risk for the metabolic syndrome, according to a new study accepted for publication in The Endocrine Society's Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism (JCEM).