The treatment of diabetes is highly individualized. It will depend on the type of diabetes, whether you have other active medical problems, as well as your age and general health at time of diagnosis. However, one fact remains constant in treatment: if you have diabetes, you must make healthier lifestyle choices in diet, exercise, and other habits. These will help to improve glycemic (blood sugar) control and prevent or minimize complications of diabetes.
Diet: A healthy diet is key to controlling blood sugar levels and preventing diabetes complications.
*If you are obese and have had difficulty losing weight on your own, talk to your health care provider. He or she can recommend a dietician or a weight modification program to help you reach your goal.
*Eat a consistent, well-balanced diet that is high in fibre, low in saturated fat, and low in concentrated sugars.
*A consistent diet that includes roughly the same number of calories at about the same times of day helps your health care provider prescribe the correct dose of medication or insulin.
*It will also help to keep your blood sugar at a relatively even level and avoid excessively low or high blood sugar levels, which can be dangerous and even life threatening.
Exercise: Regular exercise, in any form, can help reduce the risk of developing diabetes. Activity can also reduce the risk of developing complications of diabetes such as heart disease, stroke, kidney failure, blindness, and leg ulcers.
*As little as 20 minutes of walking 3 times a week has a proven beneficial effect. Any exercise is beneficial; no matter how light or how long, some exercise is better than no exercise.
*If you have complications of diabetes (eye, kidney, or nerve problems), you may be limited both in type of exercise and amount of exercise you can safely do without worsening your condition. Consult with your health care provider before starting any exercise program.
Alcohol use: Moderate or eliminate your consumption of alcohol. Try to have no more than 7 alcoholic drinks in a week and never more than 2-3 in an evening. One drink is considered 1.5 ounces of liquor, 6 ounces of wine, or 12 ounces of beer. Excessive alcohol use is a known risk factor for type 2 diabetes. Alcohol consumption can cause low or high blood sugar levels, nerve pain called neuritis, and increase in triglycerides, which is a type of fat in our blood.
Smoking: If you have diabetes, and you smoke cigarettes or use any other form of tobacco, you are raising your risks markedly for nearly all of the complications of diabetes. Smoking damages blood vessels and contributes to heart disease, stroke, and poor circulation in the limbs. If you need help quitting, talk to your health care provider.
Self-monitored blood glucose: Check your blood sugar levels frequently, at least before meals and at bedtime, and record the results in a logbook.
*This log should also include your insulin or oral medication doses and times, when and what you ate, when and for how long you exercised, and any significant events of the day such as high or low blood sugar levels and how you treated the problem.
*Better equipment now available makes testing your blood sugar levels less painful and less complicated than ever. Your daily blood sugar diary is invaluable to your health care provider in seeing how you are responding to medications, diet, and exercise in the treatment of your diabetes.
*Medicare now pays for diabetic testing supplies, as do many private insurers and Medicaid.
Paul Buntrage
http://www.articlesbase.com/medicine-articles/diabetes-treatment-at-home-3-tips-to-minimize-complications-70563.html
If you have Type 2 Diabetes or pre-diabetes, insulin is actually being secreted with abundance in your blood but because of several factors such as excess belly fat and physical inactivity, insulin can’t bind to the sugar in your blood and have it stored in the largest body organ which are your muscles.
This problem is called insulin resistance which if not addressed can lead to diabetes complications, heart disease, high blood pressure and cholesterol leading to heart attacks and strokes. This resistance problem is now seen among Type 1 diabetics as well since Americans have become physically inactive with an all time high body weight; both of which are major contributors to insulin resistance and consequently to pre-diabetes and diabetes.
But worse yet, since insulin is available in your blood in large quantity, it can still perform it’s other task, which is to store fat in your belly area. The large amounts of fats from the fatty burgers, fried food and the extra large sugar laden soft drinks that you consume every day have no place to go but your body fat and arteries. By the way, sugar from foods and beverages (soft drinks, latte, sweet tea and juices) are readily transformed into fat. Weight gain along with physical inactivity keep on fueling the insulin resistance problem making your diabetes worse and if you’re pre-diabetic you become a full-blown diabetic.
Insulin’s function is 3 folds: 1) The uptake of Glucose (sugar) from the blood and storing it in the liver and muscles in the form of Glycogen, 2) The up take of fat, from the food we eat, from our blood and storing it in the fatty deposits in the belly area and under the skin all over the body, 3) the uptake of protein, from the food we eat, from the blood and storing it in the muscle.
T he most efficient ways diabetics and pre-diabetics can become more sensitive to the effects of insulin is weight loss by making balanced food choices AND ACTIVITY . Activity is necessary for all people of all ages and gender. But for diabetics it is crucial to defeat this deadly disease and it’s complications. Sadly, only a minority of all those diabetics, pre-diabetics lead an active lifestyle, the rest remain sedentary and suffer the worsening consequences of their condition.
Why activity? Because muscles in our bodies which are the largest of all the body’s organs use sugar as the main form of fuel. So when you become more diligently active your muscles will burn energy and become partially depleted of Sugar. Now when your insulin is secreted from you pancreas it will bind to the sugar in your blood and will store it in your muscles in the form of a substance called “Glycogen”.
So when you become more active not only you are causing the sugar in your blood to be reduced but also you are making your insulin more sensitive and you will be losing weight in the process hence resolving the problem of insulin resistance; triple positive whammy to your health.
Why weight loss? When fat builds up in your belly area around your vital organs two very deadly things happen. Research confirms that the fat in your belly area contributes directly to artery disease and Plaque formation that block your arteries leading to heart disease and heart attacks. Also, research confirms that the more belly fat you have the lower the levels of a hormone called “Adiponectin” which is an essential hormone to make your insulin work best. As belly fat goes up the lower this substance becomes and the more insulin resistant you become. So as you lose weight this situation is reversed and your insulin returns to normal function.
You can become active in a gradual process aiming at walking about 10 to 12 thousand steps daily. Refer to “Lifestyle Makeover for Diabetics and Pre-Diabetics” for more details on Lifestyle Makeover tips.
In fact, to visually witness the blood sugar lowering effect of walking, try this at home with your sugar monitor. Take a sugar reading before a 20-minute brisk walking bout and take another reading immediately after. Before your eyes you will witness how your sugar dropped as a result of your muscles taking up the sugar from your blood.
T he answer is ACTIVITY, ACTIVITY AND MORE ACTIVITY. Along with balanced food choices you achieve ultimate blood sugar control and reversal of pre-diabetes.
Out of control diabetes and diabetes complications are very deadly but you are in charge and you have the capacity to bring diabetes under control. Consequently you can expect to live with controlled diabetes or reverse it and enjoy a natural lifespan complication free and the best quality of life. Diabetes and pre-diabetes can be totally managed and even reversed but only when you start making balanced and favorable lifestyle choices.
All diabetes control and pre-diabetes related issues and factors are simplified and discussed in detail in my book titled “Lifestyle Makeover for Diabetics and Pre-Diabetics” which is available through www.LifestyleMakeoverEbook.com
For more detailed information on any of these topics log on to: www.LifestyleMakeoverEbook.com and check out these information packed lifesaving book and e-book volumes: LIFESTYLE MAKEOVER FOR DIABETICS AND PRE-DIABETICS and four other e-books: Lifestyle Makeover: Sex, Stress, and Alcohol , Lifestyle Makeover for All Couch Potatoes , Lifestyle Makeover: Defeat High Cholesterol and Blood Pressure , and Lifestyle Makeover for all Tobacco Users . The author of this article is also the author of these volumes
Test your knowledge on these various issues and take a simple True and False quiz by logging on to: www.LifestyleMakeoverEbook.com
Copyright © 2008 by George Tohme All rights reserved.
George Tohme
http://www.articlesbase.com/health-articles/insulin-sensitivity-683981.html
Men with diabetes face much more several health concerns, that including increased risk of heart attacks and strokes and impotence (not being able to having or keep an erection though).
Above the age of 50 the likelihood of having other difficulties with an erection occurs in an approximately 50-60% of men with the problem of diabetes. In reality men over 70, 90% have erectile dysfunction problems so far .
Diagnosed and controlled diabetes can be effectively managed to minimise its impact on your health and well being. You can even prevent or delay diabetes complications those like damage to eye sight and nerve damage to the fingers and toes. However many men do not realise just they suffer from the disease. Around one third of the men population with diabetes are not aware of their
illness.
Diabetes Signs and other Symptoms
If you find yourself with any of these following symptoms, it is really important that you visit your doctor or health practitioner and get tested for diabetes problem:
â?¢ feeling tired often
â?¢ frequent urination (specially at night)
â?¢ being very thirsty most of time
â?¢ weight loss problems
â?¢ blurry eyesight problems
â?¢ recurring skin, other gum, or bladder infections
â?¢ sores that heal comparatively slowly
â?¢ dry, and itchy skin
â?¢ loss of feeling or tingling in that your feet
Type 1 and Type 2 Diabetes
There are few other different kinds of diabetes:
â?¢ Type 1 diabetes is generally first diagnosed in children, teenagers, or young adults.
â?¢ Type 2 diabetes is the other most common form of diabetes. People can even develop it at any age, but it is often diagnosed in the later life and is in much more common found in men who are over weight and do little exercise.
What is Diabetes?
Most of the food that we eat is turned into glucose (sugar) for our bodies to use for energy production . The pancreas makes insulin that which helps sugar get right into the cells. When you have diabetes problems then your body either doesnâ??t make enough insulin or just canâ??t use the insulin it does to make. This causes sugar to build up in your blood then. Over the years high blood sugar leads to other problems like heart disease, stroke, blindness, kidney disease, nerve problems, gum infections, and amputations problem.
Diabetes-Related Problems in Men
Men with diabetes suffer more from some other diabetes-related health problems than women. The American Diabetes Association reports that here:
â?¢ In people who develop diabetes before the age of 30 in context men develop retinopathy (a vision disorder that can lead to blindness problems ) more quickly than women in either .
â?¢ Having the major symptoms of peripheral vascular disease (pain in the thigh, calf, or buttocks during exercise) is linked to a two- to three-fold increased risk of the coronary heart disease, stroke, or cardiac failure in men with diabetes problems.
â?¢ Amputation rates from diabetes-related problems that are 1.4 to 2.7 times higher in men than women with diabetes.
dr rony
http://www.articlesbase.com/health-articles/diabetes-risk-for-men-722820.html
Reversing diabetes naturally is not only possible but a preferable solution to the drugs modern day medicine provides, which serve to treat only the symptoms of diabetes without addressing the root cause.
Treating diabetes naturally is not something pharmaceutical companies want shouted out, despite the fact that countless people are successfully doing so, as diabetic drugs are a lucrative business. Sadly, diabetic drugs are also not without their dangers. Many of the side effects however are justified as the disease symptoms are considered worse. You can live without either.
Reversing diabetes naturally is not about a specific home remedy or natural treatment per se as the solution involves addressing diet and nutrition on a broader scale. Key diet and nutrition factors need to be properly understood, and when appropriately balanced and adjusted, can serve to reverse diabetes successfully and naturally and increase the body’s insulin production. In particular, a re-education in how the human body deals with dietary sugars and refined carbohydrates is fundamental, as is an understanding of the effects of acidity and the importance of an alkaline diet. Regular exercise is also important.
Eliminating foods that promote diabetes is paramount. These include sugar and high-glycemic foods such as refined carbohydrates (white flour/rice/bread/pasta), sucrose, corn syrup and dextrose and commercial, processed oils (virgin coconut oil is a diabetic-friendly alternative).
Dr. Mercola in his new book ‘The No-Grain Diet’ points out how a high-carbohydrate diet can lead to diabetes over time. He writes, “If you regularly consume grains, sweets, and starches, and avoid exercise, your weight will escalate while your insulin levels rise. As your tissues become progressively more tolerant to higher levels of insulin, you may develop what is termed “insulin resistance”, a condition where your tissues have absorbed all the insulin they can retain. This entire syndrome can frequently lead to diabetes, and it’s no surprise that 17 million Americans, nearly 7.3 percent of our population, are diabetic with an astounding 33 percent rise in the prevalence of the disease between 1990 and 1999.”
As well as eliminating foods it is also important to ensure the body’s internal environment is primed for optimum health and resistance to disease. An alkaline diet is imperative here as pH balance is pivotal for the appropriate functioning of body fluids which in turn affect the healthy functioning of all cells within the body. As pH specialist Dr. Robert Young writes, “A cell is only as healthy as the fluids it is bathed in.” He further states that diabetes “is not a disease of the pancreas or the insulin producing beta cells or an autoimmune response, it is from the fluids which the pancreas cells are floating in.”
An acidic system (acidosis) is associated with a wide range of health problems including diabetes, obesity, arthritis, stomach ulcers, bladder and kidney conditions, osteoporosis, heart disease and cancer. Foods that acidify the body include sugar, meat, dairy products, eggs, junk/processed foods, fats and most grains (except millet, quinoa and amaranth). Some of the ‘best’ acid foods include nuts and seeds, beans and lentils, brown rice, oats and fish.
Alkaline foods are largely raw fruits, vegetables and herbs, particularly green veggies, algae (spirulina or chlorella) and grasses such as barley grass or wheat grass.
The diabetic condition leads to a great loss of nutrients from the body in its attempts to eliminate sugar, which in turn leads to the deterioration of eyes and kidneys and damage to nerves and blood vessels. Diabetes also promotes abnormal triglyceride levels which dramatically increases the risk of developing atherosclerosis. This is why cardiovascular disease accounts for 80 percent of all diabetic deaths, with diabetics having more than 400 per cent greater risk of heart attack than non-diabetics.
Are diabetic drugs a solution? Sadly, diabetics taking drugs are 2.5 times more likely to die from heart disease than those treated by diet alone. And then there are the side effects of medication. These include liver problems (jaundice), anemia, skin rashes and in some rare cases, death. There is also the ‘Catch 22′ of insulin resistance. Most anti-diabetic drugs stimulate your already drained pancreas to produce even more insulin which results in a loss of insulin-secreting beta cells making you more diabetic. Diabetic drugs increase fat storage and weight gain, leading to greater insulin resistance and an even worse diabetic condition.
Both oral anti-diabetes drugs and insulin can are not health-friendly options. They hasten the onset of aging, and damage your liver, heart and other organs among other complications.
There is a solution. Diabetes is not cured by treating symptoms with drugs that only perpetuate the condition. You need to address the root cause of diabetes to reverse it and increase your body’s insulin production naturally, with out the complications or side-effects of drugs and medications.
Why don’t we hear about this infomation from the American Diabetes Association? The truth is, the American Diabetes Association are benefiting hugely from the current trend in diabetes. They are funded by pharmaceutical companies who would lose out if people reversed there diabetic conditions.
Sylvia Riley
http://www.articlesbase.com/diseases-and-conditions-articles/the-truth-about-diabetes-diet-nutrition-and-treatment-54903.html
Did you know that there are many natural foods and herbal supplements that you can take that will help decrease your blood sugar level naturally? Diabetic mellitus patients are frequently made aware of the innumerable pharmaceutical products that are accessible, but what if you want to naturally decrease your blood sugar level?
Let me just initiate out by saying that I am not opposed to the use of pharmaceutical products to manage diabetes. I myself am taking Metformin, also known as Glucophage, and Glipizide, also known as Glucotrol, to help control my blood glucose levels. Although I’ve stopped taking the Metformin as it gave me serious stomach cramps, gas and diarrhea.
Right now taking these medication is a must for me. If you be acquainted with me personally you would know that I’m not enthusiastic on taking medication. I am always looking for a more natural approach to treating my diabetes mellitus.
What I have been finding is that there are certain foods and supplements that will naturally decrease my blood sugar levels. By add in these foods and supplements into your already diabetes friendly diet you are upping your chances of a longer better life.
Below are foods and supplements that decreases Blood Sugar Levels
1. Cinnamon : Studies are finding that cinnamon reduces blood sugar levels naturally when taken daily. If you completely love cinnamon you can shower the recommended six grams of cinnamon on your food throughout the day to attain the desired effect. If you are not that big a fan of cinnamon there is another substitute cinnamon capsules. This gives you the suggested cinnamon dose all in one tidy capsule.
2. Chromium: To help your body’s cells counter correctly to insulin you can use Chromium. There are researches that are finding that people with diabetes have lower Chromium levels than people who do not suffer from diabetes. But here question arises that how do you add Chromium to your diet? Well it is a trace mineral so the best stake it to take a Chromium Picolinate dietary supplement.
3. Zinc: The mineral Zinc plays a enormous role in your body’s production and storage of insulin. It is now being brought to light that people with diabetes mellitus have a Zinc deficiency. You can go about raising the Zinc in your diet by either taking a supplement or by eating foods that are high in Zinc value. This would comprise of lamb, oysters, pecans, almonds (badaam), chicken and sardines.
4. Salacia oblonga: Also something attractive I read about and also heard from someone on a podcast they were taking in Sri Lanka . Salacia oblonga is an herb that’s been used for years which is native to regions of India and Sri Lanka , binds to intestinal enzymes that break down carbohydrates in the body. Ohio State University , studies saw insulin levels drop 23 % and blood sugar levels drop 29 % in patients who took a 1000 mg dose of the herb. Its really Amazing!
These are just a few of the natural foods and supplements that will decrease your blood sugar level naturally. One thing that is very significant is that you keep your health care provider up to date on any supplements that you will be using as a natural way to lower your blood sugar. They will be able to help you securely figure out what does and does not work for you.
Dr John Anne
http://www.articlesbase.com/diseases-and-conditions-articles/lower-blood-sugar-level-natural-cure-for-diabetes-333166.html
