If you have high blood sugar levels due to diabetes, your serious attention is warranted in choosing proper diet. The very secret of controlling diabetes blood sugar levels lies in observing a diet meal plan. Proper diet is the prime factor to control type 2 diabetes after investigation. Diabetic diet can help you lose body weight and improve insulin secretion after which you have the liberty to reduce prescribed medications to keep diabetes under control.

If you are a diabetic, you must eat the right foods in order to manage your diabetic condition with ease. When you choose the right diet, it helps you to achieve a better control of blood glucose levels with less medication. Proper choice of diet foods can promise you to beat diabetes and say ‘Goodbye’.

1. Diets with low-GI: Choosing foods with low glycemic index is the first thing you should remember. If the glycemic index of the food is low, the reduced potential power cannot shoot up the blood sugar levels. Low glycemic indexed diet can fight insulin resistance and enable you manage diabetes without oral medications.

2. Low carb diets: As a matter of fact, diets with small amounts of carbohydrates play an equal role as low-GI foods. Wheat bread and pasta belong to this category which can impose in your body a weight loss helping you manage diabetes without stress.

3. Low fat diets: When you consume low fat diets, your cholesterol as well as blood sugar levels are maintained in normalcy. You have the option to eat lean meat and boiled chicken breast that are low in fat. When the fats are reduced in your diet, you will find it easy to maintain your diabetic sugar under normal limits.

4. High nutrients: When you are keeping control on your diets, you have to compensate your dietary needs with nutritious foods rich in vitamins and minerals. By adopting proper diet plan, insulin resistance can be sufficiently reduced to improve your health.

5. High fiber diets: Consuming diet foods that are rich in fiber constantly helps you reduce the sugars in the bloodstream. You need not depend on insulin injection or take oral medication to boost insulin secretion. High fiber diets can work well in tuning up the pancreas for insulin secretion to control blood sugar.

I am an Insulin Dependent Diabetic, and have been so since I was in my early 20s. Until that time I had been a reasonably fit and quite healthy specimen. Unfortunately for me at that time, as a typical Australian male in the prime of my life, I refused to see a doctor, believing instead that what ever was wrong with me would pass. It wasn’t until my wife pressured me and then threatened to leave me that I decided to do something about it.

By this time I had lost so much weight I looked like a skeleton with a thin covering of skin. I was about 82.5Kg or 182 pounds and in a period of around 2 weeks I dropped to about 38Kg or around 84 pounds. Things got so bad for me that when I stood from sitting, I had to drag my left leg behind because it wouldn’t work for walking straight away. I was pretty sick! Anyhoo, I went into hospital for treatment and started learning how to manage this incredibly complex illness that had befallen me. For many years, I hated the world and got to a point where I felt I was owed something. Guess what?? I didn’t get it!

Slowly over time, I put weight back on and started to rebuild muscle. I still have troubles in my legs almost 20 years later. From day 1 it seemed that I would have nothing but trouble managing my blood glucose levels with the correct insulin regime. Doctors changed the types of insulin I was on 3 times before they found the one that seemed to work. Even then though I was still using a lot. I would take between 50 and 60 units of slow acting insulin in 2 injections every day, as well as nearly 80 units of fast acting insulin in 6 injections daily. I tell you it can get bloody annoying…

Then one day in early 2006, my best friend told me about this DIY health maintenance system that he’d been taught called 423 Meridian Qi Gong. He went on and on about it over the phone and told me how it worked. I must admit I was a little bit sceptical, but decided to give it a go anyway. Being the typical Australian male that I am, I decided to try it with only the limited instruction that I’d had over the phone. It didn’t matter, it worked anyway. That same day, within a few hours, my blood glucose levels dropped so severely that I kept going into a hypoglycaemic state. For the next week I used almost no insulin and the few times that I did inject, I had to keep checking my sugar levels to make sure I didn’t go too low.

It was amazing and even today 3 almost 4 years later my insulin requirements are less than half what they were. I still use the 2 types of insulin, slow acting morning and night, and the fast acting before? each meal. Except that I no longer need it for my afternoon tea break. These days though, I only use a maximum of 34 units of the slow acting insulin and? 40 - 50 units of the fast acting in only 5 injections per day.

On top of this with the continued use of 423 Meridian Qi?Gong, I have put on muscle and my health continues to improve steadily. I was so impressed with the results that I was only too?happy to assist in the filming of Professor Lius’?Home Study DVD?which is available at the Meridians For Health website and I have also been accredited by Professor Liu as an instructor.

423 Meridian Qi Gong consists of 4 Pressure Points, 2 Breathing Exercises and 3 Physical exercises. The pressure points are easy to find and won’t cause any pain. The breathing exercises are so easy, you do 1 before you get out of bed in the morning and the other one you can do anywhere. The physical exercises are low to no impact, and basically they are there just to get the energy system in your body pumping. If you are a diabetic and you find that nothing works to keep you in control, you owe it to yourself to have a look at 423 Meridian Qi Gong. You can buy the DVD at the Meridians For Health?website. You’ll find the link in my resource box.

Blood glucose monitors help diabetics to manage their diabetes successfully, by providing accurate data about their blood sugar levels. This enables them to alter their lifestyle accordingly, such as their physical activity, food and medications, to regulate the severity of the condition. The most common monitor type uses a lancing device that helps prick the fingertip to obtain a blood sample to measure the glucose levels in the blood.

Blood Glucose Monitors: What to Look For - You can choose the right glucose monitor based on your requirements and the cost of test strips. It is better to consult your healthcare provider before buying a device.

Cost: Your health insurance plan may cover the cost of blood glucose monitors and diabetes care supplies. Therefore, discuss with your insurer before buying a device. Some insurance companies may have special arrangements for certain systems or monitors. Also consider the cost of diabetes testing supplies. At times, supplies such as test strips and control solutions can be costlier than the monitor. It is better to confirm with your insurance company whether they cover the cost of strips.

Accuracy: Most monitors show accurate results when used properly. However, the accuracy level may decline over time. The best way to check their accuracy is to compare the results from your monitor with those obtained from a reputed testing laboratory.

Easy to Use: Certain monitors may be easier and faster to operate than others. Therefore, check with your physician about the pros and cons of various models before buying one.

Blood Glucose Monitors: Continuous Glucose Monitoring (CGM) In a CGM system, a tiny sensor is placed under the skin and the sensor sends data to a wireless monitor using radio waves. If you want to change your monitoring system to CGM, you may need to program the device with the results from conventional monitors. Although CGM devices are costlier than conventional ones, they enable better glucose control. The CGM offers real-time glucose level data at a regular interval of 1 to 5 minutes. You can set an alarm to alert you when the sugar level is too high or too low. You can also download the data onto your computer and do a trend analysis.

Most monitors offer high rates of accuracy and are easy to use. Always choose a model that you are comfortable with, and which requires minimal steps to operate. Since you will use the monitor regularly, choose one that suits your requirements completely. Contact the suppliers and clear your doubts before buying one.

Fruits play a pivotal role in the discussion whether diabetics eat fruits or not. Though it is argued on both extremes, it is rather a myth that the diabetics should not consume fruits. Many diabetics fall a prey to such exaggeration and their condition is deteriorated to the worst. Indeed, ‘Fruits for Diabetes’ is a good concept as many fruits have nutritional values with Vitamins and Minerals that are required to build up a healthy body. So, a diabetic should have a meal plan including some fruits.

Why should a diabetic eat fruits?

I choose to explain here what type of fruits a diabetic should eat rather than produce you a list of fruits to go for searching. Be sure, there are no such fruits that the diabetics should keep off in total. There are some light and non-greasy fruits that can work well for diabetics in controlling blood glucose. But a diabetic victim should abstain from consuming foods including fruits that are rich in fats and cholesterol. There are fruits rich in fiber needed to control blood sugar in the bloodstream. The dietary fiber promotes easy digestion and conversion of glucose into energy.

Fruits to eat and fruits to avoid:

A diabetic is certainly forbidden from eating fruits that are high in carbohydrates and sugar. Sugary fruits may be consumed in very small servings instead of avoiding completely. Fruit juices and concentrates which do not contain dietary fiber are to be substituted with whole fruits. Fresh fruits are preferred than those stored in freezers. If the fruits are unpeeled and half-ripened, the beneficial effects of eating such fruits are doubled for controlling blood sugar levels. The sweeteners and syrups added with juices do elevate the blood sugar steeply. Here is a small list of fruits of three categories:

Eat these fruits: Citrus fruits such as oranges, sweet lime, red grapes, or olives.

Avoid these fruits: Mango, banana, chikoo, guava, and custard apple.

Must eat these fruits: Grape fruits, apple, pomegranate, and jambul

If you are decided to eat fruits, they can be had from the market. Be sure that the fruits will work well if they are fresh. However, fruits for diabetes cannot be the case to make it complete for diabetes control. A diabetic needs to eat green vegetables also in plenty.

The incidence of high blood sugar (hyperglycemia) is growing at a rapid rate and leads to many diseases such as type 2 diabetes, obesity, heart disease and stroke, just to name a few.

Here are the signs of high blood sugar. If you have any of these, you may need to immediately start taking action to help normalize your blood sugar.

1. Frequent, Intense Thirst.

If you are finding that you cannot seem to quench your thirst no matter how much you drink, then it may be a sign that you have some degree of insulin resistance.

The increased thirst results from excessive urination (polyuria), leading to dehydration and perhaps also because of the high blood glucose level (the body may try to dilute the sugar).

2. Frequent Urination (polyuria).

Polyuria is due to glycosuria (glucose in the urine). Glycosuria occurs when the blood glucose exceeds 10mmol/L. As a result of the osmotic effect, glycosuria leads to polyuria.

3. Lethargy / Fatigue.

Lethargy results from the fact that the body has difficulty getting glucose into the body cells ( insulin resistance). This means cellular functioning becomes impaired and negatively affects energy levels.

4. Fasting Blood Glucose.

For the most accurate measurement of blood glucose, you can simply get a blood glucose monitor from your local pharmacy (drug store) and measure your blood sugar level directly.

It is best to measure your fasting blood glucose first thing in the morning. If the measurement is greater than 6 mmol/L then it indicates that you have some degree of insulin resistance If the measurement is greater than 7.8 mmol/L, then that indicates a diagnosis of diabetes.

Accordingly, if you are showing any sign of high blood sugar whatsoever you will need to start taking action to help your body overcome this condition.

You will need to start by addressing some of the causes of high blood sugar, which are generally lifestyle related.

If you would like to get a free diabetic diet plan, Click Here!

The Versartis biotech pharmaceutical company in San Diego has just announced that they are developing a long-acting growth hormone peptide that will be used to treat Type II Diabetes. Preclinical data has proved its efficacy. But, their studies will not start until the second quarter of 2010. They expect it will take at least two years to get the product to market (and possibly longer). Are diabetes sufferers willing to wait that long? Remember, Diabetes takes an extreme toll on your body.

Meanwhile, our patients have been introduced to testosterone and human growth hormone peptides for over 10 years, and have experienced improved insulin resistance, along with positive body composition changes and weight loss. Weight loss alone often corrects Type II Diabetes. Most people do not know that Type II diabetes is often caused by changes in hormone levels The combination of testosterone replacement, along with a new peptide GHRP-6 which has been developed to instigate the release of one’s own human growth hormone, combined with a healthy low-glycemic index diet, easily reverses Type II Diabetes.

The new peptide is GHRP-6 and is available by prescription through certified compounding pharmacies. It functions as a Human Growth Hormone releaser within the human body. One of the features of the integrative medicine and interventional endocrinology we practice at Doctor’s Age Management is that we understand the importance of taking a look at your full body chemistry and lifestyle to address health problems. This is a better overall program than simply prescribing medications to mask the symptoms of the true problem.

Although studies have not yet been that thorough and comprehensive yet, the same have shown promising findings that indeed turmeric can be used to prevent and treat diabetes. Exactly how does turmeric for diabetes prevention work?

Curcumin, the active ingredient in turmeric, has been established to be a potent antioxidant and anti-inflammatory substance that can very well diminish the body’s resistance to insulin and treat Type 2 diabetes, also known as diabetes mellitus, by mitigating the inflammation caused by obesity.

Resveratrol, found in red wine and grapes, has also been found to help in the treatment of Type 2 diabetes, so it can synergize with turmeric and work in combination in the treatment of diabetes.

Health experts have also established the fact that turmeric works best in the body when taken in the form of multi-vitamin supplements, combining with other helpful substances and ingredients.

A good example is combining turmeric with piperine, a basic ingredient of black pepper, wherein it was found that the absorption of turmeric in the body increased by 2,000 percent, thereby negating the need to take higher doses.

The synergy of taking multi-vitamin supplements, simply mean that the body, aside from getting the benefits of each and every substance in it, also enjoys the benefits of the substances when combined with each other, therefore doubling the health benefits altogether.

You also have to make sure that the multi-vitamin supplement is enteric-coated and that the curcumin is of 95 percent extract, so that it is assured to reach the bloodstream and effectively gives its benefits to the body.

Diabetes treatment is now another health benefit from turmeric. Turmeric is one of several substances found to have powerful antioxidant properties.

Since ancient times, turmeric has been used to treat various ailments from the healing of wounds to the treatment and healing of the liver.

Studies have indicated that turmeric indeed stops inflammation of the body fats and diminishes insulin resistance while allowing the body to reduce and burn fat and therefore also treat obesity.

As a warning, it doesn’t mean that you should eat more curry to treat your diabetes, as some other substances and ingredients of the curry might even worsen your diabetes.

While there are several ways to use turmeric to treat diabetes, the best and most efficient way is to take turmeric in the form of multi-vitamin supplement pills or capsules. Also, make sure that the turmeric content in the supplemental pill or capsule is substantial enough to elicit its full benefits.

The best way to ensure safety and effectiveness is to take turmeric in a high quality supplement!

As sugar is the substance of life, it is considered precious and, as an imperative, the body goes to large lengths to maintain it. The kidneys hold a natural barricade to prevent the loss of sugar in urine. However all the additional sugar in the bloodstream needs to go somewhere. Because of the disproportionate levels of sugar in the bloodstream of the diabetic, this kidney barricade is inundated, and sugar spills into the urine. To be excreted out in the right consistency, this spilled sugar needs to be in liquid form, so large amounts of water are pulled into the bladder, producing great volumes of urine. To meet this requirement you will be drinking almost all the time. All this creates the typical diabetes symptoms: excessive thirst, excessive urination, excessive hunger, weight loss (from burning muscle and fat to try and nourish the cells), among others.

WHY DID I BECOME DIABETIC?

No one knows for sure the causes of diabetes, even though there may be numerous contributory factors. Genetics is probably one, and fatness is another. On the whole, males are believed to be more prone to diabetes than females, and it is normally older people who develop the disease. Anyway, only your doctor can offer satisfactory diagnosis of symptoms and tell you whether they are in fact diabetes symptoms.

WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?

Diabetes symptoms progress according to the extent and range of high blood glucose levels. The symptoms may initially show very mild, then progress to more severe symptoms (i.e. excessive need for liquids and urination), and finally to the perilous life-threatening conditions of kidney failure or heart disease. The progression of symptoms is usually slow and steady over years for type 2 diabetes and quick over weeks or months for type 1 diabetes. Sufferers from type 2 diabetes frequently go undiagnosed long enough to make them start to get signs of the complications of the illness, such as foot or kidney problems.

Many people show no signs or symptoms. Diabetes symptoms may also be so soft that you might not still perceive you have them. Lots of people all over the world have type 2 diabetes and do not recognize it.

HOW CAN I TELL?

Diabetes symptoms to look for: increased hunger and thirst, fatigue, increased urination, inexplicable weight loss, blurry vision, sores that will not heal. At times people have symptoms but do not deduce diabetes. They postpone scheduling a health check for the reason that they do not feel bad. Many diabetics do not discover they have the disease until they have serious complications, such as kidney failure or heart trouble.

This is why it is imperative to detect early if you have diabetes: adequate treatment can prevent harm to the body at early stages. An early sign of kidney injure is when your kidneys give away small quantities of a substance called albumin into the urine. With additional damage, the kidneys leak growing amounts of albumin. This harm gets worse until the kidneys fall short or stop working. Quantities of people with diabetes feel “in bad condition” or have mild diabetes symptoms that may go unrecognized. Others have signs such as feeling thirsty, urinating frequently, losing weight, feeling tired, having blurred vision, getting skin infections, and having slow healing cuts and bruises. These tribulations should be reported to your physician right away.

In addition to the above information, it may be required to check up symptoms that may be caused by consequences of diabetes or other related conditions. To get a complete picture of these and other possible diabetes symptoms — there are plenty of them — you may want to download a complimentary ebook from the author.

WHAT IS DIABETES? WHY DO WE NEED TO SLASH DOWN OUR SUGAR INTAKE?

Studies have indicated the different possible associations between processed sugar consumption and has revealed the health hazard of consuming to much processed sugars. As we all know, millions of people all over the world have tried to let go of their mouth-watering and tasty sugar products. As the diabetes begins to climb around the world,the government and other health care providers are initiating efforts to invest in health education, diagnosis and treatments for this chronic, unbearable - but controllable - disorder. If your health provider confirmed that you are a diabetic, its better to start searching for possible treatment and remedies before it’s to late.

TYPES OF DIABETES

Type 1 diabetes was tagged with such names because it represents a majority of the diabetes cases in children. Eventually, the pancreas can wear out from working overtime to produce extra insulin and may no longer be able to produce enough to keep a person’s blood sugar levels within a normal range. The major treatment of type-1 diabetes, even in its earliest stages, is the delivery of artificial insulin by means of injection combined with careful monitoring of blood glucose levels using blood testing monitors. Type 2 diabetes is characterized differently and is usually due to insulin resistance or reduced insulin sensitivity, combined with relatively reduced insulin secretion which in some cases becomes unconditional. Nerve damage can cause your hands and feet to hurt, tingle or feel numb. If not properly attend to the type-1 diabetes condition may become persistent that could even lead other organ malfunctions and other complications.

DIABETES TREATMENT

For type 1 diabetes, advances in blood sugar monitoring, diabetic diet, exercise, and insulin delivery have simplified the daily routine of managing or preventing the condition to get worst. Treatment for diabetes varies based on a number of factors, including weight, age and any complications that the patient is experiencing. Take maintenance medicine if necessary even when you feel good and get a routine check up to avoid problems. Ask for help from your friends and family if you are feeling which will help you to overcome the stress.

Treatment with liraglutide, in addition to an energy-deficit diet and exercise program, induces weight loss, improves certain obesity-related risk factors, and reduces prediabetes in obese individuals, study results show.

The double-blind, placebo-controlled, 20-week trial, which also used open-label orlistat as a comparator, was carried out in 19 sites across Europe to assess the effect of the glucagon-like peptide-1 agonist liraglutide, initially developed for the treatment of Type 2 diabetes, on bodyweight.

In total, 564 obese people without Type 2 diabetes (age 18 “65 years, body-mass index 30 “40 kg/m²) were randomly assigned to receive 1.2 mg, 1.8 mg, 2.4 mg, or 3.0 mg liraglutide (n=90 “95), to placebo (n=98) administered once a day subcutaneously, or to open-label active comparator orlistat (120 mg, n=95) three times a day orally. All individuals had a 500-kcal per day energy-deficit diet and increased their physical activity throughout the trial.

Arne Astrup (University of Copenhagen, Denmark) and colleagues report that participants on all doses of liraglutide lost significantly more weight than those on placebo or orlistat. Mean weight loss with liraglutide 1.2 mg, 1.8 mg, 2.4 mg, and 3.0 mg was 4.8 kg, 5.5 kg, 6.3 kg, and 7.2 kg, respectively, compared with 2.8 kg with placebo and 4.1 kg with orlistat.

Liraglutide also reduced blood pressure at all doses, reduced the prevalence of prediabetes by 84-96% at 1.8 “3.0 mg per day, reduced the proportion of patients with metabolic syndrome by more than 60% at 2.4 mg and 3.0 mg per day, and reduced mean fasting plasma glucose by 7 “8% with all doses.

Of note, nausea and vomiting occurred more often in individuals on liraglutide than in those on placebo or orlistat, but adverse events were mainly transient and rarely led to discontinuation of treatment.

“Liraglutide offers a new mode of action for the treatment of obesity and improved efficacy compared with currently available therapies,” conclude Astrup and co-authors in The Lancet.

They add: “Its effect on prediabetes suggests that it might be important for treating obese prediabetic individuals.”

However, the long-term risk “benefit profile for liraglutide, as well as its weight maintenance capabilities, remains to be established, note the researchers.

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

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