Health Notes Health Notes (December 08, 2004)

A PERFECT FIT . . . Did you know that four our of five child car seats are incorrectly installed? The Lucile Packard Children's Hospital has a child passenger fitting station for patient families and the immediate community. Certified technicians will assist families in ensuring that the seat has not been recalled, advising them on how to choose an age, height and weight appropriate child safety seat, and instructing and demonstrating how to correctly place a child in the safety seat. To get assistance, make an appointment by contacting Benjamin Arias at 736-2981. You need to bring your child, car seat installation instructions and your automobile's owner's manual.

DIABETES RESEARCH . . . Cell biologist Andreas Stahl, Ph.D., of Palo Alto Medical Foundation's Research Institute, has been awarded two five-year grants this year by the American Diabetes Association and the National Institutes of Health for his promising research that may shed light on the cause and possible prevention of diabetes. Stahl is on the cusp of discovering how fatty acids, which are components of the food people eat every day, play a role in the development of obesity, cardiovascular disease and diabetes. While at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dr. Stahl patented six fatty acid transport proteins (FATPs) that are specialized in different parts of the body and carry the fatty acids from the bloodstream to skeletal muscles (the muscles that attach to the bones). His research shows that type 2 diabetes, the non-juvenile form of diabetes that is predominately caused by obesity, may be the result of desensitization of skeletal muscle cells to insulin. The American Diabetes Association grant will help Dr. Stahl and his research team explore if muscles without the FATPs are protected from obesity-associated diabetes. If FATPs in the skeletal muscles are targeted, Dr. Stahl and his colleagues could be one step closer to paving the way to a new treatment for diabetes.

GIVE A LITTLE, GET A LITTLE ... People who donate blood at the P>Stanford Blood Center through Jan. 8 will receive a T-shirt, designed by a patient at Lucile Packard Children's Hospital, as a thank-you gift. The artwork on the T-shirt consists of a collage hand and a corresponding poem. People are asked to "Lend a hand - Donate blood!" Normally, approximately 50 percent of blood is collected on mobile blood drives, but the Stanford Blood Center has only four blood drives scheduled between Dec. 23 and Jan. 3. Eligible donors in good health with no cold or flu symptoms are urged to make an appointment to give blood. They must eat well prior to donating, drink fluids and present photo ID at the time of donation. For more information, including updated maps and hours, or to schedule an appointment, please visit http://bloodcenter.stanford.edu or call (888) 723-7831 or (650) 723-7831.

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