Latest Baker IDI Heart and Diabetes Institute Stories

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - A program designed to boost physical activity levels in a low-income, multi-ethnic community did just that, and led to real health benefits for residents. Compared with a "control" community, fewer participants in the get-fit community gained weight and many lost weight, reducing their risk of type 2 diabetes -- which largely results from obesity. Residents in the intervention community also saw improvements in cholesterol, blood pressure and blood sugar...

By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Correspondent WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A single genetic change could predispose close to 40 percent of the population to type-2 diabetes, researchers said on Sunday. The gene, identified in a study of Iceland's comprehensive genetic records, is carried by 38 percent of the Northern European populations studied, and is also common among African-Americans, the researchers said. Writing in the journal Nature Genetics, Kari Stefansson of DeCode Genetics and...

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Diabetes is a major factor in the development of chronic kidney disease, but among people with poor blood sugar control who've not yet developed diabetes, heart attack and stroke risk factors account for much of their increased risk of developing kidney disease, researchers report. In the medical journal Diabetes, Dr. Caroline S. Fox of the Framingham Heart Study, Massachusetts, and colleagues note that it is unclear whether pre-diabetes is associated with...