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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.''
----
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.
---
Information from: Tulsa World, http://www.tulsaworld.com
'Commercial Kings' makes art of small-business ads
Of Interest from the Career Center
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Important Announcement to Our Job Tools Users
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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.
---
Online:
http://wwww.ifc.com/rhett-link
http://youtube.com/rhettandlink
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