How Weight Training Can Curb Diabetes?

Diabetes is a medical condition in which a person has high blood sugar. If diabetes is developed because this person’s body does not produce insulin, the condition is called Type-1 diabetes. This person has to inject insulin or wear an insulin pump. Insulin is necessary for the body to be able to use glucose for energy.

 

On the other hand, if the diabetic condition is a result of insulin resistance (insufficient insulin is produced or the body cannot use insulin properly), the condition is referred to as Type-2 diabetes.

 

Type-2 diabetes is the most common form of diabetes. As of 2012, an estimated 346 million people globally have this type of diabetes.

 

A diabetic who does not receive proper treatments might develop many complications, including heart disease, hypertension, stroke, chronic renal failure, peripheral arterial disease and retinal damage.

 

While adequate medical treatment is a must for diabetics, lifestyle factors such as maintaining a healthy body weight and physically active are equally important.

 

It is known that aerobic exercise is beneficial for diabetes, as indicated by many studies. But, there is so far none have looked at weight training.

 

Researchers from Harvard School of Public Health and the University of Southern Denmark reported online on August 6, 2012 in the ‘Archives of Internal Medicine’ that for diabetes, weight training is probably as important as aerobic training. They used data on more than 32,002 male health professionals, who answered questionnaires every 2 years from 1990 to 2008.

 

It was found that on average, 4 out of 1,000 men developed Type-2 diabetes every year. The risk of getting this disease was only 50 percent for men who did cardio or aerobic workouts at least 150 minutes a week (30 minutes a day, 5 times a week), compared with those who did not do any cardio exercise. The workouts included brisk walking, jogging or playing tennis.

 

For men who did weight training for 150 minutes (30 minutes a day, 5 times a week) or more, their risk of developing the disease was reduced by about 33 percent compared to those who never lifted weights, independently of whether or not they did aerobic exercise.

 

Though weight training does increase muscle mass and can reduce abdominal obesity, it does not cut overall body mass. In fact, any kind of exercise is good to prevent diabetes. Weight lifting, however, can be incorporated with aerobic exercise to get the best results.

 

While appropriate diet is important for diabetes prevention, it is also important for people who already have diabetes to have adequate exercise to help control reduce high blood sugar.

Why Nut Consumption Is Good For Heart?

While nuts such as almonds, walnuts, Brazil nuts, hazelnut and macadamia are rich in oil content, they are also ideal sources of nutrients. Several studies have reported that people who consumed nuts regularly were less likely to suffer from heart disease and stroke. There were many other researches linking consumption of nuts to lower bad cholesterol (low-density lipoprotein or LDL), too.

 

On September 12, 2011, researchers from the University of Barcelona and the Human Nutrition Unit of the Rovira i Virgili University found the association between eating nuts and higher levels of serotonin in the bodies of patients with metabolic syndrome. Their findings can be found in the American Chemical Society’s (ACS) ‘Journal of Proteome Research’.

 

Serotonin, which helps transmit nerve signals and lower feelings of hunger, makes people feel happier and improves heart health. Only one ounce of mixed nuts (raw unpeeled walnuts, almonds and hazelnuts) can produce good effects.

 

According to researchers, the increased rate of obesity around the world indicates that more people have metabolic syndromes. As estimated by the World Health Organization (WTO), metabolic syndrome affects 20 percent of the adult population. In the United States, the prevalence of metabolic syndrome is close to 25 percent in adults.

 

Symptoms of metabolic syndrome include excess abdominal fat, high blood sugar and high blood pressure, which in turn raise the risk of developing Type-2 diabetes and heart disease. Health experts believe changes in diet might help patients reduce excess weight. Among the changes, regular consumption of nuts has been recommended to fight the metabolic abnormalities associated with metabolic syndrome.

 

The study looked at 22 people with metabolic syndrome who were given a nut-enriched diet for 12 weeks. The researchers compared them to another group of 20 people who were told to avoid nuts.

 

After analyzing the broad spectrum of compounds excreted in the patients' urine, researchers found that consumption of nuts had boosted patients' levels of serotonin metabolites in urine and suggested the role of serotonin in the beneficial effects of nuts.

 

Researchers claimed that their study provided the first evidence in humans of the beneficial effects of nut consumption in reducing levels of substances in the body associated with inflammation and other cardiovascular risk factors in patients with metabolic syndrome.

Clean Your Teeth To Prevent Heart Disease!

Not many people would like to go to see their dentists voluntarily to have their teeth scraped and cleaned regularly. They visit their dentists only when there is toothache or any discomfort in their teeth.

 

Perhaps people should start visiting their dentists regularly because a recent study, which was presented on November 13, 2011 at an American Heart Association (AHA) meeting in Orlando, Florida, reported that regular professional cleaning of teeth could help reduce the risk of heart attack or stroke.

 

In the study, researchers from Taipei Veterans General Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan looked at records of 102,620 patients, who did not have a history of heart attack or stroke. These participants were followed for an average of 7 years.

 

Their findings showed that 226 out of 51,108 people who had their teeth cleaned at least once suffered a heart attack, while 1,168 had a stroke. For those who never had their teeth cleaned, 507 out of 51,512 had a heart attack and 2,480 suffered a stroke. People who had their teeth scraped and cleaned by dentists more than once every 2 years had a 24 percent lower risk of heart attack and 13 percent lower risk of stroke compared to those who had never had a dental cleaning.

 

People who had a cleaning less than once every 2 years had a 13 percent lower risk of heart attack and a 9 percent lower risk of a stroke compared to those who never had one.

 

According to researchers, participants who got tooth scaling at least once a year have better protection from heart disease and stroke. It appears that professional tooth scaling tends to lower inflammation-causing bacterial growth that could lead to heart disease or stroke.

 

Nevertheless, the study did not adjust for heart attack and stroke risk factors like weight, smoking and race, as these data were not included in the Taiwan National Health insurance database (source of information used in the analysis).

 

Researchers also stressed that more studies are required to help explain how tooth scaling helps improve heart and blood vessel function and to see if it also lowers the risk of other illnesses like cancer and immune diseases.