[News release] Losing 30 minutes of sleep per day may promote weight gain and adversely affect blood sugar control

From the 7 March 2015 news release at Newswise

….At 12 months, for every 30 minutes of weekday sleep debt at baseline, the risk of obesity and insulin resistance was significantly increased by 17% and 39%, respectively….

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• Just 30 Minutes of Daily Sleep Debt Raises Weight and Diabetes Risk
• Losing Out on 30 Minutes of Sleep Could Trigger Weight Gain
• Got Sleep Problems? Losing 30 Minutes Of Sleep Each Day Could Mess With Metabolic Function, Causing Obesity

[News release] Onion extract may improve high blood sugar and cholesterol

From the 6 March 2015 EurkAlert

The extract of onion bulb, Allium cepa, strongly lowered high blood glucose (sugar) and total cholesterol levels in diabetic rats when given with the antidiabetic drug metformin, according to a new study. The study results will be presented Thursday at The Endocrine Society’s 97th annual meeting in San Diego.

“Onion is cheap and available and has been used as a nutritional supplement,” said lead investigator Anthony Ojieh, MBBS (MD), MSc, of Delta State University in Abraka, Nigeria. “It has the potential for use in treating patients with diabetes.”

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[Reblog] The FDA and Me (or How to Explain Your Test is Not a Game)

From the 6 March 2015 post at The Health Care Blog (Association of Health Care Journalists)

So you have a great idea for an app. Not so fast: it took two years and over half a million dollars to get ours cleared for marketing by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

Our app, DANA uses a mobile phone to records peoples’ reaction time during game-like tests. It also provides questionnaires that help clinicians evaluate brain health. Commissioned from AnthroTronix by the Department of Defense, the app will help diagnose concussion, depression and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

For something so important, a serious investment of time and money for clearance may not sound extravagant, but few small companies can afford a two-year go-to-market delay, not to mention the significant investment and heartache that goes with it. And although the FDA has tried to facilitate regulation by providing guides like the Mobile Medical Applications Guidance Document and the Mobile Medical Applications website, the regulatory process remains confusing.

Here are five simple lessons from our own experience that will help other entrepreneurs to do the right thing and engage with the FDA:

Innovators are afraid of the FDA

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[News release & chip/dip recipe] Center for Dairy Research turns yogurt waste into new products

I’ve wondered where the waste went, this is good news.

From the 6 March 2015 University of Wisconsin-Madison news release

…”The whole goal is to take this problematic mixture of stuff — acid whey — and isolate all of the various components and find commercial uses for them,” says Dean Sommer, a food technologist with Wisconsin Center for Dairy Research (CDR) in the UW-Madison College of Agricultural and Life Sciences.

That’s no easy task.

Food companies have been separating the components of sweet whey — the byproduct of cheese production — for more than a decade now, extracting high-value whey protein powders that are featured in muscle-building products and other high-protein foods and beverages.

Compared to sweet whey, however, acid whey from Greek yogurt is hard to work with. Similar to sweet whey, it’s mostly water — 95 percent — but it contains a lot less protein, which is considered the valuable part. Some of the other “solids” in acid whey, which include lactose, lactic acid, calcium, phosphorus and galactose, make it more difficult to process. For instance, thanks to galactose and lactic acid, it turns into a sticky mess when it’s dried down.

Instead of drying it, CDR scientists are developing technologies that utilize high-tech filters, or membranes, to separate out the various components.

“We’re taking the membranes that are available to us and stringing them together and developing a process that allows us to get some value-added ingredients out at the other end,” says dairy processing technologist Karen Smith, who is working on the project.

At this point, the CDR has set its sights on lactose, an ingredient that food companies will pay good money for in food-grade form.

“It’s the lowest-hanging fruit, the most valuable thing in there in terms of volume and potential worth,” says Sommer.

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On a related note, a tasty recipe!  Sweet Potato chips with Greek yogurt blue cheese dip.
Spiciness of chips (chili powder) balances well with sweetness of dip( the honey)
Made them with a Japanese sweet potato (from our local co-op). Took them to the card party group, they did not go over that well.  Put chips in our toaster oven, got braver and made them crispier. Thinking these chips taste better hot (temperature hot).

OK, it was hard to get past the blog title…housewife in training. that’s all I’ll say!
Again, great recipe.

http://thehousewifeintrainingfiles.com/healthy-sweet-potato-chips-greek-yogurt-blue-cheese-dip/

[News release] Physical labor, hypertension and multiple meds may reduce male fertility

From the 6 March 2015 EurkAlert!

NIH-funded study analyzes data from more than 450 men attempting to conceive

Working in a physically demanding job, having high blood pressure, and taking multiple medications are among health risks that may undermine a man’s fertility, according to a study by researchers at the National Institutes of Health and Stanford University, Stanford, California. The study is the first to examine the relationships between workplace exertion, health, and semen quality as men are trying to conceive. The results were published online inFertility and Sterility.

…

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