You hear it on television all the time “contact us and you’ll get free diabetic supplies”. Is there any truth to these commercials? The answer oddly enough is yes. It is not a free trial period, or part of some other service you have to take in order to get the supplies. There are many companies now that offer these services to you as long as you have Medicare.

Perhaps you are also wondering just what exactly they will give you free. Well, for starters these companies cover just about everything you will need to manage your diabetes. They cover, blood glucose meters, test strips, lancets, gauze, and alcohol. Okay, so getting all this delivered to your door is a great convenience but there has to be a catch right? Well, not really.

Some of the other benefits you will get by using these services are the fact that there are no up-front costs to you. You do not pay when you order and with many types of supplemental insurance, you are apt to owe nothing. There are no claim forms to fill out, these companies bill Medicare and supplemental companies for you. They do not charge for shipping either. The fact they deliver to your door also means you do not have to go out in bad weather and stand in pharmacy lines.

These companies also offer personalized support from diabetic educators. You can call the companies and talk to healthcare professionals who specialize in diabetes education about things like your prescriptions, your meter or other things your doctor may order. It is seriously worth considering trying one of these services if you have diabetes and are on Medicare. After all, it is free.

If you are trying to live with type 2 diabetes or prediabetes then you know that it changes your whole life.

There are free diabetic diet plans online that can help you lose those pounds fast and control your blood sugar. Did you know that all diet plans are based on the diabetic diet plans?

You can actually lose up to 40 to 50 pounds in just 60 days if you will follow this diabetes diet plan. These plans will cost over $200.00 if you hired a nutritionist to do this for you.

You must know that the medications that you are on will never cure your diabetes, but the diabetic diet plan can actually reverse your diabetes.

This diabetic diet plan online has helped many men and women lose those extra pounds and reverse your diabetes type 2.

You know that this diet is absolutely free and all you do is follow it strictly and you will lose the weight that you have wanted to lose for a long time.

Being overweight is a dangerous to you and it just makes your diabetes worse. Take control of you diabetes today and lose that weight.

Diabetes is a serious disease and if you have diabetes you should seek medical advise. The diabetes diet meal plan is the most effective treatment for type 2 diabetes and maybe your physician has discussed that with you.

All you have to do is answer five quick questions so they can get the right diet for you.

It is very important for diabetics to eat healthy, low calorie, nutritious meals and exercise regularly to help maintain proper blood sugar levels. A diabetic weight loss diet can help you not only eat the right foods but also lose weight and possibly even eliminate the need for taking insulin or other medications. Here are some general tips to help you with your weight loss program:

* Before starting on any diet or exercise program, a doctor or other diabetes specialist should be consulted. Changes in eating habits can affect your blood sugar level as well as the dosage for your insulin and other medications you might be taking. Therefore it is very important to consult with your doctor and possibly a nutritionist or dietitian who specializes in diabetes to make sure that your diabetic weight loss plan is a sound one for your individual situation.

* When trying to lose weight, we are all tempted to cut way back or even skip meals thinking this will help us. For diabetics, then can be very harmful. You need to eat on a regular basis and not skip meals. Cutting calories can be done, but it must be done across all food groups, and you need to eat your meals at consistent times in order to maintain your blood sugar levels.

* The diabetic food pyramid issued by the American Diabetes Association is a good place to start when it comes to meal and diet planning. A recommended ratio of foods to eat is: 50% carbohydrates, 30% fat, 20% protein.

* Exercise is very important to your weight loss plan, but be sure to consult with your doctor or diabetes specialist to make sure that your exercise program takes into account your special needs as a diabetic.

Diabetes produces a number of clinical pictures. The recommendations regarding definitions and classifications are as follows:

1) Recognized onset during growth between ages 0-14 years (Infantile or Childhood Diabetics). These patients usually present with severe initial symptoms of diabetes and rapidly become insulin-dependent.

2) Recognized onset between 15 and 24 years (Young Diabetics). These patients usually have an acute onset of symptoms of diabetes and most may be expected to become insulin-dependent.

3) Recognized onset between 25 and 64 years (Adult Diabetics). Growth onset, insulin-dependent diabetes may occur up to the age 22 or 23 years, but between 20 and 35 years, such cases merge into the adult-onset cases that are much less insulin-dependent. These patients begin with variable symptoms of diabetes and may or may not need insulin.

4) Recognized onset over 65 years of age (Elderly diabetics). These patients frequently present with symptoms of the complications of diabetes and can often be controlled without insulin.

It should be noted that all classifications refer to the age when the diabetes was recognized, not the current age of the patient.

Other types you must know

1) Asymptomatic or Unrecognized diabetes also known as pre-diabetes. It is termed asymptomatic or unrecognized diabetes because it doesn’t show or produce indications of a disease or other medical condition. Lots of people in the universe today are suffering from pre-diabetes and feel healthy because medical tests have not proven them diabetic. The symptoms of diabetes which are associated with pre-diabetes are the ones that are noticeable in case of type 2 diabetes.

Such symptoms as frequent urination and excessive thirst are the most common symptoms of type 2. Other symptoms of type 2 diabetes which may appear during pre diabetes are excessive appetite, unexplained weight loss or weight gain, weakness and fatigue.

Blurred vision can show up as a symptom of type 2 diabetes in some people. Wounds take a longer time to heal and there is low sensitivity in the limbs. Skin and gum infections are also common. Other symptoms of type 2 diabetes that show up are vaginal or bladder infections.

2) Juvenile: This term refers to cases of any age group who require insulin and who are prone to attacks of ketosis.

3) Brittle: It was recommended that this term be used as little as possible. It refers to juvenile cases that prove difficult to stabilize. Genuine brittle diabetics are very uncommon and the brittle state does not necessarily persist.

4) Insulin-resistant: This term should be reserved for patients requiring over 200 units insulin daily.

Millions of people have Type 2 diabetes as a result of sitting around and never exercising. And many more people become at risk as they put on weight and do not get moving. This presents a choice. You can choose to fight Type 2 diabetes. Since it is a lifestyle disease, you have to decide on the best way to fight the disease. The alternatives are medicine, diet and exercise.

Exercise is an effective therapy for Type 2 diabetes, and it lowers complications of the disease. A recent study from the University of Missouri-Columbia found that a focus on exercise gave better results than trying to change exercise, diet and medication all at the same time.

The good news is that “it doesn’t matter how overweight you are or how poor your current blood glucose is at the start of the studies, the improvements from exercise were equal across the board… the studies could mean that it is easier for people to focus on one thing at a time. It is easy for people to get overwhelmed when asked to make too many changes.”

This was a review of over 100 other studies, and it found that in studies that focused on exercise only, blood glucose improved twice as much as compared to other studies that focused on exercise, diet and adherence to medication plans.

Now that we know that exercise helps, what are the specific requirements? Do you have to go to an expensive gym to get your exercise? Not at all. You merely want to add some physical activity to your daily schedule, and remember that some daily exercise will work wonders. Moderate exercise, that is, walking, has a good effect on diabetes. For example, a walk after lunch or before dinner will do you good. For your cardio health, very low levels of exercise work well. But for Type 2 diabetes a higher pace of exercise is significant because it will help even more.

To fight your diabetes, you first want to build up to 30 minutes every day of walking at a reasonably fast pace. You may have to start with only a few minutes at a slow pace, and very gradually build up, but you can get to 30 minutes per day and you will enjoy it while you go for your walks. Please note that the amount of exercise you do (how long you walk) is more important than the speed at which you walk. Even if you have to take three 10-minute walks instead of a single 30-minute walk, you will get a big improvement.

Don’t forget to check in with your physician before you start. Exercise works so well that you have to pay careful attention to prevent over-medicating if you have been taking medicine for your diabetes.

Start with a short and fun walk, do the same distance every day for a few days to make sure you are not overdoing it. If you still feel good, no pain from the walking, then very gradually build up the distance and speed. Maybe a friend would enjoy walking with you, just remember to walk a bit faster for the best exercise.

If you are capable and really want to fight even more aggressively against Type 2 diabetes, you can move up to walking at an few degrees of incline, or move up to running. Having a treadmill at home is super convenient, but does cost more than just getting into your exercise shoes and walking outdoors. The most inexpensive way to start is to just get going with a daily walking program, and as you feel better and get in better shape, increase the activity level. As you start to enjoy you enjoy the 30 minutes a day program, you will have a better life, and you will have a longer life as you take back your health.

Study results show that patients with Type 2 diabetes who are treated with insulin or a thiazolidinedione (TZ) have fewer highly stenotic coronary artery lesions than those not treated with these drugs regardless of duration of diabetes, glycemic control, or other risk factors.

“Patients with diabetes continue to die of coronary artery disease (CAD) at rates two to four times higher than patients without diabetes, despite advances in treatment of cardiovascular disease,” say Teresa Jones (National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, USA) and co-investigators.

They explain that “the role of glycemic control therapies, independent of their glucose-lowering effects, on cardiovascular disease is a recurring question.”

To investigate this further, the team assessed the association of different glycemic control therapies (insulin and TZs) with the extent of CAD found on angiography in 1803 participants of the Bypass Angioplasty Revascularization Investigation 2 Diabetes (BARI 2D) trial.

All participants had Type 2 diabetes, documented CAD, no previous revascularizations, and were aged 62.1 years on average.

As reported in the American Journal of Cardiology, the researchers found that individuals who were using insulin at baseline had 23% less highly stenotic lesions and a significantly lower myocardial jeopardy index than those not using insulin. This was despite having a worse overall cardiac risk factor profile, increased inflammatory markers, and a higher prevalence of unstable angina than non-users.

Type 2 diabetics who had been taking a TZ for 6 months or more at baseline had 17% fewer highly stenotic lesions and significantly lower levels of the inflammatory markers C-reactive protein, fibrinogen, and plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 than those not taking TZs.

Of note, participants who were taking insulin and a TZ had 43% fewer highly stenotic lesions than patients taking neither treatment.

As this is significantly less than for individuals taking either treatment alone the researchers suggest that “different mechanisms or factors relating to CAD… might be affected by these two therapeutic classes.”

The authors caution that their results need to be confirmed by further research.

MedWire (www.medwire-news.md) is an independent clinical news service provided by Current Medicine Group, a part of Springer Science+Business Media. © Current Medicine Group Ltd; 2009

Free abstract

Sometimes it seems that popular diabetes research may have forgotten it’s objective, but there are certainly things diabetics can do to treat themselves. In fact, even the ADA agrees with this notion. This idea is suggested in one of their publications called, Diabetes A to Z: What you Need to know About Diabetes; Simply Put. It is now in it’s 5th edition.

When reporting the results of diabetes research, it is quite acceptable to say something like the following statement in a news release or report: “new drug shows promise for treatment.” You have to be careful, however, in saying something like, “ancient practice of using certain natural dietary supplements limits incidence of type 2 diabetes among Mayan descendants”. No claims of treatment or cure can be made regarding any naturally available product used as food or food supplement without approval. This FDA technicality shows the tilt of the play field - it’s not towards the sufferers of this degenerative disease, but towards the drug manufacturing industry.

However, before we examine the pitiful state of metabolic disease research any further, I want to share some interesting bit of information on type 2 diabetes; in particular some new research study on a natural food supplement. I actually “tore” out a piece of the page of the report and posted it on the web.

Let us consider one commendable effort by a research organization as seen in a January 2009 article. We read that that US Olympic swimmer, Gary Hall, Jr. was “tapped as spokesman for new study that explores benefits of exercise on autoimmune diseases.” Mr. Hall, who competed in the Olympics from 1996 through 2004 and won 5 gold, 3 silver, and 2 bronze medals in 3 Olympics was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes in 1999.

Scientists conducting diabetes research to investigate the effect of physical exercise on autoimmune response in type 1 diabetes believe that regular aerobic activity increases insulin sensitivity. But this has been known and practiced for some time now. One exercise physiologist to whom I have listened several times even told of clients who simply exercise and then eat in order to control their blood sugars. I am not sure I would advocate anyone working so hard for every meal, but it shows the effectiveness and importance of physical activity in regulating blood sugar.

Diabetes research has been chasing the money

With all the knowledge and experience gained from various diabetic research studies that prove the effectiveness of proper diet and exercise very little is being done to promote healthy lifestyle intervention especially among the high risk groups. Diet and lifestyle regulation can help in not only controlling, but preventing, the onset of type 2 diabetes. Instead, science continues to chase the “so-called” genetic factors and the development of more drugs to tackle the epidemic. Why?

Well, since it is difficult to “patent” a freely growing plant that can be used in dietary supplementation, then expensive research has to follow the money. However, even the researchers agree that there are things we can do to treat ourselves, and we should. After all, our health is the result of choices we make daily.

Recent double-blind clinical studies have shown very satisfactory results for controlling blood glucose level using common, easily available, traditionally used, and natural dietary supplements. Having tried some of the ingredients individually, it is particularly thrilling to see new combinations and special blends of these traditionally safe products. One question still hangs unanswered, however. Will the established arm of the pharmaceutical and medical industries still keep this information under their clipboard, or will they help spread the news to diabetics?

Monitoring your blood glucose levels is an important part of managing your diabetes. If your blood glucose levels are under control, you can live a healthy, happy, active life. If your levels are not under control, you’re much more likely to suffer from diabetes related complications.

A diabetes test strip is a small strip used to test the blood glucose levels in diabetics. You put a small drop of blood on the strip, and then your glucose monitor gives you a read out with the information about your glucose levels. However, not all diabetes testing strips are the same. Different test strips go with different glucose meters, and it’s important to make sure the test strips you are using are the ones that go with your glucose monitor.

Another difference between different diabetes testing strips is that different strips require different amounts of blood to read your blood glucose levels. One strip may require less than one unit, while another may require two. Some test strips may also indicate that they support “alternate site testing.” This means that you don’t have to only use your finger tip for the blood. If this is something that is important to you, it’s something to consider when looking for your diabetes test strips.

Diabetes test strips are important for managing your illness and monitoring your blood glucose levels. Making sure you have the right test strip, and that you’re using it properly, will help you keep your blood glucose levels under control so you can stay healthy.

If you need to order more test strips, make sure you order the right kind for your glucose monitor. And when you test, make sure you’re using the test strips properly. Follow the directions to your glucose monitor carefully to get as accurate a reading as possible.

Diabetes testing strips are an important part of monitoring and managing your blood glucose levels and keeping you healthy. They are a key part of your glucose monitor, and using them correctly means getting accurate results. The more accurate the results, the more likely you are to stay healthy and not be controlled by your diabetes.

People who have been diagnosed with diabetes know that their health depends on managing their illness. For some this can mean exercising regularly and altering your diet to keep yourself healthy. For others, regular glucose testing and daily insulin injections are a part of their daily routine.

Tight Control of Your Blood Glucose Levels

To make sure you’re healthy, it’s important to keep a close eye on your blood glucose levels. This means testing regularly, and doing everything you can to make sure your test results are as accurate as possible. For some, this can be done with a method referred to as “tight control.”

To do this, you need to get as close to a normal blood glucose level as safely possible. However, to do that, you need to pay much closer attention to your lifestyle. It’s not just a matter of trying to follow your doctor’s instructions about nutrition and exercise, but doing whatever you can to make sure you’re living a healthy lifestyle for yourself. You’ll also need to check your blood glucose levels more often, and if you take insulin, you may need to alter your injection dosage and schedule. This method can be a lot of work, but it can mean living a healthier, more active life.

Insulin Pumps

If you’re trying to get your blood glucose levels closer to non diabetic levels and take insulin, you may need to inject insulin several times a day. This can be painful and intensive, so you may want to consider an insulin pump instead.

An insulin pump is used for rapid-acting insulin with intensive insulin therapy. The pump includes a disposable reservoir for the insulin, which is located inside the pump.

An insulin pump gives you a single type of insulin in two ways: a bolus dose that corrects a high blood glucose level or accounts for food eaten, and a basal dose that is pumped continuously to give you the insulin you need between meals and at night. The basal rate is adjustable. Of course, there are advantages and disadvantages to using an insulin pump over traditional injections.

The insulin pump is more expensive than the syringes used for injections. Since the pump is worn, you may be limited in your activities, and wearing the pump may be uncomfortable for some. The insulin pump must be checked often to make sure the battery is charged, the reservoir is full, and the tubing is working properly to make sure you’re getting the insulin properly.

On the other hand, an insulin pump can give you freedom from a regimented exercise and meal plan that was needed when using slow-acting insulin injections. Using a pump, though it’s worn most of the time, can be more discreet and convenient that several injections each day. Finally, insulin pumps give a more precise dosage of insulin than syringes.

An estimate says that around 24 million Americans are suffering from diabetes. More surprising fact is that one quarter of this figure is not aware of their medical condition. No doubt it is surprising that how this number of individuals can be unaware that they are suffering from diabetes. Certainly a major cause is the absence or ignorance of earliest symptoms of diabetes. The absence of earliest symptoms is the hallmark of pre-diabetics and type 2 diabetics, who are at their earliest stages.

Both types of diabetes (type 2 and type 1) share some symptoms these are:

• Unquenchable thirst
• Frequent urination
• Fatigue or tiredness
• Unexplained weight loss
• Blurred vision
• Extreme hunger
• Hunger after eating
• Recurrent yeast infection

Each of these symptoms is backed up by the increase in level of blood glucose. The intensity and frequency of each symptom vary from individual to individual depending on the particular stage of diabetes.

The frequency of cuts and infection increases in type 2 diabetics. The speed of healing also slows down. The onset of diabetic symptoms is even more gradual in type 1 diabetics.

Pre-diabetes is a slow course of action and most of the times disguise the earliest symptoms of diabetes and thus prevent the early diagnosis. As a result it becomes important for those who are more prone to diabetes because of obesity or family history to be aware of these symptoms.

The occurrence of any one of these symptoms is enough to plan a visit to the health professional, as early visit to the doctor will not only help in early diagnosis of diabetes but will also prevent from short and long term complications of diabetes.