Public release date: 19-Jun-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Jim Sliwa jsliwa@asmusa.org 202-942-9297 American Society for Microbiology

Human Insulin Suppresses Mosquito Immune System: Increasing Cases of Type II Diabetes Could Abet Malaria's Spread

Human insulin suppresses the mosquito immune system, according to a paper in the June Infection and Immunity. And while mosquitoes and malaria might seem to go together like baseball and hotdogs, mosquitoes' immunological resistance to the malaria parasite actually slows its spread among H. sapiens.

"A fair portion actually fight off the infection," says first author Nazzy Pakpour of the University of California, Davis.

But now the rate of type 2 diabetes is climbing in Africa as in most of the rest of the world, to the point where by 2030, one in five adults there are predicted to be so-afflicted. More diabetes means more hyperinsulinemiamore human insulin to inhibit mosquitoes' immune response to Plasmodium falciparum, thus aiding and abetting transmission of this dread disease.

As horrific as the medical consequences of all this might be, the science is intriguing. "It's crazy to think something in our blood could change how mosquitoes respond to parasites," says Pakpour.

In earlier work, Pakpour and collaborators showed that ingested human insulin activates the insulin/IGF-1 signaling pathway in Anopheles stephensi mosquitoes, making them more vulnerable to invasion by P. falciparum. The new study showed that insulin signaling reduced expression of certain mosquito immunity genes that are under the same regulatory control, and that human insulin suppressed mosquito immunity by activating the so-called PI3K signaling pathway, and that artificially inhibiting that pathway could reverse the immunosuppressive effects of human insulin.

(N. Pakpour, V. Corby-Harris, G.P. Green, H.M. Smithers, K.W. Cheung, M.A.Riehle, and S. Luckhart, 2012. Ingested human insulin inhibits the mosquito NF-KAPPAB-dependent immune response to Plasmodium falciparum. Infect. Immun. 80:2141-2149.)

Download the journal article at http://bit.ly/asm061912a

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Tips from the Journals of the American Society for Microbiology

Im always a little depressed coming back from vacation. So its not surprising to find me on return flights home wistfully looking out that little window wishing once again for umbrella drinks on the beach instead of Diet Coke at my desk.

But a couple of weeks ago, as I sat moping in a 757 on a Los Angeles International Airport runway, something struck me. As I watched our plane inch its way to takeoff behind several others, I realized how challenging it must be to be an air traffic controller.

In airports like LAX, planes are flying in and taking off nearly simultaneously, buzzing around the skies like bees in the hive. I marveled at the organizational abilities of these men and women in the tower.

But a day after returning home, I realized they had nothing on my friend Karen. She and I have daughters who are dancing in the same theater production this summer. We both work full time, as do our husbands. So we decided even before the snow had melted this spring that we should plan to carpool to the theater this summer.

Now back at work and with the theater program fast approaching, I knew we should start to make our carpool plan. But Karen, a woman with the face of a teenager and the planning and organizing skills of Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, had beaten me to the punch.

She created a spreadsheet that outlined, in detail, whose children were going where on what day, who was responsible for drop off and pickup and where said children would go upon completion of that days kick-ball-changing. This was like our own D-Day battle plan, but for the whole month of June. It was awesome. Almost a work of art.

I think what most excited me was that it was something tangible that I could share with my husband, who often operates on an information- overload, need-to- know basis.

Me: We need to talk about next week. Who is taking Laura to figure skating while Jordan has her soccer game? I have that presentation for work and you have (whatever it is college professors do).

Husband (deer in headlights look): Uh, can we just talk about it closer to the day?

He walks away mumbling something. (Its probably something about kids being overcommitted or us spending too much money. Thats usually what he mumbles about.)

More here:
Parenting Perspectives: Carpool craziness

Angelina Jolie Loss 2012 AngelinaJolie Diet Program - Isn't amazing how all of the celebrities you see have a celebrity diet plan for weight loss to maintain their weight. Some of them are shapely and healthy looking, and look good on camera. Others look like they haven't eaten in weeks, like they just got back from the famine in Ethiopia for a few weeks. Like they had been starving themselves to lose weight, and that is probably what they have been doing. You see it in all the tabloids, this person lost 100 pounds again, this one gained 100 pounds, and then lost 150 pounds. Some are not as dramatic; this one lost 40 pounds and is a television spokesperson, because the previous celebrity diet spokesperson gained the weight back. The fact is they may be starving themselves to lose weight, fasting like they are going through a famine.

"Click Here to Watch Weird VIDEO About The 5 Foods that KILL Abdominal Fat!"

Celebrities make dieting look so easy, don't they? One month they're on the cover of US Weekly for gaining too much weight and the next they're headlining the "sexiest beach bods" story. It is true that seriously overweight people can lose large amounts of fat in a quick amount of time, because of the large fat content in their cells. But those that are only a few pounds overweight, losing 40 pounds in a month, is not only starvation, it is malnutrition and can have serious side effects. Our body weight can fluctuate day to day and the best diets take the weight off gradually, the way it came on. If you lose a lot of weight in a short time, staying the same size will be impossible unless you follow a maintenance program for life. Good, sensible dieting means skill and will power combined. A lot of these celebrity diets or Hollywood diets are very bad for the body and the celebrities are thinking of the camera rather than their long term health. Researches indicate that individuals who indulge in a weight loss program by taking prepared meals end up losing an additional 31% weight as against those who cook their own meals. With help, losing weight is made easier and at times much faster as against doing it on your own.Diet delivery is gaining popularity in a big way as it is fairly affordable by even the common man, roughly around $20 a day with an increasing variety to choose from. A few of which include: Zone-compliant meal, low carbs plan, veggie meals, and gourmet too.

"Click Here to Watch Weird VIDEO About The 5 Foods that KILL Abdominal Fat!"

With the rapidly increasing epidemic of obesity and increasing BMI levels, there is an array of products and diet plan to aid in combating obesity. Celebrity slim diet, the basic idea is to educate people and not to depict food as an enemy. Like a lot of famous diets in Hollywood, if your body thinks you are starving, it is going to hold on to every calorie you take in to keep you from starving to death instead of burning them for energy. When you follow a properly balanced weight loss diet, your metabolism will hardly notice the decrease in calories and continue to burn fat it doesn't need to store. This is a more long-term weight loss strategy.

Celebrities do not have secrets about dieting. They are normal people like the rest of us but, unlike most of us, they have people working for them such as diet advisors and personal trainers. Celebrity diets involve a level of commitment and dedication which we struggle with. The best celebrity diets involve eating sensibly and limiting our calorie intake. Having these factors in mind will allow you to have safe and easy weight loss that will provide you with short term and long term consistent results.

"Click Here to Download The AngelinaJolie Diet Programs - Get a Great Body Like AngelinaJolie in Days!"

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Angelina Jolie Loss 2012 AngelinaJolie Diet Program

Courtesy of Diane Lazzari

Lucca the Belgian Tervuren's goal weight was 85 pounds, which meant she had to shed 15 pounds.

The running joke shared between Diane Lazzari and her husband, Dennis Green, was that their dog, an 8-year-old Belgian Tervuren, had a fully stocked refrigerator hidden in their Alameda backyard. Because regardless of what they fed her, Lucca kept gaining weight.

When our veterinarian shared her concern about Lucca's weight, which hovered between 98 and 101 pounds, I reassured her that we walked a vigorous 20 miles a week. A few extra pounds shouldn't be that big a deal, should it?

Then I read an article in The Chronicle that spelled out the "secret" formula for losing weight, human or canine: Eat less, exercise more and voila! A no-brainer, sure, but that article helped me realize that Lucca's extra weight really was a problem. Even a few additional pounds could lead to long-term health risks, such as hip dyspepsia and heart problems.

Dennis and I agreed that a serious diet was in order for our pudgy Belgian. A meeting with our vet established that Lucca's goal weight was 85 pounds with no more than 970 calories per day.

Lucca's first meal on her new regime was a real eye-opener. It was immediately evident that I had been overfeeding her, and by a lot. I used to fill her large metal bowl to the very top. Now, her 1 cup of measured food sat sadly at the bottom of her bowl, filling it only to about one quarter of what I had been giving her.

Lucca didn't have a refrigerator in the backyard. I was her refrigerator! Plus, Dennis and I were guilty of another no-no: sharing our people food with Lucca. We realized we had to cut back. My half scrambled egg in the morning became a teaspoon. For Dennis, leaving generous leftovers in his bowl changed to letting Lucca lick an empty bowl clean.

With monthly weigh-ins at the vet, we slowly started seeing progress. Two pounds one month, a pound another, sometimes none, but at least the numbers were moving down.

Unfortunately, these pound-saving techniques were not appreciated. I never realized how piercing the eyes of a Belgian could be while I was eating a hamburger. Or the effectiveness of a cold nose poking my face at 3 a.m. Initially, I thought the "cold nose poke" was Lucca's way of telling me she needed to go out. But I soon recognized ulterior motives were at stake when she continued walking past me, past the open door, and into the kitchen. Standing next to her empty bowl, she would look at it, and then back at me with an accusing stare. The message was all too clear and hard to ignore.

See the article here:
Diet a heart-tugger for Belgian Tervuren's owners

Monday, June 18, 2012 10:43 PM EDT

With the temperatures in the high 70s last week, most people had to hunt for their summer wardrobe. But, if you get organized now, youll never have to hunt for clothes again. Lets start with your bedroom closet. This closet should only have your current wardrobe, in style, in season and for us people on perpetual diets, two or even three sizes (at the most).

Your bedroom closet is just for your clothes, shoes, accessories, so take everything out that does not belong in your closet and put them in the right places. If you have a laundry basket that is empty, put all of the items that you removed from the closet into the basket. Then bring back the empty basket and put it on the bottom of your closet for your dirty laundry.

What about your scrapbooking materials baseball cards, old nighties from the 90s? Take out all unnecessary items and put them in a storage area such as your garage, basement or attic. Neatly box or bag the items before storing them as this will protect them from possible damage. Make sure you label what is inside and secure them with tape. Suitcases can be used to store athletic gear and other things that are not used on a weekly basis, and all memorabilia (that concert ticket from the 1980s) needs to be stored in acid-free boxes found in arts and crafts stores. Above all, your closet should be for your clothes, shoes, and accessories (like belts, ties and handbags) thats all.

Take out the first item of clothing and answer the following questions: Do you love it? Have you worn it in the past year? Does it fit? Is it in good condition?

If you answer yes to all the questions, keep it and move on to the next item. Next, decide what clothing you are keeping and what you are donating. Then you have one more chore to do: Buy good hangers. I recommend Huggable Hangers. They are available at Target or on the Home Shopping Network. Sturdy, colorfast, strong and work great, but buy only the suit ones; they are the best, in my opinion. (Im not a paid spokesperson for the company but wish I was!)

Use these hangers to put all of your clothes on and put all of the donated clothes in a garbage bag and put it in your trunk, as you do your weekly chores, you will drive by a Goodwill or Salvation Army or a clothing box and you can just drop them off.

When you have clutter around, it takes more time and energy to find something then if everything was in its right place. If every time you bring an item of clothing into your home, you take an item of clothing out, you will never have to do this closet exercise again.

Have an organized day!

Leslie Jacobs is an organizational consultant and motivational speaker in New Britain. You can reach her at Leslie@lesmess.com.

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Getting Your Life Together: Hunting for a summer wardrobe? Try these tips

WHAT WORKS FOR YOU? Different kinds of diets work for different kinds of people. For Dr. Davis' patients, it's getting rid of wheat. Screen grab from YouTube

MANILA, Philippines - Its one thing to posit that organic lechon (roasted pig) may in fact be healthier than transfat-logged fastfood meals.

Its quite another to be advocating an ample amount of meat in ones diet.

The hypothesis is more than enough to raise a few people's eyebrows in curiosity, and yet is easily dismissed due to age-old correlations between meat, cholesterol and heart disease.

Yet this is exactly what a new wave of nutritionists are doing. The startling thing about it: the way these nutritionists champion eating food that has traditionally been deemed unhealthy.

They also fight against what people have considered to be a staple in many countries around the world: grains, whether they come in the form of steaming hot rice or the breakfast pan de sal (bread of salt).

Cardiologist Dr. William Davis is quick to suggest the elimination of wheat in his patients diets whenever they have an unexplainable ailment. He narrates in his best-selling book Wheat Belly how his patients quickly lost much of their unhealthy weight, effectively cured their diabetes, regained energy and even slowed down their aging process by doing so. A myriad of glowing testimonials are also included in the book; theyre almost too good to be true.

He suggests that much of the United States obesity problems started when the countrys Food and Drug Administration began to advocate wheat products.

Dr. Davis noticed a pattern among his patients who consciously tried to live healthy lifestyles with proper diet and exercise. Most will say, I dont get it. I exercise five days a week. Ive cut my fat and increased my healthy whole grains. Yet I cant seem to stop gaining weight, Davis writes.

He cites many reasons as to why wheat is a culprit of poor health: the wheat we eat today is not the wheat that our grandparents used to consume (thanks to rampant and uncontrolled cross-breeding); high glycemic indices in wheat products that raise blood sugar more than table sugar or a bar of Snickers; wheats addictive properties that cause overeating, and more.

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Eating like a caveman