Got The Night Munchies? Beware Diabetes And Heart Disease

Got the night munchies? Beware diabetes and heart disease

How many of us can honestly say that we've never raided the fridge at 3 a.m., egged on by an uncontrollable hunger for ice-cream? Doing this once or twice is fine, but new research says that if you make this a habit, you could be in trouble.
Late-night snacking is a strange habit, and there are various theories as to why so many of us are inclined to raid our cupboards and fridges past our bedtime. One study has suggested that our craving for certain types of food — those rich in starch, salt, and sugars — late in the evening may be explained by our ancestors' needs.
The study authors explained that early humans did not know when and where their next meal would come from, so binge eating late in the day where possible allowed their bodies to store the energy needed for survival.
But now, our snacks are driven more by pleasure than by necessity, so their effects are much less wholesome. Researchers agree that caving in to your munchies and eating late in the evening leads to negative health outcomes, such as a heightened risk of obesity.
This may not only be tied to the snacks' nutritional value, though; it might also be linked to how our bodies are programmed to work, and how our circadian — or internal — clocks function. Our bodies are adjusted to the natural day-night cycle, and so they tell us when we should eat, sleep, and be active.
If the circadian clock is ignored, health and well-being are also impacted. For instance, it was found that eating outside the normal waking and activity hours may cause excess weight gain.
And now, emerging research from the Nation Continue reading

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Inside Rx: Discounts Available for Insulin and Other Diabetes Medications

By Lynn Kennedy and Helen Gao
Express Scripts recently announced the launch of Inside Rx, a discount prescription program with savings ranging from 16% to nearly 80% for insulin and other diabetes medications
Express Scripts recently announced the launch of Inside Rx, a direct discount program in partnership with GoodRx that will allow some people with diabetes to save on branded insulin and other diabetes medications at nearly 40,000 participating pharmacies in the US or Puerto Rico (excluding Tennessee for now). With average discounts of 34%, the program targets people without insurance or those whose health plans have high out-of-pocket costs (i.e., high deductible plans, large coinsurance, etc.).
The currently available Inside Rx discounts range from 16% to nearly 80% for diabetes medications from four big drug makers: AstraZeneca, Lilly/BI, Novo Nordisk, and Sanofi. The discounts seem to be greater for insulin products (mostly in the 40%-50% range) than for diabetes pills (around 20%-30% off). See below for a full list of diabetes medications currently available for discounted purchase with an Inside Rx card (including Jardiance, Tradjenta, and Onglyza). Note that GLP-1 agonists (e.g., Bydureon, Victoza, Lyxumia, and Trulicity) are not yet included in the program.
Who will likely benefit from Inside Rx discounts? The program is designed to reduce out-of-pocket drug costs. It is targeted at people without insurance and those whose health plans have a significant level of cost-sharing (i.e., high deductible plans).
Who is eligible for Inside Rx discounts? To be eligible, Continue reading

Dietary magnesium tied to lower risk of heart disease and diabetes

A diet rich in magnesium - found in foods like leafy greens, fish, nuts and whole grains - may help lower the risk of chronic health problems like heart disease and diabetes, a research review suggests.
Some previous studies linked insufficient magnesium levels to a greater risk of developing a wide range of health problems including chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), diabetes, Alzheimer's disease, and cardiovascular disease, said lead study author Dr. Xuexian Fang, a nutrition researcher at Zhengzhou University in China.
For the current study, Fang and colleagues analyzed data on dietary magnesium and chronic disease from 40 studies published from 1999 to 2016 on more than one million people across nine countries.
Compared with people who had the lowest levels of magnesium in their diets, people who got the most magnesium were 10 percent less likely to develop heart disease, 12 percent less likely to have a stroke and 26 percent less likely to develop diabetes.
"Magnesium plays an important role in maintaining human health," Fang said by email.
Combined, the studies in the analysis included 7,678 cases of cardiovascular disease, 6,845 cases of coronary heart disease, 701 cases of heart failure, 4,755 cases of stroke, 26,299 cases of type 2 diabetes and 10,983 deaths.
When researchers looked at the effect of increasing dietary magnesium by 100 milligrams a day, they didn't find a statically meaningful impact on the total risk of cardiovascular disease or coronary heart disease.
But they did find that increasing dietary magnesium by this amount was tied to a 22 pe Continue reading

Poor nutrition tied to nearly half of deaths from heart disease, diabetes, stroke

We all know that nutrition impacts health. Researchers of a recent study found 45.4 percent of deaths from heart disease, diabetes and stroke in 2012 were tied to poor diet.
The study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) in March 2017, examined the link between 10 dietary factors and deaths from heart disease and diabetes between 2002 and 2012.
Using data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, researchers found 702,308 adults over 25 years of age died from heart disease, diabetes or stroke in the United States in 2012. Of those adults nearly half of those who died had high sodium intake, had lack of nuts and seeds in their diet, were drinking too many sugar sweetened beverages, consumed low amounts of fruits and vegetables, consumed low seafood omega-3 fats or consumed high processed meats.
Nutrition affects the total body
If the body receives the necessary nutrients from a well-rounded diet, a person can feel more energized, more productive and may have an overall feeling of health and well-being. Gabriela Cora, M.D., D.F.A.P.A., M.H.A., M.B.A., a medical director for Aetna Behavioral Health, equates the body to a Ferrari.
“A Ferrari could run very well, but if you don’t give it the right fuel and you press the accelerator, it’s not going to work very well,” Cora said. “Even if you have the best of cars, its best performance will only happen if you use the right fuel.
“Our bodies work the same way in this respect. To keep them in great shape and optimal performance, we need to feed the right food to them.”
T Continue reading

Here's How Many Heart Disease & Diabetes Deaths Are Linked to Food

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Nearly half of all deaths from heart disease, stroke and type 2 diabetes may be due to diet, a new study finds.
In 2012, 45 percent of deaths from "cardiometabolic disease" — which includes heart disease, stroke and type 2 diabetes — were attributable to the foods people ate, according to the study.
This conclusion came from a model that the researchers developed that incorporated data from several sources: The National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys, which are annual government surveys that provide information on people's dietary intakes; the National Center for Health Statistics, for data on how many people died of certain diseases in a year; and findings from studies and clinical trials linking diet and disease. [7 Foods Your Heart Will Hate]
The researchers found that, in 2012, just over 700,000 people died from a cardiometabolic disease. Of these deaths, nearly 320,000 — or about 45 percent — could be linked to people's diets, according to the study, published today (March 7) in the journal JAMA.
The estimated number of deaths that were linked to not getting enough of certain healthier foods and nutrients was as least as substantial as the number of deaths that were linked to eating too much of certain unhealthy foods, according to the researchers, who were led by Renata Micha, a research assistant professor of nutrition and epidemiology at Tufts University in Boston.
In other words, Americans need to do both: Eat more healthy foods, and less unhealthy food.
The researchers focused their analysis on 10 food groups and nutrients: fruits, vegetable Continue reading