A natural sweetener that is derived from agave plants, which are used in making Tequila, could protect against diabetes and obesity, according to new research.

A study was presented by a research group to the ACS – American Chemical Society, which found that agavins the natural sweetener could trigger the production of insulin and lower the level of blood sugar when it was administered to mice in laboratory testing.

Researchers in the study fed groups of different mice a daily standard diet and added the agavins to their drinking water. The majority of mice who drank the agavins were discovered to have eaten less, lost weight and have levels of blood glucose lower when compared to other types of sweeteners like fructose, glucose, agave syrup, aspartame and sucrose.

The leader of the study said researchers believe the agavins have a big potential as sweeteners since in reality they are sugar, highly soluble, there glycemic index is low and their taste is neutral. However, most important is they are not metabolized by humans.

This in turn, said scientists, puts the agavins in a very good position for consumption by diabetic and obese people.

The recent study’s lead researchers Mercedes Lopez is from the Centro de Investigacion y de Estudios Avanzados located in Guanajuato, Mexico.

Lopez said that the researchers found that since the agavins are able to reduce levels of glucose they also increase the quantity of insulin.

Agavins, said Lopez, are not very expensive and there are no side effects that are known when they are consumed.

Type 2 diabetes effects an estimated population in the U.S. of 26 million.

One potentially challenging part of working with agavins is they are not available to many. In addition, while the agavins have 50% of the calories of regular sugars, they are less sweet said Lopez. The latter is able to be solved partially be the use of hydrolysis, said Lopez.

Somehow, people must understand it is hard to have the best of both worlds, in terms of locating an alternative sweetener that is very sweet.

Erectile dysfunction can strike even men who are still young. In the U.S., the 45th top selling prescription is Viagra. Men who have ED should be told that if they require a prescription due to not obtaining or maintaining an erection there might be other problems with their health that should be addressed.

The results from a new study have shown the ED could be reversed without the use of a pill. The study shows that lifestyle changes can be made so there is an improvement in sexual function to reverse ED.

ED is not something men should just ignore, as sexual dysfunction can be caused by any number of different health ailments, that could possibly be debilitating and in certain instances even fatal.

Health problems leading to erection problems can include sleep apnea, obesity, overweight and poor sleep. In addition, high intake of alcohol could interfere with a man having the ability of obtaining an erection. Aging has also been associated with ED.

A male can address certain things to improve his sexual function without the use of medications. Those issues included but are not limited to improving sleep, exercising more, reducing alcohol consumption, healthy diet, weight loss if needed, lowering cholesterol, controlling diabetes and lowering the blood pressure.

In simple terms, researchers said that having a healthy lifestyle could reverse ED in some men.

Medications are another reason men can suffer from ED. Smoking is a risk factor due to constricting the blood vessels reducing the overall flow of blood.

In the study, researchers studied men from Australia that had ED problems between the ages of 35 and 80.

The study found that 29% of men were able to reverse their problems due to ED by changes in lifestyle, which is a significant number and shows options exist other than just taking prescription medications for ED.

In the investigation, many of the men developed ED that researchers said was a concern.

A couple who were walking along a set of railroad tracks on their way to a dance were hit by a train in California. Mateus Moore died saving Mickayla Friend his girlfriend said authorities. Pedestrians being hit by trains have been on the rise across the U.S.

Moore and Friend were walking to the Sadie Hawkins Dance on Friday in Marysville, California.

Reports have suggested the two were walking in the direction that the train was traveling and did not notice it had been approaching them until the last second.

At that time, Mateus was able to push his girlfriend from the tracks, which saved her life, according to people who witnessed the tragedy while watching a Little League game close by.

Mickayla was transported to a nearby hospital with injuries but was expected to survive. Mateus however was killed at the scene.

Accidents with trains involving pedestrians have dramatically increased over the past year. The fatality rate has also been the highest in over the past 10 years.

A local newspaper has reported that accidents involving pedestrians and trains are a problem that does not have a solution that is easy.

Railroad tracks are listed as private property, which means the victims of the accidents are trespassing and at their own risk. However, operators of trains take little if any measures attempting to mitigate the many risks. Fences are not built to block access by trespassers in some areas that are high traffic, said the report.

A new phenomenon has taken hold as well known as distracted walking. Many pedestrians now lose track of the surroundings they are in as they are busy chatting or texting on their mobile devices.

Reports of distracted walkers being treated for injuries at emergency rooms of hospitals had quadrupled over the last seven years.

An investigation into the accident on Friday is being conducted by the Union Pacific, who is the owners of the tracks where the accident occurred. Thus far, there is no evidence the couple was wearing headphones or was intoxicated.

The railway company said there had been plenty of time for the two to escape unharmed after the train’s horn had blown, but they do not know why they did not.

In the early morning hours of Thursday, two people were killed while two dozen were injured when a driver that was being pursued by the police plowed into a crowd of people that were celebrating in Austin, Texas as the South By Southwest festival.

A police officer from Austin said the suspect drove through a number of temporary barricades that had been set up specifically for the event at Red River and 9th streets. The suspect was fleeing after police attempted to stop the car for a traffic stop.

At that time, the driver fled driving the wrong way on 9th, which is a one-way street, running into the crowd, striking a number of pedestrians and colliding with a taxi and moped. When the suspect’s car stopped, he tried to flee but was tased and put into police custody.

The two people killed were confirmed dead by rescue personnel at the scene. Those injured were transported to nearby hospitals. The incident took place about 12:30 am local time.

One witness said she was at the festival when a car could be seen breaking the barricade and plowing through a number of people attending the festival.

She said people could be seen flying off the hood of the moving car. Blood was everywhere said another witness near people who were lying injured on the ground.

Another witness said he was leaving work just down from the accident minutes after it happened. He raced to the scene and found rescue personnel helping victims as sirens on police cars screeched and a helicopter kept vigil from above.

Many people could be seen crying while they looked over the many people injured. One witness said the festival is for celebration, but in an instance all that changed when the man’s car could be heard and then seen running into and over festivalgoers.

The police officer, who had been pursuing the suspect’s car prior to the tragedy, said he thought the driver might have been intoxicated.

Samuel Sheinbein, a notorious killer from the U.S., was shot and killed inside an Israeli prison during a gun battle with prison guards. Three guards were shot in the blaze of gunfire, with one in critical condition.

Sheinbein, who was 33, was a high school student in 1997 at the age of 17 when he killed a teenager with another friend, used an electric saw to cut the arms and legs off the victim and wrapped the victim’s torso inside trash bags.

Then, while being searched for by U.S. detectives, Sheinbein made his way to Israel. He succeeded in fending off his extradition, but eventually pled guilty in Israel to killing 19-year old Alfredo Tello Jr. He was given a sentence of 24 years in prison.

A rift between the governments of Israel and the U.S. was created when the case first broke, when Israel said it would honor Sheinbein’s refusal to not return to the U.S.

Israel eventually changed and sided with U.S. officials, but the courts in Israel sided with Sheinbein. His case prompted Israel to change the way it handles such matters.

Authorities still do not know what the motives were for Sheinbein to start a firefight or how he was able to have a firearm in his possession. However, around 2 p.m. he started shooting at three guards inside the prison.

Officials at the prison closed off a section of the prison and Sheinbein then isolated himself in a prison cell.

Shortly thereafter counterterrorism officers took over. They attempted to communicate with him, but just 90 minutes following the first shot, he starting firing more.

The counterterrorism unit returned Sheinbein’s fire and killed him.

Prior to Sunday’s shootout, Sheinbein was eligible for furloughs from prison grounds. Just a month ago, while on furlough, he attempted to buy a pistol on the Internet.

When originally convicted in 1999 he was said to be eligible parole in 2013 and officials from the U.S. were attempting to find out if he was going to be paroled.

Sheinbein’s lawyer in Israel said she had spoken to her client only a few days before the shooting and said she had been concerned for his mental health.

A University of Mississippi fraternity was suspended indefinitely on Friday by its own national organization and three members who were all freshmen were kicked out of the frat due to their alleged involvement in an incident that involved hanging a noose on the James Meredith statue.

Meredith was the first black student to enroll and attend the college, which previously was all white.

In a prepared statement, the fraternity, Sigma Phi Epsilon, said it had suspended its Alpha Charter at Ole Miss and the expelled three members whose names will be given to authorities conducting the investigation.

This past week, police found a noose around the neck of the Meredith statue, as well as an older version of a Georgia flag with the battle emblem of the Confederacy in its design. The new Georgia flag does not included the emblem.

In 1962, when Meredith attempted to enroll at Ole Miss, the governor of Mississippi tried to block him. That caused violence on the campus in Oxford.

Robert Kennedy, the then Attorney General sent over 500 U.S. marshals to take over control of the school. Meredith was allowed a few days later to enter the school. Though Meredith faced a great deal of harassment, he earned a political science degree.

On Friday, the FBI said it was planning to expand its vandalism investigations to see if a federal law had been violated.

The Sigma Phi Epsilon CEO Brain Warren Jr. said that the fraternity championed racial diversity and equality since 1959, when at the time it became the first U.S. national fraternity to open its doors to all races, creeds as well as religions to be members.

On Friday the university attempted to question the three students, who are all white, about the vandalism, but attorneys for the three would not permit their clients to be questioned with the university first obtaining arrest warrants. All three men were unidentified.

A spokesperson for the university said the findings by the school had been handed over to the office of the district attorney. The spokesperson said the school would proceed with its own disciplinary action through a panel that is made up of both students and faculty.

Law enforcement authorities are trying to sort out details of a crash in California’s Central Valley that killed two California Highway Patrol officers. The two killed were Brian Law and Juan Gonzalez.

On Monday, investigators spoke of a sequence of different events, but stressed that the investigation was far from over.

At about 6 a.m. Monday morning Law and Gonzalez received calls on their radio about a collision on northbound 99. When the two approached that accident scene headed south, they discovered the accident was actually in the southbound lane on their side and blocking lanes. They also noticed a pedestrian outside one vehicle.

The officers took an evasive action in order to avoiding striking the parties from the accident, lost control of their vehicle, struck a guardrail and crashed severely. The CHP vehicle did not strike any other vehicles before or after hitting the guardrail.

Officials from CHP said both of the officers died instantly.

The commissioner of the CHP Joe Farrow said his officials were trying to determine the reason the officers had crashed.

Farrow said they are still uncertain if the two officers thought the crash had been down the road further, as they came upon the scene they lost control and hit the guardrail and road sign.

Law and Gonzalez were in the highway patrol academy together and ended up as close friends after spending the 27 weeks together in class. After their graduation in 2008, they went to different offices on assignment, but in 2013, they became reunited and worked the graveyard shift in Fresno.

Gonzalez was single but discussing marriage, while Law was married with three children.

Although, the officials are still investigating the accident, detail started to emerge late in the afternoon on Monday.

A reconstruction team at the crash scene was present for most of Monday, with all of the southbound lanes closed for a number of hours.

Officers from CHP will meet with members of the families of the victims. The CHP also announced it would be releasing any new information about the crash and what transpired, as soon as they had it.

A recently completed study suggests that consuming enough vitamin C could help to protect an individual for a stroke.

New research was presented this week that showed the risk of a hemorrhagic stroke – more deadly yet rarer that the ischemic stroke – is less amongst people who consume normal levels of vitamin C, compared to those who have a depleted level of the vitamin.

One of the researchers in the study said the results showed that vitamin C deficiency needed to be considered a risk factor for hemorrhagic stroke, as was high blood pressure, being overweight and drinking alcohol.

The researchers said additional research was needed to determine specifically how the vitamin helps to reduce the risk of stroke.

For this study, the researchers tested the vitamin C levels in blood from 65 people who had suffered a hemorrhagic stroke and the vitamin C levels in the blood of healthy individuals who had not had a stroke.

Amongst all participants, 45% had vitamin C levels that were normal and 45% were suffering from depleted levels of vitamin C. In 14% of the people tested, the level of vitamin C was so low it was considered deficient.

However, the researchers found that those people who had normal levels of vitamin C were the individuals that did not suffer a stroke, while those with depleted vitamin C had suffered a stroke.

Since the findings have not yet been published in a journal that is peer reviewed, they should only be considered as being preliminary. In 2008, a study showed that people that had the highest levels of vitamin C in their blood had a lower risk factor for stroke of 42%, than those people with the lowest levels of vitamin C in their blood.

A study done in 1995 resulted in similar findings. In that study, elderly people that had the lowest levels of vitamin C had the highest risk of dying due to a stroke.

Deficiency of vitamin C can also cause anemia, which is a lowered ability for the body to fight against infections, gingivitis, heal wounds, joint pain, and gingivitis.

Jose Salvador Alvarenga said he lived on raw birds and fish while drifting across the Pacific in a broken down boat.

The man from El Salvador who told officials he had spent 13 months in the Pacific adrift before his boat washed ashore in the Marshall Islands, returned to his homeland of El Salvador, but was too overwhelmed to speak about his experience.

Alvarenga arrived in El Salvador on Tuesday night on an aircraft that flew across the vast ocean he claims he traversed in his 24-foot fishing boat.

The boats engine failed on December 24, 2012 in a storm while he and his companion fished for sharks off the Mexico coast, where he had been living for nearly 15 years.

Without a radio or navigation equipment, the boat was pushed along the currents of the Pacific more than 6,500 miles before reaching the Marshall Islands.

Alvarenga said to survive he caught seabirds, fish and turtle to eat and he drank their blood.

He said his companion a Mexican national named Ezequiel Cordoba was unable to eat the raw animals and fish and subsequently died only a month after the two started drifting.

Authorities have met the story by Alvarenga with awe and some skepticism, but have not been able to find another explanation for how he just turned up on their island.

Journalists mobbed the man at the airport in El Salvador, which is located about 20 miles from the capital of San Salvador. Alvarenga was expected to give a comment to reporters but he was overcome with emotion. Reporters also were at the home of this family in Garita Palmera, which is on the Pacific coast of El Salvador about 60 miles from San Salvador.

Alvarenga originally flew to Hawaii then Los Angeles prior to landing in El Salvador. He appeared exhausted or overcome and was not able to make a comment, while he sat in a wheelchair that was surrounded with officials from Salvador.

Jaime Miranda, the Foreign Minister for El Salvador told the reporters than Alvarenga had been through a great deal in his journey in his drifting boat, but he had finally returned home.

Young females, who smoke, might have a higher risk of a common form of breast cancer, indicated the results of new research just completed.

Researchers have found that females between the ages of 20 and 44, who smoke at least one pack of cigarettes each day for a minimum of 10 years, were 60% more apt than those who smoked fewer cigarettes to develop the so-called breast cancer, estrogen receptor-positive.

Smokers however, were no more apt to develop a type of breast cancer that is less common referred to as triple-negative, which is usually more aggressive.

One of the researchers said that there is more evidence that another health hazard that is associated with smoking is breast cancer.

Research previously found ties between breast cancer and smoking, said researchers. The studies however, amongst breast cancer and younger women have produced results that are conflicting.

The researchers also have said there are questions that remain about whether smoking is tied to a higher risk of certain forms of the cancer and not others.

The team of researchers analyzed data of a group of Greater Seattle, Washington young women who had been diagnosed from 2004 to 2010 with breast cancer.

There were 778 women diagnosed during that period with estrogen receptor-positive breast cancer, which is the more common form. There were 182 diagnosed with the triple-negative form, which is more aggressive and less common.

Another 939 women, who are cancer free, had their information included for comparison reasons.

The National Cancer Institute says that one in eight women in the U.S. will eventually develop some form of breast cancer, but at a younger age, the risk is less.

Only one in 227 women at 30 years of age or less than 0.5% will have breast cancer develop before they are 40 years old.

For this study, the young females who smoked were 30% more apt to develop any type of breast cancer, when compared to females who never had smoked.

Women who had smoked recently or were currently smoking and had been smoking for 15 years or more were 50% more apt to develop the estrogen receptor-positive form of breast cancer. Those who said they had been smoking one pack or more of cigarettes for at least 10 years were 60% more apt to develop that form of cancer.