Substances isolated from bitter melon, a plant eaten and used medicinally in much of Asia, could provide the basis of new drugs for treating diabetes and obesity, an international team of researchers reports.

A new method that uses nanotechnology to rapidly measure minute amounts of insulin is a major step toward developing the ability to assess the health of the body’s insulin-producing cells in real time.

Patients taking both a tricyclic antidepressant and a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) were nearly twice as likely to develop type 2 diabetes as those taking a tricyclic antidepressant alone

Although simvastatin improves flow-mediated dilation in hypercholesterolemic patients, the drug reduces adiponectin levels and insulin sensitivity, according to a report in the April issue of Diabetes Care. These effects were not dose-dependent and also did not relate to the magnitude of apolipoprotein B reduction.

The recent report that having a pot belly in your 40s roughly triples your risk of dementia in later life is just the tip of an ominous adipose iceberg.

For type 2 diabetes with microalbuminurea, multi-drug treatment with behavior modification reduced the risk of vascular complications and death from cardiovascular and other causes by 29%.

There is a gender gap in some responses to the new intranasal insulin still in research.

Diabetic retinopathy appears to be an independent risk factor for heart failure, new research suggests, which supports the belief that microvascular disease plays a role in the development of heart failure in diabetics.

Metabasis Therapeutics unveiled another diabetes treatment. This one cuts down on glucose production by the liver. It works by inhibiting an enzyme called Fructose-1,6-bisphosphatase. Metformin, a standard drug for diabetes patients, also cuts down on glucose production in the liver, but how it works is a mystery.

A new type of bariatric surgery may eliminate the need for medication in patients with type 2 diabetes, according to a study reported here at the Society of American Gastrointestinal and Endoscopic Surgeons 2008 Annual Scientific Session and Postgraduate Course.