From:
sukiecrandall@telocity.com
Date: 2002-11-27 22:46:49 UTC
Subject: Re: Diabetes
To: ferrethealth@smartgroups.com
Message-ID: <31729265.1038437209092.JavaMail.root@scandium>
>The "why does he have diabetes" is a great
> question. According to Dr Jack Oliver (U of Tenn) ~8% of ferrets with
> adrenal gland disease will have elevated cortisol levels, so that could
> cause insulin resistance if his cortisol is elevated. ..
>I recently
> had a chance to talk to an human internal specialist from the Mayo
> Clinic in Minnesota about this very topic. She gave me a long list
> of possibilities.
There might be some future ideas arising from a human geriatrics study IF the study pans out and IF any of the info carries over to humans. I haven't read this but only heard an interview on NPR yesterday and
I'd already read something somewhere in the past when either they or
someone else announced some findings (preliminary findings?) but
can't recall where -- most likely Science News, NY Times Science
page, Sci Am, or Tufts Health and Nutrition Letter. If it interests
you you'll want to call up the All Things Considered part of their
website and listen.
This is a recent geriatrics study on extremely old aged folks in Okinawa that found certain things: they ate a diet that left them feeling full and comfortable without getting heavy (most were slim but not skinny) the diet was very high in vegetables, fruits, grains, and soy. It had a decent amount of seafood but that not one of the main components, and a bit of fatty pork as a flavoring that was in tiny amounts -- like when a pork bone with slight bits of meat and fat attached is used in pea soup but no overt meat pieces are added.
>From what was said the local area tends to not have much of a tendency to high pressure so although people may have lived more modestly they had free time for hobbies and low tension rates, and there was an inclination toward exercising throughout life so even the old had good muscle levels.
Rates of many diseases, including heart disease, some types of malignancies, and diabetes are about the lowest in the world and the rates of people who 1. survive over 100 and 2. who are active and vital over 100 is the highest.
It sounds like they have not yet found a genetic component.
The study possibly raises several questions about various hypotheses if the study's findings are valid or something hasn't been overlooked, because those hypotheses may not work, or may work under only certain conditions, like low exercise, or high fat in the diet, or low levels of vegetables and fruits, not much fish in the diet, higher stress, etc. (One interesting thing about high stress is that it was found in a past study to be a factor which can also directly lead to fat deposition around the middle which is a visual clue that a person may be more prone to circulatory or pancreatic problems, or both.)
Anyway, it is interesting how little is known still, but not surprising and that does help make life intriguing.
Ferrets are very different from humans, of course, and what may work for us may not work for them, plus they simply don't digest fruits and vegetables well (having such a short GI tract, no appendix, rapid transit time, etc.) and have been known to get life threatenting blockages from some which are too hard, too large, and too indigestible, so...