Can A Funny Story about Tooth Brushing Decrease Plaque Scores in Children? A Longitudinal Field Experiment.

Dental caries is the most common chronic condition among children, it is thus a necessity to develop health communication tools to increase children's dental hygiene. Prior research among adults indicates that entertaining narrative communication can promote health behaviors, but knowledge on narrative effects on children's health outcomes is limited. In a repeated measures field experiment (N = 94, 4-10 years) we examined the long-term effects of repeated exposure to a humorous tooth brushing narrative about an orange monkey, versus an expository text on dental care, on children's self-reported and biomedical dental hygiene (plaque scores).

Prolonged exercise in type 1 diabetes: performance of a customizable algorithm to estimate the carbohydrate supplements to minimize glycemic imbalances.

Physical activity in patients with type 1 diabetes (T1DM) is hindered because of the high risk of glycemic imbalances. A recently proposed algorithm (named Ecres) estimates well enough the supplemental carbohydrates for exercises lasting one hour, but its performance for prolonged exercise requires validation. Nine T1DM patients (5M/4F; 35-65 years; HbA1c 54 ± 13 mmol · mol(-1)) performed, under free-life conditions, a 3-h walk at 30% heart rate reserve while insulin concentrations, whole-body carbohydrate oxidation rates (determined by indirect calorimetry) and supplemental carbohydrates (93% sucrose), together with glycemia, were measured every 30 min.

Oxidative stress in patients with type 1 diabetes mellitus: is it affected by a single bout of prolonged exercise?

Presently, no clear-cut guidelines are available to suggest the more appropriate physical activity for patients with type 1 diabetes mellitus due to paucity of experimental data obtained under patients' usual life conditions. Accordingly, we explored the oxidative stress levels associated with a prolonged moderate intensity, but fatiguing, exercise performed under usual therapy in patients with type 1 diabetes mellitus and matched healthy controls. Eight patients (4 men, 4 women; 49±11 years; Body Mass Index 25.

Whole-body glucose oxidation rate during prolonged exercise in type 1 diabetic patients under usual life conditions.

Objective: Fuel oxidation during exercise was studied in type 1 insulin-dependent (T1DM) patients mainly under quite constant insulin and glycemia; these protocols, however, likely do not reflect patients' usual metabolic conditions. The glucose oxidation rate (GLUox) in T1DM patients under usual life conditions was thus investigated during prolonged exercise (3-h) and its behavior was described mathematically.

Materials/methods: Whole-body GLUox was determined in eight T1DM patients (4/8 M; aged 35-59 years) and eight well-matched healthy subjects.

Retinol binding protein as early marker of fetal growth restriction in first trimester maternal serum.

Background: Serum retinol binding protein (RBP4) is the binding protein for retinol, being delivered into the circulation through the carrier protein transthyretin (TTR) together with thyroxin (T4). RBP4 has also been recently indicated as a new adipokine implicated in insulin resistance and metabolism regulation.

Objective: To investigate the role of RBP4 as early markers of fetal growth restriction (FGR) and preeclampsia (PE) in maternal serum during the first trimester of pregnancy.