Latest news with #diabetes
CNA
20 hours ago
- Health
- CNA
How to manage your blood sugar with exercise through strength and interval training
These days, more and more of us have to worry about our blood sugar. Some 38 million Americans have diabetes, and more than two times that number have pre-diabetes. Many millions more have some form of insulin resistance, which can make you tired, irritable and even dizzy. And all of these conditions become more common as we age. The good news is that exercise can help. It's at least as important as your diet for preventing and treating insulin resistance and diabetes. It can also help you lose weight, which is often the most important step in levelling out blood sugar. Exercise has several unique ways to help your body process glucose, said Dr Donald Hensrud, a specialist in preventive medicine and nutrition and medical editor of The Mayo Clinic Diet. And while any exercise is good for you, the type of movement you choose and when you do it can play a big role in how much it helps. Here are some things you should think about when planning workouts, according to experts. EXERCISE IS ESSENTIAL TO MANAGING BLOOD SUGAR The causes of diabetes are complex. Family history, genetics, weight and diet certainly play a role. But it's clear that exercise can dramatically lower your blood glucose, regardless of your diagnosis, and improve how well your body uses insulin. In fact, research has shown that exercise is generally more effective at preventing diabetes than medication (though it is important to use all types of treatment). During exercise, your muscle cells can more easily use the glucose in your blood. This lowers blood sugar directly and can also reduce the fat around your organs, an important risk factor for diabetes and insulin resistance, said Dr Gerald I Shulman, a professor of medicine and physiology at the Yale School of Medicine. In particular, studies show that regular high-intensity interval training or moderate continuous exercise can make a difference, reversing pre-diabetes in almost 40 percent of the participants – although it could take months or even years for many people to see long-lasting changes. PRIORITISE STRENGTH TRAINING AND INTENSITY Any movement is better than none, and simply going for a walk can have benefits. But according to research, the two most effective ways to lower your blood sugar through exercises are high intensity workouts and strength training. A recent study found strength training was significantly more effective for controlling blood sugar levels than aerobic exercise for people with Type 2 diabetes, and this likely holds true for other people worried about their blood su g ar, Dr Shulman said. Also, both aerobic exercise and strength training create more mitochondria, which can help fight Type 2 diabetes, but weight lifting appears to be slightly more effective than aerobic exercise, assuming you are pushing yourself, Dr Shulman said. Strength training is especially important for older people, since insulin resistance and Type 2 di abetes accelerate the normal loss of muscle and strength that comes with age, particularly for women. And while walking is good exercise for the heart, it generally won't build much muscle, said Michael Joseph Gross, author of Stronger: The Untold Story of Muscles in Our Lives. The way you strength train is also important, he added. To be most effective, the weights should feel heavy. A systematic review of the research found lifting challenging weights helped lower blood sugar more effectively than low-intensity strength training. Consider alternating your strength training session with high-intensity interval training, which has been shown to be especially effective in man ageingblood sugar for people with pre-diabetes and Type 2 diabetes. If you have diabetes, consult a doctor before radically changing your fitness regimen. WHEN IS THE BEST TIME TO WORK OUT? If you do not have insulin resistance, the time of day you work out doesn't matter much. But for people with pre-diabetes and Type 2 diabetes, studies suggest that afternoon exercise tends to help reduce blood sugar levels. This is because blood sugar rises and falls in regular patterns over the course of the day, and as the day goes on, the body becomes less insulin sensitive. Thus afternoon exercise is typically less likely to cause dangerous glucose spikes. Experts recommend working out at least three days per week with no more than two days in a row without activity. For people with insulin resistance, including diabetes, the best time to exercise is about 30 minutes after starting a meal to prevent blood sugar spikes. If morning workouts fit better with your schedule, try not to eat too many carbohydrates beforehand and start the day with a small meal of protein and healthy carbohydrates like fruit, vegetables and whole grains. Pre-diabetes and new-onset diabetes are much more responsive to lifestyle changes like diet and exercise than longer-term cases, Dr Hensrud said, so it's important to address insulin resistance as soon as possible. 'I tell people with new diabetes they're in control,' he said, 'and the most important thing to do is decrease weight through dietary changes and exercise.'
CBC
20 hours ago
- Business
- CBC
Diabetes Canada stresses it doesn't endorse medical products after ads suggest otherwise
Diabetes Canada says it's received a surge in reports from people who've seen ads for or bought products that use the charity's logos without authorization. Since January, Diabetes Canada says it's had over 300 calls to its 1-800 line and emails from people reporting misleading advertisements for diabetes products that have the charity's logo. Diabetes Canada isn't the only organization being affected. Products ranging from purported medications and supplements to devices that claim to be blood glucose monitors are also carrying the logos of Obesity Canada and Health Canada. Some of the groups say they want the ads taken down and social media companies are doing that, but new ads keep appearing. A class of injectable medications known as GLP-1 agonists, sold in Canada under the brand name Ozempic and Wegovy are approved to treat Type 2 diabetes and obesity, respectively. These drugs need to be administered by doctors and distributed by pharmacists. They are also not endorsed by Diabetes Canada, Obesity Canada or Health Canada. Some of the misleading ads are for products that doctors say are not effective but mimic the names of these more recognizable medications. These include GLP-1 oral drops, said Laura Syron, the president and CEO of Diabetes Canada. "They're certainly not endorsed by us," Syron said on Thursday. "We do not endorse any medical health product." Doctors say it's important for people who live with diabetes to get accurate blood sugar readings. That's why Syron recommends anyone considering changing their medication, trying a new treatment or getting a new monitoring device talk to their health-care provider first. The organization said some ads falsely claim the organization will also offer patients a subsidy. Use of logo created sense of trust Joel Snitman, 81, of Thornhill, Ont., has Type 2 diabetes and checks his blood sugar levels at least once a week. Snitman said he saw a Facebook ad for a product with a photo identifying it as a glucose monitor. He said he trusted it because the ad showed Diabetes Canada's logo. "This gadget offered to do it without sticking a needle in your finger," Snitman recalled. "I thought I would give it a shot." The product turned out to be an oximeter, a device used to measure blood oxygen levels, not blood sugar. Snitman contacted Diabetes Canada, saying he felt he got sucked in by seeing their logo on the ad. He said he wasn't able to find the name of the manufacturer or retailer beyond a series of consonants. He emailed the delivery company and asked them if they knew their client. The answer was no. Similarly, Syron said Diabetes Canada found it difficult to get in touch with anyone at the company. CBC News was also unable to contact the company. Concerns about delayed treatment Dr. Kaberi Dasgupta, a physician, scientist and professor of medicine at McGill University, says there are no drops or patches that would give a similar effect to GLP-1 medications, which need to be administered by doctors and distributed by pharmacists. "Those products, the GLP-1 patches and drops, they're just trying to … join the enthusiasm and kind of, I would say madness, surrounding these medications that certainly can enhance weight reduction and can improve blood sugar control in diabetes," Dasgupta said from Halifax. Her concern is that if someone with diabetes uses the drops or patches, it could delay or prevent them from receiving proper medical care. Talia Wiebe, director of marketing and communications at Obesity Canada, says the organization is aware of a company fraudulently using Obesity Canada's name, logo and an image of its founder, Dr. Arya Sharma, to promote an unregulated supplement called HHVB GLP-1 Moringa Slimming & Health Boost Drops. Obesity Canada tried to find the supplement maker without success. "We are working with our legal team to hopefully reach out to them and cease and desist and have these products taken down," Wiebe said. Diabetes Canada says it has reached out to various social media platforms where the ads using their logo have appeared and reported the issue to Health Canada. "All medical devices authorized for use in Canada are listed in the Medical Devices Active Licence Listing database," a spokesperson for Health Canada said. A search of Remifa or Briskix, the product and seller of Snitman's purchase, did not yield any results. Syron added another challenge is that when one ad disappears, another quickly pops up. A spokesperson for Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, said Friday that it has removed the ad from its platforms and is continuing to investigate. Meta says its policies prohibit content that "defrauds people by promoting false or misleading health claims, including those related to weight loss, and we remove this kind of content when we become aware of it." Meta also notes that the challenge spans platforms, industries and communities, which is why it works with law enforcement, regulators and private industry to combat scams. "We continue to invest resources and further improve our enforcement on this kind of content," the spokesperson said.
Daily Mail
a day ago
- Business
- Daily Mail
I lost five stone on a weight loss jab...but there's an alarming truth about what happens when you stop
A man who shed five stone in a year thanks to a skinny jab has told of how he fears he will have to be on the drug for life—after he regained half the weight in months when he tried to stop the medication. John Kane, 76, from Dublin, weighed nearly 19 stone and plummeted to under 14 within a year of taking liraglutide in 2016. Liraglutide works in a similar way to semaglutide—the generic name for Ozempic—triggering the release of the hormone GLP-1 that makes us feel full. The jabs, which he obtained privately, initially vastly improved Mr Kane's life. The medication helped get his type 2 diabetes into remission, and enjoy active social excursions that he couldn't before, including hikes in Spain. Despite the success, he decided to stop the injections in 2018 due to the eye-watering £232 a month cost. Speaking to the Irish Independent, he said his raging appetite returned with a vengeance almost immediately. 'I had really put a lot of effort into the last two years, and was determined not to put back on the weight,' he said. 'But whether I liked it or not, even watching my food, the weight just started to creep back up.' Within six months, Mr Kane had regained half the weight he'd lost. The major setback caused him to 'hit the rocks, mentally'. 'It was really affecting me,' he said. 'I'm not one to be depressed, but it really bit into me.' After six months without the medicine, Mr Kane's wife suggested he 'bite the bullet' and pay for more injections, to stop the decline of his health. When semaglitude, better known as Ozempic, was rolled out at a cheaper cost of £118, it became a more affordable option. He has now been on taking the medication for nearly eight years—a maintenance dose of 1mg a week. He has no plans to stop again and said if he were to ever come off he'd become a 'very sad, dejected, depressed person.' Weight-loss drugs like Ozempic have burst onto the scene in recent years, hailed as a potential fix for the UK's spiraling obesity crisis. Semaglutide mimics glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1), a naturally occurring hormone released in the small intestine when you eat. It tells your brain you're full and slows digestion. After years of rigorous scientific trials, semaglutide has been chemically modified to last far longer than the body's own, short-lived supply of GLP-1. As a result, it keeps people feeling fuller for longer. US researchers at Cornell University in New York found those on the injections typically lost lost around 13.7 per cent of their body weight, on average, over a 72-week period. But a study in the journal Epic Research found that 44 per cent of people who lost at least five pounds using semaglutide and then stopped the drug regained at least 25 per cent of their lost weight within a year. Dr Emma Cunningham, an aesthetics expert who treats patients suffering cosmetic complications of Ozempic, said some choose to go on a maintenance dose and wean off the drug that way. 'You can't be solely reliant on the drug,' she said. 'You need to be using this as an opportunity to address your lifestyle. Our most successful patients will have really gotten on board with healthy eating and exercise.' She said the jabs help people stay motivated to make a change to a healthy lifestyle because they are seeing rapid weight loss. It's those who become completely reliant on the drug, and fail to make lifestyle changes, who end up putting the weight back on, Dr Cuningham said. Scientists at Oxford University discovered the effects of GLP-1 drugs like Wegovy are short-lived if patients do not maintain a healthy lifestyle afterwards. Even those taking newer, more powerful jabs drugs like Mounjaro put their weight back on once treatment was removed.
Daily Mail
a day ago
- Health
- Daily Mail
Bedbound pensioner's toe is chewed off by a RAT while 88-year-old was waiting for council to send an exterminator round
A bedbound pensioner had her toe chewed off by a rat while she waited for the council to send a pest exterminator to her home. The 88-year-old's daughter, Andrea Scott, first raised the infestation with the Labour-run local authority after seeing one of the rodents run from an armchair into the kitchen of her mother's home. Ms Scott was shocked when they told her that her elderly mother would have to pay £297 for the council to send round a pest exterminator - a cost out of reach for the diabetic pensioner, who has not been named. Even once she had paid for the treatment herself Ms Scott, who lives in a council-supplied house in Southampton, Hampshire, was given a date weeks away for the exterminator's visit. In the meantime she laid her own rat traps and poison in her mother's home to try and catch the rodents but none were caught. The situation drastically worsened on May 20 when Ms Scott got a call from her mother's carers who had discovered that a rat had chewed through the 88 year old's sock and the top of her toe, including the toenail. Ms Scott, 56, said the carers 'screamed' when they saw the puddle of blood on her mother's bed and that the whole family are still in shock, more than a week later. 'I was horrified and a week on our family are still in shock,' she said. 'Mum is diabetic meaning she has no feeling in her legs - the only positive is that she was not in any pain. 'She is currently in hospital - she just keeps saying "I can't believe what has happened". 'The council chose not to support a vulnerable old lady and look at what has happened.' Ms Scott continued: 'Why should any council tenant be forced to pay to get rid of the rats? 'Her carers found a puddle of blood and screamed when they saw what had happened. 'It's been so traumatic for mum and the whole family - I won't ever let her back in that house. 'From the research we have done it's the bedbound who are most vulnerable.' Neighbours of the 88-year-old told Ms Scott that they had also been having problems with rats. A Southampton City Council Spokesperson said: 'We take all reports of pest sightings seriously and encourage residents to report them to us using our website so that our team can assess the situation and work with the resident to deal with the issue. 'In response to a report made on Tuesday 27 May which raised the issues of a rat infestation and potentially unsafe electrics, the council are attempting to arrange an urgent visit from both the pest and electrical teams to investigate this issue further. 'Our thoughts are with the individual and we will continue to work with the family to ensure her mother's home is safe and free from pests.'
Yahoo
a day ago
- Business
- Yahoo
14 months ago, I was preparing for death. A box of medicine changed my life.
Michael Donnelly-Boylen calls March 10, 2024, his 'second birthday.' It's the date he gave himself his first shot of the weight loss and diabetes drug Mounjaro. 'Fourteen months ago, I was pretty certain I was getting ready for my death,' he tells Yahoo Life. 'I had given up because nothing was working to help me lose weight and get healthy. But that box [of medicine] changed my life.' Donnelly-Boylen was in Weight Watchers by age 12. In the decades since, he's tried everything from the South Beach Diet to the cabbage soup diet. 'Any version of 'eat less, move more,' I've tried it,' he says. These diets would work for a little while, and then he'd gain back the weight he'd lost and more. By the time he was 50, Donnelly-Boylen dreaded trying and failing another diet. 'What people forget about the disease of obesity is that we know more about it than anyone else and we've gained and lost weight more times than they can imagine,' he says. He'd heard of Ozempic but felt too ashamed to ask his doctor about it. Then, he was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. 'I knew I had to fight to lose weight,' says Donnelly-Boylen. Despite being married to a doctor, getting his Mounjaro prescription was no easy feat, thanks to insurance changes and shortages of the medication. But once he had the box in hand, Donnelly-Boylen threw out all the processed food in his house and 'really started fresh.' But the Mounjaro was the 'tool that made the success stick,' he says. It all but muted the food noise that had filled his mind. 'For the first time, I realized what it was like to be somebody else, to be able to know when I'm full and move away from food.' In this installment of Yahoo's On My Weigh series, Donnelly-Boylen tells us how Mounjaro has forever altered his day-to-day. With a GLP-1, and a lot more mental space, he's gotten a new lease on life and his relationship, an appreciation for even the simplest chores, and a mission: using his social media and meeting with lawmakers to advocate for better access to the drugs that he says saved his life. Name: Michael Donnelly-Boylen Age: 51 The method: Mounjaro, 10 milligrams The goal: To reduce my weight and my A1C to get my type 2 diabetes under control Progress report: I'm exactly 100 pounds down, from 360 to 260. I can take the stairs to my third-floor walk-up without huffing and puffing, I can finally fully participate in my relationship and travel confidently. And I just constantly want to be moving! Food noise volume: It went from a 10 to a 3! I still find myself stress eating at work, but I keep my drawer stocked with high-protein snacks, such as meat sticks. The difference now is that I can control what I eat; I'm not going to go running to the vending machine for Pop-Tarts and a sugar rush. I find myself getting up incredibly early compared to what I used to do before starting Mounjaro. I used to be able to sleep in, but now I have a hard time sleeping past 7 a.m. The bigger problem is that I haven't adjusted to going to bed early, so I get less sleep than I used to. It's especially hard during vacation days or on weekends, when I just find myself more alert. But once I figured out this was just going to happen, I stopped fighting it. I know now that I can make that time useful. The early mornings are now when I do housecleaning and make my TikToks, so I don't bother my husband with them. There is a rest area at the dead center of my hourlong commute to work. I used to stop at the Dunkin' Donuts there every morning and get a bagel with strawberry cream cheese on it and a Strawberry Dragonfruit Refresher. I'm still a creature of habit, but now my routine is to leave the house with a 32-ounce bottle of water with electrolytes in it. Every other day, I add MiraLax to my water too (to help with constipation, a side effect of Mounjaro). I also bring a Fairlife Core Power shake. That has 42 grams of protein in it, so it gets me about a third of the protein I need every day. And usually before I leave for work, I have a high-protein, high-fiber bagel with some cream cheese. It actually took me a while to start eating bagels again after starting Mounjaro. It took me about 10 months before I could forgive the food and recognize that the food didn't cause the problem of my weight. It's actually a bit of a victory for me to have found a way to reincorporate a healthy version of that food I loved back into my diet. I have become obsessed with skin care. I never had a skin routine — I don't think I ever even moisturized! — before starting Mounjaro. But as a result of being on this journey and actually starting to care about my body and not just being mad at it — when I tell you I have a skin care routine, I mean I have a 12-step skin routine each morning and evening. In the first nine months after starting Mounjaro, the hardest part of getting ready was looking professional while your body is constantly shifting and your clothes are getting too baggy too quickly. I've gone through at least two rounds of donating all my clothes since starting the GLP-1. My husband started taking a GLP-1 shortly after I did, but thankfully, all of his old clothes are the size I am now. One of the benefits of being in a gay relationship! But a few months ago, I realized that I didn't know what my style was. I've always worn extremely preppy clothes (think: Polo everything), simply because it was easier to get in larger sizes. I didn't know how I would dress if I had a full range of choices. I'm not quite there yet, but I have more options. Now, I dress much younger than I probably should. But I don't care! I dress in brighter colors and tighter clothes than most men my age, and I'm OK with that because I was robbed of that experience when I was younger. It's a lot of fun, but it's expensive. I take my shot on Thursday mornings. There's a lot of collective wisdom within the GLP-1 community about how to reduce side effects right after your shot. I do what many people online call a 'pregaming day.' The day before I take my shot, I set a really high protein goal and make sure I'm fully hydrated, with the help of electrolytes. On shot day, I get up and have 59 grams of protein and 32 ounces of water before I take the injection. After, I have very mild side effects, and I want to say it's a result of my ritual, but I don't know what it's like to do it any other way. I do get some mild constipation, but really, my biggest side effect is that I got my life back. I work at a law school, so lunchtime for me used to mean going down to the cafeteria and ordering something — anything — they had available. I was close friends with the cafeteria workers. They all knew me as the friendly guy who said hello every day. They don't really know me anymore, because I bring a healthy, high-protein frozen meal and have that. I still sometimes have lunch meetings, though. Starting Mounjaro hasn't affected how I interact with people in those meetings, but it's changed what's going through my head. Now, if I have to eat with other people, I don't worry constantly about being judged by others. I've been very successful professionally and personally. But my weight was the one thing I hadn't been successful in, and you can't hide that. You wear it on the outside of your body. But I don't have to think about that anymore. I recently had a two-hour work meeting in the cafeteria, and I never once thought about getting up and getting food. My husband and I used to go to bars with friends pretty regularly. We do that a lot less now, but I don't miss it. I don't know if it's the medication or my age, but when other people are having two to four drinks, I have one. For a while, I thought people thought I was judging them for drinking. I wasn't, but it was hard to explain. But ironically, most of my friends are on GLP-1s themselves now! And we're much more likely to go to someone's house to enjoy ourselves these days. If we do go out, we eat more family-style. But the biggest change in how I spend my leisure time is my ability to travel. Before starting Mounjaro, my size was very limiting. I needed a seat belt extender to fly. I have friends all over the country, but my world was getting smaller, instead of larger, because of my size. Three months after starting Mounjaro, my husband and I flew cross-country and went to the Grand Canyon. We walked the rim for miles and hiked. That had been on my bucket list for years, but without Mounjaro, I never could have truly enjoyed it. My most recent trip was to New York City, where I climbed the stairs to the top of the Vessel in Hudson Yards on my own two feet, and fit comfortably into a theater seat to see Gypsy. I love Broadway, but it had been so uncomfortable for me before. With my long commute, I don't have a ton of time to cook, and I'm the person in my household who has to cook. We used to rotate through ordering Thai, pizza or Chinese every night. There's a Dunkin' Donuts a mile away from our house, but we wouldn't walk. We would order that or Starbucks or Playa Bowls. We would collect Marriott points from Uber Eats; it's insane how much we spent. So after I started Mounjaro, I was struggling to find good options that I could make quickly and that tasted good. Then I discovered Kevin's meals. Their frozen entrées, with options like chicken tikka masala and General Tso's chicken, are, like, restaurant-quality meals. And they cost something like $11 and are available at pretty much every grocery store. So one of those and a bag of steamed vegetables, that's dinner four to five nights a week. How is my exercise routine different? I'm exercising, that's how it's different. In fact, I'm moving constantly. I call it an 'involuntary body movement' that I have now. I find myself randomly walking up the stairs when there's an elevator. I'll think, Why did I do that? My brain assumes I should be looking for the elevator, but my body is looking for things to do. I found this program called the Fit Collective, which consists of 10 minutes of resistance training a day, and it's designed to be done three times a week. Now I do it five or six times a week. But my DEXA scans showed I was maintaining muscle and bone mass doing it just three times weekly. I love it because you can do the exercises from a chair. The founder designed it for elderly people, so now that my mom is on Mounjaro too, I've got her doing it. More importantly, I enjoy chores like taking the trash out now. About six months after I started Mounjaro, our hot water heater exploded. My husband and I were downstairs cleaning up from that, and we looked at each other and realized that I was equally part of the relationship for the first time. Before starting a GLP-1, I never, ever would've been physically able to be there helping him. I'm present now. Our expenses haven't changed that much since my husband and I started our GLP-1 journeys, but what we spend money on has changed dramatically. Instead of spending crazy money ordering from restaurants, we find ourselves ordering a lot of fresh produce on Instacart, which costs a lot more. And we both drink Core Power shakes daily, and those cost a lot of money. I've had to spend a lot buying new clothes. But there's a fat tax. You already spend so much more money on anything name-brand when you're fat compared to if you're skinny. So now I can buy two pieces of clothing for the same amount I used to spend on one. Destination XL has gotten a fortune's worth of my money over the years and I'm very grateful to them, but I'm also very grateful to be branching out to other stores!
