Blood Sugar

WHAT WOULD you say if I told you that you could profoundly cut your risk for cardiovascular disease, diabetes and cancer? Significantly decrease your risk for Alzheimer's disease, too? And, better yet, that you could do all this without spending a single dime? Impossible, right? Wrong. All that and more may be possible simply by following the sage advice of Dr. Michael Mosley, a British medical journalist and co-author of The FastDiet: Lose Weight, Stay Healthy, and Live Longer with the Simple Secret of Intermittent Fasting . The "Fast Diet" is all the rage in Britain and could take flight here as well.

My 5 diabetes super foods 1. BLACK BEANS High in fiber and folate to regulate blood sugar. Use in soups, salads, chili. A 1/2-cup is a serving. Inexpensive, too! 2. CHOCOLATE Many experts say dark chocolate may help control blood sugar. Dark chocolate has more antioxidants than any other food. Sorry, a serving's just 1 ounce. 3. ONIONS Sulfur and flavonoids give onions a double bang for the buck. Sulfur helps with heart disease, thins the blood and boosts good cholesterol.

Diabetes isn't just about avoiding sugar. It's about needles, pricks and constant monitoring. It's about the long-term effects of extremely high blood-sugar levels: vision problems, kidney disease and amputations. And it's about avoiding extremely low blood-sugar levels that could lead to comas. "It's very difficult, even when they try their hardest, to control their blood glucose," said Jeffrey Joseph, assistant professor of anesthesiology at Jefferson Medical College at Thomas Jefferson University.

The fight against diabetes is getting a $150 million shot in the arm: a major nationwide study aimed at prevention among people at risk for the disease. Researchers plan to recruit 4,000 people who have higher-than-normal blood sugar levels but do not yet have diabetes. The study will follow the participants for five years to test three approaches to preventing Type 2 diabetes, which accounts for 90 percent to 95 percent of all diabetes cases and affects about 15 million Americans.

Diabetics who rigorously control their blood-sugar levels can dramatically cut down on the complications of their disease, including damage to the eyes, kidneys and nerves, a landmark study has found. The long-awaited study found that patients who kept their blood sugar as close to normal as possible by getting three or more insulin injections a day and testing their blood sugar at least four times a day fared far better than patients who followed a standard routine of just one or two insulin shots and one blood-sugar test.

Question: What is your opinion on taking D-Ribose for fibromyalgia? Answer: D-Ribose is one of those supplements that have garnered a lot of attention recently. D-Ribose is a 5-carbon sugar (unlike 6-carbon glucose sugar) directly involved in the production of "ATP," the fuel that every cell in the body uses for its energy production. D-Ribose doesn't raise blood sugar; rather it's directly converted to ATP. It can even lower blood sugar a bit. Supporters of D-Ribose claim it decreases pain, improves mental clarity, increases energy, improves stamina, creates an improved sense of well-being, and strengthens heart performance.

November has been "Diabetes Month," but for the 200,000 diabetics who live in the Delaware Valley, it is an every-month, everyday condition. For these people, blood sugar levels are often the first thing they think of upon waking, and the last thing on their minds before they fall asleep. They may never take a break from this condition, but they must have confidence in themselves. I tell my clients that living "well" with diabetes can be accomplished through knowledge, self-management and focus.

The Pennsylvania Department of Health will investigate the case of a 76- year-old North Philadelphia man who died Friday at the James C. Giuffre Medical Center, a department spokesman said yesterday. The review of the care of Percy Walker of the 2600 block of North Warnock Street will be part of the department's continuing probe of patient care at the hospital, located at Eighth Street and Girard Avenue, said spokesman Gary Froseth. "Given the current situation at Giuffre, I think we would probably be remiss if we did not look at this particular incident," he said.

It was a mob scene worthy of Brad Pitt or Angelina Jolie. Nearly 1,000 people pushed into a Washington ballroom at the American Diabetes Association's annual convention, causing security guards to turn people away. The object of adoration wasn't a movie star or even a person, but rather a diabetes drug called Byetta, which helps to lower blood sugar. The new drug sold nearly $100 million in the last three months, partly because of an intriguing side effect: It helps people lose weight.

Nobody likes needles. That simple idea is part of how former Jefferson Hospital surgeon Patrick Mooney hopes he and his investors will get rich. Whether delivering medicine or monitoring blood-sugar levels, sharp objects are often involved, but they don't always provide better results or financial efficiency - and they hurt. Mooney and his small company, Echo Therapeutics Inc., are developing devices that they hope will change all that. Echo, which had 17 people working in its facility in Franklin, Mass., moved its corporate headquarters to 8 Penn Center in Center City last week, and could add 25 people in the next 18 months, Mooney said in an interview.

WHAT WOULD you say if I told you that you could profoundly cut your risk for cardiovascular disease, diabetes and cancer? Significantly decrease your risk for Alzheimer's disease, too? And, better yet, that you could do all this without spending a single dime? Impossible, right? Wrong. All that and more may be possible simply by following the sage advice of Dr. Michael Mosley, a British medical journalist and co-author of The FastDiet: Lose Weight, Stay Healthy, and Live Longer with the Simple Secret of Intermittent Fasting . The "Fast Diet" is all the rage in Britain and could take flight here as well.

DID YOU hear the footsteps last week? Are they coming for you next? The gargantuan CVS drugstore chain has ordered its nearly 200,000 employees to disclose personal health information - weight, height, body fat, blood pressure, cholesterol, blood sugar - or they will have a $600 penalty added to their annual health-insurance bill. CVS public-relations director Michael DeAngelis sees it differently, telling me that employees who take the survey will pay $600 less for health coverage.

1PROMOTES BRAIN HEALTH Researchers have long known that exercise promotes brain health. So, after doing your daily Sudoku puzzle, lace up your sneakers and get moving. 2 MAY PREVENT COLDS People who exercise regularly appear to get fewer colds. Exercise may spike the immune system, experts believe, helping to ward off colds. 3HELPS YOU HAVE A HEATHY PREGNANCY Exercising during pregnancy is beneficial to baby and mom. Most healthy women can exercise safely throughout pregnancy.

WHILE IT MAY seem obvious, too many Americans still resist accepting the simple truth that daily exercise would likely do more to improve their health than a cadre of specialists or the latest pharmacological miracle drug. That's right, and this activity can be something as simple as a 30-minute walk. And I don't mean power walking with weights in your hands - just walking at a rate that you can still talk comfortably. Besides, you already know exercise can make you look younger and more fit, and improve your mood, too. So what's stopping you?

My 5 diabetes super foods 1. BLACK BEANS High in fiber and folate to regulate blood sugar. Use in soups, salads, chili. A 1/2-cup is a serving. Inexpensive, too! 2. CHOCOLATE Many experts say dark chocolate may help control blood sugar. Dark chocolate has more antioxidants than any other food. Sorry, a serving's just 1 ounce. 3. ONIONS Sulfur and flavonoids give onions a double bang for the buck. Sulfur helps with heart disease, thins the blood and boosts good cholesterol.

A half-dozen medical students crowd into a lab at Jefferson Medical College as Jeffrey Joseph points to a graph of a patient's blood sugar. While healthy levels stay within a narrow range, this man's pattern is wildly erratic, peaking at four times the normal amount after a meal and plunging dangerously low during sleep. The graphs are from a diabetic named Brian who had his blood sugar, or glucose, continuously monitored over three days for a study, says Joseph, head of Jefferson's Artificial Pancreas Center.

What used to be called "adult-onset diabetes" — a leading cause of kidney failure, limb amputations, blindness, heart disease, and stroke among adults — is now a growing problem for American children, too. This health challenge, and how to deal with it, will be one of the hottest topics at this weekend's American Diabetes Association conference. An expected 16,000 health professionals, researchers, advocates, and vendors from around the world are gathering at the Convention Center to share the latest in diabetes research.

Several large studies have shown that people with diabetes are at especially high risk for Alzheimer's disease. Steven Arnold, director of the University of Pennsylvania's Memory Center, said diabetics are 50 to 100 percent more likely to get the fatal, memory-destroying disease. This has made researchers increasingly interested in the role that insulin, the hormone that's out of whack in diabetes, might play in Alzheimer's. In the brain, Arnold said, insulin is important for cell growth and releasing neurotransmitters that allow cells to communicate.

HERE ARE some tips (and a favorite snack recipe) from Tony Luke for those who'd like to follow his lead and remake their physical appearances in an organic and healthy way: * Understand that it's not about dieting or exercising for a specific period of time. "You will never keep the weight off if you don't make it a lifestyle change and if you don't make exercising as important a part of your life as getting up and showering in the morning. " * Moderation is the key. " 'Healthy' doesn't mean just eating wheat grass and alfalfa sprouts.

I HATE TO ADMIT this, but I'm an addict. That's right. I am a slave to sugar, and until I came to terms with this simple fact, I struggled to keep excess weight off. Until quite recently, every confection I encountered called my name. I had the absolutely most wicked sweet tooth - one I honestly got from my parents, who are both confectionery snobs, if you will. I could even overindulge in nature's sweets like dates, figs, prunes and raisins. I can remember a time when I would go to Essene Market & Cafe in South Philly and dust off an entire tub of coconut date rolls on my stroll back home.