Looks like 'shrooms might become a swanky and healthy thing to do! The fungi is affectionately called the Maitake mushroom, and literally means "dancing mushroom. Research has found it lowers blood pressure, abdominal obesity, and lipids in the blood.

Maitake Products plans to target the maitake (grifola frondosa) mushroom to treat metabolic syndrome. Metabolic syndrome is a common precondition for both coronary disease and type 2 diabetes. The condition is characterized by a group of metabolic risk factors including: abdominal obesity, atherogenic dyslipidemia, high blood pressure and insulin resistance. With the growing number of people affected by these conditions, Maitake claims there is significant market potential for its drug, SX-Fraction.

A preliminary clinical study was conducted among 19 patients with type 2 diabetes. Patients taking 9 tablets of SX-Fraction (per day) for 2 months found that it significantly reduced fasting blood glucose, triglycerides, and body weight. The possibility of maitake mushroom as a safe, natural agent for treatment of type 2 diabetes, Syndrome X and insulin resistance has been examined for the past several years and will soon prove to be a therapeutic dancing mushroom in days to come. Yeah man.

Overeating can shut down a natural brain function that is key to preventing common cardiovascular and diabetic diseases..

Researchers found that chronic overeating can overwhelm the neural pathway that regulates the amount of fats flowing into the bloodstream from the liver. The liver is partly responsible for regulating fats entering the blood stream. It produces triglyceride fats the body can turn into LDL (bad) cholesterol, which can cause arteriosclerosis and blood vessel blockage. Glucose can enter the brain when levels are elevated in the bloodstream. When glucose enters the brain, it is broken down into an acidic substance known as lactate. Lactate signals the liver to stop making fat. It appears that chronic overeating can overwhelm the brain's ability to metabolize glucose into lactate. When lactate is no longer produced -- the signal to stop the liver from releasing fat into the blood stops, too. As small arteries get clogged, they create the circulatory problems common in type 2 diabetes, linked to overeating, obesity, and limb amputations.

Smaller portions, less glucose in the brain, better traffic flow. After all - nobody likes getting mixed signals. Let's do all we can to keep the lines of communimcation (and our arteries) open.

Hot off the press: some new information about the sometimes murky and confusing subject of cholesterol. According to a new study, lowering LDL, the so-called "bad" cholesterol, even lower than currently recommended levels could reduce the likelihood of stroke or heart attack for diabetics and people with heart disease. The method: up the dose for greater effectiveness.

A while back, research indicated that people with stable coronary disease would benefit from a higher than normal dose of the cholesterol-lowering drug Lipitor. The researchers have since taken a close-up look at how similarly high doses would benefit diabetics. The result: a twenty-five percent reduction in death, stroke, heart attack and cardiac arrest in study participants who were taking the higher dose.

Details are being published in the latest issue of Diabetes Care (June 2006).