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Unfair
Boss? Time to
Check Your Blood Pressure
Excerpt
By
Alison McCook,
Reuters Health
People who work under a supervisor
they deem to be unfair tend to have higher blood pressure than
people who have a more favorable opinion of their superiors, UK
researchers said Tuesday.
An analysis of 2,900 adults who
had diabetes for an average of 11 years found that even two hours
of walking weekly reduced the risk of death by 39 percent.
Included in that reduction was
a 34 percent decrease in risk of death from cardiovascular disease,
to which diabetics are particularly prone.
"This is the first study to
look at a nationally representative sample of people with diabetes,"
says Edward Gregg, an epidemiologist with the U.S. Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention, who did the analysis and wrote
the results in a study published in the June 23 issue of the Archives
of Internal Medicine.
"Other studies have found
that people are less likely to get new diseases if they walk,
but we found that walking will increase the length of life once
people have diabetes," he says.
This is particularly important,
Gregg adds, because of the incidence of the disease.
"Diabetes is one of the most
common chronic illnesses; the ratio in people 60 and older is
one out of five or one out of six. But even though the disease
increases the risk for death, most people with diabetes will go
on to live for a long time. So one of the key things to do is
improve the quality of life, and walking will increase the length
of life once people have diabetes."
For the analysis, Gregg and his
colleagues at the CDC's Division of Diabetes Translation used
data from the 1990-1991 National Health Interview Survey (NHIS)
to look at the mortality rates for 2,896 diabetics who'd been
sick for an average of 11 years. Their average age was 59. In
an eight-year follow up, 671 of the participants died, 316 of
heart disease.
Looking at the health interviews
that were conducted in the early 1990s, including self-reports
of exercise among all the participants, the scientists found that
those diabetics who walked for at least two hours weekly had a
39 percent lower all-cause death rate and a 34 percent lower death
rate from heart disease compared to those who did not walk.
Among those who walked between
three and four hours a week, the benefit was even higher, a 53
percent lower death rate from cardiovascular disease. Walking
any longer than that didn't result in further benefit, however,
the study points out.
Dr. Frank Hu, a diabetes specialist
at the Harvard School of Public Health who wrote an editorial
that accompanied the study, says the CDC study confirms that walking
is an important part of treating diabetes.
"Lifestyle modifications remain
a cornerstone for diabetic management," Hu says. "We
have very strong evidence that walking and other types of activity
can go a long way in reducing mortality and cardiovascular complications
from diabetes. Walking is as effective as medicines -- probably
more effective, because walking has no side effects."
Brisk walking is the best, Gregg
recommends.
"People should be able to
carry on a conversation but know that their breathing is elevated,"
he says.
More information
Facts about diabetes can be found
at the American
Academy of Family Physicians. Exercise and diet recommendations
for people with diabetes are available at the Juvenile
Diabetes Research Foundation International.
Reference
Source 89
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