Karen’s Free Health and Fitness Tips

You have probably heard of diabetes, but were unsure of what it really is. Basically, the body of a person with diabetes cannot properly absorb sugar. A common feature of both type 1 and type 2 diabetes is the elevated levels of blood sugar, commonly known as glucose, that arise from inadequate amount of insulin, a hormone produced by the pancreas.

Across the world, cases of diabetes are expected to exceed 250 million people by 2025, which will result in 35 million heart attacks, 13 million strokes, 6 million episodes of renal failure, 8 million instances of blindness or eye surgery, 2 million amputations, and 62 million deaths.

There are 21 million people with diabetes in the United States, according to the American Diabetes Association; in addition, some 54 million others have been diagnosed with pre-diabetes, which greatly increases their risk of developing Type II diabetes. This equates to 75 million Americans having diabetes, or being at high risk.

The majority of doctors feel that diabetes cannot be cured. That’s the “conventional wisdom.” They were told that you have to ‘manage’ the diabetes with insulin or medication and that would be the ‘best’ you could hope for.

You may feel afraid and puzzled when the doctor diagnoses you with diabetes. Nevertheless, as soon as you know what it is and how to deal with it, you will feel better. Notwithstanding, even if you feel fine, it is important that you take your condition seriously and immediately start your diabetes treatment.

SO WHAT IS DIABETES?

If you are diabetic, your body is unable to use insulin properly, or even incapable of making enough insulin. Insulin helps you move glucose (sugar) from your bloodstream into the cells of your body, to produce energy for its functioning. Insulin is a hormone produced by the pancreas, without which sugar can not enter the cells and thus builds up in the bloodstream.

WHAT ARE THE TYPES OF DIABETES?

PRE-DIABETES

There is a condition named “pre-diabetes”. People with pre-diabetes have higher than normal levels of blood sugar, though not quite as high as those with diabetes. This is a warning sign to urge one to make a lifestyle change to prevent type 2 diabetes. In the United States alone more than 50 million people have pre-diabetes, studies reveal.

TYPE 1 DIABETES

Let’s explore the topic “diabetes type 2 and treatments”. Why? Because diabetes is killing many people in the U.S. and globally. When you have diabetes, it’s like having one of your feet already in the grave.

Your doctor is the first person you should believe for information about your diabetes type 2 and treatments. He will prescribe you medicines and give you advice on what are some treatments for diabetes. However, he will never, ever tell you about the alternatives, such as herbal diabetes treatment. This is because he is not experienced or educated about the natural treatment for type two diabetes. Even if he knows, he will still not tell you about it.

Let’s start with the best diabetes type 2 and treatments ideas. Since most diabetes is caused by sedentary lifestyle, eating the wrong food and stress, let’s fix the causes first.

Use your diet as an alternative treatment for diabetes. Eat fruits, vegetables, beans and whole grains. Your body can handle the sugar fructose in fruits because it does not need insulin. Also, fruits and vegetables have phytochemicals that actually normalize your blood sugar and insulin production. Celery, string beans and cucumbers are good for diabetics because they help directly in insulin problems. Cucumbers has hormone used by pancreas to make insulin. These fruits’ skins contain lots of silica, the natural insulin.

Foot pain can certainly be caused by any number of reasons. However, foot pain resulting from diabetes is both painful and very common for those living with diabetes.

Diabetes and foot pain is generally defined by four different types.

A nerve problem (where the nerves themselves are affected by the disease) called peripheral neuropathy is the most common source of foot pain tied to diabetes. Peripheral neuropathy comes in the form of sensory, motor, and autonomic neuropathy.

Sensory neuropathy is the most common and is defined by symptoms where the amount of pain is much greater than the source that is causing the pain. As an example, just touching, or lightly pulling on your socks triggers a painful reaction. Also, with sensory neuropathy you may experience some numbness along with tingling, burning, or even stabbing type pain symptoms.

Because blood sugar can be a player in this type of pain, check your blood sugar levels for the past several weeks to see if perhaps there is an upward trend toward high levels.

As an adult, diabetes is something that can creep up on you without any warning. Well, that’s not quite true — there are definite warning signs for adult-onset diabetes, but they’re often ignored or mistaken for other things. Since diabetes is a serious disease, it’s important to recognize these signs as early as possible in order to minimize health problems and other complications. This is especially true of overweight adults, who are very much at risk of diabetes.

The classic signs of adult diabetes are frequent urination and constant thirst. The thirst is actually a side-effect of the urination, since the body is trying to prevent dehydration. Frequent or excessive urination is particularly a sign of diabetes insipidus, a form of diabetes that is hormonal in nature, unlike the more common diabetes mellitus, which is due to abnormal levels of insulin and/or resistance to insulin’s effects.

Blurry vision is definitely one sign you should take seriously, as it often occurs after long periods with elevated blood sugar levels. Many adults will ignore this symptom, ascribing it to fatigue or the effects of aging. A visit to the optometrist should be scheduled as quickly as possible to determine if the blurred vision is in fact due to adult-onset diabetes or some other health problem.

Food Therapy should be followed under the supervision from your doctor. Check your sugar level frequently so that sugar levels do not go beyond the recommended level

Foods to avoid

It is always advisable to avoid some foods if you are diabetic such as refined sugar, sweets, syrups, glucose, jam, molasses, fruit sugar, ice-cream, cakes, pastries, sweet biscuits, chocolates, soft drinks, condensed milk, cream and fried foods. Fats like butter, ghee and hydrogenated vegetable oil should also be avoided. White sugar and white flour should be reduced drastically. Avoid all processed foods, junk food, pastries, cookies, canned and preserved foods. They contain harmful preservatives and lot of salt. Avoid soft drinks since these have a lot of sugar. Try to avoid fried foods from your diet.
Smoking results in the using up of oxygen in the body. It will result in less of oxygen needed by the body to metabolize glucose. So smoking should be avoided.

Foods to be limited

Diabetes symptom is very often understated. As a result, Diabetes often goes undiagnosed because many of its symptoms seem so harmless.Initially, the diabetes symptom is subtle or innocuous. It is no surprise that, you could have diabetes for months or even years and not even know it.

There are millions of people in the world who are unaware of the fact that they are diabetic. Awareness of the possible diabetes symptom can facilitate an early diagnosis and treatment, and ensure a better health for lifetime. In either cases of type1 and type 2 diabetes, signs and symptoms are more likely to be alike as the blood sugar is high. It could be due to less production of insulin, or no production or insulin resistance. In both cases there is inadequate glucose in the cells, which can be recognized through certain signs and symptoms. These symptoms are quickly eased once the Diabetes is treated .It will lessen the chances of developing serious health problems.

Vitamin E is a term used to describe eight different chemicals performing the same function.

Many physicians and nutritionists typically refer to alpha-tocopherol as if it were the only component of vitamin E, but, the fact is, it’s just the easiest form of vitamin E to measure. Vitamin E consists of not just alpha-tocopherol but a total of four “tocopherols” and four “tocotrienols.”

Can supplementing with vitamin E help if you have diabetes?

The answer seems to be “it depends.”

A study conducted in Israel and published in late 2007 found that taking 400 IU of vitamin E a day (and by “vitamin E,” these researchers meant just alpha-tocopherol) could cut your risk of having a heart attack or stroke almost in half if:

You have type 2 diabetes,

You’re over 55 years old, and

You have a special set of genes known as the Hp 2-2 genotype.

This means there are some people whose arteries vitamin E can help a lot, and others maybe little or not at all.

In Western societies, only about 36 per cent of the population has the Hp 2-2 genotype. (Scientists haven’t measured the genotype in African and Asian populations yet.) The other 64 per cent won’t benefit from taking alpha-tocopherol for their hearts.

Diabetic patients should not be the only ones who should be concerned about their blood sugar levels. If you are pregnant, you may have to check it as well.

Gestational Diabetes

Pregnancy is a very delicate time for women. It seems an expectant mother also has to worry about checking her diabetes blood sugar level. Gestational diabetes is a type of diabetes that occurs in some pregnant women. It is estimated that at least 4% of pregnant women in America have the condition. This may seem like a small figure but the actual numbers may be more. Pregnancy is a period of heightened concern for a lot of pregnant women than 100,000.

This condition usually hit pregnant women during their second and third trimesters of pregnancy. Women who have family members with type 2 diabetes have a higher risk of getting it. In general though, women who have had no diabetes themselves may develop high blood sugar levels.

Its Causes

Until now, experts are still not sure on why a pregnant woman can get high blood sugar levels. There is some evidence though that the hormones at play during pregnancy may have a role in increasing the chances of this disorder in expectant mothers.

Diabetes is being a huge health problem. Many people suffer from diabetes and the other medical side effects it cause. An early diagnosis of diabetes can help a person to avoid serious related diseases. The earlier diabetes is caught the easy it is for doctors to monitor the patients overall health, thus preventing any further medical problems.

Diabetes is when the pancreas does not function properly and glucose levels fall outside the normal range. A normal glucose reading is lower than 110 mg/dL upon waking in the morning and lower than 140 mg/dL two hours after eating. There are simple blood tests that are used to diagnose diabetes. Once diagnosed a person will work with their doctor to determine a treatment. Treatments can include diet changes, pills, or injections. Any history, family history and people in certain ethnic groups may be at elevated risk for developing diabetes. There are different types of diabetes. Some start in childhood, some start in adulthood and another form occurs during pregnancy. All can cause harmful effects on the body if not taken care of.