An Outlook Towards the Natural Erectile Dysfunction Remedies
Submitted By: Blain Joseph
Erectile dysfunction is a devastating condition that affects the sex life of a male rendering him impotent. Even the thought of erectile dysfunction in males is horrible and no male can afford to face it. It fills the life of a male with incompetence. This is a situation where his manhood is challenged. It is more common in the elderly age group, above 50 years, but there is no guarantee that it would not affect males of younger age group. The sedentary lifestyle of the individuals makes them susceptible to several diseases, including erectile dysfunction compromising the circulatory system.
In order to fight against the strongest erectile dysfunction, the impotent male has to be aware of all the available erectile dysfunction remedies. A man’s cleverness lies in fighting with the erectile dysfunction wisely. He should try the conservative treatment options initially rather than jumping directly into surgical interventions.
There are enormous natural erectile dysfunction remedies available for the impotent males. This gains popularity with regards to the fact that they are free from the potential side effects of drugs, which are common in allopathic oral drugs. Many a times, these drugs may be contraindicated for a particular group of patients imposing danger to their lives. Furthermore, to cooperate with this limitation criterion, natural erectile dysfunction remedies come forward to spread awareness on their numerous benefits.
Coming to the list of natural remedies, the one that is most popular among impotent males is L- Arginine, an amino acid utilized by the body for making nitric oxide. The main action of this substance is to relax the smooth muscles around the penile region thereby allowing increased blood flow to get a powerful erection. The most curious question that may arise in the mind of an impotent male will be on how to obtain the merits of this substance.
It is not that tough for non-veggies. L-arginine is naturally available in poultry, fish, meat and dairy products. For those, who do not find consuming non vegetarian foods, there is a better option available in the form of oral supplements. It is sometimes addressed as natural Viagra by certain pharmaceutical manufacturers. However, men on L-arginine may sometimes complain of indigestion and is contraindicated in impotent males with stomach ulcers.
People taking antidepressants may sometimes experience erectile dysfunction as a possible side effect. For such individuals, “Gingko “can prove to be of great help. Their mechanism of action is similar to that of L-arginine allowing the smooth muscles around the penis to relax thereby increasing blood flow to the penis for maintaining a sustained erection.
The significant zinc depletion from the body as a result of diabetes, liver diseases, kidney disorders, long term use of diuretics etc. may progress rapidly to erectile dysfunction. Hence, zinc supplement intake still remains as one of the natural erectile dysfunction remedies available until today.
The Winthania somnifera avails the impotent male stamina, energy and better sexual functions. Moreover, the person may experience drowsiness as a common aftereffect of the drug. Furthermore, it may interact very badly with sedatives and hence caution should be taken not to use them together.
Another natural remedy not recommended is the “Yohimbe” derived from the yohimbe tree bark of western Africa. Just like the others, this also increases the libido, enhances blood supply to the penile region and also decreases the time between successive ejaculations. This possesses serious harmful effects, including anxiety, dizziness, a sudden drastic drop in blood pressure, fatigue, abdominal pain etc. This can even make a person paralyzed and enable the person to experience hallucinations. Thus, an impotent male should be careful while choosing any of the erectile dysfunction remedies as some may impose a serious threat to life.
Source: Published At: Isnare.com Free Articles Directory – http://www.isnare.com/
Erectile dysfunction remedies Erectile dysfunction is not something to be ashamed of, but should be discussed openly with your physician because that is the only way it will be dealt with. Click here for Natural remedies for erectile dysfunction
Diabetes And The Menopause
GET YOUR KIDS INTO THE KITCHEN!
Submitted By: Carol Ann Bentley
You might be thinking “What’s the connection between diabetes and the menopause?”
Well, for ladies reaching that certain age, it can be very traumatic – especially when some of the effects experienced can easily be mistaken for those we have to be aware of when managing our diabetes…
For a diabetic taking medication, keeping blood sugars at the right level is a balancing act. If sugar levels drop too low, because of not eating enough or at the right times, you suffer a hypoglycemia episode (sometimes called ‘hypo’ for short). For me, this usually manifests itself as shaking; irritability; sweating and a faint-headed feeling. If you are diabetic and have ever had low-blood sugar you may recognize some of these symptoms, amongst others. A quick ‘glucose fix’ usually settles it within 5-10 minutes.
Now, compare that to some of the symptoms of starting the menopause; hot flushes [I call them 'power-surges' 
] – similar to the sweats of a hypo; mood swings – akin to the irritability you might experience during a hypo. It’s very easy to confuse the symptoms you are feeling.
When I first started the menopause, I frequently confused waking at 2 a.m. in the morning in a cold sweat as a hypo and took a quick sugar boost to settle myself. That pushed my blood sugar levels up when I didn’t need it. Not a good idea!
It was only after visiting my Doctor to talk about these frequent, unexpected hypos I discovered I was starting the menopause (I was in my late 40s, so it was rather unexpected, normally it doesn’t occur until early-to-mid 50s).
If you are a lady, with diabetes controlled by medication, and you are in your early 50s and you start having frequent, unexplained hypos – check your sugar levels before ‘treating the condition’. And get your Doctor to check your symptoms. You may be confusing symptoms of diabetes and the menopause.
And guys; if your lady normally has great control of her diabetes and suddenly seems to be showing the same symptoms when she was getting her diabetes into balance (if you knew her then) please be supportive and understanding, she’s going through one hell of an experience, but I promise, she will come through and be her normal, loving and charming self once again.
Source:Published At: Isnare.com Free Articles Directory – http://www.isnare.com/
[© 2006 Carol Ann Bentley] Carol Ann created http://www.your-diabetes.com to present information on diabetes from a diabetic’s viewpoint. Find out more about diabetes; how to recognize it; live with it; important linked health issues. Plus, read inspiring stories from other diabetics and share your experience.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. – Exposing Vaccine Cover Up
GET YOUR KIDS INTO THE KITCHEN!
Source: Uploaded by angellambbridetv on Jan 12, 2011 to YouTube
Robert F Kennedy tells of the cover up, mercury in vaccines causing autism.
Dr.Blaylock: Vaccines and Autism – parts 1 thru 7 of 14 parts
Part 1/14
Source: Uploaded by cmd1118 on Jun 16, 2010 to YouTube
Neurosurgeon explains how vaccines cause neurological damage, AKA Autism.
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VIDEOS NUMBER 8 THRU 14 SEE NEXT PAGE
Dr.Blaylock: Vaccines and Autism – parts 8 thru 14 of 14 parts
Part 8/14
Source: Uploaded by cmd1118 on Jun 16, 2010 to YouTube
Neurosurgeon explains how vaccines cause neurological damage, AKA Autism
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Good News! Childhood Obesity Rates Declining in NYC
Marion Nestle / Food Politics
Dec. 16, 2011
Just in time for the holidays, we get some good news. The New York City Health Department reports that rates of childhood obesity are falling.
If the rates were staying constant, I’d consider it a step forward. But these results show rates going down, even if only by a few percentage points.
The Bloomberg administration says the numbers are a result of its anti-obesity initiatives, some focused especially on children. Health Commissioner Dr. Tom Farley told the New York Times that he attributes
the progress partly to the city’s aggressive advertising campaign against sugary sodas, which he said may have altered what parents were providing to their children. The city has also tried to add healthier options to school lunch menus, enacted strict rules on the calorie and sugar content of snacks and drinks in school vending machines, and even put limits on bake sales, a move that caused some grumbling.
As I explained to Bloomberg News, if this trend continues, it will represent the first truly positive development in years.
It also suggests that the health department’s unusually aggressive efforts to address obesity may be paying off. If so, they should inspire other communities to do the same kinds of things. If nothing else, they raise awareness of the problem and help create an environment more conducive to healthy eating.
On the national level, Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move campaign also has raised awareness. Could it be that we are getting to a tipping point?
It’s pretty clear by now what works. A Cochrane meta-analysis of 55 studies finds strong evidence to support beneficial effects of child obesity prevention programs on BMI, particularly for kids age 6 to 12.
The interventions showing the most promise are just like those in New York City:
- School curriculum that includes healthy eating, physical activity and body image
- School sessions for physical activity throughout the school week
- Improvements in nutritional quality of the food supply in schools
- Environments and cultural practices that support children eating healthier foods and being active throughout each day (see yesterday’s post)
- Support for teachers and other staff to implement health promotion strategies and activities (e.g. professional development, capacity building activities)
- Parent support and home activities that encourage children to be more active, eat more nutritious foods and spend less time in screen based activities
These are showing measurable benefits. Shouldn’t every city start doing them.
Source: Marion Nestle / Food Politics
Vaccination – The Hidden Truth
Source: Uploaded by UCAGIBTV on Sep 5, 2011 to YouTube
To summarize in broad terms, instead of resulting in prophylaxis, meaning prevention, all responses to vaccines actually fall under the broad umbrella of anaphylaxis, which means sensitization, the OPPOSITE of immunization. In this extremely informative video, fifteen people, including Dr. Viera Scheibner (a PhD researcher), five medical doctors, other researchers, reveal what is really going on in relation to illness and vaccines. Ironically, the important facts come from the orthodox medicine’s own peer-reviewed research.
With so much government and medical promotion of vaccination for prevention of disease, the video is clearly devoted to presenting the other side of the issue that parents and others are not being told. The result is a damning account of the ineffectiveness of vaccines and their often harmful effects. It declares that parents are not being told the truth by the media, the Health Department and the medical establishment, with a medical doctor, Dr. Mark Donohoe, confessing that “It is a problem for me that I am part of a profession that is systematically lying to people…”
The video presents well documented answers to questions like: Was it really vaccines that saved us? Why are they only counterproductive? How are many statistics misleading? What do vaccines contain? What are they doing to our organs, immune systems, even our genes? Are childhood diseases really dangerous to healthy children? Why does vaccination continue? What are our rights? Can vaccine damage be evaluated and countered? What is the true key to immunity?
The video raises the fundamental question of whether we should be trying to prevent childhood diseases anyway, in that they contribute to the development of a healthy immune system. If what the video says is true, why is vaccination pushed so heavily by the government authorities? (Excerpt from vaccination.inoz.com)
Despite Obesity Crisis, Gov’t. Slow to Rein in Fast Food Industry
By Elizabeth Whitman
Inter Press Service / News Analysis
Published: Saturday 24 December 2011
In 2007, McDonald’s spent an estimated 1.74 billion dollars globally on advertising.
When the fast food chain McDonald’s decided to add oatmeal to its menu in January 2011, it literally sugar-coated the offering as a “portable, affordable and balanced breakfast solution… to help make it easier and more inviting for our guests to eat more whole grains and fruits”.
Although a single serving of plain oatmeal has one gram of sugar, one serving (253 grams) of McDonald’s fruit and maple oatmeal with brown sugar contains 32 grams of sugar. One serving of the same oatmeal, without brown sugar, contains 18 grams of sugar, according to the company’s nutrition.
“Why would McDonald’s… take a venerable ingredient like oatmeal and turn it into expensive junk food?” lamented New York Times columnist Mark Bittman in February 2011.
McDonald’s oatmeal, he pointed out, “contains more sugar than a Snickers bar and (is) only 10 fewer calories than a McDonald’s cheeseburger or Egg McMuffin”.
But critics say McDonald’s uncanny ability to turn an inherently healthy food into an unnaturally processed product (the oatmeal itself contains seven ingredients, including “natural flavor”, according to Bittman) is not even the most egregious of the stunts that large food corporations manage to pull.
A Nestle supermarket that set sail in the form of a barge on the Amazon River in Brazil in June 2011 could be one of the more outlandish efforts by the food industry to offer an expanding range of customers a plethora of processed and packaged foods. Even though processed food is inexpensive, noted Bittman, “the costs aren’t seen at the cash register but in the form of high health care bills and environmental degradation”.
In the United States, food activists who are highly critical of corporations that market aggressively to attract and keep a steady consumer base are also critical of the government, which seems unable or unwilling to regulate these corporations, whether through limiting their marketing or requiring them to adhere to specific nutrition standards.
System overload
As a result, not only are individuals and communities feeling the effects of a consistent intake of unhealthy processed foods laden with sugar and fat, but societies around the world and the earth itself are also forced to bear the heavy burden of the unsustainable agricultural system upon which the food industry relies.
Some 33.8 percent of adults in the United States are obese, according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). Obese means having a body mass index (link) of more than 30. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that by 2015, 2.3 billion adults will be obese.
Lifestyles that incorporate little to no exercise and a processed diet high in fat and sugar are linked to obesity and being overweight, which are connected to a multitude of health issues, including heart disease, type 2 diabetes and some cancers.
Marketing tactics
On Dec. 1, a law took effect in San Francisco, California, known as the Health Meals Incentive Ordinance, establishing basic nutritional standards for kids’ meals that come with free toys, a marketing strategy used to attract kids.
Before the law was passed, according to Corporate Accountability International, McDonald’s threatened to sue San Francisco on the grounds of the First Amendment.
Once the law went into effect, instead of giving away free toys with its Happy Meals, McDonald’s decided to charge 10 cents per toy.
Still, “this law really had a tremendous public health impact even before it took effect,” despite McDonald’s approach, said Sara Deon, Value [the] Meal campaign director.
Southern Los Angeles passed a moratorium limiting the development of new fast food restaurants, for example, and Jack-in-the-Box eliminated toys from meals altogether.
Although prohibiting toys from accompanying meals may change nothing about the actual content and nutritional value of the food, the changes do have an impact on who buys fast food meals, and how often.
“It’s really about marketing,” Deon told IPS. “Big food companies create big demand for their products through aggressive marketing,” with some companies, especially McDonald’s, marketing especially aggressively towards children, so eliminating toys does help reduce demand.
In 2007, McDonald’s spent an estimated 1.74 billion dollars globally on advertising, according to a report by Consumers International. Yum Brands, the parent company for Taco Bell, Pizza Hut and KFC, spent 1.23 billion dollars.
Additionally, “federal agencies wield tremendous influence over what types of foods we eat and the information we receive about them,” wrote Michele Simon, a public health lawyer, on her blog, pointing out that the government sets food safety standards gives nutrition advice and subsidizes agriculture.
However, powerful food industry lobbies are able to pressure representatives and senators who hail from districts where people rely on food industry corporations for jobs.
Conflict of interest
Many food activists seriously doubt lawmakers’ commitment to ensuring that people have access to healthy, affordable food, citing conflicts of interest and a focus on protecting corporations rather than people.
In April, the Interagency Working Group (IWG), including the Federal Trade Commission, the Food and Drug Administration, the CDC and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, developed and proposed recommendations on both the nutritional quality of food marketed to children and teenagers, and marketing practices.
The House Committee on Energy and Commerce, however, wrote a letter to the IWG, saying, “the real causes of childhood obesity have more to do with inadequate physical activity and excess calorie consumption than with the advertising and packaging of food.”
It ignored evidence of a connection between marketing and the purchase and eating of fast food, which in turn contributes to excess calorie consumption.
The letter asked the IWG to “withdraw the current proposal and start afresh”.
“Corporations simply throw their money around and threaten politicians if they try to get in their way,” Simon told IPS. “Even when regulatory agencies try to do the right thing they’re beat back by congressional members that oversee them.”
Simon is not convinced that regulations and guidelines are the most viable solutions to a host of related issues including but not limited to poor nutrition, obesity, and an unsustainable food system that exploits labor and harms animals.
What Simon considers truly necessary is complete system overhaul. Her call for an end to corporate and industry control has a familiar ring.
“We need to build a political movement,” she said.
Still, despite “a lot of localized restructuring” and alternatives such as farmers’ markets, such options are insufficient, she insisted, because they fail to strike at the core of a flaw.
Source: Nation of Change
ABOUT Elizabeth Whitman
Elizabeth Whitman is a journalist writing for the International Press Service.
4 Creepy Ways Big Pharma Peddles its Drugs – AlterNet
AlterNet / By Martha Rosenberg
Big Pharma uses ads that sow hypochondria, raise health fears and sell diseases to adults and their children.
What is more unknown is why drug ads that sow hypochondria, raise health fears and “sell” diseases are often the most common–and effective–even when the drugs themselves are of questionable safety.
The nation’s fourth most frequent drug ads in 2009 for were Cymbalta, making Eli Lilly $3.1 billion in one year, despite the antidepressant’s links to liver problems and suicide. Pfizer spent $157 million advertising Lyrica for fibromyalgia in 2009, despite the seizure pill’s links to life-threatening allergic reactions. The same year, it spent $107 million advertising the antidepressant Pristiq, even though it also had links to liver problems.
So, how does Pharma dupe us into using unsafe drugs? Today’s drug ads, targeted directly to consumers since 1999, seem like they sell diseases and often cast women, children, the elderly and mentally ill in a bad light. But a quick look at ads before direct-to-consumer advertising (DTC) in medical journals shows that drug ads have always done so. It’s just that patients didn’t used to see them.
Here are some of Pharma’s most offensive ad campaigns, then and now.
1. You’re Sicker Than You Think
When psychiatric drugs first became popular for use in the general population, in the late 1960s, everyday personality problems became imbued with psychiatric labels. “Lady, your anxiety is showing (over a coexisting depression),” says a 1970 ad, showing an older, wrinkly woman in a bouffant wig with gigantic sunglasses and garish jewelry. “On the visible level, this middle-aged patient dresses to look too young, exhibits a tense, continuous smile and may have bitten nails or overplucked eyebrows,” says the ad copy. “What doesn’t show as clearly is the coexisting depression.”
The ad, both sexist and ageist, suggests the woman needs the antidepressant and tranquillizer Triavil.
Another ad from 1968 shows a bored, upper-middle-class couple whose hauteur is also said to really be depression. “Do you have patients who try to hide frustration behind conformity?” says the ad for the antidepressant Aventyl HCl.
You’d think such demeaning ads would vanish with DTC advertising because people would be offended. But You’re Sicker-Than-You-Think ads are alive and well since DTC advertising and even flowering.
A three-page consumer ad in the late 2000s similarly conveys that everyday psychological traits could actually be dire mental problems that require medication. If you are “talking too fast,” “spending out of control,” “sleeping less,” “flying off the handle” and “buying things you don’t need,” you could be suffering from bipolar disorder said the ads, which appeared in magazines like People. And here you thought it was the coffee. Accompanying photos of a woman screaming into a phone and contorting her face are so extreme they could come out of the movie Halloween Part II, if the woman were holding a knife.
Psychiatric drugs are not just advertised for everyday personality problems. Pharma is pushing them for everyday pain conditions. Eli Lilly’s original depression campaign for the antidepressant Cymbalta, “Depression Hurts,” seems to anticipate its subsequent approval for pain conditions including back problems. Now ads tout Cymbalta as a “non-narcotic, once daily analgesic FDA approved for three indications across four different chronic pain conditions,” as if it does not have severe controversial psychiatric risks including the suicide of volunteers who tested it.
And seizure and epilepsy drugs, known for major allergic and psychiatric reactions, are also becoming pain franchises. “What’s causing your chronic widespread muscle pain?” asks an ad for the seizure and epilepsy drug Lyrica. “The answer may be overactive nerves,” says the ad, even though “widespread muscle pain” and “over-active nerves,” are not mentioned in the approved labeling for Lyrica, says pharmaceutical reporter John Mack. The military spent $35 million on seizure and epilepsy drugs in 2009 alone, including for migraines, headaches and pain.
And speaking of overkill, ads for genetically engineered injected drugs like Humira, approved to treat serious diseases like Crohn’s disease, psoriatic arthritis and chronic plaque psoriasis look like they are designed to sell beer or beauty treatments, not immune suppressing drugs that invite cancers and lethal infections.
DTC ads don’t just escalate everyday problems into psychiatric problems, they also escalate real psychiatric problems into irresponsible, sensationalistic stereotypes. Ads for the best-selling antipsychotic Risperdal, widely used in children, and in soldiers with PTSD, suggest that people with mental illness have hallucinatory fears about “boiling rain” and “dog women.” The “dog woman” ad, showing a half-dog, half-woman crouched on her elbows, her eyes blackened, furthers the sensationalizing of mental illness with the tagline, “Because relapses are a living nightmare.”
2. Your Kid Is Sick
DTC ads don’t just convince people they’re in need of new drugs, but also that their kids may be, too. And it’s been going on for decades.
Long before Pharma convinced parents, teachers and clinicians that millions of US kids had attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), kids were said to suffer from “minimal brain dysfunction” (MBD) and “hyperkinesis,” two conditions that were essentially the same as ADHD. In fact, so many kids had MBD by 1976 that an ad for the drug Cylert hailed the “Importance of single daily dose to the child, the parents and the teacher,” because kids wouldn’t have to be singled out anymore at pill time at school. (ADHD has been so huckstered, a YMCA ad spoofs it with the headline, “Before video games, before Facebook, before Ritalin, there was basketball.”)
Yet neither Cylert–whose approval the FDA withdrew in 2005 because of liver failure and deaths–or the current ADHD drugs are safe. In 2009, researchers reported that kids are more likely to die sudden deaths while taking them and the American Heart Association recommends electrocardiograms (ECGs) before kids take them. And yet, combined sales of ADHD drugs continue to grow from $4.05 billion to $7.42 billion in 2010.
Thirty years ago, it certainly looked like kids were being overmedicated. They were given the antipsychotic Thorazine for their “hyperactivity,” “hostility,” sleep problems and even for vomiting. Picky eaters and kids who wet the bed were given tranquillizers. Kids with tics, stuttering and school phobia were given the tranquillizer Miltown.
But today, ads promoting drugs for kids continue, and now they are aimed at parents. Sometimes, it’s hard to tell the difference between ads for drugs or ads for sugary cereals! Pharma tells moms to give their kids the bubble gum-flavored ADHD med, LiquADD and the grape-flavored ADHD med, Methylin. The latter campaign, to parents, is “Give ‘em the GRAPE!”
DTC advertising has also convinced parents their kids suffer from GERD (gastroesophageal reflux disease) otherwise known as acid reflux disease, which was barely a disease in adults much less kids, before consumer advertising. “GERD Can Be a Big Problem for Little Kids,” say award-winning ads for Prevacid, which won a “RX Club” Silver award in 2004. In Europe, kids are treated for another “adult disease” and given chewable Liptitor to lower their cholesterol.
Some of Pharma’s most aggressive advertising has been designed to convince parents their children’s minor sniffles or wheezing are imminent asthma and require immediate and expensive drugs. To make the asthma drug Singulair (which also comes in a yummy chewable), the seventh most popular drug in 2010, Merck inked partnerships with the American Academy of Pediatrics and Scholastic, both of which parents consider neutral organizations and not Pharma mouthpieces. Merck also partnered with Olympic gold-medalist swimmer Peter Vanderkaay and NBA kid clubs to sell the asthma drug.
“A kid who’s got what your kid’s got is out doing what your kid’s not,” says one Singulair ad campaign. “Find out how you can help your child breathe a little easier.”
If Singulair were not harmful, the huckstering would simply be a case of wasting money and overmedicating kids. But Singulair has been linked to both pediatric suicide and to emotional, behavioral and ADHD-like symptoms in kids, the latter likely inspiring parents to give their kids “the grape.”
Of course, another kid-targeted campaign is for the vaccine against the sexually transmitted Papillomavirus or HPV, immortalized by Gov. Rick Perry and Rep. Michele Bachmann in hot exchanges this fall. Many object to the sexualizing of 9-year-olds, to government lining Pharma’s pockets by promoting the vaccine (including overseas) and to the risks of the vaccines themselves. But the ads for Gardasil and Cervarix are also offensive.
Last spring, poster-sized ads for Gardasil on Chicago’s commuter trains pretended to sell real estate in sought-after neighborhoods. A closer look revealed descriptions of women in those neighborhoods who thought they didn’t need the HPV vaccine but did, positioning HPV not only as a general risk to the population, like flu, rather than an STD but as “hip.”
HPV vaccine ads got even cooler when GSK rolled out Cervarix extravaganza TV ads and its “armed against cervical cancer” campaign with an Angelina Jolie-like model displaying a skinny arm with a Cervarix tattoo.
3. Be Like Me, and Can Your Beer Do This?
Prescription drugs may affect health, but they are still consumer products sold with the same marketing principles as toothpaste or beer. In fact, the wacky, “Can Your Beer Do This?” Miller Lite campaign of the 1990s, came back to life to sell the antidepressant Wellbutrin XR. In a glossy, color magazine ad, a young man rows his girlfriend on a scenic lake and lists the benefits of his Wellbutrin XR. “Can your medicine do all that?” he asks.
What does it say about the success of DTC advertising that people are assumed to have an antidepressant?
Experiential ads also sell prescription drugs like vintage ads for the “Kodak Moment,” “Maalox Moment” and the old cigarette ads for the “L&M Moment” did. “Lunesta Sleep. Have You Tried it?” asks a 2007 ad in Parade magazine, elevating the experience to something akin to “designer sleep.”
And just as celebrities move other consumer products, they have been deployed to sell prescription drugs. TV personality Joan Lunden and former baseball star Mike Piazza stumped for the allergy pill Claritin, ice skater Dorothy Hamill and track star Bruce Jenner for the pain pill Vioxx, and Sen. Bob Dole for Viagra. NASCAR figure Bobby Labonte also endorsed the antidepressant Wellbutrin XL in 2004. Yes, his medicine could “do all that.”
But there has been a problem with celebrity drug endorsements, unlike product endorsements in which a celebrity like Tiger Woods or Martha Stewart could taint a product, a prescription drug can taint a celebrity! Did Dorothy Hamill know that Vioxx doubled the risk of heart attacks in users when she stumped for it? Did the model Lauren Hutton know that hormone replacement therapy causes a 26 percent higher incidence of breast cancer, a 29 percent increase in heart attacks, a 41 percent increase in strokes, and a doubling of the rate of blood clots when she shilled for it? Does actress Sally Field know that bone drugs like Boniva are linked to esophageal cancer, jaw bone death and the very fractures they are supposed to prevent as she pushes them?
Of course, good product marketing includes public relations. When Pharma sells a disease with no mention of the drug it is really selling, it’s called “unbranded” advertising. Since DTC advertising, Pharma has invaded public service announcements (PSAs) that TV and radio stations confer for free, pretending their take-a-drug messages serve the public good, like messages to change smoke detector batteries or put kids in car seats.
One such “educational” “awareness” campaign called “Depression Is Real” saturated the radio air waves in 2011, funded by the National Alliance on Mental Illness, which was investigated by Congress for its Pharma funding from Wyeth, part of Pfizer, and other groups. The high-budget ads, running for free, compare depression to diabetes because it doesn’t go away and to cancer because it can be fatal.
4. One Kind of Ad You Won’t See Anymore
Animal research at drug companies and the National Institutes of Health is a great scientific iceberg of which people only see a tip. In drug development, millions of animals die to prove a drug’s “safety.” At academic and medical centers, animal study grants from NIH provide millions to researchers and labs.
As sentiment grows against animal experiments and the government’s gigantic National Primate Research Centers (new rules will limit the use of chimpanzees), the research is downplayed and even hidden. But there was a time when Pharma actually flaunted animal research.
“More than a decade of animal research on various animal species has suggested that Librium (chlordiazepozxide HCI) exerts its principal effects on certain key areas of the limbic system,” says an ad from the 1970s, showing three monkeys crouching and dangling in cages as assorted experiments are conducted.
An ad for the diet pill Pre-Sate is even worse. It says, “one of the most sophisticated comparative animal studies ever conducted demonstrates direct action on the satiety centers,” and shows five photos of cats in experiments. One shows a life-size white cat looking at the camera with a chain around its neck and invasive instrumentation embedded in its skull.
Today’s consumers, it seems, wouldn’t tolerate ads like these. (Or the experiments behind them.) Why do they tolerate derisive ads about “dog women” and ploys to market pharmaceuticals to kids as if it were candy?
Martha Rosenberg frequently writes about the impact of the pharmaceutical, food and gun industries on public health. Her work has appeared in the Boston Globe, San Francisco Chronicle, Chicago Tribune and other outlets. Martha Rosenberg’s first book, Born With a Junk Food Deficiency: How Flaks, Quacks, and Hacks Pimp the Public Health, will be published by Prometheus Books in April.
Source: Martha Rosenberg / Organic Consumers Association (OCA) / AlterNet
Food For Type 2 Diabetes – Nutrition Mythbusters
By: Type Free Diabetes
Myth #1: Carbohydrates are bad for you.
All carbohydrates aren’t alike. Easily digested carbohydrates, such as those from white bread and white rice, if eaten often and in large quantities, may add to weight gain. But carbohydrates are also found in fruits, vegetables, beans, and dairy products; and these deliver essential vitamins, minerals, and fiber. Diabetes carbohydrates also give your body energy and help keep organs functioning properly.
A system called the glycemic index measures how fast and how far blood sugar rises after you eat a food with carbohydrates. White rice, for example, is almost immediately converted to blood sugar (glucose), causing it to rise rapidly, and so has a high glycemic index. Whole grain bread is digested more slowly, making blood sugar climb more slowly and not as high. It has a low glycemic index. Whenever possible, select carbohydrates that is whole grain, such as whole grain bread, whole wheat pasta, and old fashioned oats.
Myth #2. Vegetables mainly add fiber to your diabetic diet foods.
Vegetables are excellent sources of fiber and they supply vitamins and minerals, with very few calories. Orange vegetables like carrots, and dark leafy greens, such as spinach and collards, are good sources of vitamin A, an important nutrient to keep your eyesight keen, your skin healthy, and your immune system strong. Broccoli, pepper, and tomatoes are full of vitamin C, which promotes healing and keeps keep ligaments, tendons, and gums healthy. And beans and lentils supply potassium, which enables the body to convert blood sugar into glycogen, a stored form of energy that’s held in reserve by the muscles and liver.
Myth #3: To get calcium in your diabetic diet, you have to consume dairy products.
Milk, yogurt, and cheese are rich in calcium, which is important for building and protecting bones, Calcium Sources but theyre not the only sources of this mineral. Today, many foods are fortified with calcium, including orange juice, soy milk, breads, and cereals. Other nondairy sources of calcium are canned salmon and sardines with bones, collard greens, broccoli, and almonds. If you find it difficult to get enough calcium from your diet, you can also take calcium and glucose supplements.
Myth #4: Meat, chicken, and fish are the best sources of protein.
Foods with protein help your body build muscle and tissue, and provide diabetes vitamins and minerals. Animal sources-meat, poultry, fish, and dairy products, have what’s called complete protein, that is, they contain all the amino acids needed to build new proteins. Proteins from fruits, vegetables, grains, and nuts are called incomplete proteinstheyre missing one or more amino acids. But animal sources of protein have their drawbacks: red meat and poultry skin are high in fat, especially saturated fat (a healthy diabetic diet plan should have less than 10% of calories from saturated fat). If you eat meat, stick to lean cuts, chicken with the skin removed, and fish. If you want to try vegetable sources of protein, try beans, nuts, and whole grains.
Typefreediabetes offers a full line of diabetic supplies online, including; incontinence products for women, durable diabetes medical equipment, and body fat monitor and facts about diabetes. Typefreediabetes offers quality products at discounted prices on a wide selection of quality name brand equipment and supplies.
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Diabetes Screenings, Supplies, and Self – Management Training – Medicare.gov
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You are here: Home>Manage Your Health>Preventive Services>Diabetes Screening
Preventive Services
- Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm Screenings
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Diabetes Screenings, Supplies, and
Self-Management Training
How often is it covered?
Medicare covers up to two Fasting Blood Glucose tests each year.
Who’s eligible?
Medicare covers these tests for people who have any of the following risk factors: high blood pressure (hypertension), history of abnormal cholesterol and triglyceride levels (dyslipidemia), obesity, or a history of high blood sugar (glucose). Medicare also covers these tests if you answer yes to two or more of the following questions:
- Are you age 65 or older?
- Are you overweight?
- Do you have a family history of diabetes (parents, brothers, sisters)?
- Do you have a history of gestational diabetes (diabetes during pregnancy), or delivery of a baby weighing more than 9 pounds?
Your costs in Original Medicare
You pay nothing for the test if your doctor accepts assignment.
Diabetes Glucose Monitors, Test Strips, and Lancets
How often is it covered?
Medicare covers blood sugar testing monitors, blood sugar test strips, lancet devices and lancets, blood sugar control solutions, and therapeutic shoes (in some cases). Insulin is only covered if used with an external insulin pump.
Note: Insulin and certain medical supplies used to inject insulin, such as syringes, and some oral diabetic drugs may be covered by Medicare prescription drug coverage (Part D).
Who’s eligible?
All people with Medicare who have diabetes.
Your costs in Original Medicare
You pay 20% of the Medicare-approved amount after the yearly Part B deductible.
Diabetes Self-Management Training
How often is it covered?
Medicare covers diabetes self-management training.
Who’s eligible?
This training is for certain people with Medicare who are at risk for complications from diabetes. You must have a written order from a doctor or other health care provider.
Your costs in Original Medicare
You pay 20% of the Medicare-approved amount after the yearly Part B deductible.
Diabetes Resources
- National Diabetes Education Program This site contains a library of information on the program, campaigns, calendar of events, and publications.
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention This site contains facts, frequently asked questions, and reports about diabetes prevention and treatment.
- National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases Features a wide range of resources including publications, resources to get financial help, listing of national organizations serving patients and professionals concerned about diabetes, and a newsletter. Order forms are available online and several publications are available in Spanish.
- American Diabetes Association Contains sections on the organization, diabetes, membership, books, magazines, clinical practice, research, and legal issues.
- National Diabetes Eye Exam Program Contact information about an available eye exam program for Medicare beneficiaries age 65 or older who have diabetes and have not had a medical eye exam in the past three years.
- Healthfinder This site helps consumers find reliable health information from many Federal Agencies and non-for-profit organizations that can help them stay healthy, understand diagnosis, explore treatment options, find support, and generally become informed about health and medical topics of interest to them.
- National Institute of Diabetes & Digestive & Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) Clearinghouse This site provides access to available publications and lists a toll free number to call with questions. The National Diabetes Information Clearinghouse is part of the National Institutes of Health.
Related Links
- Welcome to Medicare: Getting Started
- Medicare Coverage of Diabetes & Supplies
- Staying Healthy
- Your Guide to Medicare’s Preventive Service
- Medical Nutrition Therapy
- What You Should Know if you Need Medicare-covered Equipment or Supplies
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Bariatric Surgery for Severe Obesity – NIDDK
Bariatric Surgery for Severe Obesity
- Bariatric Surgery for Adults
- Bariatric Surgery for Youth
- The Normal Digestive Process
- Types of Bariatric Surgery
- Medical Costs
- Research
- Resources
- References
Bariatric surgery may be the next step for people who remain severely obese after trying approaches other than surgery‚ especially if they have a disease linked to obesity.
Severe obesity is a chronic condition that is hard to treat with diet and exercise alone. Bariatric surgery is an operation on the stomach and/or intestines that helps patients with extreme obesity to lose weight. This surgery is an option for people who cannot lose weight by other means or who suffer from serious health problems related to obesity. The surgery restricts food intake, which promotes weight loss and reduces the risk of type 2 diabetes. Some surgeries also interrupt how food is digested, preventing some calories and nutrients, such as vitamins, from being absorbed. Recent studies suggest that bariatric surgery may even lower death rates for patients with severe obesity. The best results occur when patients follow surgery with healthy eating patterns and regular exercise.
Currently, bariatric surgery may be an option for adults with severe obesity. Body mass index (BMI), a measure of height in relation to weight, is used to define levels of obesity. Clinically severe obesity is a BMI > 40 or a BMI > 35 with a serious health problem linked to obesity. Such health problems could be type 2 diabetes, heart disease, or severe sleep apnea (when breathing stops for short periods during sleep).
Recent Development
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved use of an adjustable gastric band (or AGB) for patients with BMI > 30 who also have at least one condition linked to obesity, such as heart disease or diabetes.
Who is a good adult candidate for surgery?
Having surgery to produce weight loss is a serious decision. Anyone thinking about having this surgery should know what it involves. Answers to the following questions may help patients decide whether weight-loss surgery is right for them.
Is the patient:
- Unlikely to lose weight or keep it off over the long term using other methods?
- Well informed about the surgery and treatment effects?
- Aware of the risks and benefits of surgery?
- Ready to lose weight and improve his or her health?
- Aware of how life may change after the surgery? (For example, patients need to adjust to side effects, such as the need to chew food well and the loss of ability to eat large meals.)
- Aware of the limits on food choices, and occasional failures?
- Committed to lifelong healthy eating and physical activity, medical follow-up, and the need to take extra vitamins and minerals?
There is no sure method, including surgery, to produce and maintain weight loss. Some patients who have bariatric surgery may have weight loss that does not meet their goals. Research also suggests that many patients regain some of the lost weight over time. The amount of weight regain may vary by extent of obesity and type of surgery. Habits such as snacking often on foods high in calories or not exercising can affect the amount of weight loss and weight regain. Problems that may occur with the surgery, like a stretched pouch or separated stitches, may also affect the amount of weight loss.
Success is possible. Patients must commit to changing habits and having medical follow-up for the rest of their lives.
Rates of obesity among youth are high. Bariatric surgery is sometimes used to treat youth with extreme obesity. Although it is becoming clear that teens can lose weight after bariatric surgery, many questions still exist about the long-term effects on teens’ developing bodies and minds.
Who is a good youth candidate for surgery?
Experts in childhood obesity and bariatric surgery suggest that families consider surgery only after youth have tried for at least 6 months to lose weight and have not had success.1 Candidates should meet the following criteria:
- Have extreme obesity (BMI > 40 )
- Be their adult height (usually at age 13 or older for girls and 15 or older for boys)
- Have serious health problems linked to weight, such as type 2 diabetes or sleep apnea, that may improve with bariatric surgery
In addition, health care providers should assess potential patients and their parents to see how emotionally prepared they are for the surgery and the lifestyle changes they will need to make. Health care providers should also refer young patients to special youth bariatric surgery centers that focus on meeting the unique needs of youth.
Mounting evidence suggests that bariatric surgery can favorably change both the weight and health of youth with extreme obesity. Over the years’ gastric bypass surgery has been the main operation used to treat extreme obesity in youth. An estimated 2,700 youth bariatric surgeries were performed between 1996 and 2003.2 A review of short-term data from the largest inpatient database in the United States suggests that these surgeries are at least as safe for youth as adults. As yet, AGB has not been approved for use in the United States for people younger than age 18. However, favorable weight-loss outcomes after AGB for youth have been reported abroad.
Normally, as food moves along the digestive tract, digestive juices and enzymes digest and absorb calories and nutrients. After we chew and swallow our food, it moves down the esophagus to the stomach, where a strong acid continues the digestive process. The stomach can hold about 3 pints of food at one time. When the stomach contents move to the duodenum (the first part of the small intestine), bile and pancreatic juice speed up digestion. Most of the iron and calcium in the food we eat is absorbed there. The other two parts of the nearly 20 feet of small intestine absorb nearly all of the remaining calories and nutrients. The food particles that cannot be digested in the small intestine reside in the large intestine until eliminated.
How does surgery promote weight loss?
Bariatric surgery restricts food intake, which leads to weight loss. Patients who have bariatric surgery must commit to a lifetime of healthy eating and regular exercise. These healthy habits may help patients maintain weight loss after surgery.
The type of surgery that may help an adult or youth depends on a number of factors. Patients should discuss with their health care providers what kind of surgery is suitable for them.
What is the difference between open and laparoscopic surgery?
Bariatric surgery may be performed through “open” approaches, which involve cutting the stomach in the standard manner, or by laparoscopy. With the latter approach, surgeons insert complex instruments through 1/2-inch cuts and guide a small camera that sends images to a monitor. Most bariatric surgery today is laparoscopic because it requires a smaller cut, creates less tissue damage, leads to earlier hospital discharges, and has fewer problems, especially hernias occurring after surgery.
However, not all patients are suitable for laparoscopy. Patients who are considered extremely obese, who have had previous stomach surgery, or who have complex medical problems may require the open approach. Complex medical problems may include having severe heart and lung disease or weighing more than 350 pounds.
What are the surgical options?
There are four types of operations that are commonly offered in the United States: AGB, Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (RYGB), biliopancreatic diversion with a duodenal switch (BPD-DS), and vertical sleeve gastrectomy (VSG). (See Figure 1.) Each surgery has its own benefits and risks. The patient and provider should work together to select the best option by considering the benefits and risks of each type of surgery. Other factors to consider include the patient’s BMI, eating habits, health conditions related to obesity, and previous stomach surgeries.
Figure 1
Diagram of Surgical Options. Image credit: Walter Pories, M.D. FACS.
Adjustable Gastric Band
AGB works mainly by decreasing food intake. Food intake is reduced by placing a small bracelet-like band around the top of the stomach to restrict the size of the opening from the throat to the stomach. The surgeon can then control the size of the opening with a circular balloon inside the band. This balloon can be inflated or deflated with saline solution to meet the needs of the patient.
Roux-en-Y Gastric Bypass
RYGB restricts food intake. RYGB also decreases how food is absorbed. Food intake is limited by a small pouch that is similar in size to the pouch created with AGB. Also, sending food directly from the pouch into the small intestine affects how the digestive tract absorbs food. The food is absorbed differently because the stomach, duodenum, and upper intestine no longer have contact with food.
Biliopancreatic Diversion with a Duodenal Switch
BPD-DS, usually referred to as a “duodenal switch,” is a complex bariatric surgery that includes three features. One feature is to remove a large part of the stomach. This step makes patients feel full sooner when eating than they did before surgery. Feeling full sooner encourages patients to eat less. Another feature is re-routing food away from much of the small intestine to limit how the body absorbs food. The third feature changes how bile and other digestive juices affect the body’s ability to digest food and absorb calories. This step also helps lead to weight loss.
In removing a large part of the stomach, the surgeon creates a more tubular “gastric sleeve” (also known as a VSG, discussed later). The smaller stomach sleeve remains linked to a very short part of the duodenum, which is then directly linked to a lower part of the small intestine. This surgery leaves a small part of the duodenum available to absorb food and some vitamins and minerals.
However, when the patient eats food, it bypasses most of the duodenum. The distance between the stomach and colon becomes much shorter after this operation, thus limiting how food is absorbed. BPD-DS produces significant weight loss. However, a decrease in the amount of food, vitamins, and minerals absorbed creates chances for long-term problems.
Some of these problems are anemia (lower than normal count for red blood cells) or osteoporosis (loss of bone mass that can make bones brittle).
Vertical Sleeve Gastrectomy
VSG surgery restricts food intake and decreases the amount of food used. Most of the stomach is removed during this surgery, which may decrease ghrelin, a hormone that prompts appetite. Lower amounts of ghrelin may reduce hunger more than other purely restrictive surgeries, such as AGB.
VSG has been performed in the past mainly as the first stage of BPD-DS (discussed earlier) in patients who may be at high risk for problems from more extensive types of surgery. These patients’ high risk levels are due to body weight or medical issues. However, more recent research indicates that some patients who have VSG can lose a lot of weight with VSG alone and avoid a second procedure. Researchers do not yet know how many patients who have VSG alone will need a second stage procedure.
What are the side effects of these surgeries?
Some side effects may include bleeding, infection, leaks from the site where the intestines are sewn together, diarrhea, and blood clots in the legs that can move to the lungs and heart.
Examples of side effects that may occur later include nutrients being poorly absorbed, especially in patients who do not take their prescribed vitamins and minerals. In some cases, if patients do not address this problem promptly, diseases may occur along with permanent damage to the nervous system. These diseases include pellagra (caused by lack of vitamin B3—niacin), beri beri (caused by lack of vitamin B1—thiamine) and kwashiorkor (caused by lack of protein).
Other late problems include strictures (narrowing of the sites where the intestine is joined) and hernias (part of an organ bulging through a weak area of muscle).
Two kinds of hernias may occur after a patient has bariatric surgery. An incisional hernia is a weakness that sticks out from the abdominal wall’s connective tissue and may cause a blockage in the bowel. An internal hernia occurs when the small bowel is displaced into pockets in the lining of the abdomen. These pockets occur when the intestines are sewn together. Internal hernias are thought to be more dangerous than incisional ones and need prompt attention to avoid serious problems.
Some patients may also require emotional support to help them through the changes in body image and personal relationships that occur after the surgery.
Bariatric procedures, on average, cost from $20,000 to $25,000. Medical insurance coverage varies by state and insurance provider. In 2004, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services reduced barriers to obtaining Medicare coverage for obesity treatments. Bariatric surgery may be covered under these conditions:
- If the patient has at least one health problem linked to obesity
- If the procedure is suitable for the patient’s medical condition
- If approved surgeons and facilities are involved
Patients can contact staff at their regional Medicare, Medicaid, or health insurance office to find out if the procedure is covered and to obtain facts about options.
In 2003, the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) of the NIH partnered with researchers to create the Longitudinal Assessment of Bariatric Surgery, or LABS. LABS researchers are experts in bariatric surgery, obesity research, internal medicine, behavioral science, and related fields. Their mission is to plan and conduct studies that will lead to more knowledge about bariatric surgery and its impact on the health and well-being of patients with extreme obesity. More information about LABS is available at http://www.niddklabs.org .
To help determine if bariatric surgery is appropriate for youth, NIH launched Teen-LABS in 2007. From 2007 to 2012, the multicenter study is collecting data from teens who plan to have surgery. The data will help to evaluate bariatric surgery’s benefits and risks. Researchers are collecting data about medical problems related to obesity, other health risk factors, and quality of life from these patients before they have surgery and 2 years after surgery. Researchers will then compare the teen outcomes to data from adults. These websites offer more information about Teen-LABS: http://www.nih.gov/news/pr/apr2007/niddk-16.htm and http://www.cincinnatichildrens.org/teen-LABS.
The following list of publications, websites, and organizations may be of use for patients or health care providers discussing bariatric surgery.
Additional Reading from the Weight-control Information Network
Active at Any Size. This fact sheet provides ideas and tips on how people considered to be overweight or obese can be physically active. It focuses on overcoming common barriers and setting goals. Available at http://www.win.niddk.nih.gov/publications/active.htm.
Binge Eating Disorder. This fact sheet provides information and resources for patients who may have binge eating disorder. Available at http://www.win.niddk.nih.gov/publications/binge.htm.
Dieting and Gallstones. This fact sheet explains what gallstones are, how they form, and the roles obesity and rapid weight loss play in developing gallstones. Available at http://www.win.niddk.nih.gov/publications/gallstones.htm.
Weight Loss for Life. This booklet describes ways to lose weight and encourages healthy eating habits and regular physical activity. Available at http://www.win.niddk.nih.gov/publications/for_life.htm.
Additional Reading for Health Care Providers
Pharmacological and Surgical Treatment of Obesity: Evidence Report/Technology Assessment: Number 103. Shekelle PG, Morton SC, Maglione M, et al. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). AHRQ Publication Number 04–E028–1; 2004. Rockville, MD. This report reviews the scientific evidence on weight-loss drugs and bariatric surgery among children, youth, and adults. Available at http://www.ahrq.gov/downloads/pub/evidence/pdf/obespharm/obespharm.pdf [PDF - 3,450 Kb].
Additional Resource
American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery
100 SW 75th Street
Suite 201
Gainesville, FL 32607
Phone: 352-331–4900
Fax: 352-331–4975
Internet: http://www.asmbs.org/
Weight-control Information Network
1 WIN Way
Bethesda, MD 20892–3665
Phone: 202-828–1025
Toll-free number: 1–877–946–4627
Fax: 202–828–1028
Email: win@info.niddk.nih.gov
Internet: http://www.win.niddk.nih.gov
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES
National Institutes of Health
NIH Publication No. 08–4006
March 2009
Updated June 2011
1. Inge TH‚ Krebs NF‚ Garcia VF‚ et al. Bariatric surgery for severely overweight adolescents: concerns and recommendations. Pediatrics. 2004 Jul;114(1):217–23.
2. Wilson ST‚ Thomas HI‚ Randall SB. Bariatric surgery in adolescents: recent national trends in use and in-hospital outcome. Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine. 2007;161(3):217–221.
Toll free: 1–877–946–4627; Fax: 202–828–1028; Email: win@info.niddk.nih.gov
Weight-control Information Network, 1 WIN Way, Bethesda, MD 20892–3665
Last Modified: July 28, 2011
Source:
Vitamin D Can Help Shield You From Diabetes
By: catherinfernates
Another health breakthrough to report in the vast arena of breakthroughs that surrounds vitamin D. The “sunshine vitamin.” A new study has found that not getting enough vitamin D can put you at greater risk for one of the biggest health problems of modern times: type 2 diabetes.
This study occurred in children, but the results can be extrapolated for everyone. Looking at obese and non-obese children, researchers found that low vitamin-D levels were significantly more prevalent in obese children. And that they were associated with risk factors for type 2 diabetes. The study appeared in the “Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism.”
RECOMMENDED This Vitamin Could Beat the Flu
High rates of vitamin-D deficiency have been found in obese populations and past studies have linked low vitamin-D levels to cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes. Those three health conditions — obesity, type 2 diabetes and heart disease — are certifiably linked.
How obesity and diabetes is related to vitamin-D deficiency is not fully understood. This new study examined associations between vitamin-D levels and dietary habits in obese children. They tested whether there were links between levels of the sunshine vitamin and abnormal blood sugar levels and/or blood pressure levels.
In the study, obese children with lower vitamin-D levels had the highest degree of insulin resistance. This is the hallmark of diabetes, meaning the body has an impaired ability to move glucose from the blood into cells where it is used as energy. The study couldn’t figure out why this is the case, but did suggest that low vitamin-D levels play some kind of role in the development of type 2 diabetes.
Here’s what happened: they measured vitamin-D levels, blood sugar levels, insulin, body mass index, and blood pressure in 411 obese subjects and 87 control non-overweight subjects. Study participants were asked to provide dietary information, including daily intake of soda, juice and milk, average daily fruit and vegetable intake, and whether or not they routinely skipped breakfast.
Sure enough, they found that habits like skipping breakfast and drinking sugary soda and juice were linked with lower vitamin-D levels among the obese kids.
Vitamin D is simply critical. If you can’t spend 15 minutes of time in direct sunlight (without using sunscreen) each day, it is a very good idea to take a vitamin-D supplement in the range of 1,000 IU.Visit for more information.:-http://www.doctorshealthpress.com/
Article Source: http://www.articlesnatch.com
About the Author:
Vitamin D is simply critical. If you can’t spend 15 minutes of time in direct sunlight (without using sunscreen) each day, it is a very good idea to take a vitamin-D supplement in the range of 1,000 IU.Visit for more information.:-http://www.doctorshealthpress.com/
Living with Type 2 Diabetes: A Teen’s Journey
Source: lillyhealth | Aug 23, 2011 on YouTube
Take a journey through the eyes of a teenager (Carlos) who is learning to manage his type 2 diabetes.
Natural Sweeteners for a Whole Foods Diet
Source: Uploaded by GreenSmoothieGirl on May 16, 2009 to YouTube www.greensmoothiegirl.com Learn to use natural sweeteners as part of a whole foods diet with Robyn from GreenSmoothieGirl.com. In this video, Robyn explains the dangers of artificial sweeteners and processed sweeteners. She then explores the benefits of using natural sweeteners like sucanat, honey, agave, and fruit as part of a whole foods diet. 22 Dec 2011 2011 was a big year for food politics. In case you dozed off anywhere along the way, I’ve collected the year’s most important stories below. (Want something lighter? See my Sustainable Food Trends story from last week. Want something heavier? Here’s the bad food news.) 1. Urban farming is flourishing. An urban farm in Chicago.Photo: Piush Dahal While the renewed interest in growing food within city limits is nothing new, 2011 was the year urban farming went legit. Despite several low points involving criminal charges for gardeners in Michigan and Tennessee (charges were dropped in both cases after word spread around the internet and people from across the country petitioned lawmakers), the year was full of highlights. In San Francisco, Oakland, Chicago, San Diego, and Baltimore, city officials changed local laws to make it easier to farm. Meanwhile, New Yorkers celebrated the first year of legal beekeeping. And creative, scrappy projects like the Boston Tree Party and Detroit’s Growing Joy Community Garden flourished. Meanwhile, corporate interests are also keying into the possibilities of urban agriculture. We heard from a vertical farming expert on the subject. 2. Young farmers make noise. Photo: Eddie Crimmins More and more young Americans are taking to the farm, a trend that’s continued to grow this year. They’re getting creative — returning to using draft horses, for example. And they’re getting political — the National Young Farmers’ Coalition has put together an agenda for the upcoming 2012 farm bill, pushing for easier to access land and loans. LGBT farmers (young and otherwise) are also changing the face of farming. 3. Local food isn’t just delicious and eco-friendly. 2011 presented us with even more evidence that local food systems don’t just taste good and feel good; they also build local economies. More farmers markets mean more jobs, overall. 4. Food Day makes a comeback. Although the organizers called this year’s national event the first annual Food Day, there had apparently been another attempt in the 1970s. Let’s hope this versions sticks. Check out our slideshow. 5. We don’t need industrial ag to feed the world. Photo: BASF Feeding the world doesn’t have to depend on genetically modified rice like this. Yes, the world’s population is growing rapidly (see Grist’s series “What to expect when you’re expanding“), and the question of how to feed all 7 billion of us is an important one. Far too often, however, “feeding the world” has become code for farming with as many chemicals and GMO seeds as possible. This year brought mounting evidence to the contrary, including a study published in Nature and another published in Science that say otherwise. The results of a long-term study by the Rodale Institute also proved that organic farming is just as productive as conventional, and better at building soil (this is key, since “yield” is at the heart of the “feed the world” discussion). 6. Despite the influence of the ultra-consolidated meat industry, the “ag-gag” bills went nowhere. Early on in 2011, lawmakers in Florida, New York, Iowa, and Minnesota tried to pass so-called “ag-gag” bills that would have made it illegal to produce — and in Minnesota to possess — undercover videos of livestock factory farms. The bills were part of a coordinated effort by Big Ag, but the sustainable food movement organized to defeat them, and, in a rare win, succeeded. 7. Eaters are (a little) more aware of the people behind their food. Photo: U. Roberto Romano The situation for workers in the food system isn’t exactly good news, but I’m putting it in this category because 2011 saw a number of small but important strides. Food service provider Bon Appétit Management Company took two big steps: First, it released the first comprehensive report on documented farmworker rights and abuses in years. Then it hosted TEDx Fruitvale: Harvesting Change, an event entirely dedicated to the plight of farmworkers and other food system workers. Meanwhile, food worker advocates produced a guide to restaurants that treat their employees well. And the Department of Labor proposed new child labor rules for farms, expected to be officially enacted next year. 8. Food access got more attention. Too many people around the U.S. still lack easy access to good, healthy food. Fortunately, activists and farmers made a lot of creative progress this year in helping to raise awareness and tackle the root problems. A group of advocates from an Oakland-based organization called Live Real took to the road for the Food and Freedom Rides. Subsidizing farmers markets was shown to be an effective strategy for getting more healthy food into food deserts. And farmers themselves looked for creative ways to address food access, such as this give-a-dozen-buy-a-dozen program modeled after Toms Shoes. Slow Food USA sought to show that supporting local farmers doesn’t require going broke with its $5 Challenge. And a group of grad students tried out a model for small, portable grocery stores built out of shipping containers — a potential solution for under-resourced areas without traditional grocery stores. 9. More information helps eaters make better choices. Photo: Frank Farm Although food safety continued to be a huge concern (see our “bad news” list in part 2) some food choices were made a little easier in 2011. For example, organic chicken was proven to carry significantly lower salmonella risk, there’s more evidence that organic milk is better for you, As it turns out that most “use-by” dates are meaningless. 10. The Occupy movement adds fuel to the fire. Just as important as any march or rally, however, the activism taking place over last few months has gotten more eaters to think critically about where their food dollars are going, and to consider investing in local and sustainable food enterprises rather than Wall Street. SOURCE: Twilight Greenaway (author), Organic Consumers Association/Grist Source: Uploaded by BabyFish1003 on Nov 1, 2011 to YouTube A native American who has been living with diabetes for 40 years tells her journey with Type II diabetes. She gives advise to those at risk for diabetes to get early testing, tips on preventing and controlling diabetes. A clinical trial of people with type 2 diabetes showed that intensively controlling blood glucose to near-normal levels reduced progression of diabetic retinopathy, the leading cause of vision loss in working-age Americans. Adding a fibrate drug to statin therapy for control of blood lipids also reduced disease progression. These results come from the Action to Control Cardiovascular Risk in Diabetes (ACCORD) Eye Study, a subgroup study of the ACCORD clinical trial supported by the National Eye Institute (NEI). The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute is the primary sponsor of ACCORD. ACCORD compared the effect of intensive control of blood glucose, blood pressure, and blood lipids with standard, less-intensive treatments on the risk of major cardiovascular disease events in more than 10,000 adults with established type 2 diabetes. While the earlier ACCORD finding of increased mortality risk outweighed the benefits of near-normal control in the group studied, the ACCORD Eye Study and other recent ACCORD findings suggest there may be benefits to controlling blood glucose to targets lower than currently recommended in patients in whom such control can be achieved safely—for example, in people recently diagnosed with diabetes. “The ACCORD Eye Study clearly indicates that intensive glycemic control and fibrate treatment added to statin therapy separately reduce the progression of diabetic retinopathy,” said Emily Chew, M.D., chair of the Eye Study and chief of the Clinical Trials Branch of the Division of Epidemiology and Clinical Applications at the NEI. The study findings were published in the July 15, 2010, issue of The New England Journal of Medicine. More information about the ACCORD Eye Study can be found at www.nei.nih.gov/news/pressreleases/062910.asp. Researchers have found that the drug ranibizumab (Lucentis), combined with the current standard treatment of laser therapy, is more effective than laser therapy alone in treating diabetic macular edema (DME), a major complication of diabetes that can result in vision loss. DME occurs when fluid from damaged blood vessels in the eye cause swelling of the macula, part of the retina. Ranibizumab blocks the leakage of fluid from the blood vessels. Results of this study were published in the June 2010 issue of Ophthalmology. This study provides the first definitive proof that a combined treatment and follow-up strategy could halt and reverse diabetic eye disease. “This comparative-effectiveness study demonstrated that a new treatment can protect and, in many cases, improve the vision of people with diabetic macular edema,” said Paul A. Sieving, M.D., Ph.D., director of the NEI. The 2-year study focused on the effectiveness of three DME treatments: laser treatment alone; ranibizumab plus laser treatment; and the steroid drug triamcinolone (Trivaris) plus laser treatment. Specifically, the researchers found that ranibizumab combined with laser treatment improved vision significantly, compared with laser treatment alone. The multicenter clinical trial was conducted by the NEI and the Diabetic Retinopathy Clinical Research Network (DRCR.net). DRCR.net researchers will continue to monitor the study participants for at least 3 years to gather more data about the safety and effectiveness of the treatments. For more information about this study, see www.nih.gov/researchmatters/may2010/ 05102010eye.htm or visit www.drcr.net The National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases has easy-to-read booklets and fact sheets about diabetes and its complications, including diabetic eye disease. For more information or to obtain copies, visit www.diabetes.niddk.nih.gov. NIH Publication No. 11–4562 The National Diabetes Information Clearinghouse is a service of the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, National Institutes of Health. Source: National Diabetes Information Clearinghouse Tens of millions of individuals at this time are being treated for Type 2 diabetes. Those with this type of diabetes have issues controlling blood sugar ranges because theie body doesn’t produce enough insulin or their body has developed insulin resistance says Myrtle Beach Chiropractor. In many circumstances, patients are given prescription drugs to help management glucose levels. For these dealing with extra superior problems, insulin could also be taken regularly to keep ranges of glucose stable. Whereas some folks do want medical intervention to treat their Sort 2 diabetes effectively, many alternative diabetes therapies can be found as well. Some people have discovered that utilizing various measures to deal with the issue is enough to assist them get off their medications. Here is a look at some of the various diabetes remedies to contemplate if you happen to are excited by a natural technique to control your blood sugar. Chromium Cinnamon Ginseng Zinc These are just a few of the choice diabetes treatments from Myrtle Beach Chiropractor to consider if you’re in search of a natural strategy to treat your Type 2 diabetes. Some other frequently used alternative therapies embody aloe vera gel, magnesium, vanadium, gymnema, vitamin D, fenugreek, and momordica charantia. In fact, before trying alternative options, it’s always best to discuss these therapy choices together with your health professional. Article Source: http://www.articlesnatch.com About the Author: Source: Uploaded by NourishLife on Aug 24, 2010 to YouTube Visit http://nourishlife.org. Have you ever wondered why a bunch of carrots costs more than a package of Twinkies? Food journalist Michael Pollan connects the dots between food policy, high-fructose corn syrup, and our health.
The good food news of 2011
Tiny groceries made out of shipping containers: one way to increase food access.Fifty young people began working in schools, gardens, and advocacy organizations as part of the first class of Food Corps participants. We spoke with three of them.
Advocates and farmers jointed the Zuccotti Park gathering this fall, and we heard from a variety of folks who were occupying various aspects of the food system — like one farmer who occupied the pasture.
Diabetes Management Among Native Americans – from A Personal Story
Findings from Two Studies on Diabetic Eye Disease Treatment Released
Diabetes Dateline
Winter 2011
A photo of an eye with diabetic macular edema.
Photo courtesy of the National Eye Institute, National Institute of Health (NIH)Combination of Ranibizumab and Laser Therapy Proves Effective in Treating Diabetic Macular Edema
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January 2011
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Myrtle Beach Chiropractor – How To Cure Diabetes?
One of many potential various therapies for diabetes is chromium, which happens to be a hint mineral. This mineral is essential as a result of it has lots to do with fats and carbohydrate metabolism. Additionally it is recognized to assist the cells of the body in responding correctly to insulin as well. Analysis has found that many people with diabetes have low ranges of this trace mineral and a few research are displaying that supplementation of this hint mineral could possibly help those who suffer from diabetes.
Another of the potential alternative diabetes therapies to think about is cinnamon, which is a well known spice. Studies from Chiropractor Myrtle Beach that have been done on cinnamon have shown that those with Type 2 diabetes see an improvement in their blood sugar control when taking cinnamon on a daily basis. One research looked at six teams of people, with the primary three groups of individuals taking 6g, 3g, or 1g of cinnamon. The final three teams had placebo capsules of 6g, 3g, or 1g. At the end of this study, the three groups taking cinnamon all showed a big reduction of their fasting blood glucose levels. Different benefits included lowered cholesterol, and lower triglycerides. Different research have also been carried out on cinnamon, showing that it could possibly have a constructive impact on blood sugar ranges in those with diabetes.
Several types of ginseng are available, however relating to an alternative therapy for diabetes, it is North American ginseng that reveals the most promise. Researches on this kind of ginseng have proven that blood sugar may be better controlled when taking North American ginseng on a regular basis.
With regards to the storage and manufacturing of insulin throughout the physique, zinc is a crucial mineral. Analysis has shown that these dealing with Type 2 diabetes often have much less zinc than needed because of an increased excretion charge and problems with a decreased absorption of zinc. Zinc can be taken as a supplement, nevertheless it also will be found in a wide range of different foods, including rooster, almonds, beef liver, egg yolks, pecans, recent oysters, buckwheat, walnuts, lima beans, lamb, and peas.
Nathalia Alexandra is a seasoned writer who produces about articles relevant to Internet Marketing and Alternative Medicine topics. To acquire further information about Myrtle Beach Chiropractor or Chiropractor Myrtle Beach visit our website.
Michael Pollan: Twinkie vs. Carrot
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