Presidential candidates say fighting diabetes vital
Filed under: Type 1, Type 2, Opinion, Care, Personalities
The Democratic presidential candidates all know this: whoever gets the nomination has an excellent shot at making it to the White House. First, though, is the long, hard, down and dirty campaign slog in which each candidate has to do the impossible - try and be all things to all people.One thing we can except is that they all devote a little time to addressing diabetes. Specifically, finding a cure for type 1 diabetes and strategies for containing the unprecedented spread of type 2 diabetes. The type 2 "epidemic" (as it is sometimes called) is all the more serious because of the strain it is adding to the US healthcare system, a system already failing to meet the needs of many Americans.
During Monday night's CNN/YouTube debate, the candidates were asked about their plans for the healthcare system. Click here to read what they had to say about health issues. Two of the candidates, Senator Chris Dodd (CT) and Governor Bill Richardson (NM), both mentioned diabetes and their desire to cope with the problem, but they didn't get a chance to go into detail in the context of a televised debate. Such is the world we live in, folks! Visit CNN to read a transcript of the debate.
Meanwhile, Hillary Clinton has joined with other New York lawmakers to push for Congressional funding to fight the spread of type 2 in that state. The requested sum? $120 million. Click here to check out Allie's take on that issue.
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.
Combo surgery may put you at risk
Filed under: Research, Surgery
Published in yesterday's issue of Neurology, the journal of the American Academy of Neurology (typically, this can be found on the shelf next to Maxim and FHM in Border's), researchers have found that combining heart bypass surgery and carotid endarterectomy may increase the chance of death or postoperative stroke.
The study of discharge data from over 650,000 patients who had been admitted into hospitals in the U.S. for coronary bypass artery surgery or carotid endarterectomy from 1993 to 2002. It was discovered that patients who underwent both of these procedures at the same time had a 38 percent greater chance of stroke or death after the operation than did patients who had the coronary artery bypass surgery alone.
Doctors involved in this study now question whether if there is any benefit to performing these two procedures during the same hospitalization. They hope to arrive at an answer with a greater degree of certainty after holding further clinical trials.
[RESEARCH] Pharmacological and lifestyle interventions to prevent or delay type 2 diabetes in people with impaired glucose tolerance: systematic review and meta-analysis
Objective To quantify the effectiveness of pharmacological and lifestyle interventions to prevent or delay type 2 diabetes in people with impaired glucose tolerance.
Data sources Medline, Embase, and the Cochrane library searched up to July 2006. Expert opinions sought and reference lists of identified studies and any relevant published reviews checked.
Study selection Randomised controlled trials that evaluated interventions to delay or prevent type 2 diabetes in individuals with impaired glucose tolerance.
Results 21 trials met the inclusion criteria, of which 17, with 8084 participants with impaired glucose tolerance, reported results in enough detail for inclusion in the meta-analyses. From the meta-analyses the pooled hazard ratios were 0.51 (95% confidence interval 0.44 to 0.60) for lifestyle interventions v standard advice, 0.70 (0.62 to 0.79) for oral diabetes drugs v control, 0.44 (0.28 to 0.69) for orlistat v control, and 0.32 (0.03 to 3.07) for the herbal remedy jiangtang bushen recipe v standard diabetes advice. These correspond to numbers needed to treat for benefit (NNTB) and harm (NNTH) of 6.4 for lifestyle (95% credible interval, NNTB 5.0 to NNTB 8.4), 10.8 for oral diabetes drugs (NNTB 8.1 to NNTB 15.0), 5.4 for orlistat (NNTB 4.1 to NNTB 7.6), and 4.0 for jiangtang bushen (NNTH 16.9 to NNTB 24.8).
Conclusions Lifestyle and pharmacological interventions reduce the rate of progression to type 2 diabetes in people with impaired glucose tolerance. Lifestyle interventions seem to be at least as effective as drug treatment.
Valentine's Day diagnosis didn't slow her down
Filed under: Type 1
Beloit, Wisconsin, resident Vonnie Adams threw a big party recently. The occasion? To celebrate living and thriving despite being diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes fifty years ago. Adams is now seventy-two years old and decided, hey, after living with the disease for all these years she deserved to celebrate. Hence the party, which she planned herself and which was attended on Saturday by a happy crowd of family and friends numbering about 140. Now this is cute: Adams didn't tell invitees what the occasion was on the invitations, only saying it was a 50th anniversary celebration. Upon turning up at the shindig they discovered it was a chance for Adams to celebrate her having triumphed over the difficulties that diabetes have caused her, and also a chance to acknowledge all the people who have assisted her on her journey. Adams is pictured at right holding a framed photo of one of those special helpers: Ken Gold, her doctor of twenty-five years, who was unable to make it to the event. Gold, she says, not only helped her stay in shape over the years but also became one of her best friends. Amazing - we could all use a doctor like that, huh?The diagnosis came on Valentine's Day, 1957, Adams recalled in an interview with the Beloit Daily News. At the time she was a senior in college and twenty-two years of age. Symptoms like thirst and fatigue she put down to the flu. By the time she saw a doctor she was very ill - barely conscious, in fact. But it didn't get her down: "I made up my mind right away that my lifestyle would be greatly altered. Things I did, eating, exercise. I knew right at the get-go that I wasn't going to let it control my life. I was going to control the diabetes, the diabetes wasn't going to control me." Now that's what you call an attitude worth envying. Despite now having lost her sight to diabetes-related complications, Adams retains her incredible positive attitude. To read more, visit the Beloit Daily News.
Time To Head For The Great Outdoors
I’ve just learnt July is Parks and Recreation Month. It made be realize that I’ve got into the habit of doing my aerobic exercise on the treadmill even when the weather is nice. I’m going to make a real effort to go power walking or hiking in the fresh air more.
Getting exercise outdoors in the fresh air, away from noise and traffic has so many benefits. It is relaxing yet stimulating, particularly if there are beautiful views and I find I sleep better after a day out. And of course, it is a chance for me to indulge in my favorite hobby, photography.
Roll on the next nice day.
Isobel Whytock 1Stop-Weightloss.com
More shrewd tactics by food makers
Filed under: Diet, Prevention, Exercise
See? I told you they were tricky!!!
Food manufactures are doing all that they can to get around the whole trans fat ban. This much was explained in greater detail in a post I wrote a few days ago, pointing to serving size trickery and other tactics to appeal to the health conscious consumer.
But, buyer beware; there is something else that you should be on the lookout for when it comes to the type of fat you are consuming. It's called interesterified oil, and it's an unhealthy fat that has sneaked its way into the likes of Peperidge Farm cookies and Little Debbie cakes.
Ineresterified oil have been shown to raise bad cholesterol and lower good cholesterol, while also having a negative effect on blood glucose levels. A recent study at Brandeis University revealed much of this information. As for whether or not ineresterified fats are worse for you than trans fat, that seems to still be unknown. Either way, the stuff isn't exactly healthy, so you would do well to steer clear of any foods that contain it.
[RESEARCH] Correlations among measures of quality in HIV care in the United States: cross sectional study
Objective To determine whether a selected set of indicators can represent a single overall quality construct.
Design Cross sectional study of data abstracted during an evaluation of an initiative to improve quality of care for people with HIV.
Setting 69 sites in 30 states.
Data sources Medical records of 9020 patients.
Main outcome measures Adjusted performance rates at site level for eight measures of quality of care specific to HIV and a site level summary performance score (the number of measures for which the site was in the top quarter of the distribution).
Results Of 28 site level correlations between measures, two were greater than 0.40, two were between 0.30 and 0.39, four were between 0.20 and 0.29, and the 20 remaining were all less than 0.20. One site was in the top quarter for seven measures, but no sites were in the top quarter for six or eight of the measures. Across the eight quality measures, sites were in the top quarter no more often than predicted by a chance (binomial) distribution.
Conclusions The quality suggested by one measured indicator cannot necessarily be generalised to unmeasured indicators, even if this might be expected for clinical or other reasons.
[RESEARCH] Doctors' versus patients' global assessments of treatment effectiveness: empirical survey of diverse treatments in clinical trials
Objective To examine whether doctors’ global assessments of treatment effects agree with patients’ global assessments.
Design Survey of trials included in systematic reviews of treatments for diverse conditions.
Data sources Cochrane database of systematic reviews.
Data extracted Data on patients’ global assessments and on doctors’ global assessment for the same treatment against the same comparator.
Main outcome measures Relative odds ratio (ratio of odds ratios of global improvement with the experimental intervention versus control according to doctors compared with patients), and improvement rates according to doctors and patients.
Results Doctors’ global assessments were compared with patients’ global assessments for 63 different treatment comparisons (240 trials) in 18 conditions. The summary relative odds ratio across the comparisons was not significant (0.98, 95% confidence interval 0.88 to 1.08; I2=0%, 95% confidence interval 0% to 30%). In 62 of the 63 comparisons the effects of treatment rated by patients and by doctors did not differ beyond chance, but for single comparisons the confidence intervals were large. Rates of improvement on average did not differ between doctors’ assessments and patients’ assessments (summary relative odds ratio 0.98, 0.88 to 1.06; I2=0%, 0% to 24%).
Conclusion Doctors’ global assessments of the effects of treatments are on average similar to those of patients.
Do the Crime, Do the Time with the Diet Detective
Filed under: Diet, Prevention, Exercise
We are what we eat. That's what we've always been told, isn't it? For good reason, because it is so very true. Just as important is what we do with that food. Burning it as fuel through exercise is clearly the healthiest option, for this will aid in lowering cholesterol levels, improving circulation, and reducing the risk of heart disease.
When it comes to food, there are usually three or four things that people pay closest attention to on labels: Carbs, Proteins, Fats and Calories. While it's near impossible for non-scientists to determine how proteins, fats, and carbs are being broken down during exercise, there is a way for the rest of us to figure out how much exercise would be required to burn a specific number of calories.
Among the several methods of doing so, I recently came across a website that may be the easiest way of all. It's called the Diet Detective (www.dietdetective.com), and it's a website that is certainly worth looking at. For one, you can find out how long it will take you to burn off the calories of your favorite food. Plus, you can also find out how many calories are burned while performing some of your favorite exercises -- all in great detail in terms of time, effort level, etc. In addition, you can also roughly calculate your BMI and your Body Fat, and also learn your target heart rate.
Here's just a quick thing I put together based on info. on the Diet Detective website:
9 Hershey's Kisses contain 230 calories. This means that you'd have to either run for 24 minutes, or bike for 33 minutes, or walk for 59 minutes, or do Yoga for 129 minutes to burn off the calories consumed from those little chocolate treats. The good news about exercise, though, is that once you are following a regular, consistent program, you will burn a great deal of calories even when you are not working out.
Hope you enjoy the site -- but not for too long. Best I can tell, sitting in front of a computer hardly burns any calories!!!