Fleas, Books, and Heart Disease (or Why I've Been Missing)
Time flies doesn't it? I hate it when my favorite bloggers don't post for weeks at a time, and then here I am, more than two weeks since my last entry. Sorry about that. I've been dealing with my dog, two cats and my house, which have had major flea infestation. What a pain to clean, bomb, spray, and clean again. My two adult cats have had two baths apiece in a many weeks, a first for both of them! As a result of the first encounter between cats and water I had to go on antibiotics for a paronychia, given to me by a cat's nail sliding under the side edge of mine. Ouch!
Word to the wise-if you are given a prescription for Augmentin, a very good antibiotic for skin infections, take it with food. Otherwise you're likely to spend a few hours hugging the bowl as we say...it was not a pretty sight at 3 AM.
In the mean time I have become reacquainted with a site I really enjoy called Book Crossings. If you are a reader you'll love this site. Users log on and register books in their collection that they are willing to give away. Once registered the book is given a Book Crossing ID number ("BCID") from which it can be tracked. Once you have registered a book you release it into the wild, and then you wait for someone to find it and to read it. Hopefully then will then go to the site and make a note about both what they thought about the book, and whether or not they have re-released it into the wild. Books have disappeared for years, only to pop back up in another part of the country, or the world! The site is free and is supported by people spending money to purchase Book Crossing items such as bookmarks and bookplates, but you can also participate without these purchases. If you're a book person, check out www.brookcrossings.com It's really cool!
A new study has once again supported that diabetes is a strong risk factor for heart disease. Whether one considers people with angina or a heart attack, the rate of death from heart disease is higher for people living with diabetes. One example from this study is that 8.5% of people with diabetes who have a severe heart attack will die from that event within a month, compared to only 5.4% of those who don't have diabetes.
Dr. Elliott Antman, the study's author, is a senior investigator at Boston's Brigham and Women's Hospital. He points out that despite many advances in cardiac care, individuals with diabetes don't enjoy the same level of benefit in terms of health outcomes. His study used data on more than 62,00 people enrolled in 11 clinical trials that evaluated treatments for acute coronary syndrome (ACS); 17% of these study enrollees had diabetes. Antman states that his study points to a need for "aggressive strategies to manage the diabetic population," who present with ACS. This means researching what therapies are the most effective for diabetic patients.
Dr. Larry C. Deeb, president of medicine and science for the American Diabetes Association and a clinical professor of pediatrics at the University of Florida, responded to the report, stating that he was not surprised at the outcome. "Everyone in his right mind has known that people with diabetes have been dying more regularly than people without diabetes," Deeb said. He agreed with Antman's summary that more effort is needed to understand the links between diabetes and heart disease treatment.
He noted that the study did not ask an important question, which is, "what is the effect of diabetes control on heart disease outcomes?" As a person who spends considerable time and energy helping people with diabetes to find strategies to control their blood sugars and other heart disease risk factors, I agree with Dr. Deeb that this is an interesting question indeed. (This study was reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association, Aug 15, 2007).
Until next time (sooner than later), take care!
~Laurie
Related Topics: Technorati Tags: heart disease, diabetes, health and wellness
Word to the wise-if you are given a prescription for Augmentin, a very good antibiotic for skin infections, take it with food. Otherwise you're likely to spend a few hours hugging the bowl as we say...it was not a pretty sight at 3 AM.
In the mean time I have become reacquainted with a site I really enjoy called Book Crossings. If you are a reader you'll love this site. Users log on and register books in their collection that they are willing to give away. Once registered the book is given a Book Crossing ID number ("BCID") from which it can be tracked. Once you have registered a book you release it into the wild, and then you wait for someone to find it and to read it. Hopefully then will then go to the site and make a note about both what they thought about the book, and whether or not they have re-released it into the wild. Books have disappeared for years, only to pop back up in another part of the country, or the world! The site is free and is supported by people spending money to purchase Book Crossing items such as bookmarks and bookplates, but you can also participate without these purchases. If you're a book person, check out www.brookcrossings.com It's really cool!
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Dr. Elliott Antman, the study's author, is a senior investigator at Boston's Brigham and Women's Hospital. He points out that despite many advances in cardiac care, individuals with diabetes don't enjoy the same level of benefit in terms of health outcomes. His study used data on more than 62,00 people enrolled in 11 clinical trials that evaluated treatments for acute coronary syndrome (ACS); 17% of these study enrollees had diabetes. Antman states that his study points to a need for "aggressive strategies to manage the diabetic population," who present with ACS. This means researching what therapies are the most effective for diabetic patients.
Dr. Larry C. Deeb, president of medicine and science for the American Diabetes Association and a clinical professor of pediatrics at the University of Florida, responded to the report, stating that he was not surprised at the outcome. "Everyone in his right mind has known that people with diabetes have been dying more regularly than people without diabetes," Deeb said. He agreed with Antman's summary that more effort is needed to understand the links between diabetes and heart disease treatment.
He noted that the study did not ask an important question, which is, "what is the effect of diabetes control on heart disease outcomes?" As a person who spends considerable time and energy helping people with diabetes to find strategies to control their blood sugars and other heart disease risk factors, I agree with Dr. Deeb that this is an interesting question indeed. (This study was reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association, Aug 15, 2007).
Until next time (sooner than later), take care!
~Laurie
Related Topics: Technorati Tags: heart disease, diabetes, health and wellness
