Monthly Archives: July 2012

Child Health, Child Obesity, SYN Digital Enrollment Director

Type 1 and 2 Diabetes Overview

Diabetes is a disease where the body doesn’t produce or effectively use insulin – a hormone the body requires to move sugar (glucose) from the blood into cells so it can be burned for energy.

There are two distinct types of diabetes:

  • Type 1 (previously known as juvenile diabetes) – where the body can no longer produce insulin. Therefore, the patient must inject insulin under their skin several times a day as replacement therapy.
  • Type 2 (previously known as adult onset diabetes) – where the body still produces insulin but can’t use it effectively. Therapy for this type of diabetes sometimes includes insulin injections, but not always.

The primary objective of all diabetes treatment is to maintain blood sugars within a range close to what your body would achieve in the absence of diabetes. In other words, the goal is to prevent low blood sugars (hypoglycemia) and high blood sugars (hyperglycemia).

To accomplish this goal, diabetics should frequently measure their blood sugars (using a blood glucose meter) and carefully balance the following five parameters:

  • Food intake
  • If using insulin, the frequency and dose of injections or, if taking oral diabetes medications, the drug/dose prescribed
  • Physical activity
  • Emotions
  • Other illnesses

Diabetes is now considered to be a global disease epidemic because of the rapidly rising incidence of both Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes throughout the world. Just in the United States, the incidence (number of cases per 1,000 population) amost doubled between 1980 and 2005. Globally, the number of cases of diabetes has gone from 30 million in 1985 to over 170 million in 2005. Experts predict this number will increase to 366 million by 2030.

Sadly, in parallel to the growing incidence of diabetes, there has been a dramatic increase in deceptive Internet advertisements and sales of products misrepresented as cures or treatments for diabetes. In fact, in late 2006, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), working with government agencies in Mexico and Canada, announced they had sent over 180 warning letters and other advisories to online outlets of fraudulent diabetes cures and treatments.

Margaret Glavin of the FDA was quotes as saying, “We will not tolerate practices that raise false hopes and bilk consumers of precious health care dollars. Diabetes requires effective treatments and aggressive management, not bogus and unproven products.”

People with diabetes deserve better — truthful and unbiased information about the prevention and treatment of diabetes (there are no cures).

If you want a good laugh, check out this website which is one component of the FTC’s campaign to teach consumers how to avoid phony diabetes cures.

Child Health, Child Obesity, SYN Digital Enrollment Director

Childhood Obesity Overview

Childhood obesity is a significant and growing problem throughout the world. In many countries child obesity rates have tripled or quadrupled in the last 10-to-20 years.

Some health experts are predicting that, for the first time in history, the current generation will be less healthy than the last due to the rising incidence of child and adolescent obesity. It is broadly assumed that childhood obesity rates have risen due to increased consumption of unhealthy (junk) food and decreased physical activity among children throughout the world. Therefore, the dominant prescription for addressing the child obesity epidemic is having kids eat healthier and exercise more.

The problem is that the research data doesn’t support this approach. There is almost no evidence that childhood obesity is caused by unhealthy eating and sedentary behavior, and almost all efforts to reduce the incidence of via this prescrition haven’t worked.

Global child and adolescent obesity rates continue to rise and research studies attempting to address the problem continue to fail. Getting kids to eat more healthily and exercise more hasn’t worked for the last 20 years and there is no scientific evidence these strategies will work in the future.

As contributor to the Better Kids Institute, I plan to write a series of articles about childhood obesity that I hope will provide real help to parents. I will be discussing the causes of child obesity and offer advice on what parents, schools and communities should be doing about. What’s needed is a more accurate understanding of the childhood obesity crisis and more viable solutions for parents and communities to address this global problem.

The advice I offer will not be based on myths like much of the information available on health and fitness. Instead, I will focus on sharing the truths about what is known through the scientific literature and that strategies that have proven to work.

Confidence, Self-Esteem, SYN Digital Enrollment Director

Boost Your Child’s Confidence

Although we sometimes talk about confidence as something that a person “has,” confidence actually involves a very specific set of behaviors.

Identifying these traits as desirable is the first step. Children need a clear set of expectations that they understand are important and know they must follow.

To help them recognize the importance of the goal, these qualities must first be labeled as positive.

Let’s take good posture, for example. In martial arts class the instructor would say, “Black belts have their backs straight and chests out. You do want to become a black belt, don’t you?”

Or, “I know you are good looking, so let’s accentuate it!”

Or, even point out the negative: “When you’re slouching like that your posture looks so weak and I know that’s not case. You are a strong person, so back straight and chest out. Go!”

Stating the issue, explaining its importance and giving children a clear directive will help children understand the link — in this case, that standing up straight makes them project the look of confidence.

Bullying, Online Safety, SYN Digital Enrollment Director, SYN The Bully Expert

Online Bullying: Don’t Get Started and Knowing When to End It

The national media is hammering us almost daily with the ugly reality of the dangers facing our children on the Internet.

Some examples are the personal distribution of naked photographs by young adults, child pornography, and child predators. These all illustrate that the Internet can be a very dangerous place for children and young adults.

The Internet can also be dangerous to our children’s health and well being due to Internet bullying. The same abusive personalities that can make our children’s time at school, sports, or at play a living hell have shown their abusive nature on the Internet.

We need to discuss this problem with our children, develop strategies for managing this bullying and monitor the problem for more serious intervention, if necessary.

Let’s look at two variations of online bullying: e-mail abuse and instant messaging abuse.

When dealing with abusive e-mail, a parent needs to remember two important facts. The first fact is that your child doesn’t have to open the e-mail and that the delete button works wonders for eliminating the source of the problem. The second fact is that e-mails provide a permanent record of what was said and can be used to prove that the abusive conduct did occur.

You need to spend some time discussing online bullying with your children. Explain what it is and why it is improper. Let you kids know that they don’t have to open e-mails from abusive people, that you can close the e-mail when you find out it’s abusive, and you can delete it if you don’t want to save it as evidence of abusive behavior.

When dealing with instant messaging bullying, remember that your children have to play in order to be abused. If your child doesn’t interact with the bully, your child won’t allow the bully to feel powerful by intimidating your child.

Bullying is a complex event.

Here’s some advice for your child. Don’t feed into the bully’s abusive behavior. Don’t play. Don’t accept the message. Stop the conversation if it becomes abusive. Let your parent’s know. Just say no.

When dealing with e-mail or instant messaging bullies don’t accept the message and end it ASAP.