DIABETES DEATH RATE HIGHER AMONG BLACK CHILDREN
"Death rates for Black children with diabetes are more than twice as high as those for their White peers and more than three times higher than for Hispanic children," reports Sharon Saydah, PhD, and colleagues from the National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Division of Diabetes Translation, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Saydah's team analyzed data from 2000 to 2014 from the National Vital Statistics System for diabetes-related deaths in children overall, and by race/ethnicity. The total number of diabetes-related deaths among 1- to 19-year-old children and adolescents showed a nonsignificant decrease from 265 in 2000 to 2002 (1.15 per 1 million children) to 228 (0.97 per 1 million children) in 2012 to 2014.
"It is encouraging that, despite increases in diabetes prevalence and incidence among children and adolescents from 2000 to 2014, there was no significant increase in diabetes mortality," writes the researchers. However, significant racial and ethnic disparities persisted in diabetes-related mortality. From 2000 to 2002, the mortality rate ratio for Blacks versus Whites was 2.36, and for Blacks versus Hispanics was 3.69. In 2012 to 2014, the respective rate ratios were 2.22 and 3.36.
It would be expected that the highest diabetes-associated mortality would occur among racial/ethnic groups with the highest incidence and prevalence. However, prevalence of childhood and adolescent diabetes among Whites was higher than among Blacks, yet diabetes mortality was higher among Black children and adolescents than among Whites. Reasons for these disparities are likely complex and could include differences in access to healthcare, health services, diabetes self- and parent-management education, and diabetes care.-https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/66/wr/mm6619a4.htm Accessed 7/20/2017
NURSING PROTOCOL FOR STROKE
Researchers have found that a nursing care plan for stroke, implemented in the first 72 hours after admission, can reduce death and disability compared with standard stroke care. A protocol, implemented on 19 acute stroke care units in New South Wales, Australia, treated fever, hyperglycemia, and dysphagia, using the following interventions:
* Fever: Temperature monitoring every 4 hours; administration of paracetamol (acetaminophen) as needed;
* Hyperglycemia management: Blood glucose monitoring and saline or insulin infusion, if indicated;
* Dysphagia detection: Nurses were trained by speech pathologists and assessed to test their competency in screening for swallowing problems.
The study included 1,076 patients and confirmed the protocol's positive outcomes 4 years later. (An earlier study showed benefits after 90 days.) The authors hypothesized that rigorous implementation of the protocol in an organized stroke services setting helps preserve key tissue.
Sandy Middleton, director of the Nursing Research Institute of St. Vincent's Health Australia Sydney and the Australian Catholic University in New South Wales and lead investigator, noted, "This was one of the few randomized controlled trials to demonstrate that evidence-based nursing care can have an impact on the hard end points of death and dependency."-https://ajnoffthecharts.com/nursing-protocol-for-stroke-increases-survival-reduc Accessed 7/21/2017
UNPROVEN TREATMENTS CAN BE BAD NEWS FOR LYME DISEASE
Unproven treatments for Lyme disease can cause serious, even fatal, complications. Chronic Lyme disease is a nonspecific diagnosis that has no consistent definition. Some clinicians use this label for patients who have a variety of debilitating conditions, such as fatigue, generalized pain, and neurologic symptoms, even in the absence of laboratory evidence of Borrelia burgdorferi infection or a history of tick exposure. People who support this diagnosis mistakenly believe that B. burgdorferi can cause longstanding disabling symptoms, even when standard testing for the organism is negative. The truth is that tests for the organism become more sensitive the longer the infection persists, according to Natalie Marzec, a resident in preventive medicine at the University of Colorado, Aurora, and associates.
Marzec notes that patients with chronic Lyme disease who don't find relief with conventional clinicians sometimes consult practitioners who might identify themselves as Lyme disease specialists or from complementary and alternative medicine clinics. Such patients have been offered unproven treatments, including extended courses of intravenous antibiotics, infusions of hydrogen peroxide, immunoglobulin therapy, hyperbaric oxygen treatment, electromagnetic frequency therapy, garlic supplements, colloidal silver, and stem cell transplantation. Marzec and colleagues presented five case reports of patients diagnosed with chronic Lyme disease who sustained serious harm (see citation link).-https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/66/wr/mm6623a3.htm Accessed 7/21/2017
WEIGHTS WIN FOR LIFELONG FITNESS
Current exercise science shows that working with weights, whether a light dumbbell or your own body, may be the best exercise for lifelong physical function and fitness. Strength training also seems to be a potent antidote to inflammation. Research has linked strength training to improved focus and cognitive function, better balance, less anxiety, and greater well-being. Some of the latest and most surprising research is in the realm of light-load training, or lifting very small weights.
"Resistance training is the most important form of training for overall health and wellness," says Brad Schoenfeld, assistant professor of exercise science at New York City's Lehman College. He continues, "Many people think of weight training as exercise that augments muscle size and strength, which is true. But the load that this form of training puts on bones and their supporting muscles, tendons and ligaments is probably a bigger deal when it comes to health and physical function."
Schoenfeld writes, "We talk about bone resorption, which is a decrease in bone tissue over time. When you're young, bone resorption is balanced and in some cases exceeded by new bone tissue generation. But later in life, bone tissue losses accelerate and outpace the creation of new bone. That acceleration is especially pronounced among people who are sedentary and women who have reached or passed menopause. This loss leads to the weakness and postural problems that plague many older adults. Resistance training counteracts all those bone losses and postural deficits. Through a process known as bone remodeling, strength training stimulates the development of bone osteoblasts: cells that build bones back up. While you can achieve some of these bone benefits through aerobic exercise, especially in your lower body, resistance training is really the best way to maintain and enhance total-body bone strength."
"During a bout of resistance training, your muscles are rapidly using glucose, and this energy consumption continues even after you've finished exercising," states Mark Peterson, assistant professor of physical medicine at the University of Michigan. He notes, "For anyone at risk for metabolic conditions-type-2 diabetes, high blood pressure, unhealthy cholesterol levels, and other symptoms of metabolic syndrome-strength training is among the most effective remedies."
Need more convincing? "Maintaining strength later in life seems to be one of the best predictors of survival. When we add strength, almost every health outcome improves. It is a seminal part of general health and well-being at all ages," notes Peterson.-http://time.com/4803697/bodybuilding-strength-training/ Accessed 7/20/17
LIFE AS GOD'S MASTERPIECE
"Perhaps we are afraid of the world seeing us the way God created us to be. We are afraid we might not live up to the promise of God. So we play small. We hide. We shrink. We downplay our God-given giftings and talents. We are afraid we are too insignificant to have a role to play in God's great kingdom drama.
We stop expecting God to do anything of great kingdom impact through our lives. We pray small prayers and exercise little faith. We start believing this is the best we can do. Worse, we start believing this is the best God can do.
And we sell ourselves short-we assign a value to ourselves that is far below what you and I are really worth.
The Bible declares we are God's masterpiece (Ephesians 2:10). But far too many of us have covered up the real masterpiece with a tattered old version of ourselves. Furthermore, many of us are trapped in an old frame....
Before we can be the masterpiece God created us to be, we need to allow God to dismantle the old, dusty, inferior, sin-stained, cheap, counterfeit picture of ourselves that we have placed upon our souls."-From Unearthed: Discover Life As God's Masterpiece by Raj Pillai, 2017, New Hope Publishers, Birmingham, Alabama.
-PulseBeats compiled by Cathy Walker