Are you at an increased risk of diabetes? If yes then it is religiously important for you to have this information. Diabetic symptoms can greatly help the individuals who are at an increased risk of diabetes. This will enable them to listen to their bodies the moment something goes wrong.

Let us start from the beginning

What Is Diabetes? Diabetes is an illness that takes place when the body either do not produce adequate amount of insulin or the body cells do not react efficiently to the provided insulin. It is a hormone that helps the body to break down glucose into energy. If the body of the person is unable to either produce or process insulin it puts extremely damaging effect to the vital body organs. Diabetes if left untreated may cause eye related problems, heart ailments, skin and kidney problems. In the extreme case the diabetic individual may enter into diabetic coma or even die.

There are many individuals who are at an increased risk of diabetes because of their genes. The diabetes runs in families. There are some individual who are caught by the disease because of sedentary lifestyle or some traumatic event. It is important to know that diagnosis of diabetes does not mean that it is the end of life. There are many celebrities as well as common people who lead a healthy happy life even with diabetes. Diabetes test is the best thing to diagnose this chronic ailment. However there are few symptoms that can help the diabetics to give an alarming signal that person is suffering from diabetes.

Diabetic Symptoms: The symptoms of diabetes include

• Blurriness in vision
• Tiredness
• Sudden weight loss
• Irritability and mood swings
• Excessive thirst
• Unquenchable thirst
• Excessive hunger

Mostly people ignore these early signs of diabetes as they look so harmless. This ignorance may cause them to suffer from undiagnosed diabetes sometimes even for years. This is a dangerous situation. The diabetic symptoms continue to get worse and end in chronic life threatening complications.

However it is equally important here not to misdiagnose yourself. Many signs of diabetes signal one or some other sign of disease. In simpler words one must not consider himself diabetic, if he is feeling tired or thirsty. Sometimes these signs of diabetes could because of being dehydrated.

If more than one symptom appears for a longer period of time it is good to have it tested. Even if you are not yet diagnosed with diabetes but if you are at an increased risk of diabetes it is good to go for regular diabetes screening.

When people with type 2 diabetes are advised on how to control their diabetes… the type of food they eat and the amount of exercise they should do each week, predominates in the conversation. Up until now sleep is usually not mentioned but according to research, sleep might be another important factor.

A study at the University of Chicago looked at sleep and glucose tolerance in eleven non-diabetic people, average age 40, who were overweight and under-exercised. They averaged slightly less than eight hours of sleep each night.

• for fourteen nights they were allowed to sleep for eight and a half hours, and
• for fourteen nights they were allowed to sleep only five and a half hours
• no exercise was permitted, and
• junk food was provided

During the two weeks of being sleep deprived, the volunteers had higher blood sugar levels and showed less sensitivity to insulin.

Another study at the same institution found similar results in younger, leaner volunteers. Nine people between the ages of 21 and 30 were allowed to sleep for eight and half hours for three nights in the lab. When the subjects went into deep sleep, sound was used to make them sleep more lightly. A glucose tolerance test was given and blood insulin levels were measured. It was found that sensitivity to insulin decreased by 25 per cent. In eight of the subjects, insulin production did not increase, causing their blood sugars to rise by 23 per cent.

Sleep apnea, or stoppage of breathing for 10 seconds or more during sleep, is common among diabetics. About 40% of men with type 2 diabetes also suffer sleep apnea, and that number goes up to 61 per cent for men over 65.

Lack of sleep or at least deep sleep, may cause imbalances in substances like catecholamines and the hormone cortisol in your body. Catecholamines and cortisol prepare your body for the ‘fight or flight’ response, and one way they do this is by raising the blood sugar level. This is one possible mechanism for a connection between lack of quality sleep and type 2 diabetes.

Like type 2 diabetes, sleep apnea is a disorder that people who have it, often don’t recognize.

Symptoms include:

• tiredness
• waking up tired
• lack of energy
• headaches, and
• falling asleep without trying to, such as when reading or watching television.

A lack of quality sleep places you at an increased risk of several health problems. If you are type 2 diabetic it will make weight loss and control of your blood sugar levels much more difficult. Not getting enough sleep on a regular basis makes your body less sensitive to insulin which puts you at an increased risk of weight gain.

For all the hoopla about the importance of fruits and vegetables in the diet, for most diabetics and for the public in general the single greatest daily source of antioxidants is coffee and tea. New research from the UK, however, reports that adding milk or cream to tea has substantial impact on the availability of its antioxidants.

Improved Blood Sugar Levels: The catechins in tea have been linked to improvements in the control of blood sugar levels as well as to lowering the risk of cancer, type 2 diabetes, and Alzheimer’s disease. Green (unfermented) tea contains 30 to 40 per cent catechins by weight, while black (fermented) tea still contains 3 to 10 per cent catechins. Both green tea and black tea are important as sources of catechins and other antioxidants in diets throughout the world. Black tea is especially important in the English-speaking world, primarily as iced tea in America, and primarily as hot tea in other countries.

Adding milk to tea: Lisa Ryan and Sebastien Petit of the Functional Food Center at Oxford Brookes University report findings that adding any kind of milk to tea (hot or cold) lowers the available antioxidant content by about 7 per cent. Adding skim milk to tea, however, lowers the available antioxidant content by about 25 per cent. This finding adds to previous research advising against the addition of milk to tea. In 2007 scientists at the Charite Hospital in Berlin reported that straight black tea opens arteries to the heart and helps lower blood pressure, but that proteins in milk added to tea cancel out this benefit.

Adding milk to coffee: Scientists have also looked at the effects of adding milk and cream to coffee. In 2009 researchers at the food giant Nestle reported in the Journal of Nutrition that adding milk or cream to coffee had no effect on the availability of the antioxidant isoferulic acid, ferulic acid, or caffeic acid from the beverage. Adding non-dairy creamer and sugar to instant coffee, however, made the heart-healthy and cancer-preventative antioxidants unavailable.

Higher Blood Sugar Levels: Coffee also contains large amounts of the antioxidant chlorogenic acid… this is what helps give coffee its flavor, and magnesium. Both of these improve insulin sensitivity and therefore reduces the risk of developing type 2 diabetes.

If you already have type 2 diabetes though, the news isn’t so good. Coffee raises your blood sugar level in the short term, and if you have already been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, drinking coffee makes it much more difficult for you to control your blood sugar levels and to also lose weight.

If you drink coffee it is best to only drink two cups each day… without the non-dairy creamer and sugar!