Natives take on enemy diabetes

Used to be, Shawn Snake could drive his truck from Chatham-Kent to Ottawa without stopping at a service station.
Then, he started getting tired. He was only 36 at the time, but suddenly he couldn't make it to Toronto before pulling off for a washroom break and a nap.
Sugar, a wise friend told him. Must be sugar.
"Diabetes just seems to be the norm around here," says Snake, who is aboriginal and lives in Moraviantown, a settlement near Thamesville. "You either have it or you know people who do. In my family it's me, my dad, my sister, pretty well all my cousins

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Broccoli and diabetes

Eating broccoli could reverse the damage caused by diabetes to heart blood vessels”, BBC News reported. It said that researchers have found that the compound sulforaphane, found in the vegetable, encourages the production of enzymes which protect blood vessels and cause a reduction in the number of molecules that can damage cells.
This story is based on a complex laboratory study in which sulforaphane was directly applied to blood vessels that had been damaged by high blood sugar levels. It found that the compound reduced the production of potentially damaging molecules called reactive oxygen species. However, the results have been overinterpreted by the news; applying the compound in broccoli to cells in the laboratory is not comparable to eating broccoli. The blood vessel cells were not taken from a person with diabetes but had been incubated with sugar. It is unclear what effects sulforaphane would have on the blood vessels of a person with diabetes, and whether it would protect them from damage or have any effect upon the disease process. Optimal blood sugar control through diet and medication remains the best option for people with diabetes.

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Sleep apnea screening revealed 66% of patients with diabetes at high risk

WASHINGTON — One diabetes educator is encouraging colleagues to implement sleep apnea screening programs, after recent survey results showed that most physicians and diabetes educators do not screen for sleep apnea, despite being aware of the association between the two.
“We, as diabetes educators, are well-positioned to screen for sleep apnea and recommend further evaluation for high-risk patients. We are not just about diabetes, but the other comorbidities too,” Virginia Zamudio-Lange, RN, MSN, CDE, said yesterday at the American Association of Diabetes Educators 35th Annual Meeting.
In the survey of physicians at the American Diabetes Association, 94% reported being aware of the association between sleep apnea and diabetes, but only 47% said that they conduct routine screening. "The scary thing is about 85% is undiagnosed," Zamudio-Lange said.

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Weight loss critical in fight against diabetes

Steven V. Edelman, M.D., Founder and director of Taking Control of Your Diabetes - Del Mar, Calif.
Diabetes and obesity are inextricably linked medical conditions that affect Americans at epidemic levels. The proven link between these two metabolic diseases, however, was not emphasized in USA TODAY's story on the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists' new recommendations for the treatment of people with pre-diabetes, a condition that often precedes diabetes ("Pre-diabetes must be treated, doctors urge," Life, July 23).
Obesity is in large part fueling the increase of pre-diabetes and diabetes in the United States. Excess weight exacerbates health problems, such as high blood pressure and abnormal cholesterol levels in people with and without diabetes, often leading to heart disease, stroke and kidney failure, among other problems, including death.

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Gestational diabetes raises risk of type 2 diabetes

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Developing diabetes while pregnant -- what doctors call gestational diabetes -- greatly increases a woman's risk of developing type 2 diabetes later on, a new study confirms.
"Because of the high level of risk for these women, both screening for type 2 diabetes and preventive measures should be taken," Dr. Denice Feig of the University of Toronto, who was involved in the study, told Reuters Health.

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Researchers Say Women With Diabetes More Likely to Have Babies With Birth Defects

July 30, 2008 -- Women diagnosed with diabetes before their pregnancy have a higher risk of giving birth to a baby with a birth defect or multiple defects than a woman who does not have diabetes before giving birth, according to a new study.
"For single [birth] defects, the risk is three to four times greater, and about eightfold for multiple defects," says Adolfo Correa, MD, MPH, PhD, the study's lead author and an epidemiologist at the CDC's National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities.

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Sunlight could play big part in health care

After fearing the sun for decades, listening to the dire warnings of dermatologists and slathering on sunscreen to protect against skin cancer, it turns out we are getting too little sun. Apparently the majority of American women are deficient in vitamin D-3 — the form that is derived from sunlight’s interaction with bare skin.
Two recent studies suggest that women who get lots of vitamin D are less likely to develop breast cancer. This adds to the already strong, mounting evidence that the “sunshine vitamin” helps prevent many types of cancer, as well as improves survival rates among those already afflicted. What’s more, vitamin D may also lower the risk of developing Type 2 diabetes

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Reducing risks for type 2 diabetes in native Canadian children

May 2006 — Type 2 diabetes is a serious and growing health problem among native North American adults and children. In native communities that have been studied, anywhere from 8% to 50% of adults now have type 2 diabetes. One study reported that 5% of Pima Indian youths aged 15 to 19 years old had diabetes.
The lifestyle of most native Canadians was transformed during the 20th century. Compared to their ancestors, most native Canadians today lead a sedentary lifestyle and eat mainly processed food that is high in calories and fat and low in fibre. The "efficient genes" that helped their ancestors thrive on a traditional, very active lifestyle, eating "wild food" that they hunted or gathered, have in many cases become a liability. The same genes now help native Canadians gain weight easily and predispose them to diabetes.
Addressing this problem is not simple. Many interrelated factors encourage obesity and diabetes; addressing only one or two is unlikely to solve the problem. For this reason, many health promotion specialists now favour an "ecological" approach that includes education, family and community support, and improved access to healthy food and exercise opportunities

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Ontario zeroes in on diabetes

Ontario has declared war on diabetes, a disease that affects more than two million Canadians.
The province is spending $741 million over the next four years to help doctors and patients manage the disease and increase awareness for those at risk of getting it.
First, the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care will launch a diabetes registry in spring 2009 that will let health care providers check patient records and diagnostic information online and send alerts to patients.
The registry will also tell patients what they need to know about the disease.

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Ontario to invest $741 million in diabetes treatment and prevention

TORONTO — Ontario is spending $741 million over the next four years on the fight against diabetes in an effort to head off the growing spate of health problems related to the disease, Health Minister David Caplan said Tuesday.
Come September, more than 1,300 adult Ontario residents with Type-1 diabetes will be eligible to receive free insulin pumps under the initiative, Caplan told a news conference in Toronto.
The plan will also include an online registry beginning next spring that will assist patients in the management of their condition and aid health care providers in checking patient records, he added.
"This tool will give people living with the disease the power to actively manage the disease in partnership with their health care team and providers," Caplan said.

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Type 2 Diabetes: Culturally-tailored Education Can Improve Blood Sugar Control

ScienceDaily (July 18, 2008) — Using community-based health advocates, delivering information within same-gender groups or adapting dietary and lifestyle advice to fit a particular community's likely diet can help people with type 2 diabetes control their blood sugar levels, certainly for up to six months, following health education. This conclusion was reached by a team of Cochrane Researchers after they considered the data in 11 trials that involved 1,603 people.

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Mom's diabetes tied to early diabetes in offspring

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Babies who are exposed to mom's diabetes and obesity while in the womb are at increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes in adolescence, according to new research.
To prevent "youth-onset" type 2 diabetes, "we may need to take a life course approach, targeting, in addition to childhood obesity, the increasing number of women with pregnancies complicated by obesity and diabetes," researchers conclude

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New Diabetes Test Helping Pre-Diabetic Children

Read more about testing at McMaster University.

Grassroots role urged in diabetes fight

Healthcare providers at the grassroots should play a bigger role in preventing and controlling diabetes, which currently afflicts more than 40 million Chinese, health officials and experts have said.
Going to doctors in large hospitals for treatment and taking prescribed medication is not adequate for containing diabetes, said Yang Wenying, chairwoman of the Chinese Diabetes Society.
"We need qualified educators to help patients combat the chronic disease," Yang said at the launching ceremony of the Jonson-Jonson Diabetes Institute on Friday.

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Got diabetes? Connect!

Social networking has come to the diabetes community in a big way with the launch of Diabetic Connect, a product of Alliance Health.
Alliance CEO Stead Burwell said it’s exciting that the demographics being drawn to Diabetic Connect are close to those of the actual diabetic population.
We’re seeing that 52% of our users are between 40-60, 35% are over 60, and 13% are under the age of 40.
64% of the people who come through our site have selected Type II diabetes. Historically the patient population of diabetics has a very vocal Type I community and a huge Type II community that’s underserved. We’ve built a community of both Type I and Type II.

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Compound could be diabetes 'saviour'

AUSTRALIAN have discovered that a chemical compound acts as a "saviour" for dying insulin cells in type two diabetics, offering new hope in combating the disease.
The "chemical chaperone" has been found to stop cells that make insulin in the pancreas from dying off, as they do in people with type two or lifestyle diabetes.
The breakthrough, shown in the laboratory at the Garvan Institute in Sydney, is yet to be tested on humans, but researchers say it is a promising development to help combat a fast-growing disease.

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SaskTel and Alcatel-Lucent launch LifeStat(TM) Remote Monitoring and Health Management enabling effective management of chronic illnesses

SaskTel and Alcatel-Lucent (Euronext Paris and NYSE: ALU) today announced the launch of LifeStat Remote Monitoring and Health Management, a service that records and transmits daily blood glucose and blood pressure readings, automatically creating confidential, easy-to-use reports that can be viewed online by the client, their caregivers, and the client's healthcare professionals. The ongoing development and support of the LifeStat platform and applications will be managed by SaskTel and Alcatel-Lucent through their Salveo project, which is based in Saskatchewan.

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Study points to new way to test for diabetes risk

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A protein made in the liver may give doctors a way to predict years in advance who is at high risk for the most common form of diabetes, a U.S. study published on Tuesday said.
Studying people in their 70s, the researchers found those with high levels of a protein known as fetuin-A were far more likely than those with low levels to develop type 2 diabetes over six years.
Fetuin-A is made by liver cells and may be involved in the metabolism of the sugar glucose as well as calcium, the researchers said. Type 2 diabetes is marked by high levels of glucose, the body's source of energy, in the blood.

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Diabetes and obesity are linked to male infertiltiy

The obesity epidemic could be contributing to falling sperm counts and increasing male fertility problems, according to research that shows that both excess weight and diabetes can reduce the quality of a man's sperm.
Men who are obese or overweight are significantly more likely to produce abnormal sperm and low volumes of semen than those of healthy weight, and those with diabetes — which is commonly triggered by obesity — are more likely to have sperm with genetic damage, two British studies have found.
The results provide strong new evidence that obesity and its complications, which are already known to affect female fertility adversely, have a parallel impact on male reproductive health

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Burnt Church first Nation residents shed the pounds together

This year, Burnt Church First Nations residents have been shedding the pounds in hopes of feeling healthier — and maybe winning some money — in their community's version of The Biggest Loser show. One of those people is Valerie Mitchell Savoie, who has lost 42 pounds by the time the competition ended Monday.
Savoie is the leader for the "Mark's Angels," named after her brother, the only man on the team. He lost nearly 30 pounds.
Joanne Bartibog organized the competition when she came back to work after Christmas upset about the weight she had put on. She said she figured a lot of people were feeling the same way.
Working as the Aboriginal Youth Suicide Prevention coordinator for the Esgenoopetitj Wellness Centre in Burnt Church, Bartibog said she knew she had the right resources to start a new program in the community.

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Diabetes can knock you off your feet

Northern Ontarians face many of the same health problems as Southern Ontarians. The shortage of family doctors in both regions leaves large parts of the population under serviced. Emergency rooms and walk-in-clinics are viable options for those in the more urban centres, but for those without a home address or access to transportation, it might not be quite so easy. For people in the far north, especially in remote communities, the only way to get access to medical treatment may be to travel a fair distance, which makes receiving medical attention a difficult proposition.

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Weight Training and Diabetes

Have you ever wondered if weight training is right for you? Maybe you think it’s only for the “muscle heads” at the gym or the women on ESPN who flex for the cameras.
A weight-training program for many people may mean going to the gym, but working out at home with dumbbells or resistance bands can help you get started.
Two Times a Week Is a Good Start
The American College of Sports Medicine and the American Diabetes Association recommend that you train a minimum of two times per week, doing eight to 12 repetitions per set of eight to 10 exercises targeting major muscle groups.

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High-fructose corn syrup: Why is it so bad for me?

Answer
High-fructose corn syrup is a sweetener and preservative used in many processed foods. It is made by changing the sugar in cornstarch to fructose — another form of sugar.
High-fructose corn syrup extends the shelf life of foods and is sweeter and cheaper than sugar. For these reasons, it has become a popular ingredient in many sodas, fruit-flavored drinks and other processed foods. Check your food labels. You may be surprised by how many foods contain high-fructose corn syrup.
Some nutrition experts blame increased consumption of high-fructose corn syrup for the growing obesity problem. One theory is that fructose is more readily converted to fat by your liver than is sucrose, increasing the levels of fat in your bloodstream. But this hasn't been proved.

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Study links diabetes, advanced breast cancer

An international study has established a link between type 2 diabetes and advanced breast cancer.
It has been known for a while that being overweight puts post-menopausal women at greater risk of breast cancer.
But now it has been found that women who are resistant to insulin, or who are overweight, are 50 per cent more likely to be diagnosed with the cancer, and only when it is in its advanced stages.
The finding comes after an international research team followed more than 60,000 Swedish women over 20 years.

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Kids' Obesity May Lead to Epidemic of Adult Diabetes

TUESDAY, July 8 (HealthDay News) -- The current childhood obesity epidemic in the United States may lead to large numbers of young adults developing type 2 diabetes in the future, along with serious diabetes-related health complications, warns a University of Michigan researcher.

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Vitamin D and diabetes: An over-simplified solution to a complex problem

"Pluralitas non est ponenda sine necessitate," I say.
No, no, don't flee in fear of Latin, I am merely referring here to that well-known notion called Occam's razor. Its guiding principle is often summarized as: "All other things being equal, the simplest solution is the best."
What I want to show you in this column is the confusion that comes about in science and the reporting of science when you try to find a simple solution to what increasingly looks like a complex problem.
Think of it as being sliced and diced — and then fricasseed — by Occam's razor.

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Diabetes Wikipedia Entry

Interesting and Informative.

New method: More meds, more quickly for type 2 diabetes

For years, doctors have followed a standard approach to treating their type 2 diabetes patients:
• Advise them to lose weight and exercise.
• Start them on an oral medicine that helps lower blood sugar.
• Add more drugs as needed over time.
But a new attitude is evolving among some doctors who believe a more aggressive approach would better control the disease and help patients avoid its severe consequences in later life.

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Warning over diabetes amputations

About 100 people a week in the UK have a limb amputated as a result of diabetes, a charity has warned.
The disease, which affects more than two million Britons, causes damage to nerves and blood vessels to the limbs, which can lead to amputation.
About 5,000 people a year have the operation, and diabetics are 15 times more likely to need a lower limb amputating than those without the disease.
Diabetes UK said there was an "urgent need" for greater awareness of the impact of diabetes, which also causes heart attacks, stroke, blindness and kidney failure.
About seven out of 10 people having an amputation will die within five years as a result of possible complications and their condition, figures suggest.

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Mohawk and the Seaway: A troubled relationship

After five decades, and two full generations, the Mohawks can sit on the shores of Kaniatarowanenneh, our 'big river", and see the great and permanent changes the St. Lawrence Seaway has brought about to our lives.
Once we were masters of the rapids, a people strong and healthy who were known throughout the world for our ability to take delicate watercraft into areas others feared.
From our homes astride the Big River we guided the courier des bois deep into the continental interior as no other group was as adept as the Mohawks in navigating the thousands of miles of lakes, rivers and streams by which the fur traders and missionaries made their way west.

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Is Golf Causing Diabetes?

Is Golf Causing Diabetes? Pesticides Commonly Used on Golf Courses Linked to Disease: NIH
How green is your green?
A pesticide commonly used on the turf at golf courses was linked to a whopping 250% increase in diabetes risk to the workers who apply the pesticides, according to one of the largest studies of its kind, by the National Institutes of Health.
The chemical, trichlorfon, was associated with an 85% increase in risk of diabetes for even infrequent users, and a 250% increase in risk for those who had applied it more than 10 times. Of those who used the chemical frequently, 8.5% developed diabetes, versus 3.5% of those who had never used it. The same pesticide has been used to kill cockroaches, crickets, bedbugs, fleas, flies and ticks, but its main current use is on turf, such as at golf courses.

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Eggs and diabetes

A new study confirms what I've been telling my diabetic patients for years: though eating eggs doesn't seem to have a negative effect on the health of most people, those with diabetes need to steer clear of eating too many. Here's what the Harvard Heart Letter said recently about this new study, which was published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition in April 2008.
In 1998, a huge study showed that eating an egg a day had no effect on heart disease — except among people with diabetes. This pattern was supported by a new study of 21,000 male physicians whose health was followed for 20 years. Although egg consumption had no effect on rates of heart attack or stroke, men who ate more than seven eggs a week, especially those with diabetes, were more likely to have died during the study. If you are partial to eggs, try egg whites. And skip the bacon and butter-slathered toast.

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Diabetes: Underrated, Insidious and Deadly

In a set of recent focus groups, participants were asked to rank the severity of various health problems, including cancer, heart disease and diabetes.
On a scale of 1 to 10, cancer and heart disease consistently ranked as 9s and 10s. But diabetes scored only 4s and 5s.
“The general consensus seems to be, ‘There’s medication,’ ‘Look how good people look with diabetes’ or ‘I’ve never heard of anybody dying of diabetes,’ ” said Larry Hausner, chief executive of the American Diabetes Association, which held the focus groups. “There was so little understanding about everything that dealt with diabetes.”

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Diabetes linked to cognitive decline in seniors

ReutersPublished: Friday, June 27, 2008
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Older adults with type 2 diabetes may have a steeper mental decline as they age, a large study suggests.
Diabetes is known to raise the risk of a number of major health problems, including heart disease and kidney failure. More recently, studies have also linked diabetes to speedier mental decline and dementia in older adults.
These latest findings, published in the Journal of the American Geriatric Society, confirm those earlier reports -- and suggest that the longer a person has had diabetes, the more substantial the cognitive decline over time.

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MDs call for diabetes strategy as prevalence skyrockets

The prevalence of diabetes in Canada has rocketed beyond all expectations, a national policy summit on the impact of diabetes complications heard yesterday.
"We have already blown out the estimates," Dr. Stewart Harris, a University of Western Ontario medical professor, told the conference, which attracted about 150 doctors and other health professionals and representatives from health and aboriginal organizations to Ottawa.

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Guidelines: Exercise more, not harder

You can run it, walk it or crawl it, but when it comes to the health benefits, a mile is just a mile.
That's the main message the government is likely to include in recommended exercise guidelines it will issue later this year as a complement to its famous food pyramid.

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It's up to all of us to fight off diabetes spike

Diabetes could well prove to be the first health "epidemic" of the 21st Century, according to local medical officer of health, Dr. Richard Schabas.
A chilling warning, one echoed by many health professionals, and sounded again by Health Minister George Smitherman late last week.
He said by 2010, the number of Ontarians with diabetes will double to 1.2 million, a staggering figure.
Locally, the numbers are equally troubling with 15,000 cases predicted here by 2010.
Clearly, steps must be taken to turn back the epidemic before it overwhelms the health-care system. But what to do?
The answers are here in Hastings and Prince Edward Counties because this is the spot that could serve as the microcosm for the province.

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Diabetes Is Beatable, Author Says

LAKELAND Mother Love feasted on homemade sausage, chitlins, doughnuts and fried chicken as a child.
Through much of adulthood, she kept cooking the way she'd seen her family cook.
"While I was squeezing oranges for breakfast, I'd be figuring out what to take out to fry for dinner," the author, humorist and performer said Thursday during a diabetes seminar at Word Alive Ministries in Lakeland.
As she gained weight, buttons on her pants popped. Her knees going up the stairs "sounded like snap, crackle and pop."

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Pop Star Nick Jonas Speaks Out About Diabetes

ALEXANDRIA, VA - The Jonas Brothers are one of today's hottest bands, with one of the summer's most highly-anticipated tours, appearances on TV, and a new album coming out in August. But what most people don't realize is that while he's singing and playing on stage with his brothers, Nick Jonas, 15, is also wearing an insulin pump. The cover story of the July 2008 issue of Diabetes Forecast, the consumer magazine of the American Diabetes Association, shares the Jonas family's struggle with Nick's diagnosis of type 1 diabetes in November 2005, and will inspire all parents who are coping with their daughter's or son's diabetes.

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Insulin Education for Kids.

Thanks Shannon for sending this along.

Hospital overload

Many admissions could have been avoided or treated at home: report

Tens of thousands of Canadians are being admitted to hospital each year for asthma, diabetes, high blood pressure and other chronic health problems that could potentially be managed or treated at home, new federal figures show.
In 2006-07 there were about 87,500 admissions to hospitals outside Quebec for potentially avoidable problems. About one in five were re-admitted at least once within the same year.

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Report: More Mexican-Americans Face Diabetes Problem

The number of people with diabetes has jumped 15 percent in just two years. A new government report finds eight percent of Americans have the disease and the problem is worse among Mexican-Americans.Each month, about 50 new patients walk through the door at the Duschesne Clinic. Of those 50, roughly 35 already know they have diabetes or will find out they have it. "The diabetes is by far the number one diagnosis here at the clinic," nurse Amber Eastabrooks said."Almost all my family have diabetes. My dad passed away because of the disease," patient Maria Amparo-Serrano said.

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Indigenous health needs miners’ help

By Kellie Guest of International Longwall News
Matt Cooke is chief executive of the Nhulundu Health Service in Gladstone, Queensland and was one of the speakers at the National Reconciliation Forum in Kalgoorlie-Boulder this month.
He said the Aboriginal health crisis needed to be dealt with now, and industry had a key role to play in any response.

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The diabetes epidemic just gets worse

Before you pick up that doughnut, some facts:
Some 24 million Americans have diabetes, and 57 million more are heading toward it.
About one-fourth of those with diabetes don’t know they have it.
Treating each diabetes patient costs about $6,649 each year. That’s $116 billion.
Total health spending last year came to about $7,439 per person, or $2.26 trillion.

Sort of puts that picture of Homer Simpson and his doughnut in a whole new light, doesn’t it?

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Diabetes Cases Increase 15 Percent in 2 Years

By BLOOMBERG NEWS
Published: June 25, 2008
The number of Americans with diabetes increased by 15 percent in two years to 24 million, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. About 8 percent of the population now has the disease, mainly Type 2 diabetes, which is linked to obesity and sedentary living, the agency said in a report using data from 2007. A quarter of people ages 60 and older had diabetes, the agency said. The number of people worldwide with diabetes will double to 366 million by 2030, according to the World Health Organization, which calls the disease an epidemic. Most people with diabetes have resistance to insulin, which the body uses to convert blood sugar to energy. The C.D.C. report was its first update of the prevalence of diabetes since 2005, when it reported that about 21 million Americans had the disease.

Sports, activity can help children with diabetes

Ever since former Vanderbilt quarterback and now current Denver Broncos quarterback Jay Cutler found out that he has diabetes and said he won't define him as a player, he immediately became the role model for kids all over the country who are fighting the same disease.
He has also became a role model to parents who say if an NFL quarterback can take on the disease and be successful, so can their kids.

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Long-term Pesticide Exposure May Increase Risk of Diabetes

Licensed pesticide applicators who used chlorinated pesticides on more than 100 days in their lifetime were at greater risk of diabetes, according to researchers from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The associations between specific pesticides and incident diabetes ranged from a 20 percent to a 200 percent increase in risk, said the scientists with the NIH's National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) and the National Cancer Institute

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Diabetes hospitalises increasing numbers of children

Increasing numbers of children are being admitted to hospital for emergency treatment for diabetes.
Official figures show that more than 3,300 young people in England were taken to hospital accident and emergency departments because of the condition last year, an increase of 8 per cent on the previous 12 months.

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Curve Lake donates to PRHC

As Curve Lake First Nation celebrates its culture the community will give back to its Peterborough neighbours.
Curve Lake will present a cheque for $25,000 to the Peterborough Regional Health Centre Foundation tomorrow, said Kathy McCue, general manager for Curve Lake First Nation.
“Clearly, we’ve got some serious health concerns with respect to diabetes and cancer is rampant everywhere,” McCue told The Examiner yesterday

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List of National Aboriginal Day Events

List of events for Ontario and rest of Canada for National Aboriginal Day.

Link

Poor Children More Likely To Develop Diabetes As Adults

Diabetes strikes harder at those who were poor as children, according to a new study that spans more than three decades. Participants who were disadvantaged in youth were more likely to develop diabetes than better-off peers were during the 34-year study time frame.

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MDs call for diabetes strategy as prevalence skyrockets

The prevalence of diabetes in Canada has rocketed beyond all expectations, a national policy summit on the impact of diabetes complications heard yesterday.
"We have already blown out the estimates," Dr. Stewart Harris, a University of Western Ontario medical professor, told the conference, which attracted about 150 doctors and other health professionals and representatives from health and aboriginal organizations to Ottawa.

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Study: Depression and Diabetes May Trigger Each Other

Not only are people with type 2 diabetes more prone to depression, but people with depression are more prone to getting diabetes, a new study in the June 18 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association claims.
Researchers have long known that type 2 diabetes and depression often go hand-in-hand, according to the study, so researchers with Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions in Baltimore set out to determine which comes first.

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One in 5 Canadians can't find a doctor: survey

Canadians continue to suffer from a doctor shortage, according to a new report that found 1 in 5 people have not been able to find a physician to treat them regularly.
A Canadian Community Health Survey (CCHS) released Wednesday found that more than four million Canadians are without a doctor, either because they have not found a family physician to take them on, or because they have not looked for one.

First nations take early steps towards better health

Aboriginals work to fight trend that sees them live 7 years less than B.C. average

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Good Article about Diabetic Foot Care

Diabetes (or more correctly, diabetes mellitus) is a chronic disease that affects up to 6% of the population (higher in the older age groups). Insulin is a hormone that helps the body deal with sugar (glucose) in the diet. When diabetes is present, either the body produces less or no insulin (Type 1) or the body tissues are resistant to the effects of diabetes (Type 2). This results in higher levels of glucose in the blood, which can damage a whole range of body tissues and organs.

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New Site for Diabetic Recipes

We've put together a unique collection of over 800 diabetic and heart-healthy recipes that have been developed for your personal use so that you and your family and friends can all sit down to a meal together, knowing that you'll be enjoying delicious food while helping you to control your diabetes. We also have more than 200 menus for every occasion from casual family meals to super parties or holiday celebrations.
Browse the archive via individual recipes or by menus. Be sure to add this page to your list of favorites as we'll be adding new recipes and menus every month.
Bon Appétit!

Link.....

A first in Canada

Research chair in aboriginal, rural health established at Northern Ontario School of Medicine

SUDBURY, Ontario - The Northern Ontario School of Medicine announced May 27 that the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Ontario and the Ontario government have each invested $1.5 million to establish a research chair in aboriginal and rural health at the school.

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Dr. Dean Ornish: The world now eats (and dies) like Americans

Interesting Talk.

Check it out.

New Pictures from Our Moraviantown Clinic

http://picasaweb.google.com/randydunlop/AboriginalDiabetesConference?authkey=VDzpL63RZjU

Stress test finds three times as much pre-diabetes

Obese children, who are at an increased risk of developing pre-diabetes and metabolic syndrome, may not be detected using the standard fasting plasma glucose test, according to Canadian research.

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Hearing loss 'feature of diabetes'

Hearing loss is a common but largely unrecognised feature of diabetes, say scientists.
A study has shown that adults with diabetes are about twice as likely to have impaired hearing as people without the condition.
Dr Kathleen Bainbridge, who led the US team, said: "We found that hearing loss was much more common in people with diabetes than people without the disease.

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Half of diabetics in U.S. have arthritis, CDC says

CHICAGO (Reuters) - People with diabetes are twice as likely to have arthritis, putting them in a double bind as the pain in their joints keeps them from getting the exercise they need to keep both diseases at bay, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Thursday.

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Dangerous Diabetes: Affliction of the Stars

From Oscar winners to an "American Idol" judge, Celebs Manage Diabetes in many ways.

See a list of Hollywood celebs and how they manage diabetes.

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How to avoid type 2 diabetes

A film about the louche life of Dylan Thomas is also a timely warning about diabetes.

Previews of the film, The Edge of Love, an account of Dylan Thomas's life that opens in London on June 20 and nationwide on June 27. Thomas died in 1953 at the age of 39 while on a lecture tour in New York. Although he didn't survive long enough to have been affected by the end of rationing in Britain, a quick glance at photographs show that he was hardly under-nourished. But ill-health plagued his later years and he died early.

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Personal Training Services

Weight Training can benefit people with diabetes a lot. See my earlier post here about it. Sandra Alvarez is a personal trainer in St Catharines and does on site and in home training. She also can provide valuable exercise and nutrition information. Check it out you'll be glad you did.

Visit Sandra's Website - http://www.alvarezfitness.ca/

Or email her - sandra101fit@yahoo.com

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Diabetes on the Rise

Ontario's health ministry predicts 1.2 million people in the province will have diabetes by 2010, more than double the figure from the year 2000.

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Team Diabetes members conquer Ottawa Marathon

Call them the conquering heroes.Sandy Lake’s Stacey Fiddler and Brandon Goodman, both 24, were flanked by former Nishnawbe Aski Nation Grand Chief Bentley Cheechoo as they walked triumphantly through the terminal at the Thunder Bay International Airport May 26.Cheechoo, a Constance Lake band member, successfully completed his 10-kilometre walk and the duo from Sandy Lake completed a 10-kilometre run in the Ottawa Marathon through Team Diabetes.


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Moraviantown Pictures.

Photo's from our recent clinic in Moraviantown, Ontario, Canada. on June 6th, 2008.

Over a hundred people attend our foot care clinic. The day also included a cooking demonstration from the Wolfman,

Chef David Wolfman.

Link.....

Top 10 Walking with Diabetes Tips

The experts agree -- walking and other exercise is the prescription for people with diabetes. The American Diabetes Association says there is no restriction on what exercise diabetics can do, and it is the best way to prevent weight gain and cardiovascular disease -- the top killer of diabetics.

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Weight Training and Diabetes

The word is out! For people with diabetes, physical activity is a must or as we say in our program, "It’s non-negotiable." Whether one chooses to increase daily steps in a walking program, bicycling, water aerobics or dancing the benefits are inevitable. Blood glucose, blood pressure, cholesterol are all better controlled and of course weight loss in the form of fat loss occurs. Let us not forget, however the importance of weight/resistance training and its role in achieving improved physical activity.

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Reversing Diabetes Naturally!

Preview of a feature film on eating a whole foods diet for 30days and how it effects diabetes.

Please watch this great film trailer. Watch at 3:57 minutes in to see a Navahoe Chief struggle with diabetes.

SOADI at Wound Healing Cenference.

SOADI’s very own Shannon Van Every was invited to speak on June 7th, 2008, at the Third Congress of the World Union of Wound Healing Societies Conference in Toronto. The conference attracted over 3000 people from around the world involved in wound healing. The conference was a chance for the medical and scientific community to meet and discuss recent developments in wound care. The reason SOADI was invited is the keynote speaker and meeting chair Professor R. Gary Sibbald believes SOADI’s is a model program that other countries can emulate. He feels our approach of holistic healing and wellness at the grassroots level encourages prevention of diabetes, at the same time respecting our unique culture, is the future of diabetes prevention worldwide.
Shannon shared with the audience her experiences on the front lines of Aboriginal Diabetes prevention. She stressed how an Aboriginal Organization for Aboriginal Communities makes our people feel they are partners with us and how making healthy choices makes the entire community stronger.
Congratulations Shannon on a great job.

Information for people in Hamilton area.

A new diabetes institute, the first of its kind in Ontario, has opened its doors in Hamilton.

http://www.thespec.com/News/Local/article/383040

Number of Ontarians with diabetes projected to double between 2000 and 2010

Article posted that the number of people in Ontario with Diabetes will double between 2000-2010. One more reason to get checked out ASAP. Go to www.soadi.ca for the date and place of our next clinics.

http://canadianpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5gqTrF5u6QiBRDSAjHcT2OkKTKqAg

Eat This Not That!

Found this neat tool on the men's health site. Thanks Roz for sending it to me.

It lets you compare different types of food choices, using everything from food at national restaurants to different condiments.
Check it out.

http://www.menshealth.com/eatthis/index.php

Welcome to the SOADI Blog!

I've decided to start this blog so the SOADI staff/friends can post interesting articles and information they come across on their travels. We love your feedback so feel free to comment on articles we post.

SOADI is the Southern Ontario Aboriginal Diabetes Initiative. Diabetes is a major problem in our community. Check in often to get the latest in our struggle against diabetes.

Mitch Baird