US ENDOCRINOLOGY – VOLUME 10 ISSUE 1 – SUMMER 2014

Welcome to the 2014 summer edition of US Endocrinology, featuring a selection of insightful review articles by senior experts and colleagues from the field of endocrinology. We thank everyone who has participated for their time and great effort, especially the expert authors for contributing such thought-provoking discussions on a variety of topics. With a significant […]

Diabetes imposes a substantial burden on societies worldwide: approximately 25 million individuals in the US have diabetes, of which more than 95 % is type 2.1 Furthermore, its incidence is increasing, a further 79 million adults in the US have pre-diabetes and one in three US adults could have diabetes by 2050.1 In addition, the […]

Diabetes Nutrition Therapy The American Diabetes Association (ADA) published Nutrition Therapy Recommendations for the Management of Adults with Diabetes in November 2013.1 The new position statement provides a set of recommendations based on a recent review of the literature on diabetes nutrition research. A table listing the supporting research for each recommendation is available online […]

One of the first observations that led to the consideration of glycemic variability (GV) as a potential contributor to diabetes complications in type 1 diabetes was from retrospective analysis of data from the Diabetes Control and Complications Trial (DCCT) study, which suggested that risk for retinopathy is determined by factors other than glycosylated hemoglobin ( […]

Diabetes is a metabolic disease resulting from the body’s insufficient production or use of insulin, a peptide hormone responsible for regulating glucose levels in the blood and tissues. Especially when improperly managed, diabetes results in a number of complications over time, affecting nearly every organ system, including the ocular tissue.

Diabetes is a metabolic disease consequent to a decrease of insulin activity, which may be due to a reduced availability of this hormone (type 1 diabetes or insulin-dependent diabetes [IDD]), to an impediment to its normal action or to combination of these two factors (type 2 diabetes or non-insulin-dependent diabetes [NIDDM]).

Diabetes is a global epidemic with an estimated worldwide prevalence of 8.3 % (382 million) in 2013 that is forecast to rise to 10.1 % (592 million) in 2035.1 Type 2 diabetes accounts for >90 % of all cases, and costs an estimated 10–12 % of the world’s health expenditure in 2010 to 2013.1–3 In […]

The growing prevalence of obesity is a global health concern. In 2009 to 2010, more than one-third of adults and 17 % of youth in the US were obese, as defined by body mass index (BMI). Obesity is associated with numerous health risks such as hypertension,1 cardiovascular disease (CVD),2 diabetes,3,4 stroke,5 and various cancers.6 Obesity […]

Obesity is a global epidemic and represents a substantial health and economic burden.

For several decades human body weight has been increasing worldwide to a point where the prevalence of overweight and obese adults and children has been described as epidemic or even pandemic.1–6 The statistics are alarming: in 2005 1.6 billion people worldwide were overweight and 400 million people were obese (one in ten adults).

Epigenetics, Gene Regulation, and Human Diseases

Statins are the cornerstone of dyslipidemia management, lowering lowdensity lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol levels and substantially reducing the risk for cardiovascular disease (CVD).

Growth hormone deficiency (GHD) in adults is characterized by alterations in body composition, carbohydrate and lipid metabolism, bone mineral density, cardiovascular risk profile, and quality of life.1 Treatment with GH replacement has been shown to improve many, but not all, of these abnormalities.2 By contrast, untreated GHD is associated with increased mortality and morbidity that […]

Pituitary tumours are associated with pituitary dysfunction, either hypersecretion (mainly prolactinomas, acromegaly or Cushing’s disease [CD]) or hypopituitarism, due to compression or destruction of normal pituitary cells. They may also cause headache or visual disturbances due to pressure on surrounding structures.

The advent of highly active anti-retroviral therapy (HAART) has significantly improved the survival of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected patients.1 In this context, HIV-infected patients are living longer and are facing several associated morbidities related with ageing, such as diabetes, malignancies, cardiovascular diseases and osteoporosis.