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Diabetes
It is important to diagnose and treat GDM as it can have serious short and long term health consequences for both you and your baby. Don’t worry needlessly, however, if you have been told you have gestational diabetes. There are a lot of things you and your doctor and/or health team can do to keep you and your baby healthy both during the pregnancy and afterwards.
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Diabetes , Pregnancy and overweight/obesity, Weight loss (benefits), Overweight/obesity, Insulin resistance, Gestational diabetes, Hormones, Calorie counting, Portion control, Healthy eating, Carbohydrates, Complications of obesity, Serving size, Weight loss, Healthy behaviors
As we started talking about his health insurance, the conversation naturally drifted to health. He is prediabetic, he told me, and his brother is a type 2 diabetic who has already had some toes amputated. He knows he is facing the same future if he doesn't lose weight, but how can he do it?
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Exercise (benefits), Weight loss behaviors, Diabetes , Public health, Insulin resistance, Heart disease, Social commentary, Healthy eating, Complications of obesity, Weight loss
The decision to have bariatric surgery is highly personal. Each individual must weigh the risks and benefits according to their own unique set of preferences. Some folks would never have surgery and refer to losing weight with diet and exercise as “the right way.” Others, like Wendy Hanawalt, suffer from overwhelming complications of obesity and, for a variety of reasons, including insulin related weight gain, turn to gastric by-pass as a last hope life-saver.
Wendy has shared what it was like living as a “really, really fat person” in her compelling story, “Memoir of a Fat Broad.” Now, with her permission, she shares what it is like to live with the after effects of gastric by-pass surgery.
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Weight loss behaviors, Diabetes , Inspiration/motivation, Overweight/obesity, Insulin resistance, Guest blogs, Complications of obesity, Surgery for obesity
"When you're really, really fat -- and by that I mean what doctors refer to as "morbidly obese," there is one thing that is screamingly clear: people who are not really, really fat have no idea what it's like. As a formerly really, really fat person who's now just fat, I have to say that we have no one to blame for that misunderstanding but ourselves. Our modus operandi is to hide: hide our feelings, even from ourselves, hide who we really are, hide our shame, hide our disabilities. And so, as part of my "coming out" as a person with reorganized intestines (having had gastric bypass surgery), I'm going to "tell on myself," write about what it's like in vivid detail, so that some of you (those who are not RRF) will have a new understanding of the experience and -- at least I hope -- those of you who are RRF will hear someone singing your song.
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Filed Under:
Weight loss behaviors, Diabetes , Inspiration/motivation, Overweight/obesity, Insulin resistance, Guest blogs, Complications of obesity, Depression
Walk 10,000 steps. Walk for 30 minutes three times a week. Walk 60 minutes most days of the week. Walk farther and walk longer. These are typical exercise prescriptions. But there is another component of your daily walk that is also important. It is how fast you walk.
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Exercise (benefits), Weight loss behaviors, Diabetes , Fitness, Overweight/obesity, Research on obesity/overweight, Complications of obesity, Weight loss
The take home message. Don't just assume, if you are a diabetic, that you cannot or should not exercise. If your cardiovascular risk is low and you do not have diabetes complications, such as nerve or eye disease, physical activity can have many beneficial effects on your current and future health.
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Exercise (benefits), Weight loss behaviors, Diabetes , Tools, Fitness, Weight loss (benefits), Pre-diabetes, Metabolic syndrome, Research on obesity/overweight, Healthy behaviors, Prevention of diabetes
The first presentation at this symposium described how fat deposits in the liver lead to insulin resistance. We have known for years that “central obesity” is a risk factor for Type 2 diabetes. Remember the warnings that fat in an “apple” pattern is worse for us than fat in a “pear” pattern?. But it isn’t that subcutaneous fat (fat deposited below the skin) that’s really bad for us, rather it is fat inside the abdominal cavity, called visceral fat, that increases our risk for heart disease, stroke and type 2 diabetes. Now we know that the worst fat may be the fat that gets deposited in our organs—fat in our liver cells, fat in our muscle cells, and maybe, fat deposited in our heart cells.
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Exercise (benefits), Diabetes , Lipids, Weight loss (benefits), Insulin resistance, Pre-diabetes, Research on obesity/overweight, Abdominal obesity, Complications of obesity
This study adds to the growing body of evidence that suggests when it comes to LDL, lower is better. Although the authors point out further studies are needed to prove it definitively, I suspect we will see the major medical organizations, including the American Diabetes Association, coming out with stronger recommendations regarding attaining even lower targets of LDL (i.e., less than 70 mg/dl) for people with diabetes and cardiovascular disease. If you fall into this category, take some time to discuss these new findings with your doctor. When it comes to management of diabetes, it is important to “know your numbers and know your target.”
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Filed Under:
Diabetes , Lipids, Medications (diabetes and pre-diabetes), Cholesterol, Healthy behaviors
In the old days, say about 20 or 30 years ago, people went to the doctor to get their questions answered and their problems solved. The doctor “owned” the knowledge. We paid to get it. Seemed to work…or did it? We have come to understand that, even today, the answers you get and the treatments that are recommended may be based more on your doctor’s opinion or belief than on hard core evidence.
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Diabetes , Public health, Tools, Heart disease, Weight loss, Healthy behaviors
Remember when the Super Size Me guy gets told he has evidence of liver damage from pigging out at McDonald’s? Well, it turns out that overeating and weight gain are associated with the accumulation of fat in the liver. This shouldn’t really be a surprise -- the folks who help create foie gras by force feeding geese have known this all along.
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Filed Under:
Diabetes , Benefits or hazards of certain foods, Public health, Dietary Fat, Weight loss (benefits), Insulin resistance, Liver disease, Metabolic syndrome, Research on obesity/overweight, Calorie counting, Nutrition, Healthy eating, Complications of obesity
Byetta is the brand name for a new drug (scientific name is exenatide). What is exciting about this drug is that it is the first to market of a class of drugs known as incretin mimetics. What that means is that they mimic a naturally occuring incretin
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Diabetes , Medications (weight loss), Medications (diabetes and pre-diabetes)
Great news today for Hubert, the Beaglebassett. He had his annual physical today and we learned that he has lost 9 pounds! He now weighs 52 pounds. He was 61 pounds a year ago, so this is an almost 15% loss of total body weight.
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Exercise (benefits), Diabetes , Pets, Overweight/obesity
My husband and I are on vacation in Israel. Last night we had dinner with some Israeli friends. One of them, Avinoam told us a story about his brother, a lawyer, David. David is in his late 50s, a hard-driving attorney who pays attention
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Exercise (benefits), Diabetes , Lipids, Weight loss (benefits), Overweight/obesity
According to the latest report on the prevalence of overweight and obesity in adults in the United States, published in the April 5, 2006 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, the overall prevalence of overweight (BMI 25.0 – 29.9)
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Diabetes , Public health, Overweight/obesity
There is a lot of concern in the medical community about the epidemic of obesity in children. Fat kids usually grow up to be fat adults. Also, fat kids are increasingly being diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes, a disease that used to occur almost
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Filed Under:
Diabetes , Public health, Fitness, Children
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