Lifestyle Underwriting

Lower T2DM Risk With Veggies

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Medical News: Green Veggies Cut Diabetes Risk – in Endocrinology, Diabetes from MedPage Today

Increasing the daily intake of green leafy vegetables could significantly reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes, a British meta-analysis found.

Consuming 1.35 servings of these vegetables per day was associated with a 14% reduction in risk compared with consuming only 0.2 servings (HR 0.86, 95% CI 0.77 to 0.96, P=0.01), according to Patrice Carter, a PhD student at the University of Leicester, and colleagues.

Do You Know Dr. Dean Ornish? (you should)

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Medical News: Ornish, Pritikin Cleared for Medicare Payment – in Cardiovascular, Prevention from MedPage Today

I’ve been a fan of Dr. Ornish for a long time.  His lifestyle focus to prevent and/or reverse atherosclerosis with diet, exercise, and stress reduction was clearly ahead of its time.  Medicare will now pay for the Ornish and Pritikin programs.  But am I the only one to realize that Medicare usually doesn’t start until age 65?  Time for private health insurance companies to step up to the plate on this issue.

Low Vitamin D = Higher Parkinson’s Risk

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Medical News: Low Vitamin D Increases Parkinson’s Risk – in Neurology, Parkinson’s Disease from MedPage Today

In the first longitudinal study to explore this possible connection, Knekt and colleagues analyzed data from the Mini-Finland Health Survey, which was carried out between 1978 and 1980.

Participants provided information on socioeconomic background, medical history, and lifestyle; serum levels of 25-hydroxyvitamin D were determined by radioimmunoassay.

Among the 3,173 participants included in the analysis, there were 50 incident cases of Parkinson’s disease during a 29-year follow-up.

A significant inverse association was seen between age- and sex-adjusted levels of 25-hydroxyvitamin D and Parkinson’s disease, with the relative risk between the highest and lowest quartiles of serum concentration of the vitamin being 0.35 (95% CI 0.15 to 0.81, P for trend=0.006).

The association persisted after adjustment for body mass index, leisure-time physical activity, month of blood draw, education, marital status, smoking, and alcohol consumption.

Participants whose serum concentration of the vitamin was at least 50 nmol/L had a 65% lower risk than those whose levels were below 25 nmol/L.

Death by Fishing

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Commercial Fishing Deaths — United States, 2000–2009

Commercial fishing is one of the most dangerous occupations in the United States (1). During 1992–2008, an annual average of 58 reported deaths occurred (128 deaths per 100,000 workers) (1), compared with an average of 5,894 deaths (four per 100,000 workers) among all U.S. workers. During the 1990s, safety interventions addressing specific hazards identified in Alaska resulted in a significant decline in the state’s commercial fishing fatality rate (2). During 2007–2010, CDC expanded surveillance of commercial fishing fatalities to the rest of the country’s fishing areas. To review the hazards and risk factors for occupational mortality in the U.S. commercial fishing industry, and to explore how hazards and risk factors differ among fisheries and locations, CDC collected and analyzed data on each fatality reported during 2000–2009. This report summarizes the results, which showed that, among the 504 U.S. commercial fishing deaths, the majority occurred after a vessel disaster (261 deaths, 52%) or a fall overboard (155 deaths, 31%). By region, 133 (26%) deaths occurred off the coast of Alaska, 124 (25%) in the Northeast, 116 (23%) in the Gulf of Mexico, 83 (16%) off the West Coast, and 41 (8%) in the Mid- and South Atlantic. Type of fishing was known in 478 deaths; shellfish (226, 47%) was the most common, followed by groundfish (144, 30%) and pelagic fish (97, 20%). To reduce fatalities in this industry, additional prevention measures tailored to specific high-risk fisheries and focusing on prevention of vessel disasters and falls overboard are needed.

Exercise + Tea + Vitamin D = Lower Dementia Risk

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Study: Exercise, tea and vitamin D to ward off dementia – USATODAY.com

The researchers found that participants who had moderate to heavy levels of physical activity had about a 40% lower risk of developing any type of dementia. Those who reported the least amount of activity were 45% more likely to develop dementia compared with those who logged higher levels of activity.

In a second study, including data on more than 4,800 men and women ages 65 and older, participants were followed for up to 14 years. Tea drinkers had less mental decline than non-tea drinkers. Those who drank tea one to four times a week had average annual rates of decline 37% lower than people who didn’t drink tea.

Coffee didn’t show any influence except at the highest levels of consumption, researchers say. Author Lenore Arab of UCLA says, “Interestingly, the observed associations are unlikely to be related to caffeine, which is present in coffee at levels two to three times higher than in tea.”

In a third study, British researchers looked at vitamin D’s effect on brain health. They examined data from 3,325 U.S. adults ages 65 and older from the NHANES III study. Vitamin D levels were measured by blood test, and cognitive tests were administered. Odds of cognitive impairment were about 42% higher in those deficient in vitamin D, and 394% higher in people severely deficient.

You Want Some Asthma With That Burger?

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Medical News: What Kids Eat Is Tied to Asthma Risk – in Allergy & Immunology, Asthma from MedPage Today

Eating a Mediterranean diet — one high in fruits, fish, and vegetables and low in saturated fat — is associated with a reduced likelihood of asthma in children, a large observational study reaffirmed.

Overall, choosing foods increasingly similar to a Mediterranean diet was associated with a lower prevalence of both wheeze and asthma (P=0.03 for both trends), Gabriele Nagel, MD, MPH, of Ulm University in Germany, and colleagues reported in the June issue of Thorax.

In contrast, children who ate burgers at least three times a week had increased odds of having asthma (OR 1.42, 95% CI 1.08 to 1.87).

The medpage Today article goes on to include the following action point for physicians:

Note that these findings, which are consistent with previous studies, do not establish a causal relationship between food choices and the odds of having asthma.

Most of the MSM is focusing on the burger angle.  Be careful what you read.