Did you see this?

This is your brain on sugar: UCLA study shows high-fructose diet sabotages learning, memory: Eating more omega-3 fatty acids can offset damage, researchers say

"Our findings illustrate that what you eat affects how you think," said Fernando Gomez-Pinilla, a professor of neurosurgery at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and a professor of integrative biology and physiology in the UCLA College of Letters and Science. "Eating a high-fructose diet over the long term alters your brain's ability to learn and remember information. But adding omega-3 fatty acids to your meals can help minimize the damage."

While earlier research has revealed how fructose harms the body through its role in diabetes, obesity and fatty liver, this study is the first to uncover how the sweetener influences the brain.

Sources of fructose in the Western diet include cane sugar (sucrose) and high-fructose corn syrup, an inexpensive liquid sweetener. The syrup is widely added to processed foods, including soft drinks, condiments, applesauce and baby food. The average American consumes roughly 47 pounds of cane sugar and 35 pounds of high-fructose corn syrup per year, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Encouraging

Drug prevents Type 2 diabetes in majority of high-risk individuals

Of course, I'm way past that stage, but I am on the drug, Actos. I made my doctor take me off of Avandia and this was the logical replacement, as it is in the same class (chance of congestive heart failure like Avandia, but not linked to heart attacks). I must say, though, the insulin has done the best for me. When I go next he may take me off of some of the oral meds.

However, it sounds like it is a good possibility for those considered insulin resistant or pre-diabetic. For years before I had diabetes, I had insulin resistance syndrome, also called metabolic syndrome, and had low blood sugar attacks. I spent several years on metformin, which may have delayed the crossover to diabetes. Of course, I had all the same tests done when I was 19 and they just didn't know about insulin resistance back then, although they told me I might have trouble getting pregnant (due to polycystic ovarian syndrome and the androgen levels). Just that--no real counseling. It wasn't even a doctor who broke it to me, just some woman in scrubs whom I presume was a nurse. They just put me on birth control pills, which helped with the androgen issue but not the underlying insulin resistance. The good news was at the time I desperately needed to be on birth control pills and then later the idea of having a baby pretty much receded and I decided it was for the best because 1) I don't want to pass on my health issues, 2) I have enough emotional issues that I don't see myself as a good parent, and I don't want to pass on anything that will require therapy later, 3) I've never been financially stable enough to have a family, and 4) we already have enough people cranking out babies in this world, don't you think?

Nifty cool!

Bones play key role in diabetes

They actually secrete a hormone, osteocalcin, that helps regulate blood sugar and maintain sensitivity of the body's cells to insulin.

It is the first time that the skeletal system has been shown to 'reach out to other organs in the body', taking an active role in the endocrine system.

Cool, huh? Granted, it's a breakthrough--and therefore beginning study. The drug benefits that could be realised, if possible, in humans may be years away, but maybe someday this substance will help control diabetes.