From the Archives: Hey Sherlock, no sh..

 Our annual week-long camping vacation just ended and I'll be playing catchup for a little while, so I'm tapping some of the archived posts from back in the days when you might have just seen this as The Corner Booth, without a specific D-focus. This one originally appeared March 31, 2007, but remains relevant today as many studies continue to provide nothing more than a reassurance of what's already out there and known. Not all, but many. Have you observed any particular studies (mice or pigs or otherwise) that might tickle a comment? Let me know, and of course thanks for visiting!

Breaking news: "Sedentary behavior linked to high blood sugar." Another one this week: "Active Self-care Improves Blood Sugar Control."

Really? Are you kidding me? We had to spend valuable time and resources on studying this? As if no one could have guessed this from talking to a person who's EVER BEEN TO A DOCTOR before??? Or actually lives with diabetes, or knows someone with it? Wow. I'm stunned.

Here's the sendentary story, and the self-care story. Favorite parts include the first one comes from the International Diabetes Instutute in Australia, where a doc and colleagues examined the link between TV-watching and BG levels in non-diabetics. Thousands participated. On the other, it's out of Harvard Medical School. The first is a research fellow, while the U.S.-based one was spearheaded by a psychiatry prof who's also "Research Fellow Affairs director at the Joslin Diabetes Center.

A quote on sitting around-study: "The findings reinforce the case for a strong focus in diabetes and obesity research on sedentary behaviors, such as television viewing, in addition to the now well-established base of evidence on the importance of increasing physical activity," (Dr. David W.) Dunstan commented to Reuters Health. "It is possible that other sedentary behaviors may have an additive effect on risk, in that TV viewing may be a marker for a broader pattern of sedentary lifestyle that includes a variety of other forms of sitting time."

From the do-your basics analysis: "Conversely, those with poor blood glucose control 'spoke of being 'tired' of the pump,' the researchers note. They described feeling discouraged and 'frustrated' that the pump did not 'fix everything' and that 'it's still a lot of work.'" (as opposed to insulin injections, which were cakewalk...)"

That study also concluded, and here's a fascinating fact to stun everyone: "The researchers found women to be more concerned than men about body image and social acceptance with insulin pump use."

Someone please explain to me (like I'm 2) how these tidbits are possibly considered news, or provide any new information to the medical community? Are we honestly supposed to believe the medical profession, and diabetes docs particularly, weren't aware that high BGs were possible in non-diabetics? C'mon - diabetes is out there in "pandemic proportions," people. Wanna guess why? (Thanks for connecting the dots on this issue, also, Reuters - Poor journalism, or just press-release writing...)

What a waste of time and energy.

Maybe, if we devoted research time and money from these types of things to other avenues, we'd be closer to a cure. Not just restating the obvious. Or putting a report out for the sake of resume-padding. Someone in the medical news coverage biz needs to examine worthy v. unworthy research and the money/effort spent on this. Would make some fascinating findings, I'm sure.