Researchers may have struck a solution to reverse the signs of Type 2 diabetes, the most common form of diabetes, according to a recent experiment. Individuals living with Type 2 diabetes have issues regulating the amount of blood sugar in their bloodstreams that would otherwise be picked up and stored within the body’s cells as energy. Insulin helps escort sugar into cells, but for people living with diabetes, the body doesn’t respond appropriately to insulin and needs more of it to regulate sugar in the bloodstream. The findings were drawn from a group of 11 participants (nine men...

Study Shows Toddlers With Autism Have Abnormal Synchronization in Brain’s Communication Area June 22, 2011 — A brain that is out of sync may be an early clue of autism, researchers suggest. Toddlers with autism are more likely to have abnormal synchronization between certain brain areas than other kids the same age, even those with language delays, according to a new study. ”There seems to be impaired or reduced synchronization between the right and left hemispheres, specifically the areas involved in language and communication,” says researcher Ilan Dinstein, PhD, a postdoctoral...

Gray hair is, along with premature balding, one of the greatest fears of image-conscious men and women everywhere, but it may soon be a thing of the past. Scientists at the Ito Lab at New York University’s Langone Medical Center have identified the proteins that cause gray hair, which could lead to an eventual cure. Scientists have known for years that hair color is determined by the stem cells that guide the development of hair follicles working together with color-producing stem cells called melanocytes. Today, NYU researchers announced they had isolated the wnt protein, which serves to...

WASHINGTON — US scientists said Friday they have developed an on-off memory switch that helped laboratory rats remember a behavior that they had forgotten. The brain prosthesis marks the first time that researchers have been able to duplicate the brain’s learning process, restoring memories that test rats were drugged to forget, and could offer hope for people with dementia. “Flip the switch on, and the rats remember. Flip it off, and the rats forget,” said Theodore Berger of the University of Southern California’s Viterbi School of Engineering’s Department of Biomedical...

Scientists at the University of Rochester believe they have found a way to alter the genes that can cause disease Scientists have hit on a genetic trick that opens up fresh avenues for the treatment of devastating diseases, such as cystic fibrosis, muscular dystrophy and certain forms of cancer. The technique corrects glitches in genetic machinery that cause the body to make faulty versions of proteins that can lead to the onset of disease. Although the work is at an early stage, the strategy represents a radical new approach to tackling mutations that give rise to an estimated one third of all...

Children living in wealthy households have far superior vocabularies and problem-solving skills than their poorer peers by the age of five, according to research prepared for Scottish ministers. The ground-breaking study, which assessed the abilities of 14,000 youngsters, found a gap in academic ability between children from different socio-economic backgrounds has already opened up by the time they are three years old. At the age of five, youngsters with wealthier parents educated to degree level are on average 18 months ahead of their less well-off peers with their vocabulary. They are also...

Life-saver: Stem cells are separated from a blood sample Healthy adults will be able to boost their chances of surviving cancer and diseases such as Alzheimer’s by freezing stem cells taken from their blood for the first time. A British company has been granted a licence to extract the cells, so that anyone can now pay to store them in the hope that they will one day help to cure fatal conditions. Until now, it has only been possible to bank stem cells taken from umbilical cord blood and embryos left over from fertility treatment. Read more…

Discovery: Scientists have found that the retinas of people born deaf, or who lost their hearing early in life, develop differently – and this means that they have better eyesight By Daily Mail Reporter Deaf people have better eyesight than those who can hear, research shows. Scientists discovered that the retinas of people born deaf, or who lost their hearing early in life, developed differently from those in people who can hear. This gave them greater peripheral vision, allowing them to see more and thus increase their awareness of their surroundings and any potential hazards. Read more…

The brains of people with autism are chemically different to healthy ones, according to researchers. A study, published in the journal Nature, showed the unique characters of the frontal and temporal lobes had disappeared. Different genes should be active in each region, but autistic brains had the same pattern of gene expression. The National Autistic Society said the results could be important for future treatments. Autism spectrum disorders, including Asperger’s syndrome, are common and affect more than 500,000 people in the UK. Read more…

Healthy: Chemicals found in cooked tomatoes could be effective as statins in fighting cholesterol They are common ingredients found in millions of kitchen cupboards. But pasta sauces and pizza toppings could add much more than a tasty tomato flavour to a family’s favourite meals. Scientists said that cooked tomatoes can have the same benefits as statins for patients battling against high cholesterol levels or high blood pressure. Read more…