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"Lancet 2010; Advance online publication MedWire News: There is a U-shaped relationship between glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) levels and mortality in people with diabetes, say researchers, meaning that intensive glucose-lowering therapy could be as harmful as uncontrolled hyperglycemia. Writing in The Lancet, Craig Currie (Cardiff University, UK) and team say that if their findings are confirmed then diabetes guidelines may need to be revised to include a lower as well as an upper HbA1c threshold. Currie's team used the UK General Practice Research Database from November 1986 to November 2008 to obtain data on two cohorts of patients aged 50 years and older with Type 2 diabetes. The patients comprised 27,965 individuals whose treatment had been intensified from oral monotherapy to combination therapy with oral blood-glucose lowering agents, and 20,005 who had changed to insulin-containing regimens."

"NOTTINGHAM, England, Dec. 29 (UPI) -- A drug derived from a mushroom -- cordycepin -- may be used to treat some cancers, British researchers say. Dr. Cornelia de Moor of The University of Nottingham in England and colleagues are investigating the drug originally extracted from a rare parasitic mushroom called cordyceps that grows on caterpillars. The researchers say low-dose cordycepin seems to inhibit the uncontrolled growth and division of cells and at high doses it also inhibits growth by stopping cells from sticking together. Both of these effects, they say, probably have the same underlying mechanism -- interfering with the production of cell proteins.

"My goal is to gather the basic science and apply it to nutrition - NUTRIGENOMICS. What do I mean? How does what we eat signal our genes in the nucleus. By our food choices, we are sending different signals to our genes. High carbohydrate and high fructose intake signals it is summer time and winter is coming -- grow and store the energy (insulin). High fat, low carbohydrate diet with calorie restriction signals our genes that winter is here -- use the stored energy, repair the genes, and slow down growth (i.e. Sirt1/Foxo pathway). The Sirt1/FoxO1 pathway is important as it aids in repairing DNA. Damaged DNA can lead to uncontrolled cellular replication (i.e. cancers). The immune system (phagocytes) has a mechanism to remove old and unwanted cells called apoptosis (cellular death). "

Hiccups are an uncontrollable reflex of the human body. What exactly goes on within the body to generate this weird sound is highly debated. The fact that hiccups can be heard and seen from fetuses suggests that the central circuit involved in producing hiccups...

Hiccups are unwanted contractions of the diaphragm - the muscle that participates in breathing. Although evolutionary scientists have a few theories, the exact cause and purpose of hiccups is unknown. They remain a unique and age-old feature of the human physiology that continues to elude scientists to this day.