Harbinder Virdi

Postprandial blood glucose levels, but not fasting blood glucose, predict cardiovascular events and all-cause mortality in people with type 2 diabetes, according to 14 years of follow-up in the   San Luigi Gonzaga Diabetes   Study . HbA 1c   was also a predictor of both outcomes over the long term, according to   Dr Franco   Cavalot   (University of Turin, Italy), who presented long-term follow-up data here at the   European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD) 2011 Meeting . Franco and colleagues reported five-year findings from this study back in 2006: at that time, postprandial blood glucose was predictive of CVD events after adjustment for HbA 1c   and other cardiovascular risk factors. The study included 505 patients with type 2 diabetes reporting for regular follow-up at the diabetes clinic. Patients underwent blood glucose tests at four time points: fasting, two hours after breakfast, two hours after lunch, and before dinner. Three separate Cox regression models

A parable is told of a farmer who owned an old mule. The mule fell into the farmer's well. The farmer heard the mule 'braying' - or - whatever mules do when they fall into wells. After carefully assessing the situation, the farmer sympathized with the mule, but decided that neither the mule nor the well was worth the trouble of saving. Instead, he called his neighbors together and told them what had happened...and enlisted them to help haul dirt to bury the old mule in the well and put him out of his misery.   Initially, the old mule was hysterical! But as the farmer and his neighbors continued shoveling and the dirt hit his back...a thought struck him. It suddenly dawned on him that every time a shovel load of dirt landed on his back...HE SHOULD SHAKE IT OFF AND STEP UP! This he did, blow after blow.   "Shake it off and step up...shake it off and step up...shake it off and step up!" he repeated to encourage himself. No matter how painful the blows, or d