PROTIME-FITNESS HOLISTIC HEALTH AND WELLNESS

  Combo-drug treatment for Type 2 diabetes remains effective after two years. Patients with Type 2 diabetes often take metformin as first-line therapy to help stabilize their blood glucose. Eventually, some patients no longer respond to metformin and require additional treatment. A few years ago, pivotal short-term trials showed that a combination of two drugs controlled diabetes progression better than either single drug alone. Now, new research demonstrates that this drug combo of dapagliflozin and exenatide continues to stay effective, without loss of effect, after two years of continual use. "Many therapies in diabetes management are short-lived, which is why it's useful to test for long-term effect," says senior author Serge Jabbour, MD, director of the division of endocrinology and the Diabetes Center at Thomas Jefferson University. "Our study showed that a combo regimen of dapagliflozin and exenatide continued to control patients' glucose for over two year...

  Boosting treatments for metastatic melanoma Study shows repurposing a class of medications could give cancer therapies a better chance at fighting the disease. University of Cincinnati clinician-scientist Soma Sengupta, MD, Ph.D., says that new findings from her and Daniel Pomeranz Krummel's Ph.D., the team might have identified a treatment-boosting drug to enhance the effectiveness of therapies for metastatic cancer and make them less toxic, giving patients a fighting chance at survival and improved quality of life. "Melanoma is a serious skin cancer that evolves from the pigment cells of the skin and eyes," says Sengupta, associate professor of neurology at UC, UC Health neuro-oncologist and co-director of the UC Gardner Neuroscience Institute's Brain Tumor Center. "There are millions of people in the U.S. living with this type of cancer, and the incidence is projected to increase. "While physicians can often quickly find and treat melanoma of the skin, ...

  90% accuracy in detecting melanoma: New non-invasive method A team of researchers from Kaunas University of Technology and Lithuanian University of Health Sciences proposed a non-invasive method for detecting melanoma. A patented computer-aided diagnostic system developed by Lithuanian scientists proved to be more than 90% accurate in detecting malignancy in diagnostic images of skin lesions acquired from 100 patients. In Europe, melanoma is the fifth most common cancer type and is the major cause of death from skin cancer. Northern Europe displays the largest age-standardized rate mortality of 3.8 per 10,000 in the region, with an incidence of 23.4. Excision of a primary tumor remains essential in diagnosing melanoma, and the decision for the operation is generally based on the dermatoscopic evaluation of the lesion. However, the accuracy of melanoma clinical diagnosis is only at 65% and strongly relies on the physician-dermatologist's experience carrying out the analysis. ...

  Personalized cancer vaccine clinical trial to expand following promising early results A clinical trial at the University of Arizona Health Sciences designed to study the safety and effectiveness of a personalized cancer vaccine combined with the immunotherapy drug Pembrolizumab will expand its cohort after promising preliminary data were presented at the annual meeting of the Society for the Immunotherapy of Cancer. Julie E. Bauman, MD, MPH, deputy director of the University of Arizona Cancer Center and a professor of medicine and chief of the Division of Hematology and Oncology at the Arizona College of Medicine -- Tucson, presented preliminary data on the first 10 patients with head and neck cancer, seven of which were treated at Banner -- University Medicine, the clinical partner for the Arizona Cancer Center. Five of the 10 patients experienced a clinical response to the personalized cancer vaccine, and two patients had a complete response after the treatment (no detectable ...

  Avoiding inflammatory foods can lower heart disease, stroke risk. The study further examines the connection between inflammation and heart disease through the impact of inflammatory food consumption. Diets high in red and processed meat, refined grains, and sugary beverages, which have been associated with increased inflammation in the body, can increase subsequent risk of heart disease and stroke compared to diets filled with anti-inflammatory foods, according to a study published today in the  Journal of the American College of Cardiology . A separate JACC study assessed the positive effects eating walnuts, an anti-inflammatory food, had on decreasing inflammation and heart disease risk. Chronic inflammation has been shown to play an important role in the development of heart disease and stroke. Certain inflammatory biomarkers, such as interleukins, chemokines, and adhesion molecules, have been associated with atherosclerosis's early and late stages. Previous studies have ...

  Exercise and nutrition regimen benefits physical, cognitive health 12-week double-blind control trial in 148 Air Force airmen Researchers studied the effects of a 12-week exercise regimen on 148 active-duty Air Force airmen, half of whom also received a twice-daily nutrient beverage that included protein; the omega-3 fatty acid, DHA; lutein; phospholipids; vitamin D; B vitamins, and other micronutrients; along with a muscle-promoting compound known as HMB. Both groups improved in physical and cognitive function, with added gains among those who regularly consumed the nutritional beverage, the team reports. The findings appear in the journal  Scientific Reports . Participants were randomly assigned to the two groups. The exercise regimen combined strength training and high-intensity interval aerobic fitness challenges. One group received the nutritional beverage, and the other consumed a placebo beverage that lacked the added nutrients. Neither the researchers nor the partici...

  How exercise stalls cancer growth through the immune system People with cancer who exercise generally have a better prognosis than inactive patients. Researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden have found a likely explanation of why exercise helps slow down cancer growth in mice: Physical activity changes the immune system's cytotoxic T cells' metabolism and improves their ability to attack cancer cells. The study is published in the journal  eLife . "The biology behind the positive effects of exercise can provide new insights into how the body maintains health as well as help us design and improve treatments against cancer," says Randall Johnson, professor at the Department of Cell and Molecular Biology, Karolinska Institutet, and the study's corresponding author. Prior research has shown that physical activity can prevent unhealthily and improve the prognosis of several diseases, including various cancer forms. Exactly how exercise exerts its protective eff...