Overweight girls who lose weight before they reach adulthood greatly reduced their risk for developing type 2 diabetes, according to researchers from the National Institutes of Health and Harvard University, who analyzed 16 years of data on nearly 110,000 women.
Type 2 diabetes is the most common form of the disease. It is marked by high blood sugar levels and difficulties in the body’s production or use of insulin. Being overweight, exercising infrequently and having a family history of diabetes are known to contribute to the risk of developing the disease.
Posted May 28, 2010 by Ali Al-Rajhi under Epidemiology
Honestly one of my favorite aspect of the Health Reform Policy…it seems appropriate as this age group (known as emerging adults) are in a transition period and usually dont have the funds to cover their own insurance.
The new health reform law requires private health insurers that offer dependent coverage to children to allow young adults up to age 26 to remain on their parent’s insurance plan. This provision is among the first in the reform law to take effect, and it increases the availability of insurance to a population that currently has a high uninsured rate.
Posted May 25, 2010 by Ali Al-Rajhi under Health Policy
William Li presents a new way to think about treating cancer and other diseases: anti-angiogenesis, preventing the growth of blood vessels that feed a tumor. The crucial first (and best) step: Eating cancer-fighting foods that cut off the supply lines and beat cancer at its own game.
About William Li
(source: TED)
Many of society’s most devastating diseases — cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes and Alzheimer’s, to name a few — share a common denominator: faulty angiogenesis, the body’s growth of new capillary blood vessels. Given excessive or insufficient blood vessel growth, serious health issues arise. While researching under Harvard surgeon Judah Folkman, who pioneered the study of angiogenesis, Li learned how angiogenesis-based medicine helps patients overcome numerous diseases by restoring the balance of blood-vessel growth.
Li co-founded the Angiogenesis Foundation in 1994. The foundation’s Project ENABLE — a global system that integrates patients, medical experts and healthcare professionals — democratizes the spread and implementation of knowledge about angiogenesis-based medicines, diet and lifestyle. Some 40,000 physicians have been educated on new treatments, ranging from cancer care to wound care, by the foundation’s faculty of medical experts, and they are bringing new, lifesaving and disease-preventing techniques to people around the world.
“Imagine that one medical advancement held the promise to conquer cancer, perhaps within your lifetime … the potential to also end more than 70 of life’s most threatening conditions, affecting one billion people worldwide. This is the promise of angiogenesis, the first medical revolution of the 21st century.” –William Li
The report “warns that ‘ineffective farming techniques and wasteful post-harvest practices’ have left sub-Saharan Africa as the region most likely to miss the [Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)] on poverty and hunger,” the U.N. News Centre writes. Africa needs a “green revolution” that helps the continent utilize innovative farming technologies. “The report notes that Africa’s smallholder farmers can benefit from new technologies such as low-cost drip irrigation and plastic water tanks to store runoff, as opposed to modern irrigation systems which can increase crop yields but are designed more for larger farms,” the news service notes (5/19)
Over the past 50 years, major population-level demographic shifts including increases in postsecondary education and delays in marriage and childbearing have occurred. These shifts have opened the door for a period of “emerging adulthood,” typically defined as 18–25 years of age (1). This period is marked by important transitions such as leaving home and increasing autonomy in decision-making; however at the same time, adult responsibilities such as financial independence and residential and employment stability are still in flux. This period of emerging adulthood may be an important, yet overlooked, age for establishing long-term health behavior patterns. Several factors differentiate emerging adulthood from other life stages and have specific relevance to the formation of health behavior patterns, including identity development and shifting interpersonal influences.
Ali Al-Rajhi writes with the purpose of informing individuals in the Public Health field about pressing issues in environmental health, public health policy, epidemiology, and behavioral health. Learn more here.
