Quality of Life is Increasing for Seniors with Diabetes

It is no surprise that with improvements in medical treatment for the elderly, lifespans are on the rise. Our senior population is growing fast, but we often wonder is it quality over quantity? If we are going to live longer, don’t we want to have more years of comfort, rather than disability and illness? A recent study shows that those in search of physical health and rejuvenation later and longer in life are in luck.  These medical advancements are bolstering the quality of life for seniors and lessoning the inevitability of disabilities earlier on, especially in those suffering from type 1 or type 2 diabetes.

Research shows that diabetic seniors born in the 1940s have many more disability-free years than those born in the 30s. On an average, American seniors between the ages of 50 and 70 are enjoying more years without disabilities, with our without chronic illness.

Thanks to hip and knee replacements, promotion of healthy lifestyles and improvements to diabetes and heart disease management, quality of life is sustained until later and disabilities are being postponed until after age 70 on an average. In essence, over the past two decades, the medical world has learned how to compress disability, or lessen the amount of time a patient will suffer physical ailments, pushing the occurrence of disability further into the future.

Co-author of the study, which was published in The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology, Dr. Edward Gregg, stressed the importance of diabetes prevention when looking towards more years of disability-free senior living. Focusing on a healthy diet and exercise, and staying away from smoking and alcohol can greatly improve one’s chances at being healthy and disability-free later in life. Although so much more is known today about living with type 1 and type 2 diabetes in the senior years, maintenance and management can be costly and time consuming. Reducing the risk of developing these diseases at all in life is still the best bet.

A colleague who published a related study, Dr. Evelyn Wong of Deakin University in Melbourne, Australia, suggested that the success of this study is showing how management of chronic conditions is really improving and pushing the inevitability of disability much later in life. Unfortunately, more people than ever are developing diabetes, so prevention is still the key, even though management is moving forward. Further research is needed in this area to accurately assess the cost of disability postponement. 

Watching Too Much Television Leads to Early Death

According to a new study, too much time in front of the television is a leading cause of death in the United States.

Background information provided in the study states 92 percent of households in the United States have televisions in their homes, and 80 percent of Americans watch 3.5 hours daily of television, on average.

TV is the most prevalent manner to spend sedentary, leisure time. The researcher’s hypothesis is that the amount of time spent watching TV is indicative of a person’s overall physical activity--or lack thereof. The results of this study join a growing amount of research supporting the idea that sitting too much is detrimental to health.

Researchers followed over 221,000 individuals from age 50 to age 71 for 15 years. At the start of the study, no participant had any chronic disease(s).

The more time spent in front of the TV, the more likely a participant was to die from cancer, diabetes, flu/pneumonia, heart disease, Parkinson’s, or liver disease, according to the study’s findings.

Risk of early death was 15 percent higher for individuals who watched 3-4 hours each day and 47 percent higher for individuals who watched more than seven hours. Researchers took into account risk factors like alcohol intake, calorie intake, health problems, and smoking.

However, this study proved only association between TV viewing and early death by these diseases.

The death risk was associated with both inactive and active individuals in the study. Exercise was not found to eliminate risks with sitting and watching television for extended periods of time. Rather time spent sitting must be replaced with active time.

This study joins others regarding the risks to our health of sitting too much.