Tradjenta Approved for Type 2 Diabetes

Tradjenta (linagliptin) tablets, combined with diet and exercise, has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to control blood sugar in people with type 2 diabetes, the agency said Monday.

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People with type 2 diabetes don't produce the pancreatic hormone insulin, or don't respond to it properly. Insulin helps control the levels of sugar (glucose) in a person's blood. People with too much blood sugar at are risk of serious complications including heart disease, blindness, kidney damage, and nerve damage, the FDA said in a news release.

Type 2 diabetes is the disease's most common form, affecting up to 95 percent of the estimated 24 million people with diabetes in the United States, the FDA said.

Tradjenta boosts hormones that stimulate the release of insulin after a person eats. The drug was evaluated in clinical trials involving 3,800 people with type 2 diabetes. The most common adverse reactions reported included upper respiratory infection, stuffy nose, sore throat, muscle pain and headache.

Tradjenta should not be used by people with type 1 diabetes or by those who have above-normal levels of ketones in their blood or urine, the agency advised.

The drug is co-marketed by Ridgefield, Conn.-based Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals and Indianapolis-based Eli Lilly and Co.

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Illinois to Ban Artificial Trans Fat

Lawmakers in Illinois are pushing a bill that would ban artificial trans fat from restaurants, bakeries, movie theater popcorn and snacks sold in school vending machines.
Illinois would be the second state after California to pass a trans fat ban.


Source: msnbc.com

Kids Unbuckling Themselves

When my son was a little under 2 years of age, he started unbuckling his car seat restraints. It was so stressful! He could not understand the danger of that. He thought it was naughty and funny. Unfortunately the car seat manufacturer, Graco, did not have any provisions for that. Instead, they recommended me to tell my kid that it was dangerous...duhh! According to a recent study more than 40 percent of children who are able to unbuckle the restraints are doing so while the car is moving.
The study shows that "young children might acquire the motor skills to unbuckle from restraints before developing the cognitive ability to understand the necessity of automotive restraints."
As a solution we replaced our car seat with a Sunshine Radian.
Have you had this problem?


Source: msnbc.com

Rethinking Tilapia

Farmed tilapia is promoted as good for your health and for the environment at a time when many marine stocks have been seriously depleted.  But tilapia has both nutritional and environmental drawbacks.

Compared with other fish, farmed tilapia contains relatively small amounts of beneficial omega-3 fatty acids, the fish oils that are the main reasons doctors recommend eating fish frequently; salmon has more than 10 times the amount of tilapia. Also, farmed tilapia contains a less healthful mix of fatty acids because the fish are fed corn and soy instead of lake plants and algae, the diet of wild tilapia. In farmed tilapia, raised largely on corn and soy, omega-3 levels depend on how much fish meal or fish oil the farm’s breeders mix in. While most fish species need a good helping of these fatty acids to grow, herbivorous tilapia grow decently with little or none. And there are compelling reasons to skimp on fish meal or oil additives: they are costly and create more pollution.

Environmentalists argue that intensive and unregulated tilapia farming is damaging ecosystems in poor countries with practices generally prohibited in the United States — like breeding huge numbers of fish in cages in natural lakes, where fish waste pollutes the water. “We wouldn’t allow tilapia to be farmed in the United States the way they are farmed here, so why are we willing to eat them?” said Dr. Jeffrey McCrary, an American fish biologist who works in Nicaragua. “We are exporting the environmental damage caused by our appetites.”

Fish farms may not use prophylactic antibiotics. But even the new rules allow for some practices considered unacceptable in the United States, where cage farming in lakes is generally forbidden. In many states, tilapia must be housed in specially designed pens with roofs to prevent birds from carrying the fish elsewhere; their waste is often collected to use as fertilizer rather than released. Also, the new standards allow for baby fish to be fedtestosterone even though markets like Whole Foods will not buy hormone-treated seafood.

Source: NYTimes.com

Cycle for a healthy life

According to a recent study conducted by the Columbia Asia Hospitals among corporate professionals, 33 per cent of people between the age groups of 21 and 30, and over 50 per cent of people between 31 and 40 years of age were reported to have abnormal cholesterol levels. The

primary reason for this abnormality is attributed to increased stress

levels, unhealthy lifestyle and negligible focus on exercise regimes.

Fast paced life along with a hectic schedule has resulted in physical fitness taking a backseat. Urban India is fast becoming obese. One of the easier and cost effective solutions is cycling, which is a great form of exercise that can be easily integrated in our daily routine. Keeping this in mind and to spread the message of healthy living, Columbia Asia Hospitals, organised a cycling event titled ‘Tour De Fitness 2011’ on Sunday.

The event was flagged off by Transport Commissioner and cycling enthusiast, Bhaskar Rao and renowned athlete, Reeth Abraham. The event began from Kanteerva Stadium and culminated at Columbia Asia Referral Hospital, Yeshwanthpur.

More than 1,000 people from different organisations, professional cycling associations, as well as amateurs participated in this event. Adding to the fun element of the event, participants were also given a chance to win special prizes which were handed out during the event.

Anunay Sinha from Ranchi, who has shifted recently to Bangalore, participated in the event. He said, “I hardly get time to exercise due to hectic work schedule. Such events emphasise the importance of healthy living and make people to sit up and take notice. ”

Speaking on the occasion, Tufan Ghosh, CEO, Columbia Asia Hospitals, said, “We, at Columbia Asia are committed towards building a healthy society and this is a small effort in this direction. We are pleased that Bangaloreans participated in large numbers and took a pledge to lead a healthy lifestyle.”

“The rigours of a fast-paced lifestyle manifest itself into a number of lifestyle diseases. Fitness has taken a backseat triggering multiple health issues.” said Jairam, Group Medical Director and Chairman of Columbia Asia Hospitals.

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Family meals benefit health of children

A study in the journal Pediatrics finds that children and adolescents who share meals with their families at least three times per week are less likely to be overweight, eat unhealthy foods or be at risk for eating disorders.

"It tells parents what they can do to help in those nutritional issues with their children," said lead study author Amber Hammons, Ph.D., of the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign.

"We understand that parents are really busy, and that's definitely one of the biggest problems that's cited by parents- that it's just so difficult to manage time to prepare it and then to get all the family members to be present," she said. "What this study is suggesting is that sitting down for three meals out of the week tends to show this significant benefit." The researchers examined 17 previous studies, which involved 182,836 children aged 2 to 17. Their findings reinforced the recommendation by the American Academy of Pediatrics, as part of its campaign to prevent childhood obesity.

The researchers found that three or more family meals per week were associated with a 12% reduction in the odds for being overweight, a 20% drop in the odds of eating unhealthy foods regularly and a 35% reduction in disordered eating- including purging, the use of diet pills, skipping meals or the use of smoking cigarettes as a way to control weight.

Unhealthy foods included soda, fast food, fried food and sweets or candy.

In addition, the kids were 24% more likely to eat healthy foods like fruits and vegetables, breakfast and also more likely to take a multivitamin.

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Sunday and the week is fine

Now that I have cut my drinking in half, I must find a way of ordering a soft drink or juice, or avoid the drinking places in town all together. Then I have to find a way of doing something else on the way back from town. Hard to read, so perhaps I can catch up on my computer work or watch a movie on the way back. Sometimes it just may be enough to hear my music on my MP3 player. 

"Neither a wise man nor a brave man lies down on the tracks of

history to wait for the train of the future to run over him."

In town I need information from Noelani Hernandez, Honolulu Salsa, Al Franz Studio, Dream To Dance Sudios and Arthur Murray studios to inform the probable reader/dancers of this blog. And we are not talking flyers. Those are dime a dozen and we get 10000 copies every day. For some people they may be good information but not for blog readers.

Our blog readers can spot advertising and turn us off immediately if not sooner. They expect us to be social and that means information. We need more hits. Why? Simply, because we need to know if we are not just beating our gums.

"42nd Street" By Geoff Lowe

Dancing?
From The Dancing News, 2009

People dance, as they have always danced to celebrate good news and have fun. They have danced to honor a guest, pay court to someone powerful or simply to demonstrate their social standing. They danced to exhibit the best and most beautiful of their community. They danced to express their individuality and for physical contact with the opposite sex.

As a spectacle, dance can be arousing whether by a European style Waltz or by a wild Latin Cha Cha Cha. Performed alone, dance is both a physical and emotional form of release. You can imagine two senior dancers after a good Cha Cha Cha, huffing and puffing. “Wasn’t that fun?” Dance has been used in all these ways for thousands of years. It has always been an enjoyable thing to do.

"Happiness is ..." By Ray Coniff

Slop Dancer: Old term used by the Rootzi Tootzis for the Social or “Universal” dancer. One who includes in his dancing not only the standards from other disciplines but also some exhibition, non-standard and Mickey Mouse patterns as long as they are easily led.

So it becomes apparent that the term is applied only to men. In some extreme cases the term used is "Junk Dancer." The man is just not dancing "correctly." In some disciplines the dancers are advised to keep away from dancing with these people. You can pick up some bad habits.

These are the Rootzi Tootzies. These men and women in the Universal group will have to find places where they can dance their style with all the freedom of the world. Many are beginning to understand their position and accept the kind of dancing they want to do. As long as the ladies can follow and most of the ladies are just the berries, we can all have a lot of fun. I see it everyday.