Credit: iStock/Fokusiert If getting more exercise is on your New Year’s resolution list, you’re not alone. While becoming more active is one of the most common resolutions, only about 25% of adults meet the recommended guidelines for physical activity. How can you beat the odds and make sure your resolution becomes more than just a … Continue reading How to Turn Your Fitness Resolution into a Lasting Habit
Diabetes
How Does Eating and Exercising at the Right Time Reduce Your Risk of Chronic Disease?
Karyn Esser, PhD, presents her research at the 2024 American Physiology Summit. Credit: American Physiological Society The role of the biological clock (circadian rhythm) on human health and disease was covered in depth at the 2023 American Physiology Summit. Learning about how the body’s clock works with other organs is a topic scientists are continually … Continue reading How Does Eating and Exercising at the Right Time Reduce Your Risk of Chronic Disease?
Spotlight On: Insulin
Credit: iStock Sugar is one of the most important fuels our bodies use to produce energy and survive. However, too much sugar can cause damage to our organs. Our bodies naturally produce a hormone called insulin that helps regulate how much sugar is circulating in our blood at any given time, even when we eat … Continue reading Spotlight On: Insulin
Try Fidgeting to Control Blood Sugar
Credit: iStock We usually associate autumn with several sensations that delight the senses, including crisp air, warm colors and the smell of woodsmoke. Many of us will spend time surrounded by loved ones, which may include benevolent grandmothers and aunts indulging us with food and sweets. Pecan pie, pumpkin pie and cobblers may be delicious, … Continue reading Try Fidgeting to Control Blood Sugar
Insulin: 100 Years of Saving Lives
Credit: iStock Elizabeth Hughes weighed a mere 45 pounds when she walked into the clinic of Frederick Banting, MD, on August 16, 1922. It was three days before her 15th birthday. Since her diagnosis with what today we call type 1 diabetes, Elizabeth had been strictly adhering to a starvation diet, the only available treatment … Continue reading Insulin: 100 Years of Saving Lives
This Halloween, Celebrate the Creepy-crawlies that Keep Us Safe
Credit: iStock Each Halloween season, we celebrate all those spooky critters that give us the heebie-jeebies. But there might be more to cheer for than you realize. Scientists who study these creepy-crawlies are learning ways they may improve human health. Gila Monster In 1992, John Eng, MD, an endocrinologist working at the Veterans Affairs Medical … Continue reading This Halloween, Celebrate the Creepy-crawlies that Keep Us Safe
The Triple Threat: Diet, Diabetes and Fatty Liver Disease
Credit: iStock Fatty liver disease is a group of disorders that occur when too much fat builds up in the liver. Many people may have heard of alcohol-related fatty liver disease, a condition in which moderate to heavy consumption of alcohol leads to fat buildup and scarring in the liver. However, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease … Continue reading The Triple Threat: Diet, Diabetes and Fatty Liver Disease
Spotlight On: The Endocrine System
On any given day, you may feel stressed, moody, happy, tired or thirsty. All of these feelings seem to move and change seamlessly—and they are all a result of your endocrine system. Your endocrine system is made up of glands—for example, islets of Langerhans (within the pancreas)—that produce and secrete hormones and of organs—such as … Continue reading Spotlight On: The Endocrine System
Why Being an ‘Active Couch Potato’ Is Bad for Your Health
Did you know that even if you exercise regularly, you may be what researchers call an “active couch potato?” Consider this: If you exercise 30 to 45 minutes a day—completing your daily workout all at one time—it is easy to still spend 80 to 90 percent of your waking hours sitting. A study in England … Continue reading Why Being an ‘Active Couch Potato’ Is Bad for Your Health
Type 2 Diabetes and You: It’s Complicated
People in the U.S. continue to eat diets high in saturated fat and get little exercise. And more and more of them are being diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. While many people with diabetes make lifelong lifestyle changes to control their blood sugar, others may not understand that eating too much sugar when they have … Continue reading Type 2 Diabetes and You: It’s Complicated