THIS ISSUE AVAILABLE ONLINE WITH EXPANDED INFORMATION AND PHOTOS AT:
http://www.hhs.gov/news/newsletter/weekly
IN THIS ISSUE:
1) U.S. Surgeon General Richard Carmona visits New Hampshire
2) Personal Health
3) What is diabetes?
4) Physical Activity Helps Seniors Age Successfully
5) Secretary Tommy G. Thompson's public schedule
U.S. Surgeon General Richard Carmona visits New Hampshire
U.S. Surgeon General Richard Carmona will visit Manchester, New Hampshire for a Medicare/Prescription Drug Town Hall meeting on Monday, August 18. He will speak to seniors on the need to reform the Medicare program, including prescription drug coverage, preventive screenings plus flu shots and pneumonia vaccinations to protect Medicare beneficiaries from needless and preventable illnesses.
"We have now a historic opportunity to strengthen and modernize Medicare." Surgeon General Carmona said. "We are grateful to Congress for working hard in the weeks remaining during their session to send a bill to the President's desk for signature."
This town hall meeting is part of a series of events Dr. Carmona has done with seniors over the past week. He participated in a "quality living" health and fitness conference for seniors in Billings, Montana then toured five cities in three days as the four top doctors in the country including Julie Gerberding, Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Elias Zerhouni, Director of the National Institutes of Health and Mark McClellan, Administrator of the Food and Drug Administration on the "Better Benefits Tour".
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Personal Health
Calcium
Calcium is a mineral needed by the body for healthy bones, teeth, and proper function of the heart, muscles, and nerves. The body cannot produce calcium; therefore, it must be absorbed through food. Good sources of calcium include
Vitamin D also plays an important role in healthy bone development. Vitamin D helps in the absorption of calcium (this is why milk is fortified with vitamin D).
For more information on calcium and children visit the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) Web site at http://www.nichd.nih.gov/milk/milk.cfm.
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What is diabetes?
Most of the food we eat is turned into glucose, or sugar, for our bodies to use for energy. The pancreas, an organ that lies near the stomach, makes a hormone called insulin to help glucose get into the cells of our bodies. When you have diabetes, your body either doesn't make enough insulin or can't use its own insulin as well as it should. This causes sugars to build up in your blood.
Diabetes can cause serious health complications including heart disease, blindness, kidney failure, and lower-extremity amputations. Diabetes is the seventh leading cause of death in the United States.
What are the symptoms of diabetes?
People who think they might have diabetes must visit a physician for diagnosis. They might have SOME or NONE of the following symptoms:
Nausea, vomiting, or stomach pains may accompany some of these symptoms in the abrupt onset of insulin-dependent diabetes, now called type 1 diabetes.
What are the types and risk factors of diabetes?
The following types of diabetes and some of their risk factors are quoted from the National Diabetes Fact Sheet: National estimates and general information on diabetes in the United States (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Atlanta, GA: US Department of Health and Human Services, 1997):
Type 1 diabetes was previously called insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM) or juvenile-onset diabetes. Type 1 diabetes may account for 5% to 10% of all diagnosed cases of diabetes. Risk factors are less well defined for type 1 diabetes than for type 2 diabetes, but autoimmune, genetic, and environmental factors are involved in the development of this type of diabetes.
Type 2 diabetes was previously called non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (NIDDM) or adult-onset diabetes. Type 2 diabetes may account for about 90% to 95% of all diagnosed cases of diabetes. Risk factors for type 2 diabetes include older age, obesity, family history of diabetes, prior history of gestational diabetes, impaired glucose tolerance, physical inactivity, and race/ethnicity. African Americans, Hispanic/Latino Americans, American Indians, and some Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders are at particularly high risk for type 2 diabetes.
Gestational diabetes develops in 2% to 5% of all pregnancies but usually disappears when a pregnancy is over. Gestational diabetes occurs more frequently in African Americans, Hispanic/Latino Americans, American Indians, and people with a family history of diabetes than in other groups. Obesity is also associated with higher risk. Women who have had gestational diabetes are at increased risk for later developing type 2 diabetes. In some studies, nearly 40% of women with a history of gestational diabetes developed diabetes in the future.
Other specific types of diabetes result from specific genetic syndromes, surgery, drugs, malnutrition, infections, and other illnesses. Such types of diabetes may account for 1% to 2% of all diagnosed cases of diabetes.
This information is provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention web site.
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Physical Activity Helps Seniors Age Successfully
Being physically active can prevent many of the most common chronic medical conditions of old age. As the baby boomers age, millions of older adults will begin suffering from chronic diseases unless preventive measures are taken. Physical activity is one of the most important steps older adults can take to maintain physical and mental health and quality of life. Scientists have proven that being active can help reduce the risk of obesity, high blood pressure, diabetes, osteoporosis, stroke, depression, colon cancer, and premature death. Yet today, more than 60% of older adults are inactive. Older adults face the same obstacles to being more physically active as younger adults but also have special concerns.
The Challenge to Get Moving
The challenge is getting older adults to be active. The average American lives a long time, but is sedentary, physically unfit, and experiences disability from chronic medical conditions as he/she ages. Physicians and exercise experts have heard all the excuses from older adults: It doesn't feel good. It makes my arthritic joints hurt. It takes too much time. It's boring. However, older adults need exercise like everyone else, at least as much as younger adults. In fact, the loss of strength and stamina attributed to aging is in part caused by reduced physical activity.
Walking groups and exercise programs especially designed for older adults can help seniors become-and remain-active. Senior swim clubs and water aerobic classes are excellent activities for people with arthritis, but you don't see advertisements for these on television or in magazines. "Good role models are effective and important, but they're not in the media-they're in real life," according to Marian Minor, PhD, PT, associate professor of physical therapy at the University of Missouri, where she works with seniors in the University of Missouri's physical therapy program.
The Need for Strength
Strength training is recommended for all adults, but it is a vital link to health for older adults. The reason is that strength training prevents sarcopenia, the muscle deterioration that comes with aging, and also helps maintain bone mass. "Stronger people have better health outcomes," Dr. Buchner noted.
However, some elderly people avoid exercise and become sedentary out of fear of falling and fracturing a bone. Joking that "it's well-documented that you have to be moving to fall and break a hip," Dr. Buchner added that emerging data indicate physical activity prevents falls by improving strength, balance, and endurance.
Keeping Young at Heart
Cardiorespiratory endurance (aerobic) activity is also important. It keeps the heart strong, lowers blood pressure, and relieves anxiety and depression. Older adults can obtain significant health benefits with moderate physical activity, such as walking or gardening provides.
We need to make physical activity part of the daily routine for older adults," said Dr. Buchner. "Traditionally, health and fitness facilities have marketed mainly to body-conscious younger adults, who focus on the cosmetic effects. It's great to see that health clubs have developed more programs for older adults, and we hope this trend continues."
*The above information was adapted from: CDC, NCCDPHP. Special focus: healthy aging. Chronic Disease Notes and Reports 1999;12(3):10-11.
Recommendations
The CDC/ACSM recommends that all adults should accumulate at least 30 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity on five or more days of the week.
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Secretary Tommy G. Thompson's public schedule:
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Last updated August 18, 2003
United States Department of Health and Human Services
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