From Open Verse Adapted from IDDT Newsletter March 2024 What can patients do to help ensure a good consultation with their GP or specialist doctor? This was the aim of a diabetes support group. They brainstormed what they wanted to achieve and then discussed the way to get this. The first step is preparation for your appointment. What is the point of the consultation? Is it a first meeting, a review of progress, a follow up from a previous meeting? Think, What do I want to get out of this consultation? Have a clear understanding of your problem if possible. Rehearse what you intend to say. If ..read more

Photo by u0412u0430u043bu0435u0440u0438u044f u0428u043au043eu0434u0430 on Pexels.com   PURE Study and Full-Fat Dairy The world’s largest observational study, the Prospective Urban Rural Epidemiology (PURE) Study, released its most recent paper with one of the key findings being that whole-fat dairy should be included as one of six foods that comprising a healthy diet. Multiple papers have been published from the PURE data. This one is focused on developing a globally applicable healthy diet score, called the PURE Score. The researchers analyzed data not only from PURE but also from ..read more

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com Finland has been vaccinating children from rotavirus since 2009. This has led to a 10 fold fall in the number of children getting a rotavirus infection by the age of 5. There has also been a fall (they don’t say how much of a fall) in children being diagnosed with type one diabetes. This supports the belief that rotavirus is a trigger for inducing islet cell autoimmunity. Diabetes Care doi:10.2337/dc23-1203 ..read more

Photo by Rhiannon Stone on Pexels.com Adapted from BMJ Oct 14 2023 Advice about step counts are easy to understand and can be measured with smart watches or keeping your phone in your pocket. A meta-analysis has concluded that even 2,600 steps will improve cardiovascular and total mortality. Increasing this further increases the benefits till gains flatten out at 8,000 steps a day. Walking faster was better than walking slower. A UK Biobank study showed that increasing physical activity protected against neuropathy and nephropathy in people with type two diabetes. Unfortunately retinopathy was ..read more

Photo by Charlotte May on Pexels.com Adapted from BMJ Dec 4 2021 A Scottish study showed that one in 20 people diagnosed with type two diabetes gained remission long term. This was defined as having a HbA1c of below 48 mmol/mol. In comparison with those who did not gain remission, they tended to be older, to have a lower HbA1c at diagnosis, not to have taken glucose lowering medications, and to have lost weight since diagnosis. They were also more likely to have had bariatric surgery. A review of weight loss diets in diabetics reported in Diabetolgia, reported gloomy results for all of the die ..read more

Photo by Anna Shvets on Pexels.com Adapted from BMJ July 16 2023 A North American study has demonstrated that the brains of type one diabetics of middle age or older showed structural changes in brain volume and white matter compared to similar aged and demographically similar control subjects without diabetes. MRI studies were used. The differences are the equivalent of 4 to 9 years difference in brain aging. The study was published in Diabetes Care ..read more

Photo by Artem Savchenko on Pexels.com Adapted from Nutrients Volume 15 June 25 2023. Effects of consuming once equivalent portions of animal v plant based protein foods, as defined by the Dietary Guidelines for Americans on Essential amino acid bioavailability in young and older adults: Two cross over randomised controlled trials. Gavin Connolly et al. Department of Nutritional Science. Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana. The 2020-25 Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommend that protein foods are consumed as part of a healthy dietary pattern. This includes animal based protein such ..read more

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com Review The Ketogenic Diet and Cardiovascular Diseases Damian Dy ´nka , Katarzyna Kowalcze , Anna Charuta and Agnieszka Paziewska * Institute of Health Sciences, Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences, Siedlce University of Natural Sciences and Humanities, 08-110 Siedlce, Poland; damian.dynka24@gmail.com (D.D.); katarzyna.kowalcze@uph.edu.pl (K.K.); anna.charuta@uph.edu.pl (A.C.) Correspondence: agnieszka.paziewska@uph.edu.pl Abstract: The most common and increasing causes of death worldwide are cardiovascular diseases (CVD). Taking into account the fact that ..read more

Photo by Towfiqu barbhuiya on Pexels.com Adapted from The State of Musculoskeletal Health Report 2023 by Versus Arthritis Over ten million people in the UK have arthritis. Health inequalities are defined as “unfair and avoidable differences in health across the population, and between different groups in society”. One health inequality is deprivation. For example hip and knee osteoarthritis is commoner in the most deprived compared to the least deprived. Some ethnic groups are also affected considerably more than others. As a reference point, White British people have a 16.8% prevalence of a l ..read more

Photo by Vlad Cheu021ban on Pexels.com I was asked recently what I thought the definitions of good metabolic health and bad metabolic health should be. These were my criteria. Metabolic health consists of two groups of factors: what you have and what you don’t have. Metabolic health exists on a spectrum and your place on this spectrum may change over time. Perfection in anything is rarely obtainable and if obtained may not be sustainable. In general as we age we lose metabolic health for instance. Conversely exercise improves metabolic health at almost any age. If you have good metabolic healt ..read more