Finding Your Exercise Sweet Spot

Prediabetes is a condition in which blood sugar levels are higher than normal but not yet high enough to be diagnosed as full-fledged diabetes. It's estimated that one in three American adults has prediabetes. In the short term (three to five years), 25% of people with prediabetes will develop type 2 diabetes. The lifetime risk is 50% to 70%.

It's possible to reverse prediabetes through lifestyle changes, such as a healthy diet (whole, unprocessed foods, fiber, lean protein, limited sugars and refined carbs), weight loss and exercise.

For that last item, a recent study found that 20% of participants with prediabetes who exercised 150 minutes per week reversed their condition, preventing progression to type 2 diabetes.

Health experts recommended at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic activity or 75 minutes of vigorous aerobic activity (or a combination) each week, adding in some muscle-strengthening activities.

Moderate activities include brisk walking, cycling or swimming; vigorous activities are jogging, running or high-intensity interval training.

Exploding Pill

For folks who require insulin or use a GLP-1 weight loss drug like Ozempic or Wegovy, treatment involves daily or weekly injections. The medicines cannot be taken orally because they do not survive the rigors of the gastrointestinal tract.

Scientists at Georgia Institute of Technology have designed a new capsule that uses a small pressurized "explosion" to shoot medicine past physical barriers in the small intestine and into the bloodstream.

The capsules rely on the bubbling reaction of water and sodium bicarbonate to build pressure inside the capsule after it is swallowed. Eventually the pressure overwhelms a small weak spot in the pill's gelatin exterior, resulting in a jet of drug particles.

In experiments, the high velocity of the "explosion" swept away the mucus that lines the intestine, much like a burst of air might shove water aside, according to researchers. The drug is deposited next to epithelial cells that can transfer it to the bloodstream. Because the drug particles are moving fast, protein-eating enzymes don't have a chance to break them down.

Body of Knowledge

Mucus gets a bad rap because, well, it's mucousy and sort of gross. But mucus serves many healthful roles, primarily as a medium for catching and removing harmful particles and pathogens from the body. The average person produces between 1 and 1.5 quarts of mucus daily, primarily from glands in the nose, throat, sinuses and lungs. Most of the mucus is swallowed unnoticed.

Get Me That, Stat!

DEHP, a chemical used in plastics, may be a contributing factor to more than 356,000 heart-related deaths worldwide since 2018, according to new research. DEHP, which appears to inflame arteries, is used in food packaging and medical gear.

The findings aren't surprising. DEHP is phthalate, a group of chemicals already linked to harming human health, particularly the endocrine system, the network of glands that produce and release hormones.

Mark Your Calendar

August is awareness month for children's eye health, gastroparesis (when food doesn't move normally from stomach through intestines), breastfeeding, psoriasis and immunizations. You remember what immunizations are, right?

Counts

200: Estimated number of misfolded proteins (in rat studies) that could be associated with age-related cognitive decline, according to Johns Hopkins University

Doc Talk

Fasciculation: A feeling of sudden flutter under the skin from small bundles of muscle fibers spontaneously contracting

Phobia of the Week

Bibliophobia: Fear of reading (consider this remedial treatment)

Best Medicine

After a decade of research, a team of psychologists studying the mental health and wellbeing of little people determined that six out of seven dwarves are not Happy.

Observation

"Anything that's human is mentionable, and anything that is mentionable can be more manageable. When we can talk about our feelings, they become less overwhelming, less upsetting and less scary." -- Television host Fred Rogers, aka Mister Rogers (1928-2003)

Medical History

This week in 1986, William J. Schroeder of Jasper, Indiana, the world's longest-surviving recipient of a permanent artificial heart, died at age 54 after living 620 days with the Jarvik 7 manufactured pump. Schroeder passed after a series of strokes impaired his ability to breathe. He was the second Jarvik 7 recipient, treated by Dr. William DeVries, and the first to go home from the hospital. Schroeder enjoyed being a parade grand marshal in Jasper, his hometown, making a fishing trip with his sons and celebrating his 33rd wedding anniversary. After his first stroke, however, he was bedridden for his final seven months.

Ig Nobel Apprised

The Ig Nobel Prizes celebrate achievements that make people laugh, then think. A look at real science that's hard to take seriously and even harder to ignore.

In 2024, the Ig Nobel Prize in demography went to Saul Justin Newman of the University of Oxford who found that supercentenarians and extreme age records tend to come from areas with no birth certificates, rampant clerical errors, pension fraud and short lifespans.

Sum Body

Six myths about your brain:

1. Your brain is uniformly gray. It's actually many shades of gray, plus white, black, red and pink.

2. The "Mozart effect," that listening to classical music will make you smarter. It won't, but you might appear more cultured.

3. Your brain gets "wrinklier" with new knowledge. Those gyri and sulci are created in the womb, and by 40 weeks old, your brain is as wrinkled as its going to get.

4. Subliminal messages work. There's little empirical evidence, and none that they will force someone to do something against their will.

5. Brain damage is permanent. Not necessarily. It depends on the nature and severity. Concussions are brain damage, but the brain can repair itself.

6. Alcohol kills brain cells. Not directly, but unhealthy consumption can impair how they work and communicate with other cells.

Curtain Calls

In 2008, after being robbed, a Canadian man located his wallet and other personal belongings dumped in a nearby storm sewer drain. His initial effort to retrieve them failed, and police cautioned him not to try again.

He did. Returning to the scene, he removed the sewer grate and entered the hole. When an officer investigating the crime noticed the man's truck at the scene, he discovered the man wedged headfirst several feet below the street.

The man was still alive, and firefighters used a tow truck to pull him out, but he was pronounced dead at a hospital a short time later.

Four years later, a 43-year-old New Zealand man trying to retrieve his keys from a storm drain apparently fell in and went unnoticed for approximately 30 hours, ultimately dying of hypothermia.

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To find out more about Scott LaFee and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.