Heart of Diabetes aims to help make you aware of the connection between type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease, but that’s not all. The campaign also provides diabetes-friendly recipes and other health resources, as well as real-life patient stories. For a diabetes health assessment and other tools, visit IKnowDiabetes.com.

A struggling economy can sometimes affect your health in ways you may not suspect. Since it’s National Diabetes Awareness Month, it’s the perfect time to explore how your food choices may be increasing your risk of cardiovascular disease if you suffer from diabetes. Frugal living expert Jonni McCoy has some ideas to help out. McCoy recommends planning out your meals each week and making a detailed grocery list to avoid impulse purchases that may not be healthy.

McCoy also advises limiting your dining out experiences. Many restaurants serve too-large portions, tempting you to consume more than you need. Plus, fast-food options are often loaded with too much salt, sugar and fat. According to a new survey of 500 diabetic patients conducted on behalf of the American Heart Association, 20% eat fast or fried foods daily, even though 96% know they should be eating healthy foods. Remember, many chain restaurants post their nutrition info online, so check before you go if you do dine out. A few healthy options do exist.

Red meat can be an expensive source of protein, so McCoy recommends buying more beans, nuts and fish. However, you should be aware of the salt content in nuts and eat appropriate portions of them.

Nearly 25% of diabetics surveyed say they are more likely to buy frozen entrees when living on a budget. However, frozen entrees may not always be the best choice. Remember to check the sodium and fat content if you do buy frozen meals.

To get more inspired to cook your own healthy meals at home, visit the recipe section of Heart of Diabetes for diabetes-friendly recipes.

(Image via MorgueFile)

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Connection: Type 2 Diabetes, Heart Disease

Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center

One way to help is by getting involved with Cycle for Survival, an indoor team cycling fundraiser to raise funding for rare cancer research at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. The event was founded by Jennifer Goodman Linn, who is also a rare cancer survivor and patient at MSKCC. She’s also a Harvard Business School graduate and dynamic marketing executive. The Cycle for Survival campaign has already raised more than $2 million dollars since 2007.

Cycle for Survival funds were used for a clinical trial at Memorial Sloan-Kettering that resulted in a new chemotherapy regimen proven more effective at shrinking tumors in patients. Funds from the 2009 Cycle for Survival have been allocated for the following research:

• Two clinical trials to test drugs that block certain pathways that keep sarcoma cells alive, with the goal of finding new ways to destroy these cancer cells.
• A research project that focuses on a new way to treat a type of rare cancer by changing the pattern of genes turned on and off.
• A study aimed at gaining new insights into the biology of a specific type of rare tumor.
• An investigation to identify and develop drugs that block the growth of pancreatic cancer cells.

Registration is open for Cycle for Survival 2010, to be held in two locations in New York City on January 31, 2010, and in Chicago on February 6. Out-of-town participants can register to ride on satellite teams with flexible dates. To register online, visit the Cycle for Survival website. If you don’t want to cycle, you can still donate to help with rare cancer research.

(Image via Cycle for Survival)

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Cycle for Survival, Rare Cancer Research

A clinical trial published in the ACS Journal of Proteome Research took a scientific look at the stress-reducing power of dark chocolate. The results: eating about 1.5 oz of dark chocolate each day for two weeks lowered levels of stress hormones in people feeling highly stressed. In addition, researchers note that dark chocolate partially corrected different stress-related biochemical imbalances. This is one of the first studies to analyze how dark chocolate affects stress hormones in humans.

In the published article on this dark chocolate study, the authors write:

“Chronic stress is correlated with increases in stress hormones cortisol and catecholamines, … and our results suggest potential beneficial implications of dark chocolate consumption for reduction of mental and/or physical stress and improvement of the metabolic response to stress.”

If you like white or milk chocolate instead of dark, are you out of luck? Perhaps. A previous study on dark chocolate (conducted by Dr. Dirk Taubert and published in The Journal of the American Medical Association) indicates it’s also good for lowering blood pressure, but the same benefit wasn’t found with white or milk chocolate. The cocoa phenols in dark chocolate are believed to be responsible for its blood-pressure-lowering effect.

As with all things, dark chocolate in moderation is better. Remember, it’s not free of fat or calories. You shouldn’t reach for dark chocolate instead of a banana, but if you need a treat, it’s nice to know that dark chocolate is around with its stress-relieving and blood-pressure-lowering love. If you’re unsure of adding dark chocolate to your diet, speak with your doctor about your particular health conditions. Don’t stop taking your meds for chocolate.

(Image via flickr/heliosphan)

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Dark Chocolate Proven to Reduce Stress

This new resource for diabetics offers a five-step program of diet, exercise, nutritional supplementation, medication and lifestyle modification. The plan features a combination of a modified Mediterranean diet, low-glycemic foods and reduced carbohydrates. A month-long list of menus and meal options in the book helps with adjusting to foods that encourage the use of protein and carbs a healthy manner.

To give you a better glimpse inside this new book for diabetics, I’m presenting an excerpt below, courtesy of the book’s authors.

Overcome Supermarket Roadblocks
by Frederic Vagnini, M.D., FACS, and Lawrence D. Chilnick,
Authors of The Weight Loss Plan for Beating Diabetes: The 5-Step Program That Removes Metabolic Roadblocks, Sheds Pounds Safely, and Reverses Prediabetes and Diabetes

Shopping Defensively

Here are some specific hints for defensive shopping:

• Prepare ahead. If there’s one rule to follow, this is it: Don’t to go to the supermarket “on the fly.” We’ve all run out for a few things and ended up buying twice as much as we needed. Often, something in the store tempts us to do just that. For example, how many supermarkets position the bakery right where you walk in, with the wonderful smell of newly baked bread or cakes perfuming the air? It’s not an accident.
• Consult your cookbooks and create a weekly menu. Write down all of the ingredients you need for it.
• Know what you are going to make, and make sure that most of what you buy fits into your overall meal plan.
• Check the fridge and pantry so you know what you don’t need to buy.
• Shop weekly. Shopping too often or stretching your shopping trips to every two weeks will make sticking to your meal plan more difficult.
• Learn the store layout. The fewer tempting products you see and the less time you spend browsing, the easier it will be to avoid buying the wrong foods. The healthiest fresh foods are in areas against the store walls. Don’t spend time in the central aisles with things you don’t need.
• Look up and down. The most attractively packaged food is on shelves at eye level.
• Stay away from the areas where store employees are offering free samples of high-carb and fatty foods.
• Eat before you shop. A hungry shopper buys more food and makes worse food choices, plus with diabetes, you need to eat at specific times and in amounts that ensure stable blood sugar.
• Shop alone and without the kids. Although research claims that men are more likely to stick to their list only, the levels of obesity in both genders suggests otherwise. Going to the supermarket should be a directed, time-limited event. You are there to buy certain things you need; you don’t have to review every single one of the store’s offerings. If possible, shop for food when the kids are in school because they are special targets for marketers.
• Make healthy choices. This doesn’t only mean buying fresh vegetables from local farms or good produce in the supermarket. A healthy choice is a meal you make at home — not take-out or prepared foods. Over the past decade, sales of prepared foods at the deli counters and throughout the store have risen steadily. Americans now spend over $15 billion per year on prepared foods in supermarkets and in shopping mall food courts.

While sales of starchy, fat-dripping fast foods are dropping, prepared take-out foods aren’t much better. The choices are often “family friendly”: fried chicken, chicken nuggets, chicken wings, baked potatoes, egg rolls, tacos, and creamy “comfort food” soups. Did you know that much of the prepared supermarket food is made by the same giant food companies that make the fast foods? If you buy prepared foods, avoid those with heavy mayonnaise or breading and high calories. Dodge items featuring rice or mashed potatoes, too.

Some experts suggest you take a close look at how much of your diet comes from the prepared choices. If prepared food makes up more than half of your diet, you have a problem. While one solution would be to learn to cook more or better, some people simply don’t like to cook or have too little time to make meals at home. But this isn’t an insurmountable problem.

Making the Supermarket Your Support System

If you are truly going to make a change that will bring your glucose under control and help you lose weight, you will have to take control of what you and your family eat. It is less difficult than you think. The secret is in your commitment to change.

There are scores of healthy-eating-oriented cookbooks in bookstores, supermarkets, mega-stores, and online recipe sources. These books help you follow some basic rules that will help meet the requirements of the Five-Step Plan.

Doing your own cooking will help you control what you eat, control your glucose, and lose weight. You will still go to the supermarket, but buying fresh vegetables in season, certain fruits, and good protein sources such as fish, chicken, turkey, and other lean meats will make your diet more interesting and flavorful. You might even discover that cooking can be fun, and you can make it a group activity. As you lose weight, you will feel better physically and mentally because the food you eat will be better for you. Your body will thank you.

Another good tip is to ask questions at the market. You’d be surprised how much help the people behind the counters can be, and not only at high-end supermarkets.

The desire for certain foods has been studied and reported on over the years. It’s often been noted that people fantasize more about food than any other pleasure, including sex. After all, food gave us our first pleasure as children, and eating habits last a lifetime. Given the level of obesity in the country, is it any surprise that many adolescents who do their “hunting” in front of the computer or video game are following in their parents’ footsteps?

Copyright © 2009 Frederic Vagnini, M.D., FACS, and Lawrence D. Chilnick, authors of The Weight Loss Plan for Beating Diabetes: The 5-Step Program That Removes Metabolic Roadblocks, Sheds Pounds Safely, and Reverses Prediabetes and Diabetes

Author Bios
Frederic J. Vagnini, M.D., FACS, coauthor of The Weight Loss Plan for Beating Diabetes: The 5-Step Program That Removes Metabolic Roadblocks, Sheds Pounds Safely, and Reverses Prediabetes and Diabetes, is a board-certified cardiovascular surgeon whose understanding of the ravages of cardiovascular diseases is grounded in twenty years as a cardiac surgeon. He hosts a popular call-in radio show and has published several books, including The Carbohydrate Addict’s Healthy Heart Program, a New York Times bestseller.

Lawrence D. Chilnick, coauthor of The Weight Loss Plan for Beating Diabetes: The 5-Step Program That Removes Metabolic Roadblocks, Sheds Pounds Safely, and Reverses Prediabetes and Diabetes, is the authors and creator of the New York Times bestseller The Pill Book, which has sold 17 million copies and is still in print after more than two decades. He is a publishing executive, editor, teacher, journalist, broadcaster, and author of several popular health reference books, electronic products, audiotapes, and videos.

(Image via Fair Winds Press, Cart image via stock.xchng)

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The Weight Loss Plan for Beating Diabetes

One new study shows that pain can be decreased with only brief training in meditation. Another study reveals that our emotions may help us deal with pain.

“We knew already that meditation has significant effects on pain perception in long-term practitioners whose brains seem to have been completely changed — we didn’t know that you could do this in just three days, with just 20 minutes a day,” said Fadel Zeidan, a doctoral candidate in psychology at UNC Charlotte and the lead author of the research reported in The Journal of Pain.

It seems that short and simple mindfulness meditation training can have strong positive effects on pain management. People in the study who practiced meditation felt less pain than the control group while meditating. They also felt less pain sensitivity even when not meditating. For this study, pain was induced by harmless electrical shocks.

Mindfulness meditation involves focusing on the present, freeing your mind of worrying about events of the past or what may happen later on. Key elements include sitting still (but not stiffly) and perhaps even paying attention to your breathing.

In another study by University of Montreal researchers, people who focused on positive emotions felt less pain than those focusing on negative emotions. Once again, small electrical shocks were used to induce pain. Subjects were shown either pleasant, unpleasant or neutral images. Their reactions were recorded by fMRI.

Reseachers found that unpleasant pictures elicited stronger pain than looking at pleasant pictures. Lead author Mathieu Roy said that the findings help support using mood enhancers like photography or music to help alleviate pain. The study was published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Have you tried meditation or music to help control pain?

(Images via stock.xchng)

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Decreasing Pain Without Meds

Bone loss is dangerous since it may lead to osteoporosis, which increases the risk for fractures. Osteoporosis affects one in three women over 50, making it the most widespread degenerative disease in the developed world.

Since there haven’t been many large studies on the association between depression and osteoporosis, the US National Institutes of Health and the World Health Organization haven’t recognized depression as an official risk factor for osteoporosis. Hebrew University of Jerusalem researchers want to help make the association official. They studied data from all research on the subject using a statistical approach called meta-analysis. The data studied was from 23 research projects conducted in eight countries. The study compared bone density among 2,327 people suffering from depression and 21,141 non-depressed people.

The study results revealed that depressed people have much lower bone density than non-depressed people. Another finding is that depression is associated with elevated activity of osteoclasts — cells that break down bone. The study findings were published in Biological Psychiatry.

In light of their study results, Prof. Raz Yirmiya and Prof. Itai Bab, both of Hebrew University of Jerusalem suggest that:

“all individuals psychiatrically diagnosed with major depression are at risk for developing osteoporosis, with depressed young women showing the highest risk. These patients should be periodically evaluated for progression of bone loss and signs of osteoporosis, allowing the use of anti-osteoporotic prophylactic and therapeutic treatments.”

(Image via flickr/Erik Charlton)

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Depression as Risk Factor for Bone Loss

According to a new study published in Current Biology, a baby’s first cries carry an accent. French infants don’t cry the same way as German infants. For the study, researchers compared recordings of 30 French and 30 German infants that were between two and five days old. The languages are very different since French words often have a stress at the end, while that’s opposite in German.

Newborns from France frequently produced “rising crying tones”, while German babies used a “falling intonation.” The cries reflect the differing intonation patterns between the languages. Researchers think these differences are perceived in the uterus and are later reproduced.

Angela Friederici, one of the Directors at the Max Planck Institute, said that while hearing in the uterus is restricted due to the amniotic fluid, “What gets through are primarily the melodies and intonation of the respective language.” Researchers believe that this learned melody provides the foundation for learning language. Babies don’t have to start completely from scratch.

While scientists had previously known that native language exposure influenced infants, they didn’t realize that sound production was influenced as early as the first days of life.

The researchers for this study include Birgit Mampe of the University of Wurzburg in Germany, Angela D. Friederici of the Max-Planck-Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences in Germany, Anne Christophe of the Ecole Normale Superieure/CNRS in France, and Kathleen Wermke of the University of Wurzburg.

(Image via MorgueFile)

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Babies Learn in Womb, Cry with Accent

SELF analyzed lots of data in around 50 categories like disease and mortality rates, lifestyle factors, environmental indicators and community resources. They utilized Sperling’s BestPlaces with the help of experts who weighed in on the importance of different factors.

To find out where the most fit, happy and healthy women live, view the complete rankings listed straight through to 100, or search by state to find your city.

If your city is near the bottom of the list, it’s rated a less healthy place to live for women. For example, Jackson, MS came in at number 86 with women there facing a 35% greater risk for rape than women living in other areas. Plus, there’s an above average rate of deaths from cervical, breast and colon cancers.

SELF isn’t trying to pick on cities though. They have something positive to say about all 100 metro areas listed. For example, Memphis, TN ranks at 89, but women in the city have lower rates of asthma and the water quality is good.

View the complete list at SELF, but here’s a peek at the Top Five Best Places for Women:

1. Burlington–South Burlington, VT
2. Bethesda-Gaithersburg-Frederick, MD
3. Portland–South Portland–Biddeford, ME
4. Cambridge-Newton-Framingham, MA
5. San Francisco-Oakland, CA

How does your city rank? While factors like air and water quality may be out of your control, any woman living in any city can take charge of doctor’s visits, getting proper exercise, and maintaining a healthy diet. Living in a less healthy area doesn’t mean you have to be less healthy too!

(Image via stock.xchng)

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Most Healthy Cities for Women

Two new studies, both published in the November issue of CHEST, analyzed women and asthma.

In the birth control pill study at McMaster University in Canada, researchers studied 17 women with asthma during their menstrual cycles. The study results revealed that women with asthma taking oral contraceptives had lower exhaled nitric oxide levels (eNO) than women who were taking the pill. eNO is a marker of airway inflammation associated with asthma. Researchers think that the pill just could have a potential role in treating premenopausal women with asthma.

Another study isn’t so positive for women who take acetaminophen. Researchers from the University of British Columbia in Canada found that acetaminophen could be linked with an increased risk of asthma and wheezing in children and adults who take the popular pain reliever.

To determine the association between increased risk of asthma with acetaminophen use, researched analyzed data from 19 different clinical studies, representing a total of 425,000 participants. Results revealed that prenatal acetaminophen use increased the risk of wheezing in children by 50%, while the asthma rate in children was increased by 28%. For adults, the risk of asthma was 74% higher for adults using the drug compared to non-users. WebMD discusses this study in detail, or you can just read the highlights at Science Daily. Researchers caution that the study merely revealed an “association,” but not necessarily a cause-and-effect relationship between asthma and acetaminophen.

(Image via MorgueFile)

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Asthma News for Women

Levine is the founding trustee of the Kepler College for Astrological Arts and Sciences, a four-year educational institution in Seattle, WA. Jawer is a co-founder of the Association for Astrological Networking and the United Astrology Congress.

Levine and Jawer are the authors of Your Astrology Guide 2010. I don’t take astrology very seriously myself, but I have to admit that it can be fun. To each her own!  I’ve included below an excerpt from the team’s new book. Enjoy.

Your Astrology Guide 2010: Rick and Jeff’s Tips for the Year
by Rick Levine & Jeff Jawer, Authors of Your Astrology Guide 2010

ARIES
March 21-April 19

Conscious Self-Restraint
It’s imperative that you cut back your activities, for effective pruning allows new growth to flourish. But you may bump into deeply rooted resistances as you attempt to play a larger role on the stage of life. The contradiction now is that you are at your most brilliant and nothing can hold you back, yet paradoxically the walls of reality continue to close in. You cannot get away with shooting from the hip, even if you’re confident of your aim. The full enterprising power of Aries is yours when you accept the limits of society that require more precision this year. Whether you like it or not, you must slow down to get what you want.

TAURUS
April 20-May 20

Look Outside the Box
Your potential to transform your life is incredible this year — but your resistance to change is equally great. You don’t have to tear apart what’s working well or take crazy risks that are likely to fail. All you need to do is stretch your boundaries and allow alternative perspectives to hang around for a while to see if one might eventually fit. It’s as if a strange visitor has arrived at your door — so strange you’d prefer him to leave as soon as he arrives. But thanks to your kind heart, you let him stay the night . . . and end up discovering a close friend. Similarly, you will find happiness this year as long as you remain open to surprises.

GEMINI
May 21-June 20

Fear Not the Darkness
You can no longer be the champion of avoidance, Gemini, and that means you’re playing in a whole new ball game. If others accuse you of being shallow, it’s just because they don’t understand how fast your mind works and how it jumps from one thought to the next. Now, However, something has changed, and it may at first seem scary. Instead of planning your escape routes, you are content, even eager, to search for hidden metaphysical wealth that was previously obscured from the light of consciousness. Overcoming your own resistance to fully feeling your emotions enables you to uncover buried treasure that can enrich your life for many years to come.

CANCER
June 21-July 22

Aim for the Top
It’s better to be ambitious this year and struggle in the pursuit of your goals than to passively respond to whatever life brings you. Even if you run into obstacles, meet them on a course of your own choosing. Taking charge and pushing forward — sometimes awkwardly and sometimes with grace and confidence — are the next steps to assuming a leadership role. Your power and passion grow when you have strong allies and adversaries. Seek out those with talents you admire so that you can learn from the best. Step outside your comfort zone; you’ll discover that it’s not foolish to take risks. There are enormous rewards when you invest in your own excellence.

LEO
July 23-August 22

Ask for Help
You expect great things from yourself, Leo, and you can work quite hard once you make a sincere commitment. This is why you must now think carefully about any promises you make — to yourself or anyone else. There are powerful forces at play that can lure you into believing that anything is possible. It’s true that this year brings great potential, but exhausting yourself trying to achieve the impossible dream is not a sensible strategy. Heed the counsel of wise friends and seasoned professionals before making any life-changing decisions.

VIRGO
August 23-September 22

Fearless Warrior
Challenges to the core truths you cling to can be a source of irritation and a cause of physical, mental, and emotional fatigue. The battles you face, though, are not with outside forces but within yourself. It’s time to reexamine the ideas that have kept your life in order for years, but may be holding you back. What worked in the past won’t necessarily be effective now. The desire to return to familiar places in your mind is understandable, but it’s not likely to be productive. Certainly, you need times to retreat and take refuge in comfortable concepts. Catch your breath when you can, yet remember: You’ll grow much stronger by moving ahead than by turning back.

LIBRA
September 23-October 22

Rise to the Challenge
Although relationships can offer you a newfound sense of freedom this year, they can also distract you from the discipline you need to organize your life. The decisions you must make this year are not easy ones. You may have to be ruthless when evaluating what and who should be cut out of your life, but pruning is absolutely required to ensure maximum growth. Your overall success during the coming years will be based on your ability to pay careful attention to your long-term goals rather than short-term successes.

SCORPIO
October 23-November 21

Innocent Expression
Looking foolish is not your idea of a good time, but giving yourself permission to express yourself freely can be extremely rewarding now. Surrendering some self-control to reveal your emotion can feel risky, of course, but it’s a great way to open your heart and enhance your creativity. Making mistakes is not the road to failure but the laboratory of invention. You can surprise yourself by discovering new talents when you put away the heavy hammer of self-criticism. Being honest while also being kind is a gift to yourself and those around you. If your explorations veer off course and threaten your stability, seek wise counsel. There are angels around you who look like ordinary people, yet will gently guide you back on track.

SAGITTARIUS
November 22-December 21

Be Here Now
There is so much work ahead as you strive to make the most of your future. Running out on previous commitments won’t bring you happiness; delivering on your promises will. Try not to seek adventure in the same old dreams of world travel. This year, you can take an incredible journey of the mind without leaving home. Open yourself to new philosophies, learn about new technologies, and re-create your future by being more conscious in the present moment.

CAPRICORN
December 22-January 19

Field of Dreams
Your journey this year could be one of extremes as the most visionary planets — Jupiter and Uranus — light up your life with exciting new perceptions while the most conservative ones — Saturn and Pluto — keep stepping in to turn down the volume of your enthusiasm. You can avoid bouncing from high hopes to deep disappointment by giving yourself time to assimilate and consider your dreams. Slowly roll them over in your mind, do some research, and talk to those you trust to help you find ways to shape them into reality. Then commit to work with patience and persistence. Remember, conceiving a brilliant idea happens in an instant, but giving birth to success takes a lot longer.

AQUARIUS
January 20-February 18

The Joy of Sharing
The emotional heights will be higher this year and the descents lower, yet you must fully experience these peaks and valleys if you hope to find a middle ground between the opposing forces pushing and pulling on you. Although you cannot avoid the changes that continue to unfold, you’re also blessed with an open mind that eagerly looks beyond the current difficulties. Don’t waste too much energy resisting the inevitable. Instead, focus on the exhilaration you’ll feel once you’ve overcome the obstacles and your life is heading in a new direction.

PISCES
February 19-March 20

Go the Distance
The highs and lows you experience this year accentuate the contrast between your greatest hopes and darkest fears. Expansive Jupiter in your sign makes your life seem so big that even the smallest act can appear to take on enormous importance. You may be exhilarated by this wild ride at times, but in the end it can be exhausting and confusing to rise so quickly and fall so fast only to rise again. Moderating your reactions with a bit of philosophical detachment reminds you that the current drama is just one moment in a life rich with experiences that you’ve encountered before and will likely meet again.

Copyright © 2009 Rick Levine & Jeff Jawer, authors of Your Astrology Guide 2010, (Sterling, July 2009).

(Image via WikiMedia Commons; Book image via Sterling)

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Astrology 2010