Fasting serum lipid levels, glucose tolerance, and immunoreactive insulin concentrations of 50 young patients with coronary heart disease (CHD) and 30 control subjects were evaluated to study the interrelationships of these metabolic factors. Abnormalities in one or more of these factors could be shown in 90% of the patients and 20% of the control subjects. Thirty-four of the 50 patients had el...

Review Article Obesity has become a global problem, affecting countries which are developed and developing. One of the most recent and careful global estimates finds that roughly 500 million adults are obese defined as a Body Mass Index, or BMI of 30 or higher. Obesity is caused due to various factors such as environment, genetics, disease and drugs. Symptoms seen are lethargy, breathlessness, ...

Metformin, and the related biguanides buformin and phenformin, have been proposed to act by inhibiting respiratory complex I, causing the cellular energetic stress that activates AMP-kinase and initiates a multitude of cell-lineage-specific effects, including inhibition of gluconeogenesis in hepatocytes. However, the molecular mechanism of biguanide action on complex I is not known, limiting un...

The short-term therapeutic effect of oral hypoglycaemic agents has been assessed in 12 patients with symptomatic diabetes secondary to chronic pancreatitis (pancreatic diabetes). In six patients who had moderate to severe carbohydrate intolerance, associated with severe insulinopaenia during arginine infusion, the potent sulphonylurea chlorpropamide produced no change in the fasting blood gluco...