You have decided to get fit but where do you start. The most difficult thing is often to get started without feeling foolish or injuring yourself. The basic rule of thumb in whatever you do is start slowly and build it up. Some people find it easier to exercise in a group or class and that’s fine. But what if you are struggling? Why is that? Some reasons may include

I’ve not done exercise for ages. I’m too old to start now. - Begin with just walking. 30 mins a day will get you fitter and no one will even know you’re exercising.

I’m too busy - Analyse why you’re busy. Most people find they can watch less TV each day to make the time to exercise. Or break it into three 10-minute chunks.

It’s too expensive - You don’t have to join clubs or gyms. Walking is free and great exercise. Tins from the store cupboard make great weights to hold in your hands.

The benefits of more exercise are legion and fully justify your efforts. They include

You’ll be fitter and healthier

You’ll have more energy

You’ll have a better chance of living for longer and healthier

You’ll sleep well

Your mood will be better

You’ll look and feel great

You’ll have fun

You’ll end up meeting new people and getting new friends.

It is the best decision you could make to get fir and take more control of your life. You will also decrease your risk of suffering from

Heart disease

High blood pressure

Strokes

Diabetes

Impotence (men only!)

Depression

How to start

With all these direct benefits to you from exercising it makes sense to get going. Most people can manage to walk for some time each day. Start slowly and build it up over several weeks to 30 - 60 mins a day of walking. That’s it. If you prefer swimming or biking, great! Go for it. Enjoy yourself and get fitter.

Finding out that you have type 2 diabetes can be shocking, and living with it will be different from what you were used to. It means that you no longer have the luxury of eating whatever you would like. Managing your disease will require learning a lot about diet, nutrition and your own body. You are also going to have to get into the habit of testing your blood glucose levels as often as your doctor recommends. Smokers with diabetes should definitely think about quitting to prevent further complications. Most importantly, making an effort to lose weight can drastically reduce the symptoms of type 2 diabetes.

But on the upside, there are millions of people successfully managing their condition. Living with diabetes is far from a death sentence, as long as you stick to the plan worked out by you, your doctor and a dietitian. In fact, many people who have been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes and work diligently to take control of their health find themselves feeling better than they ever did. And many who take their diet and exercise seriously end up going off medication altogether.

Diabetes is caused by your body’s failure to produce insulin or use it as the body should. Insulin is a compound that allows the sugar in your blood to become energy your cells can use. If your cells reject the sugar, or glucose, due to lack of insulin, over time the glucose builds up in your blood and damages your blood vessels, eyes and nerves. It can cause poor circulation, stroke and kidney failure. Controlling your diabetes means that you monitor your blood glucose levels to keep them at the right level all the time.

This is where the blood glucose testing comes in. By self-administering the test throughout the day, you can begin to see how your body reacts to the food you eat and the amount of exercise you get. As you get to know your body better, you can adjust your food intake and activity levels to hit your ideal blood glucose level. Taking these steps prevents your blood sugar from swinging too low causing hypoglycemia, or climbing too high and causing hyperglycemia.

If you are living with diabetes, you will probably have a hypoglycemic episode at some point regardless of how well you are taking care of yourself. Low blood sugar might cause you to get dizzy or disoriented. You could suddenly become very pale and start to sweat. You might even suddenly break down and cry for no reason, or even worse, have a seizure. Any and all of these are symptoms of hypoglycemia. Should this happen, you will need to raise your blood sugar quickly. A few teaspoons of sugar in a cup of fruit juice might do the trick, as will glucose tablets or even just candy. You should carry some form of sugar with you at all times.

Hyperglycemia, or high blood sugar levels, might be caused because you ate the wrong foods or did not get enough activity. Hyperglycemia can also stem from high levels of stress. Your blood glucose reading will be higher than it should be. Also, you may become very thirsty or need to urinate frequently. High blood glucose levels can lead to a potentially fatal condition known as ketoacidosis, where your body starts to break down fat because it has no sugar. This leads to abnormal levels of ketones in your blood which your body is unable to get rid of. If you start to throw up or have a hard time breathing, contact your doctor.

When self-monitoring of blood sugar levels was first introduced, health care practitioners believed glucometers would be useful to educate people with type 2 diabetes. How? Well they thought by type 2 diabetics checking their sugar levels after eating carbohydrate foods, or exercising, they would learn “a good pattern of behavior”. However, many studies have found this did not happen.

There appears to be a lot of controversy as to whether diabetics who self-monitor actually see an improvement in their glycemic control. Apparently many people check their levels three or four times a day but then make no changes in their eating plan when their results are abnormal. Many studies investigating the value of self monitoring of blood sugars in diabetics whose levels are controlled by diet or oral medications, have not shown that this testing leads to improved diabetic control.

As type 1 and type diabetes is a condition where the main problem is elevated blood sugar levels, it seems there is value in being able to measure your blood sugars and discover how it is best kept under control. One good reason to know your sugar level is under control is this: the connection between high blood sugar levels and those diabetic complications!

Research shows neuropathy appears to come about when your blood sugars remain over 140 mg/dl (7.8 mmol/l) for two hours or more… this is when you are at the pre-diabetic stage. Actually many type 2 diabetics at the time of diagnosis have detectable neuropathy… this is due to the fact most diabetics have had elevated blood sugars for ten years prior to diagnosis. The blood glucose reading to confirm a diagnosis of type 2 diabetes is 200 mg/dl (11.1 mmol/l).

What is your self monitored blood sugar target?

Many diabetics have the following target but check with your health care practitioner and discuss the best levels for you. Sometimes targets change as you mature or complications develop.

• fasting BSL or pre-meal… between 90 and 130 mg/dl (5 and 7.2 mmol/l)
• one or two hours following your meal… less than 180 mg/dl (10 mmol/l)
• before going to bed… between 110 and 150 mg/dl (6.1 and 8.3 mmol/l)

Self monitoring gives you the ability to make choices about the foods you eat, and which physical exercise you should participate in to help lower your blood sugar levels. Always write your results in a logbook along with details of what you were doing at the time, for example swimming, hiking or drinking alcohol at a party.

There are over 10,000 new cases of diabetes cited each year in the United States. This disease, which affects close to 10% of the entire population has continued to claim hundreds of millions of dollars in research money and close to 200 billion dollars in lost economic output. Diabetes, is a condition where the body is either unable to produce enough insulin which regular the levels of glucose in the blood, or when the insulin is produced the body is unable to respond to it.

The former is known as Type I diabetes while the latter is referred to as Type II. Both can be fatal is not properly treated. Thankfully, medical research has enable diabetes to be totally treatable and even preventable but one has to live purposefully towards that. Many diabetics are still able to enjoy most if not all of life’s activities. But there has been controversy regarding whether someone with diabetes should frequent a tanning salon or whether tanning in general is permisible.

Does diabetes affect your ability to go tanning?

This is a question that many people have asked. The answer is actually tied to how advanced the diabetes symptoms are in your particular case. For instance, some people break out into bodily sores in some stages in their battle with diabetes. If this is the case with you then tanning salons are out of the question. This is because the salons can expose the skin to harmful rays that can cause further damage. The good thing with tanning salons is that they have expert staff on standby to inform you and explain to you all the inherent risks depending on your situation. People with ailments such as lupus for instance should also avoid tanning salons because of over-exposure to ultraviolet rates.

Also, people on certain medications are cautioned against direct exposure to sunlight or its rays. When frequenting a tanning salon, you need to ask thorough questions. Also find out the degree of exposure that the tanning machine has and whether this can be adjusted.

Then you must familiarize yourself with the different tanning lotions that are out there and determine which one is the best for you. Research has shown that persistent sunburn and exposure to ultraviolet rays can cause the skin to break out into soars and even perpetuate skin cancer. There are lotions in the markets which are clinically-designed to guard the skin against over-exposure. These must be FDA-approved.

When choosing a lotion to protect you, you need to read the labels carefully. Select only FDA-approved products. Another thing to look for is the SPF (sun protection factor) which should be at least an index of 15 and not less.

You may have noticed that the disease of diabetes has been a lot in the news lately, and no wonder since it is one of the fastest increasing diseases in the world today. In its most basic form, diabetes is simply the inability of the body to handle the internal chemical insulin, which makes it hard for the body to convert carbohydrates into energy, thereby resulting in having either too much or too little sugar in your system. Diabetes can be a very serious medical condition, and learning how to control diabetes symptoms is essential for those who want to lead a normal life despite being diagnosed as a diabetic.

It is important to understand what kind of diabetes you have. Diabetes comes in two forms, commonly called Type 1 and Type 2. The more serious and difficult to treat form is Type 1, which results in an inability by the body to produce any significant amount of insulin. Therefore injections of insulin have to be made on a regular basis. It is not uncommon for Type 1 to surface before the age of 20, and while the causes of diabetes symptoms are not fully understood, suspected factors include chemicals, toxins and bacteria. Some suspect that drinking cow’s milk as an infant can increase the risk of developing diabetes later in life.

The other form of diabetes, Type 2, is easier to treat because the causes are better understood and there are known ways to minimize the symptoms. Ninety percent of all diabetics are in the Type 2 category. In eighty percent of the cases, being overweight is the number one factor leading to diabetes symptoms. Unless proper action is taken, Type 2 diabetes will eventually evolve into the more dangerous Type 1 form.

Sadly, there is no known cure for diabetes. But fortunately both forms of diabetes, and especially Type 2, can be controlled by a variety of means. Chief among them are diet and exercise. Certain foods are known to be especially difficult to diabetics to handle, so knowing what foods your body handles best is a key component to maximizing insulin effectiveness. Since, being overweight is the main reason for most Type 2 diabetes, having a sensible diet is also crucial to successfully losing any excess weight. Proper exercise is also extremely important in successful weight control and helping to prevent the blood circulation problems that sometimes arise with diabetes. Diabetes is a killer so please take note.

Diabetes can be classified into two types: Type 1, or juvenile, diabetes, which is exclusively diagnosed in childhood, and Type 2, or adult-onset, diabetes which is nearly always diagnosed in adults.

Type 2 diabetes used to be considered an adult-only disorder. Until recently, children who were diagnosed with diabetes always or nearly always developed Type 1 diabetes. Increasingly, however, medical professionals are diagnosing children with Type 2 diabetes, normally found in adults.

What is behind this shift? Researchers suggest that lifestyle choices play crucial roles in whether or not a person will develop Type 2 diabetes. While lifestyle choices alone may not be sufficient to cause the disease, they do make its development more likely.

Being overweight is a major risk factor for development of Type 2 diabetes. More and more children are becoming overweight due to poor diet and inactivity. Accordingly, more and more children are at increased risk of developing Type 2 diabetes due to being overweight or obese. Not all overweight children will become diabetic, but they are much more likely to become so than are children who are a normal weight.

There are other symptoms of or factors associated with Type 2 diabetes in children. These include:

Being over one’s healthy weight, as has been previously noted. Also, if a child has an immediate relative, especially a parent, who has Type 2 diabetes, their risk of developing the condition is increased.

Other symptoms, like constant thirst and a frequent need to urinate, are common to both types of diabetes. Feeling very lethargic, or tired all of the time, is also commonly reported as a symptom.

You don’t have to have typical symptoms to be diabetic, however. It is possible to have the condition and show few if any signs. Because of this, it is important that parents report family medical history to children’s physicians, especially whether any close relatives are diabetic.

At the doctor’s discretion, patients may be tested for diabetes even without symptoms, especially if there is a family history that suggests increased risk.

Are you tired of hearing about high protein diets? Have you tried one? It seems like everyone has.

If you have type 2 diabetes. We need to come to grips with the rationale behind the high protein diet when we are trying to lose weight, fight obesity or just eat a healthier diet.

Recent studies have shown that any mechanism that reduces body fat decreases insulin resistance and improves blood glucose control. These facts are hugely important as we try to fight back against type 2 diabetes.

So what is the big deal about abdominal fat?

It has also been shown that abdominal fat in particular increases the risk for type 2 diabetes. Along these lines, the body shape known as the “apple shape” is the body profile with the highest risk for type 2 diabetes among the common body shapes.

If you have a lot of abdominal or belly fat, you are round like an apple. Hence the term “apple shape.” Contrast that with the term “pear shape,” where most of the fat is deposited in the lower abdomen, hips and thighs.

For reasons that are not clear at this time, the “apple shape” carries a higher risk for type 2 diabetes.

How is it possible to put this information to good use?

This brings us back to the high protein diet which is especially helpful in reducing abdominal or belly fat.

A high protein diet is generally safe in diabetes. It can also be helpful in reducing abdominal fat, improve control of the blood glucose level and decrease the complications of type 2 diabetes.

But you do not have to wait until you have a diabetes scare to work on that “apple shape.” Now is the time to work on a healthier diet. Perhaps it is time to consider the a change in your diet.

So let me ask you. If you stand straight and look down at your feet, can you see your toes?

When it comes to having desserts and being a diabetic - there is nothing simple about it. Depending on what type of diabetes you have things can get even more complicated. I was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes about five years ago and have been able to manage my diabetes quite effectively. I have lost a bunch of weight though, but I am not complaining.

If you are a diabetic and are thinking about experimenting with what kinds of foods you eat then the best place to start is at your doctors office. Yea I know, you are probably thinking that this is being too cautious. In my opinion there is no better place to start learning about this than at your doctors office. When you understand how different foods such as carbohydrates act on your body and how they affect it is easier to know which foods are ok and which are not.

Besides my doctor, I also go to a nutritionist that helps me with all sort of things. She helps limit how many carbohydrates that I eat at each meal and even how to understand which carbohydrates are good and which ones are bad. I even set up how many meals I should have per day.

So if you are looking for easy diabetic desserts then you should first understand how desserts act on the body. You will probably have to alter what a “dessert” means in your vocabulary because that hot fudge sundae may be out of the question. I Enjoy many easy diabetic desserts that most people would not be interested in, but I am not most people - I am a diabetic.

You’ve been diagnosed with Diabetes, but you don’t want to surrender your life to it. This article is about a nutritional alternative for living with Diabetes, not just existing - Cinnamon.

Diabetes is a chronic (lifelong) disease marked by high levels of sugar in the blood. Medications taken orally, injected, or transfused may be some of the first things your doctors will recommend. However, there are a number of natural remedies that can safely be utilized along with doctor-prescribed medications and the approval of your doctor - one of them being Cinnamon, and many doctors are pleased to see that their patients are taking initiative in the treatment of their health issue.

A report published in Diabetes Care illustrated that 3 grams of cinnamon a day among other things produced the best results but no dosage was recommended; that cinnamon may decrease insulin resistance and allow the body to make better use of the insulin that is made in the pancreas; improve insulin sensitivity which in turn lowers blood glucose levels; as well as help to lower blood glucose, cholesterol and triglyceride levels. Nutritional, and readily available, cinnamon can also have a positive effect on lowering triglycerides, total cholesterol and LDL (bad) cholesterol. While this and other findings are positive, and more research must be done in order to determine in cinnamon can in fact help those with type 2 diabetes, scores of people with diabetes swear that cinnamon has helped them to moderate their blood glucose.

This information in not medical prescribing and always remember, before using cinnamon in large quantities for diabetes or insulin resistance, especially if you are already taking prescribed medications, your medical practitioner should first be consulted. Cinnamon mimics the effect of insulin in the body and so blood glucose levels may drop too low. In small, controlled doses for flavoring foods and drinks, it should have nothing more than a positive effect on the body, but when used in larger more frequent doses a medical professional should be consulted and should never take the place of any prescribed diabetes medications without physician authorization.

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.