Hi all,
I am making a single thread for each and every medical topic, with news and research corresponding to it.
So this thread shall contain all Endocrinology research news.
P.S. Please dont post Endocrinology research news anywhere else on the forum.
Most importantly : PLEASE POST A DISCLAIMER BEFORE YOU POST THE NEWS AND A RELEVANT FOOTNOTE AT THE END OF THE ARTICLE. THIS IS A NEW RULE THAT APPLIES TO ALL THE POSTS HERE. A FOOTNOTE MAY CONTAIN YOUR OPINION OR VIEWS OR REFERENCE TO OTHER RELATED NEWS ARTICLES.
And please quote the original source and author.
Sample Disclaimer "This research news has been taken from a reputed news website. It has not been modified or recreated in way, as to preserve the authenticity of it. No Copyright Infringement is intended. This information is posted here for read-only basis. No part of this news is to be reproduced elsewhere, unless due credit is given to the original source and author.
Implicated in a plethora of regulatory dysfunctions involving growth and development, metabolism, electrolyte balances and reproduction, endocrine disruption is one of the highest priority research topics in the world. As a result, we are now in a position to better detect, characterize and overcome the damage mediated by adverse interaction with the endocrine system. Expert Review of Endocrinology and Metabolism (ISSN 1744-6651), provides extensive coverage of state-of-the-art research and clinical advancements in the field of endocrine control and metabolism, with a focus on screening, prevention, diagnostics, existing and novel therapeutics, as well as related molecular genetics, pathophysiology and epidemiology. This exciting new resource aims to serve all professionals within this specialty, encompassing the most stimulating and up-to-date topics in clinical diseases such as diabetes, osteoporosis, thyroid disease, adrenal insufficiency and pituitary tumors, as well as disorders associated with growth, reproduction, weight management and hormone-regulated gene expression.
Main Category: Diabetes News
Article Date: 02 Aug 2007 - 20:00 PDT
Following a joint meeting of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Endocrinologic and Metabolic Drugs Advisory Committee and the Drug Safety and Risk Management Advisory Committee, Takeda Global Research & Development (TGRD) underscores its position that ACTOS ®; (pioglitazone HCl) offers a proven safety profile regarding the risk of cardiovascular disease.
"The breadth and depth of ACTOS data -- encompassing more than 16,000 patients over the past 10 years -- is consistent: Short- and long-term studies, both prospective and observational, studies in both humans and animals, all have shown no evidence that ACTOS is associated with an increased risk of heart attack or stroke," said Mehmood Khan, M.D., TGRD president. "Critical in this body of data is the PROactive (PROspective PioglitAzone Clinical Trial In MacroVascular Events) study, since the only scientific way to determine a medication's safety is a prospective, long-term trial."
About the PROactive Study
PROactive was a prospective, randomized, placebo-controlled outcomes trial. The PROactive study included 5,238 patients with type 2 diabetes and a history of macrovascular disease, who were force titrated up to 45 mg daily of either ACTOS or placebo. In this study, there was no difference in the number of macrovascular events between standard of care and ACTOS, and standard of care alone. Although there was no statistically significant difference between ACTOS and standard of care for the primary endpoint, there was no increase in mortality or total macrovascular events with ACTOS.
The ACTOS Prescribing Information was recently revised by the FDA to include this reassuring cardiovascular safety data. ACTOS is the only thiazolidinedione (TZD) with safety data from a cardiovascular outcomes trial in its label.
"Although drugs may be in the same class, they also can have different clinical effects due to differences in molecular structure," said Dr. Khan. "ACTOS is an effective and appropriate treatment option for people with type 2 diabetes. Since the introduction of ACTOS in August 1999, almost 70 million prescriptions have been written, covering more than 8 million patients and 4.5 million patient years."
Takeda has consistently emphasized the importance of physician education and patient safety in all communications involving ACTOS and has prioritized communicating the appropriate use of ACTOS in patients with type 2 diabetes.
Advisory Committee meetings are discussions of pending applications and other public health matters. The FDA frequently convenes its panel of outside experts to provide guidance and recommendations; however, the agency is not bound to follow the recommendations. This joint committee meeting reviewed the cardiovascular ischemic/thrombotic risks of the thiazolidinediones, with focus on rosiglitazone, as presented by FDA and GlaxoSmithKline.
About ACTOS
ACTOS works by directly targeting insulin resistance, a condition in which the body does not efficiently use the insulin it produces to control blood glucose levels. ACTOS is taken once daily as an adjunct to diet and exercise, and is approved for use for type 2 diabetes as monotherapy to lower blood glucose and in combination therapy with insulin, sulfonylureas or metformin.
Additional Information
ACTOS is not for everyone. ACTOS can cause fluid retention that may lead to or worsen heart failure, so tell your doctor if you have a history of these conditions. Talk to your doctor immediately if you experience rapid weight gain, fluid retention, or shortness of breath while taking ACTOS. If you have moderate to severe heart failure, ACTOS is not recommended. Your doctor should perform a blood test to check for liver problems before you start ACTOS and periodically thereafter.
Do not take ACTOS if you have active liver disease. Talk to your doctor immediately if you experience nausea, vomiting, stomach pain, tiredness, loss of appetite, dark urine, or yellowing of the skin. If you are of childbearing age, talk to your doctor before taking ACTOS as it could increase your chance of becoming pregnant. Some people taking ACTOS may experience flu-like symptoms, mild to moderate swelling of legs and ankles, and anemia. When taking ACTOS with insulin or sulfonylureas, you may be at risk for low blood sugar. Patients with diabetes should have regular eye exams. If you experience vision problems, consult your doctor immediately. Very rarely, some patients have experienced visual changes while taking ACTOS.
the symptoms appear And Treat The Disease In Its later stages
Capsules of insulin produced in genetically modified lettuce could hold the key to restoring the body's ability to produce insulin and help millions of Americans who suffer from insulin-dependent diabetes, according to University of Central Florida biomedical researchers.
Professor Henry Daniell's research team genetically engineered tobacco plants with the insulin gene and then administered freeze-dried plant cells to five-week-old diabetic mice as a powder for eight weeks. By the end of the study, the diabetic mice had normal blood and urine sugar levels, and their cells were producing normal levels of insulin.
Those results and prior research indicate that insulin capsules could someday be used to prevent diabetes before symptoms appear and treat the disease in its later stages, Daniell said. He has since proposed using lettuce instead of tobacco to produce the insulin because that crop can be produced cheaply and avoids the negative stigma associated with tobacco.
The National Institutes of Health provided $2 million to fund the UCF study. The findings are reported in the Plant Biotechnology Journal.
Insulin-dependent, or Type 1, diabetes is an autoimmune disease in which the body's immune system attacks and destroys insulin and insulin-producing beta cells in the pancreas. Insulin is a hormone that is needed to convert sugar, starches and other food into energy.
Insulin typically is given through shots and not pills so the hormone can go straight into the bloodstream. In Daniell's method, plant cell walls made of cellulose initially prevent insulin from degrading. When the plant cells containing insulin reach the intestine, bacteria living there begin to slowly break down the cell walls and gradually release insulin into the bloodstream.
"Currently, the only relief for diabetes is a momentary relief," Daniell said. "Diabetics still have to monitor their blood and urine sugar levels. They have to inject themselves with insulin several times a day. Having a permanent solution for this, I'm sure, would be pretty exciting."
Though produced in lettuce, the insulin would be delivered to human patients as a powder in capsules because the dosage must be controlled carefully.
If human trials are successful, the impact of Daniell's research could affect millions of diabetics worldwide and dramatically reduce the costs of fighting a disease that can lead to heart and kidney diseases and blindness.
About 20.8 million children and adults in the United States, or about 7 percent of the population, have Type 1 or 2 diabetes, according to the American Diabetes Association.
The number of Americans with diabetes is projected to double by 2025, according to a study released last month by the National Changing Diabetes Program during a congressional briefing. That study by Mathematica Policy Research Inc. also reported that one of every eight federal health care dollars -- $79.7 billion out of $645 billion -- is spent on treating people with diabetes.
"Diabetes is a big health and financial burden in the United States and in the rest of the world," Daniell said. "This study would facilitate a dramatic change because so far there is no medicine that will cure insulin-dependent diabetes."
Daniell's method of growing insulin in plants is similar to what he used for an earlier study to produce anthrax vaccine in tobacco. In the earlier study, which also involved mice, Daniell showed and the National Institutes of Health confirmed that enough safe anthrax vaccine to inoculate everyone in the United States could be grown inexpensively in only one acre of tobacco plants
may delay the onset or progression of several types of cancer
Medical Research News
Published: Sunday, 5-Jun-2005
Suppression of growth hormone and insulin-like growth factor (IGF-1) also may decrease cancer risk in those individuals at high risk for disease, and perhaps could be a preventive measure, said William E. Sonntag. Ph.D., the lead investigator, who based his findings on research in rats.
He said IGF-1 is an important blood-borne factor that increases cell growth and prevents cell death and has been proposed to be a factor in the initiation of cancer.
"Elevated IGF-1 levels in pre-menopausal women have been demonstrated to be a risk factor for breast cancer as well as numerous other cancers," said Sonntag, professor of Physiology
and Pharmacology
at the School of Medicine, a part of Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center.
IGF-1 in the blood also may act as a tumor promoter during the early development of cancer, he said.
Although additional research is needed, he said, drugs in the somatostatin class are currently available to suppress growth hormone and IGF-1 in people, so somatostatin analogs could be given as preventative measures to lower plasma IGF-1 before the onset of disease, especially in high-risk people.
In a previous study, rats with high levels of growth hormone (a circulating factor that increases IGF-1 levels) exhibit an increase in spontaneous mammary tumors. Dwarf animals with 50 percent lower IGF-1 levels do not develop tumors in response to a chemical carcinogen. But Sonntag said that if these dwarf rats are given growth hormone to increase IGF-1 in the blood, tumors develop at the same rate as in the normal animals.
Suppression of IGF-1 activity inhibits the proliferation of numerous cell types and cancers. "IGF-1 levels in the blood can be reduced by low-calorie diets, which could be a mechanism for the diet-cancer relationship," said Sonntag, whose work explores the neurobiology of aging.
Previous studies in some animals indicate that a reduction in IGF-1 activity increases lifespan. To date, there are no studies of a specific suppression of IGF-1 on aging or age-related diseases.
In the current study, Sonntag found that a life-long deficiency of IGF-1 decreased cancer risk by approximately 45 percent and decreased cancer deaths by 12-15 percent.
"Besides reducing the incidence of cancer in these rats, we found that a modest suppression of plasma IGF-1 beginning shortly after puberty and continued throughout life reduces the incidence of kidney disease and increases lifespan," Sonntag said.
Main Category: Sleep / Sleep Disorders / Insomnia News
Article Date: 06 Aug 2007 - 2:00 PDT
People who work rotating shifts have significantly lower levels of serotonin, a hormone and neurotransmitter in the central nervous system believed to play an important role in the regulation of sleep, according to a study published in the journal SLEEP.
The study, authored by Carlos J. Pirola, PhD, of the Universidad de Buenos Aires, Argentina, focused on 683 men of self-reported European ancestry, in which 437 day workers were compared with 246 rotating shift workers. Day and night work periods started at 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. respectively. None of the subjects interchanged their job schedule.
The results showed that serotonin content differed greatly between day workers and rotating shift workers, with levels of serotonin significantly higher in day workers.
"These findings may be important not only to understand the mechanisms related to the circadian rhythm desynchronization imposed by the rotating shift work regime, but also to target truly effective therapeutic strategies that may ameliorate the associated comorbidities and behavioral problems in rotating shift workers," said Pirola.
In addition to sleep problems, low levels of serotonin are also associated with other conditions such as anger, depression and anxiety.
Shift work sleep disorder is a circadian rhythm sleep disorder that occurs due to a work schedule that takes place during the normal sleep period. This schedule requires you to work when your body wants to sleep. Then you have to try to sleep when your body expects to be awake. The timing of when you sleep and wake is much different than what your internal body clock expects.
This sleep problem causes you to have trouble sleeping or to be severely tired. It is most often reported due to the night and early-morning shifts. These workers typically sleep one to four hours less than average. They also feel that the quality of their sleep is very poor. They do not feel refreshed when they wake up. This can hinder their performance at work. It can also make them less alert. This can put them at risk of an injury on the job.
Sleep problems from shift work affect male and female workers of all age groups. Those who have unusual work hours are most likely to have it. Estimates are that two to five percent of the general population is affected.
Those who suspect they might be suffering from shift work sleep disorder, or another sleep problem, are urged to consult with their primary care doctor or a sleep specialist.
Main Category: Women's Health / Gynecology
News
Article Date: 03 Aug 2007 - 0:00 PDT
Five years ago this summer the National Institutes of Health's stopped early a major portion of the Women's Health Initiative (WHI), a large and ambitious study to address the most common causes of death, disability and impaired quality of life in postmenopausal women.
One part of the WHI sought to determine whether hormone therapy has a positive or negative impact on cardiovascular disease, cancer, and osteoporosis. The estrogen plus progestin hormone therapy trial for women with their uteruses intact was stopped in July 2002 after investigators found that the associated health risks of the combination hormone therapy outweighed the benefits.
Less than two years later, in March 2004, NIH announced that it had stopped another portion of the WHI, the estrogen-alone hormone therapy study for women who have had a hysterectomy, in the interest of safety after careful consideration of preliminary data and an average follow-up of nearly seven years.
The abrupt end of the studies and the news stories that followed left many patients confused or scared. Questions still remained about the safety and efficacy of hormone therapy, about who could take it, and for what purpose and what duration.
More information was needed about the risks and benefits of estrogen-alone hormone therapy, long-term risks for short-term use of hormone therapy, the appropriate timing of hormone therapy use in relation to a woman's onset of menopause, and the effects for women who take hormone therapy well after menopause has ended.
The medical community has learned more about hormone therapy since the WHI trials were stopped. A study published in the July 11 issue of the British Medical Journal confirmed that hormone replacement therapy should not be prescribed for the purpose of preventing chronic conditions such as heart disease in older women who are well past menopause. That same study, however, concluded that hormone therapy may be a safe, short-term option for younger women in early menopause to relieve symptoms and improve quality of life.
"If the woman is healthy and has no risk factors, low dose hormone replacement therapy use for a short period of time should confer a small risk to her health," says Helen Roberts, M.D., M.P.H., a senior lecturer of women's health issues at the University of Aukland in New Zealand
. Roberts, who wrote an accompanying editorial to the British Medical Journal study, also said women with risk factors such as a previous heart attack, stroke, blood clots, breast cancer or high risk of cardiovascular disease should not use hormone therapy.
Although confusion about hormone therapy persists, this study solidifies some thinking on the issue. Short-term use of hormones in healthy women going through early menopause may not pose serious health risks. Long-term use of hormone therapy to prevent chronic diseases in older women, who begin the therapy many years after menopause, may actually increase their risk of blood clots and heart disease, and should be discouraged.
A limitation of the WHI is that it primarily studied women who began taking hormone therapy long after they had passed menopause. Researchers are still trying to determine the effects of taking hormone therapy for long periods of time if the treatment begins in the early stages of menopause. Some data suggests the health risks are lower for these women, but more studies are needed.
"There has been mounting evidence that a woman's age and amount of time since onset of menopause influence her health outcomes on estrogen, particularly her risk of heart disease," said JoAnn Manson, M.D., Dr.P.H., chief of preventative medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, and one of the principle investigators of the WHI. "We've recently reported in April of 2007 that when you combine the findings from the estrogen plus progesterone trial and the estrogen alone trial, there is a suggestion of a lower risk of heart disease in the women who were less than ten years since onset of menopause."
By contrast, Manson's analysis shows an increased risk of heart disease for women who were more than 20 years past menopause.
Manson's research team reported in the June 21 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine that women who were in their 50s in the estrogen alone trial tended to have less coronary artery calcium, if they received estrogen compared to placebo.
"Coronary artery calcium is a marker for plaque build-up in the arteries, hardening of the arteries and it's a strong predictor of future risk of cardiovascular, of coronary heart disease," Manson said. "So these results lend support to the theory that estrogen may slow early stages of atherosclerosis."
As research continues, taking hormone replacement therapy is an individual decision for women that depends on many factors. Women should speak with their health care providers about the potential benefits and risks that may be relevant to them as individuals.
Growth hormone injections appear to boost height in extremely short, healthy children, according to a recent systematic review, but height gain appears to peak at about three inches and those inches are expensive.
Even after treatment, children with idiopathic meaning their height does not result from a medical condition short stature who received growth hormone injections remained relatively short, said Jackie Bryant, the review's lead author.
There is no indication that increases in height will improve a child's quality of life, the authors say.
Bryant, a senior research fellow at the University of Southampton in England, and colleagues analyzed 10 randomized controlled trials involving growth hormone therapy in 741 children with idiopathic short stature.
The studies compared children receiving growth hormone therapy for at least six months to children who did not receive treatment or who received a placebo.
Children with idiopathic short stature have heights well below the average for their age and sex, but are physically healthy and have normal laboratory results. If parents choose treatment, their children undergo years of recombinant human growth hormone injections, typically given six to seven times weekly at home.
Each half-inch in final height gained via human growth hormone therapy costs anywhere from $18,000 to $36,600.
The review appears in the latest issue of The Cochrane Library, a publication of The Cochrane Collaboration, an international organization that evaluates medical research. Systematic reviews draw evidence-based conclusions about medical practice after considering both the content and quality of existing medical trials on a topic.
One of the studies took place in the United States and one in the United States and Chile; the remaining studies occurred in the United Kingdom, Australia
, New Zealand
, the Netherlands, Italy and Egypt. The current review, an update of a previous analysis, includes an additional trial conducted since 2003.
Generally, growth hormone injections increased height in these children, review results indicated.
In one study that followed children throughout adolescence, girls treated with growth hormone reached heights of about three inches taller than an untreated control group by near-adulthood. In another study, children treated with growth hormone were 1.4 inches taller than children treated with an inactive placebo.
In addition to gaining more inches overall, children treated with growth hormone also grew faster. In three studies, treated children experienced a significantly greater rate of growth after one year, compared to untreated children.
Despite these findings, children treated with growth hormone remained short near the lower range of normal when compared to their peers.
"Genetic factors affect growth and final height, and parents should be realistic in their expectations about the potential effects of growth hormone," Bryant said.
In addition, despite its potential to increase height, growth hormone therapy can cause earlier onset of puberty, which paradoxically shortens the growth period and leads to premature closure of the ends of long bones, which may limit final height, Bryant said.
Steven Dowshen, M.D., a pediatric endocrinologist at Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children in Wilmington, Del., praised the review's methods but said that much more research is necessary to evaluate the effectiveness of therapy in these kids.
"Many pediatric endocrinologists still do not consider the data and the potential benefits proven well enough to actually treat patients for this indication," said Dowshen, who was not involved with the study.
"A lot of the reasoning behind treating this group of patients has traditionally been that they are socially or psychologically suffering because of their short stature or will later when they reach short final height as adults. … There's very scant evidence that the psychological, social and other outcomes are improved by therapy," Dowshen said.
Only one study included in the review addressed psychological issues and found that children receiving growth hormone treatments reported no improvement in quality of life compared to children in the control group.
"These factors, plus the cost of treatment, which is substantial, make it unclear whether the small expected gain in height justifies such treatment in children who are not ill," Bryant said.
Pharmaceutical companies sponsored or provided support for seven of the studies included in the review.
Bryant J, et al. Recombinant growth hormone for idiopathic short stature in children and adolescents. (Review). Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 2007, Issue 3.
The Cochrane Collaboration is an international nonprofit, independent organization that produces and disseminates systematic reviews of health care interventions and promotes the search for evidence in the form of clinical trials and other studies of interventions. Visit
Low levels of testosterone may increase the long-term risk of death in men over 50 years old
Low levels of testosterone may increase the long-term risk of death in men over 50 years old, according to researchers with the Department of Family and Preventive Medicine at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine
"The new study is only the second report linking deficiency of this sex hormone with increased death from all causes, over time, and the first to do so in relatively healthy men who are living in the community," said Gail Laughlin, Ph.D., assistant professor and study author.
Laughlin will present the findings to The Endocrine Society Tuesday June 5th, 2007. The findings will be among selected articles published in the distinguished The Endocrine Society's ENDO 07 Research Summaries Book.
"We have followed these men for an average of 18 years and our study strongly suggests that the association between testosterone levels and death is not simply due to some acute illness," said Laughlin.
In the study, Laughlin and co-workers looked at death, no matter the cause, in nearly 800 men, ages 50 to 91 years, who were living in Rancho Bernardo, California. The participants have been members of the Rancho Bernardo Heart and Chronic Disease Study since the 1970s. At the beginning of the 1980s, almost one-third of these men had suboptimal blood testosterone levels for men their age.
The group with low testosterone levels had a 33 percent greater risk of death during the next 18 years than the men with higher testosterone. This difference was not explained by smoking, drinking, physical activity level or pre-existing diseases (such as diabetes or heart disease).
In this study, "low testosterone" levels were set at the lower limit of the normal range for young adult men. Testosterone declines slowly with aging in men and levels vary widely, with many older men still having testosterone levels in the range of young men. Twenty-nine percent of Rancho Bernardo men had low testosterone.
Men with low testosterone were more likely to have elevated markers of inflammation, called inflammatory cytokines, which contribute to many diseases. Another characteristic that distinguished the men with low testosterone was a larger waist girth along with a cluster of cardiovascular and diabetes risk factors related to this type of fat accumulation.
Men with low testosterone are three times more likely to have the metabolic syndrome than men with higher testosterone levels; metabolic syndrome is the name for the presence of three or more of these risk factors:
waist measurement more than 40 inches in men (more than 35 inches in women),
low HDL (good) cholesterol,
high triglycerides (levels of fat in the blood),
high blood pressure
high blood glucose (blood sugar)
While the study lends support to the belief that supplemental hormone therapy may help older men with low testosterone levels, those who practice weight control and increase their physical activity may also live longer.
"It's very possible that lifestyle determines what level of testosterone a patient has," commented principal investigator, Elizabeth Barrett-Connor, M.D., UCSD Distinguished Professor of Family and Preventive Medicine and chief of the Division of Epidemiology. "It may be possible to alter the testosterone level by lowering obesity."
Barrett-Connor and Laughlin were also careful to clarify what the study did not show.
"The study did show there may be an association between low testosterone levels and higher mortality. It did not show that higher levels of testosterone are associated with decreased mortality," explained Laughlin. Researchers agree only randomized placebo-controlled clinical trials can determine whether testosterone supplements can safely promote longer life. Such a trial is in the planning stages at UCSD.
Barrett-Connor cautioned, "We are very excited about these findings, which have important implications, but we are not ready to say that men should go out and get testosterone to prolong their lives. We're not ready to take this to the prescribing pharmacist."
"Conventional wisdom is that women live longer because estrogen is good and testosterone is bad," said Barrett-Connor. "We don't know. Maybe the decline in testosterone is healthy and comes with older age. Maybe the decline is bad and is associated with chronic diseases of aging."
The National Institute on Aging and the American Heart Association funded the study.
Dr. Elizabeth Barrett-Connor is founder and director of the Rancho Bernardo Heart and Chronic Disease Study, now in its 35th year. Since 1972, the RB study has greatly increased knowledge of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, cancer, osteoporosis, exogenous and endogenous hormones, and the connections between lifestyle, behavior and health.
Six thousand residents, 82 percent of the original population of adults in Rancho Bernardo, agreed to participate in this history-making study and significant collection of data. Barrett-Connor and a team of UCSD researchers have conducted clinical research visits with the participants every four years for more than three decades.
The clinical research visits last three to four hours, thoroughly examining the participant's physical condition by gathering information through bone and heart scans, blood samples, heart disease risk factor measurements such as lipid levels and cognitive function assessment.
The rate of follow-up with those who have moved or died (through cooperation of family and friends), has been exceptionally high.
The RB study has just been re-funded for what Barrett-Connor predicts will be the final clinic visit. Another newly funded grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) will allow analysis of information gathered over the course of the study to provide new insights on the link between heart disease risk and cognitive function.
"Although more than 400 scientific papers based on RB data have already been published, it's a wonderful legacy for participants to realize that the knowledge gathered has not come close to being exhausted. It's an enormous bank of data," said Laughlin. "Though we are beginning the final visits with the RB group, analyzing the data from the RB study, including the new data being acquired at this final visit, will continue to contribute to our knowledge about healthy aging for years to come."
Barrett-Connor added, "We must note that this would not be possible without the remarkable contributions of our loyal participants. They are really very special people."
New and important evidence shows that Insulin Resistance Syndrome can lead to elevated risk for cardiovascular disease, breathing and sleep disorders, liver disease, Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome, type 2 diabetes, certain cancers, Alzheimer's Disease and more.
This evidence will be presented at the 5th Annual World Congress on the Insulin Resistance Syndrome (WCIRS) in Boston, October 11-13, 2007. The Congress kicks-off with a symposium on Insulin Resistance and the Liver on Wednesday, October 10.
"Insulin Resistance Syndrome, an epidemic condition parallel to the obesity epidemic that dramatically increases the risk of developing type 2 diabetes, coronary heart disease, stroke, and various cancers, is estimated to affect at least one in three adults in America" said Dr. Gerald Reaven professor of medicine at Stanford School of Medicine.
The Insulin Resistance Syndrome, often referred to as the Metabolic Syndrome or Syndrome X, has been gaining worldwide attention since it was introduced in 1988 by Dr. Reaven. More than fifty of the world's foremost medical authorities will be on hand at the WCIRS to discuss the wide-reaching complications of Insulin Resistance. The Congress will examine the far-reaching effects of insulin resistance, its causes, prevention, and treatment. The Congress will also address the many manifestations of insulin resistance - heart disease, diabetes, fatty liver disease, sleep & breathing disorders, cancer, polycystic ovarian syndrome and certain brain disorders like Alzheimer's Disease.
"This metabolic disorder underlies some of the deadliest and most costly diseases in the U.S. An early intervention for prevention is critical" Said Dr. Yehuda Handelsman of the Metabolic Institute of America.
The World Congress of the IRS is jointly sponsored by PESI LLC and the Metabolic Endocrine Education Foundation, a non-profit foundation dedicated to educating physicians and the public on metabolic diseases and facilitating research in the field. The scientific organizing committee is the International Society for Insulin Resistance which is a group of global physician leaders- from diverse medical disciplines- dedicated to the understanding and educating of insulin resistance. The Congress is co-sponsored by The American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists (AACE), The American College of Endocrinology (ACE) and a host of participating organizations including: American Academy of Pediatrics, American Association for Study of Liver Disease (AASLD), American College of Nutrition, American Society of Clinical Nutrition (ASCN), American Society for Preventive Oncology (ASPO), Androgen Excess Societ
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