There are several different types of diabetes but the main two are diabetes type one and type two, and both are quite different to each other. Although both involve the body’s reaction to insulin, a substance which is produced in the pancreas and is used to convert glucose from food into energy, failure to do this leads to the body’s blood sugar levels to increase which if left can lead to the diabetic falling into a diabetic coma.

Diabetes type one is different from type two as it is usually diagnosed during childhood rather than later in life and rather than the body not being able to process insulin correctly, the pancreas doesn’t actually make it. Due to this anyone who suffers from type one diabetes will have to have daily injections of insulin in order for them to be able to cope with glucose in foods.

The symptoms of diabetes type one are feeling thirsty quite a lot of the time, urinating more than normal especially during the night, losing weight for no real reason and feeling hungry even if you have recently eaten. In order to diagnose diabetes type one your doctor will test your fasting blood sugar levels to see if there is any indication of diabetes.

If you are found to have diabetes your doctor will advise you on the best course of action to keep yourself healthy. As mentioned this will involve having injections of insulin which will help to control your diabetes. You might also have to make changes in your diet so that you do not have too much carbohydrate which can contain a high amount of glucose and is not good for anyone with diabetes. However if you are diagnosed with diabetes you should take comfort in the fact that this condition can be treated and managed quite easily.

As diabetic you must know the importance of monitoring blood sugar level. The most efficient and easy way of monitoring blood sugar level is with the help of glucose monitor. Glucose monitors are not that expensive but test strips are costly. The diabetic needs a new strip at every test and if he has to test several times in one day he requires many strips.

Diabetics that have health insurance can enjoy free diabetic supplies including test strips. Medicare generally covers 80 % diabetic supplies which include test strips, blood glucose meters, batteries and lancets.

There are some companies that offer these meters free of cost and some other diabetic supplies to insurance holders and other Medicare recipients. If some diabetic does not have health insurance but have limited income he can apply for Financial Assistance Program to have free glucose meter.

There are basically three ways of getting a free glucometer;

First is to visit online companies that offer glucometer for free. In this case you just have to fill an online form. The company will ship a free glucose meter and other diabetic supplies free of cost. You simply have to enter some personal information. Some companies even require a prescription for blood glucose monitor.

Second is to visit local pharmacy that offers free glucometers. Some reputed pharmacies offer a free glucose meter on the purchase of test strips. This however requires health insurance.

Third idea to get free one is to order it directly to manufacturer. Again this requires health insurance.

We already know the quinoa health benefits in our diet like its protein content and nutritional value but we never really focus on what this super food can do if you are hypertensive or diabetic. Yes you heard it right, quinoa will be a great addition to your daily routine even if you are dealing with hypertension and Type 2 diabetes.

The uncooked quinoa has less calories but more manganese, magnesium, iron, tryptophan, copper and phosphorous. If you are worried about serving it in variation then you shouldn’t because quinoa is probably one of the most versatile food we have. You can serve it for breakfast, lunch or supper and it will not alter the taste of other ingredients.

One notable quinoa health benefit I found is its ability to relax the blood vessels. How so? As mentioned above, it is packed with magnesium and we all know that low levels of this in our body can lead to hypertension, ischemic heart disease and heart arrhythmias. Studies show that a serving of quinoa every breakfast dramatically reduces the risk of heart failure.

Quinoa contains a lot of phytonutrients whose activity has gone unrecognized because a lot of research methods tend to overlook this fact.

What about the quinoa health benefits for Type 2 diabetes? Quinoa is loaded with magnesium and this mineral serves as a co-factor for more than 300 enzymes and one of these enzymes is involved in the body’s utilization of glucose and insulin secretion. Certain studies confirm that regular consumption of quinoa and other whole grains reduces the risk of Type 2 diabetes. If you get tired of eating quinoa, you can add low-fat cheese for variation. You can actually add pretty much anything you want like chopped nuts, fresh fruits, vegetables, lean meat and seafood. You don’t have to eat quinoa alone. You can even bake bread using quinoa flour.

To begin understanding the causes of high blood sugar, it is essential that you know how the body works in the first place. The body naturally converts the sugars that come from the foods being eaten into energy, and this sugar which is formed and stored inside the body is called blood glucose.

It is very important for blood glucose levels to be well maintained because high blood glucose levels can result to a variety of health concerns. High blood sugar levels must be avoided at all cost because when there is too much sugar in the body, you will feel tired, irritable and sick. Blood glucose levels need to be checked and re-checked regularly since consistently high glucose levels can potentially harm your bodily systems.

However, there are situations wherein the levels of blood glucose tend to increase. The kinds of food you eat, for instance, may trigger a spike in your blood sugar levels. Foods that are carbo-loaded as in the case of potato chips, breads and sodas are known to increase blood glucose levels and should therefore be avoided whenever possible.

Being idle most of the time can also lead to higher blood glucose levels. That is why it is highly recommended that you exercise regularly; even a simple walk to the park may be enough so long as it is done on a consistent basis.

Not drinking enough water can cause blood sugar levels to increase as well. See to it that you drink enough water everyday to keep yourself hydrated all the time and reduce chances of experiencing spikes in your sugar levels.

Stay away from stress as much as possible. Since stress requires you to spend more energy, it signals your body to increase blood sugar levels to cope with the additional demand for energy.

Type 2 Diabetes is a chronic illness that happens when the body is resistant to insulin. If  there is too much sugar in the blood the body cannot produce energy required for the cells and it can also damage your kidneys, eyes, heart, and eyes .

Symptoms of Type 2 Diabetes are excessive thirst, urinating a lot, blurry vision, hunger all the time and losing weight without trying. The most effective treatment for diabetes is to control your blood sugar. You can lower your blood sugar by eating healthy foods, decrease your consumption of  simple carbohydrates, exercise, lose  weight and take medications when necessary.

You can control your Diabetes by making healthy choices every day. Learn as much as you can about your disease and possibly consult a Dietitian for meal planning.  Check your blood sugar level often as instructed by your physician, drinking fluids to avoid dehydration and get plenty of exercise.

If you can lose as little as ten pounds then you can also reduce your risk of complications of diabetes.  You physician will probably check your blood pressure and cholesterol.  Diabetics are usually at risk of high blood pressure and high cholesterol. Changing your lifestyle is important such as limiting your alcohol intake, limiting saturated fats, walking 30 minutes a day. 

Try supplements to help improve your health such as multivitamins. Consider chromium which could improve your glucose tolerance. Add fiber to your diet to help reduce your blood glucose.  Fish Oil can help improve your glucose tolerance. In order to control your diabetes eat a healthy diet, lose weight,  exercise and take dietary supplements.

If you have type 2 diabetes, it will come as no surprise to you that lifestyle has a major impact on your diabetes, especially your blood sugar control. The first line of treatment that is usually applied in 90% of people with type 2 who are overweight or obese, is to implement a weight loss plan where there is a change in diet and an increase in physical activity.

These are lifestyle tips to help you achieve blood sugar levels as close to normal as possible:

1. Fiber is the unsung hero of type 2 diabetes. Research shows foods high in fiber, especially soluble fiber, slows the absorption of glucose into your bloodstream … this helps with control of your blood sugar levels. Fiber also helps to satisfy your hunger, maintain a healthy weight and lowers your cholesterol levels.

2. Eat plenty of high-fiber, non starchy fruits including cherries, kiwi fruit, apples, and fruits in the berry family, eg. blueberries, blackberries. They contain lots of vitamins and minerals as well as fiber.

3. People who eat the most vegetables have the lowest long-term risks associated with type 2 diabetes. Non-starchy, high-fiber vegetables are best as they are high in nutrients and contain the least carbohydrates. The fiber in vegetables blunts your body’s response to naturally occurring sugar.

4. Low glycemic index (low-GI) foods … certain foods have an especially low-GI value: beans and other legumes, green leafy vegetables, most fruits, barley (great in soup).

5. Eat healthy oils and fats … virgin olive oil, flaxseed oil, avocados and nuts are known to lower your risk for both blood sugar problems and cardiovascular conditions.

6. The most common cooking oils …corn, safflower, cottonseed, soybean, peanut oil and any type of partially hydrogenated vegetable oil increase your risk of becoming overweight. They all interfere with normal insulin function and alter the regulation of your blood sugars.

7. Kidney, pinto or lima beans, are packed with soluble fiber and will blunt the entry of sugar into your bloodstream. Soluble fiber also helps to lower your LDL (bad) cholesterol.

8. Eating small meals more often, at regularly timed intervals, will give you much better blood sugar control rather than infrequent large meals. Large meals cause more sugar to enter your bloodstream quickly and make it difficult for your pancreas to produce insulin in proportion to the amount you eat at each sitting. Research show type 2 diabetics who eat smaller meals more often, make better food choices eating less sugary foods and less calories.

9. Moderate exercise helps your muscle cells become sensitive to insulin. Insulin is the hormone that transports blood sugar out of your bloodstream and into your cells. Gradually increasing your activity to thirty minute sessions five or six times per week can often lower your blood sugar levels by fifty or more points. Exercise is really protective when used in conjunction with a low-GI eating plan.

High insulin and blood sugar levels can be looked on as the result of taking in more food than the body can really manage … so cutting back really will lessen the burden!

Alanine-aminotransferase (ALT) is an independent predictor for impaired glucose tolerance (IGT), a precursor to Type 2 diabetes, show results from a German worksite population.

The BASF (Baden Aniline and Soda Factory) Occupational Medicine and Health Protection Department offered a diabetes screening program to its 33,000 employees in 2006, of whom 1594 had their diabetes risk tested.

Michael Morcos and fellow researchers from the University of Heidelberg found that of all the employees tested, 374 had the metabolic syndrome according to the International Diabetes Federation criteria.

They also found that 285 had a medium-to-high risk for IGT and Type 2 diabetes according to the Finrisk scoring system, of whom 157, aged 49 years on average, underwent the oral glucose tolerance test.

Of the 157 individuals tested, 18% had either IGT (n=22) or Type 2 diabetes (n=5).

Following adjustment for various confounding factors including age and gender, fasting glucose and ALT were the only independent predictors of IGT.

More specifically, mean fasting glucose was 97 mg/dl in individuals with normoglycemia and 103 mg/dl in those with IGT. In addition, ALT levels were 28 U/l in normoglycemic participants and 36 U/l in those with IGT.

Participants in the upper quartile for ALT and fasting glucose had a significant 4.8 and 5.5-fold increased risk for Type 2 diabetes compared with the lower quartile, respectively.

“These data point to an important role of the liver in insulin resistance and the development of IGT in the relatively young and small population studied,” conclude the authors in the journal Acta Diabetologia.

They add: “Our data support the intention to study ALT as a potential predictive marker of IGT and diabetes Type 2 in more detail in a larger population in a prospective, randomized study.”

MedWire (www.medwire-news.md) is an independent clinical news service provided by Current Medicine Group, a trading division of Springer Healthcare Limited. © Springer Healthcare Ltd; 2009

Free abstract

Results from the Diabetes Prevention Program Outcomes Study reported in The Lancet show that the beneficial effects of lifestyle intervention or treatment with metformin for preventing or delaying the onset of Type 2 diabetes can persist for at least 10 years.

The initial Diabetes Prevention Program (DPP) study lasted for 2.8 years during which time intensive lifestyle intervention, involving help with weight loss and increasing physical activity, and treatment with metformin reduced the incidence of Type 2 diabetes in high-risk adults by 58% and 31%, respectively, compared with placebo.

In this study, the DPP Research Group based at George Washington University in Rockville, Maryland in the USA investigated how well these effects persisted over the following 7.5-year period between 2001 and 2008.

Of the original 3150 participants, 2766 (88%) participated in the DPP Outcomes Study; 910 from the intensive lifestyle intervention group, 924 from the metformin group, and 932 from the placebo group.

Participants in the metformin group continued to take metformin 850 mg twice daily and those in the lifestyle group were offered continued lifestyle support.

The incidence of Type 2 diabetes in the original study was 4.8, 7.8, and 11 cases per 100 person years in the intensive lifestyle intervention, metformin, and placebo groups, respectively.

In the outcomes study, the respective incidence rates were 5.9, 4.9, and 5.6 per 100 person years.

This translates to a 34% and 18% reduction in the incidence of Type 2 diabetes in the lifestyle intervention and metformin groups, respectively, compared with placebo over the total 10-year follow-up period.

“Prevention of diabetes is a long and winding road. There seems to be no shortcut, and a persistent and prolonged intensive lifestyle intervention seems to be the most effective mode to travel on it,” summarized Anoop Misra (Department of Diabetes and Metabolic Diseases, New Delhi, India) author of an accompanying comment also published The Lancet.

He added: “Because of the high prevalence and rapid increase in the metabolic syndrome and diabetes, there is a need to apply these findings to, and generate data from, other ethnic groups and developing countries.”

MedWire (www.medwire-news.md) is an independent clinical news service provided by Current Medicine Group, a trading division of Springer Healthcare Limited. © Springer Healthcare Ltd; 2009

Free abstract

Diabetes whenever left untreated leads to a lot of complications. Few of the complications are cardiopathy, sightlessness, nephropathy, amputation and nerve damage. Is there any way to prevent these complications? Luckily the answer is yes, there is a way.

Diabetics have the ability to care and control their diabetes which could be controlled with proper knowledge and education of diabetes. A diabetic (type 1 or type 2) can modify his living style and start living a standard life by just following the below mentioned 12 simple and easy to follow steps:-

01) Bound the consumption of carbohydrates in every meal.

02) Avoid eating more than 45 grams of carbohydrates in every meal.

03) Consume around 25 grams of total carbohydrate in each snack and blend it with an unsaturated fat or a lean protein such as fruit with low fat cheese or yogurt with nuts.

04) Administer the consumption of carbohydrates equally throughout the day to avoid drops in blood sugar.

05) Consume foods that are slowly digested examples are oatmeal, brown rice whole grain bread etc.

06) Test the blood sugar levels prior to taking meals and at least 2 hours after meal to measure whether your body can deal the quantity of your carbohydrate consumption.

07) Target for the following results while testing the sugar levels twice i.e. before taking meal (Fasting) 90-127 mg/dl and 2 hours after meal below 180 mg/dl.

08) Eat after every three to four hours to keep your metabolic process functioning well.

09) The break between two meals should be a minimum of 2 hours.

10) Go regularly for the HbA1C test and aim for below 6%. This test states the average blood glucose level of the last 3 months.

11) Exercise minimum 5 days a week for at least 30 minutes a day as physical exercise helps insulin in its effective working.

12) Visiting your doctor regularly so that he may adjust your medication, exercising pattern, diet plan according to your body requirements.

There is no magic tablet or secret recipes to cure diabetes. You’ve the full control in your own hands the food, exercise, medication and strain level. You just have to learn to use these 12 easy steps and by complying to the above mentioned twelve steps you will be able to care and fine tune your diabetes and if decently abided you may even reverse your diabetes.

So just don’t allow diabetes to take control of your life when you are the in charge.

Gestational diabetes is a type of diabetes that occurs during pregnancy. It is also known as gestational diabetes mellitus or GDM. Pregnant women who never had diabetes before but who have high blood sugar levels during pregnancy are said to have gestational diabetes. However, it affects only a very small percentage of pregnant women.

High risk factors

• Overweight prior to pregnancy
• Glucose detected in the urine
• Impaired glucose tolerance
• Previously given birth to a stillborn baby or an overweight baby
• Family history of diabetes

Risk of the Baby

• The body of the baby is larger than normal and may need to be delivered by cesarean method
• The baby will experience a sharp drop in blood glucose due to the extra insulin made by the baby’s pancreas.
• The baby with excess insulin is at risk for obesity
• The baby may experience respiratory distress syndrome and breathing problems

Detect Symptoms

Screening for gestational diabetes is recommended after the 24th week and before the 28th week of pregnancy. Those in the higher risk group should check the blood glucose as early as possible.

For most women, gestational diabetes goes away after the birth of the baby but these women are more prone than other women to develop type 2 diabetes later on in life. It is recommended that women should have a blood test to check the blood sugar levels about six weeks after the birth of the baby.

Diet

Diet plays an important role in one’s health. Gestational diabetes diet should consist of food with less sugar and fat. Eat less carbohydrate and select foods rich in fibres such as fruits and vegetables, cereals and whole-grain breads. In addition to the recommended daily intake of vitamins and minerals, ensure to drink at least 8 cups of water per day. While alcoholic drinks and smoking should be avoided, coffee and tea should be limited to not more than two cups per day.