Facts

Xylitol can be a safe alternative to sugar, but might also be used to fight type 2 diabetes. A new study showed 5-weeks of xylitol supplementation improved food and fluid intake, body weight, blood sugar, serum fructosamine, lipid profile, serum insulin concentration and glucose tolerance. Alternatively, the xylitol supplement did …

Obese children have a less-sensitive sense of taste compared with kids of normal weight, a new study suggests. Their blunted ability to distinguish the five tastes (bitter, sweet, salty, sour and umami) may prompt obese children to eat larger quantities of food to register the same taste sensation, the researchers …

Countless seniors rely on diabetic testing supplies (DTS) from their pharmacists in order to live with and manage their disease. Unfortunately, an expansion of Medicare’s Competitive Bidding Program could disrupt that relationship and make it harder for seniors to obtain their DTS. Many seniors choose to obtain their diabetes testing …

An estimated 35.8 million U.S. adults with hypertension have uncontrolled blood pressure levels, even though the vast majority have regular access to healthcare and insurance coverage, the CDC reported last week. 

Rats born to mothers fed high-fat diets but who get normal levels of fat in their diets right after birth avoid obesity and its related disorders as adults, according to new Johns Hopkins research. Meanwhile, rat babies exposed to a normal-fat diet in the womb but nursed by rat mothers …

Lack of exercise tops the list of the biggest concerns about kids’ health, according to a new survey of American adults. The plight of young couch potatoes outranked teen pregnancy and drug abuse as problems that adults are concerned about, according to the survey. Not getting enough exercise was ranked …

Among US states, Mississippi has the highest proportion of obese adults at 34.9%, and Colorado has the lowest, according to a new report by the Trust for America’s Health (TFAH) and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Mississippi heads 12 states with adult obesity rates of more than 30%, trailed by …

An estimated 25.8 million Americans, or 8.3% of the population, have diabetes and almost a third of those don’t know it, the CDC said. Another 79 million people have prediabetes, with high fasting glucose or HbA1c levels but not quite at the frank diabetes level, the agency said in its …

Middle-aged working women who spend long hours hunched over their desks are more likely to gain greater weight, say Australian researchers. The study analyzed the impact of job status and the number of hours worked on the weight of middle-aged women and found those who worked in excess of 35 …

Two-thirds of severely obese children already have at least one heart disease risk factor, Dutch researchers found. Of the 255 children between the ages of 2 and 18 whose cardiovascular risk factors were available, 56% had hypertension, 14% had high blood glucose, and 54% had low HDL cholesterol, according to …