It’s a common problem. According to an April 2011 Mayo Clinic Proceedings article, only about half of those who are prescribed medication take it exactly as prescribed.
via Diabetes: Drugs only work if you take them – MayoClinic.com.
Read in between the lines when reviewing medical records. Adjust your risk assessments accordingly. Decline if warranted.
Energy drinks can lead to serious health consequences, including palpitations, rapid heart rates, dehydration, elevated blood pressures, or even heart attacks. Their high caffeine content, along with “natural” additives, can interact with prescription drugs. Worse, 56% of college students report mixing energy drinks with alcohol, which studies show increase the risk of committing or experiencing a sexual assault, riding with a drunk driver, or becoming involved in an alcohol-related car accident. According to a recent report by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, there were over 20,000 emergency room visits involving energy drinks in 2011, double the number from 2007. Last year, the Food and Drug Administration received reports of 18 deaths and over 150 injuries that may have been associated with the drinks.
Conclusion: The current prospective study suggests that vitamin D metabolism may play a role in T2D pathogenesis independently of known risk factors. This trial was registered at clinicaltrials.gov as NCT01508481.
via Association of vitamin D deficiency with incidence of type 2 diabetes in high-risk Asian subjects.
Among individuals ages 12 to 39, central obesity, smoking, and hyperglycemia at a single assessment were associated with premature death from any cause within the next 12 to 18 years (relative hazards 1.86 to 3.81), according to Sharon Saydah, PhD, of the CDC’s Division of Diabetes Translation in Atlanta, and colleagues.
Up to one in three new diabetes cases diagnosed in people younger than 18 is type 2 diabetes, noted the AAP in its clinical guidelines. Health experts link the growing prevalence of this condition among youths to the rising prevalence of childhood obesity.
Seventeen percent of children and adolescents in the U.S., or 12.5 million people, age 2 to 19 are obese, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Since 1980, the prevalence of obesity in this age group has nearly tripled, the CDC says.
via AAP offers first clinical guidance for type 2 diabetes – amednews.com.
What Did the Researchers Do and Find?
The researchers used information from the established 45 and Up Study, a large cohort study that includes 123,775 men aged 45 and over, selected at random from the general population of New South Wales, a large region of Australia. A total of 95,038 men were included in this analysis. The male participants completed a postal questionnaire that included a question on erectile functioning, which allowed the researchers to define erectile dysfunction as none, mild, moderate, or severe. Using information captured in the New South Wales Admitted Patient Data Collection—a complete record of all public and private hospital admissions, including the reasons for admission and the clinical diagnosis—and the government death register, the researchers were able to determine health outcomes of all study participants. They then used a statistical model to estimate hospital admissions for cardiovascular disease events for different levels of erectile dysfunction.
The researchers found that the rates of severe erectile dysfunction among study participants were 2.2% for men aged 45–54 years, 6.8% for men aged 55–64 years, 20.2% for men aged 65–74 years, 50.0% for men aged 75–84 years, and 75.4% for men aged 85 years and over. During the study period, the researchers recorded 7,855 hospital admissions related to cardiovascular disease and 2,304 deaths. The researchers found that among men without previous cardiovascular disease, those with severe erectile dysfunction were more likely to develop ischemic heart disease (risk 1.60), heart failure (risk 8.00), peripheral vascular disease (risk 1.92), and other causes of cardiovascular disease (risk 1.26) than men without erectile dysfunction. The risks of heart attacks and heart conduction problems were also increased (1.66 and 6.62, respectively). Furthermore, the combined risk of all cardiovascular disease outcomes was 1.35, and the overall risk of death was also higher (risk 1.93) in these men. The researchers found that these increased risks were similar in men with erectile dysfunction who had previously been diagnosed with cardiovascular disease.
Citation: Banks E, Joshy G, Abhayaratna WP, Kritharides L, Macdonald PS, et al. (2013) Erectile Dysfunction Severity as a Risk Marker for Cardiovascular Disease Hospitalisation and All-Cause Mortality: A Prospective Cohort Study. PLoS Med 10(1): e1001372. doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.1001372
Copyright: © 2013 Banks et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
French medical authorities made headlines recently over Mediator, a diabetes drug widely prescribed by doctors as an appetite suppressant, which is believed to have killed at least 500 people. The head of the French pharmaceutical firm Servier, maker of Mediator, is under formal investigation for manslaughter, and the head of France’s public health agency has resigned. The row has highlighted the links between drug regulators and lobbying drug companies in France, which has one of the world’s highest levels of consumption of prescription drugs.
via France confirms Diane-35 drug deaths | World news | The Guardian.
Abstract
Background
We have previously identified in a study of both self-reported body mass index (BMI) and clinically measured BMI that the sensitivity score in the obese category has declined over a 10-year period. It is known that self-reported weight is significantly lower that measured weight and that self-reported height is significantly higher than measured height. The purpose of this study is to establish if self-reported height bias or weight bias, or both, is responsible for the declining sensitivity in the obese category between self-reported and clinically measured BMI.
Methods
We report on self-reported and clinically measured height and weight from three waves of the Surveys of Lifestyle Attitudes and Nutrition (SLÁN) involving a nationally representative sample of Irish adults. Data were available from 66 men and 142 women in 1998, 147 men and 184 women in 2002 and 909 men and 1128 women in 2007. Respondents were classified into BMI categories normal (<25 kg/m2), overweight (25–<30 kg/m2) and obese (≥30 kg/m2).
Results
Self-reported height bias has remained stable over time regardless of gender, age or clinical BMI category. Self-reported weight bias increases over time for both genders and in all age groups. The increased weight bias is most notable in the obese category.
Conclusions
BMI underestimation is increasing across time. Knowledge that the widening gap between self-reported BMI and measured BMI is attributable to an increased weight bias brings us one step closer to accurately estimating true obesity levels in the population using self-reported data.
Citation: Shiely F, Hayes K, Perry IJ, Kelleher CC (2013) Height and Weight Bias: The Influence of Time. PLoS ONE 8(1): e54386. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0054386
Editor: Manlio Vinciguerra, Foundation for Liver Research, United Kingdom
Received: September 17, 2012; Accepted: December 11, 2012; Published: January 23, 2013
Copyright: © 2013 Shiely et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Funding: This work was not funded but was conducted under the auspices of the HRB Centre for Diet and Health Research. The HRB had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.
Competing interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
* E-mail: f.shiely@ucc.ie
via PLOS ONE: Height and Weight Bias: The Influence of Time.
The life underwriting implications should be obvious. Increased weight bias is most notable in the obese. When in doubt, weigh ’em.
lifeunderwriter.net 
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