Diabetes (especially type II diabetes) was not a very common disease in the developing countries, but it has become more common these days. Over the years the incidence of diabetes, especially type II diabetes is becoming equally common in developing and developed countries.

In United States 1 in every 9 are reported to be diabetic and most of them are having type II diabetes, which has a genetic predisposition and develops during adulthood. There are also an additional 57 million (approximately 20% of Americans) individuals in United States who have Pre-Diabetes (blood glucose higher than normal, but not yet diabetic). This is the group which will benefit most from intervention strategies like lifestyle modification. Lifestyle modification can delay to a great extent the development of diabetes in Pre-Diabetes individual.

In a Diabetes Prevention Program which involved 3234 obese and overweight individuals (both men and women) with more than average risk of developing diabetes were divided into three groups for study. The first group was trained intensively about lifestyle modification, the second group received anti-diabetic (oral hypoglycemic) medicine metformin, and the third group was given placebo.

The first group was given low fat diet and regular moderate exercise to reduce body weight by 5-7%. This group on an average exercised 30 minutes a day. As a result they managed to lost 15 pounds. The second group with metformin lost average 5 pounds and the third group of placebo lost less than 2 pounds.
After the study was halted (when it became crystal clear that lifestyle modification is the most effective to delay diabetes) it was seen that those who modified their lifestyle reduced the risk of diabetes by 58% in compare to the placebo group. The group which received metformin reduced the risk of diabetes by 31% in compare to placebo.

Approximately half (total of 1766 and approximately half of every group) of the original study group (3234) was followed up for 10 years and all of them were given lifestyle modification training. After 10 years follow up it was observed that in the original lifestyle modification group, there was a delay of average four years for onset of diabetes in compare to original placebo group and average two years delay in onset of diabetes in the metformin group. Approximately 5% participants in the lifestyle modification group, 8% in the metformin group and 11% in the placebo group developed diabetes every year during the follow up study.

Lifestyle change has become more important because of the spread of diabetes in epidemic throughout the world. The above study clearly indicates it is the most effective way to delay onset of diabetes.

Snoring is a common and irritating problem for many individuals. Snoring can even be a problematic area of marriage. Many partners of snoring patients complain that they can not sleep due to snoring. But with the new treatment to cure snoring which takes as little as two minutes that involve injecting a chemical under local anesthesia into the roof of the mouth of the snoring patient. The technique is known as “snoreplasty” and developed in United States. The technique (snoreplasty) acts by preventing the soft tissues of the back of the mouth from vibrating. Vibration of the soft tissues in the back of the mouth is the cause of snoring.

The uvula which is part of the soft palate vibrates when we breathe in due to high pressure produced during breathing. In the obese and overweight persons the problem (of snoring) is much more than a normal person, due to extra fat in the neck which cause compression of the airway. Snoring can cause many chronic health problems like diabetes, high blood pressure, and other heart problems due to un-optimal oxygen intake.

Till the discovery of this technique (snoreplasty) to treat snoring the only treatment modality for snoring was surgery. In the surgical method to treat snoring surgeons use laser or scalpel to trim the size of uvula to make it less able to vibrate. But recovery after surgery may be very long and painful. Eating and drinking can also be a problem after surgery in some patients. Another disadvantage of surgical treatment of snoring is the cost, which is generally more than $3,000 and there is no guarantee of cure after surgery.

There are many over the counter treatment modalities for snoring, which are generally useless as most patients find. The new snoreplasty injection costs less than $5. Most of the patients with snoring prefer snoreplasty these days because it is painless, the recovery time is minimal (patient can go home after receiving the injection and have food after an hour). Surgical correction of snoring can take a week to recover, which makes it costly as well as lose of workdays.

This technique may not be useful in up to 20 % of the patients, who ultimately will require surgical correction. In most of the patients snoring stops for a year after a single injection and in some patients the cure of snoring is permanent.

Researchers are working on a new form of cancer treatment that will most likely become available within 5 years. The treatment works on healthy cells by modifying the function of gene to make the cells immune from huge dose of radiation for treating cancer. Using this technique the researchers have succeeded in killing the cancer cells by using very large dose of radiation, while protecting the normal healthy cells.

Radiotherapy is one of the commonly used modality for treatment of cancer and it is estimated that approximately 50% of cancer patients receive radiotherapy which reduce the tumor size and also reduce distance metastasis. But radiotherapy also destroy the normal healthy cells, cause side effects like severe vomiting, fatigue and weakness and also makes the recipient more prone to develop cancer in the future. Radiation can also weaken our immune system.

Scientists now believe that they have found the solution to above mentioned adverse effects of radiotherapy and radiation. Researchers have found that by blocking the function of a protein (TSP1/CD47), it is possible to make the healthy cells immune to very large dose of radiation in mice and pigs, and they believe that the same will work on humans also. Blocking the function protein TSP1/CD47 might suppress the defense mechanism of cancer cells but not of normal healthy cells.

In a study the researchers pre-treated the hind leg of pigs with the agent that blocks the protein TSP1/CD47, which showed that there were very less hair loss, peeling and ulceration in compare to the hind legs of pigs that were not pretreated with the agent that blocks the protein TSP1/CD47. The researchers were surprised by the result they got from the study, which could pave a new way of treating cancer in the future. The study (by using protein TSP1/CD47) was conducted using normal healthy cells of mice, cows, pigs and rats and living animals like pigs, mice and rats. Doctors now (oncologists and radiotherapists) need not to worry much in applying very large doses of radiation for treatment of cancer.

How the agents acts by blocking the protein TSP1/CD47 is not yet clear to the researchers, but they are working on various options to prevent killing the normal healthy cells whiling destroying the cancer cells. Before the new treatment modality can become available more clinical trials and toxicological studies are required.

More great news to follow as a recent report has revealed that mental illness or problems like schizophrenia and depression could be easily diagnosed by plugging some electrode into the person’s ear and rocking them over a chair. This efficient invention has come from the researchers at the Monash University and they strongly believe that this invention could bring wonders and also revolutionize the treatment and diagnosis of various mental related illness. Brian Lithgow, Biomechanical engineer, Monach University, calls this invention as “electrovestibulography”. Explaining this in common terms, Brain says this method is something similar to an Electrocardiogram, ECG for mind. The new method analyzes the electrical signals in the brain just as ECG which is used to detect heart related problems.

The electrode which is place in the patient’s ear is used to detect the changes in electrical patterns in the balance system of the patient which is normally linked to the naïve parts of one’s brain relating to behavior and emotions. Brain has been working with psychiatrists in running tests and conducting surveys from Monash University’s MAPrc (Alfred Psychiatry Research Centre). He had been doing this to see if he can find out the unique and special electrical signals that are attached to mental illness like bipolar disorder, depression and schizophrenia.

The university is also developing the new device with some corporate partner in order to get a patent and market the technology. Speaking about this, Professor Jayashri Kulkarni, head of MAPrc, said that the newly invented device could prove to be a finest solution and also a breakthrough in the diagnosis and treatment of mental illness. She also insisted that the average time to diagnosis a bipolar disorder today takes around 12 years. She also added that in this time span if the problem was not picked up, it could lead to lots of social, relationships and even career damages and suggested a solution that if these disorders are picked up earlier they could be easily treated with the help of mood stabilizers.

Apart from diagnosing the disease, the new device also helps to track the patient’s response to the medication and can help in finding out whether it works in controlling the disorder. Kulkarni also stressed that it is still early days as only few papers are published and smaller number of people are tested with this new technique. She even said that they wont be confident to say this is the effective solution until it is tested among thousands. Speaking further she said it is too early to clearly say that the device could detect the minute signals to diagnose mental illness which would qualify it for a screening. ”We have to be very careful when thinking about using this device as screening for mental illness as still there is some sigma attached to it,” Kulkarni said to the press.