Note: The contents of this blog are for informational purposes only and should not be construed as medical advice or substitute for professional care. For medical emergencies, dial 911!
Posts with tag heart disease
Posted Aug 15th 2007 9:21PM by Diane Rixon
Filed under: Type 1, Type 2, Research, Complications
It's common knowledge that diabetes and heart disease are linked. If you have diabetes, you are much more prone to heart disease than are your non-diabetic counterparts. I've sometimes wondered: why should that be? And here comes the answer, courtesy of
a recent Netscape health article.
Scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have been examining the issue. Their conclusion? It all comes down to how the body metabolizes fat. The heart cells of diabetics lose a lipid (cardiolipin) designed to provide the heart with energy to function properly. Says Dr. Richard Gross, "Diabetic hearts run mostly on fats for fuel because glucose isn't readily available to them." Problem is, the absence of cardiolipin screws up the heart's cell membranes, both in terms of structure and function.
It's all downhill after the cardiolipin disappears. For one thing, the heart muscle cells begin to be starved of energy. Second, harmful substances form in the cells. Both these factors contribute to heart problems down the road. Observes Dr. Gross, "The pieces of the puzzle of diabetic heart disease are now rapidly falling into place. We hope that these kinds of studies will enable physicians to diagnose diabetic cardiovascular disease sooner and treat it earlier."
Posted Aug 12th 2007 1:57PM by Diane Rixon
Filed under: Type 2, Diet, Opinion, Magazines
Dumb headline spotted in today's
USA Weekend magazine:
"Popcorn can help save your life." Oh, wow. I mean, we all enjoy a clever eye-catching headline, but this is ridiculous! Despite that misleading title, no, the salty snack preferred by movie-goers does not have super-human, life-saving powers. In fact, it's about the nutritional benefits of whole grains. And popcorn is actually a good source of whole grains: three cups popped equals one serving of whole grains.
The article mentions an Iowa Women's Health Study finding that women fifty-five and over who eat lots of whole grains are less likely to die from inflammatory diseases like asthma or infections. Whole grain consumption is also linked to a lower risk of
heart disease, type 2 diabetes and cancer.
Unfortunately, there's a catch. It's safe to assume that smothering your popcorn with salt and that weirdo fake butter probably counteracts the health benefits of eating whole grains in the first place. And I'm willing to bet ninety-nine percent of us popcorn-munchers prefer it flavored, not dry. Which is precisely why "Popcorn can help save your life" is a really dumb headline!
Posted Aug 11th 2007 8:48PM by Diane Rixon
Filed under: Type 2, Lifestyle, Care
Gastric bypass or banding surgery has become known as
an effective measure for treating type 2 diabetes. What has put it in the news, of late, is the fact that
gastric bypass is incredibly successful. Many recipients who've gone under the knife respond not only with extreme weight loss (of course - that's what the surgery is designed to do!), but also a normalization of blood sugar levels. Sometimes the reaction is so positive that patients can stop taking blood sugar controlling meds.
Case in point: Marlene Zytcer (57) and her daughter Aimee (31) of Phoenix, Arizona. Marlene and Aimee recently
both had gastric banding surgery at the University of California, San Diego Medical Center. Prior to the surgery, both mom and daughter were doing poorly health-wise. They were both obese and fighting
heart disease and type 2 diabetes. They say they both have a genetic predisposition to those conditions.
Continue reading Mom and daughter diabetics benefit from gastric surgery
Posted Aug 8th 2007 2:21PM by Diane Rixon
Filed under: Type 2, Diet, Lifestyle, Research, Exercise
Fat. Never a good thing, right? At least not in the US, where food is super-abundant. Instead of being rightly
grateful for all that food, we blame it for our weight woes. Yes, there's a growing sense that food is the enemy. Food leads to weight gain, which leads to obesity, which leads to
heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and on and on. (Read Michael Pollan's
The Omnivore's Dilemma for more on what he terms "our national eating disorder.")
But apparently there's
a silver lining in all that fat. Says journalist Natalie Angier for
The New York Times, "to castigate fat for getting too big and to blame it for high blood pressure or a wheezing heart is like a heavy drinker blaming the liver for turning cirrhotic." That is, if the body couldn't convert energy to fat cells in an efficient manner we'd really be up the proverbial creek. In fact, evolutionary biologists have even speculated that humans' ability to store good-sized quantities of fat has aided the survival of the species and made it possible for our big brains to grow so big and, um, brainy. The fat, you see, helps us through hard times. Food for thought, huh?
Posted Aug 7th 2007 3:45PM by Diane Rixon
Filed under: Type 1, Diet, Lifestyle, Research
I really don't get this, but here goes: according to a report summarized on the website DiabetesHealth,
weight gain reduces the severity of heart disease in type 1 diabetics. Huh? How can that be possible, I'm wondering? After all, we live in a world where weight gain is considered a great evil, a threat to individual health, a drain on our healthcare resources etc. etc. And now
this!?
The findings come from the Pittsburgh Epidemiology of Diabetes Complications Study, which was conducted over a period of sixteen years and involved the participation of 225 type 1 diabetes patients. The Pittsburgh people agree more fat on the bones adds up to one heck of a big risk factor for
heart disease. However, they also say that if you're type 1 and do get heart disease, carrying extra weight makes the heart disease less severe. They also report that this effect is especially true for women. So, the big question: why? The researchers think it's because heavier people may have better insulin control. But don't run for the local Burger Barn; weight gain is not desirable as it does more harm than good in the long run.
Posted Jul 30th 2007 11:56AM by Diane Rixon
Filed under: Type 2, Drugs, Research, Daily News, Complications
Details are emerging from today's advisory committee meeting on Glaxo's Avandia. First up was a presentation by Dr. Robert Ratner of Washington's MedStar Research Institute outlining the unprecedented spread of type 2 diabetes. Ratner emphasized the inadequacy of current drug therapies for diabetes and the strain on the health system caused by the disease. The possible implication: Avandia does more good than harm right now, so let's keep it as an option.
Next, in written preview comments, an official from the US Food and Drug Administration stated his belief that the diabetes drug
should be taken off the market. The official, Dr. David Graham, says the heart risks posed by Avandia mean it's just not worth the risk to patients. Especially, he said, not when there are safer alternatives like Actos (by Takeda), which also stabilizes blood sugar levels.
It's a significant step that someone from the FDA publicly made this statement. But will anything come of it? Maybe not. The decision about whether or not Avandia stays on the market is not up to Dr. Graham, who
The New York Times reports has a history of coming down harder on drug risks than many colleagues. (Give the guy a medal!) Thing is: there appear to be plenty of other officials within the FDA who don't agree with Graham's interpretation.
Posted Jul 29th 2007 2:12PM by Diane Rixon
Filed under: Type 1, Type 2, Diet, Lifestyle, Research
I was intrigued by
a recent Swedish study reporting that people on a so-called "Stone Age" diet had more stable blood sugar levels than those on a Mediterranean diet. An intriguing claim, because it's so often said that Mediterranean-style eating is super-healthful. Let's also admit it is a delicious way to eat: yes, pasta and bread is there, but it's balanced out by tons of fresh fruits, vegetables, fish and olive oil. The Stone Age way is a bit more spare: we're talkin' meat, fish, and lots of whole grains, berries and nuts. Nary a sliver of Parmesan in sight.
However, the results of yet another study, this time from Australia, indicates
Mediterranean-style eating is a good choice, especially for diabetics. Researchers from the University of Melbourne say Mediterranean-born immigrants in Australia are less likely to die from
heart disease than other Australians. The researchers have concluded it's all down to dietary patterns. More than forty thousand people participated in the study over a period of ten years. The numbers revealed those who ate the most Mediterranean-style foods had a thirty percent lower risk of dying from heart disease. For diabetics, the researchers speculate, the benefits could be even higher, reducing the risk of death due to ischemic heart disease.
Results have been published in
The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
Visit Reuters for a discussion of the study.
Posted Jul 29th 2007 10:21AM by Diane Rixon
Filed under: Type 1, Childhood, Lifestyle, Research, Exercise, Complications
A
new report says physical activity is critical for kids with type 1 diabetes because it helps prevent
heart trouble later in life. The German and Austrian researchers behind the study reached this conclusion after crunching the numbers for more than 23,000 kids between ages three and eighteen, comparing their health with activity levels. As you would expect, the most active kids had the healthiest hearts and lower levels of
cholesterol and
triglycerides. By comparison, thirty-six percent of children who were active only once or twice a week had high cholesterol and triglycerides.
For type 1 kids, activity levels relate to HbA1c levels: fit children had lower HbA1c levels. High HbA1c levels in childhood practically guarantee your child will experience heart problems down the road. Says lead researcher Antje Herbst: "Clearly, getting off the couch and out of doors, where they can be more physically active, is good for all kids. But for children with type 1 diabetes, the need to stay physically active is even greater due to the increased risk for heart disease."
Parents: you don't have to sign your little ones up for triathlon training, boot camp or anything like that. Vigorous
exercise is not necessary to reap the benefits. Regular periods of normal play are adequate. Even half an hour a day can make a difference, the researchers say. Common sense, however, suggests this is a case where more is definitely better.
The results of this study appear in the latest
Diabetes Care (August 2007).
Posted Jul 19th 2007 7:47AM by Diane Rixon
Filed under: Type 2, Lifestyle, Research, Daily News
Did you hear about renowned Harvard scientist Barbara Kahn's latest published research?
I blogged about it recently. Kahn and colleagues state, in a report published in
Cell Metabolism (July 2007), that it's possible to use a simple blood test to detect the presence of a specific protein called RBP4. Kahn et al say the presence of RBP4 can be used to measure accumulations of deep belly fat. Underpinning this research is a belief that such accumulations of belly fat increase risk for metabolic syndrome, leading to various maladies including heart disease and diabetes.
However, not everyone accepts this point of view. A Yale research team says that
deep belly fat may not be so evil after all. The researchers, who are based at Yale University School of Medicine in Chevy Chase, Maryland, assert that metabolic syndrome is caused not by belly fat but by insulin resistance in skeletal muscle. This resistance, they state, makes it tough for the body to manufacture glycogen, so - in people who are insulin resistant - energy that cannot be stored as glycogen gets diverted into fatty acid production, which then contributes to metabolic syndrome.
The team compared abdominal fat levels in young and healthy individuals, some of whom were insulin sensitive and some of whom were insulin resistant. The result? "There is absolutely no difference in the volume of abdominal fat," states Yale's Gerald I. Shulman, who was lead author of the study. Abdominal fat, says Dr. Shulman, "may come later in the course of the disease [metabolic syndrome], but it's not a primary, underlying factor."
Posted Jul 16th 2007 4:16PM by Diane Rixon
Filed under: Type 2, Diet, Lifestyle, Exercise, Daily News
Driving trucks for a living has never been considered the healthiest of lifestyles. There's the risk of traffic accidents, which already puts truck driving high up on the list of most dangerous jobs in the country. In fact, the profession accounts for nearly fifteen percent of work-related deaths in the US. Then consider all the other lifestyle-related dangers associated with trucking. The greasy food offerings at truck stops?
Not so healthy! (I remember one time driving cross-country in a moving truck we stopped at one of those places. The only food item I trusted not to give me food poisoning was an ice cream sandwich. Mmm. Nutritious. But I digress...)
According to
a new survey of truckers, that lifestyle of long hours sitting on your tushie is catching up with the nation's big rig drivers.
Obesity is rampant and so are obesity-related health problems like
heart disease and Type 2 diabetes. Oh, then there's sleep apnea,
smoking, and the fact that many drivers admit they don't bother with seatbelts.
The up-side of all this: reading about it makes me feel like a health-nut in comparison! Seriously though, it seems change could be forced onto unhealthy truck drivers: there's talk that the
Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration might introduce stricter health regulations for professional drivers, and any such regulations would likely include diabetes-related guidelines. Trucking companies are also concerned, says a spokeswoman for the
American Trucking Association, due to soaring healthcare and worker compensation costs.
Click here to read more, including some of the voluntary measures already introduced by employers. Bottled green tea, anyone?
Posted Jul 14th 2007 11:29PM by Diane Rixon
Filed under: Type 2, Diet, Lifestyle, Research, Exercise, Daily News
French researchers say a slender waistline can pay big dividends for your health. Specifically, weight loss that whittles the waist lowers the risk of
metabolic syndrome, which in turn decreases your chances of developing Type 2 diabetes, not to mention
heart disease.
Even if you are otherwise healthy with a normal body mass index, having a wider-than-average waist automatically puts you at higher risk for metabolic syndrome. So says Beverley Balkau, the study's lead author, in
an interview with Reuters. Balkau and her colleagues found that men and women whose waistlines grew by three or more inches over a period of nine years experienced a measurably greater risk for metabolic syndrome.
The good news is that losing just a little weight can help a lot. Women who lost even an inch or more around the waist during the study period ended up with a reduced risk for metabolic syndrome, unlike those whose waist measurements stayed the same. In addition, many women who began the study already diagnosed with metabolic syndrome but who managed to lose an inch or more from their waists during its course ended up free of symptoms.
The
study has been published in Diabetes Care (July 2007).
Posted Jul 13th 2007 1:02PM by Diane Rixon
Filed under: Type 2, Drugs, Research
A major study of patients with
rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is just out. It found that those treated with
hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) - brand name: Plaquenil - an antimalarial drug also prescribed for RA, are much less likely to develop Type 2 diabetes. The study was conducted over a period of more than twenty years and analyzed the treatment of 4,905 adult patients with RA. Bottom line: relative risk for T2 diabetes declined by up to
seventy-seven percent in patients who took HCQ for four years. Wow.
But that's not all. The researchers also say the RA patient who did develop diabetes were less likely to need medications for blood sugar control. Moreover, according to Mary Chester M. Wasko, a rheumatologist and professor of medicine at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, the greatest potential application could come in using HCQ as a preventive for people with pre-diabetic symptoms, "much in the same way as a daily baby aspirin is suggested for people at high risk for
heart disease."
This is significant because having RA is a condition that usually leads to reduced
activity levels and also to weight gain (as a consequence of taking corticosteroids), and these two factors put them at risk for Type 2 diabetes. So this is good news indeed.
The study was directed by scientists at Stanford University, however, researchers from multiple institutions were involved. Funding was provided by the National Institutes of Health. The report has been published in the latest issue of the
Journal of the American Medical Association.
Click here or
here to read more.
Posted Jul 2nd 2007 9:03AM by Diane Rixon
Filed under: Type 1, Drugs, Research
Seems a dose of
Vitamin C (ascorbic acid) is good for more than just fighting off coughs and colds. According to
a report from the BBC, a new study has found that -
in theory, at least - Vitamin C could reduce diabetes-related health complications. Vitamin C, said the University of Warwick-based researchers, was almost as effective as
Telmisartan, a medication used to lower blood pressure.
Vitamin C packs a punch, they said, because it helps to clean up ("scavenge," in the words of lead researcher Antonio Ceriello) free radicals - molecules that cause tissue damage. This is of particular concern for diabetics because diabetics' bodies produce more free radicals than those of non-diabetics. This is why diabetics are especially likely to suffer from
heart disease. It is also why diabetics are prone to tissue and nerve damage in the feet and legs - damage that all-too-often necessitates
amputation.
The researchers also reported they were able to normalize free radical levels in patients with Type 1 diabetes using a course of insulin therapy followed by long-term treatment with Vitamin C or Telmisartan. And there's the rub: while Telmisartan is considered okay to take long-term, Vitamin C supplementation could in fact be dangerous if continued over time. Actually, the purpose of this study was
not to look into treating diabetics with Vitamin C, but rather to investigate the workings of free radicals and methods for controlling free radical production. Sorry, folks. Things are never that easy.
Posted Jun 26th 2007 8:07AM by Diane Rixon
Filed under: Type 2, Diet, Daily News
Say you're in the snack food business. Your products are popular amongst kids and adults alike. You rely on an arsenal of creative marketing to keep the money rolling in. Also, although your snack products are - when you get down to basics -
really just reconstituted corn and its byproducts, they involve some pretty high-tech manufacturing techniques. So when the profitability of those products is threatened, you'd fight like the Dickens to protect yourself, wouldn't you?
That's exactly what's going on now, as manufacturers like Coca-Cola, Hershey, Kraft, Kellogg and Frito-Lay tweak their product lineup a little.
Juuust enough, mind you, to meet criticism that they are contributing to the so-called obesity epidemic - and it's terrible health complications including
heart disease and Type 2 diabetes - through peddling their fat and sugar-saturated products. As
this AP article details, the snack food industry changes represent an attempt to, firstly, capitalize on the growing consumer demand for "healthy" food choices and, second, to undermine their critics (including those in government) who accuse them of direct responsibility for the health crisis.
From Kellogg to McDonald's, big business execs are scrambling to protect their companies: their brand image, their profitability, their investments and, yes, their employees. No, this is not really about the health of the nation or anything lofty like that. It's about cynically protecting the bottom line. Yet, strangely, I feel no sense of outrage about this. Can you blame them for giving just a little instead of a lot? What's more, while fatty snacks may be contributing to an overall decline in public health, I'd argue it's a step too far to compare the manufacturers to, say, the tobacco industry. After all, Fritos may be a nutritionist's nightmare but there's no addiction factor here to muddy the ethical waters. Nevertheless, given what happened to Big Tobacco, the snack food industry is taking no chances.
Posted Jun 19th 2007 3:22PM by Diane Rixon
Filed under: Type 2, Diet, Lifestyle, Research, Daily News
There's good news to be had in the world of diabetes, says researcher Dr. Deborah Burnet from the University of Chicago: fewer diabetic men are dying of heart disease than was the case three decades ago. The bad news is that the disease is killing more and more female diabetics. Specifically? Women with diabetes are
four times more likely to suffer fatal heart attacks than are non-diabetics. This can be contrasted with diabetic men, who have double the risk.
Check out
a new report published in today's Chicago Tribune for details on this disturbing trend. According to the
Trib, there are multiple causes at work here, including the fact that women are getting heavier and more sedentary, making them more prone to both Type 2 diabetes and heart disease, while at the same time older women are making up a greater percentage of the overall population. Dr. Larry Deeb, president of the
American Diabetes Association, says that the persistent perception of heart disease as a condition that affects men also continues to be harmful. For one thing, the perception may make women slower to seek treatment for heart problems. Once diagnosed with heart disease, says Dr. Deeb, women may also receive less intensive treatment than their male counterparts.
Worth repeating here are Dr. Deeb's awesome words of advice for women with diabetes: the onus is on
you. "Don't accept that your blood sugar is 10 or 15 percent too high. Don't accept that your blood pressure is almost controlled. Don't accept that your cholesterol is almost low enough. You want your numbers to be as good as they can get." Wise words, doctor. And yet...women afflicted with the double whammy of diabetes and heart disease can't do it all alone. Social services, public education and attentive medical care are going to be critically important if we're going to reduce these horrible mortality rates.
Next Page >
