Type-2 Diabetes is the result of many years of poor nutrition and a lack of physical activity. The body is designed to consume food and break it down in the digestive track. As this happens the food turns into glucose which circulates through the blood. This is inherently not a bad thing as we need glucose but we don’t want too much in our blood at any given time. Insulin works to regulate blood sugar and keep blood sugar levels in check.

As previously stated diabetes becomes a problem when your diet is poor. This happens generally speaking because your body slowly becomes resistant to normal insulin levels. As you eat foods which have little nutritional value your blood sugar levels begin spiking and your system requires more and more insulin to manage healthy levels of insulin. In effect you body loses it’s sensitivity to insulin and becomes resistant to it.

To ensure that your condition doesn’t progress it is very important to recognize poor insulin sensitivity and then work to reverse insulin resistance by changing your diet and starting to exercise more often. The problem most people face with this however is that they don’t want to change their lifestyles to address their issues with insulin sensitivity.

What they don’t realize however is that by letting the condition progress unchecked will likely result in developing diabetes which is many times over more problematic. Diabetes will force a lifestyle change as insulin injections become part of your daily life. Without enough insulin you could lose control of your blood sugar levels and be hospitalized or worse.

Insulin sensitivity is the first major warning sign for diabetes so take it seriously. If you have blood drawn and find elevated blood sugar levels or elevated insulin levels then you may need to start taking action. Changing your diet can help improve insulin sensitivity as can exercising frequently, do both and you’ll be much better off in the long run and will stand a much better chance at avoiding failing health as you get older.

I’m not going to give you too many facts on diabetes, other than it is life threatening and can harm your body, not to mention your mental state.

I was diagnosed with Type II diabetes in August of 2009. I knew something was wrong but was so afraid to go to the doctor. I became dizzy a lot of the time. I was weak and had no energy. I had a thirst I could not quench. It seemed the more water I drank the more I wanted. I couldn’t get enough to eat; therefore I gained a lot of weight. Which I did not need because I was already overweight.

I would go to the grocery store and could not stand the noise. I was so irate to people. I yelled at a mother with a screaming child. I am not like that. I stopped right then and there and said to myself something is terribly wrong. When you know your body, it speaks to you. I just ignored the signs, thinking it was old age creeping up on me. I just couldn’t get anything going in my life.

I didn’t think I was depressed, I’ve been down that road. My husband finally talked me into going to the doctor. As we never had health insurance, we finally had it. So I went. Please don’t let that stop you. I did and it cost me.What a shock I received when the doctor told me I had diabetes. Nothing had ever been wrong with me. I was usually in good health most of my life. I sat there in his office for about 10 minutes and cried. I was scared, very scared.

I have never been so scared in my life. I have friends that have Type II diabetes, and I felt sorry for them. Not really knowing much about the disease, I didn’t know what to do. My emotions ran from being scared to being in shock. My whole body went into distress mode. Why? What happened to my body?

Being adopted I did not know my health history. I did find out and my natural father had diabetes and died from it. Boy did that wake me up. I then told my doctor let’s do what needs to be done. He was wonderful. He got me on the right pills and I am now getting better. My blood sugar is down, as well as my blood pressure and have lost 83 pounds. Thank you Lord and my doctor.

Start exercising, now! Eat your veggies and fruits. Learn to enjoy eating all over again, this time the right way. Take your medicines. You can do it. I did and am glad I did.

So if you have any of the symptoms, run don’t walk to your doctor. Have them run the tests you need and get on medication. Please don’t wait, it could kill you, it almost did me. Talk to him and get educated. Look it up on the internet. There is a wealth of information. Education on diabetes is your best form of keeping alive and living a good life. Good luck to you.

If you have type 2 diabetes, chances are very good that you can beat your diabetes and live a healthy and productive life. There more than one aspect to controlling any chronic disease and diabetes is no exception. If there is one word that gives you the key to beat diabetes that word is CHANGE.

Making changes in your attitude…the way you approach your diabetes and making change in your lifestyle will allow you to win your war with diabetes. If you’ve done much searching on the Internet you know there are tons of sites promoting quick cures and lots of pill and potions to get rid of your diabetes. Understand now that there are no magic cures. Don’t misunderstand, there are alternative therapies that do help control blood sugar… but they are not the cure.

Real results in diabetes control come from setting your attitude to a “I can do it!” mindset and then taking the appropriate actions to reach your goal of controlling your diabetes and having more normal blood sugars. Once you’re ready mentally to do what it takes to get good control, the next step is to identify your plan of action.

Almost every diabetic must make permanent lifestyle changes in order to beat diabetes. These lifestyle changes must come in the areas of eating a healthy diet, getting regular exercise, and consistently monitoring and evaluating blood sugars. For most these are major changes and won’t be accomplished all at once. The journey of good diabetes control is day by day. That’s what it takes to achieve the results you’re after. You must take the steps each day to ensure a healthy future without the horrible complications diabetes can cause. Don’t let this over whelm you.

You are not alone. Use every resource you have to learn all you can about controlling your diabetes. Your primary care physician should be at the head of your healthcare team. Your physician can refer you to others who can help you learn about your diabetes, your diet, your medications, and all the other aspects of diabetes life. Use these resources as much as possible. Don’t be afraid to ask questions and learn all you can about your condition.

Remember, you can beat diabetes. Commit today to take the actions for a healthier tomorrow.

Research now confirms that there is a link between diabetes and Celiac Disease. Specifically, Type 1 diabetes is linked with Celiac Disease as having genetic similarities. Previously, it was known that the rate of occurrence for somebody to have Celiac Disease if they already had diabetes was quite high. The number was estimated to be at about 1 of every 20 people with diabetes would also have Celiac Disease. This was compared to 1 out of 250 people otherwise.

It was a goal for some time to determine the link between these two diseases. Now it is confirmed that there is a common susceptibility gene. The gene is HLA-DQB1, and it is the primary susceptibility gene for diabetes and a major one for Celiac Disease.

Both Type 1 diabetes and Celiac Disease are examples of an autoimmune disease, which means that your body mistakenly ends up attacking itself. In the case of Type 1 diabetes, your body attacks certain cells in your pancreas that produce insulin. In the case of Celiac Disease, your body attacks the lining of your small intestine after coming into contact with gluten.

Gluten is a type of protein found in wheat and other grains. That means that much of the food that we eat, particularly processed foods and restaurant foods, can be quite damaging to someone with Celiac Disease. Great care has to be taken to either carefully select your own ingredients or to carefully read all of the included ingredients in any particular food item. Even some medicines, vitamins, flavorings and beverages may contain gluten, so it’s important to take a good look at everything before ingesting it.

The good news is that more and more food items and products are being produced as 100% gluten free, so be sure to look for the appropriate labels and peruse the aisles of health food stores and so on. Unlike with lactose intolerance, where many people can still indulge in their favorite foods in smaller or less frequent quantities, Celiac Disease actually causes damage to the small intestines which can be quite severe.

Not everyone with Celiac Disease has severe symptoms, but the problems can become quite intense for those who do, especially because it can go undetected for a long time. The wide range of symptoms, from headaches to stomach pain to depression and a myriad of others make it difficult to diagnose.

Type 1 diabetes, also widely known as juvenile or childhood onset diabetes, requires daily multiple injections of insulin to keep a person functioning and alive. There is no cure besides constant treatment. Someone with diabetes must also be quite wary of their diets due to their specific sugar and other dietary needs. Therefore, the person already suffering from Type 1 diabetes should be well prepared to handle the challenges of even severe Celiac Disease.

Now that the common link between these two diseases has been uncovered there will surely be more effective research into treating one or both of these disorders.

Monitoring the amount of sugar in your blood is part of your daily routine when you have type 2 diabetes. It helps you to know if you need to make any adjustments to your diet. Even if you are eating healthy food and exercising regularly, testing tells you if your glucose level is too high or too low. These levels can be affected by stress and illness also.

It has never been easier to self-monitor your blood sugar levels, there are dozens of meters available that allow you to conveniently check your levels. Glucose meters have become very small, accurate and fast and they keep a record of your results. Many of the better meters also code themselves which means you don’t need to calibrate the system every time you start a new pack of strips.

How often should you test

1. If you are taking insulin:

• you need to test before each meal and at bedtime
• sometimes you should test two hours after a meal and in the middle of the night to see just how high your levels go after a meal and how low they go during the night

2. If you are on tablets or controlled by diet and exercise:

• test twice a day, before breakfast and dinner. This should give you enough information to gauge the effect of your treatment
• if you are really stable 75-130 mg/dl (4 to 7mmol/l) and your HbA1c is less than 7%, you could test once a day, alternating a pre-breakfast test with a pre-dinner test on consecutive days
• if you really want to know how food is affecting your blood sugars, test one or two hours after your meals

3. It could be useful to also test:

• when you eat something not normally part of your diet, you might want to test it’s effect
• before you exercise so you know whether you need to eat something first, or if the exercise is going to be used to lower your blood glucose
• if your levels have been unstable and you need to drive, check to see you will not become hypoglycemic whilst driving
• when you are ill

What level should you be aiming for

• the ideal range is 75-130 mg/dl (4 to7 mmol/l) but it is not unusual to get occasional levels outside this range.

Being overweight can cause a rise in your blood sugar levels and it increases your risk of complications. Losing even a small amount of weight has a number of health benefits.

Unlike many diseases, diabetes doesn’t seem to be an inherited trait like albinism or hemophilia. In fact, experts aren’t completely sure what causes it. However, it’s clear that some people actually are more likely to get diabetes than other people, and that genetics predispositions do exist. How do you know how likely it is for a person to get diabetes?

First, not everyone with a genetic predisposition for diabetes gets it. Identical twins with exactly the same genes don’t automatically both get diabetes. There has to be some kind of environmental trigger, and since everyone is different (even identical twins in the same house) not everyone will actually manifest their diabetic tendencies. Unfortunately, researchers aren’t sure what things are triggers and what are coincidences yet. A few of the factors they think may trigger type 1 diabetes are:

• Cold weather - diabetes seems to surface more often during colder months
• Diet - babies who were breastfed and waited longer for solid foods seem to be less likely to develop diabetes
• Viruses - some viruses could trigger diabetes in some people when it causes other people little trouble.

For type 2, there’s a different set of possible triggers:

Obesity

Westernized eating - too much fat, not enough carbohydrates, not enough exercise

Most of these ideas are still very shaky, but researchers are working to find answers. The patterns that they find are confusing, because predispositions for the disease will come up with one result in one place and another somewhere else. A person in Africa with the same predisposition as someone in the United States will almost never actually get the disease.

Type 2 diabetes does run in families, so the chances of your children getting diabetes if you had it are good, especially if you were diagnosed after the age of 50. Researchers are getting better at predicting who gets diabetes, and eventually may be able to figure out who will get it much more effectively than they do now.

In the meantime, the best thing to do is to eat healthy foods and exercise regularly. Even if you do develop diabetes under these circumstances, you’ll already be on your way to a great way to manage your diabetes.

Having been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes does not mean you need to let it control your life! Why don’t you control this condition by first acknowledging it is real, it is here and here to stay. You will need to lose weight; always watch your weight. It will always be there in your life but it does not need to be the chief executive officer. You are the one with the power, not your diabetes.

Are these the stages you are going through You aren’t weird, it’s just difficult to accept even if you had obvious signs when you were first diagnosed.

1. Shock. Were you shocked when you were first told you were pre-diabetic or had diabetes Did you feel numb This is a protection we put in place when we are given bad news.

2. Disbelief. Despite the blood results you ask yourself: “How can I have type 2 diabetes” Maybe you didn’t know you had this in your gene pool. And you didn’t know some illness, eg. pancreatitis, could lead to this condition. And you really don’t want to think about giving up your favorite foods. Then the next step could be:

3. Denial. That’s easier to do than thinking about changing the world as you know it. Even being told you are pre-diabetic helps you to deny, you can tell yourself it’s not really diabetes. But it stops you from really helping yourself, it’s not a mistake, it’s really there. Maybe you will then start to become:

4. Angry. This happens as you really start questioning all your thoughts about whether or not you really do have type 2 diabetes. You also become concerned about the complications, eg. neuropathy, retinopathy, and how they could affect your life. But now it really has your attention. Maybe you will feel sad because you think this new lifestyle creates too many problems, and this will then become:

5. Depression. You may feel these concerns are too large to overcome. If you feel this way talk to your health care provider so he can help you with your diagnosis. He will explain the benefits of lifestyle change; how this will reduce your blood sugar levels and how you will then feel the best you have in years.

We all use these stages as coping mechanisms to deal with unexpected issues in our lives. The goal is to reach acceptance as soon as possible. Although type 2 diabetes will be part of your life forever, a positive attitude will bring the changes to help you control this condition.

If you are like many people with type 2 diabetes, losing weight is a major goal. A goal that will help you control and perhaps even eliminate your diabetes. Unfortunately, for many losing weight is not an easy task. Add to the fact that everywhere you look there’s the new and greatest diet, pill or potent promising to help you lose weight and keep it off.

It can be very hard to know who to trust or what to do to lose those unwanted pounds. Yet, if you are overweight, losing the pounds will help you get better diabetes control and greatly improve your health, your energy, and your longevity. Use the tips below to find a plan that works for you.

1. Don’t attempt major weight loss alone. See a nutritionist. A nutritionist can help you develop a plan of action that will take the weight off without having you feel deprived. Plus, you won’t be trying something you hope will work. You’ll be getting information from a professional provider that knows what works.

2. Set your goals and your attitude for success. The mental aspect of losing weight will dictate to a large degree the amount of success you have. Focus on the benefits of losing weight. Get a mental picture of yourself without the extra pounds. Keep your focus on the positive end results, rather than using negative self-talk, or constantly complaining to yourself or others about what you can’t eat, or other aspects of losing weight.

3. Get and stay active. Regular exercise is another important key to permanent weight loss. Combine aerobics and strength training to form a new more fit body for you. Exercising has many health benefits. Learn to make it a regular part of your life.

4. Focus on natural weight loss. Find and implement a lifestyle change rather than just a diet until you lose weight. Taking special pills, or supplemental nutrition drinks until you lose weight could be a big mistake. What happens when you stop using those products? The weight will come back so instead focus on adapting food choices you can make a permanent part of your life.

Follow the four simple steps and you’ll see a big difference in your weight, your diabetes control, and your life.

If you have a young child that has just been diagnosed with juvenile diabetes, you are probably in a state of shock. You do not have to be afraid. You will not have to deal with your child’s health problems alone. There will be plenty of health professionals that will be by your side guiding you through the learning states on how to provide the best care for your child with diabetes.

It’s a parent’s worst nightmare when they find out their beloved child is sick with a life altering disease such as juvenile diabetes. As you navigate the scary waters of glucose monitoring and insulin shots, you will learn that your child can still live a happy life and it is not going to be the end of the world for them or for you. Give yourself a little time to emotionally adjust to the news and then get on with learning how to help your child cope with it.

If you stay calm and do not freak out, your child will be better able to handle what is happening to him or her. They will be reassured that you are going to support them all the way and will be there for them no matter what. Sure, you will need to learn how to help your child check their own blood sugar levels and you will need to put them on a meal schedule that is dependable, but life is not going to be over for your family.

Type 1 or Juvenile Diabetes is an autoimmune disease. The body tries to destroy the cells that produce insulin in the pancreas. Insulin injections will be prescribed that can be lifesaving. But what the doctor will not tell you is that there are other ways to cope with juvenile diabetes that can be of great help also. God has given us herbs as medication for the body and there are many natural supplements that can be used to help fight juvenile diabetes too. Some really spectacular diabetes turn a rounds have been seen with the use of botanicals, herbs, minerals and vitamins to help control blood sugar levels.

If you are feeling overwhelmed with the need to protect your child and provide the best possible care for him or her, do not be afraid to learn about natural cures for this dreaded disease. You can take an active role in providing the best care for your child with diabetes by searching for natural ways to cure this disease as well as make sure they are getting adequate medical care too.