Health News

REPORTING POINT EXPRESS 11-01

AEROMEDICAL NEWS

“Live healthy...live well”

HEALTH NEWS

by Larry Kline

SWAPA Voice Mailbox 511/email: skyguy737@cox.net

ASK FOR THE “SILVER BULLET” - men have a one-in-four chance of being stuck with a urinary catheter during a hospital visit. That can lead to a urinary-tract infection - the most common infection men contract in the hospital. University of Michigan researchers have found that silver-coated catheters are less likely to cause urinary-tract infections, because of silver’s antibacterial properties. According to the study, doctors don’t always use silver catheters, so ask for one if you are going to have surgery. Men’s Health 4/01.

WINE OR BEER? - many studies suggest that moderate drinking - one or two drinks a day - may help prevent heart disease. But different alcohol sources can affect that risk differently. If you desire to raise your good cholesterol levels (HDL), make red wine your beverage, as it is very good at raising blood HDL levels. If you desire to reduce levels of homocysteine, beer is much more effective.

Scientist at the Nutrition and Food Research Institute in the Netherlands gave a group of men wine, beer, gin, or water with dinner, switching beverages every three weeks. The wine and gin raised homocysteine levels a bit; the beer did not. The beer increased the level of heart-protective vitamin B6 by 30 percent - twice the increase caused by wine and gin. Men’s Health 11/00.

DON’T HOLD THE ONIONS - avoiding onions because of the effect on your breath may be a disservice to your health. The sulfur compounds that give the vegetable its pungent characteristics also help lower blood pressure and cholesterol levels. Onions also contain a powerful antioxidant called quercetin, which can protect the body from cataracts, heart disease, and cancer. A recent Dutch study conducted at the Wageningen Centre for Food Sciences in Holland found that onions have twice as much quercetin as tea and three times as much as apples, two foods full of the antioxidant. Other cancer-fighting compounds found in onions include allicin, sulphurophane, and vitamin C. (Fried onion rings don’t count!) Men’s Fitness 7/01.


BRAVE NEW WORLD - genetic engineers from Bayer Thompson Institute at Cornell University have developed an edible vaccine against potentially deadly diseases. They combined genes from bacteria and viruses with potato cells and produced a spud with protective power. In developed countries, the benefit of the technology will be a more convenient way to administer vaccines - no needles. But in poor countries, it has far more dramatic implications. It is much less expensive than normal vaccines and will be more readily available. The first edible vaccine protects against diarrhea. Vaccines for hepatitis B and cholera are being developed. Men’s Health 11/00.

DIABETES PRIMER - just about everything we eat is digested and turned into glucose, also called blood sugar. The glucose is then carried to the body’s cells, where it is burned as fuel. One crucial element makes the entire process possible: insulin, a hormone secreted by the pancreas that allows glucose to penetrate the cell walls. Think of insulin as the key that opens the door to the cell. Glucose is surging around in the blood, looking to be absorbed by the muscles, but it needs to get through a receptor in the cell wall. The receptor is the lock; the insulin is the key. Once the insulin unlocks the receptor, the glucose can flow into the cell.

Diabetes occurs when there is a breakdown in the glucose stream. It can happen two ways: first, the pancreas can malfunction and stop producing insulin. The cause is a virus that tricks the immune system into wiping out the cells that manufacture insulin. This is type-1 diabetes (formerly known as juvenile diabetes, when it was thought to show up only in children). In other cases, the pancreas produces plenty of insulin, but for some reason the insulin does not unlock the receptors, so the glucose cannot be absorbed by the cells - this is type-2 diabetes. Approximately 95 percent of all people with diabetes have type-2.

No one knows exactly how type-2 diabetes is acquired, but recent animal research has revealed that fat cells secrete a hormone called resistin. Resistin acts like rust in the lock, somehow jamming the works and preventing insulin from opening the receptors so glucose can surge into the cells. The more fat cells there are, the more resistin there is, and the greater the chance of diabetes.

Type-1 and 2 diabetes affects the body about the same way. The body keeps converting food into glucose, but because the glucose cannot enter the cells, it starts building up in the blood. Some of this excess glucose is converted into fat; the rest turns toxic and produces poisons that can destroy the heart, kidneys, and retinas. The vision becomes blurry, breathing is labored, and the body becomes dehydrated as the body tries to excrete the excess glucose as urine. Extreme cases can result in coma, heart attack or stroke. Diabetes is the seventh leading cause of death in the United States, but it may take even more lives than what is statistically shown. One prominent diabetes researcher states that 80 percent of diabetics will die of cardiovascular events. These deaths are listed as heart attack, although it was actually the diabetes that caused the death.

As the blood levels of glucose increase in diabetics, the cells are glucose-deprived. Up to 70 percent of diabetics suffer nerve damage, which can lead to amputations, blindness, and coma. While men and women develop the disease about equally, men suffer slightly harsher consequences. Men are twice as likely as female diabetics to lose a foot or a leg. 20 percent of male diabetics are left impotent - including 60 percent of those over the age of 50.


Type-2 diabetes appears to have some relationship to diet. Those that are genetically predisposed to diabetes (those related to a diabetic or Blacks, Latinos, or Native Americans) seem more susceptible to storing fat. When the body stores fat around the stomach, the body seems more prone to acquire diabetes. According to the head of the CDC, obesity-rates for Americans are on the rise, and it is very likely that diabetes rates will also rise.

Once diagnosed, diabetes is fairly simple to treat. The main strategy is to lose weight, exercise more frequently, and eat meals that won’t dilute the blood with too much glucose. If this does not work, the next step is “diabetes pills.” There are three classes of these pills: those that stimulate the beta cells in the pancreas to release more insulin; those that make the body more sensitive to the insulin already produced; and those designed to slow the conversion of carbohydrates into glucose. Some side effects of these therapies include diarrhea, hypoglycemia (too low blood sugar), and liver damage.

To minimize your risk of acquiring this disease, watch your weight. If you tend to store fat in your mid-section, you are more at risk. Aerobic exercise, particularly walking, is one of the best ways to get rid of visceral fat. One study found that those who walked the fastest and longest had reductions in visceral fat that cut their risk of diabetes in half. Another study in Finland found that subjects (aged 40 to 65, with impaired glucose tolerance) who got individual counseling about diet and exercise lost an average of nine pounds during the first year - and by the end of three years had reduced their risk of diabetes by more than half, compared to similar people who took no steps.

Eating low-glycemic carbohydrates slows the rate that glucose is released into the bloodstream. One Harvard study showed that subjects who ate foods with the lowest indexes, like whole-wheat bread, were 37 percent less likely to develop diabetes than those who ate high-index foods such as white rice.

Moderate alcohol consumption may also reduce the risk of diabetes. According to a study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, light to moderate alcohol consumption - three to six drinks a week - are 42 percent less likely to develop diabetes than those who drink occasionally or not at all. It is possible that alcohol may improve insulin sensitivity.

400 milligrams of vitamin E, taken daily, may also reduce diabetic risk. A Finnish study found that those with the highest vitamin E intake had a 22 percent lower risk of diabetes than those with the lowest. Vitamin E may also prevent the free-radical damage that plays a role in the complications caused by diabetes. Men’s Health 9/01, University of California Berkeley Letter 9/01.

WEAK ABS CAN KILL YOU - a Canadian study of more than 8,000 people discovered that over the 13 years of the study, those with the weakest abdominal muscles had more than two times the death rate of those with the strongest midsections.

A study at Springfield College in Massachusetts found that athletes who did abdominal and lower-back exercises on an exercise ball had much better midsection strength and overall balance than those who did crunches and back extensions on the floor. Men’s Health 9/01.

MORE OFTEN IS BETTER - dividing your food intake into smaller, more frequent meals throughout the day can be a highly effective way to keep your energy levels up and improve your health at the same time.


In a study in the New England Journal of Medicine, two groups ate the same type and amount of food, but one group had three meals a day and the other spread those meals out across 17 snacks. After just two weeks, the nibblers had reduced their blood-cholesterol levels by more than 15 percent, their cortisol levels by more than 17 percent (evidence that their bodies were under less stress than those of the non-nibblers), and their blood-insulin levels by almost 28 percent (indicating a more constant blood-sugar level, which helps eliminate wild energy swings as the day progresses).

Since eating 17 times a day is very difficult in our profession, it appears that eating five or six smaller meals throughout the day that distributes your caloric intake evenly will yield roughly the same benefits as those who were able to have the 17 mini-meals. It may even be possible to lose some fat in the process (assuming total caloric intake does not increase), because the metabolic rate will be kept high. Men’s Fitness 8/01.