Fight diabetes by rebooting beta cells

Beta testing is the rule in tech: You gotta try your new app in the real world to find out what’s not running right. Then you can retool the beta to make version 1.0 operate smoothly and efficiently. Who woulda thought the same thing could apply to the beta cells in your pancreas?

Once you’ve been diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes, those beta cells aren’t churning out insulin like they need to. A new study shows that almost half of you can turn those betas back into readyfor-primetime players.

Researchers from Newcastle University in the U.K. recently discovered that about 50 percent of folks who had been diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes for 2.7 years or less were able to become nondiabetic by losing sufficient weight! Why? They found that losing weight restored a missing phase of the beta cell’s insulin secretion, the short, 10-minute burst that happens when you eat. Also, weight loss reduced liver and pancreas fat content and blood levels of triglycerides.

Fight aging for real

In Oscar Wilde’s “The Picture of Dorian Gray,” when a young artist’s model (Dorian) makes a deal with the devil to have his image in a painting age while he stays wrinkle-free and youthful, it turns out badly. So, when scientists announced in the journal Cell Death & Disease that they’ve figured out how to reverse age-related wrinkles and hair loss in mice, we thought, “This might turn out badly too.”

We’re all for defeating aging and fighting wrinkles. But it worries us that there might come a time when your arteries are clogged, your brain’s short of oxygen and you still look youthful. Here are some effective ways to fight premature aging, wrinkles and disease:

7-9 servings daily of brightly colored fruits and veggies; no red/processed meats or added sugars.

2-4 cups coffee or tea daily.

25 grams fiber daily from 100 percent whole grains, legumes and other produce.

900 milligrams of omega-3s from flax seeds, walnuts, salmon.

Olive oil (1 to 2 tablespoons daily).

10,000 daily steps or the equivalent.

Two 30-minute strength-building sessions weekly.

7-8 hours of sleep nightly; 6-10 minutes meditation daily helps manage stress.

1 multivitamin (half morning and evening);

1,000 IU vitamin D; and, if your doctor says OK, two 81-milligram aspirins daily (one morning, one night).

Email questions for Mehmet Oz and Mike Roizen to youdocsdaily@sharecare. com.