Highway pollution is taking years off your life
Filed under: Prevention, Research, Women Heart Health, Men Heart Health
There's a form of highway robbery that's going on every day and it's affecting you -- the thief is pollution and it's stealing years off your life. Ok, so that comparison was a bit cheesy but hear me out: A new study is showing that people who are exposed to noise and pollution from highways are less healthy than those who are far from the hustle and bustle. What's more, their lifespans are quite a bit shorter and they're at a significantly higher risk of developing heart disease. The study found that where you live is important too -- those who has houses near highways were at an exceptionally high risk. As I look out onto the busy intersection next to my house, the one that leads to the major freeway junction, all I can think is .... yikes!
Your waist and your heart: Connected for life!
Filed under: Prevention, Obesity, Exercise
Losing weight will do good things for your heart, but losing weight and inches from your waist specifically will do great things for your heart. French scientists recently did a study where they looked at individuals over a period of nine years, and those whose waists increased in size (by as little as 3 inches) over that time were at much greater risk for heart disease and diabetes than those whose waists stayed the same. And the people that lost waist size (as little as an inch) over the nine years had the lowest risk of everybody.There's a lot more to this study, and I recommend reading the full article for the details. But it just goes to show once again that every little bit helps!
Why don't insurance companies insure diabetic kids?
Filed under: Type 1, Childhood, Opinion, Products, Allie Beatty, Support, Personalities, Form and Function
Ed Hinerman, a life insurance specialist with the Hinerman Group, was posed an interesting challenge recently. For years he has successfully found affordable life insurance for many adults with type 1 diabetes, but he had never been asked about life insurance for children with Type 1 diabetes until now.
After speaking with underwriters in the top 40 or so companies, he found a discernible lack of interest due to lack of data. Companies would say that they couldn't consider someone with type 1 diabetes until they were either age 15 or age 20. A peer in the industry told Ed the knee jerk reaction was because insurance companies haven't done mortality studies on children. They simply don't have any data upon which to base the pricing for products. Uh oh!! That coupled with the fact that there really isn't any financial incentive for them to study and create products for a relatively small market that would produce relatively low premium, kind of sets the tone. Well, now the war has been defined and the battles are becoming clearer.
When Ed contacted the ADA for assistance in this matter - hold your breath (it's a shocker!) - they turned a cold shoulder on a diabetic's need. What if the diabetic's parents were doing what so many families do - and trying to buy a whole life policy to help pay for their kids college someday? It's really not fair! Here's where fair begins -- Ed asked me to gather some facts it will take to get the insurance companies attention. Does anybody have any idea of the mortality rate of children after being diagnosed with type 1 diabetes?
Bottom line. Life insurance companies make big money and for them to cut and run from children just because it might not make them more big bucks, or because they really haven't done their homework and aren't interested in doing it, isn't acceptable. Game on! I hope we can make a good showing, at the very least - hit one out of the park for the fans. Thanks for inviting me to play, Ed!
The true gifts in life come in the form of advice
Filed under: Type 1, Type 2, Childhood, Adult Onset, Opinion, Allie Beatty, Support, Personalities
My recent blog on interlopers offering advice about controlling diabetes upset a good friend of mine. He asked a question that gave me one of those What if...dream sequences. The reality check warrants a new blog.
He asked -- what if an interloper talked your doctor into reconsidering the use of natural animal insulins because they read the research and figured out that it was the better choice? Would you still think interlopers have no value in diabetes control?
Touch?- you sunk my battleship. I had to confer with a fellow diabetes OC blogger to get the he said / she said feedback. She made a very good point, too. In her words, there is a special group of non-diabetics who have an acute understanding of the disease, and who may have a somewhat intuitive understanding of how it works, but most of the time there is a silent acknowledgement that their opinion can at any given time be dismissed in favor of the diabetics'. Words of wisdom typed from the sorceress of Lemonade Life.
Today's lesson for Allie: listen without prejudice. Learn from all who are willing to share their experiences. Prosperity in life comes from the gifts we share with each other. My friends have shared valuable insight to teach me how to gain from every experience in life. I now see that the advice others have to share is the gift we have yet to receive. Denying the gift before we ever receive it is ungrateful. Graciously humbled - Allie B
Asprin may be life saver for cancer patients experiencing heart attack
Filed under: Research, Daily news
According to the WHO (the World Health Organization, not the band), there are roughly 10 million cancer patients 
worldwide, of which 1.5 million may develop blood clots during their cancer treatment. As such, these individuals face great risk of dying from heart disease if they do not receive proper treatment, which, as doctors may have now discovered, includes taking aspirin to prevent heart attack.
The prevailing thought on aspirin was that because it is a blood thinner, it is not safe for people with cancer to take. Because people battling cancer typically experience low platelet counts and abnormal clotting, it was believed that aspirin would only serve to worsen these pre-existing problems. But, a recent study held by a joint team of researchers from the department of cardiology at the M.D. Anderson Center, Baylor College of Medicine, and Duke University Medical Center discovered that this may, in fact, not be true at all.
The findings of their study, which will be published in the February 1, 2007 issue of the journal Cancer, center on evidence suggesting the beneficial properties of aspirin for cancer patients experiencing heart attack. They found that 9 out of 10 cancer patients with low platelet count, and who were suffering form heart attack and who did not receive aspirin, died. By contrast, they also found that in a group of 17 similar cancer patients who did receive aspirin, only one patient died. Additionally, it was also discovered that even cancer patients who do not have low platelet counts who experience heart attack can be helped by taking aspirin, in the same manner that it helps people without cancer.
Further and more detailed information on the study will be available in the February issue of the journal Cancer.
Getting healthy in middle age is ok too
Filed under: Prevention, Aging Heart Health
What's your excuse for not making those much-needed healthy changes to your life? No time? No energy? Think you're too old and it won't make a difference? If you're nodding your head to that last one, stop slacking off. New research shows that people who start their healthy habits in middle age really benefit from making the changes, lowering their chance of heart disease by a whopping 40%.But if you're in your 20s, this doesn't mean you have the go-ahead to become a full-time couch potato. The mistakes you make today can pay off later in life, but at least those in their 40s and 50s know they still have a chance to improve their health.
Less insulin longer life
Filed under: Type 1, Type 2, Childhood, Adult Onset, Diet, Research
Howard Hughs Medical Experts have discovered the key to a longer life is lower insulin levels. Less insulin helps cells fend off diseases that lead to early death like heart disease, cancer and diabetes. So how does one lower their insulin levels? Caloric restriction by way of eating less carbohydrates.
Caloric restriction postpones the onset of life-threatening conditions like cancer, diabetes, and heart disease. It may still happen, but at a later age. Scientists manipulated genes in mice to produce 50% less insulin and saw the mice live 18% longer. While lowering insulin throughout the body can lead to a diabetic state, scientists found that allowing insulin levels to be high throughout most of the body, and lowering the insulin signaling only in the brain through genetic manipulation, extended the life of mice.
Although the mice were overweight, they lived longer and seemed active and youthful. Scientists believe that this research explains why some people who live past 100 may have a natural genetic tendency for lower insulin signaling in the brain. They eat a normal amount of calories and may even be a bit overweight, but still enjoy the benefit of life extension. This begs the question: if all diabetes oral meds multiply the effect of insulin -- doesn't this increase the chances of heart disease and cancer? New Rule: Black box warning on ALL prescription diabetes drugs!!
Why parents will live longer than their kids
Filed under: Obesity
With the advent of new technology and medical advances, the life expectancy of humans has been inching upwards for thousands of years. Dying at 40 went out with the middle ages -- we're healthier than ever before. Wait, scratch that. We're not healthier than ever before. And life expectancy? It might start going backwards. No, it's not because the plague has come back. We're going backwards healthwise and it's all our own fault. It's because we're obese.
A report shows that, in Canada at least, kids won't live as long as their parents did, and this is because one quarter of the children aged 2 to 17 are obese or overweight. That's one in 4 kids. That's a frightening statistic. Heart problems, diabetes, cancer -- each of these kids is at a much greater risk of developing these problems. So how is it that as we get smarter, we go backwards at the same time? Who's to blame?
[RESEARCH] Cost effectiveness of self monitoring of blood glucose in patients with non-insulin treated type 2 diabetes: economic evaluation of data from the DiGEM trial
Objective To assess the cost effectiveness of self monitoring of blood glucose alone or with additional training in incorporating the results into self care, in addition to standardised usual care for patients with non-insulin treated type 2 diabetes.
Design Incremental cost utility analysis from a healthcare perspective. Data on resource use from the randomised controlled diabetes glycaemic education and monitoring (DiGEM) trial covered 12 months before baseline and 12 months of trial follow-up. Quality of life was measured at baseline and 12 months using the EuroQol EQ-5D questionnaire.
Setting Primary care in the United Kingdom.
Participants 453 patients with non-insulin treated type 2 diabetes.
Interventions Standardised usual care (control) compared with additional self monitoring of blood glucose alone (less intensive self monitoring) or with training in self interpretation of the results (more intensive self monitoring).
Main outcome measures Quality adjusted life years and healthcare costs (sterling in 2005-6 prices).
Results The average costs of intervention were £89 (113; $179) for standardised usual care, £181 for less intensive self monitoring, and £173 for more intensive self monitoring, showing an additional cost per patient of £92 (95% confidence interval £80 to £103) in the less intensive group and £84 (£73 to £96) in the more intensive group. No other significant cost difference was detected between the groups. An initial negative impact of self monitoring on quality of life occurred, averaging –0.027 (95% confidence interval–0.069 to 0.015) for the less intensive self monitoring group and –0.075 (–0.119 to –0.031) for the more intensive group.
Conclusions Self monitoring of blood glucose with or without additional training in incorporating the results into self care was associated with higher costs and lower quality of life in patients with non-insulin treated type 2 diabetes. In light of this, and no clinically significant differences in other outcomes, self monitoring of blood glucose is unlikely to be cost effective in addition to standardised usual care.
Trial registration Current Controlled Trials ISRCTN47464659.
Five Reasons NOT To Lose Weight
Enough of the diet gurus, the nutritionists, and the weight loss experts, let’s enjoy ourselves for a while. The diabetes and clogged arteries will overtake us all too quickly. For today, let’s feast freely at the banquet of life.