INTERNATIONAL: DIABETES
Cause: Insulin, produced in the pancreas, helps blood sugar get into cells, which use it for energy. If the body can’t produce or use insulin effectively to prevent a buildup of sugar in the blood, diabetes results. Pre-diabetes is when blood sugar levels rise to higher than normal, but not high enough to be called diabetes.

Diabetes comes in two major forms:

Type 1, an autoimmune disease, result in losing insulin-producing cells in the pancreas, usually in children and young adults, who need daily insulin shots, and
Type 2, which is 90% of diabetes, and is associated with obesity, inactivity, and reduces ability use insulin effectively.If body size increases, the pancreas churns out more insulin. Eventually, it can’t keep up with demand and sugar levels build up in blood.

Result: sugar levels in blood clog vessels the way gummy oil clogs car engines, reducing circulation that affects the body from brain to feet. Diabetes doesn’t kill, but uncontrolled diabetes causes heart disease risk, damages kidneys, eyes and nerves and can lead to blindness, amputated limbs, kidney failure and dialysis, nerve failure and amputated limbs, increased infection, death.

Treatment: In 1993 it became clear that lowering blood sugar prevented or delayed complications, and in the past decade doctors learned managing blood pressure and cholesterol reduced complications. Treatments improve and decrease incidence of people blind, losing limbs or in dialysis. By reducing high blood pressure and cholesterol and keeping blood sugar levels as close to normal as possible, diabetics can forestall many disabling complications. Simpler, more accurate blood tests and better drugs have improved treatment, says John Buse, endocrinologist at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, but soaring rates of diabetes threaten to overwhelm medical systems.

Reasons for improved treatment:
a. more awareness led to more screening and earlier diagnosis
b. Now there are six types and several classes of drugs. Some boost insulin production, others reduce need for more insulin or lower risk of complications, others act to keep blood sugar levels steady without causing weight gain or hypoglycemia
c. High-tech meters and monitors measuring blood sugar, and insulin pens, pumps and jets, facilitate tighter control. Injected insulin is now so easy that inhaled insulin was pulled from shelves for poor sales.
d. Early, intensive treatment helps. Diet and exercise consistently.
Well-informed patients are highly motivated and treatments ‘so well tolerated that avoidance of complications is a reasonable expectation,’ says Buse.

Five YMCAs in Indianapolis pilot an Indiana University (IU) program to prevent or delay diabetes in people with pre-diabetes. They have 16-week classes for groups of 10-12 people to implement lessons learned from the Diabetes Prevention Program (DPP) published in 2002, which stated people with pre-diabetes can reduce risk of developing diabetes if they reduce body weight by 5-10% and exercise 30 minutes a day. People can head off risk if they’re heavy and inactive—they can control weight. Obesity affects type-2 diabetes because the body’s demand for insulin increases beyond supply, says American Diabetes Association endocrinologist John Buse.

Most people with diabetes-2 have the body of a SUV but the pancreas of a small sedan. Buse says if they shrink their frame, their pancreas will be fine. By getting fit, losing weight and reducing stress, people can use insulin more efficiently and they’ll feel the difference. ‘I have patients tell me that they believe they’re healthier for having been diagnosed with diabetes. If they hadn’t been slapped in the face, they’d never have taken control, reduced their weight and increased their exercise.’ They recommend exercise, eating chicken and fish rather than red meat, writing down what you eat.
Prospects: IU diabetes researcher David Marrero, who helped develop the pre-diabetes program, says ‘it’s better to catch the horse before it gets out of the barn. Diabetes is reaching epidemic proportions’ and the people with pre-diabetes are 3-4 times those with frank diabetes diagnosis. Meanwhile, diabetes-2 now inflicts about 250 million people worldwide—by 2025, 380 million. Blacks, Latinos and Asians have higher genetic risk of diabetes than do whites. Increasing fatty diets in those communities, with resulting obesity (says Judith Fradkin, director of the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases at the National Institutes of Health) helped trigger a diabetes explosion now killing 3.8 million per year, almost as many as malaria and AIDS combined. We must change behavior, as we did for smoking, or we’ll have a society of fatter, sicker people. The problem will ‘get worse before it gets better’, says Ann Albright, director of Center of Disease Control’s diabetes division, while policies are made and people ‘access new technologies and diabetes education.’

You don’t have to only drink water and eat toothpicks the rest of your life. Just choose food more healthfully. Only half your calories should be from carbohydrates, which appear in whole grains, vegetables, fruits, desserts, other sweets, so it’s wiser to spend this on vegetables and fruits rich in fiber, vitamins and other nutrients, says registered dietitian and exercise physiologist Ann Albright, hed of diabetes divisuion of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and president of Healthcare and Education for American Diabetes Association (diabetes.org). They suggest ‘rate your plate’ when you sit to eat: draw an imaginary line through the center of your plate, and divide one section in two. One quarter is for grains: brown rice, whole-wheat noodles, etc. One quarter is for protein—lean meats (examples, pork loin, sirloin), fish (twice or thrice a week), poultry (remove the skin from chicken or turkey), beans, tofu, etc. Half the plate should be vegetables picked from a rainbow of colors, and include non-starches like spinach, carrots, broccoli, green beans. You can add non-fat milk and a small whole-grain roll or piece of fruit. See recipe.

Sheri Colberg, associate professor of exercise science at Old Dominion University at Norfolk, Virginia, and co-author with endocrinologist Steven Edelman of Fifty Secrets of the World’s Longest Living People with Diabetes, says ‘these peole have gone…to the point of embracing diabetes’, saying, ‘“Diabetes saved my life. I look around and see people so unhealthy, and I’m healthy.”’ She says heeding that wake-up call is crucial, or diabetes can shorten life by twelve years and complications can reduce life’s quality for the last twenty years of life. Now, people can get a diabetes reading in seconds, new insulin pumps work with glucose meters to allow on-spot adjustments and tighter control of sugar levels. Learn about diabetes and share information. Exercise. Be physically active, on the go, or have a structured exercise program. Eat well and in moderation.

USA: Docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and eicosatentaenoic acid (EPA) are two omega-3 heart-healthy fats helping prevent heart attacks, and are most often found in fish or pill supplements. Sometimes companies claim milk, eggs, yogurt, cereal, orange juice, butter substitutes, mayonnaise and other products help, but these contain OTHER omega-3 fats less heart-healthy. American Dietic Association registered dietitian Katherine Tallmadge says they make huge claims for tiny benefits. Center for Science in the Public Interest nutritionist Bonnie Liebman reviewed omega-3 food claims and published results in a recent cspinet.org article. She says the advertisements mislead consumers. For instance, a carton of yogurt has less DHA than a teaspoon of salmon, and a bottle of mayonnaise has another omega-3 fat, alpha-linolenic acid (ALA), and ALA increases prostate-cancer risk. So if product packaging says omega-3 but doesn’t say DHA or EPA, it’s probably ALA and you get that better from walnuts, ground flaxseeds and tofu. Studies suggest you need 500 milligrams a day of DHA or EPA, and you’ll get that by eating fatty fish twice weekly. Patients with coronary heart disease should double the dosage, says the American Heart Association.

Looking back at his presidency (1989-1993), he’s especially proud of:
1. ‘The Gulf War was very significant, vey important, b ut in terms of history, the coming down of the wall and the reunification of German was bigger.’
2. ‘My claw mitt. I’m a left-hander….glove I used to take the Yale team all the way to the first College World Series final and the second.’
3. Clarence Thomas’ appointment to the Supreme Court, ‘of which I’m very, very proud.’
4. His exit from the presidency: ‘My view…you’re fortunate to be elected president, and when you’re finished you ought to go—get out….And that’s what I’ve done—leave…it to somebody else….I’ve had my chance. Did my best. Came home.’
Presidential historian Rober Dalleksays, ‘Historians, I believe, will say he made a wise judgment on what could be expected if we went into Iraq. By contrast, [the younger Bush] has found his presidency ruined, one might say, by this Iraq War’.
But I remember when people said George Bush senior had stopped too soon and that George Bush junior had to finish his father’s unfinished business. At that time, senior’s judgment looked wrong and junior’s judgment looked good. The passage of time has changed opinions. The further passage of time might change them again—we haven’t seen the end of this Iraq story.

HOW TO BUY TECHNOLOGICAL ITEMS (cellphones, VCRs or digital video recorders, computers, digital cameras, camcorders, MP3 players, video game consoles, high-definition TVs, home security systems, portable or handheld GPS, or satellite radio subscription):
1.  Check online.  You avoid crowds and pushy salespeople.  You can conveniently compare prices and you can get a good price.  But be careful of temporary websites—these sometimes don’t include all cables, parts, batteries, warranties, and you can’t see the screen or hear the stereo or test the keyboard.  Substitute for this with reviews posted by former purchasers.
2.  Print out your Internet research and carry it to the store, ‘It provides a degree of confidence.  If you have a stack of paper with reviews and product specs, you have demonstrated you have done your homework’, says Tim Herberts, senior directot of market research at Consumer Electronics Association.
3.  If you have one, ask ‘that ultra-geek friend who knows everything about everything but likely lacks in the social graces’ to go with you to the shop, says Monique Rupley, who supports a telecom company sales staff.
4.  Go with attitude.  Get good service by insisting on it.  Don’t scream, just be firm, reasonable, level-headed, cool, says Rupley.
5.  If you walk into a shop and the salesperson says, ‘How much do you want to spend?,’ or shows you one thing when you asked to see another, leave.  They should ask about your needs.  So feel free to ask what products they recommend to their parents or kids.  Also, talk to service people about what product breaks down most, or least.
6.  Bargain.  If the retailer won’t reduce price, maybe they’ll add cab les, batteries, accessories.  If they have a trial model, older models, they might sell for reduced price.  If it was returned, find out why.  Get full warranty and all parts.  Some PC makers sell refurbished, discounted models with regular warranties.

DIGITAL CAMERAS:
Prices are down (this article uses prices at Amazon.com).  When you buy, consider:
1.  megapixels (which measures how detailed a picture the camera takes).  Most people don’t need more than 4 megapixels to take lightly cropped, regular-size prints.  Canon’s PowerShot A560 (for $129) has a 7-megapixel sensor.  Professional levels rise to Canon’s 12-megapixel PowerShot SC950IS ($368) or Casio’s 10-megapizel Exilim EX-Z1050 ($220).  Average 6-megapixel cameras have dropped from $266 to $149, and 7-megapixel from $349 to $199, all in one year.
2.  zoom (for coming close to action).  The PowerShot A560 has a 4X zoom.
2.  screens are mostly 2.5-3 inches (more expensive can go to 3.5).
3.  Image stabilization helps deal with shaky hands and stop blurry shots, and increases price to $214 (Canon’s PowerShot SD750) or $240 (SD800 IS).

In 1968 my elementary school teacher said the election was really close, and that she was in favor of Richard Nixon, although she respected Wallace for not giving up even though he was far behind, and for saying, ‘I’ll win yet.’ In the school playground, I said Humphrey must have something going for him, since she had after all said that the election was close. The response from other kids was No, ‘there goes Humphrey down the drain!’, accompanied with the sound of toilets flushing.

Four years later, I was in a junior high where the school was solidly behind McGovern, and I tried to stand up for Nixon, to see the other side, and was similarly shouted down. Two years after that, I visited my relatives, who were solidly against Nixon, and I defended him, saying he just had the media against him. He did, but that didn’t make his relative inability to harness a liberal media didn’t make him right in his use of executive privilege to say whatever the president does, is right. America had fought a revolution over this sort of thing, and he was still wrong.

In America’s bicentennial year, I voted for the first time—for Ford, and persuaded my grandparents, too, to vote for Ford, and he won our state (Oregon)—but lost the nation. I had a great time saying for four years in the midst of escalating inflation and an Afghanistan hostage situation, ‘Don’t blame me. I voted for Ford.’

Four years later, the nation also repudiated Carter. The media had tried to project a tight race, but I knew it would be a landslide, and it was—by 9.00 pm, the race was over and Reagan had won.

Four years later, I voted for Reagan again—less enthusiastically, because he had not filled some campaign pledges. It was another landslide, and understandably so—Mondale looked foolish trying to blame Reagan for not talking to Soviets, when the real problem was that Breshnev, Chernenko, Andropov all kept dropping.

Four years later, I voted third party—not happy over Bush, not willing to vote for Dukakis. Four years after that, I voted write-in, again not enthused over Bush and not excited about Clinton.

The first two years of Clinton’ presidency were such a disaster of rampant ideology that it triggered the first Republican take-over of the House in decades to restore some balance in government and brought people like me back to the fold. I voted for Dole in 1996, and had a great time for four years after that, through Monica Lewinski and impeachment proceedings, seeing again, as in Nixon’s case, a president look out for himself and put himself before the nation, to be willing to let the whole government ground to a halt as long as he could defend himself against indefensible behavior.

As Clinton resembled Nixon, Bush II resembled LBJ. I had no idea the 2000 election would be THAT close—I think hardly anyone did. People don’t seem to remember that Clinton’s elections had been close, too—Clinton had won his first term with only 43% or so of the vote in a three-way race. And, just as the Republicans had put up an uninspiring candidate in 1996 against an incumbent, so did the Democrats in 2004.

And now, in 2008, for the first time, we have two older party men—McCain and Biden—who have run for president before, and both of whom have failed, although McCain got much further than Biden did in past campaigns—perhaps the absence of plagiarism helped. And in 2008 we also have two younger leaders—Obama and Palin—who have excited people in the way the elders haven’t been able to. My own excitement about the Republican ticket has increased since Palin joined.

Here’s how things look to me on 2008 September 10, regarding the Electoral Map:

Obama takes Hawaii, McCain takes Alaska. Obama takes the Pacific coast states, plus picks up enough of the filth vote to take Nevada. McCain takes the next group of states, even Montana (overcoming the recent Democratic surge there), but loses New Mexico due to a heavy Hispanic vote that goes Democratic. McCain takes the South, overcoming a tight vote in Georgia where Bob Barr almost splits the Republican vote, but people don’t want to waste their votes or throw the election to Obama, so they don’t take the bait. Obama takes Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Michigan and, in a squeaker, Iowa. McCain takes Indiana, Ohio and West Virginia. From Pennsylvania east, and north of Virginia, Obama takes it all, including New Hampshire in a squeaker.

Result: a 269-269 electoral tie.