The link between Diet and Immune systems

Tying the strands together Australian Scientists have now uncovered one of the main mechanisms linking fibre in diet to the immune system.

Diet And Intestinal Bacteria Linked To Healthier Immune Systems

"The notion that diet might have profound effects on immune responses or inflammatory diseases has never been taken that seriously" said Professor Mackay. "We believe that changes in diet, associated with western lifestyles, contribute to the increasing incidences of asthma, Type 1 diabetes and other autoimmune diseases. Now we have a new molecular mechanism that might explain how diet is affecting our immune systems."

"We're also now beginning to understand that from the moment you're born, it's incredibly important to be colonised by the right kinds of gut bacteria," added Kendle. "The kinds of foods you eat directly determine the levels of certain bacteria in your gut."

"Changing diets are changing the kinds of gut bacteria we have, as well as their by-products, particularly short chain fatty acids. If we have low amounts of dietary fibre, then we're going to have low levels of short chain fatty acids, which we have demonstrated are very important in the immune systems of mice."

Get Fat or Thin by growing Gut Bacteria

It's not just calories - calories in and calories out. It is the form of the calories and the digestive culture we build. This research will change the way we think of 'healthy' bacteria, and gives strength to the raw food movement.

The Gut Response To What We Eat : NPR

A high-fat, high-sugar diet can quickly and dramatically change the population of microbes living in the digestive tract, according to a new study of human gut bugs transplanted into mice.

Trillions of microbes live inside the human gut, and one of their functions is to process parts of foods that we can't digest on our own. Recent studies have suggested that certain populations of microbes may be associated with obesity.

"The energetic and nutrient value of food may not be an absolute term, but one that is modified in part by the microbes that live in our gut — who's there in this community, how they operate, and how they operate in relationship to what we are eating," says Jeffrey Gordon of Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Mo.

He and other scientists are eager to start doing experiments to see what happens if the gut populations are modified by changes in diet, antibiotics, or dietary supplements. To make such experiments possible, Gordon has been working with colleagues to take gut microbes from human feces and transplant them into the intestinal tracts of previously germ-free mice.

How Inflammation causes Fatigue

We have known anecdotally that inflammation causes fatigue, but now one of the underlying mechanisms has been explained in this article in Science Daily. More on how this relates to diet coming.

How Inflammatory Disease Causes Fatigue

ScienceDaily (Feb. 28, 2009) — New animal research in the February 18 issue of The Journal of Neuroscience may indicate how certain diseases make people feel so tired and listless. Although the brain is usually isolated from the immune system, the study suggests that certain behavioral changes suffered by those with chronic inflammatory diseases are caused by the infiltration of immune cells into the brain. The findings suggest possible new treatment avenues to improve patients' quality of life.

Start the Day right - Readers Digest

Think you've read it all? so do I, but I found some really good ideas in this article on how to start your day right.

27 Ideas for a Healthier Breakfast: The Breakfast Routine | Get Motivated | Reader's Digest

Not only is breakfast the first food and drink your body has had in more than 8 hours, but studies find that what you eat for breakfast influences what you eat the rest of the day. Additionally, people who eat breakfast are significantly less likely to be obese and have diabetes than those who don't.

The most important tip we can give you is to eat breakfast every day. Without exception. This one action alone can make a huge, positive difference in your health. But a doughnut or oversized muffin won't do it. The key is to choose energy-enhancing, health-invigorating foods. That's what we'll focus on in the tips ahead.

Shocking photo of Sugar in Soft drink

Sugar Stacks - How Much Sugar Is in That?

Would you eat a stack of 16 sugar cubes?

A label can tell you there are 39 grams of sugar in your soda, but what does that much sugar look like?

Obesity Risk Reduced With Water Fountains in Schools

A study of about 3000 children in 32 schools in Germany found that installing water fountains, giving the children refillable water bottles, and using teaching lessons promoting the health benefits of water consumption reduced the risk of being overweight by 31%.

Another piece of the Obesity And Low Carbohydrate Puzzle

Syndrome X, the cluster of health problems around obesity, diabetes and cardio-vascular disease has proved a Gordian knot of interrelated factors. Simple diet and exercise type experiments are not enough to untangle the underlying science. Nevertheless, scientists are chipping away one gene at a time.

Researchers find gene that turns carbs into fat | Health | Reuters

CHICAGO (Reuters) - U.S. researchers have found a gene responsible for turning a plate of pasta into fat, offering new clues about how the body metabolizes carbohydrates and how they contribute to obesity.

The gene, called DNA-PK, appears to regulate the process in the liver that turns carbohydrates into fat, the University of California, Berkeley team reported on Thursday in the journal Cell.

Watch Sweet Drinks

Do you wonder about the Science behind our concerns over soft drink (soda)? This article gives a clear picture of the issues.

Why Soft Drinks Contribute to Obesity

(NaturalNews) The introduction of high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) in the seventies coincided with a marked rise in obesity in the U.S., leading to speculations that there might be a causal connection between HFCS consumption and weight gain (1). This seemed all the more plausible since HFCS consumption grew much faster than any other food intake.

On the other hand, obesity rates also increased in Europe and other parts of the world where sucrose (table sugar) remained the major caloric sweetener. This seemed to argue against a connection between HFCS and weight gain, particularly since the fructose/glucose ratios of high fructose corn syrup and sucrose are quite similar.

What sucrose and high fructose corn syrup have in common, and what distinguishes them from dietary carbohydrates such as starch, is their fructose content. Fructose contributes the same amount of energy as glucose, but it doesn′t trigger the same satiety signals. The sharp rise in the consumption of soft drinks and processed foods sweetened with HFCS and sucrose led to a dramatic increase in fructose intake, a source of energy that goes essentially unnoticed.....

Does your BP Medication Cause Diabetes or Prevent it?

The "take home" in a nutshell:

Their findings showed that the lowest risk for new-onset diabetes occurred with

AII receptor antagonists (OR=0.57; 95% CI, 0.46-0.72),
which were better but not significantly better than ACE inhibitors (OR=0.67; 95% CI, 0.56-0.80)

followed by calcium channel blockers (OR=0.75; 95% CI, 0.62-0.90) and

placebo (OR=0.77; 95% CI, 0.63-0.94).

The risk was highest with diuretics and beta-blockers (OR=0.90; 95% CI, 0.75-1.09),
according to Elliott.



Endocrine Today

Hypertension treatment with angiotensin II receptor antagonists and ACE inhibitors is least likely to lead to diabetes; however, diuretics or beta-blockers increase a patient’s chance of developing diabetes, according to a report published in The Lancet.

“We should monitor our patients for the development of diabetes, and we should remain cognizant that different medicines have different propensities. But we should use all the medicines necessary to get and keep blood pressure under control,” said William J. Elliott, MD, PhD, professor of preventive medicine, internal medicine and pharmacology at Rush Medical College of Rush University Medical Center, Chicago.

Several long-term clinical trials have shown that patients on antihypertension medications are more likely to have reduced glucose tolerance and precipitated new-onset diabetes than those without hypertension. This is often attributed to increased weight, recent weight gain or stronger family history of diabetes among those with hypertension.

Elliott and colleagues analyzed data to assess the relationship between long-term treatment with classes of antihypertensive drugs and incident diabetes.
[bar]
Evaluating a relationship

The researchers conducted a network meta-analysis of long-term, randomized clinical trials from 1966 to 2006 among 143,153 participants who did not have diabetes at randomization. They identified 22 clinical trials of each class of antihypertensive drugs. They assessed the chance that a person would develop diabetes during one to about five years of observation.

Their findings showed that the lowest risk for new-onset diabetes occurred with AII receptor antagonists (OR=0.57; 95% CI, 0.46-0.72), which were better but not significantly better than ACE inhibitors (OR=0.67; 95% CI, 0.56-0.80) followed by calcium channel blockers (OR=0.75; 95% CI, 0.62-0.90) and placebo (OR=0.77; 95% CI, 0.63-0.94). The risk was highest with diuretics and beta-blockers (OR=0.90; 95% CI, 0.75-1.09), according to Elliott. Compared with placebo, diuretics or beta-blockers slightly but significantly increased the risk for developing diabetes. AII receptor antagonists or ACE inhibitors significantly decreased the risk. These findings suggest that the differences between antihypertensive drugs and the risk for new-onset diabetes are real and significant.

“Don’t throw out the blood pressure medicines because you are worried about the risk for getting diabetes; instead, monitor patients,” Elliott advised. “It is certainly important when you find out a patient has diabetes because it changes their blood pressure target and their cholesterol target, and they probably ought to always be on aspirin after that.”

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New Diabetes Combination Pill

Merck diabetes pill combination wins U.S. approval - Yahoo! News

Merck & Co Inc. has won U.S. approval to sell a medicine called Janumet that combines two diabetes medicines into a single pill, the
Food and Drug Administration said on Saturday.
ADVERTISEMENT

Janumet pairs Merck's drug Januvia with a widely used, older generic medicine called metformin. Both drugs help control blood sugar in patients with Type 2 diabetes, the most common form.

Januvia was approved last October as the first medicine in a new class called dipeptidyl peptidase-4 inhibitors, or DPP-4 inhibitors. Januvia's generic name is sitagliptin.

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CoQ10 Proves good for Heart especially with exercise

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - The popular supplement coenzyme Q10 improves the functional capacity of patients with chronic heart failure, along with strengthening of their heart, a new study shows. Coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10) has antioxidant properties, note Dr. Romualdo Belardinelli, of Lancisi Heart Institute, Italy, and colleagues. "However, its role in chronic heart failure is not well defined," they explain in the European Heart Journal. The team therefore studied 23 patients, average age 59 years, with moderate to severe heart failure. They were assigned to 4 weeks each of oral CoQ10 supplements or inactive placebo pills, with or without supervised exercise training five times per week. Of the 23 patients, 21 completed the study. Supplementation with CoQ10 led to a significant 3 percent increase in HDL ("good") cholesterol and improvement in peak exercise capacity. Belardinelli's team also saw an increase in cardiac function with CoQ10 treatment. Combining exercise training with CoQ10 produced more marked improvements in these and all other parameters.

Kanguru 32GB Flash Max Drive KFDM-32G at TigerDirect.com

This isn't a gadget blog, but once again something amazing just has to be noted - 32 Gigabytes of storage on a normal-looking little thumb drive! Gadzooks!

Kanguru 32GB Flash Max Drive KFDM-32G at TigerDirect.com: "Kanguru 32GB Flash Max Drive
The Kanguru Flash Max is a high strength, high capacity USB2.0 flash drive that stores up to 32GB! The Kanguru Flash Max sports a rugged aluminum exterior housing that provides durability and ultimately extends the life of the drive. Operates on Windows, Mac and Linux, most without any device drivers.

The Kanguru Flash Drive Max comes complete with KanguruShield security software, allowing Windows users the option of password protection for secure data. The KanguruShield software allows users to resize and format the flash drive space into public and/or private partitions. Setting up the KanguruShield security software is easy and user friendly!"

Try being a little more sensitive - The Diabetes Blog

Try being a little more sensitive - The Diabetes Blog:

It looks like I have to do more research on citrus flavones and their effect on insulin resistance. The evidence for the benefits of Resveratrol is becoming quite solid, but credible references for citrus flavone research would be appreciated.

"I grabbed a copy of Life Extension magazine. I'm always a bit suspicious of anything that retail stores give away for free, so I admittedly paid little attention to it at first. But, after perusing through its 110-plus pages, I have to say that I was quite impressed with some of the information contained therein. In particular, I found a small piece on Citrus Peel Extract, and its supposed relationship to insulin sensitivity, to be rather interesting.

Based on what was stated in this article, it appears as though citrus peel extract has for some time been used to improve cholesterol levels. However, a recent study involving some fancy scientists, a few hamsters, and a sugar-rich diet to induce insulin resistance and elevated triglycerides led to the discovery that impaired insulin sensitivity could be reversed by supplementing with citrus flavones.

While this is great news (for humans and hamsters), you may want to consult with your doctor first before taking this or any supplement."

SYMLIN-- Where have you been? - The Diabetes Blog

SYMLIN-- Where have you been? - The Diabetes Blog:

I came across this link on a Byette analogue I missed somehow:


"when non-diabetics produce insulin, they simultaneously release a hormone called Amlyn. The synthetic form of this is SYMLIN. Well it's about time! I assure you, as certain as the sun rises in the East-it works!

SYMLIN slows down the movement of food through your stomach. This affects how fast sugar enters your blood after eating. SYMLIN also helps you to feel full more quickly during meals, causing you to eat less than you normally would. SYMLIN is always used with insulin to help lower blood sugar during the 3 hours after meals. You may have already heard of its sibling: BYETTA. Amylin manufactures both, SYMLIN and BYETTA. There's a chemical juxtaposition, but I'm no rocket scientist. Anybody want to take a stab at it?

SYMLIN is not an ideal drug for every diabetic. It does have its side effects, the most pronounced being nausea. However, if you've been searching for an agent to quell the search and destroy mission insulin conveys to your appetite - SYMLIN might be your new friend on the battlefield."

Webcrawling found SARS 6 weeks before it became official

Larry Brilliant

TEDPrize winner Larry Brilliant is an epidemiologist who led the
successful WHO campaign to eradicate Smallpox. He was recently named
Executive Director of the Google Foundation. (Recorded February, 2006
in Monterey, CA.)



Watch Online    


Download Audio    


Download Video

Use your computer to fight cancer

Gearlog : Find a Cure for AIDS and Cancer By Donating Computer Time

It isn't every day that we are presented with a chance to save lives, just from using our computers.


David Baker, 43, a professor of biochemistry at the University of Washington, has been trying for years to find an AIDS vaccine or a cure for cancer. However, he hasn't had the funds nor the right kind of computer needed for his research.


Ultimately, the only way for him to conduct his research was to turn to strangers and their computers through networks. His research team uses the computing power from "tens of thousands of PCs whose owners are donating spare computer time to chop away at scientific problems over the Internet." The project is called Rosetta@home, and more than 60,000 people have donated their computer power to aid Baker and his team.


How it works: "The project sends work to computers that have installed the necessary free software. When the machine is idle, it figures out how an individual protein — a building block of life — might fold or contort, displaying the possibilities in a screen saver. When the PC is done crunching, it sends the results back to Baker's team and grabs more work."


If you'd like to help with the project, visit http://boinc.bakerlab.org/rosetta/ to learn about system requirements and how to download and install BOINC—a free, open-source software for distributed computing.



[Quotes from USAToday]

Technorati Tags: health, open source, computing, philanthropy

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Technorati Tags: health, open source, computing, philanthropy

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Technorati Tags: health, open source, computing, philanthropy

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Curing Skin Cancer with a Queensland weed

Peplin's skin cancer gel trial a success - Breaking News - Business - Breaking News

Early clinical trials of a new gel to treat skin cancer have returned promising results.

The gel, developed by Brisbane-based company Peplin, can be rubbed on to the skin to treat certain types of skin cancer.

Initial trials show just two applications of the PEP005 Topical gel on two consecutive days cleared up 71 per cent of basal cell carcinomas, or BCCs, the most common type of skin cancer.

The trials on 60 people throughout Australia built on an early study by Peplin in 2002 using the common garden weed, petty spurge.

"That was a very different study and that was just using the raw sap of petty spurge," said Michael Aldridge, Peplin's managing director and chief executive.

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e-Business strategy example - the impressive performancing

Worlds Largest Community of Professional Bloggers | Performancing.com

Nick Wilson - one of the founders of performancing outlined their thinking:

"The original idea for Performancing was to build an ad network. Not another Adsense clone, and not another text link ads clone (my partner Patrick already runs the largest company in that market), but something we felt bloggers would really like, and that stood an excellent chance of success.

Somewhere during the planning out of that network came the idea that it might be better, if we involved the blogging community in what we were planning more. After all, if we really want you guys to like what we do, who better to help plan it?

Of course you can't do that unless you have some folks to talk to about it, so we figured we would do the sensible thing, and start blogging on subjects related to advertising, making money, writing compelling copy and all other aspects of what we would consider "professional blogging". By building up a community of like minded bloggers, bloggers like ourselves, that were interested in making money from their blogs, we would eventually have a great bunch of people to bounce ideas off of, and help us shape the money making end of this business.

I hope that makes sense. My point is, that we think YOU are the best people to decide what you want from an ad network, not us.

So, we started posting, and unsurprisingly, found some great folks that were willing to share their experiences and skills with the community to the benefit of us all. (dont think for a moment that I, Chris or anyone else here knows all there is to know about blogging, that just isnt possible heh..).
Then along came Performancing Firefox

Whilst dreaming up ways to get our site noticed, I came up with this small idea to build a neat firefox extension. A little harmless "linkbait" to help get a new blog off the ground, and noticed by some of the big kids.

That extension has become a monster! To this date, its the most fun thing I've worked on, and has gone a long way to prove my belief that involving the community in the production of tools and services for the community is a strong idea."

Technorati Tags: strategy, performancing, web 2.0

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Performancing - A good example of a web 2.0 company business strategy

Worlds Largest Community of Professional Bloggers | Performancing.com

The original idea for Performancing was to build an ad network. Not another Adsense clone, and not another text link ads clone (my partner Patrick already runs the largest company in that market), but something we felt bloggers would really like, and that stood an excellent chance of success.

Somewhere during the planning out of that network came the idea that it might be better, if we involved the blogging community in what we were planning more. After all, if we really want you guys to like what we do, who better to help plan it?

Of course you can't do that unless you have some folks to talk to about it, so we figured we would do the sensible thing, and start blogging on subjects related to advertising, making money, writing compelling copy and all other aspects of what we would consider "professional blogging". By building up a community of like minded bloggers, bloggers like ourselves, that were interested in making money from their blogs, we would eventually have a great bunch of people to bounce ideas off of, and help us shape the money making end of this business.

I hope that makes sense. My point is, that we think YOU are the best people to decide what you want from an ad network, not us.

So, we started posting, and unsurprisingly, found some great folks that were willing to share their experiences and skills with the community to the benefit of us all. (dont think for a moment that I, Chris or anyone else here knows all there is to know about blogging, that just isnt possible heh..).
Then along came Performancing Firefox

Whilst dreaming up ways to get our site noticed, I came up with this small idea to build a neat firefox extension. A little harmless "linkbait" to help get a new blog off the ground, and noticed by some of the big kids.

That extension has become a monster! To this date, its the most fun thing I've worked on, and has gone a long way to prove my belief that involving the community in the production of tools and services for the community is a strong idea.

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Things to know about your body

MJ FEATURE: Things You Didn't Know About Your Body

the article includes the following quote, b ut I haven't found a source to verify the statement - any clues?

Statins are frequently hailed as miracle drugs, but they have their limits. A starter dose can lower cholesterol by 40 percent, yet to get the bigger drop many doctors prescribe often requires that amount to be doubled or even quadrupled -- leaving patients at higher risk for muscle pain and other side effects. That's where that other wonder drug, Metamucil, comes into play. Before upping your statins, try three unsweetened 1-1/2 tsp. servings of the venerable fiber laxative a day. A study has shown it produces the same drop in LDL as an extra statin, side effect-free.

Technorati Tags: cholesterol, fibre, health, mens health

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Better results with cholesterol-lowering food combo - Yahoo! News

Better results with cholesterol-lowering food combo - Yahoo! News: "Making certain dietary changes, such as consuming cholesterol-lowering foods in combination rather than separately, may be as effective as some prescription drugs for certain patients with high cholesterol, according to new study findings.

'A diet can be much more effective than originally thought, in terms of lowering cholesterol,' Dr. Cyril W. C. Kendall, of the University of Toronto in Canada, told Reuters Health." ..............

Their findings are based on 55 study participants who consumed a diet with high levels of plant sterols, soy protein, viscous fibers (found in oats, barley and eggplant) and almonds.

At 3-month and 12-month follow-up, study participants exhibited an average 14 percent and 13 percent reduction, respectively, in levels of the "bad" LDL-cholesterol, the investigators report in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

What's more, over 30 percent of the study participants lowered their LDL-cholesterol by more than 20 percent by the end of the study period, a reduction comparable to that seen among patients taking older formulations of statin drugs, the researchers note.

Diabetes News - a key underlying cause of Insulin Resistance

I haven't found the original link, and this entry has no permalink, so please let me know if the pointer "slips". The issue is how we become pre-diabetic and the relationship to moderate exercise.
Diabetes News: "Despite being young, healthy and lean, all of the test subjects had high levels of insulin resistance. Insulin resistance is often referred to as 'pre-diabetes' because it's the first sign that the body is not processing sugar properly." ...........
"And as Shulman says, "Fat inside the muscle cell causes insulin resistance; so the real question becomes, 'Why is the fat building up?'"

One of the goals of the team's research was to figure out exactly what was happening on a cellular level to cause this fat buildup.................

They found that compared to normal volunteers, the insulin-resistant group had much less mitochondrial activity. So it was, in fact, the mitochondria that were to blame for the fat building up inside the cells and not a defect in fat cells.

Shulman says that discovering that reduced mitochondrial activity is to blame is a key step in coming up with treatments and prevention. "I'm very excited about this because, really, if you understand the mechanisms to the disease, this will allow us to develop pharmacologic interventions to correct the disease or ideally prevent it," he says. In an even more recent study published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation, Shulman's team revealed that the lower mitochondrial activity in these insulin-resistant patients is actually due to the fact that they have fewer mitochondria. As a result, the team is also focusing on identifying the genes that might be responsible for this reduced mitochondria count. Until treatments are available, though, Shulman says there's a lot we can do to keep the risk of diabetes at bay. In another study, his team actually observed a total reversal of insulin resistance as a consequence of — you guessed it — regular exercise. "We've taken the same group of individuals and had them exercise four times a week on a stairmaster, and have totally reversed the insulin resistance in skeletal muscle," he says. "

Could Alzheimer's be a form of diabetes?

Home: "An intriguing new study from Brown University has linked declining insulin production in the brain to Alzheimer's disease, leading inevitably to the question - could Alzheimer's be a form of diabetes?

'Insulin disappears early and dramatically in Alzheimer's disease,' says senior researcher Suzanne M. de la Monte, a neuropathologist at Rhode Island Hospital and a professor of pathology at Brown University Medical School.

'And many of the unexplained features of Alzheimer's, such as cell death and tangles in the brain, appear to be linked to abnormalities in insulin signaling. This demonstrates that the disease is most likely a neuroendocrine disorder, or another type of diabetes.'"

Nanomedicine's brave new world

Alan H. Goldstein, the author of this Salon.com article, is sounding a note of caution regarding our wholesale rush towards the smallest "silver bullet" we have seen yet. The writing style requires some perserverence, but it is a thought-provoking take on the situation.

Salon.com Technology | Nanomedicine's brave new world: "n just a few years, doctors will know everyone's genetic identity. This knowledge will be a blessing -- and a curse." .............

"How close are we to cancer-killing nanobots? The NIH Web site talks about nanoshells -- minuscule beads coated with gold. By manipulating the thickness of the layers constituting the nanoshells, scientists will design them to absorb specific wavelengths of light. The most useful nanoshells are those that absorb near-infrared light, which can easily penetrate into the body. Absorption of light by the nanoshells generates a lethal dose of heat. Researchers can already link nanoshells to antibodies that recognize cancer cells. In a "magic bullet" scenario, nanoshells will seek out their cancerous targets. Once they have docked, they will be zapped with near-infrared light. In laboratory cultures, the heat produced by light-absorbing nanoshells killed tumor cells while leaving neighboring cells intact. Experts believe quantum dots, nanopores and other devices may be available for clinical use in five to 15 years. Therapeutic agents are expected to be available within a similar time frame. Devices that integrate detection and therapy could arrive in the clinic in about 15 to 20 years, which means a cure for your Stage III melanoma and other forms of cancer could arrive within your lifetime."

The importance to Heart Health of managing Insulin levels and Insulin Resistance

A segment has been taken from the ABC Health report (available as podcast through iTunes for free) and it reinforces the theme that managing insulin levels is the primary key to reducing risk of heart attack or stroke in overweight people. Note: not managing Blood glucose (although that is vital for other reasons) but managing insulin levels.

The Health Report: 12 December 2005 - Polycystic Ovary Syndrome: "Norman Swan: So what you did is you took 100 women and compared them to 20 women who didn’t have Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome.

Helena Teede: Yes, and the main question that we were asking is: is this high cholesterol and these cardiovascular risk factors or heart disease risk factors, are those there because these women are overweight, or is there something about obesity and having Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome that makes the heart risk factors and the blood vessel health worse? So we took a large group of overweight women, some of whom had Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome, and some of whom were just overweight but didn’t have the syndrome. And we looked at the difference between the two groups.

Norman Swan: And how did you assess for heart disease?

Helena Teede: What we did was use ultrasound, to look at the health and stiffness of the blood vessels, which predict heart disease in the longer term, because they actually measure the early signs of heart disease developing in the blood vessels.

Norman Swan: Now I’m just looking at the table of results here and just on the testing you did before we come to the heart disease, and it’s quite amazing stuff. Three times the level of insulin. Interestingly, the blood sugar wasn’t that much different. Why was that, with the insulin so high, is the insulin doing the job at that level, is that what’s going on there?

Helena Teede: Yes. Resistance to the hormone insulin is the first stage. As long as the pancreas can keep up with producing that insulin, our sugars stay normal. You need a combination of that resistance and then an eventual inability as the body to keep producing more and more insulin to eventually develop diabetes.

Norman Swan: And their menstrual cycles were three times as long?

Helena Teede: Yes, absolutely. The menstrual cycles in these women often they may only cycle four times a year, sometimes only once or twice, "