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African-American Village Daily News

Study: Nearly 350 million diabetics worldwide

By MARIA CHENG

LONDON (AP) - The number of adults worldwide with diabetes has more than doubled in three decades, jumping to an estimated 347 million, a new study says.

Much of that increase is due to aging populations - since diabetes typically hits in middle age - and population growth, but part of it has also been fueled by rising obesity rates.

With numbers climbing almost everywhere, experts said the disease is no longer limited to rich countries and is now a global problem. Countries in which the numbers rose fastest include Cape Verde, Samoa, Saudi Arabia, Papua New Guinea, and the United States.

"Diabetes may well become the defining issue of global health for the next decade,'' said Majid Ezzati, chair of global environmental health at Imperial College London, one of the study authors.

He noted the figures don't reflect the generations of overweight children and young adults who have yet to reach middle age. That could create a massive burden on health systems.

"We are not at the peak of this wave yet,'' he said. "And unlike high blood pressure and cholesterol, we still don't have great treatments for diabetes.''

Still, in Britain and elsewhere in Western Europe, despite growing waistlines, there was only a slight rise in diabetes. Experts weren't sure why and said there could be several reasons, including worse detection of the disease, genetic differences, or perhaps the Europeans were better at getting heavy people to reduce their chances of developing diabetes.

Women in Singapore, France, Italy and Switzerland remained relatively slim and had virtually no change in their diabetes rates. Numbers also stayed flat in sub-Saharan Africa, central Latin America and rich Asian countries.

Type 2 is the most common type of diabetes and is often tied to obesity. It develops when the body doesn't produce enough insulin to break down glucose, inflating blood sugar levels. The disease can be managed with diet, exercise and medication but chronically high blood sugar levels causes nerve damage, which can result in kidney disease, blindness and amputation.

For their estimate, Ezzati and colleagues examined more than 150 national health surveys and studies that tracked Type 2 diabetes in adults older than 25 in 199 countries and territories. They used modeling to estimate cases for another 92 countries.

They calculated there were 347 million people worldwide with diabetes. In 1980, there were 153 million. Their figures come with a big margin of error, ranging from 314 million to 382 million. A previous study using different methods estimated there were 285 million people with diabetes in 2010.

The new study was paid for by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the World Health Organization. It was published Saturday in the journal Lancet.

Doctors warned the higher susceptibility of certain groups like Asians, blacks and Hispanics to diabetes could dramatically boost future rates. "Other ethnicities don't have to be as obese as people of European descent to get diabetes,'' said Dr. Aaron Cypess, a staff physician at Joslin Diabetes Center. He was not linked to the Lancet study.

"It may be, for example, that Indians and Chinese store their fat in more dangerous places, like a pot belly,'' he said, theorizing that kind of abdominal fat can send out hormones to speed up diabetes.

But Cypess was optimistic the trend might be reversed, citing first lady Michelle Obama's fight against childhood obesity in the U.S. as an encouraging sign.

Iain Frame, director of research at Diabetes U.K., said the bigger challenge was simply to persuade people to adopt healthier lifestyles. "We have a fair idea of how to prevent Type 2 diabetes - you have to move more and eat less,'' he said. "But putting it into practice across a wide population is another question altogether.''

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Online:

http://www.lancet.com

http://www.joslin.org

http://www.diabetes.org.uk

Campers given insight to diversity at Anytown

By AMANDA BLAND
Tulsa World

CHOUTEAU, Okla. (AP) - In many ways, Camp Anytown is like any other summer camp.

Teenagers play basketball and lounge on swings in the midst of traditional wooden lodges.

Snacks and workshops and new friendships abound between the trees and green grass of rural Oklahoma.

One group is clustered around a picnic table making paper-macché piñatas, while another is inside planning a skit.

But Camp Anytown isn't about crafts and fun, although that's part of it. The 54 high school students are gathered to learn to combat bigotry, bias and racism and to enact positive change in their communities.

Jeff Matthews, Camp Anytown director, said the goal is to have students see themselves as world citizens, which is why they are referred to as delegates and not campers.

Matthews is also program director for the Oklahoma Center for Community and Justice, Camp Anytown's sponsoring organization.

"We are the sole organization in the state of Oklahoma with its mission to fight racism, bigotry and bias,'' he said.

Camp Anytown is the group's flagship program to do so.

Camp delegates come from all over the state and from a variety of races, faiths, cultures and backgrounds.

In preparation for a recent culture night, delegates split into their self-identified culture groups, including Asian American, African American, American Indian, etc.

The Hispanic-American group is making the piñatas and consists of four delegates, with Moises Echeverria, 25, as their camp counselor.

All the counselors are former Anytown delegates. Echeverria is an international business senior at Oklahoma State University and said the camp changed his life.

"It opened my eyes to a lot of issues that I had never experienced, that I had never been exposed to,'' he said.

Echeverria, who went to Broken Arrow High School, described himself as introverted before Anytown.

"I went from being this quiet kid that sat by himself in the corner to the kid that was involved in every organization in school,'' he said.

The delegates working with Echeverria said they hope to take away the same confidence.

"People that I would never approach, I started approaching here,'' said Bryan Torres, 17, from East Central High School.

The delegates learn about themselves and others during the weeklong camp through several discussion groups, workshops and panels, which all center around diversity.

Ali Wonderly, 16, from Berryhill High School, is one of five girls writing a skit to represent German-Americans.

Wonderly and the other delegates in her group said there have been a lot of reality checks, one of which was an activity highlighting some of the hardships delegates had encountered in their young lives.

Everybody was crying, they said.

"It really got me thinking that everyone has their problems,'' said Stephanie Lopez, 16, from East Central.

Lopez said those problems don't have to define their lives, though.

"You decide what kind of person you are,'' she said.

Several delegates described the experience as life changing, but Samantha Devlin, 16, of Broken Arrow said it depends on each delegate's investment in the camp activities and goals.

"You get out of it what you put in,'' she said.

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Information from: Tulsa World, http://www.tulsaworld.com
 

'Commercial Kings' makes art of small-business ads

By LYNN ELBER
AP Television Writer

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Big companies boast big marketing budgets and slick ad agencies, but mom and pop stores have something money can't buy: Rhett McLaughlin and Link Neal.

They're the clever comedy duo behind "I Love Local Commercials,'' a web series that displays the freewheeling spots they've done gratis for small, generally offbeat businesses that caught their eye.

In their new IFC series, "Rhett & Link: Commercial Kings,'' they reveal the creative process behind ads for, among others, a spa offering colonics, an eco-friendly burial products firm called Bury Me Naturally and Super Shmuttle, a shuttle and day care service for dogs.

Felines aren't ignored. There's a segment on the Holiday Hotel for Cats in the debut episode airing 10 p.m. EDT Friday.

The owner, explaining her business to McLaughlin and Neal so they can properly showcase it, offers: "It's a resort hotel'' for kitties.

"What's the equivalent of parasailing?'' replies a droll McLaughlin.

That's about as snarky as the good-natured pair get. They come across as slightly madcap media nerds with a love of irony, but also boosters for small businesses and obsessed with the challenge of making an honest, entertaining ad.

Neal and McLaughlin are YouTube sensations with a popular channel that includes some 200 videos, including "Facebook Song,'' about the pleasures of a Facebook-based life (8 million-plus views), and "Fast Food Folk Song (nearly 5 million views). Major companies have signed up as sponsors.

Friends since their childhood in Buies Creek, N.C., and now 33-year-olds living in Los Angeles with their families, both are engineers by training and, briefly, profession. Their previous foray into TV was the short-lived CW show "Online Nation'' in 2007, which stoked their desire to make entertainment their life's work.

It started, in part, because of a shared love of quirky ads.

"We've always been a fan of local commercials,'' Neal said. "You'll see a car salesman decide he needs to dress up as a chicken to sell his used cars. It's fascinating, it's unforgettable, and you may find, `I wasn't in the market for a car but I was in the market to watch a grown man in a chicken suit.'''

In an age of viral marketing and DVRs that make TV commercial-skipping a breeze, the pair remain true believers in the art of the amusing ad.

"Potentially even a refined form of art,'' Neal said. "A great local commercial is like a snapping turtle. Once it grabs you it doesn't let go.''

"No, it does let go,'' McLaughlin parries. "I think an alligator is better. It takes and rolls you under, then lets your carcass rot.''

The pair do their own market research and then cast, direct, shoot and edit each commercial with input from the business owner. They revel in pushing their clients - and viewers - out of their comfort zone.

They persuaded the owners of a yoga studio, one of whom had served in the Vietnam War, to present themselves as "solidiers of yoga'' and use fake weapons and explosions in their ad.

For the African-American owner of a hair salon who wants to attract non-black customers, McLaughlin and Neal hit the race issue straight on. Their ad includes a candid entreaty from the owner and features the salon's stylists demonstrating their skills on white, Asian and Latino women.

"If that's what the client wants, that's what we're going to give him. We can harness a little controversy but have fun with it,'' Neal said. "We're not a rigged-up reality show. We are sincerely trying to help a business and have fun in the process.''

It worked for the Holiday Hotel for Cats, he said: The owner got two new customers shortly after the ad was released online.

"Commerical Kings'' remains true to Neal and McLaughlin's online roots: The pair plan to tweet live with viewers during each episode's Friday night debut and will stream live at IFC.com when the episode repeats at 10:30 p.m. ET.

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Online:

http://wwww.ifc.com/rhett-link

http://youtube.com/rhettandlink

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