British researchers have good news for people with type 2 diabetes – you don’t need to lose a ton of weight to make a difference in your health.

In fact, they found that losing just 10% of your body weight during the first five years you have the disease can lead to remission of type 2 diabetes. That weight loss would be 18 pounds (around 8.2kg) for someone who weighs 180 pounds (around 82kg).

It doesn’t matter what diet helps you lose the weight. And it doesn’t matter how slow or how quickly those kilos come off, the investigators found.

“Even small amounts of weight loss can help you achieve remission. Extreme dieting and exercising are not necessary,” said study author Dr Hajira Dambha-Miller, a general practice physician and clinical lecturer at the University of Cambridge School of Clinical Medicine, in the United Kingdom.

“Type 2 diabetes should no longer be seen as a lifelong disease,” she added. The disease can essentially be cured if you lose weight and keep it off, according to Dambha-Miller.

The researchers said that type 2 diabetes affects 400 million people around the world. It’s typically considered a chronic, progressive disease. But significant weight loss through extreme dieting (less than 700 calories a day) can bring about remission in almost 90% of people with type 2 diabetes, the study authors noted. Weight-loss surgery also tends to bring on remission.

Intensive exercise coupled with a modest weight loss of 7% or less of body weight brought on remission in almost 12% of people in one study, according to the new report.

But maybe bringing on remission didn’t need to be so hard, the researchers surmised.

Participants did different things

“The existing evidence for achieving remission suggests extreme levels of exercise and rather restrictive diets. This is simply not realistic or achievable for my patients, especially in the longer term,” Dambha-Miller said.

“It is also demotivating for my patients when they are unable to achieve large amounts of weight loss. Accordingly, we decided to look at modest weight loss over a longer period in a real-world population without any crazy diet or exercise requirements,” she explained.

For the new study, the researchers followed the health of almost 900 people newly diagnosed with type 2 diabetes for five years. The study participants, aged 40 to 69, provided information on weight, activity levels, diet and alcohol consumption.

Thirty percent of the group had achieved type 2 diabetes remission at the five-year follow-up. Those who had achieved a 10% weight loss were 77% more likely to be in remission after five years, the findings showed.

There was no specific intervention in the study. “This means there were no mandatory exercise or dietary requirements. All our participants did different things and still managed to lose weight and beat diabetes into remission,” Dambha-Miller said.

She said that experts don’t know exactly how losing weight helps, but they hypothesize that as people lose weight, the beta cells in the pancreas that produce insulin start to work again.

That means the body can properly use sugar from foods instead of letting it build up in the blood.

Encouraging findings

Dr Berhane Seyoum, chief of endocrinology at Detroit Medical Center and Wayne State University in Michigan, wasn’t involved in the current research, but said the findings are encouraging.

“People with type 2 diabetes can be encouraged to lose weight, and it doesn’t matter how. They can do whatever is convenient for them.

“Controlling diabetes keeps you healthy, gives you more energy and makes you feel better,” he said.

Seyoum also noted that any amount of weight loss can help the body use insulin better and will help with diabetes management.

The study was published online recently in the journal Diabetic Medicine.

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In a finding that suggests organic is best, a new study indicates that chickens raised without antibiotics may have fewer types of antibiotic-resistant salmonella than animals raised at factory farms.

Salmonella is a common infection among poultry, so some large farms feed their chickens antibiotics to prevent the birds from getting sick, and to help them gain weight faster. But this practice can make salmonella resistant to the antibiotics usually used to treat it, the researchers said.

“Chicken and poultry meat samples that were labelled antibiotic-free or organic were half as likely to contain multidrug-resistant salmonella as conventionally raised poultry,” said researcher Nkuchia M’ikanatha. He is lead epidemiologist for antimicrobial resistance response at the Pennsylvania Department of Health, in Harrisburg.

A related study found that almost one-third of meat and poultry were contaminated with antibiotic-resistant forms of the bug, M’ikanatha said.

Genes that make bacteria resistant to recommended antibiotics are a problem because they undermine treatment of severe infections, he added.

“One specific gene found in salmonella isolated from meat and patients makes the bug resistant to the only drug, ceftriaxone, recommended for treating severe salmonellosis in children,” M’ikanatha said.

Make informed choices

For the study, M’ikanatha and his colleagues tested 2 500 samples of poultry, ground beef and pork chops purchased from 2015 to 2017 at randomly selected markets in Pennsylvania.

The investigators found that up to 30% of the salmonella they found in the meat samples was resistant to three to five classes of antibiotics. And, over the study period, resistance grew to the antibiotics ceftriaxone, amoxicillin and extended-spectrum cephalosporins.

The researchers also found that meat samples were contaminated by the same bacteria recovered from patients, M’ikanatha said. “Those bugs had genes that make salmonella resistant to recommended antibiotics,” he said.

The studies were funded by the Pennsylvania Department of Health and the US Food and Drug Administration.

Overuse or misuse of antibiotics in humans and animals can lead to antibiotic resistance, increasing the risk that antibiotics will not be effective when needed, M’ikanatha explained.

When doctors decide that antibiotics are needed to treat salmonella, they should run tests to determine whether the bacteria causing the illness is susceptible to the drugs they intend to use, M’ikanatha said.

“Consumers should read product labels and make informed choices based on the evidence about the risk of poultry contamination with drug-resistant salmonella,” he suggested.

The studies were to be presented Thursday at ID Week in Washington, D.C. Such research is considered preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal.

Attack the problem at the source

Antibiotic-resistant salmonella is increasing in livestock, said Dr Marc Siegel, a professor of medicine at NYU Langone Medical Center in New York City.

“This is because they raise these animals in squalor – they’re standing in their own poop and easily transmit the bacteria,” he said.

Siegel believes in attacking the problem at its source. “We’ve got to clean up our meat farms and stop feeding everything an antibiotic,” he said. Stopping the use of antibiotics in animals will result in fewer antibiotic-resistant strains, Siegel added.

For consumers, Siegel said that all meats should be cooked thoroughly to kill any bacteria living on it. Also, raw meat should be kept away from other foods because cross-contamination is a danger.

Most cases of salmonella in humans don’t have to be treated. It usually goes away on its own. But for the most severe cases, antibiotics are needed.

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Researchers have developed a new non-invasive optical imaging system that promises to improve diagnosis and treatments for dry eye disease. Dry eye, which often causes irritation and blurred vision, occurs when there is instability in the inner layer of the tear film that protects the outside of the eye.

A 5-minute soak in a 40% solution of household bleach decontaminated stainless steel wires coated with chronic wasting disease (CWD) prions, according to a new study by National Institutes of Health scientists. The scientists used the wires to model knives and saws that hunters and meat processors use when handling deer, elk and moose — all of which are susceptible to CWD. The research was conducted at Rocky Mountain Laboratories (RML) in Hamilton, Mont. RML is a component of the NIH’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. The findings are published in the open-access journal PLOS One.

A team led by scientists at the University of Washington has designed and tested a 3D-printed metamaterial that can manipulate light with nanoscale precision. As they report in a paper published Oct. 4 in the journal Science Advances, their designed optical element focuses light to discrete points in a 3D helical pattern.

A French man paralysed in a night club accident can walk again thanks to a brain-controlled exoskeleton in what scientists say is a breakthrough providing hope to tetraplegics seeking to regain movement.

The patient trained for months, harnessing his brain signals to control a computer-simulated avatar to perform basic movements before using the robot device to walk.

Doctors who conducted the trial cautioned that the device is years away from being publicly available but stressed that it had “the potential to improve patients’ quality of life and autonomy”.

The man involved, identified only as Thibault, a 28-year-old from Lyon, said the technology had given him a new lease of life.

Four years ago that life changed forever when he fell 12m from a balcony while on a night out, severing his spinal chord and leaving him paralysed from the shoulders down.

“When you’re in my position, when you can’t do anything with your body… I wanted to do something with my brain,” Thibault told AFP on Thursday.

Training on a video-game avatar system for months to acquire the skills needed to operate the exoskeleton, he said he had to “relearn” natural movements from scratch.

“I can’t go home tomorrow in my exoskeleton, but I’ve got to a point where I can walk. I walk when I want and I stop when I want.”

Most severe injury

Cervical spinal cord injury leaves around 20% of patients paralysed in all four limbs and is the most severe injury of its kind.

“The brain is still capable of generating commands that would normally move the arms and legs, there’s just nothing to carry them out,” said Alim-Louis Benabid, professor emeritus at Grenoble and lead author of the study published Friday in The Lancet Neurology.

A team of experts from the Hospital of Grenoble Alpes, biomedical firm Cinatech and the CEA research centre started by implanting two recording devices either side of Thibault’s head, between the brain and the skin.

These read his sensorimotor cortex – the area that controls motor function.

Each decoder transmits the brain signals which are then translated by an algorithm into the movements the patient has thought about. It is this system that sends physical commands that the exoskeleton executes.

Thibault used the avatar and video game to think about performing basic physical tasks such as walking, and reaching out to touch objects.

Using the avatar, video game and exoskeleton combined, he was able to cover the length of one and a half football pitches over the course of many sessions.

‘Repaired not augmented man’

Several previous studies have used implants to stimulate muscles in patients’ own bodies, but the Grenoble study is the first to use brain signals to control a robot exoskeleton.

Experts involved in the research say it could potentially lead to brain-controlled wheelchairs for paralysed patients.

“This isn’t about turning man into machine but about responding to a medical problem,” said Benabid.

“We’re talking about ‘repaired man’, not ‘augmented man’.

In a comment piece on the study, Tom Shakespeare from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine said the exoskeleton system was “a long way from usable clinical possibility”.

But Thibault said the trial offered a “message of hope to people like me”.

“This is possible, even with our handicap.”

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When we’re feeling down or stressed, many of us immediately start thinking of how much better a bar of chocolate would make us feel. The reality, however, is that the lift the chocolate provides tends to be short-lived, leaving us feeling even worse than before. 

A “quick fix”, usually in the form of sugar, is not the answer. We need the nutrients (and good health practices) to provide us with the brain chemicals that will give us a sustained “lift”. 

Amp up the ‘happy’ brain messengers

The four main brain messengers or neurotransmitters that contribute to our feelings of well-being are endorphins, dopamine, serotonin and oxytocin. The neurotransmitter most often targeted by modern medicine is serotonin – for example SSRIs (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors). 

There are, however, natural ways to activate these parts of the brain.   

Low levels of serotonin are associated with mood disorders such as depression. Foods can contribute to increase the natural production of serotonin in the following ways:

1. Include more tryptophan

Aim for small doses of the amino acid tryptophan (1g), as this is converted to molecules which lead to increased serotonin levels. There is 1g of tryptophan in each of the following:

• 200g soya beans
• 200g lean protein
• 200g ricotta cheese
• 300g fish

Other foods that contain natural serotonin include bananas, avocados and tomatoes.

2. Give back to your gut

As 80–90% of our serotonin production occurs in our gut, improving gut health will contribute to an improvement in mood. You can improve your gut health by doing the following:

• Drink four to six glasses of water daily.
• Eat foods high in fibre.
• Eat fermented foods (yoghurt, mageu, kombucha, kefir), or regularly take a probiotic supplement.

3. Manage your blood glucose levels

When your blood sugar levels go on a roller coaster ride during the course of the day, it will affect your mood. You may feel irritable, moody, tired, struggle to concentrate and experience cravings for sweet foods. Maintain optimal blood sugar levels by:

• Eating regular meals and avoiding skipping meals.
• Avoiding foods high in sugar and white flour.
• Substituting unhealthy refined carbohydrates for healthier ones that are higher in fibre and unprocessed, such as fresh fruit and vegetables (but watch the number of fruits per day), barley, brown rice, quinoa, spelt, lentils, beans, chickpeas, oats, baby potatoes, sweet potatoes and corn. (A starch should have more than 6g of fibre per 100g to be considered “high fibre”.)
• Eating smaller portions.

4. Ease up on the caffeine

Caffeine is a stimulant that can increase anxiety in some poor metabolizers, and can negatively affect sleep and, therefore, mood.  

• Reduce caffeine in the diet to less than 300mg/day. Common drinks high in caffeine are fizzy cold-drinks (30–40mg), green tea (35mg), black tea (55mg), energy drinks (80mg), instant coffee (76–106mg) and brewed coffee (100–170mg) per 250ml cup. Decaffeinated coffee contains only 3–15mg per 250ml cup.
• Drink caffeine-free alternatives such as rooibos tea, herbal teas, or infused water in the afternoon and evenings. 

5. Get your omegas

Diets high in healthy omega-3 polyunsaturated fats have been shown to reduce inflammation and therefore certain mood disorders like depression. Omega-3 fats will reduce neuroinflammation and improve the integrity and structural composition of cell membranes. You can increase your intake of these fatty acids by:

• Enjoying at least 3 x 90g portions of fatty fish a week, such as salmon, trout, sardines, pilchards and mackerel. Practical ideas to increase your intake are to add salmon to scrambled egg, enjoy trout with cottage cheese on whole grain crackers, eat pilchards on toast, top sardines on crackers with raw tomato and onion, enjoying a salmon salad as a light meal in a restaurant or choosing tinned salmon and mayo for a sandwich filling.
• If you don’t like fatty fish, aiming for a minimum of 1000mg per day of EPA and DHA combined, by taking an omega-3 supplement.

5. Manage your magnesium

Higher levels of magnesium can help support deep, restorative sleep by maintaining healthy levels of GABA. GABA (gamma-aminobutyric acid) is a neurotransmitter that promotes sleep.

Having a good night’s sleep has a positive effect on one’s mood. Foods containing magnesium include whole grains such as barley or buckwheat, dried figs, nuts, pulses and green leafy vegetables.

To wrap up

So next time you are looking for a “pick-me-up”, avoid a quick fix and go for something that will sustain you. For a mood that remains stable, eat foods that support serotonin, improve your gut health and optimise your blood sugar levels. In addition, slow down on caffeine and increase your omega-3 fats and magnesium intake.

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Jessica Pieterse

Restrictions in England on gaining access to PrEP through a clinical trial must be lifted, experts say.

Personal trainer says the companies behind fake social media accounts feel untouchable.

What is the perfect amount of fats and carbohydrates for a healthy diet? Scientists from McMaster University in Canada analysed food diaries from more than 135 000 people in 18 countries around the world to find out.

The answer supports the old adage that moderation is good for your heart and a longer life, specifically that eating moderate amounts of carbs and fats rather than very high or very low intakes of either is better for you – with a few twists.

More surprises

The carb intake of study participants ranged from 46% to 77% of daily calories. The higher the percentage, the greater the association with an increased risk of death, heart attack and stroke. Yet going low-carb didn’t convey benefits – 50% of daily calories seems to be just right, as long as you focus on fruits, vegetables and whole grains rather than white bread and other refined grains, white rice and foods high in sugar.

More surprises came from fat intake. For one, people who got a full 35% of their daily calories from fat actually had a lower risk of dying than those who limited fat to 10%. And it might not be necessary for everyone to keep saturated fat, in particular, under 10% of total calories – in fact, going below 7% might even be harmful.

A key takeaway is how to replace excess carbs. The greatest benefit was seen from eating foods with polyunsaturated fats, such as walnuts, sunflower and flax seeds, and fatty fish.

One caution: These findings were based on an observational study, so researchers can’t directly link cause and effect. You’ll want to personalise them to your unique health profile. If you have any health issues, talk to your doctor about how to best interpret the results.

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