HealthyConcerns.com

The missing link between high fat diets and diabetes

Vegetarians and groups promoting vegetarianism often promote it as a healthier diet, particularly one that results in lower incidences of diseases such as cancer and diabetes.

While there is often statistical survey data to back up those claims, that kind of data is never really enough. One can never be sure that the survey has captured all possible components of a person's lifestyle, nor that they have been truthful. Lastly, it's not always clear what is cause and what is effect.

Researchers at UCSD have, however, found the missing medical link that demonstrates how high-fat diets can lead directly to diabetes. Source: MedGadget.

I hasten to caution: you can find a way to eat a high-fat vegetarian diet. Unfortunately I often find that way...eating too much cheese, mostly. But I'd say the majority of vegetarians, and certainly vegans, are much healthier than I.

It's all a little complicated for me to go into greater detail about, but I thought it was worth pointing out.

Healthy Story: Tracking a child's illness via blog

I discovered on Thursday that one of our BlogHer 2005 team members is going through every parent's nightmare. Her son has leukemia. He was diagnosed on November 24th.

The prognosis is actually good, but the treatment "roadmap" lasts well into 3 years.

Her son, Amaey is only 3 years old.

Although Purvi worked on BlogHer (she created our logo and helped design our signage) she was not, herself a blogger. One of her post-BlogHer "'resolutions" was to start a blog. But I'm pretty sure she didn't want this to be the reason. So here is her blog named after her son, Amaey Shah's Blog.

I'm pretty sure there must be other blogs out there dealing with almost the same thing. Amaey has Type B Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia. If anyone can recommend online blogs or support groups for parents dealing with this I would love to be able to pass that along to Purvi.

She has a huge support network of family and friends, as you'll be able to tell from her blog, but I'm sure connecting to people who know exactly what it's like to be a prent in this situation would be helpful too.

Thanks.

HealthyConcerns is not so healthy

Yes, it's my annual screw-up-your-supposed-vacation-time-by-getting-sick routine, and of course it always starts with other people. If the rest of you out there would just stay healthy, I'm sure I could manage to do my part, m'kay?

I also often find that it starts with children. Doesn't it sometimes seem like children exist to weed out the sickly adults? They blithely run about with their runny noses and intermittent high fevers that would put a grown person down for the count, and they bounce back...while adults are left in their wake battling the same bug for days.

This one started with my S.O. By the time we got home from my folks' home on Christmas evening he was feeling poorly, and starting Monday he became what all grown men become when sick: a big sick baby.

But by last night I understood because I too started succumbing to the creeping crud, the heavy head, the dry cough, the scratchy throat. All that good stuff.

And no, I haven't tried Airborne or Emergen-cee or any of that good stuff.

I do think I'll go have a cup of green tea now, though.

Happy New Year! Woohoo :(

Grand Rounds is up at The Health Care Blog

Matthew Holt from The Health Care Blog hosts this week's Grand Rounds, the final Grand Rounds of the year.

Matthew both kindly links to my post about my colleague with cardac disease, and even more kindly calls me "a young punk." Matthew has even met me in person, so we can't attribute his drastic underestimating of my "youth" to my immature use of words like "dude" and "totally."

Then again, he's probably just sayng I'm a young punk in the medblogging world, since I'm not really in the health industry and don't know whereof I speak!!!

Matthew has collected a year-end "best-of" Grand Rounds for your reading pleasure, so be sure to check it out.

On a lighter note...cool new BabyGadget from MedGadget

Gotta love these new pacifiers from NumiMed. They can take a temperature. They can dispense medicine. It's a dessert topping and a floor wax! OK, not really, but seriously...can I get one for my cat? Not that she would suck on a pacifier, but she might chew on a so-equipped catnip toy. Ah well, I often wish I had a Baby Bjorn for my cat too. She constantly wants to be where I am no matter how much that gets in the way of the keyboard!

Hat tip: MedGadget

Healthy Story: Congenital cardiac disease...one of those deal-breakers.

Had lunch yesterday with a former colleague. Last year quite unexpectedly they discovered that he had some congenital cardiac issues. he had to have angioplasty to unblock some valves, and he had to drastically alter his lifestyle.

Now, this is a guy who is in his late 30's, trim and fit. Eats basically well. Exercises. Young father. Not exactly a candidate for such problems from the look of him.

He brought up a really negative aspect of all of this that I hadn't even thought of: he cannot get life insurance. Well, take it back, he has life insurance through his work (you know, that little $1/month thing that most of us don't even notice?) If he dies his widow will basically get 2 year's salary. But not only can he not up that already existent life insurance any further. He can't get any other life insurance policy.

His doctor is actually going to try to write a supporting notice for him, stating that he is otherwise in excellent health and is doing everything well and is very likely to not have a serious recurrence as long as he keeps up his regular maintenance check-ups.

But he has to face the reality that were he to want to leave this job or were he to be let go, he would not only have trouble getting health care on his own, he wouldn't be able to get life insurance either.

I can understand why a company would decide he wasn't worth the risk, certainly. But just file that away in your mental list of things that suck if you wind up with some hereditary disease.

Healthy Story: Do men's conversations gravitate to health too?

Recently I was at a women's networking dinner. Due to the impending holiday it was going to be a smaller group than usual, so one of the members of the groups hosted it at her home. There were about a dozen of us.

As we went around the room, introducing ourselves, making recommendations and also offering one "ask" (something we could use advice, help or assistance with) I began to notice how often our conversations turned to health issues...

Eveyrthing you ever wanted to know about hiccups

Well, not quite, but here's a podcast from the Health Show about hiccups.

Back when I was young I read a short column in Newsweek Magazine about hiccups. Specifically about a man who got the hiccups one day and couldn't get rid of them for years and years. They had tried everything, even surgery. He was at the point where he couldn't keep down solid food and was on a liquid diet.

Yes, I believe there are some things you can be just too young to read. (Portnoy's Complaint would be my other personal example, )

Anyway, ever since then I get extremely apprehensive every time I get the hiccups. LIke this will be the time they never go away. About 20 years ago a friend taught me a sure-fire way to cure the hiccups...in others and in oneself. That makes me feel better (and certainly impresses friends and strangers alike.) But I confess I continue to remember that article every time I get the hiccups.

I digress, but listen to the podcast about hiccups if you are similarly obsessed.

More Carnivals: The ThirdAge Carnival

I thought my post on the latest en vogue, ahem, cosmetic surgery procedure would be something that held interest outside the medical community. (Gee, it's about sex and female body parts...ya think?)

So I also submitted it to the ThirdAge Carnival, a Carnival that highlights blogs about health and wellness, business and career, relationships and sex...all from the perspective of those of us who have passed the age of 40.

Jennifer from Jennifer Inc kindly linked to the post in this week's Carnival.

There are several other posts about health and wellness issues, including one defining the waarning signs of Alzheimer's, but there are also posts off the MedBlogging beaten path.

Check it out.

Grand Rounds is up at MedPundit

Did you know that there are "literary medbloggers"? Well, there are. These are medbloggers who turn their daily experiences in the medical profession into short works of fiction. So many medbloggers have to remain anonymous (especially if they're going to talk about patient interactions) so it's not a very long step to literary medblogging, I suppose.

MedPundit kicks off this week's Grand Rounds (or Carnival of the Caregivers) with a series of entries from the literary MedBloggers, who all got together and decided to each write a piece that starts "It was a dark and stormy night..."

If you're not familiar with this genre of blogging, this is the perfect opportunity to dive in.

MedPundit also kindly links to my horrified post about the latest in plastic surgery: re-hymenization.

Check out this week's Grand Rounds.