Want to Avoid Diabetes? Get More Vitamin C

By Kelley Herring

Digging into a fresh grapefruit today may help guard against diabetes tomorrow. Why? Vitamin C.

A recent study published in the journal Archives of Internal Medicine evaluated plasma vitamin C levels and the risk of developing Type II diabetes. The study included 21,831 non-diabetic participants who were followed over a 12-year period.

The researchers found that those with the highest levels of vitamin C (in the top 20 percent) had a 62 percent lower risk of developing diabetes compared to those with the lowest levels of vitamin C.

Vitamin C levels are declining in our food sources. So, in addition to filling up on vitamin C-rich foods (citrus, strawberries, peppers, and broccoli, to name a few), you may want to take a supplement.

It's Fun to Know: Is Your Life a Reality Show?

Psychiatrists are reporting a new disorder, one that, researchers say, illustrates the influence pop culture has on mental illness. Patients with "Truman syndrome" (named after the movie The Truman Show) are under the delusion that their lives are being recorded and broadcast as a TV reality show. So far, about 50 cases have been seen around the world.

(Source: Associated Press)

Do You Leave Your Customers Scratching Their Heads?

By Jason Holland

"Well, her pH looks good, and so does the CBC. But I'm worried about the electrolytes. You see here? They're at 300. But there's no reason she can't go home. Just have her drink some Gatorade."

And with that, the doctor left the exam room. (To be honest, the above is not a direct quote. I really don't know what the hell the doctor said.)

A midnight run to the ER with my grandmother. And neither she nor I had any idea what had caused her dizzy spell.

Doctors are known for their inability to explain to patients, in laymen's terms, what's going on. And they're not alone. In the business world, many companies sabotage customer relationships and lose sales because they use in-house shorthand, jargon, and corporate-speak.

I have never returned to the department store, for example, where an employee repeatedly (and with contempt) asked me for the "skew" of an item I wanted to special order. (Turned out he was saying "SKU," short for stock-keeping unit, which is a way to track inventory.)

And my wife was driven to the point of exhaustion by a phone company customer service rep who said she couldn't answer any questions until she had a "CIN." Turns out this "customer identification number" (not to be confused with the account number), is printed in microscopic type on the monthly bill.

There are countless examples. And because employees are accustomed to talking like this within the company, many don't realize when they are using language that is incomprehensible to people in the outside world... including their customers.

The last thing you want is to make your customers feel like outsiders. So check your customer service and marketing messages with an objective eye. Are you communicating with your customers using terms and phrases they don't understand? When discussing technical issues, are you breaking them down and making them easy to digest?

If you're not communicating with your customers on their level... you're losing sales.

Word to the Wise: Homily

A "homily" (HAH-muh-lee) - from the Greek for "instruction" - is (1) a moralizing lecture, or (2) an inspirational, often cliched, saying.

Example (as used by Brad Barkley in Money, Love): "The book consisted of easy-to-remember rhyming homilies on the subjects of selling, winning, and making money ('If you want to earn your dough, get up in the morning and GO, GO, GO!')."

__________________________________________________
These articles appear courtesy of Early to Rise [Issue #2529, 12-04-08], the Internet's most popular health, wealth, and success e-zine. For a complimentary subscription, visit http://www.earlytorise.com/.