The largest-ever study of treatments for type 2 diabetes has shown that a combination of two blood pressure lowering drugs reduced the risk of death, as well as the risks of heart and kidney disease. The ADVANCE (Action in Diabetes and Vascular Disease) Study was led by researchers at The George Institute for International Health in Sydney and the results have been presented at the European Congress of Cardiology in Vienna. [click link for full article]

Despite global efforts to control it, diarrhoea is still one of the most common reasons for the high child mortality rates in many low and middle-income countries. This according to a doctoral thesis, soon to be presented at the Swedish medical university Karolinska Institutet. One fifth of all the deaths amongst children under the age of five that are reported every year are caused by serious diarrhoea. [click link for full article]

‘Musculoskeletal disorders’ (MSDs) - an umbrella term that covers over 200 different ailments including arthritis, back pain and damage to joints, muscles and tendons - affect twice as many people as ’stress’, account for up to a third of all GP consultations, cause 9.5 million lost working days, and cost society £7.4bn a year*. [click link for full article]

Nutrients taken from avocados are able to thwart oral cancer cells, killing some and preventing pre-cancerous cells from developing into actual cancers, according to researchers at Ohio State University.Researchers found that extracts from Hass avocados kill or stop the growth of pre-cancerous cells that lead to oral cancer. Hass avocados are year-round fruits known for their distinctive bumpy skin that turns from green to purplish-black as they ripen. [click link for full article]

Enrollment in RIte Care, Rhode Island’s Medicaid program, has declined by 4,852 beneficiaries in the last six months and by nearly 6,000 in the last year, the Providence Journal reports. [click link for full article]

A new study in the September issue of Cell Metabolism, a publication of Cell Press, points to a new method for burning off all those irresistible extra calories - by turning on an energy-draining, but otherwise futile, cycle of protein synthesis and breakdown. [click link for full article]

Type 1 diabetes is caused when immune cells attack and destroy the insulin producing beta-cells of the pancreas. Although insulin injections have changed the life of type I diabetics, they neither cure the disease nor prevent its severe complications. It was hoped that islet transplantation would provide a cure, however, transplant success is short-lived and accompanied by significant side effects. [click link for full article]

A new study by Jeremy Graff and colleagues from Eli Lilly and Company has demonstrated the anti-cancer effect of a new therapeutic in a mouse model of human tumors and has spawned clinical trials to test the ability of this therapeutic to treat human cancers. [click link for full article]

A simple imaging technique developed by UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers has revealed fat buildup in the hearts of pre-diabetic people long before symptoms of heart disease or diabetes appear.The technique detects fat accumulation in cells of the beating heart in a way no other clinical method can, the researchers said, and may provide a way to screen patients for early signs of heart disease in diabetes. [click link for full article]