Diabetes can be controlled by healthy diet and regular excercise

A healthy diet,regular excercise and culturally sensitive care may be helpful in preventing and controlling diabetes, say researchers.

The findings are based on recent reviews that suggest that a healthy diet and exercise can help prevent diabetes, and that patients from ethnic minorities do better with diabetes education that takes their language and culture into account.

Dr. Didac Mauricio, a researcher from the Hospital Universitari Arnau de Vilanova in Spain, said that the data from a review of eight studies showed that lower fat and higher fibre diets, combined with moderate weekly exercise, reduced the relative risk of developing type 2 diabetes by 37 per cent among the 2,241 study participants who had received the diet and exercise prescription.

The researcher said that people who participated in the studies also lost weight, reduced their waist circumference, and improved their blood pressure - all key factors related to the risk of developing diabetes.

Mauricio, however, said that the participants had substantial help from dieticians and exercise physiologists along the way, and because the changes in diet and exercise were monitored so carefully, “we do not presently know how these interventions perform outside a trial.”

In another review by Lucie Nield of the University of Teesside and colleagues in England, diets rich in fruits and vegetables and lower in sugar were found to reduce the incidence of type 2 diabetes among the participants in one six-year study by 33 per cent.

Though the review appear in the latest issue of The Cochrane Library makes it clear that diet can stave off type 2 diabetes, Nield concedes that it is still unclear exactly what kind of diet to recommend to people who might be vulnerable to developing the disease.

“Despite the current situation we are facing with the diabetes epidemic, there are not enough long-term data available to come to any confident conclusions,” she said.

She and her colleagues say that regular visits with dieticians - every three to six months during the studies - may also have played a significant role in getting people to stick with a healthy eating plan.

A third Cochrane review led by Dr. Yolanda Robles, an academic fellow at Cardiff University, focused on how the health of ethnic minority diabetes patients might improve if they were taught about the disease in their own language, “or by members of their community using health education materials that had been adapted to that community”s cultural needs.”

The researchers found that the “culturally appropriate” education had a short-term effect of lowering blood glucose (sugar) levels, but none of the interventions included in the review lasted more than a year.

Analysing 11 studies, the researchers found that combination education strategies seemed to have the greatest positive impact on the health of the 1,603 participants.

“However, it should be borne in mind that we still do not know the necessary dose of health education needed or the level of reinforcement of messages to ensure continued benefits. Longer term studies, with more patient-centered outcomes, are needed,” Robles cautioned

Purple Tomatoes n Dark berries helped prevent cancer in mice - New research

LONDON - A purple tomato genetically engineered to contain nutrients more commonly seen in dark berries helped prevent cancer in mice, British researchers said on Sunday.

The finding, published in the journal Nature Biotechnology, bolsters the idea that plants can be genetically modified to make people healthier.

Cancer-prone mice fed the modified fruit lived significantly longer than animals fed a standard diet with and without regular tomatoes, Cathie Martin and colleagues at the government-funded John Innes Center in Britain reported.

"The effect was much bigger than we had expected," said Martin, a plant biologist.

The study focused on anthocyanins, a type of antioxidant found in berries such as blackberries and blackcurrants that have been shown to lower risk of cancer, heart disease and some neurological diseases.

While an easy health boost, many people do not eat enough of these fruits, the researchers said.

Using genes that help color the snapdragon flower, the researchers discovered they could get the tomatoes to make anthocyanins -- turning the tomato purple in the process.

Mice genetically engineered to develop cancer lived an average of 182 days when they were fed the purple tomatoes, compared to 142 days for animals on the standard diet.

"It is enormously encouraging to believe that by changing diet, or specific components in the diet, you can improve health in animals and possibly humans," Martin said in a telephone interview.

The researchers cautioned that trials in humans are a long way off and the next step is to investigate how the antioxidants actually affect the tumors to promote better health.

"Heart Surgery in India is affordable"said Malaysian Health Minister Liow Tiong Lai.

17 children from Malaysia who underwent heart surgery at a hospital in Banglore, India, under a special programme have recovered and are doing fine, said Malaysian Health Minister Liow Tiong Lai.

"We are very happy that all the children went through a safe operation and are doing very well," Liow told reporters Saturday.

Liow said the programme, which saw the children being sent to Bangalore's Narayana Hrudayalaya Hospital India for affordable treatment for heart disease, would be continued in future too.

The children, aged between nine months and 13 years, were sent to India since their families could not afford medical help in local private hospitals or could not schedule treatment in the limited government hospitals.

For their referral treatment back in Malaysia, Liow said the children would be sent to hospitals close to their homes.

He said the costs of sending the children to the hospital in India was "affordable", where each surgery was about $3,300 approximately, while another $400 was spent for accommodation and processing of visas.

Malaysia and India have an ongoing programme, not only of medical treatment, but also of medical education under which a large number of Malaysian students graduate from Indian medical colleges and hospitals.

KARYOMAPPING - New technique to detect genetic disorders in embryos

Couples opting for IVF would soon be able to know whether their child is suffering from any genetic disorder, courtesy British researchers, who have developed a gene-mapping test that can tell parents-to-be if embryos are affected by almost any inherited disease.

The new technique called karyomapping, developed by a team from London's Bridge Centre can detect as many as 15,000 inherited diseases in weeks. It involved analyses of chromosomes.

For the test, a single-cell is taken from an eight-day-old embryo, created using IVF.

Then DNA samples are taken from the parents - and their parents.

Usually, another member of the family, most likely a child affected by the relevant condition, also provides a sample.

All those family members' DNA is then compared, looking at 300,000 specific DNA markers, allowing scientists create a map of the family's genetics.

The scientists determine if there is a block of DNA, which has been passed on by the paternal grandfather to an affected child, and if it is also present in the embryo.

Citing the example of cystic fibrosis gene that lies on chromosome 7, the researchers said if the paternal grandfather was a carrier, and the embryo has inherited a section of DNA at that particular position, the embryo would have the faulty gene.

"The current tests can only identify a small number of defects," BBC quoted Professor Alan Handyside, who has developed the test, as saying.

"One of the main things for patients is that, quite often, there isn't a test for their particular condition. This is a single test - a universal method," he added.

He said the test could also be used, more controversially, to detect a genetic profile, which showed a susceptibility to conditions such as heart disease or cancer.

Trials are underway at the Bridge Centre.

"The effectiveness and efficiency of the procedure is quite exciting, and the fact it's quicker means it could be helpful to couples at risk of inherited diseases - and that in itself is significant," said Dr Mark Hamilton, chairman of the British Fertility Society. (ANI)