If one or both of your parents have diabetes, chances are you will not escape the genetic consequences. But here is what you can do. You can be proactive and never have to take an insulin medication or stick yourself up to 2 times a day just to maintain normal blood sugar.

Even if you argue that it has not been proven that there is such a thing as a genetic link, don’t throw caution to the wind.

If you have a family history though, you owe it to yourself to know the symptoms of pre-diabetes otherwise know as hypoglycemia. Unlike diabetes the symptoms of prediabetes or hypoglycemia is low blood sugar. This happens when there is an over secretion of insulin by your pancreas in an effort to get the sugar, glucose from your blood stream into your body cells. This causes you to have symptom that you might not associate with diabetes.

Some of the symptoms are fatigue, irritability, dizziness, depression, and anxiety, craving for sweets, night sweats, a feeling of tightness in the chest, constant need to nibble, insomnia, lightheadedness, swollen feet, and weakness in the legs. Some of these feelings occur in between meals that are high in sweets and fat or after drinking sweet alcoholic drinks. If these symptoms are over looked after a while you might be faced with a diagnosis of diabetes.

Genetic diabetic links are strongly influenced by lifestyle. If you have adjusted your palate to a modern way of eating with highly processed fatty foods, gigantic soft drinks, large serving sizes at meals and snacks, you might want to note these symptoms.

Being aware of lightheadedness and a feeling of tightness in my chest after eating a Greek salad and a Margarita helped me to nip diabetes in the bud. First I got the feeling of tightness in the chest. Then I got light headed. I got so light headed I passed out. I had stopped to fill my car up and fainted at the pump. The person behind me waiting to fill up got out of his car and helped me up. This was so very scary for me, because I thought what if I was driving? I remember the feelings I had just before I fainted, and I thought this is more than a drink. This is bigger; this must be my double genetic link to diabetes nudge. This must be the onset of hypoglycemia. If both my parent did not have diabetes, I probably would not have made this association.

I was determined not to succumb to diabetes so I decided to nip this in the bud. I decided to do a major overhaul of my diet. Knowing my history with one parent dying in a diabetic coma, I was totally motivated. No turning back and definitely no diagnosis of diabetes.

This first thing I resolved was to remove sweet alcoholic drinks from my diet. I removed all packaged food drinks from my diet in an effort to lower my consumption of sugar, artificial colors, preservatives and high fructose corn syrup. I mixed my juice with water or drink half the serving size on the label.

That was a great start. That was 15 years ago. During this time I have fine tuned my diet based on the glycemic index so that I never have any symptoms of hypoglycemia or diabetes. My diet has such a variety of foods; I do not get bored with it. Most of what I eat is found in my book Eat Yourself Younger Effortlessly. I hesitate to call it a diabetic book because it brings so much contentment, it is much more. I have my thyroid function checked since reduced thyroid function is associated with hypoglycemia.

I go to the gym 3 times per week and concentrate on preserving my muscle. I do yoga to increase my oxygen, retain muscle strength and balance and to quiet my mind.

This is a small price to pay for tip top health free of diabetic symptoms. So far my genetic link is inactive. Over the years my blood sugar remained normal and I have never been diagnosed as diabetic or taken any prescription drugs for hypoglycemia or diabetes.

It is very crucial for someone with diabetes to maintain the right level of sugar in the blood. The food intake should be monitored closely to avoid excessive sugar intake in the blood. Somehow in certain conditions, the sugar levels may drop below the normal levels and this can be very dangerous.

If you have diabetes, you really cannot enjoy eating like before. You cannot just simply eat what you want. This is the most important thing you should remember.

Some things that can make low blood sugar levels more likely to happen are:

• Not eating enough food
• Skipping meals and snacks
• Getting too much insulin
• Too much exercises without enough foods or supplements
• Spend to much time in the shower after insulin shot
• Improper doses of insulin with meals and exercises

How a person with diabetes can tell when the glucose levels are low

• Feel hungry or shaky (trembling)
• Rapid heart rate
• Pale and gray skin, have a headache
• Feel sleepy, weak and dizzy
• Have blurred or double vision
• Feel confused

What should you do if your blood sugar/glucose levels are too low

Eat or drink something that contains sugar that can give quick supply of sugar into the blood. Examples would be soda, orange juice, glucose tablets or glucose gel. After 10 minutes, recheck the sugar levels to see if the levels are back to normal.

In certain conditions, the levels of sugar can drop too low until you are feeling too weak and not feeling well to eat or drink anything. If this happens to you then you need glucogen shot. It is a type of hormone that helps you to get your blood sugar levels back to normal very fast.

If you have recently been diagnosed with pre-diabetes or diabetes, it is important that you become very familiar with the diabetes glucose monitor (also called a meter). It may seem scary at first, but it won’t be long before you will be able to use it confidently. Blood must be monitored regularly in order to decrease the possibility of hyperglycemia (high blood sugar), or hypoglycemia (low blood sugar). Testing also gives you an idea as to what foods raise your blood sugar, as this can vary among individuals.

Your doctor or diabetes expert will tell you how many times a week you should monitor your blood. It is advisable to have your doctor or nurse show you at first how to use the monitor. A monitor normally comes with a control solution which is used every time you open a new box of test strips to check the monitor’s accuracy. If the solution does not come with the monitor, contact your doctor or pharmacist.

The manual that comes with the monitor will show you how to use it properly. You will see an error code if you have done something wrong, and the manual will tell you what the problem is and how to correct it.

Part of learning how to use a glucose monitor is realizing it is important to wash your hands before testing, and make sure they are dry. The manual gives instructions on how to insert the lancet (small needle) into the tool which pricks your finger. You have also inserted the test trip into the meter. When a drop of blood emerges from your finger, you apply the drop to the test strip, and the monitor will record your blood sugar level digitally. Some monitors also come with a small notebook so you can register the results and show them to your doctor. There is usually a toll free number on the back of the meter in case you have a question.

If you have diabetes, knowing what your blood sugar/glucose level is at is extremely important to your health. Monitoring your levels several times a day using a diabetes blood sugar level chart and meter is crucial.

For most people, the body normally adjusts glucose levels in the body. When you’re diabetic, however, depending on whether you’re a Type 1 or Type 2 diabetic, the body has difficulty or cannot adjust glucose normally. In addition, the food you eat, your activity level, amount of exercise, and whether you’re sick or have an illness directly affects your numbers.

The chart below will help you know the difference between a normal, low, or high glucose level. Monitoring your levels using a meter and discussing your levels with your doctor is important to optimum health.

Normal Range Blood Sugar

In general, blood sugar levels should be between 80-170.

Upon waking in the morning and before eating, your optimum blood sugar level should be in the 80 to 120 range. After eating your number will spike, but within two hours after eating it should drop below 170.

Maintaining a low glycemic diet will help you stay within the normal range and avoid low or high spikes that lead to diabetic complications and adverse symptoms.

Low Blood Sugar Level

Your levels are low when they are below 80 and you may start to feel out of sorts, weak, light-headed, and shaky. Eating smaller more frequent meals may help you avoid a dip in your numbers.

High Blood Sugar Level

Immediately after eating your level will naturally spike, but if you’re monitoring it and taking your medications as directed, within two hours of eating it should drop to a normal range. However, if it doesn’t drop to a normal level and stays high and possibly goes higher, you should be taking extra steps to lower your level as directed by your doctor.

Ongoing high glucose levels may lead to hyperglycemia with symptoms including frequent urinating, excessive thirst, unexpected weight loss, and ongoing lethargy and tiredness. In addition to these symptoms, high numbers can cause serious health problems if untreated. Hyperglycemia can cause damage to blood vessels that provide blood to vital organs, and additional risks of heart disease, stroke, kidney disease, vision problems, and nerve problems.

Although the above numbers the standard ranges, as mentioned, factors such as the food you eat, your activities, and your physical health all affect your numbers. It’s important to work with your doctor to understand what a normal range for you is and to take all steps to maintain a normal range blood sugar.

We all think we will never get diabetes, that it happens to the person next door, or Aunt Petunia that lives hundreds of miles away.

But research has shown that psychological and emotional stress among parents may trickle down to their kids and increase their children’s risk of having diabetes. Mothers who go through stressful events such as divorce, domestic violence, mental tension and work pressure also have an increased risk of developing diabetes. Parents who are often stressed out, or who are having problems, is the number one stressor among children. Without the parent’s knowledge, children may get stressed, raising level of a “stress hormone”, otherwise known as Cortisol.

Cortisol is found adjacent to the kidneys and is released in response to both physical AND psychological stress. It breaks down muscle proteins into its component amino acids which then circulates the bloodstream. These amino acids are used by the liver in the manufacture of glucose for energy, increasing blood sugar level and at the same time lowering the use of glucose as fuel. The deficiency as well as excess of cortisol in the body may trigger some system disorders, such as autoimmunity damaging the insulin-producing beta cells, resulting in a deficiency of insulin.

Children with diabetes who experience frequent episode of hypoglycemia, severe low blood sugar levels, particularly at an early age, may have reduced long-term memory performance, as compared to diabetic children who experience severe hypoglycemia at a later age. A diabetic child’s spatial memory performance may be greatly affected by episodes of extreme low blood sugar.

It has been found that anti-diabetic medicines that are taken orally by the mouth are as effective as insulin injection in controlling the symptoms of diabetes. Unfortunately, trends show that the number of people with diabetes continues to rise while their ages at which they get diagnosed, drop.

Even scarier, due to the obesity problem around the world, especially in the US, Type 2 diabetes, which used to be called adult - onset diabetes, is now striking children. Overweight and obese kids that present identifying symptoms like darkness around neck and armpits area are those who frequently get urinary tract infection (UTI).

So what are the problems that diabetes, if not properly managed, can lead to? The answer is; many complications such as amputation and damage to key organs of the body like the eyes, kidney and the heart.

It takes every ounce of restraints and discipline on the part of the patient to be able to follow the rigid diet and medication regimen required for the management of disease.

Having diabetes requires careful examination of one’s sugar level and ensuring that hypoglycemia does not set in. Using blood glucose meter, a person who has diabetes can tell whether his/her sugar level is low. The normal fasting blood sugar is 70 to 100 mg/dl.

Being like in the middle of the ocean with high winds in the living room of your home is nothing but fun, dizziness is one of the symptoms of hypoglycemia, it changes the life of anyone suffering this episodes and it is important that we reveal the causes of the low blood sugar in our body in order to stabilize the sugar levels and stop that roller coaster.

Just by being dizzy you can not be diagnosed hypoglycemic but you can try to avoid white sugars, white flour, dextrose, corn syrup and eat complex carbohydrates found in whole grain products, lean meat and lean fish for some time and see if you notice any change.

If a person with diabetes takes more insulin than he should in relation to his blood sugar level he becomes hypoglycemic as a result of low blood sugar levels.

Our body needs active sugars or glucose to produce energy at the cell level, this sugar is produced by breaking down food during the digesting process, the presence of glucose in our bloodstream triggers the release of insulin by the pancreas , insulin is needed to unlock the cells and let the glucose enter to nourish them. The glucose that is not used is then stored by the liver as glycogen and if we do not eat and our body has a need for energy the liver breaks down the glycogen and releases glucose to the blood stream to fuel the needed cells.

At the same time the adrenals produce cortisol that is used to turn fats, proteins and carbohydrates into glucose but if they are fatigued they are not going to produce the levels of cortisol needed and the liver is going to have difficulties to turn the stored sugar into active sugar resulting a low blood sugar condition.

By implementing a good hypoglycemic diet and fortifying the adrenals the blood sugar levels can be balanced and the hypoglycemia cured.

There are effective ways for lowering your risk for type 2 diabetes, even though it runs in your family. I’m sure you have heard it all before but the answer is healthy lifestyle choices. Why healthy lifestyle choices? Because, although genetics plays a part in this condition developing, it does not develop unless you fall into a pattern of overeating, or eating foods that increase your waistline and your body mass index.

How does it all start? Often in childhood life is all about food… you were rewarded with sweets and snacks, maybe given money to spend after school to buy a treat which contained carbohydrates. Often a carbohydrate addiction starts that far back. And just think about your Mother’s cooking… meatballs fried in oil, delicious meals every day. Then one day it all catches up.

It seems to happen overnight… your clothes no longer fit as they once did, they are now too tight. Some people find they need to start wearing “fat person” clothes.

Time to change! One day obesity gets to you… maybe its when you take snacks to bed at night; snacks to eat during the middle of the night when you wake up hungry with hypoglycemia or low blood sugar levels.

At this time many overweight or obese people go on a diet and manage to lose weight. Unfortunately they do not exercise and they then lose muscle mass.

What should you do? Here is where the phrase healthy lifestyle comes into play. But firstly, it is important to:

1. Learn all you can about the root causes of your pre-diabetes or type 2 diabetes, identify your challenges.

2. Learn which medications work in combination with others… if medications are prescribed they are an important part of your program.

3. Keeping in mind your health issues, build an effective eating plan… diet is the cornerstone of control of your blood sugar levels and type 2 diabetes

4. Understand why you need to exercise and work out a proper routine. Almost every study shows that exercise is to the advantage to people with type 2 diabetes

A different approach to life will lead to weight loss and will make a difference to lowering your risk of type 2 diabetes and give you a healthy lifestyle.

Your blood sugar levels are not as low as you want them to be? Your HbA1c is registering over 7% and you want it to be less than 6.5%? If you are not making progress in the right direction, let’s start at the beginning and check off these points.

Your weight… weight loss is the strongest predictor of a fall in both your blood sugar levels and your HbA1c level.

What if You Are Eating Too Much?

Do you routinely eat more than you really need to at mealtimes? Don’t eat extra food now because you don’t want to stop to eat later… an insulin resistant body likes to eat often. By trying to change this you will find it backfire on you and your body will lay down those extra calories or kilojoules as fat! If you eat more carbs than your insulin resistant body can handle at one time, you will start the roller coaster of high and low blood sugar levels.

Are you eating too much fat? Fat has more calories or kilojoules for its weight than any other nutrient. Every tablespoon of fat gives over 100 calories (418 kj). Do you know one tablespoon of butter has more calories than the bread that you spread it on? Even changing from a full-fat salad dressing to a light dressing can save you 100 calories.

Not eating enough fiber. Fiber is one of the diabetic’s best friends. Fiber can help lower blood sugar levels, blood cholesterol levels, and weight, as well as help you feel full with fewer calories and fewer carbohydrates.

Are you finding you are having mid-afternoon or early evening cravings? This is the most common time for people to crave foods… especially sweets. A major trigger is low blood sugar. This is usually caused by lack of food as a result of going too long between meals or even following a very low calorie (kilojoule) diet.

Are You Stressed?

Check your stress level… stress raises your blood sugar levels. Job worries, financial difficulties, relationship problems or even stress in middle age, does not help during these times. Whatever the cause, stress will help create a blood sugar spike. People with diabetes type 2 who experience chronic or intense stress, find it harder to keep their blood sugar down. Don’t be a hero, talk to someone. Don’t keep your fears bottled up inside… if you don’t have a confidante talk to a counselor or psychologist.

Are You Exercising?

If you are sedentary now is the time to bring some physical activity onto the scene. The average person’s diet is becoming richer in calories (kilojoules), yet no exercise is done to burn off those extra calories. Regular exercise helps to keep you in a healthy weight range and improves your body’s sensitivity to insulin. Exercise really is medicine to the type 2 diabetic… it reduces your blood sugar levels.

How Much Sleep Do You Get?

If you don’t get enough sleep one night, make sure you get it the next night. Making sure you pay your sleep debt helps to control your blood sugar levels.

If you find you are unable to lower your blood sugar levels in spite of your best efforts, your health care provider may need to adjust your medications.

When you are diagnosed with diabetes, it can seem like everything is changing. One question many patients have is whether they are still allowed to consume alcohol with diabetes.

Many patients have to give up a number of their favorite foods and change their exercise and lifestyle habits. In addition to being somewhat stressful, all these changes can also feel like a burden. Feeling as though you need to call your doctor before you does anything can seem overwhelming and many patients are unaware of what is on the list of do’s and don’ts. It is also the same with diabetes and alcohol.

This question, like all diabetes questions, has no single answer. The answer to this question depends on the severity of your diabetes as well as your current health and blood sugar levels. The American Diabetes Association states the following: “When your blood sugar is controlled and well established and you do not have complications, conditions, or medications that are affected by alcohol consumption, then modest amounts of alcohol with your diabetes can be a part of your diet plan”.

It is important to understand that if you drink alcohol with diabetes, your body is at increased risk for certain conditions. This does not mean that you may not have a drink, but there are precautions you should take. Understand that when you drink, your liver slows the glucose release in order to metabolize the alcohol in your blood stream. This means that drinking, especially after an insulin injection or without eating, can result in low blood sugar.

It is also recommended that patients with diabetes adhere to the recommended guidelines of one beer, one glass of wine, or one shot of liquor for women per day and two for men. For adults over the age of 65, diabetes and alcohol should be limited to one drink per day regardless of gender. This helps to reduce the risk of complications significantly. If you want to know more about whether you should or can drink with your diabetes, contact your doctor. While these guidelines are intended as a general rule of thumb, only your doctor can tell you what is best based on your symptoms and risk factors.

Changing your life due to diabetes is very stressful, but once your symptoms are under control, you will likely find yourself able to sit back and enjoy a drink with friends. Managing your symptoms and treating your body well is important, but talking with your doctor can help you ensure that you do not have to eliminate all things that you enjoy, such as having a drink with loved ones. Diabetes and alcohol can be a possibility, only with well controlled diabetes symptoms