Diabetes Research Center
Diabetes Research Center questions and answers
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Q: is there any naturopathic diabetes research center in india?if yes,where it is located?
A: INYS, 16th KM, Tumkur Road, Bangalore - 560 073
Q: what should be the possible eligibility for admission in research centres for diabetes?
can we get admitted on basis of BDS or MDS or by getting any other degree after BDS?
A: diabetes! one must have diabetes!
Q: Diabetes research topic for high school class?
I am in a research class in high school. We research a specific topic for about 8 months then come up with a final product at the end of the year..like a movie/video, or anything that u make that applies to ur research. My general topic is diabetes cuz a lot of my family has it and its always been a topic of interest to me, but I have to narrow it down to a specific question about diabetes (maybe something about diabetes in children?). Do you guys have any idea what this question could be, and maybe what a final product could be? Right now I’m thinking that my product can be that I can make a bunch of stuff that I can send to the children center in a hospital. Keep in mind that it is just a high school research paper and can’t be anything to out of this world..I am limited to my resources.
Thanks for the answers but I need something a little more complicated..It is a 8-9 month research project, so I need to have a research question that would take 8 months to find answers to or information on...do you guys have any ideas for a more complex topic that i can actually spend a good amount of time researching?
A: Can you draw? You could make a series of coloring page books on diabetes topics with Q&A type information on them (like, "What is a pancreas?").
You can produce information kits on the prevalence, types , and treatment of diabetes affecting your age group in 'teen talk' (so it doesn't sound like it was written for small kids or adults) with a title like "R U SWEET?" I know my daughter hates it when she gets 'little kid stuff' from the nurses but doesn't want to read the journal articles I collect, either. Include sample pieces of sugar free candies, list of people popular with your age who have diabetes (there are others besides the Jonas guy, like Ann Rice).
Q: I want to know where can I find information on chronic illnesses ?
I need some information on nyc hospitals or health centers that deal with asthma or diabetes. What are some websites/locations in Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens, or Manhattan ?
For e.g. Bellevue, Harlem Hospital, Queens Diabetes Center. Are these some of the places that I can utilize for research ?
Ty
A: Try www.webmd.com
Q: Is this Major breakthrough in diabetes cure by Dr H L Trivedi ? His 5 patients can be cured totally ?
Ahmedabad | Thursday, Nov 29 2007 IST
A city-based Institute of Kidney Diseases and Research Centre (IKDRC) has claimed a major breakthrough in diabetes cure by transplanting insulin-making stem cells in five diabetic patients.
Addressing reporters here yesterday, IKDRC Director Prof H L Trivedi, said ''We had successfully transplanted stem cells into the liver of five young patients very recently and all of them have started producing insulin.'' He said the IKDRC had successfully conducted transplantation to Palak Dineshbhai Patel (15) from Vadodara, Suniti (25) from Jaipur, Mathak Parsram Soni (19) from Jodhpur, Hemani Yogendra Gautam (14) from Kota in Rajasthan and Pranav Kulinbhai Joshi (28) from Ahmedabad.
For more details, click on this link :-
http://news.webindia123.com/news/articles/India/20071129/836612.html
5 patients of Dr Trivedi can be cured totally and are going to escalate in future ?
Prakash Thakrar
+91 99740 93554
prakashthakrar@gmail.com
A: Interesting but its too soon to say if they are cured or just have a temporary respite and is therefore not proof of a cure. If they are still OK twenty years on then I would be less cynical.
We diabetics often hear that there is a cure and it usually turns out to be false hope. Also, if I understand the work correctly, it involved people with Type 1 diabetes who have stopped producing insulin. It won't help the majority who are type 2. As many countries do not permit work with stem cells because of the way they are produced, it may never be a cure for all type 1s.
Mind you, it would be nice if it turned out to be an enduring cure with no side effects, limitations and no ethical problems!
Q: Xcell treatment for diabetes.......?
im a 16 year old boy with type 1 diabetes (diagnosed at 18 months) and when doing some research came across some stem cell treatment for diabetes where they remove some cells from your bone marrow and put it in your pancreas and this is then supposed to make diabetes easier to control. i was just wondering if anybody knew if there are risks for this treatment and would you reccommend me to take it as my father is willing to pay for the treatment. heres a link for more info http://www.xcell-center.com/treatments/results.aspx.
A: Stem cell treatment of Diabetes mellitus type 1 & 2
Introduction
If you or a loved one is living with diabetes then you may already be aware its debilitating effects.
Diabetes is often called the “silent killer” because it attacks the body slowly and stealthily. Newly diagnosed adult diabetes patients are usually not overly concerned about it since their symptoms are often no more serious than frequent urination and increased thirst. Many other patients have no symptoms at all.
However, as time goes by, the consequences of both types of diabetes become increasingly serious and can lead to death. These include heart disease, eye problems, kidney failure, nerve damage and erectile dysfunction, to name a few. Major contributors to the degenerative effects of diabetes are hyperglycemia (high blood sugar) and hypoglycemic events (acute low blood sugar).
http://www.diabetesforums.com/forum/lo-fi/t-44933.html
Q: Are you eating too much?
According to the latest research from the Oregon National Primate Research Center in Hillsboro, overeating during pregnancy may have health impacts on an unborn child.
The research was led by Dr. Kevin Grove, a scientist in ONPRC's Division of Neuroscience. Grove just returned from Australia where he presented his lab's latest research results at the prestigious 10th International Congress on Obesity.
The research demonstrated that the offspring of mothers who overeat are at risk for liver and pancreas damage, both of which can contribute to early-onset obesity and diabetes.
WHAT IS THE MAKE EXCUSE GIVEN BY PREGNANT WOMEN TO JUSTIFY EATING ABOVE AVERAGE AMOUNTS OF FOOD, BESIDES I'M HUNGRY?????????
No judgement hear, I just think some may be funny.
A: I always gained an insane amount of weight with my first 2 pregnancies, i didnt know how to eat well at that time, i do now.
Im 5 1/2 months pregnant with 3rd child and my weight is right on target for being how far along i am.
My first 2 children are just fine and not fat. And i wasnt fat after i had both of them either. I went back to my orginal 135-140 weight before i got pregnant with both of them.
It could not be eating above average amounts of food for some, they just may not eat very good foods sometimes. Who knows, some women just eat and get fat because its an excuse to be fat.
Q: Chemo & Radiation...Yes or No?
Mid March I recv'd a phone call that my Father who lives out of state. Had been hospitalized and was not expected to make it. My brother and I arrived at the hospital within 24 hrs and was met by his Dr who immediately told us he had pneumonia and because of his dementia and alcoholism was going to call in the state to take custody of him if we didn't want to. Please keep in mind we were unaware of any health issues with him. The next day we hired an attorney, day after that appeared before a judge and gained guardianship. After 1 week in the hospital and 4 weeks in a skilled nursing facility we prepared him for the move back to California with us. Over a 6 week time frame I made 3 trips to Oklahoma. I contacted UC Irvine Research Center for Aging and Demential before we moved him. Scheduled his appts for the week after the move. Obtained a new primary care Dr. The week following the move he saw his new Dr-she ordered a Brain CT, did a chest X-Ray and blood work. (Did I mention he has diabetes?) His tests came back as follows: CT-revealed moderate dementia and a previous stroke. Blood work showed 3rd stage kidney failure. Chest X-Ray showed a 2.7 x 2.0 mass causing concern for maliginacy. She referred him to a lung specialist who saw him 3 days later who ordered a Pet Scan. The next week the Pet Scan came back indicating multiple tumors in left lung. Colon, bladder, bowel, 3 ribs, 1 vertebre, invasion of the chest wall and his tonsils. The next week a biopsey was done and 8 days ago I was told that he has extended small cell lung cancer undifferentiated. His primary Dr said she personally would not put a loved one through chemo and radiation that was in his condition. She did however move forward with referrals to the oncologists. After my brother and I received the news and knew the appts had been made for July 6. We booked a 75' houseboat on Lake Powell for the entire family to spend a vacation together. We have camped and fished Lake Powell many years as a family and want to do this for my Dad and for us while he is still functional to do so. The problem is....telling him. Yes, we will have his primary care Dr do that but the decision for Chemo and Radiation is all together another issue. At best it will be pallitive for him. We don't know if the chemo oncologist will even determine if he will be able to tolerate chemo given all his health issues but won't discuss it with me until he see's my Father. There is a part of me that does not want to tell him that he has 2-4 months without any radiation or chemo. There's a part of me that feels like he would want to fight the fight. Then there's the part that just wants my Dad to enjoy as much of the time he has left doing what he loves and that is being with his family and fishing. Any insight or recommendation of treatment or lack of would be greatly appreciated. I am just at a loss...
A: Having nursed a parent with cancer, a parent in law with dementia and been through cancer treatment myself I would not recommend chemo for your father.
Chemo makes you feel ill, and lowers your immunity, leaving you open to more opportunistic infections.
Dementia patients deteriorate rapidly when ill or fighting infection.
Chemotherapy will accelerate the dementia.
Without the chemotherapy, the cancer will probably kill him before the dementia advances, he will still be himself.
With the chemo you will keep him alive longer but the dementia will advance faster so you will have a breathing someone who is no longer your father.
I would take cancer over dementia any day.
Q: Is it true that Women with big hips live longer?
I have found this research paper about the women's health on internet. A Swedish scientist named Dr. Lauren Lissner spend 24 years on this research and found out this result. I am quoting this as follows:
A study looking at the hip sizes of around 1,400 women found that those with a larger circumfrance were less likely to suffer from diabetes and heart disease. The hip measurements of Swedish women aged 38 to 60 were taken between 1968 and 1969 and the subjects were followed up 24 years later. The research, which will be revealed at a European conference on obesity in Vienna this week, found that women with a hip size greater than 41in were likely to live longer.
Prof Lauren Lissner, of the Centre for Nutritional Epidemiology at Goteborg University in Sweden, said: "With everything else remaining constant, a lower fat distribution does seem to be beneficial. The women we looked at were all of average weight, between 60kg and 65kg [9st 6lb and 10st 3lb], with a body mass index of between 20 and 25.
"A simplification of our result is that if two women had the same body mass index - weight divided by height squared - the one with the larger hips is better off." Prof Lissner stressed that none of the women in the study had been obese and that there was an obvious correlation between very large hips and heart disease.
A: Yes, the research paper abstract is avaialble at:
http://www.obesityresearch.org/cgi/content/abstract/9/10/644
Two sexes have significant difference between their
prakruti and physical pratikruti. (nature and appearance)While a woman can be compared to
silk cloth, man to jute cloth. Woman is "prakruti" according to
Indian philosophy. The differences in the body chemistry and minds
are two poles apart. According to Indian customs, cremation requires
burning the body. The last to resist burning to ashes are pelvic
bones in case of women, while similar bones in men are shoulder
bones. Hence the name "prakruti" or "kshetra" for women,
while "Purush" for men, meaning warrior principle, accomplishment-
achievement ambition in men. Many psychiatrists and students of
various branches of social sciences have struggled throughout their
lifetimes to study these differences.
Author has seen many women aged more than 90 and having very silky skin and hair. They had more than ten children and large hips. This means that they have good fertility too. The Vatsayana, (the equivalent of Masters and Johnson in west), who wrote Kamasutra, the oldest treatise on sex and man/woman relationship, describes woman with large hips as "hastini", the one who looks like an elephant. Do you know the life of elephant?
Vatsaayana says that the hastini woman easy to satisfy in sex, bears more children, her deliveries are easy and is very much attached to children, She has generally large breasts too and feeds every baby well. In short she is destined to be a good mother!
So Dr Lauren Lissner, you have reinvented wheel. Indians have exhausted almost every subject in which west is interested.
By the way, you may have some more info on man/woman difference at:
http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/ayurvedaonline/message/4622
Q: Could I be hypoglycemic? How is it diagnosed?
I've always just assumed I was either out of shape (though I am a dancer) or just a compulsive eater, but I'm beginning to think I'm hypoglycemic. If I don't snack fairly consistently, I become very dizzy / weak feeling. Sometimes, I even become shaky. I decided to do some research on it and I read that people with hypoglycemia often have nightmares, sweat in their sleep (enough that it makes their pajamas/sheets wet), and still feel tired when they wake up. All three of these apply to me. I often feel fatigue, have insomnia, allergies, and sometimes have heart palpitations. Diabetes runs rampant throughout my family - both of my grandfathers have it and so does my father and one of his sisters. For those of you who are hypoglycemic, does it sound like I could possibly have it? Would I be able to go to my campus health center and have it checked out (I am an hour and a half away from home and, thus, my regular doctor)? Anything and everything you can tell me would be appreciated.
-Ashley-
A: Some of the symptoms of hypoglycemia are:
fatigue
insomnia
mental confusion
nervousness
mood swings
faintness
headaches
depression
phobias
heart palpitations
a craving for sweets
cold hands and feet
forgetfulness
dizziness
blurred vision
inner trembling
outbursts of temper
sudden hunger
allergies
crying spells
In simple layman's language, hypoglycemia is the body's inability to properly handle the large amounts of sugar that the average American consumes today. It's an overload of sugar, alcohol, caffeine, tobacco and stress.
In medical terms, hypoglycemia is defined in relation to its cause. Functional hypoglycemia, the kind we are addressing here, is the oversecretion of insulin by the pancreas in response to a rapid rise in blood sugar or "glucose".
All carbohydrates (vegetables, fruits and grains, as well as simple table sugar), are broken down into simple sugars by the process of digestion. This sugar enters the blood stream as glucose and our level of blood sugar rises. The pancreas then secretes a hormone known as insulin into the blood in order to bring the glucose down to normal levels.
In hypoglycemia, the pancreas sends out too much insulin and the blood sugar plummets below the level necessary to maintain well-being.
Since all the cells of the body, especially the brain cells, use glucose for fuel, a blood glucose level that is too low starves the cells of needed fuel, causing both physical and emotional symptoms.
If your dr suspects it they will do blood testing ,,, this will include doing fasting to get accurate testing.. good luck
Q: Wouldn't it be nice to have a dog in every doctor's office to screen for disease?
Mon, Jun 22 05:50 PM Dogs are being trained in Britain as potential life-savers to warn diabetic owners when their blood sugar levels fall to dangerously low levels.
Man's best friend already has been shown capable of sniffing out certain cancer cells, and dogs have long been put to work in the hunt for illegal drugs and explosives.
Their new front-line role in diabetes care follows recent evidence suggesting a dog's hyper-sensitive nose can detect tiny changes that occur when a person is about to have a hypoglycemic attack.
A survey last December by researchers at Queen's University Belfast found 65 percent of 212 people with insulin-dependent diabetes reported that when they had a hypoglycemic episode their pets had reacted by whining, barking, licking or some other display.
At the Cancer and Bio-Detection Dogs research centre in Aylesbury, southern England, animal trainers are putting that finding into practice and honing dogs' innate skills.The charity has 17 rescue dogs at various stages of training that will be paired up with diabetic owners, many of them children.
"Dogs have been trained to detect certain odours down to parts per trillion, so we are talking tiny, tiny amounts. Their world is really very different to ours," Chief Executive Claire Guest told Reuters TV.
The centre was started five years ago by orthopaedic surgeon Dr John Hunt, who wanted to investigate curious anecdotes about dogs pestering their owners repeatedly on parts of their body that were later found to be cancerous.At around the same time, the first hard evidence was being gathered by researchers down the road at Amersham Hospital that dogs could identify bladder cancer from chemicals in urine.
The move into diabetes followed the case of Paul Jackson, who told Guest and her team about his dog Tinker who warns him when his sugar levels get too low and he is in danger of collapsing."It's generally licking my face, panting beside me. It depends how far I have gone before he realises," Jackson said. Tinker has now been trained by the Aylesbury centre and is a fully qualified Diabetic Hypo-Alert dog, complete with red jacket to announce himself as a working assistance animal.
The centre is continuing work to perfect dogs' ability in spotting signs of cancer. But while dog-lover Guest says it would be nice to have a dog in every doctor's office to screen for disease, ultimately that is not practical.
Instead, she hopes the research will lead to the invention of an electronic nose that will mimic a dog's.
"At the moment electronic noses are not as advanced as the dogs', they are about 15 years behind. But the work that we are doing and what we are finding out will help scientists advance quickly so that they can use electronic noses to do the same thing," she said.
Edit: Bear! You stay away from dogs today...and stairs! : )
A: Strange dogs have a tendency to sniff my crotch,so does that mean I've got ball cancer or something?
NO!
I'll trust the doctor & my own intuition every time.
Faith - Impossible,as you very well know! ;)
Q: Did you know there was such thing as a sitting disease?
Your Body's Biggest Enemy
Learn how to ward off the nasty effects of a new epidemic: Sitting Disease
You might not want to take the following stat sitting down: According to a poll of nearly 6,300 people by the Institute for Medicine and Public Health, it's likely that you spend a stunning 56 hours a week planted like a geranium—staring at your computer screen, working the steering wheel, or collapsed in a heap in front of your high-def TV. And it turns out women may be more sedentary than men, since they tend to play fewer sports and hold less active jobs.
Even if you think you have an energetic lifestyle, sitting is how most of us spend a good part of our day. And it's killing us—literally—by way of obesity, heart disease, and diabetes. All this downtime is so unhealthy that it's given birth to a new area of medical study called inactivity physiology, which explores the effects of our increasingly butt-bound, tech-driven lives, as well as a deadly new epidemic researchers have dubbed "sitting disease."
The Modern-Day Desk Sentence
"Our bodies have evolved over millions of years to do one thing: move," says James Levine,M.D., Ph.D., of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, and author of Move a Little, Lose a Lot. "As human beings, we evolved to stand upright. For thousands of generations, our environment demanded nearly constant physical activity."
But thanks to technological advances, the Internet, and an increasingly longer work week, that environment has disappeared. "Electronic living has all but sapped every flicker of activity from our daily lives," Levine says. You can shop, pay bills, make a living, and with Twitter and Facebook, even catch up with friends without so much as standing up. And the consequences of all that easy living are profound.
When you sit for an extended period of time, your body starts to shut down at the metabolic level, says Marc Hamilton, Ph.D., associate professor of biomedical sciences at the University of Missouri. When muscles—especially the big ones meant for movement, like those in your legs—are immobile, your circulation slows and you burn fewer calories. Key flab-burning enzymes responsible for breaking down triglycerides (a type of fat) simply start switching off. Sit for a full day and those fat burners plummet by 50 percent, Levine says.
That's not all. The less you move, the less blood sugar your body uses; research shows that for every two hours spent on your backside per day, your chance of contracting diabetes goes up by 7 percent. Your risk for heart disease goes up, too, because enzymes that keep blood fats in check are inactive. You're also more prone to depression: With less blood flow, fewer feel-good hormones are circulating to your brain.
Spending the day on your rear is also hell on your posture and spine health, says Douglas Lentz, a certified strength and conditioning specialist and the director of fitness and wellness for Summit Health in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania. "When you sit all day, your hip flexors and hamstrings shorten and tighten, while the muscles that support your spine become weak and stiff," he says. It's no wonder that the incidence of chronic lower-back pain among women has increased threefold since the early 1990s.
And even if you exercise, you're not immune. Consider this: We've become so sedentary that 30 minutes a day at the gym may not do enough to counteract the detrimental effects of eight, nine, or 10 hours of sitting, says Genevieve Healy, Ph.D., a research fellow at the Cancer Prevention Research Centre of the University of Queensland in Australia. That's one big reason so many women still struggle with weight, blood sugar, and cholesterol woes despite keeping consistent workout routines.
In a recent study, Healy and her colleagues found that regardless of how much moderate to vigorous exercise participants did, those who took more breaks from sitting throughout the day had slimmer waists, lower BMIs (body mass indexes), and healthier blood fat and blood sugar levels than those who sat the most. In an extensive study of 17,000 people, Canadian researchers drew an even more succinct conclusion: The longer you spend sitting each day, the more likely you are to die an early death—no matter how fit you are
A: I think the Scientific name for it is Numbutt
Q: Toxic baby bottles still being sold!?
How many parents are aware of this issue and taking action to protect their children (by breastfeeding, and/or using BPA free bottles?)
See article: Popular clear, plastic baby bottles are not safe to give to your baby. They leach a toxic hormone-disrupting chemical called bisphenol A into the liquid in the bottle, according to a report released by the Environment California Research and Policy Center.
Even very small doses of bisphenol A have been linked to cancers, impaired immune function, early onset of puberty, obesity, diabetes, and hyperactivity, among other problems.
Upon analyzing five of the most popular brands of baby bottles on the market (Avent, Dr. Brown’s, Evenflo, Gerber, and Playtex), the researchers found that all five brands leached bisphenol A at levels that caused harm in animal studies.
San Francisco was the first jurisdiction in the country to finally pass a law prohibiting the use of bisphenol A in toys and other products intended for use by children under age 3. However, the chemical is widely used across the country (and is found in the urine of over 95 percent of the population).
To protect your baby from this dangerous toxin:
Choose glass baby bottles instead of plastic
Avoid heating food or beverages in plastic containers or bottles (this speeds up the leaching process)
Don’t wash plastic bottles/containers with harsh soaps or hot water (this also accelerates leaching) http://v.mercola.com/blogs/public_blog/Toxic-Baby-Bottles-Still-Being-Sold-22683.aspx
A google search yields multiple other articles on this subject.
What do formula feeding and/or breastfeeding moms who occasionally use bottles plan to do?
Will you switch to glass bottles and/or BPA-free plastic bottles?
BPA in bottles AND formula...
Gee, its a good thing we have breasts. Too bad more women dont use them. Of course, there are chemicals in many of the things that we adults use, but at least our bodies and minds are fully formed. Babies shouldnt be needlessly exposed to such garbage.
A: you better stop drinking out of plastic water bottles, eating food from cans, eating food from take-out containers, etc, etc,etc. since BPA is in these things also. Studies done have shown that most Americans have levels of BPA in their urine.
Yes, it MAY happen and cause problems, but there are things you can do. The chemical may "leech" out during heating, so don't heat the bottle in the microwave, etc. Watch for cracks and scratches in the bottles and cloudiness.
Q: biology in the news?
ok well i had to do a report but im not sure if this leans more toward health or biology. could i use this for my biology report?...........
Lack of Vitamin D Boosts Death Risk
Many people aren't getting enough of the sunlight-sourced nutrient, researchers say
Printer-friendly version Printer-friendly version
HealthDay
Monday, August 11, 2008
HealthDay news image MONDAY, Aug. 11 (HealthDay News) -- Inadequate vitamin D could increase your risk of death by 26 percent, a new study concludes.
Yet many people are not getting enough vitamin D, which the skin makes naturally when exposed to sunlight. A nationwide survey found that 41 percent of men and 53 percent of women in the United States were not getting enough of this vital nutrient.
"The importance of vitamin D may be underappreciated," said lead author Dr. Michal Melamed, a clinical fellow at Johns Hopkins University. "There are studies that link low vitamin D levels to the development of heart disease, peripheral arterial disease, diabetes, hypertension and different cancers," she said.
The report was published in the Aug. 11 online edition of the Archives of Internal Medicine.
For the study, Melamed's team collected data on more than 13,000 men and women who took part in the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. Levels of vitamin D were collected in 1988 and 1994, and the participants were followed through 2000.
During more than eight and a half years of follow-up, 1,806 people died. Among these, 777 died from cardiovascular disease. Four hundred of these people were found to be deficient in their vitamin D levels.
"Those who had the lowest levels of vitamin D had a 26 percent higher risk of death from all causes compared to those with the highest vitamin D levels," Melamed noted.
The findings in this study confirm a trend seen in other studies linking vitamin D deficiency to increased risk for breast cancer and depression in the elderly, the researchers noted. Melamed's group had previously shown that vitamin D deficiency increases the risk of peripheral artery disease (circulatory problems in the legs) by 80 percent.
Among other things, vitamin D is essential for maintaining levels of calcium and phosphorus in the body. "Vitamin D may be very important for overall health," Melamed said.
According to the U.S. Institute of Medicine, people should get between 200 and 400 international units of vitamin D a day. The best way to get vitamin D, naturally, is by being out in the sun.
As little as 10 to 15 minutes of sun a day can give you all a vitamin D you need. Vitamin D is also available in small quantities in foods such as fish and milk.
Whether vitamin D supplements are effective isn't yet known, Melamed said. "That's the million-dollar question," she said.
"I think people should optimize their diet and sun exposure to get an adequate level of vitamin D without taking supplements," Melamed said. "It may be a good idea for people who are at risk for vitamin D deficiency, including African Americans and people who don't spend a lot of time in the sun, to get their vitamin D levels checked by their doctor."
Dr. Michael F. Holick, director of the Vitamin D, Skin and Bone Research Laboratory at Boston University Medical Center, advocates high levels of vitamin D supplements to maintain good health. Vitamin D deficiency is probably the most common medical problem worldwide, Holick said.
"We know that being vitamin D sufficient reduces the risk of having your first heart attack by more than 50 percent, reduces the risk of having peripheral vascular disease by as much is 80 percent and decreases the risk of prostate, colon, breast and a whole host of other cancers by as much is 50 to 70 percent," Holick said.
In addition, not getting enough vitamin D also increases your risk for type 2 diabetes, Holick noted. By increasing your vitamin D intake to 800 international units a day reduces the risk of developing diabetes by as much as a third, he said.
Holick recommends taking high doses of vitamin D supplements, as well as sun exposure. In addition, Holick recommends taking as much as 1,400 international units of a vitamin D supplement every day.
HealthDay
A: It seems to lean more towards health than biology. For biology, my guess is that you'd need to focus on the biological functioning of the vitamin.
But I think, for a report, it will be sufficient, because it does deal with a biological topic. Medicine is largely based on biology.
Q: Interesting article "Thin people might be fat on the inside" no question here...?
Internal fat around organs can increase diabetes and heart risks
The Associated Press
Updated: 12:03 p.m. PT May 11, 2007
LONDON - If it really is what’s on the inside that counts, then a lot of thin people might be in trouble.
Some doctors now think that the internal fat surrounding vital organs like the heart, liver or pancreas — invisible to the naked eye — could be as dangerous as the more obvious external fat that bulges underneath the skin.
“Being thin doesn’t automatically mean you’re not fat,” said Dr. Jimmy Bell, a professor of molecular imaging at Imperial College, London. Since 1994, Bell and his team have scanned nearly 800 people with MRI machines to create “fat maps” showing where people store fat.
According to the data, people who maintain their weight through diet rather than exercise are likely to have major deposits of internal fat, even if they are otherwise slim. “The whole concept of being fat needs to be redefined,” said Bell, whose research is funded by Britain’s Medical Research Council.
Without a clear warning signal — like a rounder middle — doctors worry that thin people may be lulled into falsely assuming that because they’re not overweight, they’re healthy.
“Just because someone is lean doesn’t make them immune to diabetes or other risk factors for heart disease,” said Dr. Louis Teichholz, chief of cardiology at Hackensack University Medical Center in New Jersey, who was not involved in Bell’s research.
Even people with normal Body Mass Index scores — a standard obesity measure that divides your weight by the square of your height — can have surprising levels of fat deposits inside.
Of the women scanned by Bell and his colleagues, as many as 45 percent of those with normal BMI scores (20 to 25) actually had excessive levels of internal fat. Among men, the percentage was nearly 60 percent.
Relating the news to what Bell calls “TOFIs” — people who are “thin outside, fat inside” — is rarely uneventful. “The thinner people are, the bigger the surprise,” he said, adding the researchers even found TOFIs among people who are professional models.
According to Bell, people who are fat on the inside are essentially on the threshold of being obese. They eat too many fatty, sugary foods — and exercise too little to work it off — but they are not eating enough to actually be fat. Scientists believe we naturally accumulate fat around the belly first, but at some point, the body may start storing it elsewhere.
Still, most experts believe that being of normal weight is an indicator of good health, and that BMI is a reliable measurement.
“BMI won’t give you the exact indication of where fat is, but it’s a useful clinical tool,” said Dr. Toni Steer, a nutritionist at Britain’s Medical Research Council.
Unhealthy skinny people
Doctors are unsure about the exact dangers of internal fat, but some suspect it contributes to the risk of heart disease and diabetes. They theorize that internal fat disrupts the body’s communication systems. The fat enveloping internal organs might be sending the body mistaken chemical signals to store fat inside organs like the liver or pancreas. This could ultimately lead to insulin resistance, type 2 diabetes, or heart disease.
Experts have long known that fat, active people can be healthier than their skinny, inactive counterparts. “Normal-weight persons who are sedentary and unfit are at much higher risk for mortality than obese persons who are active and fit,” said Dr. Steven Blair, an obesity expert at the University of South Carolina.
For example, despite their ripples of fat, super-sized Sumo wrestlers probably have a better metabolic profile than some of their slim, sedentary spectators, Bell said. That’s because the wrestlers’ fat is primarily stored under the skin, not streaking throughout their vital organs and muscles.
The good news is that internal fat can be easily burned off through exercise or even by improving your diet. “Even if you don’t see it on your bathroom scale, caloric restriction and physical exercise have an aggressive effect on visceral fat,” said Dr. Bob Ross, an obesity expert at Queen’s University in Canada.
Because many factors contribute to heart disease, Teichholz says it’s difficult to determine the precise danger of internal fat — though it certainly doesn’t help.
“Obesity is a risk factor, but it’s lower down on the totem pole of risk factors,” he said, explaining that whether or not people smoke, their family histories and blood pressure and cholesterol rates are more important determinants than both external and internal fat.
When it comes to being fit, experts say there is no short-cut. “If you just want to look thin, then maybe dieting is enough,” Bell said. “But if you want to actually be healthy, then exercise has to be an important component of your lifestyle.”
A: For those like me, a man of very large size, I don't have health issues other than my 550 plus pounds. For a man of my weight, I would say I am sort of active. I do walk, albeit slowly and with a careful waddle to make sure I keep my balance, and I do like to swim. I also like to eat and I do eat a lot. That comes with the size. Good article.