Word: insulin
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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With the notable exception of insulin, which helps the body process sugars from carbohydrates, the identity of most of the major players in this biochemical balancing act could for years only be guessed at. The first big breakthrough occurred in 1995, when the Rockefeller's Friedman stunned the scientific world by announcing that he and his colleagues had discovered a hormone produced by fat cells that actually caused fat to melt away, at least in laboratory mice. Genetically engineered mice that lacked the gene for making this hormone developed ravenous appetites and became grossly obese. When these same mice were...
...pill turns out to work for a wide range of people and that those who take it begin losing weight and shed, say, 5% to 8% of their body weight. At that point, some of the other hormones that affect long-term weight control, such as leptin and insulin, start dropping, and a short-acting hormone called ghrelin starts climbing, increasing your sense of hunger. "Now your body is competing with the effect of the drug," Schwartz says. "In the end, you may need two or three drugs to get the desired effect...
...Controlling insulin levels is the first priority for diabetics, but sugar imbalances also put diabetics at higher risk of heart disease. Help for their hearts may be as close as a drug diabetics are already taking. Rosiglitazone, which blocks insulin resistance, also appears to reduce the inflammation that can lead to plaque buildup in the heart arteries...
...gave them to 12 patients who had just had Type 1 diabetes diagnosed. Another dozen patients received standard medical care. A year later, doctors examined their subjects and discovered that the disease had been halted in nine of the patients who received the antibodies. They still had to take insulin because the damage that had already occurred could not be undone. Most of the control group, by contrast, seemed to have got worse and had to take more insulin...
...nanotechnology in 1986, predicts we will have nanobots coursing through our bloodstream, destroying our cancer cells within a generation or two. Few share his vision, but Kurzweil defends conceptual engineers like Drexler and points out that a University of Illinois at Chicago bioengineer is developing a capsule that secretes insulin through pores as small...