The problem with the review of a new study showing that we have to exercise an hour a day to keep the weight off is that almost no one has time for it.
“People, let’s be realistic,” writes one reader of the review in the Los Angeles Times. “One person in one hundred may be able to exercise one hour each day. What about the rest of us?”
So true. Technology has improved the lives of almost all Americans and other fortunate people in the developed world so much that the only muscles we need any more are those in our eyes, our ears, and our fingers. And our mouth muscles, of course.
Browsing Tag
Diabetes Research
Just when it looked like we could relax about the amount of salt we use, it seems that we may need to limit how much of it we use after all.
I used to trust the recommendations of the American medical establishment that we must reduce the amount of salt we use in order to control hypertension (high blood pressure). Early last year, in fact, I wrote here how we can reduce it to help control our blood pressure.
But in “The (Political) Science of Salt” iconoclastic science writer Gary Taubes exposed the myth that if you, “Eat less salt…you will lower your blood pressure and live a longer, healthier life.” Many of us with diabetes believed this myth — with the prodding of our doctors — because high blood pressure goes hand in hand with diabetes. High blood pressure — hypertension — and diabetes are two of the main components of the so-called “metabolic syndrome” or “syndrome x.”
Any time is a good time to lose weight if your body mass index is over 25. So I’m surprised to learn that there is a best time.
A large study that the professional journal Diabetes Care will publish in its October issue indicates that if you have diabetes, the best time to lose weight is right after your diagnosis. Even if you gain back that weight, by taking off the pounds then you have a better chance of keeping your blood glucose and blood pressure levels under reasonably good control.
The study comes from Kaiser Permanente in Oregon and Washington, one of the country’s largest health maintenance organizations with about 480,000 members. Its Center for Health Research in Portland, Oregon, has taken the lead in analyzing the electronic health records of its members. This is one HMO that knows how the improved health of its members can improve the organization’s bottom line at the same time — and acts on that knowledge.
Our mouths are key to diabetes control. And not just what we put in them.
How would you like to reduce your A1C level by 0.67 percent — like from 6.67 to 6.0 — without putting less in your mouth or even increasing your exercise? This third type of A1C control may be the easiest ever.
Research presented at last month’s Scientific Sessions of the American Diabetes Association that I attended in San Francisco made this point. Dr. George Taylor, associate professor of dentistry at the University of Michigan, reported there on recent studies demonstrating the association between periodontal problems and the complications of diabetes. He spoke in the first symposium ever by dentists to ADA meetings.
If you want to lose weight, doing something as simple as recording what you eat might make the biggest difference. Writing down what you eat can double your weight loss, according to a study that the American Journal of Preventative Medicine will publish next month.
This finding comes from an analysis of the first phase of one of the largest weight loss maintenance trials every conducted. After about six months, the nearly 1,700 participants lost an average of 13 pounds.
This is the low-carb year, not week. At the start of this year the American Diabetes Association finally gave its limited endorsement to a low-carb lifestyle. It’s good for weight loss for up to a year, they maintain.
Going low-carb for a week just won’t cut it. But you might feel weak when you start.
When I started very low-carbing last year, I didn’t ever feel weak. But I had been on a rather low-carb diet for a couple of years, ever since starting on Byetta — when certainly did feel weak for a couple of weeks.
At the time I was concerned enough to ask my doctor, Jeffry Gerber, about it.
“Don’t worry,” Dr. Jeff told me. “You will work through it soon.”