Depression can be a fatal illness in the elderly.
Depression is a chronic disease with a very high likelihood of recurrence. Long term treatment may be necessary for your older parent. Efficacious treatments are available.
Major depression strikes about 1 in 12 adolescents. In any given 6-month period, about 5 percent of 9- to 17-year-olds are estimated to be suffering from major depression.
Six million elderly suffer from some form of depression. Their depression tends to be dismissed as inevitable, but in fact is a serious medical condition that can magnify disability and lead to premature death.
Clinical depression can often accompany long-term illnesses that are common in later life, such as diabetes, cancer, and arthritis. Some medications can also trigger clinical depression. Depression is also a common consequence of alcohol problems among older adults.
The number of deaths from suicide each year is greater than the number of deaths from Homicide. Depression is not sadness. In depression, we lose the ability to feel any emotion strongly.The true opposite of depression is vitality the ability to feel a full range of emotions, including happiness, joy, pride, but also including sadness and grief.
Major depression is extreme and persistent and can interfere significantly with an individual’s ability to function, in contrast to the normal emotional experiences of sadness, grief, loss, or passing mood states.
Almost 20 percent of Americans have some form of depression, most without knowing it. They just assume that they can’t win, that their relationships are always trouble and that hopelessness, insomnia, chronic fatigue, and guilt are their lot in life.
In the elderly population, men are nearly six times more likely than women to commit suicide.
Men often deal with depression by withdrawing from others and throwing themselves into their work, engaging in risky or dangerous behavior, and/or becoming angry, frustrated and abusive.
Less severe forms of depression are also common among the elderly and can be as debilitating as Major Depressive Disorder.
Mild levels of depression can also impair functioning and coping with chronic illnesses and pain. Depression, however, is not a normal part of aging.
Research findings indicate that women with bipolar disorder may have more depressive episodes and more mixed episodes than do men with the illness.
As many as 80 percent of women experience the “postpartum blues,” a brief period of mood symptoms that is considered normal following childbirth.
According to the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, up to one-third of the 3.4 million children and adolescents with depression in the United States may actually be experiencing the early onset of bipolar disorder.
Mental illnesses strike individuals in the prime of their lives, often during adolescence and young adulthood. All ages are susceptible, but the young and the old are especially vulnerable.
Depression can lead to poor school attendance and performance, running away, and feelings of worthlessness and hopelessness. Some teens try to make the pain of depression go away by drinking or taking drugs, which only makes the depression worse. Still others contemplate suicide.
All too often, depression is left untreated because people fail to recognize the symptoms and believe that it is just normal sadness, a phase that a teen is going through, or a sign of weakness. This can be a terrible mistake. It is important to know the symptoms, so that you can distinguish depression from occasional normal sadness or moodiness.
Rachel Broune
http://www.articlesbase.com/diseases-and-conditions-articles/educating-society-about-depression-and-mental-illness-must-know-facts-250343.html
Now a days diabetes treatment has become a common disease among people. It is caused due to mismanagement of carbohydrate metabolism inside the body. Diabetes is identified with the excessive production of urine, hunger, thirst and excessive loss of weight, blurred vision, and delay in healing of skin, repeated infection, and excessive fatigue.
Diabetes has got a serous issue of human health. It denotes sugar in blood and urine very excessively.
So, when it comes to treatment of diabetes the main concern should be given to control blood sugar, which is main cause of diabetes.Managing blood sugar is the stepping-stone of this diabetes treatment program.
To remove the complications of diabetes one must take it seriously and adopt some good diet process or healthy exercise.
Apart from doing so some take insulin and any other type of medication program to be cured to some extent. Frequent testing of blood sugar can denote you how much you have improved on your part to manage suitable
measure of sugar in blood.
It is very important to learn the right range of glucose in blood unless and until you cannot have the idea about the complication you are facing about this disease. It depends on age mainly such as in younger age assuming not much complication is there the suitable range of glucose is 80-120 mg/dL and in older age it is 100-140 mg/dL.
Diabetes program includes some specific self-treatments like having good and suitable diet, having proper exercise, maintaining healthy weight and medication. When it is about good and suitable diet it does not make any suggestion to take all dull food which are not of your interest rather it denotes to have more fruits, vegetables and grains that means you should be conscious in taking the foods of high nutrition and lower fat and calories. Avoid taking sweets and animal
products with no limit. The main part of this diabetes treatment program is that you own self should be challenging in this task otherwise this program will be harder enough.
Consult any dietitian about meal plan and try to maintain it at the fixed times every day with same amount according to your diet plan.
On the part of having proper exercise you should be cautious about all aerobic exercises. In this diabetes treatment program you can make your choices among the daily exercises like doing morning or evening walk,
jogging, hiking, biking, swimming and any other exercises of heart and lungs. Remember giving consistency to your exercise process is very important to get the best result through it.
Try to maintain weight according to your activity level and age because overweight is dangerous factor which help to make your cells more resistant to insulin. Making suitable weight loss plan and going according to that can make its result more effectively.
Sometimes medication takes a very important role in case where it is found that good dieting and exercise are not fulfilling it purpose.
This type of diabetes program includes the insert of insulin as per requirement. As it can’t be taken in form of pill some people have it injected by syringe or some have it with insulin pump.
So now it is very clear that diabetes is always manageable if the sufferer give a serious daily attention to it. Although diabetes stands for life long suffering, yet it never means the end of your life. You
just have to remember that the disease will be in your control only and only if you are self disciplined for your each and every step of treatment program.
Gaetane Ross
http://www.articlesbase.com/non-fiction-articles/how-is-diabetes-treated-104013.html
The most common set of diseases facing Americans moving into their 40′s and beyond has been termed “metabolic syndrome”. Metabolic syndrome is a collection of disease symptoms that tend to occur together. These are excess body fat around your waist, high blood pressure, high LDL cholesterol, low HDL cholesterol, elevated triglyceride levels, and high fasting blood sugar.
As more Americans are carrying a high-deductible health plan along with a Health Savings Account, many say they are beginning to pay more attention to their health. Health Savings Accounts allow you to put aside pre-tax money to be used for future medical expenses. Because deposits grow tax-deferred and are not taxed for medical withdrawals, if you fund your account and stay healthy, you could have hundreds of thousands of dollars in your Health Savings Account by the time you retire.
The fundamental metabolic disturbance that seems to be common in almost all people who have metabolic syndrome is insulin resistance. Insulin is a hormone that your body uses to move the carbohydrate that you eat into your cells. If you are insulin resistant, your cells don’t respond well to insulin, and your pancreas has to produce higher amounts in order to keep your blood sugar from going too high. (Once your pancreas is no longer able to keep up with this increased demand, you become diabetic.) If you are insulin sensitive, your body is responding well to smaller amounts of insulin.
Fortunately, metabolic syndrome is almost entirely preventable. Avoid it, and you’ll greatly increase your chances of also avoiding cardiovascular disease, breast cancer, colon cancer, prostate cancer, stroke, and many other serious conditions. Though all the mechanisms behind the metabolic syndrome have not been worked out, the evidence is strong that combinations of several lifestyle strategies are very effective in preventing this condition.
Exercise
Exercising does more than just burn calories or build muscle. One of the most profound benefits of exercise is its effect on insulin sensitivity. When insulin is released in response to carbohydrate ingestion, glucose transporters come to the surface of the cell in order to carry the glucose into the cell. In muscles and fat cells this transporter is called Glut-4. Exercise itself helps Glut-4 to move through the cell membrane to the surface of your muscle cell, causing these cells to be much more insulin sensitive. Even a single bout of exercise will cause your muscles to respond more effectively to insulin.
Eat Low-Glycemic Foods
The glycemic index is a measure of how quickly a food raises our blood sugar. The high-glycemic carbohydrates in the American diet are primarily the “white foods” (bread, pasta, rice, white potatoes, and sugar). These foods cause many of the changes associated with metabolic syndrome, including lower HDL levels, and higher triglycerides. When a person eats these foods year after year, insulin levels remain chronically high. The result is that eventually the cells become less responsive to the insulin, in turn leading to increased risk of obesity, hypertension, heart disease, diabetes, and premature death. Low-glycemic carbohydrates include most fruits and vegetables. Eating a diet that limits or avoids high-glycemic grains, potatoes, and sugars, and includes more low-glycemic fruits and vegetables, fish, and lean meat can dramatically improve your insulin sensitivity.
Eat the Right Fat
We’ve talked in previous issues about the seemingly miraculous health benefits of fish oil. Fish oil improves insulin sensitivity. Eskimos, who consume high quantities of fish oil, rarely experience diabetes, even though they are often overweight. Though the mechanism by which fish oil works isn’t yet understood, many researchers believe that fish oil makes the cell membrane more “fluid”, enabling the Glut-4 transporters to more easily move to the surface of the cell in response to insulin. Everyone who does not eat fish on a regular basis should consider taking a high-quality fish oil.
Saturated fats and trans-fats, in contrast, make the cell membrane more stiff and inflexible, and also reduce insulin sensitivity. Saturated fats are found primarily in beef, pork, and dairy products and trans-fats are found in processed foods. Saturated fats should be minimized, and trans-fats should ideally be completely eliminated from your diet.
Eat Enough Protein
If you’re avoiding starches, you’ll need to replace those calories with something else – that should be lean protein. Protein satisfies your appetite more than any other macronutrient, it increases metabolism, and it will contribute to weight loss. The best proteins are lean meats like turkey breast and chicken breast, lean beef, fish, and eggs. And if you are overweight, nothing will improve your insulin sensitivity faster than losing some weight. In fact, weight loss significantly improves all aspects of metabolic syndrome. Eat the right foods, and your body will tend to normalize at the right weight without you having to count calories or starve yourself.
Take Action
Remember, just reading an article has never made anyone healthier. Though there are drugs available to treat some of the symptoms, doctors have no pharmaceutical cure for metabolic syndrome, and almost all individuals become more insulin resistant as they age. It is the lifestyle choices and the actions that you take today to improve your insulin sensitivity that will have a powerful impact on the length and quality of your life.
The characteristic that many people like about Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) is that they reward those who take responsibility for themselves. By putting aside money to pay for future medical expenses, you are being a responsible citizen, and deserve the tax benefits that an HSA offers. Make the same investment in your health, and you’ll not only have the good health to enjoy your retirement, but you’ll also have plenty of money in the bank as well.
Wiley Long
http://www.articlesbase.com/insurance-articles/how-health-savings-accounts-reduce-medical-expenses-and-help-you-avoid-metabolic-syndrome-73158.html
As a diabetic, you are at a constant risk of developing complications. What are these complications? What are their symptoms? Which body part is most affected? Let’s have the answers to these questions.
Blood Vessels
Diabetes could harm your small blood vessels. The small vessels include those in your eyes, kidneys, and nerves. The larger ones include those in your heart and lower legs.
Kidney
Kidney damage is very common in diabetes. The disease varies with each patient and the rate of its progress. Diabetic nephropathy occurs when your small blood vessels present in your kidneys get damaged. This leads to a leak of protein into your urine. As a result, your kidneys lose their ability to filter your blood. At times, dialysis may be required to flush out the toxins from your blood. In extreme cases, you may require a kidney transplant.
Nerves
Nerve damage can lead to a complete loss of sensation in your feet. Sometimes, the reverse happens. You feel constant pain in your feet. It becomes difficult to wear shoes or sandals. Even a small wound can develop into a serious infection, rotting ulcers, gangrene, and even amputation of the affected part.
In men, nerve damage may lead to impotence. Diabetic neuropathy affects the nerves connecting to the penis, thus, not letting the penis get an erection. If the penis does not get the required amount of blood flow, it may lead to erectile dysfunction.
Eyes
Your eyes are other organs to get affected. It is called diabetic retinopathy and it usually occurs in patients suffering from diabetes for as long as five years. The damage of blood vessels located at the back of your eye leads to a leakage of protein as well as blood into the retina. It also causes small aneurysms. The new blood vessels develop but are brittle. There might be bleeding from the newly developed blood vessels, which may lead to scarring, and your retina may get detached resulting in a damaged eyesight.
These complications are scary enough to make you sit up and take notice. Well, they are dangerous enough to take your life too! So, start caring for your body today!
Jeremy Parker
http://www.articlesbase.com/diseases-and-conditions-articles/scary-complications-of-diabetes-111074.html
Diet plays a key role in controlling your blood sugar. A healthy-eating plan tailored to your needs will do that and more. Majority of people affected with diabetes are overweight or obese. In fact, your risk of getting diabetes increases the more weight you put on.
So controlling your diet can be the key to reducing the risk of diabetes as well as improving your symptoms if you are already affected by this disease people often refer to as “the silent killer.”
Everybody knows that maintaining a good diet is a healthy choice for every person. But for diabetes patients, this statement means something more significant than the recent fad over healthy living.
For diabetes patients, having a healthy diet means eating in a way that reduces the risk for complications that are commonly associated with their conditions, including heart disease and stroke. For them, a healthy diet could mean the difference between die-abetes and live-abetes.
Eating healthy involves eating a wide variety of foods that encompasses the whole diet spectrum of vegetables, whole grains, fruits, non-fat dairy products, beans, lean meats, poultry, and fish.
No, you do not have to eat all of that, but a little bit of this and that enough to balance the three basic food groups (Go, Grow, and Glow) is what you should aim for.
Tip #1: Preparing a Meal Plan
When you go on a diabetes diet, the first things you need to do is to prepare a meal plan. This will serve as your guide to how much and what kinds of food you can choose to eat at meals, and even at snack times if you wish to include that.
Now, be sure that your meal plan fits in with your schedule and eating habits. That way you will not be likely to ruin your diet simply because your work schedule conflicts with your meal schedule.
Keep in mind your end-goal: To keep your blood glucose in levels that are easy enough to maintain.
In addition to that somewhat myopic diet goal for diabetes, you also want to follow a meal plan that will help you improve your blood pressure and cholesterol levels as well as keep your weight on track.
All these – blood pressure, cholesterol and weight – are factors that contribute to the worsening of your diabetes symptoms, so controlling them could very well mean controlling your diabetes.
When preparing a meal plan, be sure to balance uptake and down take – that is, food and exercise, respectively. Additionally, your doctor may have prescribed you with insulin or oral medications to help you manage your condition.
Take those medications into account as well when you plan your meal plan, making sure that the food is balanced with the drugs. The whole thing sounds like it’s a lot of work but with a few suggestions from your physician and/or dietician you can start building a meal plan that is best for you and your condition.
Tip #2: Use the Diabetes Food Pyramid
The Diabetes Food Pyramid, released by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is composed of six food groups (arranged according to how much you should eat from the least to the most and based on carbohydrate and protein content):
• Fats, sweets, and alcohol
• Milk
• Meat, meat substitutes, and other proteins
• Fruits
• Vegetables
• Grains, beans, and starchy vegetables
Fats, sweets, and alcohol are the one food group that diabetes patients should avoid.
The problem with diabetes involves a certain malfunction in the way our bodies make use of glucose in the blood. It is either there is too much glucose in our blood because we ate too much food rich in sugar so that the hormone responsible for regulating glucose – insulin – is unable to cope. Or, our cells are defective so that even though we have enough insulin to handle the job, our cells do not respond.
In order to control the levels of glucose in the blood stream, controlling diabetes diet is important. The intake of fats, sweets, and alcohol and other generally “unhealthy” foods should be minimized and only for special treats.
As for the rest of the food groups, here are the serving sizes recommended by the American Diabetes Association:
• Meat and Meat Substitutes: 4-6 oz. per day and divided between meals. This is equivalent to ¼ cup cottage cheese, 1 egg, 1 tbsp peanut butter, or ½ cup tofu.
• Milk: 2-3 servings per day
• Fruit: 2-4 servings per day
• Vegetables: 3-5 servings per day
• Grains and Starches: 6-11 servings per day, equivalent to 1 slice of bread, ¼ of a bagel, or ½ of an English muffin or pita bread.
Use this Diabetes Food Pyramid only as a guide in planning your meals. If you want a more individualized option, consult your dietician.
Tip #3: Draw Lines on Your Plate
Another good way to ensure that you are eating a balanced diet is to draw a line across your plate. It could only be an imaginary line. As you sit there for a meal, the exercise might even prove to be fun.
The first step, of course, is to imagine that you are drawing a line through the center of your plate. Then, divide one of the halves into two.
Then, fill this section with grains or starchy foods, such as rice, pasta, potatoes, corn, or peas.
The other section should comprise your meat and meat substitute group – meat, fish, poultry, or tofu.
Next, fill half of your plate with non-starchy vegetables. You can place there broccoli, carrots, cucumbers, salad, tomatoes, and cauliflower.
Last, add a glass of milk and a small piece of roll, and eh voila! You are ready to eat.
Tip #4: Reading Food Labels
With food labels, it all comes down to the Nutrition Facts. It’s that list of nutrition information found on the package of foods sold in the grocery store. Reading food labels can help you make wise choices about the foods you buy. The labels will tell you what ingredients were used, the amount of calories, and other pertinent information essential to a diabetes patient.
For instance, a typical food label would contain the total amounts per serving for the following nutrients:
• Calories
• Total fat
• Saturated fat
• Cholesterol
• Sodium
• Total carbohydrate
• Fiber
Use the nutrition facts found in food labels to compare similar types of foods and buy the one that contains fewer calories, lower fats, cholesterol, etc.
Pay close attention to free foods like sugar-free gelatin desert, sugar-free ice pops, sugarless gum, diet soft drinks, and sugar-free syrups. Just because they are called “free” does not mean they are entirely free of calories so don’t be overconfident. Instead, read the label. Most free foods should have less than 20 calories and 5 grams of carbohydrates per serving.
Another thing, “no-sugar added” means no sugar was added during the manufacture and packaging of the foods. The ingredients do not include sugar. However, the food may be high in carbohydrates still so be sure to read the label carefully.
Fat-free foods could still mean that they contain lots of carbohydrates. Often, they contain almost the same amount of calories as the foods they replace so be sure to pay attention to the label. Buying fat-free foods instead of regular foods does not necessarily mean that you are making a wise choice.
Tip #5: A Word about Sweets
Now, you know that sweets are generally discouraged among diabetes patients. However, having diabetes does not necessarily mean that you cannot have sweets. Imagine how bad life can be for the sweet tooth with diabetes. But as long as you keep your intake of sweets in moderation, there is no reason you have to eschew sugar from your life forever. After all, glucose (sugar) is still the most basic source of energy that the body needs.
So sweeten your foods with these following options:
• Sugar and other sweeteners with calories: honey, brown sugar, molasses, fructose, cane sugar, and confectioners sugar
• Reduced calorie sweeteners: erythritol, hydrogenated starch hydrolysates, isomalt, lactitol, maltitol, mannitol, sorbitol, and xylitol
• Low calories sweeteners: ascelfume potassium, aspartame, saccharin, and sucralose
Research has overturned the long standing belief that sugar caused diabetes. The new studies show us that sugar has in fact the same effect on blood glucose levels as other carbohydrates like bread and potatoes. Based on this discovery, experts agree that a diabetic can now consume sugar as long as they incorporate it into their meal plan the way they would with any ordinary carbohydrate-containing foods.
Now that you have been pointed to the right direction with these tips to improve your diabetes diet, you can go ahead and live a healthier, fuller life where nothing – no carb nor sweets – is denied you, as long as you keep it all in moderation.
Nishanth Reddy
http://www.articlesbase.com/diseases-and-conditions-articles/top-5-diabetes-diet-tips-for-creating-healthy-meal-plan-58626.html
