Coffee reduces risk of diabetes. Research suggests that people who drink coffee are less likely to get type 2 diabetes. It isn't known whether the caffeine or some other ingredient in coffee is responsible for its protective effects. The researchers wanted to see whether there is a link between diabetes and drinking coffee and green, black, and oolong tea. Participants completed a detailed questionnaire about their health, lifestyle habits, and how much coffee and tea they drank. The questionnaire was repeated at the end of the 5-year follow-up period. When other factors were accounted for, researchers found that the more green tea and coffee participants drank, the less likely they were to get diabetes. People who drank six cups or more of green tea or three or more cups of coffee each day were about one-third less likely to get diabetes. The link was stronger in women than in men. No pattern was seen with black or oolong tea. (see Diabetes Symptoms)
Vitamin D and Calcium May Lower the Risk for Type 2 Diabetes in Women A lack of vitamin D and calcium may be linked to getting type 2 diabetes. More than 80,000 women who took part in the Nurses' Health Study. Over the course of 20 years, over 4,800 women developed type 2 diabetes. The researchers found that a combined intake of over 1,200 milligrams of calcium and over 800 units of vitamin D was linked with a 33% lower risk for type 2 diabetes (as compared to women who took much smaller amounts of calcium and vitamin D). The results show that consuming higher amounts of vitamin D and calcium help lower the risk for type 2 diabetes in women. Diabetes is a disorder characterized by hyperglycemia or elevated blood glucose (blood sugar). Our bodies function best at a certain level of sugar in the bloodstream. If the amount of sugar in our blood runs too high or too low, then we typically feel bad. Diabetes is the name of the condition where the blood sugar level consistently runs too high. Diabetes is the most common endocrine disorder.
I’ve seen Cirrhosis and it made me swear off the booze. One of my lifelong friends and my former business partner is an alcoholic. His name is John and he promised to stay on the wagon to entice me to work with him, and it proved to be the biggest mistake of my life. I live in Chicao and he is San Francisco, so I couldn’t keep my eyes on him easily.His wife had passed away recently after a brief illness and John wasn’t handling it very well. I suspected he was drinking again. Those fears were confirmed when I received a phone call four or five months after his wife’s passing from a mutual friend who said John had been taken to the hospital after a binge.He said it didn’t look good.
I hopped on the next plane and got to California and took a cab to the hospital. I couldn’t believe my eyes. My friend was the color of a fresh banana–sort of like the Incredible Hulk but the color of French’s mustard. He was babbling incomprehensible phrases. He recognized me but quickly forgot I was there. A group of our Bay Area friends met at the hospital. The doctors said he was very ill. One pulled me aside and said my friend had Cirrohisis, which wasn’t a surprise from his appearance.His liver had shut down–liver failure, and as I learned over the next few days, when your liver goes, so does everything else in your body, The liver controls most of your major organs, at least in a dependant way. His kidneys were failing and he had to go on dialysis treatments three times a day.
Bedside Vigil
Most of the next week he really didn’t know where he was. The doctors said the next few days were critical but that he probaby wouldn’t make it six months even if he survived this immediate crisis. I literally spent thirty minutes talking to him one morning trying to get him to give me the details on how to retrieve his phone messages back at his apartment. He couldn’t remember the password. And this entire time his body was still 100% pure banana colored. It was an awful experience for everybody.
Kidney Dialysis 3 Times A Day
A week passes and he starts to get better. Gradually. He’s still on dialysis three times a day, but at least he can talk fairly cogently. And slowly he regains his personality–starts kidding with all the nurses and telling stories. After three weeks he was discharged but had to go to a half-way house that could take care of his dialysis and other medical needs. He would get transported three times a day in a van to a clinic where the dialysis was done. I flew home as I had been there a month and had a lot of business matters to attend to and see my wife, who was very supportive during this period.
A month goes by and my friend’s best friend in SF calls and says John is going home–he’s getting out of the half-way house after six weeks, but still requires dialysis daily, but now just once a day. I flew back to San Francisco and we all (there were about six of us) go out to celebrate John’s birthday. As dinner ended and we were having a cognac (not John!), our mutual friend says he wants to make an announcement. He makes a toast and says that today is a special day. It’s John’s birthday, and he’s pleased to announce that the doctors have decided he no longer needs dialysis! There was a hurrah that filled the restaurant!
It was truly a remarkable experience. But I was reflecting on the plane back to Chicago how 30 years earlier John and the rest of us Irish Catholic boys would spend our evenings in the bars of Georgetown, getting drunk and chasing women. We had a lot of laughs, something we repeated many times together over the years. It was really part of our culture.
But this is where it led. And there were no laughs and jokes being told. If it weren’t so personally tragic, I wish we could have fast-forwarded into the future from those early care-free days to see what drinking and alcoholism is all about and where it leads.
Luck Of The Irish (At Least Some Of Them)
John was lucky, and his liver bounced back and healed. But the doctors told him that he could never drink alcohol again–that it would poison him, like drinking a glass of cyanide. And you know what? John’s stayed on the wagon ever since. He still goes to bars and shoots the bull with his friends. He’s no longer a beer drinker but drinks only soft drinks. And he’s enjoying his life just as much as before. Lucky for him. He got a second chance.
Alcohol Is A Killer
If you know someone who is a big drinker and his skin color looks a little jaundiced, you can be sure his liver is damaged. Before it gets to the point my friend faced there are some natural homeopathic remedies to detox your liver and get you back on the right track. Of course, once you go through this process, you need to be committed to a life of alcohol abstinance if you want to live a longer life. Not lecturing here, but those are just the facts.
