[Diabetes-talk] {Disarmed} Fw: DrMirkin's eZine: Intensity or duration?, kidney stone risk, more . . .

Thu Sep 12 15:39:40 UTC 2013

Subject: DrMirkin's eZine: Intensity or duration?, kidney stone risk, more . . .

Dr. Gabe Mirkin's Fitness and Health e-Zine
September 15, 2013

Intensity More Important than Duration in Exercise for Weight Control

How fast you move throughout the day is more important for preventing weight gain than how long you move. Every minute per day spent engaging in high-intensity movement is associated with a five percent decreased chance for obesity in women, and a two percent decrease in men.

Researchers measured duration and intensity of physical activity from accelerometers worn by 2,202 women and 2,309 men for seven day periods (American Journal of Health Promotion, September 3, 2013). They divided participants into four categories -- those who were active in:
* higher intensity longer bouts of more than 10 minutes per day,
* higher intensity short bouts of less than 10 minutes per day,
* lower intensity long bouts of greater than 10 minutes per day, and
* lower intensity short bouts of less than 10 minutes per day.

People weighed less by being active at high intensity for more or less than 10 minutes, or low-intensity lasting longer than 10 minutes. Short bouts of low activity for less than 10 minutes per day is not associated with weight control. You can help prevent obesity by walking up stairs instead of using an elevator, parking at the far end of a parking lot, walking to the store, or doing anything else actively and intensely.

Losing weight reduces risk for heart disease, Type 2 diabetes, bone fractures, some cancers and even makes you feel good. 

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Improving Diet Prevents Second Heart Attacks

Healthy men and women were followed from the 1970s and 1980s; 4000 subsequently suffered heart attacks. Compared to heart attack victims who didn’t change their diets, those who did were 30 percent less likely to die and 40 percent less likely to die of heart disease (JAMA Internal Medicine, published online September 2, 2013). The results of dietary change to prevent a second heart attack are at least as good as for those who take statin drugs. This study agrees with many previous ones that show that you can benefit from changes made after a heart attack no matter what you did before that event. In 1972, researchers at The University of Chicago were the first to show that plaques in arteries can disappear completely if you change your lifestyle enough.

Dietary factors that increase heart attack risk include *red and processed meat, *sugar-sweetened beverages, *sugar-added foods, *alcohol, *foods that contain trans fats, and *fried foods. Dietary factors that help prevent heart attacks include whole grains, nuts, seeds, beans, vegetables, fruits and fish.

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Most Cases of Type II Diabetes Are Curable with Lifestyle Changes

Thirty-five percent of all North Americans will develop type II diabetes and be at very high risk for heart attacks, strokes, premature death, impotence, dementia, blindness, deafness and damage to every cell in their bodies. Most of these cases of diabetes are caused by the sequence of events that cause fat to be deposited in the liver:
* When you eat, blood sugar levels rise.
* Sugar goes to the liver.
* Sugar in the liver can be 1)used for energy, 2) stored in the liver as glycogen, or 3) converted to fat.
* Once the liver is full of sugar (glycogen), all extra sugar is converted to a type of fat called triglycerides.
* That fat is then stored in the liver, leading to the condition known as Fatty Liver.

The Liver Controls Blood Sugar Levels
When blood sugar levels rise, the pancreas releases insulin. Insulin lowers high blood sugar levels by driving sugar from the bloodstream into cells, particularly into liver cells. A high blood sugar level, in itself, will not cause of the liver to remove sugar from the bloodstream. Only insulin drives sugar from the bloodstream into liver cells.

How a Fatty Liver Causes Diabetes
Fat in the liver prevents the liver from responding to insulin and taking up sugar from the bloodstream. When blood sugar levels rise too high, the fatty liver cannot respond to insulin, so instead of taking up sugar, the liver releases sugar from its cells into the blood stream. A fatty liver also makes new sugar from protein. This is called gluconeogenesis. These factors cause blood sugar levels to rise even higher and lead to diabetes.

Cure Diabetes by Getting the Fat Out of the Liver
* Prevent a high rise in blood sugar after meals by avoiding sugared drinks, sugar-added foods, red meat (blocks insulin receptors), fried foods, refined carbohydrates (foods made from flour and/or have had fiber removed, and AGEs, found in foods cooked at high temperatures without water
* Exercise
* Eat lots of fruits and vegetables
* Get blood levels of hydroxy Vitamin D above 75 nmol/L
* Avoid being overweight

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Sugared Drinks Increase Kidney Stone Risk

For hundreds of years doctors have told people who develop kidney stones to drink more fluids. However, kidney-stone formers should avoid sugared drinks. People who take sugared colas daily are 23 percent more likely to suffer kidney stones than those who take less than one sugared cola per day. Those who take one sugared non-cola beverage per day are 33 percent more likely to suffer kidney stones (Clin J Am Soc Nephrol, published online May 2013).

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Joseph Louis Melnick 

Joseph Melnick (October 9, 1914 – January 7, 2001) was one of the most famous virologists in the world. He wrote more than 1000 scientific papers and was the editor of many scientific journals. He died of dementia.

Brilliant People Die of Dementia?
On the same page as his obituary in the New York Times on January 21, 2001 was that of another world-famous and brilliant virus researcher, Dorothy Millicent Horstmann. She worked for many years as a researcher at Yale with Dr Melnick. They wrote many papers together and were two of the giants in the then-young field of medical virology.

It is difficult to believe that these incredibly productive people lost their minds in later life. Like two-time Nobelist, Marie Curie, who died of leukemia caused by her research on radiation, the dementia that affected both Joseph Melnick and Dorothy Millicent Horstmann was probably caused by working with one or more dangerous viruses from the 1930s onward. Their work brought them world-wide recognition but ultimately killed them.

Most Cited Polio Researcher Ever
Melnick's work is the main reason we don’t have polio epidemics any more. He did more to eradicate polio than either Albert Sabin or Jonas Salk, who are more famous only because they had their vaccines named after them. Melnick saved Albert Sabin’s oral polio vaccine by showing that it was less harmful to the nervous system than comparable vaccines. He showed that polio vaccine could be stored for years using magnesium chloride as a preservative, and therefore did not have to be refrigerated. This was the most important step in eliminating polio world wide.

Melnick led the field trials that showed that the Sabin and Salk polio vaccines prevent polio disease. He was the first to show that the polio virus:
* was spread by hands soiled by fecal contamination,
* could be spread by flies,
* could survive for years in sewerage,
* belongs to a larger class of viruses called enteroviruses that live in the intestines,
* stays in the intestines and usually does not get into the central nervous system to cause paralysis.

The Complete Virologist
Melnick developed many laboratory techniques for isolating, culturing and naming viruses that he discovered. He also made breakthroughs on many other viruses including those that cause hepatitis and influenza.

Dr. Melnick and Dr Michael Debakey published the first paper linking heart attacks with inflammation and infection in 1964. They were more than 40 years ahead of the rest of the world. He published many papers showing that cervical cancer is caused by a virus.

He Saved Me
In 1957, I was totally unprepared for my first year of medical school. I had majored in math in college. I was the son of poor immigrant parents who did not socialize with medical people. I had never worked in a hospital. I had no relatives who were physicians. I was working 100 hours a week selling ice cream each summer. During the school year, I received free room and board by staying up all night every second night as a laboratory technician at the Veterans’ Hospital.

Joe Melnick was my advisor in medical school. I told him that I was not enjoying medical school and was considering leaving. He asked what it would take to keep me in school. I told him that I found it difficult to work so many hours while I was going to school. He said: “Stay in school. You don’t have to work on those jobs any more.” He paid me to set up and supervise the field trials for a new influenza vaccine and I stayed in medical school. 

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Recipe of the Week:

Cajun Lentils and Zucchini

You'll find lots of recipes and helpful tips in The Good Food Book -- it's FREE

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