Recently sugar has been all over the news as it’s been linked with the growing obesity problem in the United States.
Earlier this month, Dr. Robert Lustig told CBS News’ “60 minutes” that sugar is addictive, toxic, and it’s killing us by increasing our risk of heart disease, type II diabetes, hypertension and cancer. The pediatric [...]

Dr. Brandon Roy, a weight loss surgeon with Wake Specialty Physicians’ Bariatric Program, and Lucy Merritt, a patient of Dr. Roy, talk with Maggie Alexander of NBC about the role that bariatric surgery can play in reversing diabetes. A pair of studies released last week found that weight-loss surgery worked better than traditional therapies for [...]

American Diabetes Association Alert Day on Tuesday, March 27 is a one-day “wake up” call that encourages everyone to take the Diabetes Risk Test to find out if they are at risk for developing type 2 diabetes.
In addition to taking the test, signs and symptoms of diabetes include:

Extreme thirst or hunger
Frequent urination
Blurred vision
Drowsiness or dizziness
Headache
Irritability

However, [...]

By Amy Bowen, RD, LDN and Lindsey Hurd, Dietetic Intern, MS
With sensible management through diet, exercise, and medication, individuals diagnosed with diabetes can live a long healthy life. Diabetes is a lifelong disease that cannot be cured. Luckily, risks for complications and accompanying diseases such as heart disease can be reversed or avoided by following [...]

Editor’s Note: In the fight against chronic conditions, what you eat can be just as important as taking your medicine as prescribed, exercising, and having a support system. In a series of blog posts, Parul Kharod, a clinical dietitian at WakeMed Cary Hospital, will explore the best diet for common conditions such as high blood [...]

Both WRAL and NBC 17 did stories this week featuring WakeMed Physician Dr. Michele Casey about the importance of getting the whooping cough vaccine.
Eighty-two cases of the contagious disease were recently confirmed in Alamance County.
Whooping cough, also known as pertussis, is a bacterial disease which leads to severe coughing that can cause people to make [...]

Thirty-two people die every day in North Carolina of cardiac arrest, but that could change if more people were trained to do CPR.
WakeMed Cardiologist Dr. George Hamrick, spoke with NBC 17 this week about the importance of learning CPR during a “Feel the Beat: CPR Anytime” event in Garner.
The program includes a presentation on the [...]

WakeMed pediatrician Dr. Travis Honeycutt spoke with WRAL this week about the use of probiotics in recovering from the contagious norovirus. Symptoms of norovirus include nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and stomach cramps. Probiotics is a healthy bacteria that normally lives in the intestine and can be found as dietary supplements. They combat the virus by putting [...]

Bariatric surgery is a surgical procedure to help patients lose weight, reduce the risk of life threatening conditions like diabetes and high blood pressure, and improve the overall quality of life.
Weight loss surgery is not a cure for obesity.  It is, however, a powerful tool to help you jump-start your weight loss and begin your [...]

Throughout the month of November in celebration of American Diabetes Month, we will bring you facts about the prevention and the management of prediabetes and diabetes.  We started last week with prediabetes and have now progressed to type 1 and type 2 diabetes.
According to the American Diabetes Association in 2011 a total of 25.8 million [...]