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Diabetes Forecast monthly magazine provides a variety of useful information and interesting profiles to keep you abreast of diabetes information and enhance the quality of your life. See highlights at www.diabetes.org.
The 2003 Scientific Sessions just took place in New Orleans in June. Check in periodically throughout the next few months with Diabetes Forecast magazine, www.diabetes.org, for coverage.
For a link to general information on the risks and benefits of clinical trials, as well as new treatment enrollment opportunities, visit the American Diabetes Association's Web site at www.diabetes.org.
For more information on diabetes, contact the healthcare professionals at Memorial Hospital, at (423) 495-2525, or visit the Joslin Center for Diabetes.
Each year, thousands of scientists, doctors, researchers, and diabetes educators gather at the American Diabetes Association's Annual Scientific Sessions to hear the latest on diabetes treatment and prevention. The 2002 sessions in San Francisco revealed a wealth of information, as reported in Diabetes Forecast magazine, and here are three highlights that may make a difference for you right now.
Let's Go Fish
Do you eat at least one serving of broiled or grilled fish per week? If so, you're probably doing a very good thing for your heart. Researchers studied more than 5,000 nurses with Type 2 diabetes, examining the effects of nutrition, exercise, and certain behaviors on health. The study revealed that women who ate fish one to three times a month cut their risk of heart attack by about 33 percent. The more fish women ate, the more they lowered their risk. Those who ate it once a week cut their risk by 35 percent. Women who ate fish five times a week or more cut their risk by 60 percent.
Your Kids Will Thank You...Later
Your children may balk at your involvement in their diabetes management, but this study finds that good diabetes control in childhood predicts good blood sugar control in adulthood. Researchers studied a group of people with Type 1 diabetes who were diagnosed with diabetes before they were 9 years old and tracked their average A1Cs (an estimate of overall blood sugar control) until they were 18. Researchers found that the lower the A1C at prepuberty, the lower the A1C in the adolescent and adult years.
Should You Lift Weights?
Have you talked with your doctor about beginning a mild aerobic and strength training program? If so, you're on the right track. Researchers studied the effects of aerobic exercise and resistance training in a group of sedentary, obese people with Type 2 diabetes. The researchers observed that the participants who did both aerobic exercise and resistance training three times a week lowered their average A1C significantly more (from the "needs better control" to the "good control" range) than participants who did either aerobic exercise or resistance training or neither.
Clinical Trials Contribute to New and Improved Treatments Before a new drug or new treatment is approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, it must be shown to be both safe and effective. Typically, this is done in a clinical trial—a carefully controlled study designed to test and evaluate new drugs and new treatment plans. The purpose of trials is to learn about treatments and find better therapies. If you have diabetes, there may be several benefits of joining a clinical trial:
A trial might be the only way to obtain a new, cutting-edge drug or procedure.
Patients in trials often receive free expert advice about taking care of their diabetes.
You will have the satisfaction of knowing that because of your efforts, society will better understand diabetes and be one step closer to a cure.
However, be aware that risks include side effects unknown to doctors. Treatments and drugs may be ineffective or less effective than your current approaches. In addition, some approaches, even if proven effective, may not work for you.
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