• • Over age 19
  • HbA1c 7.5 or higher (no exceptions)
  • Able to attend 1-2 sessions (San Diego, Los Angeles, San Francisco and possibly Orange County)
  • Access to internet
  • Gift cards as compensation for your time

• • Call: 855-850-3599
  • Email: embark@ucsf.edu

Many people find diabetes a challenge and it’s common to feel stressed. However, stress can affect both your diabetes management and your glycemic control. In this NIH-funded research study, we will be comparing three programs to learn how effective they are in reducing stress and improving management for adults with type 1 diabetes.

• • William Polonsky, PhD, CDE, is President and Co-Founder of the Behavioral Diabetes Institute, the world’s first organization wholly dedicated to studying and addressing the unmet psychological needs of people with diabetes. He is also Associate Clinical Professor in Psychiatry at the University of California, San Diego.
  • Lawrence Fisher, Ph.D., ABPP has been a professor in the Department of Family & Community Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco for over 25 years, and he is the Director of The Behavioral Diabetes Research Group at UCSF.

Read more: 

Can Love and Support Improve – Or Even Help Reverse – Chronic Conditions?  is written by Karena Yan for diaTribe.org, 21 January 2020.  Just love this!

At the StartUp Health Festival, Dr. Dean Ornish of the Prevention Medicine Research Institute explained how love and intimacy – in addition to food, exercise, and stress – may actually be major factors in our health and wellbeing

To many, health and wellness mean eating nutritious foods and exercising. While these are certainly important elements of health, they may not make up the whole picture. At the StartUp Health Festival in San Francisco last week, we heard from Dr. Dean Ornish, President and Founder of Prevention Medicine Research Institute, on lifestyle interventions for the reversal of chronic conditions.

Dr. Ornish is a physician and author of the national bestseller Undo it! How Simple Lifestyle Changes Can Reverse Most Chronic Diseases. He says four major elements contribute to health:

• • What you eat
  • How much activity you have
  • How you respond to stress
  • How much love and support you have

According to Dr. Ornish, lifestyle changes in these four areas have the potential to prevent or even reverse conditions such as heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and hypertension. “The reason why these same lifestyle changes can reverse so many diseases is because they’re the same disease manifesting in different forms,” says Dr. Ornish. “They share the same underlying biological mechanisms, such as chronic inflammation and oxidative stress, which in turn are influenced by what we eat, how much we sleep, and so on.”

The last suggestion is often the least intuitive. However, studies have shown that those who are lonely, depressed, and isolated are significantly more likely to get sick and die prematurely from numerous causes, including diabetes, cardiovascular disease, depression, and stroke. A biopsychosocial stressor, loneliness may promote the weakening of immune cells, which are needed to fight off disease; it may also accelerate the buildup of plaque in arteries, help cancer cells grow and spread, and promote inflammation.

As Ornish concluded at the StartUp Health Festival, “The time we spend with friends, families, and loved ones is not a luxury that we do after all the ‘important’ stuff – it may be the most important.”

Read more:  Can Love and Support Improve – Or Even Help Reverse – Chronic Conditions?

The Telepathic Connection Between Animals and Humans was written by Bhavika for Fractalenlightenment.com,

“Until one has loved an animal, a part of one’s soul remains unawakened.” ~ Anatole France

Cosmos and Mana, our 6-year old Indian dogs, patiently wait for our return at the gate. Its only been an hour since we were away to the market to buy supplies, but the ‘welcoming dance’ (the frantic jumping around and sounds) we received at the gate makes it look like ages have passed since we were gone.

The thrill and the joy, not to mention the innumerable licks we get, no matter whether we reciprocate or not, always makes me wonder how do they do that?  How is it possible to have such unconditional love for someone, and no matter what they are always there to put a smile on your face? A valuable lesson for us to learn from our four-legged friends.

Animals and humans share this deep connection incomparable to any other relationship one might have. In fact dogs were the first species to be domesticated by humans — and vice versa of course, at least 32,000 years ago. They have this uncanny knack of sensing your vibe whether you are excited, sad, depressed, or angry; they can read your thoughts and mind.

Rupert Sheldrake in his book, “Dogs That Know Their Owners are Coming Home” talks about the telepathic connection between humans and animals, particularly dog  s.  Sheldrake explained this further, “When a dog is strongly bonded to its owner, this bond persists even when the owner is far away and is, I think, the basis of telepathic communication. I see telepathy as a normal, not paranormal, means of communication between members of animal groups.”

Read more:  The Telepathic Connection Between Animals and Humans

A ‘Healthy’ Diet: More Complex Than Just Low Fat or Low Carbs was reported by Kristen Monaco for MedPageToday.com, 21 January 2020. Ties between diet types and mortality may depend on sources of macronutrients, researchers say.

A low-carbohydrate and low-fat diet was not linked with total mortality, researchers reported.  Looking at nearly 40,000 U.S. adults, those who consumed a diet comprised of low-carbs, but high total protein and fat, didn’t see any reduced all-cause mortality risk (hazard ratio of 0.97, per 20-percentile increase in diet score 95% CI 0.93-1.00, P=0.06 for trend), according to Zhilei Shan, MD, PhD, of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in Boston, and colleagues.

This same lack of association, as described in JAMA Internal Medicine, was seen with a low-fat diet as well.  However, the authors reported that what did appear to bear a significant association on total mortality risk were the specific types and quality of macronutrients consumed.

For example, eating a “healthy” low-carbohydrate diet — defined as low consumption of low-quality carbohydrates, but high consumption of plant protein and unsaturated fat — was tied to a 9% reduction in all-cause mortality risk. While consumption of an “unhealthy” low-carbohydrate diet — comprised of few high-quality carbohydrates, high in animal protein, and high in saturated fats — was associated with a 7% increased risk for death.

Consumption of a “healthy” low-fat diet — or a diet that was low in saturated fats, high in high-quality carbs, and also high in plant protein — was associated with an 11% decreased risk for all-cause mortality. Finally, people who ate an “unhealthy” low-fat diet — one that was low in unsaturated fats, but high in low-quality, simple carbs and also high in animal protein — was tied to a modest 6% increased risk for all-cause death.

Read more:  A ‘Healthy’ Diet: More Complex Than Just Low Fat or Low Carbs

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