May 18, 2012 Clippings

Eating too fast could increase diabetes risk by 2.5 times

People who wolf down meals are two-and-a-half times more likely to develop type 2 diabetes, say scientists. This could be because eating very quickly encourages weight gain, which can trigger the illness.

Scientists in Lithuania presented their finding at the International Congress of Endocrinology and European Congress of Endocrinology in Florence, Italy, the Daily Mail reported. They looked at 702 people, including 234 who had just been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes.

They all filled in a detailed questionnaire about their lifestyles, which included sections on diets, exercise and whether they smoked. Overweight women miss out on jobs because of ‘fat discrimination’.

One question asked them if they ate faster, more slowly or at the same speed as others.

They were also measured and weighed to calculate their body mass index, which determines whether they are obese. The researchers found that those who admitted they ate more quickly than most other people were two-and-a-half times more likely to develop type 2 diabetes.

They claimed that this trend existed even once they had accounted for other causes such as obesity, smoking, diet and a family history of the illness.

“The prevalence of type 2 diabetes is increasing globally and becoming a world pandemic. It appears to involve interaction between susceptible genetic backgrounds and environmental factors,” said lead researcher Dr Lina Radzeviciene from Lithuanian University of Health Sciences.

“It’s important to identify modifiable risk factors that may help people reduce their chances of developing the disease,” she noted. The scientists did not explain why eating fast appeared to be linked to type 2 diabetes. But obesity has long been recognised as one of the main causes of the illnesses.

Previous studies have found that people who eat quickly also eat more, and consequently are more likely to be overweight. Experts think this is because their digestive system doesn’t have a chance to send a signal to the brain that it is full.

But David Speigelhalter, a professor in the public understanding of risk at Cambridge University, warned that the study was too small to be meaningful.

“This is one of those many small studies that raise an interesting question but don’t prove causation. It is a huge and unjustified jump to say that eating slower reduces your risk of getting diabetes,” he stated.

Source: www.dnaindia.com        18.05.2012

One in four adults in India has high BP, one in 10 is diabetic

Get that blood pressure down as there is some worrisome news for all: Nearly one-fourth of the Indian adult population has been found to be suffering from high BP. Known as silent killer, high BP raises the chances of stroke and heart diseases.

A large number of Indian male population (26%) consumes tobacco which is again a trigger for non-communicable diseases.

According to the latest World Health Statistics 2012 report released on Wednesday, high BP is now becoming the biggest reason for adult deaths across the world. One in three adults worldwide has high BP - a condition that causes around 51% of all deaths from stroke and heart diseases. The report also said that one in 10 adults has diabetes while obesity, too, remains a major issue.

The report said non-communicable diseases will be the biggest challenge in health in the 21st century.

Fast developing nations such as India too are getting higher cases of raised BP due to modernisation and stress levels. In India, the prevalence rate of high BP among men is 23.1% while for women it is 22.6%. Besides, 11.1% men and 10.8% women have diabetic conditions.

For the first time giving the data on people with raised blood glucose levels, the report said the global average prevalence is around 10%, but up to one third of populations in some Pacific Island countries have this condition.

The report said that though in 20 years, the number of maternal deaths has decreased to less than 2.9 lakh in 2010 from over 5.4 lakh deaths in 1990, still one third of these maternal deaths occur in just two countries - India with 20% of the global total and Nigeria with 14%.

Public health advancements globally have helped save children’s lives in the past decade and significant progress has been made as the number of child deaths reduced from almost 10 million children (aged less than 5 years) in 2000 to 7.6 million annual deaths in 2010. The decline in the number of deaths from diarrheal disease and measles has been particularly striking.

Source: www.dnaindia.com

18.05.2012

Strength and growth come only through effort and struggle

Napoleon Hill