Spandidos Publications: Experimental And Therapeutic Medicine

Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a metabolic disease characterized by hyperglycemia, and its chronic complications can cause patient death and disability (1). There are about 415 million patients with DM worldwide, and the number has been increasing annually (2). Currently, about 193 million of the patients have not been diagnosed. Chronic DM that is untreated induces many complications and the incidence rates are still on the rise even after blood glucose is controlled (3). The long-term development of DM causes pathological changes of vascular structure, and then leads to microvascular and macrovascular complications (4). Previous findings have shown that DM is an independent risk factor for cerebral infarction (CI). The development of CI is closely related to severe metabolic dysfunction, and early CI is caused by arterial occlusion (5,6). The mortality of patients with diabetes mellitus complicated with cerebral infarction (DMCI) is very high. The pathological basis of the disease is atherosclerosis and the pathological change is thrombosis (7). Therefore, the timely detection and control of macroangiopathy is of great significance to prevent and for treatment of DMCI.



Carotid intima-media thickness (CIMT) is an early manifestation of atherosclerosis, and changes in its value reflect the severity of atherosclerosis. It is practical, easy to operate, and conducive to assessing the risk of cerebrovascular diseases (8). Homocysteine (Hey) level plays an important role in the development and progression of DM. Its high level causes atherosclerosis and cardio-cerebrovascular diseases through damaging vascular endothelium, inducing thrombosis, and promoting the proliferation of vascular smooth muscle cells (9). DM is a chronic low-grade inflammation and is characterized by the excessive secretion of interleukin-1β (IL-1β) and other pro-inflammatory cytokines, which enhances inflammatory signals and then results in complications such as vasculopathy (10,11). Previous studies have reported that systolic blood pressure (SBP), diastolic blood pressure (DBP), high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) are major risk factors for CI (12-14). However, there are currently few studies on the diagnostic values of Hey, GlycoModeBloodSugar.com IL-1β, and fasting blood glucose (FBG) levels for DMCI, or whether IL-1β is a risk factor for CI.



Therefore, the roles and significance of Hey, IL-1β, and FBG levels in patients with DMCI were explored in this study. Altogether 124 patients with DMCI (the DMCI group) and 103 patients with DM (the DM group) admitted to the People's Hospital of Liuhe District of Nanjing from February 2016 to January 2019 were enrolled in this study. The DMCI group consisted of 65 males and 59 females aged 46-78 years with an average age of 60.9±9.7 years. The DM group consisted of 53 males and 50 females aged 43-75 years with an average age of 60.1±9.5 years. A further 100 healthy controls undergoing physical examinations during the same period (the HC group) were also enrolled. The group comprised 59 males and 41 females aged 39-70 years with an average age of 58.4±8.6 years. The research subjects were informed and signed an informed consent form. This study did not violate ethics or morality and was approved by the Ethics Committee of the People's Hospital of Liuhe District (Nanjing). Inclusion criteria for the study were: patients in the DMCI and DM groups met the diagnostic criteria for DM from the American Diabetes Association (ADA) in 2017 (15), and their diabetes was type II diabetes mellitus. Patients in the DMCI group met the diagnostic criteria for CI from the American Heart Association (AHA) / the American Stroke Association (ASA) in 2018 (16), and their CI was confirmed by cranial imaging, MRI, or skidawaytimes.com CT.



What is this post about? The list of negative effects of meat consumption is long. They range from animal suffering over global food distribution considerations to climate change and more. In this post, I want to elaborate on the problematic aspects of eating meat and show how it is possible and easy to switch diets without any loss in quality of life. TLDR; please don’t eat meat - it’s really bad for everyone. I think most people have heard that animals are held in bad conditions, that meat is less effective than other kinds of food on an energy per gram measure, that meat uses a lot of water during production, etc. However, during most of the discussions I personally had, heard or read about the topic there were astonishingly little numbers and weighings involved. To exaggerate - "you are either a Nazi for eating meat" or "you are a Nazi for taking away someone’s freedom to eat meat" is a discourse that I have witnessed way too often.