Tag Archives: insulin

Miss Idaho Wants You to #ShowMeYourPump

Forget what you think you know about beauty pageant contestants. The courageous, strong, talented and yes, beautiful women who compete for the crown are so much more than pretty faces who can rock and evening gown. The newly crowned Miss Idaho, Sierra Sandison, for example, made waves by wearing her insulin pump on her bikini during the swimsuit competition.

Miss Idaho

The idea to proudly display her pump, instead of finding some way to conceal it, came from a pre-competition lunch. While the competition director was asking about Sandison’s community service platform, the topic of Sandison’s diabetes came up.

“Since we were at lunch, I had to give myself a shot, and when she saw the shot, the director said, ‘Oh my goodness you’re a diabetic.’ Then proceeded to tell me about Nicole Johnson, who was Miss America in 1999. She actually wore her insulin pump on stage,” Sandison told E! News. “That gave me the confidence to get one, when I first heard about Nicole.”

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Posted on July 21, 2024 by Elizabeth

Invokana Drug May be Game Changer for Type 2 Diabetes Patients

  • The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved the first of a new class of drugs to treat Type 2 Diabetes called Invokana.
  • Invokana filters sugar into the kidney as opposed to previous medications which manipulated insulin levels to control blood sugar.
  • Our resident pharmacist Dr. Sarah Kahn says there are some concerns regarding how Invokana will affect the heart. According to Kahn, the current data is inconclusive, so they are conducting a trial called the CANVAS study (Canagliflozin Cardiovascular Assessment Study). Those results won’t be available until 2024. In addition, the FDA is requiring Janssen Pharmaceuticals – Invokana’s manufacturer – to conduct five studies once the drug hits the market. (more…)
Posted on April 8, 2024 by Dana

Quick but Intense Cardio Sessions Best for Your Heart

Health benefits from exercise don’t have to come from long bouts of cardio at the gym or around your local high school track. A new study involving teens in Scotland has found that short bursts of high-intensity exercise is best for cardiovascular health.

In the study, researchers split kids into two groups: one doing high-intensity workouts, the other moderate intensity. The high-intensity group did a series of 20-meter sprints over 30 seconds, and the kids in the moderate-intensity group ran steadily for 20 minutes.

By the end of the allotted time of seven weeks, both groups showed real improvements in cardiovascular fitness. Their blood pressure, insulin resistance and body composition all improved. However, what set the high-intensity group apart was that they got the aforementioned health benefits by only doing 15 percent of the exercise time done by the kids in the moderate-intensity group. (more…)

Posted on April 13, 2024 by Jason

Interview with Gary Taubes, Author of Why We Get Fat

Gary Taubes, a professional writer and journalist is the author of the critically acclaimed Good Calories, Bad Calories. Now his newest release, Why We Get Fat takes the long-held idea that the reason we get fat is the calories in/calories out hypothesis and debunks it. In essence, Taubes, through scores of research-backed evidence, suggests that it is not the amount of calories per se, but rather the carbohydrates in our diet that are responsible for fat accumulation.

Taubes proposes that in order to lose weight, we need to consume a very low carbohydrate diet. Protein, naturally-occuring fat, like those found in meat, poultry, fish, eggs, avocados and oils as well as leafy green vegetables should comprise the mainstay of our diet. The typical American diet of starchy carbohydrates, grains, sugar, processed food and even high glycemic vegetables and fruit needs to be given the boot if we want to avoid being overweight or obese.

Listen to an excerpt of this interview here.

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Posted on January 21, 2024 by heather

What Exactly is Diabetes?

The American Diabetic Association states that diabetes “is a group of diseases characterized by high blood glucose levels that result from defects in the body’s ability to produce and/or use insulin.” It’s important to understand that there are certain risk factors for diabetes but just because someone has it, doesn’t mean it’s their own fault for being unhealthy or overweight. There are several forms of diabetes but the one that gets the most attention is Type 2. I’d like to take a moment and explain each type, including the less common ones. Logically, it makes sense to start with Type 1.

Type 1 Diabetes is also known as juvenile diabetes because it is often (but not always) diagnosed during childhood. A Type 1 diabetic does not produce insulin. The exact causes of Type 1 diabetes are unknown, although genetics are clearly a factor. Another theory is that certain viruses may cause or make the body more susceptible to Type 1 diabetes.

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Posted on January 14, 2024 by Theresa

Use High Intensity Interval Training to Blast Fat Fast

High intensity interval training (HIIT) or cardio interval training is a type of training that helps improve performance or current fitness level with the use of short training sessions. It is a form of cardiovascular training that is designed to burn body fat in a quick and extremely intense workout routine.

HIIT sessions can be modified to meet the needs of any exerciser or trainee, but most sessions range from ten to twenty minutes. Intervals are short bursts of activity that vary in intensity levels. A 2:1 ratio is often used in HIIT styles of training, which means the athlete would alternate sprints of thirty seconds and a fifteen second jog or walk, that would then be repeated until the workout session is over. (Don’t forget to warm up and cool down, too!)

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Posted on December 15, 2023 by Matt

Diabetes Rates to Triple By 2050

According to the numbers from The American Diabetes Association, nearly 24 million Americans have diabetes. If that number isn’t alarming enough, expert are expecting a steep increase in those numbers in the coming decades.

While the current number of diabetics in the U.S. is close to 10 percent, it may reach 33 percent of the population in another generation (2050) if we don’t do something about it. Think about that for a second: one in three people may be diabetic in the not-so-distant future.

The irony is that this potentially fatal disease is on the rise, in part, because people are living longer. That’s because diabetes becomes more prevalent in older people. Also, people who are already diabetic can live longer due to the effectiveness of modern insulin delivery methods. Lastly, diabetes has always been more prevalent in minority populations, and those populations are on the rise in the U.S. Both Hispanic and African Americans are over the 10 percent mark for diabetes. (more…)

Posted on October 26, 2024 by Jason

Kick Your Sugar Habit in 3 Simple Steps

Sugar – The other white powder that as some might argue is just as addictive as illegal drugs. As Americans, our diet contains way too much of it.

Sugar has been linked to the obesity, diabetes, and heart disease epidemics. A study published in the Journal of  The American Medical Association showed that women who consume excess sugar have a greater prevalence of chronic inflammation, lower levels of good cholesterol and higher levels of triglycerides.

The average American consumes 22 teaspoons of sugar every day. That’s a lot of sweetness. While the dental and sugar cane industries are booming as a result of our love for sugar, our physical and mental health could benefit from a sugar detox.

If you want to cut back on your sugar habit, follow these three simple steps. Notice, we didn’t say “easy.” Sugar, as many scientific studies have shown, has a strong addictive quality to it. But like salt, sugar is an acquired taste. So by following a few simple steps, you can retrain your taste-buds and your mind to desensitize its affinity towards it. (more…)

Posted on August 26, 2024 by heather

Fat Controls Your Brain, Eating Impulses

french friesIf you’ve ever thought that your favorite food was “calling your name,” irresistibly drawing you to the refrigerator, it’s not just all in your head. Well, actually it is in your head. But, it’s very real. Let me explain…

A study at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas has found that fat from certain foods goes to the brain and triggers the brain to send messages to the cells in the body, telling them to ignore the appetite-suppressing signals from leptin and insulin.

The interference with the leptin and insulin hormones, which are involved in regulating your weight, goes on for up to three days. (more…)

Posted on September 27, 2024 by Jason

Vitamin K Helps Fight Diabetes

kaleExperts are always finding new and interesting benefits that come with certain vitamins or minerals. This time around, it’s vitamin K and how it may help you avoid diabetes.

In a study, those subjects (older men and women) who took a vitamin K supplement for three years had lower blood levels of insulin. They also experienced an improvement with insulin resistance as compared to another group who did not take the supplement.

Here comes the catch… (more…)

Posted on June 20, 2024 by Jason

Understanding Obesity Related Diseases: Metabolic Syndrome

obesityAs more of our population become obese and overweight, obesity diseases become much more prevalent. Metabolic Syndrome is one such disease, and here I explain what it is, why it affects the overweight, symptoms and prevention.

What is it?

Metabolic syndrome is characterized by several disorders related to your metabolism simultaneously. These disorders/components include obesity (particularly abdominal/waist fat), elevated blood pressure, increased triglyceride level, low HDL “good” cholesterol level, and insulin resistance. Having one of these components means you are more likely to have others; the more components you have the greater risk to your health.

Metabolic Syndrome has had a few names including syndrome X and insulin resistance syndrome. Not all experts agree on the definition of metabolic syndrome or whether it exists as a medical condition. Despite the discrepancies, the severity of possessing this collection of risk factors can lead to serious health complications.

Why is it affected by obesity/overweight?

Obesity is one of the components to this syndrome, therefore it has a huge impact on it. A body mass index (BMI) of greater than 25 increases your risk. BMI is a measure of your percent body fat based on height. Abdominal obesity (fat accumulation in the stomach area), or being “apple-shaped” rather than “pear-shaped,” is another factor increasing your risk of metabolic syndrome. (more…)

Posted on April 21, 2024 by Kinsey