Deaths Halt Diabetes Study

Deaths Halt Diabetes Study

The U.S. government abruptly halted aggressive treatment in a major study of diabetes and heart disease after a surprising number of deaths occurred among patients who pushed their blood sugar to very low levels. The 10,000-patient ACCORD was designed to investigate whether lowering blood sugar levels to below the current recommended target would help protect patients at high-risk of heart attack. However, the study was halted 18 months early, following 257 deaths among aggressively treated patients, compared to only 203 among diabetics given more standard care. Although aggressively treated patients were actually less likely to suffer heart attacks, any heart attacks they did suffer were more likely to be fatal. A close look at the multiple medications patients used, including the drug Avandia that is suspected of being a heart risk, showed no sign that any were to blame.

Dr. Mercola's Comments:

One concept that I strive to make well-known, which has the potential to save hundreds of thousands and even millions of lives, is that diabetes is not a disease of blood sugar. Rather, it is a disease of insulin – of insulin resistance -- and perhaps more importantly, of faulty leptin signaling. Until that concept becomes well-known in both the medical community and by the public at large, this misconception will continue to be promoted in studies such as the one above, revealing the inadequacy of current conventional medical treatment for chronic diseases such as diabetes, and their erroneous advice about nutrition. Typically, conventional treatment is focused on fixing a symptom, in this case elevated blood sugar, rather than the underlying disease. Symptoms are generally the way that nature has taught our bodies to deal with a disease – the real underlying biological or physiological problem. Similarly, treatments that concentrate merely on lowering blood sugar for diabetes while raising insulin levels, can actually worsen rather than remedy the actual problem of metabolic miscommunication. It just trades one evil for another...Read More...

Starving student blames stingy host family

Parents consider suing AFS after son was placed in Egyptian home

AP This photo, taken in January, shows Jonathan McCullum at a hospital in Portland, Maine, after his time abroad.

updated 4:43 p.m. ET, Wed., Feb. 27, 2008

HALLOWELL, Maine - Jonathan McCullum was in perfect health at 155 pounds when he left last summer to spend the school year as an exchange student in Egypt.

But when he returned home to Maine just four months later, the 5-foot-9 teenager weighed a mere 97 pounds and was so weak that he struggled to carry his baggage or climb a flight of stairs. Doctors said he was at risk for a heart attack.

McCullum says he was denied sufficient food while staying with a family of Coptic Christians, who fast for more than 200 days a year, a regimen unmatched by other Christians...Read More...

Anti-impotence pill could boost high flying pilots

 Thu Feb 7, 3:43 PM ET

   JERUSALEM (Reuters) - A drug used to treat impotence could help Israeli fighter pilots operate at high altitude, the Israeli military's official magazine reported in its latest issue.

It said a retired general plans to present to the air force the results of a study he conducted on Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania where he found that tadalafil, the active ingredient in Cialis tablets, improved breathing in a thin atmosphere...Read More...

Strokes among middle-aged women triple By MARILYNN MARCHIONE, AP Medical Writer

By MARILYNN MARCHIONE, AP Medical Writer

NEW ORLEANS - Strokes have tripled in recent years among middle-aged women in the U.S., an alarming trend doctors blame on the obesity epidemic. Nearly 2 percent of women ages 35 to 54 reported suffering a stroke in the most recent federal health survey, from 1999 to 2004. Only about half a percent did in the previous survey, from 1988 to 1994...Read More...

Antibiotics Frequently Given To Patients With Advanced Dementia

A new study by researchers in the US found that people with advanced dementia are frequently given antibiotics toward the end of life, and has thrown into question whether this practice should be curtailed in view of the increased risk of developing drug resistant superbugs.

The study is the work of Drs Erika D'Agata and Susan L Mitchell of the Department of Medicine, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, and is published in the 25th February issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine.

Advanced dementia patients in nursing homes are at high risk of infections and antimicrobial exposure near the end of life, wrote the researchers.

D'Agata and Mitchell studied a group of 214 residents, of average age 85.2, with advanced dementia being cared for in 21 nursing homes in and around Boston.

The residents were assessed between 2003 and 2006 and then every three months for up to 18 months. At each assessment, the number and type of antibiotics prescribed, with reasons (indication), were noted from records kept at the nursing home...Read More...

Study casts doubt on anti-depressants

By Salamander Davoudi

Published: February 25 2008 19:25 | Last updated: February 25 2008 19:25

Prescribing anti-depressants to the vast majority of patients is futile, as the drugs have little or no impact at all, according to researchers.

Almost 50 clinical trials were reviewed by psychologists from the University of Hull who found that new-generation anti-depressants worked no better than a placebo – a dummy pill – for mildly depressed patients.Read More................

Diet Soda Now Linked to Heart Disease?????

Eating two or more servings a day of red meat increases your risk of metabolic syndrome by 25 percent, compared to those who have two servings of red meat each week, a new study found.

Drinking diet soda also increased the risk of metabolic syndrome.

Metabolic syndrome is a cluster of risk factors such as excessive fat around your waist, high cholesterol, high blood sugar and high blood pressure, all of which can raise your risk of heart disease and diabetes.

The researchers examined the diets of over 9,500 people between the ages of 45 and 64. They were categorized into two groups: a “western-pattern diet” that included processed meat, fried foods and red meat, or a “prudent-pattern diet” that included more fruits and vegetables, poultry and fish.

They concluded that lots of meat, fried foods and diet soda increase your risk of heart disease.

Sources:

• Reuters January 22, 2008

Vaccine Companies Investigated For Murder!

A formal investigation has been launched by French authorities against two managers from drug companies GlaxoSmithKline and Sanofi Pasteur. A second investigation for manslaughter has also been opened against Sanofi Pasteur MSD.

The investigations are in response to allegations that the companies failed to fully disclose side effects from an anti-hepatitis B drug used between 1994 and 1998.

During this time, close to two-thirds of the French population, and almost all newborn babies, received a hepatitis B vaccine. The vaccination campaign was halted after concerns rose over the shot’s side effects.

Thirty plaintiffs, including the families of five people who died after the vaccination, have launched a civil action in the case against the drug companies.

Sources:

• Reuters February 1, 2008

Urinary tract infections may come from pets

By David Douglas

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Picking up an E. coli bug from your pet might lead to a urinary tract infection, according to Minneapolis-based researchers.

"Sharing of E. coli strains among humans and pets within a household, including strains that can cause urinary tract infections, is extremely common," Dr. James R. Johnson told Reuters Health.

Harboring the same strain of the bug implies that it is passed from one person or animal to another.

Read More...........

Blood Red Beet Juice Brings Down Blood Pressure

by Patrick Totty

According to British researchers at Barts and the London School of Medicine, drinking 500 ml (about one pint) of beetroot juice every day can significantly reduce blood pressure. It's the nitrate contained in the juice that produces the effect.

Bacteria in saliva convert the nitrate into nitrite, which either circulates throughout the body or is converted into nitric acid in the stomach. In either case, the chemical lowers blood pressure.

The effects of the beetroot juice become evident about one hour after ingestion and peak in three or four hours. Researchers noted that in some cases the effect lasts up to 24 hours.

Interestingly, nitrate is also found in leafy green vegetables. Scientists had previously concluded that it was the anti-oxidant vitamins in those vegetables that made them valuable components of a healthy diet. Now it turns out that their nitrate content may be even more important.

The researchers say that their findings may offer a simple, inexpensive way for people worldwide to control their high blood pressure.

 

source: http://www.diabeteshealth.com