Fight diabetes with Tai Chi

Good morning friends. There is one good way to fight diabetes. We know that diabetes is a hereditary ailment so we have to be careful for those families who have this kind of disease. For those who were not much of exercise this will make you interested with.

Doing tai chi exercises regularly can help diabetics lower their blood glucose levels, says a new study.

Tai chi is an ancient martial art that combines deep breathing and relaxation with slow, gentle circular movements.

Adults diagnosed with type-2 diabetes, who took part in a tai chi programme two days a week, with three days of home practice for six months, cut down their fasting blood glucose levels, enhanced quality of life, including mental health, vitality and energy.

"Tai chi really has similar effects as other aerobic exercises on diabetic control. Tai chi is a low-impact exercise, less stressful on the bones, joints and muscles than more strenuous exercise," said Beverly Roberts, professor at the University of Florida (UF) College of Nursing.

Roberts studied tai chi's effect on older Korean residents with Rhayun Song of Chungham National University.

Sixty-two participants, mostly Korean women, took part in the study. Half the group participated in at least 80 per cent of two supervised sessions one hour per week, with three days of home practice for six months, and the other half served as a control group.

About 23.6 million children and adults in the US or 7.8 per cent of the population have diabetes. It occurs when the body does not produce or properly use insulin, a hormone that is needed to convert sugar, starches and other food into energy needed for daily life.

Risk factors include obesity, sedentary lifestyle, unhealthy eating habits, high blood pressure and cholesterol, a history of gestational diabetes and increased age, many of which can be reduced through exercise.

"People assume that for exercise to be beneficial you have to be huffing and puffing, sweating and red-faced afterward," Roberts said.

"This may turn people off, particularly older adults. However, we have found that activities like tai chi can be just as beneficial in improving health."

Those who completed the sessions had significantly improved glucose control and reported higher levels of vitality and energy. - AhmedabadMirror

High insulin levels enhance breast cancer risk

Elevated insulin levels in the blood seem to raise the risk of breast cancer in post-menopausal women, according to a new study.

Increased breast cancer risk for post-menopausal women has previously been linked to obesity and diabetes. Both conditions involve insulin resistance, which causes increases in circulating levels of insulin.

Since insulin is known to promote cell division and enhance breast tumour growth in animal models, Einstein College of Medicine scientists reasoned that relatively high insulin levels may contribute to breast cancer risk in women.

"Up to now, only a few studies have directly investigated whether insulin levels are associated with breast cancer risk, and those studies have yielded conflicting results," says Geoffrey Geoffrey Kabat, senior epidemiologist at Einstein and the study's co-author.

"Those other studies were based on just a single baseline measurement of insulin, while our study involved analysing repeated measurements of insulin taken over several years - which provides a more accurate picture of the possible association between insulin levels and breast cancer risk."

Kabat and colleagues analysed data on 5,450 women enrolled in the Women’s Health Initiative, a large multi-centre study investigating the influence of a number of factors on women's health.

Most of the women had participated in the clinical trial part of the study and provided fasting blood samples at its start (baseline) and then at years one, three and six.

The remaining women, who were enrolled in a separate "observational" component of the study, provided fasting blood samples at baseline and at year three of the study. Among all these women, 190 cases of breast cancer were identified over eight years of follow-up.

The analysis revealed a strong association between elevated insulin levels and increased risk for breast cancer, said an Einstein release. These findings were published in online in the International Journal of Cancer. –The Times of India

Adopt a proper diet 'to control diabetes'

Good morning friends. Balance diet must require for those people who have diabetes. We can control it with a proper diet. As most of the people always wanted to eat, people with diabetes should be aware of all the food they will going to eat.

Suffering from diabetes? Fret not, just adopt a proper and healthy diet, for a new study has revealed that using lifestyle interventions on top of existing drug treatments can help controlling high blood sugar levels.

A team at University of Otago has provided intensive dietary advice to improve blood sugar control in diabetics -- even though they're on what is regarded as the best available medication.

The study divided 87 high-risk diabetes patients into two groups. Both received optimized medical care, but patients in one of the groups also received regular one-on-one dietary advice from a dietitian.

Lead investigator Dr Kirsten Coppell said that at the end of the study, measures of glycaemic control were found to have significantly improved in the group receiving the advice. The group also recorded an average weight loss of 2 kg and a 3cm reduction in waistlines.

"Achieving good glycaemic control is a crucial goal in managing diabetes, as it can prevent long-term complications such as kidney failure, heart disease and blindness. Before the widespread introduction of anti-diabetic drugs, the key focus in diabetes care was on diet and lifestyle.

"Our research indicates that while this earlier approach has tended to be forgotten in this modern age of a 'pill for every ill', it still very much has its place in diabetes management," Dr Coppell said. – The Times of India

Why type 1 diabetics avoid exercise

A new study has revealed that majority of diabetics avoid physical activity because they worry about exercise-induced hypoglycemia (low blood sugar) and severe consequences including loss of consciousness.

Despite the well-known benefits of exercise, this new study builds on previous investigations that found more than 60 percent of adult diabetics aren't physically active.

"Our findings confirmed our clinical suspicion," say Dr. Remi Rabasa-Lhoret, co-author of the study, a professor at the Universite de Montreal's Faculty of Medicine and an endocrinologist at the Centre hospitalier de l'Universite de Montreal (CHUM).

"Exercise has been proven to improve health and one would assume diabetics would remain active. Yet our findings indicate that type 1 diabetics, much like the general public, are not completely comfortable with exercise," Rabasa-Lhoret added.

In the study, one hundred adults, 50 women and 50 men, with type 1 diabetes answered questionnaires to assess their barriers to physical activity.

The biggest fear was hypoglycaemia and other barriers included interference with work schedule, loss of control over diabetes and low levels of fitness.

When questioned further, only 52 of the participants demonstrated appropriate knowledge of how insulin is metabolized and processed.

Those individuals who best understood how insulin works in their body were shown to be less fearful of physical activity.

Such knowledge is essential in order to adapt insulin and/or food intake to prevent hypoglycaemia induced by exercise.

Anne-Sophie Brazeau, lead author and doctoral student at the Universite de Montreal, said: "Our study was launched to find ways to make diabetics healthier and suggests there is a major gap in information and support required by these patients."

"Programs aimed an increasing physical activity among type 1 adult diabetics need to incorporate specific actions to prevent hypoglycemia," Brazeau added.

Dr. Hortensia Mircescu, co-author of the study, a professor at the Universite de Montreal's Faculty of Medicine and a CHUM endocrinologist, said: "We also found that individuals with the greatest fear of physical activity had the poorest control of their diabetes. Education is particularly relevant for this group."

The study is published in the November.