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Rapid Consolidation Reshaping World Dialysis Market

The dialysis industry is consolidating at a rapid pace as the top players attempt to expand their networks across the globe. A robust $67.5 billion business, the dialysis market has managed to fuel its growth engine with 5% to 6% growth per year in the past 5 years. The bulk of these revenues are for dialysis care services, which has led global dialysis equipment providers to enter the services segment through acquisitions of smaller regional players.

Dialysis patients are high-value customers, costing an estimated $34,000 per year on average. They are a relatively stable customer base which explains how the dialysis industry is noncyclical in nature and is only minimally affected by the vagaries of economic downturns. And despite a relatively small customer base of just over 2 million patients worldwide, the industry has attracted a large number of players, especially in the highly fragmented services segment, which is made up of mostly regional companies.

Consolidation has become a recurring theme in the dialysis sector. Between 2005 and 2011, several structural changes occurred in the industry. Gambro exited the North American dialysis care market by selling its dialysis care division to DaVita, Inc. and Fresenius bought Renal Advantage Inc. to maintain its leadership in North American dialysis care. The company also acquired Hema Metrics Crit-Line system business in early 2011. In 2009, Baxter acquired Edwards CRRT a provider of continuous renal replacement therapy.

This new report, “World Market for Dialysis Equipment and Services”, examines in detail both the dialysis products industry with its demand structure and major trends affecting it, and the services industry and its composition. Profiles of the major competitors are included, along with key market data and growth forecasts.

Low Carb Mediterranean Diet Effective In Controlling Blood Sugar Levels

A recent research reported that low carb Mediterranean type of diet is more effective in controlling diabetes than a normal low calorie and low fat diet.

According to the researchers, a Mediterranean diet also leads to more weight loss, better control over the blood sugar levels, reduction in the risks of developing heart disease and lessen dependence upon medicines for lowering blood sugar levels. Dottore Dario Giugliano of Second University of Naples, Southern Italy, led the study which involved more than 200 men and women suffering from Type 2 diabetes. These people were provided with regular counseling by the professional nutritionists and they were asked to either follow a low carb Mediterranean diet or a low fat diet for a period of 4 years.

Results from the study showed that only 44% of the people who took Mediterranean diet still require medicine for lowering down their blood sugar levels compare to 70% for who took the low fat diet. The group who took Mediterranean diet also lose more weight, have thinner waists, and showed an increase in good cholesterol level and decrease in the harmful triglycerides.

Giugliano further explained that results of this study accentuate the significance of healthy lifestyle and how it affects people’s health. He added that it is necessary not to ignore the healthy eating habits, despite the fact that several medicines are now available for controlling blood sugar levels in diabetic patients.

Many experts believe that if people are given the choice to eat a low fat diet, a low calorie diet or a low carbohydrate Mediterranean diet, most of them will choose the latter because it is much tastier and has more variety. With the positive results from this research on controlling blood sugar levels, it is expected that many more people with diabetes will be following the diet. If you are suffering from diabetes and would like to try on the diet, it is advice that you check with qualified doctor or nutritionist before changing your diet patterns.

Bio-Transformed Blueberry Juice To Fight Against Diabetes And Obesity

International Journal of Obesity published a study which states that researchers from Canada have found a kind of blueberry juice which may help to fight against diabetes and obesity.

According to the study, the juice extracted from the North American lowbush blueberries, bio-transformed with the bacteria from the berry’s skin, proves to be a great anti-diabetic and anti-obesity agent.

The bio-transformed juices were compared to the regular blueberry drinks and their effects were tested on mice by researchers from University of Montreal, University of Moncton and Institut Armad-Frappier. Dr. Pierre Hadda, the lead author of the study and pharmacology professor in the Faculty of Medicine of the University Montreal says that the results that were derived after the study clearly indicate that the bio-transformed blueberries juice has strong potential against diabetes and obesity.

Haddad said that the bio-transformed juices decrease hyperglycemia in the mice suffering from diabetes and has the ability to protect the young mice from developing diabetes and obesity. The effects of the bio-transformed juices were tested on a mice group that was prone to insulin resistance, hypertension, diabetes and obesity. It was found that by adding bio-transformed juice into the drinking water of the mice, their food intake and also their body weight got reduced.

Bio-transforming the juice from blueberries was achieved with the help of bacteria of a new strain that is isolated from the plant of the blueberry. This is known as serratia vaccinii which, according to the researchers, increases the antioxidant effects of the fruit.

Tri Vuong another leading authors with University of Montreal said that consuming fermented blueberry juice significantly and gradually reduces high glucose levels in the bodies of the diabetic mice. He said that after 3 days consuming the juice, the glycemia levels in the mice subjects were reduced by 35%.

Saturated Fats Can Cuase Alzheimer’s Disease

Researchers from Curtin University of Technology in Perth have been studying about the scientific link between diet and Alzheimer’s disease. Now they have come up with clear explanation to why consumption of high saturated fats is more likely to cause Alzheimer’s disease. Their study is the first one to be published in British Journal of Nutrition, describing the link of saturated fats in diet and Alzheimer’s disease.

Researchers found that saturated fats can damage the blood vessel lining of brain, thereby allowing inflow of a protein called amyloid. Professor John Mamo, co-author of the study and national director of the Australian Technology Network’s Centre for Metabolic Fitness said that brain consists of millions of blood vessels having a selective permeable lining to cover them, which gets damaged by high saturated fats. The lining is generally called as blood brain barrier. So when the brain blood vessel lining gets damaged it no longer regulates the flow of proteins in or out.

Amyloid, a protein that is produced in the small intestine is secreted into blood. It deposits in the brain and causes inflammation and nerve cell death. Researches in the past have confirmed that amyloid secretion is stimulated by consumption of high saturated fats. Since the blood brain barrier is damaged the deposition becomes wide spread. During the study, the researchers made tests using mouse models. They fed mice a diet of either saturated, monounsaturated or polyunsaturated fats and compared them to mice which were genetically designed to develop Alzheimer’s.

Within two months the mice fed with saturated fats showed changes in blood vessel architecture and more amyloid deposits in brain. But such modifications were absent in case of mice fed with polyunsaturated or monounsaturated fats. The brains of saturated fat mice were similar to those of genetically modified Alzheimer diseased mice. The researchers used antibodies with a fluorescent tag to confirm that dietary fats were also inside amyloid deposits.

Based on the research, now the Alzheimer’s drug treatment can take a new dimension to improve nerve cells and repair the damaged vessels. The announcement of this link between saturated fats and Alzheimer’s disease came along the same time when a French study two genes related to Alzheimer namely CLU and PICLAM. CLU produces a protein known as clusterin. It helps to deduce the inflammation caused by amyloid deposits. Whereas, PICLAM plays vital role in inter communication between brain and nerve cells. The study co-author believes that these discoveries will be helpful in better understanding and early detection of Alzheimer disease.

Vitamins May Lower Risk Of Heart Disease, Says Study

A recent study revealed that people who consume vitamin E and multivitamin supplements daily for a period of 10 years are likely to lower the risk of death due to dangerous heart disease. Speaking about this Dr. Gaia Pocobelli and his colleagues in Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Centre, Seattle, Washington, wrote in their note that people who take vitamin C and vitamin E supplements seem to lower the risk of dying in a span of 5 year period while people who took vitamin C may also enjoy lower risk of demise from deadly cancer.

It is a known fact that vitamin C and E are good antioxidants that are normally thought to protect our body cells fighting against the harmful radicals. However, how the use of these vitamins in lower the risk of death is still an unsolved puzzle for the scientists. The authors also added in the report in American Journal of Epidemiology that the finding of this study clearly backup earlier studies. They stated that in many cases the decreased risks are relatively small and is mostly related to the healthy behaviors and habits of the people who take these vitamin supplements.

The research team surveyed around 77, 719 women and men in Washington. All these people where between the age of 50 and 76. 67% of the people in the group had ever taken multivitamins, 47% had ever had vitamin C and 48 % had ever had vitamin E. The survey was carried on for a period of 5 years, during this period there were around 3,577 deaths. In the group who had never used vitamin supplements, 350 people died from heart diseases while there were around 519 death cases amongst the other group that used vitamins. After a bit of adjustments made for age and gender, diet, lifestyle and medical conditions the researchers saw a slight decrease in the death risks from deadly heart diseases among the people who used multivitamins frequently.

Drilling down the vitamin usage the researchers found that people who took more than 322mg of vitamin C per day seemed to decrease the risk of death due to cancer and the other diseases within the monitored 5 year period in comparison with the non-vitamin users. The study also revealed that even people with history of heart diseases seemed to reduce the risk of deaths when they took this level of vitamin C. In the case of vitamin E supplements, men and women who took more than 215mg of vitamin E per day had decreased slightly in heart related and overall risk for death compare to non-vitamin users. The researchers saw no clear association with the intake of vitamin E and cancer death risk.

Though the report has taken the lifestyle of people into account, the authors feel that the findings or the results should be interpreted carefully because the health behaviors of people may differ. The authors added that some of the health behaviors might not have been accounted and they may tend to be common in vitamin supplement users than in people who do not use it.