1,721,050 research outputs found
Loss of fasting and post-load glucose control in non-diabetic subjects are largely independent and are caused by distinct beta cell function defects
Impact of nutrient type and sequence on glucose tolerance: Physiological insights and therapeutic implications
Pharmacological and dietary interventions targeting postprandial glycemia have proved effective in reducing the risk for type 2 diabetes and its cardiovascular complications. Besides meal composition and size, the timing of macronutrient consumption during a meal has been recently recognized as a key regulator of postprandial glycemia. Emerging evidence suggests that premeal consumption of non-carbohydrate macronutrients (i.e., protein and fat "preloads") can markedly reduce postprandial glycemia by delaying gastric emptying, enhancing glucose-stimulated insulin release, and decreasing insulin clearance. The same improvement in glucose tolerance is achievable by optimal timing of carbohydrate ingestion during a meal (i.e., carbohydrate-last meal patterns), which minimizes the risk of body weight gain when compared with nutrient preloads. The magnitude of the glucose-lowering effect of preload-based nutritional strategies is greater in type 2 diabetes than healthy subjects, being comparable and additive to current glucose-lowering drugs, and appears sustained over time. This dietary approach has also shown promising results in pathological conditions characterized by postprandial hyperglycemia in which available pharmacological options are limited or not cost-effective, such as type 1 diabetes, gestational diabetes, and impaired glucose tolerance. Therefore, preload-based nutritional strategies, either alone or in combination with pharmacological treatments, may offer a simple, effective, safe, and inexpensive tool for the prevention and management of postprandial hyperglycemia. Here, we survey these novel physiological insights and their therapeutic implications for patients with diabetes mellitus and altered glucose tolerance
Statins, LDL Cholesterol Control, Cardiovascular Disease Prevention, and Atherosclerosis Progression: A Clinical Perspective
Despite the longstanding and widespread use of statins, they are used quite inefficiently in everyday clinical practice. This might be because of a lack of robust evidence or the wide variety of different guidelines that are frequently changed. Using data from clinical trials and some simple mathematical modeling, we sought to expand upon the relation between low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) control and cardiovascular risk to offer a firm basis for independent decision making in everyday clinical practice. Analysis of the dose–response curves of different statins indicated that doubling the dose will provide a < 5% extra LDL-C gradient and that the relationship among different statin dose equipotencies is fourfold in the lower range and threefold in the higher range. Thus, the use of potent statins at very low doses might overcome patient statin reluctance. Moreover, whereas statins lower LDL-C percentwise, the prevention of atherosclerosis-related cardiovascular events (ARCVEs) depends on the absolute LDL-C gradient produced and the level of risk. Consequently, and counterintuitively, the lower the baseline LDL-C and/or ARCVE risk, the higher the statin therapy strength required, and approach that is also cost effective. We discuss the issue of threshold versus gradient in terms of clinical trials on plaque regression and speculate on the relationship between LDL-C and atherosclerosis
Loquentes linguis. Studi linguistici e orientalistici in onore di Fabrizio A. Pennacchietti
Liver DE(HP)toxification: luteolin as “phthalates-cleaner” to protect from environmental pollution
Environmental pollution is a major health problem that affects the health of individuals worldwide and is cumulative with other environmental stressors, contributing to the increasing prevalence of cancer, cardiometabolic, neurological and autoimmune diseases (Favé et al, 2018). Although being extensively studied, therapeutic strategies still rely primarily on exposure prevention, often with no option available to allow pollutant detoxification. In this issue of EMBO Molecular Medicine, Wang et al (Wang et al, 2024) investigated potential pharmacological strategies to allow the direct removal of phthalates, major environmental pollutants, from the liver
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
The present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Circulating palmitoleic acid is associated with insulin sensitivity, beta cell function and glucose tolerance in non-diabetic individuals
Variations on the Author
“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
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