Attention, chocolate lovers: You may not be able to help yourselves. Swiss and British scientists have linked the widespread love of chocolate to a chemical "signature" that may be programmed into our metabolic systems.
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Cellular energy rate down with diabetes
NEW HAVEN, Conn., Aug 25, 2005 (United Press International via COMTEX) -- The rate of insulin-stimulated energy production is reduced in the muscles of lean, healthy young U.S. adults who have already developed insulin resistance.
Senior author Dr. Gerald Shulman, of the Yale School of Medicine, said in a new study a decreased ability to burn sugars and fats efficiently is an early and central part of the diabetes problem.
The new data suggest the basic defect lies within the mitochondria, which are the energy factories inside cells that produce most of the chemical power needed to sustain life.
The researchers observed the mitochondria in the subjects' muscle cells responded poorly to insulin stimulation, but normal mitochondria react to insulin by boosting production of an energy-carrying molecule, ATP, by 90 percent.
The mitochondria from the insulin-resistant people only boosted ATP production by five percent.
The findings are published in PLoS Medicine 2.