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Laughter Is the Best Therapy for Happiness and Healthy Life Expectancy
Published in Goh Cheng Soon, Gerard Bodeker, Kishan Kariippanon, Healthy Ageing in Asia, 2022
Tetsuya Ohira, Masahiko Ichiki
We conducted a randomized interventional study to investigate the effect of the laughter program on blood glucose levels. Twenty-seven community residents aged 60 years or older were randomly divided into an intervention group and a control group, and the intervention group received 120 minutes of laughter therapy (a program that combines watching rakugo, comedy, etc., with mild exercise) for 10 weeks. The results showed that hemoglobin A1c, an indicator of diabetes control, improved significantly in the intervention group compared with that in the control group (Hirosaki et al., 2013). There was also an improvement in bone density and subjective health perception. Hence, it was suggested that laughter may improve the control of diabetes in the long term. Conversely, a study of 17 healthy subjects on the possibility that laughter may improve vascular endothelial function, an indicator of early atherosclerosis, reported a significant improvement in vascular endothelial function after viewing a comedy video for 60 minutes compared with viewing a documentary video (Sugawara, Tarumi and Tanaka, 2010). However, few studies, including this one, have been conducted on the long-term effects of other lifestyle diseases, such as hypertension, dyslipidemia, and atherosclerosis, and therefore, future reports are expected.
Roles of Daily Diet and Beta-Adrenergic System in the Treatment of Obesity and Diabetes
Published in Nilanjana Maulik, Personalized Nutrition as Medical Therapy for High-Risk Diseases, 2020
Ebru Arioglu Inan, Belma Turan
The importance of nutrition in providing glycemic control has been shown in various studies. As a marker of glycemic control, hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) values were found to be decreased significantly in type 2 diabetic patients after nutrition therapy (Coppell, Kataoka et al. 2010; Andrews, Cooper et al. 2011). In addition to glycemic benefits, nutrition therapy improved most of the metabolic parameters which further lead to diabetic complications (Pastors and Franz 2012).
Anemia: Approach to Diagnosis
Published in Harold R. Schumacher, William A. Rock, Sanford A. Stass, Handbook of Hematologic Pathology, 2019
The definition of anemia is primarily quantitative and is based on a reduction of hemoglobin, in grams per 100 mL, to at least two standard deviations below the mean, adjusted for age, sex, and altitude of residence. For women of child-bearing age, normal values are 10% lower than in men. Normal values increase in proportion to elevation above sea level (Table 1). The normal value for hemoglobin is adjusted upward in smokers. The hematocrit for adult men residing at sea level is 47 with a range of 42–52, and for women it is 42 with the range of 37–7. Normal hemoglobin is 16 g/100 mL for men with a range of 14–18 g/100 mL, and for women the mean is 14 g/100 mL with a range of 12–16 g/100 mL (Tables 2–4). As Htoo et al. (1) and Yip et al. (2) have noted, although an increase in ineffective erythropoiesis and iron stores occurs in the elderly, hemoglobin concentration does not change sufficiently to warrant the establishment of new geriatric norms. Since anemia is frequently both underdiagnosed and overtreated, it is critical to avoid assuming that age per se is a cause of anemia. Anemia may be found more commonly in the elderly because the underlying pathologic conditions resulting in anemia are more common. Although the age-related incidence of various etiologies of anemia may differ, the primary pathophysiology does not.
The prognostic role of lymphocyte to monocyte ratio (LMR) in patients with Myelodysplastic Neoplasms
Published in Hematology, 2023
Chuanyang Lu, Qiuni Chen, Jiaxin Li, Chunling Wang, Liang Yu
A total of 91 patients were included in this retrospective study. The clinical and laboratory characteristics of patients were summarized in Table 1. The cut-off of LMR was identified as 3.2. The median age of 91 patients was 65 years (range:26–88 years). There were 60 males in the study, 43 of whom were in the high LMR group and the remaining 17 in the low LMR group. There was no statistical difference between the low and high LMR groups (P = 0.555) regarding gender. The median white blood cell (WBC), ALC and AMC were 2.16*109/L, 0.91*109/L and 0.14*109/L, respectively. The median platelet count of all patients was 46*109/L (range:3–765*109/L). Patients in the high LMR group had no significantly higher platelet counts than those in the low LMR group (47*109/L versus 38*109/L, P = 0.829). The median hemoglobin of all patients was 67 g/L (range:37–144 g/L).
Stepwise approach to continuous glucose monitoring interpretation for internists and family physicians
Published in Postgraduate Medicine, 2022
Emily D. Szmuilowicz, Grazia Aleppo
Continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) use has expanded rapidly in recent years [1] and imparts well-established benefits in terms of glycemia and well-being among people with both type 1 and type 2 diabetes [2–7]. Hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c), which reflects average glycemia over the preceding 8–12 weeks, remains a cornerstone of diabetes diagnosis and treatment monitoring, enables cross-sectional comparison of glycemia across populations, and correlates with risk for microvascular diabetes complications in clinical studies [8]. However, this measure of average glycemia does not provide information about individual glycemic patterns, glucose trends, the presence or absence of hypoglycemia, or glycemic variability. Thus, while an elevated HbA1c does indicate that therapeutic action is needed, it does not provide actionable information that can be harnessed to guide therapeutic adjustments. Furthermore, HbA1c measurements are commonly discordant from average glucose measurements due to non-glycemic factors such as hemoglobinopathies or commonly encountered conditions in which red-cell turnover is altered, such as iron-deficiency anemia, chronic hemolysis, and chronic kidney disease [9].
Evaluation of the Function of a Rare Variant in the 3'-Untranslated Region of the β-Globin Gene
Published in Hemoglobin, 2022
Sogol Targholi, Zahra Noormohammadi, Elham Tafsiri, Morteza Karimipoor
Hemoglobin (Hb) is a protein in red blood cells (RBCs) that carry oxygen to tissues and comprise two pairs of α and β chains. During development from embryonic to adulthood, the composition of globin chains in the structure of Hb changes. The β-globin gene cluster is located on chromosome 11p15.5. In this cluster, in addition to the β-globin gene, ε, Aγ and Gγ, and δ genes are located. These genes are expressed at different stages of development. β-Thalassemia (β-thal) is one of the most common genetic disorders caused by the absence or reduced synthesis of the β-globin chain. It is most common in the Mediterranean regions, some parts of North and West Africa, the Middle East and the Indian subcontinent, the Far East, and Southeast Asia (known as the thalassemia belt). The prevalence of the disease is low in Western countries, for example, in the United States, there are only about a thousand patients with β-thal major (β-TM). Additionally, most of the carriers and patients living in Western countries are immigrants [1–4].