Diabetes is a growing concern all over the world. Studies have shown that more than 230 million people worldwide are affected by it. In the Philippines, 3.4 million people are afflicted with diabetes, half of whom are below 19 years of age, and one out of 10 persons will die of the disorder.

Novo Nordisk, a leader in diabetes care and research, aims to constantly provide better information, products and services. The company, under the leadership of country manager Rex Laroza, has launched the Changing Diabetes program with a three-pronged agenda focusing on education, services and products in cooperation with Diabetes Philippines, as headed by Dr. Tommy Ty-Willing. Novo Nordisk Philippines sponsored a seminar to educate the layman about the disorder.

At the forum, the country’s most popular diabetic, Gary Valenciano, said, “These days, diabetes hits people younger and younger. There is a need for education, especially (among) those who are from the provinces who don’t get the proper diagnosis.”

Experts also came together to better educate the public on healthy living lifestyles. One of the country’s leading endocrinologists, Dr. Richard Elwyn Fernando, spoke about the risk of supplements. Renowned nutritionist Imelda Cardino discussed how to lower glycemic index, and sports nutritionist Sanirose Orbeta spoke about the dangers of fad diets.

Detection and risk

Although diabetes can afflict anyone, people with the greatest risk are those with a family history of the disorder. Asians are also more predisposed to getting the disorder. According to the Diabetes Federation, the growing number of diabetes can be attributed to the change in today’s lifestyle — the proliferation of sugar-rich and fatty food in the market as well as a promotion of a sedentary lifestyle.

Contributing to that are people who lack exercise, have an unhealthy diet and are overweight. Should anyone fall under these categories, one should be on the watch for the following warning signs: Frequent urination, weight loss, lack of energy, tiredness, lack of interest and concentration, vomiting and stomach pain, a tingling or numbness in the hands and feet, blurred vision and slow-healing wounds, as well as excessive thirst.

If any combination of these signs is observed, one should get a blood sugar test to determine the possibility of the disorder. It is not a lost cause, however, for people who are classified high-risk. Prevention efforts can delay or avoid the onset of type 2 diabetes.

Risk reduction

Novo Nordisk, along with Dr. Ty-Willing, has been teaching people to lower the risk for diabetes, as well as educate diabetes sufferers on a healthy living lifestyle. Dr. Ty-Willing has even devised the three Ks to avoid: katabaan, katamaran, katakawan.

To reduce one’s risk for the disorder, one should maintain a healthy diet, eat in moderation and adopt a healthy exercise habit like brisk walking, dancing, swimming and cycling. Thirty minutes of these aerobic exercises a day can reduce diabetes risk up to 40 percent.

Dr. Fernando discussed risk of replacing medication with dietary supplements being sold in the market. He stressed on the fact that these supplements do not heal, cure or prevent any disorder or disease. Particularly, these “herbal supplements” can only lower the blood sugar levels by 10 units — not enough to manage the disorder.

Dr. Ty-Willing further clarified the “no therapeutic claim” by translating in Filipino as “ang produktong ito ay hindi nakakagamot ng anumang klaseng sakit.” He stressed that the supplement companies were granted licenses to produce food supplements only, not medication. He stressed the need for discernment with the purchase and usage of these supplements, as well as the generic medicine available.

To solidify his point, Dr. Ty-Willing further said that to control the disorder, oral anti-diabetics are virtually useless. In fact, taking this type of medication further leads to destruction of beta-cells — the insulin producing cell in the pancreas.

Deadly diet

Sports nutritionist Sanirose Orbeta discussed the fad diets as part of the discussion of healthy living. She stresses that these fad diets wreak havoc to the body and can cause more harm than good. In fact, she will never prescribe these fad diets to diabetes-afflicted people because studies have shown rapid weight lost with fad diets are purely water loss. The loss of water can cause dehydration and damage to the kidney, heart and liver.

The ideal diet for diabetics is to have a mixed diet that is limited to 1,500 calories a day. She explained that carbohydrates are the food of the pancreas and too much protein wreak havoc to insulin production. As a result, meals should always be planned to have 25 percent carbohydrates, moderate fat and less protein. To safely measure protein consumption, she stresses that the portion of meat should not exceed the size of one’s palm.

Orbeta strongly suggested that one can achieve proper weight loss and maintenance with a good diet by simply restricting overall calorie intake. She ended her talk by saying, “All food can fit in (your diet) in moderation. If you eat less and move more, you will live longer.”

Changing diabetes

The necessity for Modern Insulin is high globally, most prevalently in Europe and America. Comparatively, our country has yet to increase awareness on the advantages of this and improve utilization. Few understand and realize that treatment today is as simple as clicking an instrument such as NovoNordisk’s Flexpen.

Today, Novo Nordisk offers the most complete line of diabetes products available. Dependable modern insulin therapies such as Levemir, NovoMix 30 and Novorapid. Levemir is the latest modern basal insulin analog in the market launched last year, which offers a 24-hour basal insulin and a proven better-safety profile. Novo Nordisk also offers insulatard and mixtard in novolets and vials.

With their unending commitment to make a difference, Novo Nordisk supported a local Philippine trial called Fact and Safe trial to further establish the safety and efficacy of modern insulin among Filipinos.

Novo Nordisk as the world’s leading manufacturer of Insulin focusing on R&D in diabetes care. The company develops products such as the Flexpen and Novofine needles that reduce, and sometimes eliminate, the pain of injection. With products like these, the fear of diabetes treatment is reduced to a level where insulin injection is not feared, but welcomed. The Daily Tribune

Sporting spiked hair and silver earrings, Samuel Tay hardly looks like a typical midwife.

The 25-year-old zookeeper beams with quiet pride as he watches over his “babies” — row upon row of snakes bred for Singapore’s popular zoo.

“These are my kids. Why do I need kids when I have so many already?” he asked, gesturing to tanks where newborn reptiles, including some from highly endangered species, receive tender loving care.

From jaguars and chimpanzees to Komodo dragons and manatees, heavily urbanized Singapore is gaining a reputation as a successful nursery for some of the world’s rarest animals.

With a breeding program for 315 species, around one in six of which are threatened, the Singapore Zoo is seeing a steady stream of locally born additions to its collection, currently numbering more than 2,500 animals.

Tay, a zoologist by training, is one of Singapore’s frontline warriors in the battle against animal extinction, and visitors from around the world help fund the campaign.

The Singapore Zoo and its attached Night Safari, dedicated to nocturnal animals, each welcomes more than 1 million visitors a year.

Last year, 142 animals were born in the zoo, 32 of which were threatened species, officials said.

Experts from Wildlife Reserves Singapore, the operator of the city-state’s zoo, night safari and bird park, do not rely on Mother Nature for results.

“We are very pragmatic, in the sense that if we need to make things happen, we will go all out to make things happen,” the group’s assistant director of zoology, Biswajit Guha, said.

The latest star of the program is a baby Komodo dragon hatched last month — the first born in an Asian zoo outside the giant lizard’s native Indonesia.

The hatchling was the culmination of three years of effort by zookeepers watching over every step of its parents’ courtship and mating to make sure everything went as planned, Tay said.

“It’s always supervised contact, we never leave them alone together,” he said.

This interventionist approach is extended to other creatures at Singapore’s wildlife attractions, including the Jurong Bird Park, another major tourist draw.

“We don’t take a wait-and-see approach. We will give it a certain amount of time for the animals to decide for themselves if they do want to mate, but if things don’t go right, then we usually come in,” Guha said.

Aside from making enclosures look and feel like native habitats, cutting-edge technology and scientific methods are deployed to make sure animals mate with the best possible partners at the most opportune time.

They include matching viable females with genetically superior males using semen analysis and monitoring the females’ fertility cycles through regular ultrasound tests — something that not all zoos can afford to do.

“Diagnostic facilities are not cheap,” senior veterinarian Abraham Mathew said. “You need the manpower and you need the expertise to do this. All zoos actually want to do this type of work, but whether they can do it or not would depend on their management.”

A mobile ultrasound machine used by the zoo costs about S$20,000 (US$14,200) and includes an expensive probe that allows veterinarians to accurately check female animals’ fertility out in the field.

Such resources have helped make the city state a breeding hub for threatened animals, Guha said.

Zoo staff hope a pair of pandas to be loaned by China will produce offspring in the coming years.

“For us, captive populations form an insurance population, so it is our objective to make sure that there are sustainable numbers in captivity,” Guha said. Taipei Times

As days passes by, we have witnessed some of new computer technologies emerging, taking shape and literally transforming our entire world information technology. Almost all discoveries are made on a daily basis in all areas of computer technology. And what about you guys, haven’t decided yet, to finally purchase a laptop as a backup PC, a traveling companion, and occasional gaming rig? Well, Acer Aspire seemed to corner the market on the technology of touch screens. It allows your finger to just float on top of the screen while a simple and light tap is effective enough to start up a program, go to an internet or just play around the portal.

Suddenly, they’re everywhere: in your pasta, your peanut butter, your baby’s formula. Omega-3 fatty acids have been known to doctors since the 1930s. But their recent bump in popularity stems from a 2004 ruling by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) that labels could say foods containing omega-3s may reduce the risk of one form of heart disease. That ruling, coupled with “heavy marketing,” said Veda Woodland, a healthy eating specialist at Whole Foods Market, has made omega-3s the darling of the supplement world.

The FDA Web site recommends that people do not exceed three grams a day. “If you consume two servings of fish a week, you would reach a good level of omega-3,” said Benjamin Caballero, a professor at the John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. “If you don’t like fish, there are many other sources,” including kale, walnuts and flaxseed.

And too much of a good thing can be bad: Omega-3s thin the blood, according to Caballero, and should not be used by stroke patients. By Melissa Bell, Syracuse

SINCE CHIPS and soda from vending machines are hardly staples of a healthy diet, Massachusetts can take a step to improve children’s nutrition by setting health standards for snacks and beverages sold in schools. Heavy in sugar, fat, and salt, these items often compete with cafeteria lunches and set young people on course for a witches’ brew of future illnesses, from diabetes to high blood pressure and heart disease. The state House of Representatives should approve a bill directing the state Department of Public Health to set standards that, in effect, would push schools to sell healthy snacks instead of junk food.

The state standards would follow 2007 guidelines from the Institute of Medicine, a scientific panel that advises the federal government. It called for replacing soda with water, juice, and low-fat or skim milk; offering snacks with lower fat and sugar, and making fresh fruits and vegetables available to students. The House bill would also encourage schools to sell fresh foods from local farmers. It establishes a governor’s commission to develop a coordinated statewide plan to tackle childhood obesity.

The bill has been before the Legislature at least twice in the past. But opposition from the beverage industry has kept it from reaching the House floor until now. House leaders should be commended for withstanding the pressure.

The risk of inaction is made clear in a report this month on high cholesterol in children by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Researchers found that one in five children has dangerously high cholesterol, a risk factor in heart disease. In obese children, 43 percent had high cholesterol. In Massachusetts, 26 percent of high school students are overweight or obese, and the rate of obesity among the state’s children has doubled in the past decade.

Poor nutrition is just one factor in the growing problem of childhood obesity. But cracking down on the junk food children use to supplement or replace their school lunches is a no-brainer step in the right direction. The Boston Globe

Intense, prolonged exercise can lead to an enlarging of the heart as the heart adapts to meet the body’s demand for additional oxygen. This change, commonly known as athlete’s heart, is not life-threatening. But athlete’s heart can be difficult to distinguish from potentially life-threatening disorders.

CAUSES OF SUDDEN CARDIAC DEATH

The causes of sudden cardiac death in people under 35 vary. Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) is the most common cause of sudden death in athletes. It affects one in about every 500 people and often goes unnoticed. This is a disease in which the heart muscle becomes abnormally large and thick, making it harder for the heart to pump blood. Other causes of sudden cardiac death stem from coronary artery abnormalities and heart rhythm disorders.

DIAGNOSIS

A doctor may suspect HCM if he hears a murmur when listening to the heart. An echocardiogram is the most common test to diagnose HCM.

TREATMENT FOR ENLARGED HEARTS

Treatment is aimed at correcting the underlying cause and can include medications, medical procedures or surgery.

SOURCES: UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO, MAYO CLINIC, MERCK, ANATOMICA: THE COMPLETE HOME MEDICAL REFERENCE, MEDTRONIC

TESTING IN THE NFL

The NFL’s collective bargaining agreement has a standard minimum preseason physical. It includes:

•*A complete physical exam

•*A complete medical history, including family history, testing of blood, urine, blood pressure and heart rate

•*An EKG (electrocardiography), a non-invasive recording of the heart’s electrical signals. The test costs about $50.

Echocardiograms, which are required by the NBA, are done on a need basis in the NFL. This test is an ultrasound of a heart to gauge size and valve function and costs from $2,000 to $3,500. Chicago Sun-Times

The women were representatives of Ching Hai, the leader of a group that advocates adherence to Buddhist precepts, including following vegan or vegetarian diets.

As they lined up for hours in freezing conditions, many of the delegates seemed grateful for the neatly wrapped snacks — meat-free sandwiches — that the women were handing out free.

Followers of Ching Hai say that one of her principal goals is to fight environmental disasters, and her representatives in Copenhagen appeared eager to spread the message that methane, which is belched in large quantities by cows and other livestock raised for the meat and dairy industries, is among the most potent planet-warming gases.

But the virtues of vegetarianism as part of the battle to curb climate change are far from being an issue just for the spiritually inclined.

Long before the summit meeting in Copenhagen, rising demand for meat and dairy products, particularly among the burgeoning middle classes in countries like China and India with fast-developing economies, meant that links between climate change and food policy were becoming an important element in the debate over what to do about the rising levels of greenhouse gases.

The issue appeared to have gained traction in the weeks leading up to the Copenhagen conference, with prominent figures from the worlds of science and entertainment stepping into the fray.

Speaking at the European Parliament in early December, Paul McCartney, a former member of the Beatles, said there was an urgent need to do something about meat production, not only because of its effects on the climate but also because of related issues like deforestation and ensuring secure supplies of water.

Mr. McCartney, who has long advocated vegetarianism, urged European legislators to support policies like encouraging citizens to refrain from eating meat for one day a week, something that he said could become as commonplace as recycling or cars that run on hybrid technology.

Civil servants in the Belgian city of Ghent and schoolchildren in Baltimore already observe a meat-free day each week, he said.

Mr. McCartney was joined at the parliament by Rajendra Pachauri, the chairman of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which is the main United Nations body studying the climate.

Public awareness of the problems linked to meat is low, and the authorities might have to consider levying a surcharge on beef to discourage consumption, Mr. Pachauri said in comments reported by Agence France-Presse.

Meat farmers immediately branded the comments as an assault on the industry, and criticism came from as far away as New Zealand.

“Cutting out meat one day a week might seem a simple solution, but there is little evidence to show any benefit,” Rod Slater, the chief executive of Beef and Lamb New Zealand, told the country’s press association.

“Suggesting meat’s not green is an emotive slur on an industry which continues investment in ongoing research, striving for further improvements,” added Mr. Slater, who said people living in New Zealand obtained daily nutritional necessities, and most of their protein, zinc and vitamin B12, from beef and lamb.

In fact, like a number of other areas of research in climate science, the greenhouse gas intensity of meat production is contested.

When a study in the November-December issue of the magazine World Watch claimed more than half of human-produced, planet-warming gases were caused by meat industries, a research group for the livestock industry countered that a study by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization already had shown that the relevant figure was closer to 18 percent.

The study published in World Watch failed “to enlarge on any counterfactuals, such as what a world without domesticated livestock would look like,” Carlos Seré, the director general of the International Livestock Research Institute in Nairobi, wrote to Green Inc. in November.

“Would, for example, wild herbivores and termite mounds take over many of these environments, and end up producing as much greenhouse gases as domestic ruminants?” Mr. Seré asked. “We frankly don’t, and can’t, know that yet.”

Certainly the issue may be more nuanced than some commentators have suggested.

For example, cattle fed on grass may have much lower carbon footprints than those fed in feedlots because animals in pasture lands require fewer fossil fuel-based inputs like fertilizers and because they help the soil sequester carbon.

Renewed efforts are under way to get to the bottom of the matter.

Early this month, the Paris-based World Organization for Animal Health said it would study the effect of meat output on climate change in light of requests from its member countries.

“It’s a question that needs to be studied with a lot of distance,” Bernard Vallat, the organization’s director-general, told a news conference, according to Reuters. “We want to make a modest and independent contribution,” he said.

Mr. Vallet said that one of the thorniest issues was how to involve agriculture in efforts to reduce gases while maintaining food security.

Mr. Seré, of the livestock research institute, acknowledged the need to develop a form of livestock production between factory and family farming that would ease poverty without depleting natural resources or hurting the climate.

He said environmental campaigners should keep in mind that the “biggest concern of many experts regarding livestock in developing countries is not their impact on climate change but rather the impact of climate change on livestock production.”

The “hotter and more extreme tropical environments being predicted threaten not only up to a billion livelihoods based on livestock but also supplies of milk, meat and eggs among hungry communities that need these nourishing foods most,” he said. By James Kanter, The New York Times