Hi to all,

This odd ball article turned up in on the medical part of the BBC website and I offer it to you all will no further commet other than it is food for thought:

BBC Article Reads:

One way to reduce the risk of diabetes?

Older women may be able to ward off the threat of developing diabetes by having a couple of alcoholic drinks each day. Researchers believe that any type of alcohol may work.

They found that women on a controlled diet who were given specially prepared alcoholic drinks had better control of their insulin levels than women given similar drinks which did not contain alcohol.

The hormone insulin controls blood sugar levels. It is in short supply in people with diabetes. The drinks were made with orange juice and ethanol, a pure kind of alcohol. The researchers stressed that the finding needed to be tested further. The tests on 63 healthy women were carried out by a team from the Beltsville Human Nutrition Research Center, part of the US Department of Agriculture.

Widespread problem
In the UK there are around 1.4 million people with diabetes, 90% of whom have Type 2 diabetes. Type 2 diabetes is caused when the body either cannot produce enough insulin or the insulin it produces cannot be used properly by the body to control blood glucose levels. Mairi Benson, information science manager at Diabetes UK, said: "Alcohol is known to cause hypos (low blood glucose levels) in people with diabetes, therefore, the fact that this study shows low insulin levels is not necessarily surprising as the body would have less of a need to produce insulin in response to blood glucose levels.
"The study was of a very small group of women and would need to be broadened to test its applicability to the general population.

"Also, the study used pure alcohol and it would be useful to see the effects of everyday alcoholic drinks - which may contain additives, including sugar, that could confound the effects seen with pure alcohol in this study." Ms Benson said it would also be interesting to see whether the same results were achieved in tests on women who were specifically at increased risk of Type 2 diabetes. "Realistically, it is unlikely that alcohol consumption alone will prevent Type 2 diabetes - there is, after all, a strong genetic element involved in its onset.

"Lifestyle factors such as moderate exercise and healthy diets are also major factors."

Moderate drinking can reduce the risk of heart disease, but drinking can raise a woman's risk of breast and colon cancer.

The research is published in the journal of the American Medical Association. A second study in the same journal found the less a woman weighed when she was born, the higher her risk for pregnancy-related diabetes when she herself grows up and becomes pregnant.

Link follows:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/he...000/1988884.stm

It's a funny old world whatever way you look at it!

Yours aye,

Scotsman

First, I take exception to this:

The hormone insulin controls blood sugar levels. It is in short supply in people with diabetes.

That's nonsense. We all know that the early stage of Type 2 diabetes is characterized by insulin resistance. Insulin is in the blood but the body can't use it very well. Most Type 2's after many years of using glyberide will burn out the Beta cells in the pancreas, and only then is there a shortage of insulin. Type 1 diabetes most typically has onset during childhood and cannot be prevented, as far as I know.

Second: I wonder if they continued this study long enough if the participants would gain weight, since the body will burn the alcohol for fuel & convert dietary fat & carbs to body fat? Which would of course lead to higher risk for diabetes.

The report mentions the small study group. I wonder how many, 6??

AAAARRRRGGGGHHHH!! I just hate this kind of medical study.

Hi!

We all know that there are a million and one medical studies out there, one of which can support just about any theory. A few weeks ago there was a study released that said that people who drank in moderation (I assume it meant 1-2 drinks per day max) significantly decreased their chances of developing dementia and other memory conditions in later life.

Well, I can't say for sure if this is true or not, but after several years of college I can say for sure that excessive drinking may result in short term memory loss on Saturday nights!!

I guess it's just best to stick to what you know: eat smart, exercise regularly and enjoy life.

Take care,

KC