Insulin resistance may cause Alzheimer plaques

Guess who gets insulin resistance most - fat people.

People with insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes are more likely to develop plaques in the brain associated with Alzheimer's disease, researchers in Japan reported on Thursday.

Type 2 diabetes is fat person diabetes.

Kudos, fatsos.

Scientists Closer to Finding What Causes the Birth of a Fat Cell

I found it. You can stop looking, now.

Just what causes the birth of a human fat cell is a mystery, but scientists using mathematics to tackle the question have come up with a few predictions about the proteins that influence this process.

You can thank me later, folks.

Plus-Size Teen Waistlines Expanding

Fat parents have fat kids.

The heaviest American children and teens are only getting bigger, researchers found.

Overall measures of body mass index (BMI), waist circumference, and triceps skin fold thickness have increased over a 10-year period, but were more marked in the heaviest quintile of children, May A. Beydoun, PhD, and Youfa Wang, MD, PhD, of Johns Hopkins, reported in the International Journal of Pediatric Obesity.

"Heavier children and adolescents gained more adiposity, especially waist size," Wang said in a statement.

The increases in adiposity were also more pronounced in black girls and other ethnic groups.

Kudos, fatsos.

Retinopathy High Among Diabetics

Type 2 diabetes is fat person diabetes.

Nearly three in 10 people with diabetes have diabetic retinopathy, according to researchers.
And nearly one in 20 has retinopathy so severe it threatens their vision, according to Xinzhi Zhang, MD, PhD, of the CDC, and colleagues.

The prevalence of the condition -- which is the leading cause of new cases of legal blindness among adults -- was higher among African-Americans than Caucasians, Zhang and colleagues reported in...the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Kudos, fatsos.

Making Soldiers Fit to Fight, Without the Situps

Kudos fatsos and more stupidity in response to overweight/obesity.

Dawn breaks at this, the Army’s largest training post, with the reliable sound of fresh recruits marching to their morning exercise. But these days, something looks different.

That familiar standby, the situp, is gone, or almost gone. Exercises that look like pilates or yoga routines are in. And the traditional bane of the new private, the long run, has been downgraded.

This is the Army’s new physical-training program, which has been rolled out this year at its five basic training posts that handle 145,000 recruits a year. Nearly a decade in the making, its official goal is to reduce injuries and better prepare soldiers for the rigors of combat in rough terrain like Afghanistan.

But as much as anything, the program was created to help address one of the most pressing issues facing the military today: overweight and unfit recruits.

Next there will be aromatherapy and teaching the army to overcome the enemy with accubeating.

Overweight American Children and Adolescents Becoming Fatter

Fat parents have fat kids. Kudos, fatsos.

Overweight American children and adolescents have become fatter over the last decade, according to researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and National Institute on Aging (NIA). They examined adiposity shifts across socio-demographic groups over time and found U.S. children and adolescents had significantly increased adiposity measures such as body mass index (BMI), waist circumference (WC) and triceps skinfold thickness (TST).

And the beat goes on.

Even Modest Weight Gain Can Harm Blood Vessels, Researchers Find

Thar she blows!

Mayo Clinic researchers found that healthy young people who put on as little as 9 pounds of fat, specifically in the abdomen, are at risk for developing endothelial cell dysfunction. Endothelial cells line the blood vessels and control the ability of the vessels to expand and contract.

"Endothelial dysfunction has long been associated with an increased risk for coronary artery disease and cardiovascular events," says Virend Somers, M.D., Ph.D., a cardiologist at Mayo Clinic. "Gaining a few pounds in college, on a cruise, or over the holidays is considered harmless, but it can have cardiovascular implications, especially if the weight is gained in the abdomen."

Kudos, fatsos.

No manslaughter charges for misconduct GP Jane Barton

"I am romantic about the NHS; I love it. All I need to do to rediscover the romance is to look at health care in my own country." Donald Berwick, MD, head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

A doctor found guilty of misconduct will not be prosecuted for gross negligence manslaughter, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has ruled.

Dr Jane Barton prescribed "potentially hazardous" levels of drugs to patients who later died at Hampshire's Gosport War Memorial Hospital in the 1990s.

The CPS said there was "insufficient evidence" for a case but relatives have criticised its ruling.

A General Medical Council panel found her guilty but did not strike her off.

A jury inquest held last year into the deaths of 10 Gosport War Memorial Hospital patients found drugs to be a factor in five cases.

Oops.

Higher Exercise Capacity Equals Improved Survival in Older Adults

To improve capacity, you must train. "Exercise" will not do it, because exercise does not improve capacity.

Exercise capacity is inversely associated with all-cause mortality in older men, according to the results of a new study [1]. The survival benefit was observed among individuals able to participate in moderate daily exercise, such as brisk walking, report investigators.

"Most health benefits are evident at fitness levels of greater than 5 [metabolic equivalents] METs," lead investigator Dr Peter Kokkinos (Georgetown University School of Medicine, Washington, DC) told heartwire. "Now, those benefits are graded, so that the more exercise you do, the greater the survival benefit."

Do not believe the advocates of "exercise."

They are lying to you.

Novel Diabetes Hope Comes from Chinese Herbs

And while you are hoping, hope they don't kill you.

Emodin, a natural product that can be extracted from various Chinese herbs including Rheum palmatum and Polygonum cuspidatum, shows promise as an agent that could reduce the impact of type 2 diabetes. Findings published in this month's edition of the British Journal of Pharmacology show that giving emodin to mice with diet-induced obesity lowered blood glucose and serum insulin, improved insulin resistance and lead to more healthy levels of lipid in the blood. It also decreased body weight and reduced central fat mass.

"If repeated in humans, all of these changes would be beneficial for people affected by type 2 diabetes or other metabolic diseases associated with insulin resistance," says lead author Dr Ying Leng, who works in the Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Science, Shanghai, China.

Instead of trying to repeat the mouse study in humans, try not to repeat the part where you lift food to your mouth.

Genetic excuse for obesity 'is a myth'

Duh Alert!

Academics found that people could work off around 40 per cent of the extra weight that "fat genes" laid on them by exercising.

Although some people do have a predisposition to be overweight or even obese, scientists at the Medical Research Council's Epidemiology Unit in Cambridge discovered that having an active lifestyle could go a long way to countering a person's genetic inheritance...

They concluded: "The findings challenge the popular myth that obesity is unavoidable if it runs in the family and could guide future treatments to combat the obesity crisis."

"Guide future treatments"?

The fools had to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.

The only treatment - future, past and present - is fewer Calories in than out.

Period.

Mental 'exercise' linked to faster dementia progression

Oops.

While staying mentally active in old age has been linked to a delayed onset of dementia, seniors who engage in such brain "exercise" may actually have a faster rate of decline once Alzheimer's is diagnosed, researchers reported Wednesday.

Still think they have any idea what they are talking about?

Acupuncture Not Superior To Sham Acupuncture In Knee Osteoarthritis

Imagine that.

Researchers from MD Anderson Cancer Center determined patients with osteoarthritis (OA) of the knee who are treated with traditional Chinese acupuncture (TCA) do not experience any more benefit than those receiving sham acupuncture (placebo). The team did find that the communication style of the acupuncturist could have a significant effect on pain reduction and satisfaction in patients.

Now how is it possible that sticking a needle into your body will not relieve joint pain?

Huh.

Journal editors question sale of diet pill Meridia

Told ya. Warned ya. And having been doing so for years.

Editors of a top medical journal call Meridia "another flawed diet pill" and question whether it should stay on the market as a study shows it raises the risk of heart attack and stroke in people with heart problems.

The strongly worded editorial comes two weeks before government advisers review the prescription drug, which has already been pulled in Europe. In January, U.S. drug regulators strengthened existing warnings that the appetite suppressant should not be used by those with a history of heart trouble.

In Thursday's issue, the editors of the New England Journal of Medicine noted that the latest study showed weight loss with Meridia was minimal, it didn't improve cardiovascular health, and those with heart disease fared worse.

"It is difficult to discern a credible rationale for keeping this medication on the market," they wrote.

If you are fat and think there is a diet pill cure, you remain an idiot.

If you fell for the IMHO Meridia con, go here.

Egg or Cholesterol Intake in Older Adults Not Linked to Risk for Type 2 Diabetes

Eggs were bad. Now they are good.

Among older adults with limited egg intake, there is no apparent association between egg consumption or dietary cholesterol and an increased risk for incident type 2 diabetes, according to the results of a prospective study reported in the August issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

"Type 2 diabetes (T2D) remains an important public health issue in the United States," write Luc Djoussé, from Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts, and colleagues. "There are limited and inconsistent data on the association between egg consumption and fasting glucose or incident diabetes. We assessed the association between egg intake and incident diabetes in older adults."

Still think they have any idea what they are talking about?

Heart Attack, Stroke-Prone Arteries More Common in Nasty People

And more common in fat people, which means...

People with antagonistic or disagreeable personalities have thicker arterial walls that may make them more prone to heart attacks and strokes, researchers said.

The carotid artery lining was significantly thicker in people who rated low on a scale of agreeableness, reported Angelina Sutin of the National Institute on Aging in Bethesda, Md., and colleagues.

In a study of 5,614 residents of the Italian island of Sardinia, those ranking in the lowest 10 percent of agreeableness were 1.4 times as likely to have thickening in their lining of their carotid artery, the researchers found.

...you understand.

Warning of missed patient safety alerts in NHS

"I am romantic about the NHS; I love it. All I need to do to rediscover the romance is to look at health care in my own country." Donald Berwick, MD, head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

NHS trusts are putting people at risk by failing to implement a critical system of safety alerts, campaigners say.

Patient Safety Alerts are issued when potentially harmful situations are identified in healthcare organisations.

Chaity Action against Medical Accidents (AVMA) said 63% of trusts in England have at least one overdue alert.

But the Department of Health said in the vast majority of cases trusts responded to alerts in good time.

AVMA asked all NHS trusts in England how many outstanding alerts they had.

The charity said there were 1,242 cases where trusts had failed to act on alerts, even after deadlines for the implementation of safer measures had passed.

These include warnings about procedures in surgery, the risk of overdoses, and using medical equipment properly.

Twenty-nine trusts said they had 10 or more overdue alerts. Some were years past the deadline for completion.

Oops.

South Carolina to cover obesity surgery next year

The state of the love Gov is trying to set another record for embarrassing, idiotic behavior - and financial suicide.

Obese government workers in South Carolina can get stomach-shrinking surgery through the state health plan under a pilot program that starts in January.

The state's employee insurance plan will cover gastric-bypass or Lap-Band surgery costs for 100 people statewide on a first-come, first-serve basis, said Stephen VanCamp, director of the employee insurance program.

The surgeries - which involve either surgically creating a smaller stomach or shrinking intake with a belt-like, adjustable device - cost about $24,000 each. Lawmakers required the test program in the 2010-11 budget as a way to address the state's growing obesity problem. The Budget and Control Board was directed to create it as part of workers' benefits plan for 2011, which it approved Thursday.

The Legislature funded the program, as well as an additional $19 million in costs next year because of the new federal health care law - largely for extending coverage to dependents up to age 26 - so employees' monthly health premiums will not change. Nearly 394,000 public workers, their dependents and retirees are covered under the state health plan...

But a Republican state senator who has sought ways to encourage residents to live healthier said it makes no sense for the state to fund the costly operations during a recession. Sen. Greg Ryberg of Aiken also doubts they will save money long-term. Last year, he proposed charging obese public workers an extra $25 monthly in their health care premiums.

Forget the 'during a recession" part.

Do not cover this IMHO malpractice, ever.

And $25 per month is too little.

Charge them more and risk pool the fat with each other.

That would be a good start to ending the overweight/obesity problem.

Higher Body Weight Cuts Some Glaucoma Risk

Bad news.

Women with higher body mass index and weight were at reduced risk of developing certain forms of glaucoma in a large cohort study, researchers said.

For each unit of body mass index, participants in the giant Nurses' Health Study showed a 6% reduction (95% CI 2% to 9%) in the rate of developing primary open-angle glaucoma with an intraocular pressure of 21 mm Hg or less at diagnosis (so-called normal tension), reported Louis R. Pasquale, MD, of the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary in Boston, and colleagues.

Now some of them will be able to see how fat they are.

Though they will likely still ignore it.

Note the appropriate "giant Nurses' Health Study."

Who says there is no humor in sick care?

Concern over rising NHS 'mortgage bill'

"I am romantic about the NHS; I love it. All I need to do to rediscover the romance is to look at health care in my own country." Donald Berwick, MD, head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

The NHS in England faces a total bill of £65bn for new hospitals built under the private finance initiative (PFI), figures obtained by the BBC indicate.

The so-called "NHS mortgage" means that for some trusts annual repayments take up more than 10% of their turnover.

Experts said the fees, which are rising each year, mean less money for patient care and make it more difficult to achieve the savings being demanded.

Oops.