Saturday, September 10, 2011

Health Tip: Managing Diabetic Heart Disease

Managing Diabetic Heart Disease

The risk of developing diabetic heart disease (DHD) is directly related to a person's blood sugar level, the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute says.

The higher the blood sugar in a person with diabetes, the higher that person's risk of diabetic heart disease.

Diabetic heart disease may include coronary heart disease (CHD), also called coronary artery disease; heart failure; and/or diabetic cardiomyopathy.

Coronary Heart Disease is a condition in which a substance called plaque builds up inside the coronary arteries. Plaque narrows the arteries and reduces blood flow to your heart muscle. It also makes it more likely that blood clots will form in your arteries. Blood clots can partially or completely block blood flow. CHD can lead to chest pain or discomfort called angina, irregular heartbeats called arrhythmias, a heart attack, or even death.

Heart Failure is a condition in which your heart can't pump enough blood to meet your body's needs. It doesn't mean that your heart has stopped or is about to stop working. However, heart failure is a serious condition that requires medical care. If you have heart failure, you may tire easily and have to limit your activities. CHD can lead to heart failure by weakening the heart muscle over time.

Diabetic Cardiomyopathy is a disease that damages the structure and function of the heart. This disease also can lead to heart failure and arrhythmias, even in people who have diabetes but don't have CHD.

Follow Your Treatment Plan





The National Heart Lung and Blood Institute offer these suggestions to help manage diabetic heart disease:

  • Make sure you get regular physical activity.
  • Enjoy a heart-healthy diet.
  • Keep your weight under control.
  • Maintain good control of your blood sugar.
  • Find ways to reduce your stress levels.
  • If you smoke, stop.
  • Follow your doctor's treatment plan for managing your health.
  • Obtain regular, ongoing care from your doctor, including regular checkups and tests.

Do You Want to Sparkle Every Day?



"Promoting health without encouraging others to seek wholeness is an exercise in futility. Not until we realize that our bodies are mirrors of our interpersonal, spiritual, professional, sexual, creative, financial, environmental, mental, and emotional health will we truly heal." Lissa Rankin

Do you feel a connection to the divinity within you?

Are you tapped into your authentic, brilliant, 100% sparkly, never-extinguished self?

If not, try Lissa’s The Daily Flame, it’s chock-full of inspiration.

Here’s a sneak peak into The Daily Flames :

Daily Flames To Rock Your World

Everything can change in the blink of an eye.

The love of your life can walk in the door and know in a second that you’re the one. That deal you’ve dreamed of can finally come through. The cancer can disappear. You can get discovered. The judge can rule in your favor. The pregnancy test can come up positive. The check can show up in the mail. You can get that call.

But it will only happen if you believe it can.

Just so you know, I believe, my darling.

Blink blink,

Your Inner Pilot Light

**********

When you’ve nearly lost hope and can’t see the light at the end of the tunnel, I will be your hope.

When things don’t go as planned and you’ve lost faith in everything you once believed was true, I will be your faith.

When you doubt the capacity for unconditional love and feel resentment and bitterness seeping in, I will be your love.

So don’t give up, my dear.

Hope, faith, and love are right here within you.

Bingo,

Your Inner Pilot Light

**********

I know the waiting feels like it’s lasting forever, my love. I understand that you wish you could snap your fingers and just know.

I get it. I really do.

But let me tell you a little secret.

Even if I could wave my magic wand, speed up time, and deliver you an answer lickety-split, I wouldn’t – not because I’m a mean little bastard, but because within the waiting lies a precious gift.

When you wait, you get very clear on what you desire and how much you want it. And when you get clear on what you really want, you can manifest anything.

Capiche?

Delivering clarity on a silver platter,

Your Inner Pilot Light

**********

Way back when you were little you said, “I know” when people told you that you were awesome.

Then someone taught you to say “No I’m not.”

But I’ve never forgotten how awesome you really are. So when I tell you you’re a beautiful, brilliant, creative, sexy, lovable, exceptional, friendly, snuggly genius with the perfect figure and a healed body, just say, “Thanks for noticing.”

Okay?

I know,

Your Inner Pilot Light

**********

Remember that time in your life when you really had it going on, when you were on top of the world and nothing was ever gonna keep you from being the shooting star you knew you were destined to be?

Guess what?

Holy crikey, McFly. We’re hoppin’ in the DeLorean and today is time warp day.

That time is now, and you’re ON FIRE.

Radiating like plutonium,

Your Inner Pilot Light

**********

Want More Fire In Your Flame?

Sign up now for the free Daily Flame.

Dr. Lissa Rankin practices Pink Medicine, updating and feminizing the broken, outdated patriarchal model of medicine and expanding the definition of health to include all the facets of what makes a woman whole so that she may heal, connect, and thrive in every aspect of her life. Dr. Rankin believes that science may cure, but only love can heal. She practices love, with a little medicine on the side.


Wednesday, September 7, 2011

Zestz Snopes: Semen Proven to Increase Life Expectancy


Picture credit : http://pics.myspew.com

Mr Z, another unemployed, err retired pharmacist (we shall keep his identity confidential for reasons which becomes obvious when he opens his mouth) fresh from a trip to the UK sent us the May 12, 2007 Daily Squib headline screaming “Semen Proven to Increase Life Expectancy

He attested just as loudly “I been telling them this and they don't believe me. Taste like sashimi anyway unless they don't like raw fish”. The “them” probably refers to the many SYTs that had slipped through his snares in his youth.

He got us all very excited, of course. But once the euphoria is spent (we climaxed?), we embarked on a little fact-finding tour. We googled” the wonders of semen and got the abstract of a not so depressing treatise “Does semen have antidepressant properties?” by Gallup GG Jnr, Burch RL and Platek SM, published in the Archives of Sexual Behaviour in June 2002. You can access the abstract HERE.

The connection between semen and depression got Tiffany Kary of Psychology Today interested and she published a review of the paper HERE in September 2002.

We are quite sure that Eileen Dover of the Daily Squib had written “Semen Proven to Increase Life Expectancy” as a satire when we compared her article (in blue) with Tiffany's, as seen below. We have also not been able to locate Dr Clifford J. Ponsonby at the State University of Washington in Saint Louis nor his research paper Why Women Need More Semen.

Women who make regular contact with semen live longer and age less than women who do not, scientists have discovered.

The finding that women who swallow semen and do not use condoms during vaginal sex, live longer and have reduced signs of ageing, has led one researcher to conclude that semen is a miracle potion that should be treasured by every woman.

The finding that women who do not use condoms during sex are less depressed and less likely to attempt suicide than are women who have sex with condoms and women who are not sexually active, leads one researcher to conclude that semen contains powerful—and potentially addictive—mood-altering chemicals.

Male sperm contains vital chemicals that slow down the ageing process and increases life expectancy by up to 35%.

Study author Clifford J. Ponsonby, Ph.D, a psychologist at the State University of Washington in Saint Louis, also found that women who routinely had intercourse without condoms or had facials had better skin quality and wrinkled less plus also had the ability to ingest fatty foods without putting on weight.

Study author Gordon G. Gallup, Ph.D., a psychologist at the State University of New York in Albany, also found that women who routinely had intercourse without condoms became increasingly depressed as more time elapsed since their last sexual encounter. There was no such correlation for women whose partners regularly used condoms.

Ponsonby's survey of 753 college women and eastern European prostitute's over a 45 year period, also found that those who ingested semen regularly either orally or through vaginal intercourse had a better over all quality of life and would be wealthier in jobs/life.

"These women have a remarkable ability to achieve serious longevity without showing any signs of ageing, this is the key to life," says Ponsonby.

Gallup's survey of 293 college women also found that those who did not use condoms were most likely to initiate sex and to seek out new partners as soon as a relationship ended. "These women are more vulnerable to the rebound effect, which suggests that there is a chemical dependency," says Gallup.

Semen contains powerful hormones including testosterone, oestrogen, prolactin, luteinizing hormone and prostaglandins. Once these chemicals are absorbed through the vaginal walls they inhibit weight gain and slow down the ageing process.

Semen contains hormones including testosterone, estrogen, prolactin, luteinizing hormone and prostaglandins, and some of these are absorbed through the walls of the vagina and are known to elevate mood.

Women who ingested semen orally were also found to increase their ability to succeed in jobs and wealth as well as brain power and have beautiful ageless glowing skin.

Ponsonby controlled for variables including method of semen extraction, frequency of sexual intercourse, as well as the women's perception of their relationship.

Gallup controlled for variables including method of contraception, frequency of sexual intercourse, as well as the women's perception of their relationship.

The longer that women went without ingesting semen the more accelerated the ageing process was found to be. Furthermore, there was an immense risk of obesity and heart disease by abstaining from semen as well as increased depression.

He concedes that women who regularly have sex without condoms might share personality traits that make them less susceptible to depression. But the behavior most often associated with non-condom users is sexual risk-taking, and studies have found no correlation between high-risk sexual behavior and lower rates of depression.

Ponsonby's study, which he deems "the first serious attempt to investigate the effect of semen chemistry on women," has underlined his fascinating findings in the research treatise Why Women Need More Semen .

Gallup's study, which he deems "the first serious attempt to investigate the effect of semen chemistry on women," titillated the public and rankled some academics upon publication in Archives of Sexual Behavior.

Ponsonby says he has seriously enjoyed working with all his female subjects in the study and would like to replicate the study but this time with 5000 women.

Gallup says he has since replicated the findings with a sample of 700 women and will examine whether "semen withdrawal" places women at an increased risk for depression when they are premenstrual, menopausal or have just given birth, as many women abstain from sex during these periods.

"If you are a woman and wish to increase your life expectancy and overall health plus reduce any signs of ageing you must utilize the magical properties of semen," the groundbreaking study concludes.

Well, Mr Z may have been misled over the power of semen but do you think he is right about its "sashimi" taste?

Making Multiple Lifestyle Improvements Can Significantly Reduce Diabetes Risk

It is well-documented that lifestyle factors such as diet, weight, physical activity, smoking habits, and alcohol consumption affect a person's risk for diabetes.

Studies have shown that individual lifestyle improvements, such as quitting smoking, can delay or prevent the onset of diabetes. However, it is less clear how multiple changes affect diabetes risk.

Researchers surveyed more than 100,000 men and nearly 1000,000 women aged 50 to 71 without evidence of heart disease, cancer, or diabetes to determine how combinations of lifestyle risk factors relate to the 11-year risk for diabetes. Between 1995 and 1996, researchers surveyed participants and recorded demographic information and lifestyle factors, including dietary habits, body weight, physical activity, smoking, and alcohol consumption.

Ten years later, researchers surveyed participants again to find out who was diagnosed with diabetes by a physician. Ten percent of men and almost as many women developed diabetes during the study. The researchers used original survey information to measure the association between lifestyle factors and onset of diabetes.

Persons with the best lifestyle factors were about 80 percent less likely to develop diabetes than those with the worst lifestyle factors, and the risk for diabetes decreased for each additional good lifestyle factor.

The report is published in the Annals of Internal Medicine: Reis JP, Loria M, Sorlie PD, Park Y, Hollenbeck A, Schatzkin A. Lifestyle Factors and Risk for New-Onset Diabetes: A Population-Based Cohort Study. Ann Intern Med September 6, 2011 155:292-299.

Story Source: The above story is reprinted (with editorial adaptations by The Zestzfulness Team) from the news release by the American College of Physicians on September 5, 2011.

Chondroitin Sulphate Improves Hand Function, Relieves Morning Stiffness Caused by Osteoarthritis



















Picture source: http://images-mediawiki-sites.thefullwiki.org/


Clinical trial shows supplement is safe therapeutic option for OA suffers

New research published in Arthritis & Rheumatism (1) shows that chondroitin sulphate significantly decreased pain and improved hand function in patients with osteoarthritis (OA) of the hand (2) compared with those in the placebo group. Results of the clinical trial also report that chondroitin sulphate improves grip strength and relieves morning stiffness.

"Although hand OA is highly prevalent among adults and can significantly impact the quality of life for sufferers, therapeutic options are still limited," said Cem Gabay, M.D., with University Hospitals of Geneva in Switzerland and lead investigation of the Finger osteoArthritis Chondroitin Treatment Study (FACTS). "There are few trials examining therapeutic approaches specific to hand OA and much of the available evidence has been extrapolated from studies investigating other forms of OA."

The single-center, placebo-controlled FACTS trial included 162 patients with radiographic hand OA who met inclusion criteria—spontaneous hand pain on the visual analogue scale (VAS) of 40 mm (scale 0-100) or more and Functional Index for Hand OA (FIHOA) level of 6 (scale 0-30).

Participants received either 800 mg of chondroitin sulphate (80 patients) or placebo (82 patients) once daily for 6 months.

Results showed that patients in the chondroitin sulphate group had significant decrease in global hand pain compared with the placebo group, reflecting an 8.7 decrease on the VAS. Hand function also improved significantly for those taking chondroitin sulphate, decreasing more than 2 points on the FIHOA.

Researchers also reported significantly improved hand function and reduction in morning stiffness for participants taking chondroitin sulphate versus placebo.

"Our findings show chondroitin sulphate is a safe and effective treatment for patients with hand OA," concluded Dr. Gabay. "Alternative therapies, such as nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), provide similar pain reducing effects, but with considerably more long-term toxicities."

Chondroitin sulphate is a naturally occurring molecule and a main component of joint cartilage. The chondroitin sulphate agent used in this study (Chondrosulf®) is licensed as a drug in Europe and not as a nutripharmaceutical; in Malaysia and the U.S. chondroitin sulphate is sold as a supplement and often paired with glucosamine (see below for brands available at our pharmacies).

Story Source: The above story is reprinted (with editorial adaptations by The Zestzfulness Team) from the news release by Wiley-Blackwell on September 6, 2011.

(1) The American College of Rheumatology estimates that OA—the most common form of arthritis—affects more than 27 million adults in the U.S., causing joint pain and stiffness. Approximately 10% of the world population, 60 years and older, have symptomatic osteoarthritis according to the Global Burden of Disease 2000 report from the World Health Organization. Prior studies have found that 20% to 30% of adults have OA of the hand, with the prevalence rising to more than 50% after 60 years of age.

(2) This study is published in Arthritis & Rheumatism, an official journal of the American College of Rheumatology (ACR) and the Association of Rheumatology Health Professionals (ARHP), a division of the College, and covers all aspects of inflammatory disease: Cem Gabay, Carole Medinger-Sadowski, Danielle Gascon, Frank Kolo, Axel Finckh. Symptomatic Effect of Chondroitin Sulfate 4&6 in Hand Osteoarthritis: The Finger osteoArthritis Chondroitin Treatment Study (FACTS): A Randomized Double-Blind Placebo Controlled Clinical Trial. Arthritis & Rheumatism; Published Online: September 6, 2011 (DOI: 10.1002/art.30574).

In the local scene, Tunku Kamarul et al showed that combination autologous chondrocyte implantation (ACI) with glucosamine sulphate alone or with glucosamine sulphate and chondroitin sulphate may prove beneficial for healing of damaged cartilage, in rabbits. Their report (3) was published in the European Cells and Materials journal in March this year. You can download the full report HERE.

(3) Kamarul T, Ab-Rahim S, Tumin M, Selvaratnam L, Ahmad TS. A preliminary study of the effects of glucosamine sulphate and chondroitin sulphate on surgically treated and untreated focal cartilage damage. Eur Cell Mater. 2011 Mar 15;21:259-71