The Diet Diary

Neither. At least not when it comes to controlling type two diabetes.

Some studies have shown that low-fat diets are better for controlling diabetes; other find low-carb diets are better. The results keep flip-flopping.

But one factor is known to be relevant: weight loss itself results in decreased insulin resistance in patients with type 2 diabetes or insulin resistance. The exact proportion of carbohydrates, fats and protein may be less important.

To learn more read Medline-Plus.

Let’s add this to the lists of things we can blame on Mom! Recently, Dr. Mary Beth Terry and her team of researchers found that large maternal weight gain is predictive of their daughters obesity at the age of 20 years. So, if you are a fat young woman…. maybe you can blame your mom?

But here’s good news for Moms who feel guilty: If your daughter is fat at 40, that’s not correlated with the weight you gained when pregnant. It’s her own darn fault.

Well, yeah. I mean, if you’re 20, you’ve been grew up influenced by your parents. To a large extent, the affected what you ate, drank, studied, and which sports or hobbies you chose. By 40, you’ve had at least 22 years on your own. If you didn’t start exercising and eating right, that’s your own darn fault!

To learn more about the association between obesity and maternal weight gain, read Maternal, Birth, and Early-Life Influences on Adult Body Size in Women.

Deep belly fat is widely reported to be associated with increased risk of diabetes and heart disease. Consequently, researchers are trying to develop practical ways to identify which high BMI patients carry lots of deep belly fat, and which store there fat directly under their skin (or which are simply muscular.)

A variety of methods have been used — including waist measurement and various more expensive methods. However, recently, researchers identified a blood test to test for belly fat. Dr. Barbara B. Kahn, chief of the Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, in Boston and her collea gues the level of retinol-binding protein 4 (RBP4) in the blood is correlated the amount of bell fat a person carries.

Obese patients, and people with insulin resistance, or type 2 diabetes have also been found to have high levels of RBP4. So, even if this doesn’t indicate belly fat per se, it seem to indicate one is susceptible to diabetes.

To learn more, read the article at Cell Metabolism.

From time to time, those interested in health come across products promoted as useful to maintaining health. Today I found Bowtrol Colon Cleanse which costs $156 for a six month supply.

The product is formulated to help you eliminate more regularly. I’ve generally read that physicians advise the best way to remain regular is to eat a high fiber diet and get regular exercise; that works for me!

If, for some reason, you cannot eat a high fiber diet, or if you have some medical ailment that interferes with your colon function, you may need a supplement. The pros and cons of various commercial products that can help you are being discussed at The Public Health
Forum. Check them out!

This post is sponsored.

Dr. Nanette K. Wegner and colleauges from Emory University School of Medicine recently competed a study that suggested that high doses of atorvastatin (a statin) reduced coronary events more than low doses. The study involved over 10,000 patients over 65 who had coronary disease.

During the study, patients receiving higher doses of atorvastatin were heart 19 percent less likely to suffer a heart attack, stroke or cardiac arrest. Mortality rates were also lower for those taking the high doses of atrovastatin.

Links to Dr. Wegner’s paper and comments by other medical researchers are available at The Annals of Internal Medicine.

As some of you know, my 78 year old father lives in Florida. Recently, Dad had need of hospital vip medical services; his neighbor found him hemorrhaging from his bowel. Luckily, an ambulance got to Dad to the emergency room in time, and he’s fine now.

But this was not the first episode of bleeding: Five years ago Dad had a similar incident where he nearly died because of blood loss due to ulcers.

Needless to say, Dad’s health issues worry his children. We’ve been looking into programs that could provide him high quality personalized healthcare.

This morning, I found one that interested us all. It’s called MDVIP. Doctors in this program take on limited patient loads so they can focus on individual patients. They also spend time emphasizing preventive medicine — which would be wonderful in my father’s case. If only some doctor could get Dad to stop taking aspirin, we think these dramatic episodes of bleeding would stop!

After reading about MDVIP’s focus on preventative medicine, I read a bit more about their physicians. They appear to have a large number of award winning physicians — many specifically in Florida. I used the sites online search tool to find one near my father; unfortunately, none of their doctors have offices in Sarasota. So, this specific program won’t work for Dad.

However, now that I’ve discovered it, I’ll try to find similar programs with physicians who take limited patient loads. And if you have a father who won’t take care of his own health, you should look into this too!

This post is sponsored.