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Diabetes appears to be written into some people's genes, but with the right diet and exercise, the disease may never surface, according to a new study. Nearly 1 in 10 U.S. adults age 20 and older have diabetes, a condition in which the body cannot properly regulate blood glucose levels, leading to organ disease and other complications. Type 2 diabetes accounts for 90% to 95% of all diabetes cases, and over the past 6 years, researchers have linked a handful of genes to the disease. Most recently a team at deCode Genetics in Reykjavik, Iceland, found that individuals with one...

Health officials said Manuel Uribe weighed 1,235 pounds when he made a desperate plea for help on national television in January. Unable to leave his bed for five years, the 41-year-old mechanic in the northern industrial city of Monterrey longed to move again. His plea was answered by doctors and nutritionists who prescribed a high-protein diet, helping him lose about 200 pounds since then. Gilberto Montiel, health secretary for Nuevo Leon state, said medical officials have been monitoring Uribe's weight and confirmed the loss. "I feel better now, I can stretch and move a bit more," Uribe said Monday, flanked...

When World War II veteran Rear Adm Barry K. Atkins was interred in Arlington National Cemetery January 30, Amateur Radio enabled coordinated rifle salutes at the cemetery and in Hartford, Connecticut. Atkins was a longtime resident of Connecticut, and Alex Parley of Windsor--a member of Atkins' US Navy crew during World War II--requested the special honor. "Their destroyer, the USS Melvin, sank the Japanese battleship Fuso in the battle of Surigao Strait--the only destroyer known to have sunk a battleship," explains Mac Harper, W1FYM, of Glastonbury, Connecticut. Through a series of communications that began when Parley requested help from ARRL...

News Analysis In an early 19th-century best seller, a famous food writer offered a cure for obesity and chronic disease: a low-carbohydrate diet. The notion that what you eat shapes your medical fate has exerted a strong pull throughout history. And its appeal continues to this day, medical historians and researchers say. "It's one of the great principles — no, more than principles, canons — of American culture to suggest that what you eat affects your health," says James Morone, a professor of political science at Brown University. "It's this idea that you control your own destiny and that it's...

Controversial American documentary filmmaker Michael Moore bemoaned an apparent right turn by liberal northern neighbor Canada in its upcoming general election. "Oh, Canada -- you're not really going to elect a Conservative majority on Monday, are you? That's a joke, right? I know you have a great sense of humor, ... but this is no longer funny," Moore complained in a commentary on his website. "First, you have the courage to stand against the war in Iraq -- and then you elect a prime minister who's for it. You declare gay people have equal rights -- and then you elect...

Michael Moore Statement on Canadian Election Friday, January 20th, 2006 Michael Moore is currently in production on his next movie. As an avid lover of all things Canadian, he has issued the following statement regarding Canada's upcoming election on Monday: Oh, Canada -- you're not really going to elect a Conservative majority on Monday, are you? That's a joke, right? I know you have a great sense of humor, and certainly a well-developed sense of irony, but this is no longer funny. Maybe it's a new form of Canadian irony -- reverse irony! OK, now I get it.

Michael Moore Statement on Canadian Election Michael Moore is currently in production on his next movie. As an avid lover of all things Canadian, he has issued the following statement regarding Canada's upcoming election on Monday: Oh, Canada -- you're not really going to elect a Conservative majority on Monday, are you? That's a joke, right? I know you have a great sense of humor, and certainly a well-developed sense of irony, but this is no longer funny. Maybe it's a new form of Canadian irony -- reverse irony! OK, now I get it. First, you have the courage to...

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) -- More dieters are ditching carb counts and biting into baguettes with gusto these days. ... This week's bankruptcy filing by the late Dr. Robert C. Atkins' old company provide fresh evidence of the low-carb diet's demise, a downward spiral that began early last year. But no single new diet has filled the void. Observers say the only sure thing -- given the boom-and-bust nature of weight-loss trends -- is that something will pop up eventually. ''There isn't one single strong contender,'' said Anne M. Russell, editor-in-chief of Shape magazine. ''If you look at what the single...

Bankruptcy shows diet is 'too extreme' for U.S., baker says. In Boise, staff members of the Idaho Potato Commission gave each other gleeful high-fives when they heard the news. In Houston, the folks at the U.S. Rice Producers' Association declared "good riddance." And fruit farmers in the Central Valley said they were "happy to see them go." Across the United States, producers of carbohydrate-laden food exulted at the decision by Atkins Nutritionals Inc., the Ronkonkoma, N.Y.-based designer of the once popular low-carbohydrate weight-loss program, to file for bankruptcy protection. The company said it planned to reorganize and focus mainly on...

NEW YORK - Atkins Nutritionals Inc., the company that promoted low-carb eating into a national diet craze, filed for bankruptcy court protection Sunday, a company spokesman said. Atkins has been hurt by waning popularity of its namesake diet, which focuses on eliminating carbohydrates such as bread and pasta as a way to shed weight. The diet quickly became one of the most popular in U.S. history, spawning numerous derivatives and a virtual cottage industry of low-carb regimens - but also drew criticism from many experts for its focus on fatty foods and low fruit and vegetable consumption. A hearing on...

Tufts researchers recently reported that while the leading source of calories in the average American diet used to be from white bread, that may have changed. Now, according to preliminary research conducted by scientists at the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University, Americans are drinking these calories instead. The research was presented in abstract form at the Experimental Biology Conference in April of this year and a more comprehensive paper is being developed.Odilia Bermudez, PhD, MPH, studied the reported diets of a large nationwide sample of American adults. Among respondents to the 1999-2000 National...

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Foods with a low-glycemic index, which are digested relatively slowly and cause smaller increases in blood sugar, may protect the heart and blood vessels better than low-fat fare, according to the findings of a small study. Researchers in Boston found that when obese people consumed as many carbohydrates with a low-glycemic index as they wanted, they lost just as much weight in 12 months as people who stuck with a conventional, calorie-restricted low-fat diet.Carbohydrates with a low-glycemic index include foods such as nonstarchy vegetables, fruit, legumes, nuts and diary products, according to the report in...

Diet-related chronic diseases represent the single largest cause of death and sickness in the United States and most Western countries. Yet while these diseases are epidemic in contemporary Westernized populations and typically afflict two-thirds of the adult population, they are rare or nonexistent in hunter-gatherers and other less Westernized cultures.Why? There is an increasing awareness that the profound environmental changes, such as diet and other lifestyle conditions that began with the introduction of agriculture and animal husbandry (the care and breeding of domestic animals), occurred too recently for the human genome to adapt to.Thus, universal characteristics of preagricultural human diets...

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - When it comes to carbohydrates, it's not how much you eat, but which kind, that makes a difference to your bathroom scale, new research shows. People who are overweight do not appear to eat more carbohydrates overall than people who weigh less, the researchers report in the American Journal of Epidemiology. However, they found that overweight people tend to eat more refined carbohydrates, such as white bread and pasta, which cause a rapid spike in blood sugar. "Total amount of carbohydrate is not related to body weight," Dr. Yunsheng Ma of the University of Massachusetts...

SAN FRANCISCO, Feb 11 (Reuters) - McDonald's  has agreed to pay $8.5 million to settle a lawsuit over artery-clogging trans fats in its cooking oils, the company said on Friday. McDonald's said it will donate $7 million to the American Heart Association and spend another $1.5 million to inform the public of its trans fat plans.The settlement is the result of litigation from a San Francisco area activist who has been seeking to raise public awareness of the health dangers from the trans fatty acids (TFAs) in hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated oils. Trans fats are used in thousands of processed...

Sugar and Grains Increase Depression   Depression may be the culprit behind both mental and physical health conditions. According to studies, more than normal rates of depression can be found in patients with clinically manifest type 2 diabetes. Type 2 is the most common form of diabetes and can be characterized by insulin resistance and relative insulin deficiency--either of which can be present at its onset.And, while the relationship between insulin resistance and depression is a vague and contradictory area, a more recent study may have made some headway.Treading New GroundResearchers discovered a positive connection between higher levels of...

Changing the way the world eats is an ambitious goal. The significant changes in the government’s dietary guidelines are an important step forward and a clear signal that the message Dr. Atkins long championed is increasingly heeded. I’m delighted to see the much-awaited dietary guidelines of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). A close look at the recommendations released last week shows how closely these recommendations reflect our efforts to raise carbohydrate awareness and emphasize the importance of weight management. It appears that government officials have listened to the Atkins’...

Soy Formula May Stunt the Intestinal Growth in Your Baby   Concerns regarding the safety of soy formula were raised after two studies revealed that the amounts of soy isoflavone genistein, a chemical found in commercial soy formulas, might inhibit the intestinal growth in babies. There is a great deal of merit surrounding this concern, particularly because nearly 25 percent of formula-fed babies in the United States consume soy formula.Commercial soy formulas contain anywhere from 32 to 45 milligrams of genistein. These concentration levels exceed the amount found to affect menstrual cycles in women. Since formula is the only...

For the more than 11 million Americans who suffer from food allergies, some news with a tantalizing aroma is emanating from Israel. Scientists from the Technion Israel Institute of Technology have found a way to neutralize a sesame seed protein that causes allergies and they believe the technique can also be used to eliminate allergens in milk, peanuts and other common foods.

Another Painkiller Linked to Heart RiskNIH Halts Study On Aleve Ingredient The epidemic of bad news about the potential risks of popular anti-inflammatory medications expanded yesterday as federal officials announced that naproxen, a painkiller sold by prescription and also over the counter as Aleve, might increase people's risk of having a heart attack or stroke. <> The new findings bring to three the number of widely used anti-inflammatory drugs suddenly in the spotlight for their potential health risks. Vioxx was pulled from the market this fall, and its sister drug Celebrex, the blockbuster arthritis drug, was linked to heart attacks...