By Catherine Donaldson-Evans, AOL News

Exercising regularly may just be the much-sought-after key to a long life.

A new review of findings of 40 studies published in the last four years concluded that exercising regularly can cut the risk of about two dozen physical and mental health conditions, from cancer to dementia.

“What is clear from the research is that men and women of all ages should be encouraged to be more physically active for the sake of their long-term health,” lead author Leslie Alford, a physiotherapist and lecturer at the University of East Anglia in the U.K., said in a statement.

Alford studied 40 papers published between 2006 and 2010 and looked at the impact of exercise on cancer, heart disease, dementia, stroke, depression, type 2 diabetes, obesity and high blood pressure, among other ailments.

He found that other than abstaining from smoking, physical activity is the best medicine a person can take to improve health and longevity.

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“Physical inactivity results in widespread pathophysiological changes to our bodies,” said Alford. “It appears that our bodies have evolved to function optimally on a certain level of physically activity that many of us simply do not achieve in our modern, sedentary lifestyles.”

Exercising can not only make us healthier and stronger, giving us protection against a variety of problems, but it also delays the body’s age-related decline, the findings showed.

“It’s the universal repair,” longevity and wellness guru Dr. Walter M. Bortz, author of “Living Longer for Dummies,” told AOL Health. “When you’re fit, your immune system is better. Everything is better.”

Bortz said exercise has been shown to be so beneficial in part because it triggers the release of a powerful protein called brain-derived neurotrophic factor, or BDNF.

“It’s a growth hormone for the brain,” Bortz said. “It’s hot — it influences everything. Here is this marvelous chemical that gets triggered by exercise.”

But for some, it seems, good health and a long life are simply a matter of good fortune.

To read more, visit: Regular Exercisers Cut Dementia, Cancer Risk

From Delaware Online

The announcement from the Centers for Disease Control that diabetes is on the increase should not surprise anyone.

Health experts have issued repeated warnings about the epidemic for decades. Now, as the nation’s population gets older and fatter, the epidemic is growing into a major health threat. At present one in 10 U.S. adults has diabetes. Over the next three decades that ratio could increase to one in three with the disease, primarily Type 2 diabetes.

Type 2 is closely related to lifestyle: eating too much and exercising too little.

Both problems are connected to our technological success. Food is cheaper and more abundant than a century ago and manual labor is disappearing.

The problem is mostly one of learning how to manage what we have.

The financial cost of the problem will be enormous. Health care costs are rising now.
As the population grows older, the costs naturally increase. But compounding the costs by treating a largely preventable disease will be a waste of scarce resources.
This doesn’t count the human costs: the early deaths, declining health and mobility and the emotional burden put on caretakers.

To read more, visit: Step up prevention in fight against diabetes

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By Endocrine Today

People with insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes appear to be at increased risk for developing plaques in the brain that are associated with Alzheimer’s disease, new research revealed.

“With the rising obesity rates and the fact that obesity is related to the rise in type 2 diabetes, these results are very concerning,” Kensuke Sasaki, MD, PhD, of Kyushu University in Fukuoka, Japan, said in a press release.

The study by Sasaki and colleagues included 135 people (mean age, 67 years; 74 men) who were living in Japan. The participants had several glucose tests and were also monitored for symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease during the subsequent 10 to 15 years. During that time, about 16% developed Alzheimer’s disease.

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Presence of plaques

According to the results, those who had abnormal results on three tests of blood glucose control had an increased risk for developing plaques. Plaques were found in 72% of people with insulin resistance and 62% of those with no indication of insulin resistance. After adjustment for age, sex and other confounders, presence of neuritic plaques was associated with significantly higher levels of 2-hour post-load plasma glucose in a 75-g oral glucose tolerance test (OR=1.71); fasting insulin (OR=2.03); and insulin resistance measured by homeostasis model assessment of insulin resistance (HOMA-IR; OR=2.11).

However, the study did not find a link between diabetes-related factors and neurofibrillary tangles in the brain.

In addition, those with hyperglycemia who carried the apolipoprotein E (APOE) allele had an increased risk for neuritic plaque, which has been reported in other epidemiologic and pathologic studies. A similar increase was observed for hyperinsulinemia and high HOMA-IR.

To read more, visit: http://www.endocrinetoday.com/view.aspx?rid=68395

Mothers that bottle feed are more likely to develop diabetes

Moms: Ward off diabetes by breastfeeding and we can help with the Purely Yours breast pump with carry all.

By Amanda Tennis, Examiner.com

According to a study led by Eleanor Bimla Schwarz, M.D., M.S., at the University of Pittsburgh, women that do not breastfeed their children are almost twice as likely to developing type 2 diabetes.

The study involved 2,233 women ages 40 to 78. Out of all of the subjects, 56% reported that they breastfeed their babies for at least a month.

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It was reported that 27% of women in the group that did not breastfeed their children developed type 2 diabetes while women that did breastfeed their children had a lower rate of diabetes.

“Our study provides another good reason to encourage women to breastfeed their infants, at least for the infant’s first month of life,” said Dr. Schwarz. “Clinicians need to consider women’s pregnancy and lactation history when advising women about their risk for developing type 2 diabetes.”

It is believed that breastfeeding can cut a woman’s risk for developing type 2 diabetes, because breastfeeding helps to cut belly fat.

To read more, visit: http://www.examiner.com/diabetes-in-national/women-who-did-not-breastfeed-their-children-are-at-higher-risk-for-type-2-diabetes

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“A diet rich in green leafy vegetables may reduce the risk of developing diabetes,” reported the BBC. It said that one-and-a-half portions a day “cuts type-2 diabetes risk by 14%”.

This news story was based on a systematic review and meta analysis that pooled data from six prospective cohort studies investigating diet and the risk of developing type 2 diabetes. The analysis found that people who ate around 120g of green leafy vegetables per day were 14% less likely to develop the condition than people who ate the least amount of this type of vegetable.

On its own, this study is not convincing evidence that simply eating green leafy vegetables reduces the risk of developing type 2 diabetes. It is not possible to say whether the small decreased risk this study found was due to particular compounds found in these vegetables or because the people who ate more vegetables tended to have a healthier diet and lifestyle.

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In combination with other lifestyle choices however, a healthier diet may help to reduce the risk of diabetes. In people at risk, reducing the intake of total and saturated fat, increasing their intake of vegetables, fruit, and wholegrain cereals, and increasing physical activity is known to reduce the risk of diabetes by about 60%. This is thought to be mainly because these factors all work towards reducing weight.

Where did the story come from?

The study was carried out by researchers from the University of Leicester and was also funded by the university. The study was published in the (peer-reviewed) British Medical Journal.

This research was covered well by The Daily Telegraph and the BBC. The Daily Express focused on the magnesium content of these vegetables being key to these findings, but this is not supported by the current study. The papers quote a linked editorial on the topic that says, “we must be careful that the message of increasing overall fruit and vegetable intake is not lost in a plethora of magic bullets.” It seems sensible to promote a balanced overall approach to lifestyle change that does not just focus on specific food types.

To read more, visit: http://www.nhs.uk/news/2010/08August/Pages/green-vegetables-and-diabetes-risk.aspx

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By Joy Richardson, Examiner.com

Here’s another reason to eat cashews: scientists believe that an extract of cashew seeds may help fight diabetes. In test-tube experiments, scientists found that cashew seed extract helped muscle cells absorb blood sugar.

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According to the study’s authors, this finding suggests that cashew seed extract could improve the body’s response to its own insulin. People with diabetes fail to respond properly to insulin, which regulates the body’s blood sugar level.

By improving the body’s insulin response, the study’s authors suggest, cashew seed extract may help keep blood sugar in check and protect against diabetes.

Cashews have ‘good fat’

Boasting 37.7 percent of the daily recommended value of monounsaturated fats, cashews can reduce triglyceride levels in diabetics, protecting them from further complications. Some believe integrating frequent nut consumption into a diet, especially raw cashews, may lower the risk of developing Type 2 Diabetes, the most commonly diagnosed form of diabetes in America today.

To read more, visit: http://www.examiner.com/diabetes-in-atlanta/cashews-prove-beneficial-for-diabetics

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Consumer Reports Insights, The Washington Post

In the first study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, researchers led by David Graham of the Food and Drug Administration analyzed Medicare records of more than 227,000 people who took either Avandia or another diabetes drug, Actos. They found that those using Avandia had an increased risk of stroke, heart failure and death.

In the second study, published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, Steven Nissen of the Cleveland Clinic updated his 2007 meta-analysis (an analysis that includes results of several studies) of Avandia. The new analysis, which included 14 additional studies on top of the 42 that made up the original meta-analysis, confirmed his previous finding that Avandia increases the risk of heart attacks.

An FDA advisory committee is set to discuss the safety of Avandia in mid-July. The drug already carries a warning that it can cause heart failure, but some FDA officials think it also causes heart attacks and should be pulled from the market. According to internal reports released by leaders of the Senate Finance Committee earlier this year, FDA officials speculate that if patients on Avandia were switched to Actos, 500 heart attacks and 300 cases of heart failure could be prevented every month.

To read more, visit:  http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06/28/AR2010062803793.html

Replacing as little as a third of a daily serving of white rice with an equal amount of brown rice may lower the risk of type 2 diabetes, a study suggests. And replacing white rice with other types of whole grains can cut the risk even more.

Researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health say their study is the first to look at the relationship between rice intake and diabetes in a U.S. population. The authors based their findings on diet, lifestyle and health information from three studies covering 197,228 health-care workers, 80% of them women.

They found that eating five or more servings of white rice per week was associated with a slightly higher risk of type 2 diabetes than eating less than one serving a month. Eating two or more servings a week of brown rice, however, was associated with slightly lower risk.

The researchers conclude that replacing 50 grams of cooked white rice, equivalent to about a third of a serving, with an equal amount of brown rice seems to cut the risk of type 2 diabetes by 16%. Replacing white rice with other whole grains such as whole wheat and barley appears to lower risk by an estimated 36%, the paper says. The findings were published Monday in the Archives of Internal Medicine.

The study didn’t prove that eating brown rice cuts the risk of diabetes. And it is possible that brown rice eaters are simply healthier in other ways. But the study’s lead author, Qi Sun, now an instructor of medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, says that researchers adjusted for factors such as physical activity, body mass index and alcohol consumption that might have skewed the results. “After we adjusted for those, you still see an association,” he says.

Eating even more brown rice might bring more benefits, but because brown rice consumption was relatively low overall it wasn’t possible to determine that, says Dr. Sun. Previous research found the same association in a Chinese population.

The findings are consistent with what we know about how the body processes different types of grains, says Dr. Sun. Research has shown that in general, consuming white rice sparks a bigger increase in blood glucose than does brown rice. A diet heavy on foods that produce that kind of spike in blood sugar has been linked to a higher risk of type 2 diabetes.

Some other whole grains, such as whole wheat and barley, have even smaller blood sugar effects than brown rice, which may explain the additional benefit of consuming those grains, says Dr. Sun. Brown rice may also protect against the disease “by virtue of its high content of multiple nutrients, such as fiber, vitamins and minerals, the majority of which are lost during refining and milling processes,” the study says.

Dr. Sun says rice intake is increasing in the U.S., but that people are mostly eating white rice. “The message for the public is that they should try to avoid refined carbohydrates, no matter if it’s [in the form of] rice or bread, and replace them with whole grains.”

Joanne Slavin, professor at the University of Minnesota’s department of food science and nutrition, said she doesn’t think white rice is a major problem in the U.S. diet. “Most dietary guidance recommends complex carbohydrates” such as rice of any color, she says. “I’d much rather have people serving rice than a lot of other things,” she says.