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Being Overweight may not be as Harmful to Your Health as Previously Thought

Obesity has long been associated with heart disease and scores of other health maladies. However, a study is beginning to challenge this idea. A researcher has discovered that people of normal weight who develop type 2 diabetes are in fact twice as more likely to die from the disease than diabetics who are overweight.

The study was done by Mercedes Carnethon who does research for diabetes at Feinberg School of Medicine. Her discovery is being called the obesity paradox. In further twists, multiple studies have shown that those who develop chronic diseases who are also overweight or obese tend to live longer than those who are within their recommended weight range. Separate studies have shown similar results for patients with dialysis and coronary disease; those who were overweight fared better and had an overall lower mortality rate than their normal weight counterparts.

Researchers are scrambling to find an explanation. One theory is that once a disease develops, the body will begin to use more energy and calorie reserves, which overweight people have more of stored in their body. Once those reserves are expended, the person will become malnourished.

Other researchers suspect genetics as the culprit. It is believed that thin people who develop health problems have gene variants that make them more vulnerable to the harmful effects of the illness.

Another study in 2005 showed that those who face the biggest risk of premature death were from the extreme ends of the weight spectrum: those who were either extremely obese or underweight. Those in the overweight category, however, had the lowest mortality rate of all, while those in the moderately obese category were no more at risk than those in the normal weight category.

The findings are truly puzzling and may completely change the way we think about weight and its association with disease and early death. Perhaps having those love handles may not be as bad after all.

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Eating too quickly can Increase Risk of Diabetes

Eating too quickly can Increase Risk of Diabetes

In a day and age when most people are strapped for time, they tend to do everything with a sense of hurry. More people are beginning to eat while on the go. This means eating quickly without taking the time to enjoy the food. When people eat on the move, they tend to gobble the food down and swallow it without chewing it thoroughly. A new study is now showing that eating too quickly can increase the risk for diabetes.

Eating too quickly can Increase Risk of DiabetesThe research was conducted in Lithuania and presented at the International Congress of Endocrinology in Florence, Italy. The study compared 234 people with type 2 diabetes and 468 individuals without the condition. It was discovered that those who quickly shove food down their throats were more than twice as likely to have diabetes as those who chew their food longer.

The study also showed that the participants with diabetes were more likely to have a higher body mass index.

The head of the study, Lina Radzeviciene, said that diabetes is due to a combination of genetic and environmental factors. She also added that modified risk factors must be identified to help cut down the chances of developing the disease for those at risk.

It is also important to add that while an association was found between diabetes and eating in haste, this does not equate to a cause and effect relationship.

Previous studies published in the Journal of American Dietetic Association also suggested a link between diabetes and speed eating.

Humans have teeth for a reason. Every spoonful of food you put in your mouth should be grinded and chewed until it is mush. Food that has not been broken down into smaller bits can place unnecessary burden on your digestive tracks. Taking your time while eating will also make your meals more enjoyable.

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Processed Meat Found to Increase Risk of Diabetes in Native Americans

A recent study is showing results that may not be all that surprising, but should be a good reminder for most people about some basic food facts, as it researched the effects of canned processed meat like SPAM on Native Americans, along with the increased risk of developing diabetes. The results were indicative of things we already suspected, but that became even clearer on this specific test group.

It’s long been suspected that eating a large quantity of processed meat, canned foo products like the brand SPAM, was not good for your health. In the case of Native American, this is a particular concern because of how remote some of them are. These canned products have a good shelf life, and as such make perfect options for those without a grocery store nearby. Also, they are cheap, subsidized by government programs, hence get consumed a lot by this particular group. The study was conducted over a period of 5 years on a group of 300 Native Americans to see whether consumption of canned meat, usually pork or beef, would affect the rate of diabetes in the study group. The results showed that the risks increased by 19% when compared with those who ate little or none of this product. The large difference between processed meat and unprocessed meat is the quantity of sodium used, to allow for longer preservation. This is also found in abundance in brands like SPAM.

The study was conducted on this particular group since Native Americans traditionally have a higher chance of getting diabetes than other races. Half the population are affected by age 55. According to the researchers, the sodium that’s overly present in processed meat is responsible for these results. This would make sense, since other studies found sodium at the source of many cardio vascular diseases. While the effect is more pronounced on Native Americans, it would still apply on everyone else as well. Meanwhile, the American Meat Institute disputes this claim saying that the results are too quick, and that more studies should be done. While the researchers did use enough of a sample, and the conclusions are based on science, it may be too early to draw a parallel to all processed meat.

Overall, one thing is clear is that sodium is still nasty for our health, and it;as important to keep this substance to a minimum. Whether that means processed pork and beef should be avoided is another story, but if you don’t want to take any chance, then perhaps it’s time not to eat SPAM at every opportunity, at least as long as there are alternatives. Eating fresh fruits and vegetables, for example, is always a good idea.

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The State of Greek Healthcare: Pecuniary or Moral?

To Vima, one of the most popular newspapers in Greece reported that the country’s largest government health insurance provider would no longer be paying for special footwear worn by diabetes patients.

The Reason?

According to the Benefits Division – the state insurance provider, amputation is cheaper.

In a letter to the Pan-Hellenic Federation of People with Diabetes, the strange new policy was announced.

The Federation engaged in a heated discussion about the science behind the decision of the Benefits Division. They argued that the decision is diverging from the facts written in the international scientific literature.

Greece’s National Healthcare System was fashioned in the early 1980s – that was during the tenure of Prime Minister Andreas Papandreou. An academic, Papandreou won election under a slogan that is the Greek word for Change.

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The Aspirin Question

Once they told you to take a daily aspirin for your heart, today you may want to reconsider.

Americans bought more than 44 million packages of low-dose aspirin marketed for heart protection in the year ending in September. The sales were up about 12% from 2005.

Well now, public-health officials are scaling back official recommendations for the painkiller to target patients at risk of a heart attack or stroke. The concern is that aspirin’s side effects, which may include bleeding ulcers, could outweigh the potential benefits when taken by healthy or old people.

Doctors generally agree that most patients who have already suffered a heart attack or stroke, the type caused by a clot or obstruction blocking an artery to the brain, should take regular low-dose aspirin. But for people without heart disease, the latest guidelines from the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force spell out much more clearly than before when exactly aspirin should be administered.

The guidelines, announced last year, suggest aspirin for certain men 45 to 79 years old with elevated heart-disease risk because of things like cholesterol levels and smoking. For women, the guidelines don’t focus on heart risk. The task force recommends certain women should take aspirin regularly if they are 55 to 79 and in danger of having an ischemic stroke, for reasons that could include high blood pressure and diabetes.

The panel wants doctors to factor in conditions that could increase a patient’s risk of bleeding from aspirin, which tends to rise with age. The group did not designate a dose, but suggested that an appropriate amount might be 75 milligrams a day, which is close to the 81mg contained in low-dose, or “baby,” aspirin. The task force however did not take a position on aspirin for people who are 80 and older because of a lack of data in this age group.

Aspirin acts as a blood thinner, believed to account for much of its benefit of protecting against heart attacks and strokes. But this action, along with a tendency to deplete the stomach’s protective lining, can lead to a danger of gastrointestinal bleeding and possibly bleeding in the brain.

Not all patients used to taking aspirin though, will want to stop. Maxine Fischer, 55 years old, recently figured out that under the new U.S. guidelines, she would not be encouraged to continue on with the drug. Using an online calculator, which factored such data as her age, blood pressure and medical history, she learned she had a 1% likelihood of a stroke in the coming 10 years. Under these guidelines, only women in her age group with at least a 3% or higher stroke risk should be taking aspirin.

Ms. Fischer, a manager for seniors’ lobby AARP in San Diego, has taken aspirin daily for two years after reading it could reduce the risk of stroke. For the moment, she says she’ll continue, partly because she’s more worried about strokes than ulcers. Strokes are

“the big scary thing.”

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PreCrea All Natural Blood Sugar Levels Reduction

PreCreaLocated in our pancreas are cell clusters called the Islets of Langerhans. About 60% of these cells, called Beta Cells, are designed to transform sugar into glycogen, which is basically a chain of sugars that your body can store away out of the blood and into the liver for energy reserves. The Beta Cells do this by secreting a hormone we know as insulin. If these cells start malfunctioning and can’t produce enough, then sugar stays in the blood and can’t be stored. Then the sugar starts damaging the organs and causes a whole slough of problems. The disease is called diabetes.

Nobody knows all the reasons why Beta Cells sometimes just conk out on us, but we do know that genetics coupled with overtaxing the cells has a lot to do with it. Meaning, a high sugar diet with little exercise can make your cells burn out. Luckily, there are warning signs before this happens. First, they start getting tired and produce less insulin. This condition is known as Pre-diabetes. If diagnosed early, steps can be taken to reenergize the cells and prevent full blown diabates from setting in.

PreCrea, a new herbal supplement, is one of these steps. It’s a twice-daily botanical cocktail designed to treat pre-diabates from three directions. First, one of its active ingredients, pterocarpus marsupium, actually helps protect and regenerate Beta Cells so the can produce more insulin. Second, cinnamon, another PreCrea herb, contains a chemical that functions as a copy of insulin. Third, Bitter Melon and Gurmar help prevent the absorption of sugars from the small intestine, so there’s actually less sugar for your Beta Cells to deal with, lightening their load.

And of course, if there’s less sugar in your body, you lose weight, which is another effect of PreCrea. As of now, it can be ordered by mail from their website. It has no known side effects as all ingredients are natural. So even if you don’t have pre-diabetes, nothing bad will happen to you. But you still might want to get diagnosed first.

THE ABOVE WAS A PAID REVIEW