The Not So Sweet Facts About Sugar

A new study offers a broad overview of the use of sugar in the US diet and its consequent health implications. The good news is that the growth in sugar intake appears to have stopped and may even have slightly declined. The bad news is that people still consume way too much sugar and that…

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Amid Rising Tide Of Diabetes More Patients Reach Treatment Goals

There’s a glimmer of good news amidst all the recent bad news about diabetes. Although the prevalence of diabetes has doubled over the last generation, more people today  are reaching their treatment goals than in the past. New data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys (NHANES), published online today in Diabetes Care, show that…

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Observational Study Links Common Household Chemical To Cardiovascular Disease

High levels of a manmade chemical widely used in common household products and detectable in more than 98% of people may increase the risk of cardiovascular (CV) disease and peripheral arterial disease (PAD), according to a study published in Archives of Internal Medicine. (The study was published online in September and will appear in this week’s print…

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CDC: 35 Million Americans Have Uncontrolled Hypertension

According to the Centers for Disease Control, new data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) shows: 30.4% of US adults (about 66.9 million people) have hypertension. 53.5% have uncontrolled hypertension (about 35.8 million people). 39.4% with uncontrolled hypertension (about 14.1 million) are unaware that they have hypertension. 89.4% with uncontrolled hypertension have a “usual source…

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Survey Finds Significant Drop In Cholesterol Levels In Youths

New data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), published in JAMA, show significant and perhaps surprising  improvements over the last 20 years in the lipid profile of youths aged 6-19 years. Among the key lipid parameters measured by the survey from 1988-1994 to 2007-2010: Total cholesterol decreased from 165 mg/dL to 160 mg/dL (p<0.001) Prevalence of elevated…

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