Readers:

I’ve had diabetes for almost twenty years. In that time I
often forget about how I’ve dealt with it for so long. It
just part of my life and I take it as it comes.

I don’t hate the fact that I have to be more mindful of
my health and eat right and take care of myself. I think
it was more of a wake up call than anything else. Your
health is more important than we think, especially young
people. We take our health for granted. How many seniors
have you heard utter the phrase, “If I only took better
care of myself”?

Take care of yourself for yourself. Enjoy living a healthy
life that allows you to experience it and enjoy it.

I just want to live a good life. Something I can be proud
of and look back on with no regrets.

Please, take care of yourself for yourself.

Regards,
Steve

Concerned about your health? Evtv1.com has videos for you!
http://www.evtv1.com/Health.aspx

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Indian Ethnicity Tied to Higher Diabetes Risk
Reuters Health

Americans of Indian descent may have a heightened risk of
diabetes, even when their weight is in the normal range,
research suggests.

Researchers found that among more than 7,400 Asian
Americans in a national health study, those of Indian
descent had roughly three times the risk of diabetes as
U.S. whites as a whole, and a higher prevalence of the
disease than people of other Asian ethnicities.

Moreover, although type 2 diabetes is closely associated
with obesity, Asian Indians’ risk began to climb even at
lower weights.

Among those with weights in the normal range — as measured
by body mass index (BMI), a ratio of weight in relation to
height — about 7 percent had diabetes. That compared with
rates of anywhere from 2 percent to 4 percent among whites
and people of other Asian ethnicities.

Among obese adults — as defined as a BMI of 30 or higher
– one-third of Indian adults had diabetes. Among other
ethnicities, the rate ranged from 12 percent to 17 percent.

The reasons for the findings are not entirely clear,
Dr. Reena Oza-Frank and colleagues at Emory University
in Atlanta point out in the journal Diabetes Care.

However, the researchers note, ethnic differences in body
fat levels and body fat distribution may play a role.

Studies have shown that compared with people of other races
and ethnicities, Asians tend to have a higher proportion of
body fat at any given weight — along with a higher type 2
diabetes risk.

It’s possible that people of Indian background are
particularly likely to have body fat distributions —
including more abdominal fat — that are closely
associated with diabetes, according to Oza-Frank and
colleagues.

Some studies, the researchers note, have suggested that
this may be a factor in the higher diabetes risk seen in
Indian adults compared with Europeans.

Because Asian adults tend to have more body fat — and,
therefore, greater health risks at relatively lower
weights — the World Health Organization (WHO) has
proposed lowering the threshold for how “overweight”
is defined in Asian populations.

The standard definition of overweight is a BMI of between
25 and 30; the WHO recommendation sets that at 23 to 27.5
for Asians.

However, the current findings, Oza-Frank and colleagues
write, suggest that for Asian Indians, “ethnicity alone
may be as informative as BMI with regard to diabetes
risk.”

They call for more research into the “complex relation-
ships” among body size, body fat and disease risks across
different Asian populations.

SOURCE: Diabetes Care, September 2009.

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Vision Loss in Diabetics Becoming Less Common
Reuters Health

People who were diagnosed with type 1 diabetes in more-
recent decades may be less likely to suffer vision loss
than their predecessors.

In a study of nearly 1,000 Wisconsin residents with
type 1 diabetes, researchers found that visual impair-
ment was less common among those diagnosed in the 1970s
compared with those diagnosed in earlier decades.

The findings, the researchers say, suggest that better
blood sugar control and improved treatment of diabetes-
related eye disorders are preventing more cases of visual
impairment than in years past.

Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease that kills off
or disables the pancreatic cells that produce the hormone
insulin, which controls blood sugar. It is usually
diagnosed by young adulthood.

People with visual impairment have abnormal vision even
with corrective lenses. In diabetes, impaired vision is
largely the result of an eye disease called diabetic
retinopathy — a long-term complication caused by damage
to the tiny blood vessels supplying the retina.

In the new study, Dr. Ronald Klein and colleagues at the
University of Wisconsin-Madison looked at data on 955
people who had taken part in a larger study of long-term
diabetes complications, which included vision exams some-
time between 1980 and 2007. All had been diagnosed with
type 1 diabetes before the age of 30.

The researchers found that, overall, patients diagnosed
in the 1970s were less likely to develop vision loss than
those diagnosed before 1960 — even after accounting for
age, high blood pressure and other factors that affect
diabetes patients’ risk of impaired vision.

Among people who had had diabetes for 30 to 34 years,
16 percent of those diagnosed before 1960 showed visual
impairment at the time of their eye exam, versus 9 percent
of those diagnosed between 1970 and 1974.

The patterns were similar for people who had had diabetes
for fewer years. Among those who had had diabetes for 15
to 19 years, for example, 13 percent of patients diagnosed
in the 1960s had impaired vision at the time of their exam.

That figure was 4 percent among those diagnosed in the
late 1970s, according to a report of the study published
in the journal Ophthalmology.

The study “implies that better glycemic (blood sugar) and
blood pressure control has resulted in the reduction of
the progression of diabetic retinopathy to its severe
vision-threatening stages,” Klein told Reuters Health in
an email.

It also suggests, he added, that more-timely detection and
treatment of retinopathy have made a difference.

Laser surgery can treat more-advanced stages of diabetic
retinopathy, as well as macular edema — a swelling of the
retina commonly seen in people with advanced retinopathy.
The treatment became available in the 1960s, but came into
wider use after studies in the 1970s and 1980s proved its
effectiveness.

Similarly, clinical trials in recent decades have pointed
to the importance of tight blood sugar control in cutting
the risk of advanced retinopathy.

“I think the implication is that the translation of find-
ings from clinical trials over the past 20 years…into
clinical care has resulted in reduction of vision loss,”
Klein said.

That also suggests, he added, that future generations of
people diagnosed with type 1 diabetes will continue to
benefit.

Experts recommend that people with diabetes have an eye
exam at least once per year to detect diabetic retinopathy
and other eye disorders early, so that progression can be
prevented or delayed.

SOURCE: Ophthalmology, October 2009.

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Diabetic Recipe

Fresh Fruit Slush
(makes 4 servings)

1 1/2 cups (225 g) chopped fresh fruit or unsweetened
frozen fruit of your choice

8 to 10 ice cubes

1. Using a food processor or blender, blend the fruit
until smooth.

2. While machine is running, add the ice cubes one at a
time until the mixture takes on a slushy consistency.
Pour into glasses and serve immediately.

Per serving: 25 calories (6% calories from fat), trace
protein, trace total fat (0 saturated fat),
6 g carbohydrate, 1 g dietary fiber,
0 cholesterol, 0 sodium

Diabetic exchanges: 1/2 carbohydrate (fruit)

Copyright 1997-2009 Diabetic-Lifestyle.

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