“The yield of opportunistic targeted screening was fair; obesity alone was the best predictor of undiagnosed diabetes,” the study authors write. “Opportunistic screening for Type 2 diabetes in primary care could target middle-aged and older adults with obesity.”

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Researchers have long suspected that overweight people tend to have large fat deposits in their pancreases, but they’ve been unable to confirm or calculate how much fat resides there because of the organ’s location — that’s until now … Findings from the new study suggest that measuring pancreatic fat content in people could one day serve as an effective clinical tool to identify those at high risk of diabetes and monitor interventions designed to prevent the disease.

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In a 2002 study published in Diabetes Care, a team of physicians from the Netherlands announced their findings: that caffeine decreased healthy test subjects’ insulin sensitivity by 15%.

In another study reported by MedicineNet.com, people with diabetes were given caffeine pills equivalent to two cups of coffee.  The caffeine alone caused their blood sugar to rise by 8% and was reported higher after every single meal.  This was not true for the control group who did not take caffeine.

According to Suite101.com:

Patients struggling to lose weight and control blood sugar due to a diagnosis of insulin resistance or pre-diabetes should decrease or eliminate dietary caffeine.

Symptoms of Breast Cancer - Image Health-Beauty-Care.org

Insulin Resistance Syndrome, which is also known as Metabolic Syndrome, or Syndrome X, has now been linked to the development of breast cancer in postmenopausal women.

The syndrome includes:

– Central obesity (an apple shape or a large waistline), where one’s fat is localized around the middle
– High blood pressure
– High triglycerides
– Low HDL-cholesterol
– Insulin resistance (the body can’t properly control blood sugar levels)

The diagnosis of metabolic syndrome is made if three or more of these factors occur.

Exercise, weight loss, and nutrition changes can reduce the risks of metabolic syndrome and the likelihood of getting type 2 diabetes, stroke and heart disease.

Researchers now suspect that high levels of insulin (hyperinsulinemia) influence the risk for breast cancer by affecting interrelated hormones, such as insulin, oestrogen, cytokines and growth factors.

According to a news release from the American Association for Cancer Research:

“This study suggests that having the metabolic syndrome itself or some of its components may increase a woman’’s risk of postmenopausal breast cancer. However, much more work is needed to understand the role of these metabolic factors and their interplay with better established breast cancer factors, such as reproductive and hormonal factors,” said Dr. Geoffrey C. Kabat, senior epidemiologist in the department of epidemiology and population health at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, New York.”

and, Kabat also stated:

“women who had the metabolic syndrome during the three to five years prior to breast cancer diagnosis had roughly a doubling of risk.”

Symptoms of Breast Cancer

THURSDAY, June 11, 2009  (HealthDay News) — The nicotine in cigarette smoke may promote insulin resistance and lead to a condition known as pre-diabetes, new research shows.

The finding, to be outlined Thursday at the Endocrine Society’s annual meeting in Washington, D.C., could explain why smokers are at higher risk for diabetes. The same team of researchers was able to partially reverse nicotine’s effect on insulin in mice by giving the rodents the nicotine-blunting drug mecamylamine.

Read the full article, Nicotine May Help Spure Prediabetes: Toxin ups cortisol levels, encourages insulin resistance, study finds

THURSDAY, June 25 (HealthDay News) — A hormone might be an effective biomarker to help improve treatment of type 2 diabetes, U.S. researchers report.

Adiponectin is a metabolic hormone that regulates a number of processes, including glucose regulation and metabolism of fat for energy production. Previous research has shown an association between adiponectin and insulin sensitivity.

Read  Hormone Could Improve Diabetes Treatment: Biomarker might predict how type 2 patients will respond to drugs, study shows