from Acute Care Nurse....

She says,  I ask all cancer-care patients

if they drink a lot of water: 

100% of the time, they say,

"Water?  I don't drink much water." 

This is a personal check she is doing,

but it points out that maybe ...

We should all drink more water!

Just a cup of water every hour, on the hour,

and how much water would we easily be drinking?

 ... more than we are now?

From Dr. Mirkin's answers:

Helps for those resistant to insulin - http://www.drmirkin.com/diabetes/D222.html 

Dear Dr. Mirkin: Is it better to eat one or two large meals or many small ones?

Several studies show that nibblers are thinner than
gorgers. Animals that nibble throughout the day have lower cholesterol levels and less body fat than those that eat all their calories in one meal.  You can shorten your life by drinking a cup of coffee for breakfast, having a small snack at lunchtime and then eating a huge meal in the evening.  One study showed that men who skipped meals were far more likely to be fat than those who ate regular meals. Adult diabetics who eat small meals frequently had lower blood sugar levels and produced less insulin throughout the day.

Your body temperature rises for about an hour after you eat. Eating frequently raises your body temperature for longer periods of time, causing you to burn more calories and store less as fat. Frequent small meals can also help diabetics to lose weight and control their blood sugar levels. The more a diabetic
eats at a meal, the higher the blood sugar rises, causing sugar to stick to cells and be converted to a poison called sorbitol that causes nerve damage. Eating smaller amounts of food can prevent this by preventing blood sugar levels from rising too high.

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Dr. Mirkin's E-Zine
August 10, 2003

How Exercise Affects Blood Sugar Levels

Regular exercise may help to prevent heart attacks by
lowering insulin levels.  When you eat, blood sugar levels rise and the higher they rise, the more insulin is released by your pancreas. You need insulin to keep blood sugar levels from rising too high, but it constricts arteries to cause heart attacks.  Exercise uses up muscle sugar called glycogen so that when you eat, blood sugar goes into empty muscles.  This keeps blood sugar levels from rising too high and bringing out extra insulin.  High blood levels of insulin lower the good HDL cholesterol and raise triglycerides, but do not affect the bad LDL cholesterol levels.  Exercise does the opposite by lowering insulin levels and does not lower blood bad LDL cholesterol levels.  Even if you are not diabetic or otherwise concerned with high blood sugar levels, you can benefit from a regular exercise program that lowers blood insulin levels.  An ideal program includes alternating an upper body exercise such as swimming and a lower one such as jogging.  Alternating muscle groups allows your muscles to feel fresh each day and helps to prevent injuries.

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Dear Dr. Mirkin: Should I be concerned about a low blood iron level?

Low blood iron levels can be beneficial as long as you
are not anemic.  Donating blood lowers blood iron levels and also helps to prevent heart attacks.  Before the bad LDL cholesterol can form plaques in arteries, it must be converted to oxidized LDL cholesterol, and iron causes this reaction.  Lack of iron reduces your chances of forming plaques in arteries to cause heart attacks and strokes.
Routine blood tests measure the size of your red blood cells.  If they are small, your doctor will order a test called ferritin to measure iron reserves.  If your ferritin is low, your doctor will look for a source of bleeding from menstruation or through the intestinal tract. If no serious source is found, you need no treatment unless you are a highly competitive athlete.

Less than 50 percent of the iron in your body is in your red blood cells. Most is in your iron reserves in your liver, spleen and other tissues. Your body needs iron to make red blood cells and if your body does not contain enough iron, you will become anemic, but you will not become anemic until you have depleted all your iron reserves. You can be iron deficient but not anemic, when you have an adequate supply of red blood cells, but no iron reserves. Iron deficiency does not make you tired unless you are also anemic, but it can tire athletes exercising at their maximum.

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Dear Dr. Mirkin: How can you tell if a mole is cancerous?

Most moles on your skin will never harm you, but some can turn into a cancer called melanoma that can spread through your body.   Moles are a type of fleshy dark spot in your skin. The moles that are likely to turn cancerous have irregular borders and multiple colors, but even with these signs, only a small proportion will become cancerous. Studies have shown that people who have many moles and at least one atypical mole are the ones most likely to have cancers. For example, those with 100 or more benign moles were 26 times more likely to have an atypical moles.

Other factors that increase a person's chances of having melanoma are freckling, presumably because it is a sign that some areas of skin are not protected from the sun by pigment; and difficulty tanning, because these people do not build up protection against sun damage.  A surprising finding is that
pregnancy appears to protect against a person having atypical moles.  If you have moles with irregular borders and multiple colors, check with your doctor who will probably remove them with a simple office surgery.

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