Lessons in longevity from Seventh-day Adventists Excerpt – “Seventh-day Adventists believe God made the body as a temple to hold the soul,” says Hans Diehl, a best-selling author on health and nutrition, and a lifelong Adventist. [..] “We believe that taking care of the body is proper. It’s honouring God,” he says. Devout followers eat mostly plants—vegetables, fruits, nuts, legumes and whole grains. Some eat animal products, but most do so sparingly. [..] One Seventh-day Adventist community, Loma Linda, California, has been dubbed a “Blue Zone”—an area of the world with a large share of centenarians—by two researchers, Michel Poulain … Read More
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“The PHQ-9 became a means for time-crunched primary care doctors, under pressure to see more and more patients in shorter appointments, to dole out prescriptions with barely a conversation. Despite its prevalence, data suggesting that PHQ-9 has actually improved outcomes is ambiguous at best. Meanwhile, mental health outcomes for patients are dismal and only getting worse, with depressive symptoms and suicide climbing ever higher. A combination of good intentions and straightforward business savvy lies behind the PHQ-9. Pfizer invested hundreds of thousands of dollars in its development [..]. The company naturally hoped its investment would pay off with increased Zoloft … Read More
“[Introduction] [..] MyHEART is a multicomponent, patient-centered, and theoretically based; it includes 4 evidence-based self-management components: (1) telephone-based health coaching with adult education specialists to teach and monitor self-management skills, (2) documentation of coach-patient telephone contacts, (3) individualized hypertension education materials, and (4) home BP monitoring. [..] The primary aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of MyHEART on clinical outcomes, ie, the change in systolic and diastolic BP (primary) and hypertension control (secondary) after 6 and 12 months, compared with usual care. [..] [Methods] [..] The inclusion criteria included (1) aged 18 to 39 years at enrollment; … Read More
“The perpetual diet wars between factions promoting low-carbohydrate, keto, paleo, high-protein, low-fat, plant-based, vegan, and a seemingly endless list of other diets have led to substantial public confusion and mistrust in nutrition science. While debate rages about the relative merits and demerits of various so-called healthy diets, less attention is paid to the fact that otherwise diverse diet recommendations often share a common piece of advice: avoid ultra-processed foods. [..] The rise in obesity and type 2 diabetes prevalence occurred in parallel with an increasingly industrialized food system characterized by large-scale production of high-yield, inexpensive, agricultural “inputs” (primarily corn, soy, … Read More
“we examine real-world data from a cohort based in a UK primary care clinic offering a low-carbohydrate approach to people with T2D [type 2 diabetes] from 2013 to 2021. The physiological mechanisms behind remission induced by dietary weight loss were first demonstrated in 2011. Since then the idea of drug-free T2D remission has gained international momentum. [..] Advice on lowering dietary carbohydrate was offered routinely by our team of nine specially trained GPs and three practice nurses to patients with T2D (defined as HbA1c >48 mmol/mol on two occasions) starting in March 2013. Our protocol includes important information around the deprescribing of … Read More
“[Introduction] According to the Global Burden of Disease Study 2017, unhealthy diet is estimated as one of the leading causes of death globally. [..] using 2 large prospective cohorts with data on repeated measures of dietary habits, we derived dietary scores for 4 healthy dietary patterns, including the Healthy Eating Index 2015 (HEI-2015), Alternate Mediterranean Diet (AMED) score, Healthful Plant-based Diet Index (HPDI), and Alternate Healthy Eating Index (AHEI). We then examined their associations with total and cause-specific mortality. We also specifically examined these associations stratified by race and ethnicity and other potential risk factors. [Methods] This cohort study used … Read More
Excerpt – For a company that’s been around for more than a decade, it seems to have appeared out of nowhere. Athletic Greens aggressively advertises (and sells) only one product: AG1, a moss-toned powder that costs $99 for a 30-serving bag and claims to be “all you really need, really.” But it isn’t a meal replacement nor is it a pre- or post-workout drink, as the brand’s name implies. AG1 promises “75 vitamins, minerals, whole-food sourced superfoods, probiotics and adaptogens” in one scoop. The ingredient list is biblically long and rife with parentheses, its components categorized by wellness buzzwords: “Alkaline, … Read More
“Coronavirus case numbers are in free fall; vaccines and, to a lesser degree, viral infections have built up a wall of immunity that can blunt the virus’s impact overall. Several experts stressed that certain aspects of the CDC’s new guidelines are genuinely improving on the framework the country was using before. “The timing feels right to make some kind of change,” Whitney Robinson, an epidemiologist at Duke University, told me. But protection against SARS-CoV-2 isn’t spread equally. Millions of kids under 5 are still ineligible for shots. Vaccine effectiveness declines faster in older individuals and is patchy to begin with … Read More
“[Introduction] Shared decision-making is a strategy to improve communication and health care delivery by reducing unwarranted variation and improving quality of treatment decisions, particularly for conditions where evidence supports multiple treatment choices without a single superior option. In such “preference-sensitive” treatment scenarios, shared decision-making promotes a collaborative decision that is consistent with evidence-based practices and patient preferences and values. Obstructive sleep-disordered breathing (OSDB) is a common condition in children for which decisions for surgery with tonsillectomy are often dependent on family preferences. The treatment decisions are considered preference sensitive because of a lack of definitive evidence for a single best … Read More
“UPMC Health Plan and Sempre Health’s medication adherence collaboration has expanded its chronic disease management benefits to include diabetes medicines for members of UPMC’s employer-sponsored health plans. Since the program’s launch in 2017, members have collectively saved over $500,000 on cardiovascular medications, with the average member saving $33 per prescription refill through SMS message discounts. [..] In the first year of the partnership, the program successfully enrolled more than one-third of eligible members. Improvements in cardiovascular medication adherence for these members was significant when compared to a control group. Now, UPMC is expanding the program to diabetic members in order … Read More