Jezebel: diabetes

Champing At The Bit

Anna — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 09:10:00 EDT

[Washington, D.C., August 24. Image via Getty]

Young fans listen as Nick Jonas, singer, songwriter, actor and member of the Grammy-nominated band the Jonas Brothers makes remarks on his personal experiences living with and managing his juvenile diabetes and his efforts to inspire other youth dealing with diabetes to manage their disease on August 24, 2009 at the National Press Club in Washington, DC. AFP PHOTO / Tim Sloan (Photo credit should read TIM SLOAN/AFP/Getty Images)

Issue of Vegan Pets Divides Vets, Owners • In The Works: Woodstock, 2009

Intern Katy — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 17:30:00 EDT

• Some vegan pet owners have begun feeding their animals vegan diets, because "living with a tiny carnivore" was too disturbing. Veterinarians remain skeptical. •

• Last Monday, China implemented an internet ban on YouTube. Although China has the technology to block only certain URLs, the entire site has been blocked from use. • In order to lure in the desirable baby-boomer demographic, The Hallmark Channel is playing up their status as a "soothing, predictable" network. At least they know their strengths. • The Statue of Liberty is set to re-open for the public on July 4th, 2009. Lady Liberty's crown has been closed since 9/11. • This is kind of a downer: America's eight most downsized cities. The "Rust Belt" list includes Youngstown, Ohio at number one and Detroit at number three. • Sled dogs are among the most energy efficient animals on earth, and scientists hope that their "fat-burning prowess" could be used to discover new ways to treat diabetes and obesity. • Delta Air Lines is resurrecting vintage uniforms for flight attendants from now-defunct carriers like Pan American World Airways to promote their pending merger with Northwest Airlines. • Forbes has some advice for those of us who suck with money: 7 steps to fix your retirement. • Nickelodeon has asked kids to unplug their games and gadgets on April 22nd in honor of Earth Day. • Funny lady Janeane Garofalo is also in on the action, and in this video, she advocates for the "huge turn off" on Earth Day with some serious armpit hair. • Sociological Images has pictures of the new Angela Merkel Barbie. She looks... classy? • To celebrate the 40th anniversary of Woodstock, organizer Michael Lane plans to throw together a free, green, outdoor music festival. He is currently looking for sponsors and scouting venues in New York City. • A unique community of killer whales has failed to recover from the Exxon Valdez oil spill in 1989. Experts say that the pod is slowly dying out, and with it, their distinctive song-dialect. •

New "Exercise In A Pill" Still Requires, You Know, Exercise

Maria — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 09:30:00 EDT

Couch potatoes: what if scientists told you that you could enjoy all the benefits of exercise without any of that pesky effort and dedication? Sounds good, right? Who doesn't hate doing stuff? Well, researchers at the Salk Institute have found two drugs that can mimic athletic endurance in mice. Of course, theoretically, one still has to do exercise to reap the benefits of these "exercise pills," but that won't stop journalists (and the researchers who oversaw the project) from calling these drugs "exercise in a pill."

The two drugs studied, GW1516 and Aicar, work by increasing a gene-controlling protein called PPAR-delta that remodels the muscle and increasing the growth of Type 1 fibers within the muscle, which makes the muscles resistant to fatigue. There are two types of muscle fibers, Type 1, and Type 2 which tires more easily. Athletes and fit people have lots of Type 1 fibers and people with obesity and diabetes have more Type 2. With the first drug, GW1516, the mice had to have had exercise training to show endurance, while the second drug, Aicar, required no training to show increased endurance.

Basically, this pill isn't a free ride for those too lazy to walk around the corner to go to yoga and want to take a pill to make up for lost gym days; it's more of an enhancement drug for athletes (just in time for the Olympics) but it can also help people who would benefit from exercise but are too weak to do so, like those suffering from diabetes or morbid obesity.

Drug Offer Promises Of Fitness Without Effort [IHT]
Just Sitting Back To Get In Shape: Two Pills Do The Work Of Exercise [WSJ]
'Exercise Pill' Burns Fat— If You're A Mouse [CNN]

Researchers at the University of East Anglia...

Jennifer — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 13:20:00 EDT

Researchers at the University of East Anglia in Norwich think that chocolate might prevent heart disease in women with diabetes. But to prove their point they need 150 women to volunteer for their study and eat chocolate every single day for a year. Meanwhile, researchers at Yale are pretty sure that chocolate can prevent preeclampsia in pregnant women. Five or more servings of chocolate a day could be enough to reduce risk of developing the condition by at least 40%. [CNN, Telegraph]

Sugar-Free Babies

maria — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 10:45:00 EDT

Researchers have found that more American women are entering into pregnancy with diabetes, raising the potential for problems during their pregnancy and infants with diabetes and obesity. The study has found that diabetes increased fivefold among pregnant women 13- to 19-years of age (ack!), and doubled among pregnant women 20- to 39-years of age. The increase in diabetes among pregnant women is due to the rise in obesity, especially among black, Hispanic and Asian/Pacific Islander women. Well, our organic, hearth-baked, locally-grown, grass fed, fruit-juice-sweetened neurotic food obsessions are looking good right now! But considering the age of some of these women (uh, 13?) these problems could stem from lack of access to information about healthy pregnancies, let alone healthy eating habits. [Reuters]

A new eating disorder has developed among...

Jessica — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 17:45:00 EST

A new eating disorder has developed among diabetes sufferers called Diabulimia. Those who have diabetes do not produce insulin naturally, and therefore have to administer shots of insulin to maintain a healthy blood sugar and to digest carbohydrates. A common side effect of insulin is weight gain, so some people (mostly women) have been going off insulin all together and then gorging themselves on carbs and sweets, as without their insulin, they cannot digest those foods. In short, these diabulimics can eat whatever they want and still begin to waste away. According to Salon, diabulimics will "likely go blind, lose a limb, end up on dialysis, or suffer a sudden heart attack." Diabetics risk developing eating disorders at twice the rate of non-diabetics. This is pretty much the saddest thing we've read in weeks. [Salon]

Halle Berry keeps getting her (increasingly...

Jessica — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 16:45:00 EST

Halle Berry keeps getting her (increasingly swollen) foot in her mouth. First was unfortunate Jewish nose joke from last month, and now she's claiming that she cured her own Type 1 diabetes. Prego Berry said, "I've managed to wean myself off insulin, so now I'd like to put myself in the Type 2 category." This is technically impossible, as type-1 diabetes means the pancreas stops producing insulin permanently. According to doctors interviewed by ABC News, "If Berry was truly a Type 1 diabetic, it would be suicide to simply stop taking insulin. They surmised that the 41-year-old actress was either mistaken, misinformed or misdiagnosed, and probably always had Type 2, which tends to affect people later in life and can in some cases be overcome with a change in diet." Women who have Type 1 diabetes need to be especially vigilant about monitoring their insulin levels while pregnant, doctors say, or else they risk becoming fatally ill. [ABC News ]

Lose Money While You, Er, Weight

Anna — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 18:17:43 EDT

Dieting can be kind of expensive! We're not talking about $50 digital food scales, the $25/day prepared meal deliveries from Zone Chefs, or the monthly meal packages from, say, NutriSystem. Or even the dental work involved after one's stomach acid eats away at all that fragile tooth enamel! We're talking about dinnerware. Yup, apparently, one can lose 1-4 pounds a week just by using an artfully-designed, "affordable" thirty-dollar dinner plate. But wait! "Why not buy the Calorie Controlled Breakfast Cereal Bowl too?" And a "Male Plate" while you're at it? (What do you want to bet the male version allows for more food? Assholes). To be fair, the Diet Plate is said to have helped numerous diabetics get their illnesses under control, but at $30 a pop? Are the HMOs footing the bill? How about we just paste a photo of the cellulite on our thighs onto a piece of Royal Chinet and call it a day?

The Diet Plate: Better Than Drugs? [Diet Blog]

The Days May Be Different But The News Stays The Same

Anna — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 16:46:18 EDT

Have you heard? This 26-year-old woman — 9 months pregnant — has been missing for almost a week. Are you as sick and tired of hearing about abducted and assaulted young women and girls as we are? [CNN]
The fewer female relatives a woman has, the more likely she is to contract a certain type of breast cancer. [ABC]
Women more likely to die from diabetes than men. Could this have anything to do with some of them leaving the disease untreated in order to lose a few fucking pounds? [Chicago Tribune]
More adolescent girls — particularly 19-year-olds —are having abortions than ever before in the U.K; this news comes one week after UK officials announced that teens in England and Wales are "in the grip of a sexual health crisis, fuelled by a 'celebrity culture' that condoned alcohol abuse, drug addiction and promiscuity." [Telegraph]