Health Expert Gretchen Becker shares health management news and commentary at HealthCentral.com. HealthCentral.com is one of the top health destinations on the Web, with more than 35 condition-specific, wellness and general health Web properties. http://www.healthcentral.com/profiles/c/5068/index http://www.healthcentral.com/profiles/c/5068/rss self application/xml en-us 15 120 19 http://www.healthcentral.com/images/hc_logo_sm.gif http://www.healthcentral.com/profiles/c/5068/index http://www.healthcentral.com/diabetes/c/5068/160757/crunchies Tue, 07 May 2013 17:15:51 -0400 Gretchen Becker I follow a low-carb (LC) diet, and it works well for me. I’m never ravenously hungry.   But sometimes I want something crunchy. That’s one problem with LC diets: most crunchy foods are laced with carbs. Think of potato chips and other snack foods. They’re not just salty or sweet, but in most cases they’re crunchy.   I do have a few foods that partially satisfy this craving.   Roasted almonds. I buy... http://www.healthcentral.com/diabetes/c/5068/160757/crunchies http://www.healthcentral.com/diabetes/c/5068/160651/eating-meat-dangerous Tue, 30 Apr 2013 22:30:16 -0400 Gretchen Becker A recent study reported that l-carnitine supplements improved patient outcomes after heart attacks. The supplement readily available and is claimed to increase energy, weight loss, and athletic performance. Carnitine is also found in high amounts in red meat.   But wait! A week or so before this story appeared, another study was published that reported that bacteria in the gut of meat eaters converted carnitine into a compound called TMAO... http://www.healthcentral.com/diabetes/c/5068/160651/eating-meat-dangerous http://www.healthcentral.com/diabetes/c/5068/160620/betatrophin-cure-2-diabetes Mon, 29 Apr 2013 17:43:53 -0400 Gretchen Becker What if our beta cells, the cells in the pancreas that produce insulin, could be instructed to multiply so they could produce more insulin when we needed it? That’s what happens when women are pregnant and need more insulin because of their increased weight.   Harvard scientists think they may have discovered how to get this to happen. They’ve discovered a hormone, which they call betatrophin, that seems to produce beta cells... http://www.healthcentral.com/diabetes/c/5068/160620/betatrophin-cure-2-diabetes http://www.healthcentral.com/diabetes/c/5068/160211/swinging-arms-exercise Mon, 08 Apr 2013 19:25:47 -0400 Gretchen Becker Some years ago, I somewhere got a little booklet describing Chinese “swing exercises.” These were simple movements swinging your arms that were supposed to get your circulation going. People pointed out that orchestra conductors, who swing their arms vigorously, tend to be long-lived.   Then I forgot about the booklet, and now I don’t know where it is. But when I read some articles suggesting that strenuous exercise like... http://www.healthcentral.com/diabetes/c/5068/160211/swinging-arms-exercise http://www.healthcentral.com/diabetes/c/5068/159883/visualizing-a1c Wed, 20 Mar 2013 15:00:48 -0400 Gretchen Becker Most of us have heard of the hemoglobin A1c test. That’s what measures our average blood glucose levels over the past several months. But how many of us really understand what the hemoglobin A1c is?   To help us understand, Casey Steffen , who has type 1 diabetes, has come up with rubber models of both the hemoglobin molecule and the hemoglobin A1c. There’s nothing like seeing something in 3D to remember what it... http://www.healthcentral.com/diabetes/c/5068/159883/visualizing-a1c http://www.healthcentral.com/diabetes/c/5068/159489/sugar-diabetes Sat, 02 Mar 2013 15:47:42 -0500 Gretchen Becker For many decades, folk “wisdom” claimed that diabetes was caused by eating too much sugar.   There have always been curious ideas in the diabetic world. For instance, people with advanced diabetes excrete a lot of sugar in their urine, so one early diabetic diet prescribed eating nothing but candy, on the theory that because the patients were losing so much sugar in their urine, they should replace it with sugar in their... http://www.healthcentral.com/diabetes/c/5068/159489/sugar-diabetes http://www.healthcentral.com/diabetes/c/5068/159272/structured-active Wed, 20 Feb 2013 17:46:22 -0500 Gretchen Becker I recently read an article discussing ethnic differences in insulin sensitivity in relation to obesity. The conclusion was that formerly overweight African American women were more insulin sensitive than never-overweight African American women, and that insulin-sensitive African American women were more likely to gain weight than the insulin-resistant women.   In other words, the suggestion was that contrary to the concept that insulin... http://www.healthcentral.com/diabetes/c/5068/159272/structured-active http://www.healthcentral.com/diabetes/c/5068/159152/intensity Sat, 16 Feb 2013 13:26:34 -0500 Gretchen Becker There are people whose idea of fun is to go to a gym and work out until they’re sweaty and exhausted. I’m not one of them.   So if you’re like me, you might be interested in a new study from the Netherlands that suggests that longer, less-intense bouts of exercise, like walking, may be more beneficial for your diabetes than short, intense bouts of exercise, at least as long as the number of calories expended by the long... http://www.healthcentral.com/diabetes/c/5068/159152/intensity http://www.healthcentral.com/diabetes/c/5068/159002/genes-obesity Thu, 07 Feb 2013 10:08:59 -0500 Gretchen Becker One of the difficult things about being obese is that most of society assumes it’s because you’re a lazy glutton.   Sometimes people do gain weight because they overeat as a result of psychological problems, like the man who weighed 980 pounds but recently lost more than 336 pounds and is still obese, carrying around about 100 pounds of excess skin. He was abused as a child by his father and a female relative but kept it all... http://www.healthcentral.com/diabetes/c/5068/159002/genes-obesity http://www.healthcentral.com/diabetes/c/5068/158893/preventing-heart Thu, 31 Jan 2013 20:41:58 -0500 Gretchen Becker The large managed care group Kaiser Permanente recently reported that among their diabetes patients, reaching targets for cholesterol and blood pressure levels was even more important for reducing the risk of heart attack than reaching blood glucose (BG) targets.   They said that those who met none of the guidelines or those who met only the BG guidelines were most likely to be hospitalized for a heart attack or stroke.   The full... http://www.healthcentral.com/diabetes/c/5068/158893/preventing-heart