Learning stress management techniques may coax blood sugar down to healthy levels, suggests research from the Medical University of Ohio. The experiment followed 30 diabetes patients, half of whom practiced daily tension-taming exercises, such as muscle relaxation, and had their techniques monitored with weekly 45-minute biofeedback sessions. The others took diabetes education classes. After 10 weeks, those who relaxed saw about a 10% drop in fasting blood sugar and in the level of HbA1c--a sign that their glucose had stayed lower around the clock for the previous couple of months. Such stress management results mean lower risk of diabetes complications, like heart disease, blindness, and nerve damage. Meanwhile, the education group's blood sugar and HbA1c levels actually rose slightly.

"Stress triggers hormones that raise blood sugar," explains lead researcher Ronald McGinnis, MD. "Reducing chronic stress switches this process off."

If that's not motivation enough, the stress management group also experienced a drop in depression and anxiety.

Source

Tight glucose control doesn't significantly reduce the risk of in-hospital death among critically ill patients. But, it is associated with an increased risk of hypoglycemia (abnormally low blood sugar), according to a study that challenges the common practice of tight glucose control for this group of patients. Currently, many major medical organizations advise tight glucose control for critically ill patients, and these recommendations have been adopted in many intensive care units around the world, according to background information in the review study by U.S. researchers. They analyzed data from 8,432 patients in 29 previous studies and found no significant difference in hospital death rates for patients on tight glucose control (21.6 percent) and those receiving usual care (23.3 percent). The researchers also found that tight glucose control was not associated with a significantly decreased risk for new need for dialysis (11.2 percent vs. 12.1 percent), but was associated with a significantly decreased risk (10.9 percent vs. 13.4 percent) of septicemia (generalized illness due to bacteria in the blood). However, patients on tight glucose control had about a five-fold increased risk of hypoglycemia (13.7 percent vs. 2.5 percent).

"Given the overall findings of this meta-analysis, it seems appropriate that the guidelines recommending tight glucose control in all critically ill patients should be re-evaluated until the results of larger, more definitive clinical trials are available," concluded Dr. Renda Soylemez Wiener, of the Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center in White River Junction, Vt., and Dartmouth Medical School, in Hanover, N.H., and colleagues.

Click here to continue reading

Yes, you can eat on the go and stay within your calorie budget. Whether you're trying to cut the recommended 500 to 1,000 calories a day from your diet to lose weight, or simply trying to make more healthy eating choices.  Read below for some 400-calorie orders that will help you choose wisely while you're on the go.

Panera Bread's Broccoli Cheddar Soup Calories: 230 Fat: 16 g Sodium: 970 mg Although light on calories, cholesterol and carbs, this soup does contain 45 percent of the daily recommended saturated fat.

Chick-Fil-A's Chargrilled Club Sandwich Calories: 380 Fat: 11g Sodium: 1560 mg This chargrilled sandwich won't break your calorie budget, but don't even look at the sandwich sauces available. The buttermilk ranch and Chick-Fil-A sauces have 110 and 140 calories respectively and will bump up the fat content in your meal to about 34 grams.

Chick-Fil-A's Chargrilled and Fruit Salad With Reduced-Fat Berry Balsamic Vinaigrette Dressing Calories: 290 Fat: 8 g Sodium: 1010 mg While other dressings at Chick-Fil-A have up to 160 calories and 17 fat grams per serving, the reduced-fat berry balsamic vinaigrette keeps the chargrilled and fruit salad diet-friendly by adding just 70 calories, 2 fat grams and 150 milligrams of sodium to your total meal.

Click here to continue reading

Did you know that apple peels contain about a third of the ascorbate/vitamin C in an apple and up to 40 percent of it's flavonols? Since most pesticide residue is on the skin, if you peel a conventional apple to reduce pesticide exposure, you also lose a lot of nutritional benefit.

To make sure you're getting the nutrients but not the pesticides you can either buy organic apples or wash them with warm water and Veggie Wash.

FitCeleb Kim Kardashian is already in rigorous rehearsals for Dancing with the Stars, and she hopes it will have a positive effect on her famous derrière.

"I'm hoping that it'll firm it up and shape it up," she said during a launch party for the Pink Blackberry Curve at L.A. boutique Intermix. "Everyone is asking if I'm worried it's going to go away. No, it's going to tone it up. I can use that."

So, will she flaunt what she's got in sexy and slinky ballroom costumes? Kardashian said she expects to show off more than a little skin as the competition moves forward.

"Today the costume that I tried on wasn't as crazy, [but] the better shape that I get into they will be a little more sexy and risquee," she said. "I'm starting off with maybe a ball gown, something a little bit more elegant and a little bit more covered up."

Click here to continue reading

New findings that antipsychotic drugs may not work as scientists have assumed could lead to changes in how the drugs are developed and prescribed, say Duke University Medical Center researchers. Antipsychotic drugs used to treat schizophrenia and other mental health problems target the D2 receptor inside cells. The Duke researchers found that the biochemical pathways that are linked to this receptor - ” and along which the drugs deliver their effects - ” may function differently than previously believed. The Duke team focused on two main pathways linked to the D2 receptor - ” the G-protein-dependent signaling pathway and the beta-arrestin pathway. Most antipsychotic drugs target the G-protein signaling that occurs at the D2 receptor. Only recently has beta-arrestin been shown to play a role. The researchers were surprised by what they found.

"Our work showed that all nine antipsychotic drugs we examined uniformly and more potently block the beta-arrestin pathway downstream of the D2 dopamine receptor," lead author Bernard Masri, a postdoctoral researcher in the department of cell biology, said in a Duke news release.

Click here to continue reading