New study singles out factors linked to cognitive deficits in type 2 diabetes

ScienceDaily (Sep. 11, 2010) — Older adults with diabetes who have high blood pressure, walk slowly or lose their balance, or believe they're in bad health, are significantly more likely to have weaker memory and slower, more rigid cognitive processing than those without these problems, according to a new study published by the American Psychological Association.

These three health factors stood out from more than a dozen suspected to shape how Type 2 diabetes is frequently shadowed by cognitive impairment, including dementia. An analysis in September's Neuropsychology stresses that although these factors might not actually cause cognitive problems, their presence can warn doctors that such problems may exist or soon develop.

"Awareness of the link between diabetes and cognition could help people realize how important it is to manage this disease--and to motivate them to do so," said co-author Roger Dixon, PhD, of the University of Alberta.

Type 2 diabetes has been found by other researchers to nearly double the risk of dementia and Alzheimer's disease, said Dixon, who studies how health affects cognition in aging. As diabetes becomes more common, this heightened risk could dramatically hike the number of older people with dementia -- a double whammy of serious chronic disease. Among people older than 60, the U.S. prevalence of Type 2 diabetes is more than 23 percent, according to the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive & Kidney Diseases. The Canadian prevalence is nearly 19 percent, according to the Public Health Agency of Canada.

An analysis of older Canadians living in British Columbia -- 41 with Type 2 diabetes (ages 55-81) and 458 matched healthy controls (ages 53-90) -- found that systolic blood pressure (the top number, or maximum pressure on artery walls during a single heartbeat), a low combination score for gait and balance, and a patient's own reports of poor health all played a statistically significant role in the relationship between diabetes and cognitive impairment relationship.

In other words, higher but still normal blood pressure, slower gait and shakier balance, and/or reporting one's self to be in bad health regardless of actual problems boosted the likelihood that someone with Type 2 diabetes had impaired cognition. The relationships were linear: For example, the worse the balance, the higher the likelihood of cognitive problems, as measured by mental speed (reaction time, switching time and perceptual speed), mental control and flexibility (executive functioning), and recall of recent learning (episodic memory).

The results highlight factors that may work indirectly, gradually and cumulatively to make older diabetics more likely to develop dementia. Researchers tested 13 different variables in all, in the areas of general fitness, emotional health, subjective and functional health, and lifestyle activities.

Mediating Factors

Because diabetes and hypertension often go together, Dixon said he was not surprised that high systolic blood pressure accounted for one-third to one-half of significantly worse scores on four tests. That finding, said the authors, suggests that diabetes and cognition may be connected via diabetics' vascular problems. For example, diabetes and hypertension may both play a role in a larger metabolic syndrome that includes high blood sugar and insulin resistance.

However, the other two factors raised new questions. Combined gait and balance had the greatest influence, accounting for between 32 percent and 62 percent of performance on seven cognitive tests. Diabetes might affect the specific nerves that control gait and balance, the authors wrote, or more broadly affect the overlapping brain areas that support both gait-balance and cognition.

Like blood pressure, what people said about their health accounted for about one-third to one-half of performance on five different cognitive tests. Negativity about one's health could reflect related factors such as stress or depression, which did not, in this study, directly mediate between diabetes and cognition. Self-reported health is "an important indicator of ways in which a cluster of health-related beliefs and behaviors can modulate the effect of this disease on cognitive adaptation," Dixon said.

"It's important to pay attention to the health beliefs of older adults, not because they are necessarily accurate or valid indicators of specific health status, but because they might track overall health," Dixon said.

Type 2 diabetes in adults accounts for 90 percent to 95 percent of all diagnosed cases of diabetes, according to the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive & Kidney Diseases.

Story Source:

The above story is reprinted (with editorial adaptations by ScienceDaily staff) from materials provided by American Psychological Association, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.

Journal Reference:

McFall et al. Testing covariates of Type 2 diabetes-cognition associations in older adults: Moderating or mediating effects? Neuropsychology, 2010; 24 (5): 547 DOI: 10.1037/a0019246

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

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How To Improve Circulation - 5 Main Factors To Know For Increasing Poor Blood Circulation

Do you have poor blood circulation? There are many factors that affect the circulation and there are a lot of ways that can help to improve circulation. However, these 5 factors should be a starting point because a lot of people fail to increase poor blood circulation at this point.

As you age, you need to pay more attention to your health, especially on how to improve circulation or prevent the poor blood circulation happens. Blood carries nutrients required by all the organs in the body to function optimally. Many of the health concerns directly or indirectly depend on this circulatory system. Let us examine the 5 main reasons that contribute to this concern.

1. One of the most important factors is your nutrition. It is often seen that with progress and success in life, your food habits begin to suffer. Junk foods and processed readymade eatables replace nutritious foods that supply all the ingredients required by your body to keep all its systems in good shape.

2. Another reason is inadequate intake of water. 8 glasses of water must be consumed daily to keep the system hydrated. Water is a very important medium for transportation of nutrients in the blood. Increasing water consumption can improve circulation.

3. Sedentary lifestyle reduces flexibility of your organs to function at their best. Activity is known to boost their performance which will result in adequate repairs and replacement throughout the body. This also boosts circulatory systems; blood circulation is no exception. Your daily work schedules should include good amount of physical activity. At least, go to the gym regularly for workouts or swim if your job demands more of inactivity.

4. Habits like smoking and excessive alcohol intake interfere with functioning of various organs in the body, especially the lungs and the liver which indirectly affects circulation. Carbon monoxide from smoking damages cells which make up the inner lining of blood vessels. Similarly, reduce intake of tea, coffee, soda and processed drinks.

5. Last, but not the least, keep a constant watch on your body weight. Obesity puts extra pressure on your heart as it has to work harder to pump blood to the body mass. They also have hardened arteries thus impairing circulation.

Everyone should be conscious of above factors and should make it a habit in such a way that we subconsciously keep on working to improve circulation. Even if you are under certain bad blood circulation medication or treatment, making major changes on those factors is needed to make the medication or treatment become more effective.

One way that you can do it faster, but in natural way is by supplementing yourself with enzymes formula. The enzymes formula has been known and proven to help people who want to increase blood circulation faster. Generally, you can pick any brand that is suitable with your condition. But, allow me to introduce to one of the top brands of systemic enzymes, which is called Vitalzym.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=D_Suharsono

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Obesity has doubled since 1980, major global analysis of risk factors reveals

ScienceDaily (Feb. 4, 2011) — The worldwide prevalence of obesity has nearly doubled since 1980, according to a major study on how three important heart disease risk factors have changed across the world over the last three decades. The study, published February 4 in three papers in the Lancet, looked at all available global data to assess how body mass index, blood pressure and cholesterol changed between 1980 and 2008.

The study shows that in 2008, more than one in ten of the world's adult population was obese, with women more likely to be obese than men. An estimated 205 million men and 297 million adult women were obese -- a total of more than half a billion adults worldwide.

The proportion of the world's population with high blood pressure, or uncontrolled hypertension, fell modestly between 1980 and 2008. However, because of population growth and ageing, the number of people with uncontrolled hypertension rose from 600 million in 1980 to nearly 1 billion in 2008. High-income countries achieved large reductions in uncontrolled hypertension, with the most impressive progress seen in women in Australasia and men in North America. Uncontrolled hypertension is defined as a systolic blood pressure higher than 140 mmHg or diastolic blood pressure higher than 90 mmHg.

Average levels of total blood cholesterol fell in Western countries of North America, Australasia and Europe, but increased in East and Southeast Asia and the Pacific region.

Professor Majid Ezzati, the senior author of the study from the School of Public Health at Imperial College London, said: "Our results show that overweight and obesity, high blood pressure and high cholesterol are no longer Western problems or problems of wealthy nations. Their presence has shifted towards low and middle income countries, making them global problems."

Beyond global trends, the studies reveal how different countries compare in terms of each risk factor. The results show that:

BMI:

In 2008, 9.8 per cent of men and 13.8 per cent of women in the world were obese (with a BMI above 30 kg/m2), compared with 4.8 per cent for men and 7.9 per cent for women in 1980.Pacific island nations have the highest average BMI in the world, reaching 34-35 kg/m2, up to 70 per cent higher than some countries in Southeast Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.Among high income countries, USA has the single highest BMI (over 28 kg/m2 for men and women), followed by New Zealand. Japan has the lowest BMI (about 22 kg/m2 for women and 24 kg/m2 for men), followed by Singapore.Among high-income countries, between 1980 and 2008, BMI rose most in USA (by more than 1 kg/m2/decade), followed by New Zealand and Australia for women and followed by UK and Australia for men. Women in a few Western European countries had virtually no rise in BMI.The UK has the sixth highest BMI in Europe for women and ninth highest for men (both around 27 kg/m2).Turkish women and Czech men have the highest BMI in Europe (both around 28 kg/m2). Swiss women had the lowest BMI in Europe (around 24 kg/m2).

Blood pressure:

Systolic blood pressure levels are highest in Baltic and East and West African countries, reaching 135 mmHg for women and 138 mmHg for men. These levels were seen in some Western European countries in the 1980s before their impressive declines.South Korea, Cambodia, Australia, Canada and USA had some of the lowest blood pressures for both men and women, below 120 mmHg for women and below 125 mmHg for men.Among high income countries, Portugal, Finland and Norway have the highest blood pressure.Men had higher blood pressure than women in most world regions.

Cholesterol:

Western European countries like Greenland, Iceland, Andorra, and Germany have the highest cholesterol levels in the world, with mean serum total cholesterols of around 5.5 mmol/L.African countries have the lowest cholesterol, some as low as 4 mmol/L.Among western high-income countries, Greece has the lowest cholesterol for both men and women (below 5 mmol/L). USA, Canada, and Sweden also had low cholesterol.The UK's cholesterol is ninth highest in the world, slightly below 5.5 mmol/L.

The review was carried out by an international collaboration of researchers, led by Professor Majid Ezzati from Imperial College London and co-led by Dr. Goodarz Danaei from the Harvard School of Public Health, in collaboration with The World Health Organization and a number of other institutions.

Professor Ezzati added: "It's heartening that many countries have successfully reduced blood pressure and cholesterol despite rising BMI. Improved screening and treatment probably helped to lower these risk factors in high-income countries, as did using less salt and healthier, unsaturated fats.

"The findings are an opportunity to implement policies that lead to healthier diets, especially lower salt intake, at all levels of economic development, as well as looking at how we improve detection and control through the primary healthcare system. Policies and targets for cardiovascular risk factors should get special attention at the High-level Meeting of the United Nations General Assembly on Non-Communicable Diseases in September 2011."

Dr. Goodarz Danaei, from the Harvard School of Public Health, said: "This is the first time that anyone has tried to estimate trends in these major risk factors in every country in the world. The amount of data we collected is unprecedented and vast, and allows us to draw robust conclusions."

Dr. Gretchen Stevens, from the World Health Organization, said: "Our study helps track the obesity problem in individual countries and regions. We know that changes in diet and in physical activity have contributed to the worldwide rise in obesity, but it remains unclear which policies would effectively reduce obesity. We need to identify, implement, and rigorously evaluate policy interventions aimed at reversing the trends, or limiting their harmful effects."

The work forms part of the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries and Risk Factors Study, which is supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The study also received funding from the World Health Organization (WHO).

Story Source:

The above story is reprinted (with editorial adaptations by ScienceDaily staff) from materials provided by Imperial College London, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.

Journal References:

Mariel M Finucane et al. National, regional, and global trends in body-mass index since 1980: systematic analysis of health examination surveys and epidemiological studies with 960 country-years and 9·1 million participants. The Lancet, 4 February 2011 DOI: 10.1016/S0140-6736(10)62037-5Farshad Farzadfar et al. National, regional, and global trends in serum total cholesterol since 1980: systematic analysis of health examination surveys and epidemiological studies with 321 country-years and 3·0 million participants. The Lancet, 4 February 2011 DOI: 10.1016/S0140-6736(10)62038-7Goodarz Danaei et al. National, regional, and global trends in systolic blood pressure since 1980: systematic analysis of health examination surveys and epidemiological studies with 786 country-years and 5·4 million participants. The Lancet, 4 February 2011 DOI: 10.1016/S0140-6736(10)62036-3

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

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