Diabetes 'impact on brain power'
http://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/mpapps/pagetools/print/news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health

Failure to control type 2 diabetes may have a long-term impact on the brain, research has suggested.
 
Severe hypoglycaemic episodes - hypos - occur when blood sugar levels drop dangerously low. A University of Edinburgh team found they may lead to poorer memory and diminished brain power. The study, based on 1,066 people with type 2 diabetes aged between 60 and 75, was presented at a conference of the charity Diabetes UK.

HYPOGLYCAEMIA

• Hypoglycaemia is caused by a lack of sugar (glucose) reaching the brain, which uses it as fuel

• Symptoms can include sweating, fatigue, hunger, feeling dizzy, feeling weak, a higher heart rate than usual and blurred vision

• More severe episodes can led to temporary loss of consciousness, convulsions and coma
  The volunteers completed seven tests assessing mental abilities such as memory, logic and concentration.

The 113 people who had previously experienced severe hypos scored lower than the rest of the group. They performed poorly in tests of their general mental ability, and vocabulary. There are at least 670,000 people in England aged between 60 and 75 years old who have Type 2 diabetes and around a third of them could be at risk of a hypo.

Possible reasons

Lead researcher Dr Jackie Price said: "Either hypos lead to cognitive decline, or cognitive decline makes it more difficult for people to manage their diabetes, which in turn causes more hypos. "A third explanation could be that a third unidentified factor is causing both the hypos and the cognitive decline.

"We are carrying out more research to establish which explanation is the most likely." Dr Iain Frame, director of research at Diabetes UK, said: "This study reinforces previous evidence which suggests that poorly controlled diabetes affects the functioning of the brain. "We already know that type 2 diabetes increases the risk of developing Alzheimer's disease, which is a type of dementia, and this research adds another piece to a very complex jigsaw puzzle.

"However, more research is needed before we can come to any firm conclusions."  There are 2.5 million people diagnosed with diabetes in the UK and up to 500,000 who have type 2 diabetes but do not know it.  It is predicted that by 2025 there will be up to four million people with diabetes in the UK.

Story from BBC NEWS: http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/health/7937947.stmm

Losing the Last Ten Pounds is the Hardest Part of any Diet Confirms Weight-Loss
http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/April2009/17/c2623.html?view=print

South Florida physician Sanford Siegal, D.O., M.D., explains why the Law of Diminishing Returns applies to weight loss and reveals how to overcome this obstacle to reaching a normal weight

MIAMI, April 17 /PRNewswire/ -- Dr. Sanford Siegal, Medical Director of Miami, Florida-based weight-loss practice, Siegal Medical Group, today confirmed the widely held suspicion among dieters that the most challenging part of reaching a healthful weight is shedding the last ten pounds.

"Losing that last ten pounds is, in fact, the greatest challenge, but it's more complicated than that," said Dr. Siegal. "It's more accurate to say that the next pound is harder to lose than the previous one because, like it or not, the Law of Diminishing Returns applies to weight loss. The more you lose, the harder it is to lose more."

In his forthcoming book, Dr. Siegal's Cookie Diet Book (Hyde Park Publishers, Ltd.), Dr. Siegal explains that the more one weighs, the more calories he burns just transporting his own weight. As a dieter sheds pounds, the amount of calories he burns simply going about his normal routine decreases.

"One of the great ironies in losing weight is that your own weight helps you lose it," continued Dr. Siegal. "A person who weighs 250 pounds burns many more calories performing the same activity as one who weighs 150 pounds."

According to Dr. Siegal, many overweight people don't recognize that carrying excess fat inside their bodies takes the same amount of energy as carrying around an object of the same weight.

In his practice, in order to put things into perspective for his patients, Dr. Siegal asks them to imagine what their life would be like if they were to strap a fifty pound weight to their body and never take it off except to sit or lie down. In most cases, he says, people recognize the tremendous amount of effort they would have to expend just to go about their normal activities. They have no trouble imagining how taxing it would be to ascend a flight of stairs, take out the trash, or put away the groceries. Yet, while they are able to imagine the consequences of carrying around a heavy weight, few of his patients recognize that they are already doing so.

"Someone who is fifty pounds overweight at 200 pounds uses the same amount of energy to get around as a 150 pound person with a fifty pound weight strapped to her body," continued Dr. Siegal. "Imagine how many extra calories you would burn if you were to lug a fifty pound barbell everywhere you went!"

In his book, and on his web site, CookieDiet.com, Dr. Siegal provides free tools to help people cheat the Law of Diminishing Returns and lose weight at a fast, predictable, and consistent pace, even when they reach the hurdle of the last ten pounds.

Health Worries May Keep Aging Adults On The Couch
Excerpt From: http://www.canada.com/health/Health+worries+keep+aging+adults

Older adults who worry about their health often opt out of physical activity -- and as a result, they may have greater trouble walking and getting around as they age, new research suggests. Older adults who worry about their health often opt out of physical activity -- and as a result, they may have greater trouble walking and getting around as they age, new research suggests.
Photograph by: Sergio Perez, Reuters

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Older adults who worry about their health often opt out of physical activity -- and as a result, they may have greater trouble walking and getting around as they age, new research suggests.

"Our research shows that a key component to avoid walking difficulty in older adults is to resolve health worry issues earlier in life," Bradley Cardinal, of the department of nutrition and exercise science at Oregon State University in Corvallis, who was involved in the study, noted in a university-issued statement.

Some studies have suggested that "health worry" may motivate people to exercise regularly and engage in other healthy behaviors. The current study, however, suggests that's not always the case. Among a representative sample of 7,527 adults aged 70 and older participating in the Longitudinal Study of Aging, people with a high degree of health worry engaged in less physical activity than those who worried less about their health.

Furthermore, people who participated in less physical activity were more likely than their more active counterparts to report having trouble walking 6 years later.

"Because physical function decreases with age and safety concerns arise, older adults may not choose physical activity as a response to health worry," the researchers suggest in the current issue of Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport, where their research is published.

They also note that health professionals, the media, fitness instructors and family and friends may use warnings of illness or premature death to try to motivate aging couch potatoes to exercise or at least become more physically active. However, the current study suggests that this may be counterproductive; aging adults may become so fearful of their health that they will avoid physical activity.

"Using threats and fear-tactics to encourage physical activity in older adults will not work," Cardinal said.

A more productive approach in dealing with health concerns in the aging population, suggest Cardinal and colleagues, is to provide health-related information and screening tools prior to beginning a physical activity routine to help cope with health worries. This might ease health concerns and promote participation in physical activity.

"I think the simple message from this study is that people should be encouraged to walk," Cardinal noted in comments to Reuters Health. "To encourage walking, people should avoid fear-raising tactics. Rather, the emphasis should be on walking for fun, for health, for transportation."

"Fear-inducing strategies often cause older adults to worry about things like falling and that diminishes their desire to walk, which in turn diminishes their ability to walk. It is a vicious cycle," Cardinal warned.

SOURCE: Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport, March 2009.

Music eases severe stress, anxiety in heart patients
http://www.sindhtoday.net/health/85694.htm
Apr 11th, 2009 | By Sindh Today |

Washington, April 11 (IANS) Music eases severe stress and anxiety in patients who are undergoing treatment for coronary heart disease (CHD).  A Cochrane Systematic Review found that listening to music could decrease blood pressure (BP), heart rate, and levels of anxiety in heart patients.

Uncertainties and anxieties surrounding diagnosis and the various procedures involved in treatment can significantly worsen the condition. For example, stress can increase BP, leading to an increased risk of complications. Listening to music may help alleviate stress and therefore reduce this risk.

“Our findings suggest listening to music may be beneficial for heart disease patients,” said Joke Bradt, at the Arts and Quality of Life Research Centre at Temple University, Philadelphia.  Researchers reviewed data from 23 studies, which together included 1,461 patients.  Two studies focussed on patients treated by trained music therapists, but most did not, using instead interventions where patients listened to pre-recorded music on CDs offered by healthcare professionals, said a Temple release.