Diabetes In Control. A free weekly diabetes newsletter for Medical Professionals. News and information for Medical Professionals.
We all have patients who suffer from benign prostatic hyperplasia; they are usually seniors and most all of them are on dutasteride or finasteride, both steroidal 5-alpha reductase inhibitors. A lot of these seniors also have diabetes. This week our intern Adam Chalela, B.S. Doctor of Pharmacy Candidate from the USF College of Pharmacy, has a “LaterPay” article on what relationship these drugs and diabetes have, and what changes you may want to make.
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We can make a difference!
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Dave Joffe
Editor-in-chief
TOP STORIES — Diabetes News and Research
Which baseline clinical characteristics of patients with newly diagnosed diabetes lead us to providing more personalized care?
Expansion of the original 2015 approval makes Praluent a strong lipid-lowering candidate for patients with diabetes and other cardiovascular concerns.
Targeted medications used to treat an already at-risk population could be contributing to worsening health.
Did You Know: Walking Faster Can Increase Life Expectancy
The findings from the researchers suggest that physical fitness may be a better life expectancy indicator than body mass index. Poor physical fitness—encompassing low cardiorespiratory fitness and muscle strength–and high levels of adiposity are fundamental characteristics of an unhealthy lifestyle and important predictors of excess morbidity and mortality. The relative importance of measures of physical fitness and adiposity in relation to each other, however, is debated. Thirty years ago, data from the Aerobics Center Longitudinal Study suggested that fitness, but not obesity, was independently associated with mortality outcomes when one was adjusted for the other. These early findings have been extended and confirmed in meta-analyses concluding that, compared with normal-weight participants, there was no evidence of an increased mortality risk among those who were fit and overweight or fit and obese; these results suggest that high levels of fitness may protect against the deleterious consequences of obesity. The aim of this study was to investigate how walking pace and handgrip strength—2 easily captured measures of physical fitness—are associated with life expectancy across different levels and measures of adiposity. Usual walking pace (self-defined as slow, steady/average, brisk), dynamometer-assessed handgrip strength, body mass index (BMI), waist circumference, and body-fat percentage determined at baseline in the UK Biobank prospective cohort study (March 13, 2006, to January 31, 2016). Life expectancy was estimated at 45 years of age. The median age and BMI of the 474,919 participants included in this analysis were 58.2 years and 26.7 kg/m2, respectively; over a median follow-up of 6.97 years, 12,823 deaths occurred. Participants reporting brisk walking pace had longer life expectancies across all levels of BMIs, ranging from 86.7 to 87.8 years in women and 85.2 to 86.8 years in men. Conversely, subjects reporting slow walking pace had shorter life expectancies, being the lowest observed in slow walkers with a BMI less than 20 kg/m2 (women: 72.4 years; men: 64.8 years). Smaller, less consistent differences in life expectancy were observed between participants with high and low handgrip strength, particularly in women. The same pattern of results was observed for waist circumference or body-fat percentage.
From the results it was concluded that brisk walkers were found to have longer life expectancies, which was constant across different levels and indices of adiposity. These findings could help clarify the relative importance of physical fitness and adiposity on mortality. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mayocp.2018.10.029
Diabetes in Control gratefully acknowledges the assistance of the following pharmacy doctoral candidates in the preparation of this week’s newsletters:
Emma Kammerer, PharmD Candidate, Class of 2020, L|E|C|O|M Bradenton School of Pharmacy
Adam Chalela, B.S., Doctor of Pharmacy Candidate, Class of 2020, USF College of Pharmacy
Maya Rudolph, PharmD Candidate, Florida A&M University College of Pharmacy & Pharmaceutical Sciences
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Steve and Dave
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