(HealthDay News) -- An intensive lifestyle change program helped people with type 2 diabetes lose weight and keep it off, a new study shows.

The program also led to improved control of blood glucose levels and reduced risk factors for cardiovascular disease, both of which are critical in preventing long-term complications caused by diabetes.

The study included 5,145 overweight or obese people, average age 58.7, with type 2 diabetes. About half were assigned to a lifestyle intervention that included diet changes and physical activity designed to achieve a 7 percent weight loss in the first year and maintain it in subsequent years.

The other participants were assigned to a diabetes education and support group that held three sessions a year to discuss diet, exercise and social support.

After four years, the participants in the lifestyle intervention group had lost an average of 6.2 percent of their body weight, compared with 0.9 percent for the diabetes support group. The lifestyle intervention group also had greater improvements in fitness, blood glucose control, blood pressure and levels of "good" HDL cholesterol. Read more...

Detox and cleanse

(NaturalNews) Many herbal remedies are used to treat symptoms of diabetes and have shown results in naturally lowering blood sugar levels. Scientific research is now shedding new light on the mechanisms used since ancient times to treat diabetes with herbs and nutrition.

Diabetes was noted as far back as Ancient Greece. The name comes from two Greek words meaning the siphon and to run through, which describes the diabetic symptom of excess urine. Diabetes is one of the leading causes of death in the United States, where over twenty three million, almost eight percent of the population, have been diagnosed with the disorder. The number of cases of diabetes doubled from 1990 to 2005 and is expected to double again by 2050. Side effects of diabetes include kidney disease, congestive heart failure, stroke, blindness and hearing loss.

The cause of diabetes is not known but 90% of those with Type 2 diabetes are obese. Most consider that diabetes is triggered by numerous factors, including inheritance, nutrition, obesity, infection, hormonal imbalances, and stress. Read more...

Healthy blood

(HealthDay News) -- Researchers report that germs living in your gut could affect your risk of developing colon cancer.

The findings suggest that signs of the existence of some germs "are more frequently detected in subjects with polyps, early lesions that can develop into cancer, while other bacterial signatures are less frequently observed in such individuals," Tyler Culpepper, a University of Florida researcher, said in a news release.

Culpepper and colleagues studied 91 patients and took biopsy samples from their colons. They analyzed the bacteria in 30 people who had at least one polyp and 30 people who didn't but were of similar age and gender.

Researchers found some bacterial signatures only in those who had polyps and others only in those who didn't. Others were more common in one group or the other.

The findings suggest that future screening tests could aim to detect signs of trouble in the colon by measuring bacteria levels, Culpepper said. Read more...

Detox the body

This article has some useful information but, of course, cannot openly tell their readers that this is truly valuable so they have to attack it somehow. If you are not taking ACS 200 yourself, maybe you do not believe that it has germ killing powers?

I believe that infections are part of our current health crisis! I believe that it is well proven that we have organisms in the mouth that are difficult to identify and dangerous when they make their way into the systemic circulation, which they ALWAYS manage to do. I hold my ACS 200 in the mouth at least a minute 2-3 times a day. I think that lowering my total body burden of infections is just as useful for optimizing my health as lowering my burden of other toxins, like heavy metals.

Your patients may be confused by this article so take a moment to see it lacks clarity and even contradicts itself. Read more...

Lose weight quick

(HealthDay News) -- Positive brain changes take hold after just 11 hours of practicing a form of meditation, the results of a new study suggest.

The study included 45 University of Oregon students who were randomly selected to be in either a study group that did integrative body-mind training (IBMT) or a control group that did relaxation training. IBMT was adapted from traditional Chinese medicine in the 1990s.

A comparison of scans taken of the students' brains before and after the training showed that those in the IBMT group had increased brain connectivity. The changes were strongest in connections involving the anterior cingulate, an area that plays a role in the regulation of emotions and behavior, Yi-Yuan Tang of Dalian University of Technology in China, University of Oregon psychologist Michael I. Posner, and colleagues found.

The boost in brain connectivity began after six hours of IBMT and became more apparent after 11 hours of practice, according to the report published in the Aug. 16-21 online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Read more...

Memory concentration, loss of memory

Meat allergies may be much more common than previously thought and may even induce potentially fatal anaphylaxis in some people, according to a study conducted by researchers from the University of Virginia and presented at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology in New Orleans.

The researchers tested three groups of people across the U.S. Southeast with a history of recurrent anaphylaxis without known cause for an immune reaction to alpha-gal, a kind of sugar found in mammal meat.

Although most allergic reactions are caused by proteins, scientists recently discovered that alpha-gal is responsible for anaphylactic reactions to cetuximab, a cancer drug. Further studies revealed that people who experience immune responses to alpha-gal also develop allergic symptoms within three to six hours of eating mammalian meat.

Alpha-gal is not found in the flesh of bird or fish.

The researchers found that between 20 and 50 percent of participants tested positive for allergy to alpha-gal. Overall, 25 of 60 participants (42 percent) showed signs of meat allergy. Read more...

Female Sexual health