Myths Surrounding Type-1 Diabetes

Source : www.jdrf.org.au

As you would expect for a disease that has been around for several thousand years, there are plenty of myths about diabetes. Some of them have a tiny bit of truth to them, so they keep being passed around. Unfortunately, thanks to the Internet, a myth can pop up on 10 million computer screens in two hours. But just because so many diabetes myths have been heard and read about doesn't make them true. Diabetologists over the world have compiled some myths and busted big time.

1. Diabetes is sometimes called "the Silent Disease," but that nickname just isn't true. T1DM actually has plenty of symptoms. Some of the symptoms that children complain of early in the disease include:

• Increased urination
• Increased thirst
• Dry skin
• Fatigue
• Blurry vision
• Irritability
• Extreme hunger
• Eating without weight gain
• Unexpected and unusual weight loss

These symptoms aren't severe, so they often go unnoticed by parents and caretakers. Put simply, it's hard to accept the fact that there's something seriously wrong with your 10-year-old. However, with so much emphasis on diabetes in general because of the huge increase in cases of T2DM, people are more aware of a diabetes diagnosis and are having their children checked earlier, long before they reach the stage of complete lack of insulin and ketoacidosis.

1. Parents of children with T1DM would love for their children's disease to be called by another name so it isn't confused with type-2 diabetes (or T2DM). Although T1DM and T2DM share some of the same characteristics, they are hardly the same disease. They differ in the following ways:

• The cause of T1DM is a genetic tendency plus a virus. The cause of T2DM is heredity plus obesity plus a sedentary lifestyle.
• Patients with T1DM have an absolute lack of insulin when the disease strikes. Patients with T2DM may actually have too much measurable insulin when the disease strikes; they have insulin resistance.
• Most cases of T1DM occur in childhood. Most cases of T2DM occur after age 35.
• T2DM can be controlled with diet and exercise alone. T1DM can't be controlled in that way.
• Diabetic ketoacidosis is often the first complaint in T1DM. It doesn't occur in patients with T2DM.
• Most patients with T1DM are thin. Patients with T2DM are generally (but not always) fat.

1. Before 1921, people believed there was nothing that could force glucose into the cells of the body where insulin was required, so the treatment was the elimination of all carbohydrates. The reasoning was that, if a patient didn't consume carbohydrates, then the blood glucose couldn't rise to the high levels that resulted in excessive urination, thirst, confusion, coma, and death. That approach worked for a time, but the liver is fully capable of making glucose from protein despite the fact that the glucose can't get into liver cells to be stored as glycogen once it's made. Today, there are probably more types of insulin available than are needed. A little injected insulin can take care of lots of sugar or other carbohydrates.
2. With T1DM, there's no advantage to eating special diabetic foods. It's difficult enough to deal with all the requirements for good diabetes care to have to eat boring tasteless foods! Food is one of life's great pleasures, and your child can have excellent glucose control with regular food so long as you account for the carbohydrate in it.

Show your child that he can eat delicious meals and still follow his nutritional plan. Prepare meals that the whole family can eat. With food this good, there's no reason that everyone in the family shouldn't eat the same meals as your child with T1DM.

To Book online appointment with best diabetologist in greater noida patients can browse through HelpingDoc.

Becoming Aware Of Obesity-Related Health Problems

Source : www.itriagehealth.com

If you indulge in junk food and have become fat as a result, you’re at higher risk of developing health problems such as those in the following list, which begins with the more common ones.

Arthritis: If you’re obese, you’re putting a lot of stress on your bones, joints and muscles. Being 10 kilograms (22 pounds) overweight (which doesn’t seem a lot) means that you carry extra weight equivalent to one full 10-litre bucket of water around with you, all day and every day! If you’re 20 kilograms (44 pounds) overweight (which many people are), this amount equates to the weight of the heaviest suitcase you’re allowed to take onto most airplanes – just think of the strain on your body if you carry this additional weight with you all the time. No surprise then that your bones and joints suffer.

Depression: As well as having to suffer the consequences of obesity, such as diabetes or heart disease, being chunky magnifies your chances of becoming depressed.

Diabetes: If you suffer from diabetes, your blood sugar is too high, which can lead to both short-term as well as longer-term physical problems. In such situation, you can consult experienced diabetologists in Faridabad.

High blood pressure: If you’re flabby, you augment the risk of developing high blood pressure, which – if it’s too high for a long time and not treated – increases your risk of suffering a heart attack or a stroke.
Cancer: Various types of cancers are more prevalent in people who weigh too much (such as cancer of the lining of the womb in women or breast cancer).

Gallstones: You’re at great risk of emergent gallstones, which can cause severe intermittent pain and discomfort in the upper right area of your abdomen.

Heart problems: If you have excess weight, you increase the risk of suffering a heart attack and other heart related ailments.

Pregnancy: Although body weight increases when you are pregnant but carrying too much of it can cause additional health problems and can make your pregnancy and giving birth more strenuous than necessary.
Stroke: A stroke is a brain attack – which you’re much more likely to suffer if you’re overweight or obese.

When You Have Diabetes Incorporate These Natural Remedies

Source: www.sugarhacker.com

Diabetes is among the most dreaded diseases in the world and sadly it is spreading like the jungle fire. Despite various attempts by specialists, scientists and scholars, still there is no reason found why and who will suffer from this disease. Depending upon the seriousness of the issue, every patient is given appropriate medication to control the blood sugar levels. Apart from your regular prescribed medication, you can try these simple yet effective natural remedies to reduce the sugar levels.

FIG LEAVES: Fig leaves are very common in treating diabetes. They are believed to possess anti-diabetic assets that immensely help reduce the blood sugar levels. Fig leaves are effective when chewed on an empty stomach or leaves can be boiled in water and taken like tea. Following this method regularly greatly reduces the need for insulin.

FENUGREEK: Fenugreek seeds are enriched with sugar lowering properties. The leaves of this beneficial plant can be made into curry and taken regularly. Fenugreek lowers the requirement of insulin when consumed frequently. Handful of seeds soaked in water should be fully consumed in the morning empty stomach as per instructions given by Diabetologists in Central Delhi. Nothing should be taken for 30 minutes after consuming fenugreek seeds. Repeat the process 2-3 times a week.

CINNAMON: Cinnamon is very common in Indian houses and used habitually. This aroma enhancing spice is loaded with anti-diabetic properties exponentially minimizing the blood glucose level. Diabetologists in Central Delhi advice to take half a spoon of cinnamon powder daily to get the desired results. Moreover, if you like you can chew it instead of making it into a powder.

OLIVE OIL: Olive oil is highly recommended by diabetologists because of beneficiary effects like reducing the cholesterol and triglycerides levels in the blood. It also assists in reducing high glucose levels. For the best results, cook all foods with edible olive oil.

NEEM: Neem leaves are full of anti-bacterial, anti-fungal and anti-diabetic properties. Researchers have found, if taken periodically, neem leaves can reduce the insulin use by staggering 50 %.

Diabetes is a dangerous disease but one needs to be informed and educated because certain lifestyle changes and alterations in food habits can help you manage it with ease.

Tracking Your Blood Sugar Levels

The aim of diabetes management is to control blood glucose levels and to screen and treat related conditions such as high blood pressure, high bad cholesterol, and other complications of diabetes. This means that you will need to learn how to monitor your blood glucose levels, and you will also have to undergo recurrent laboratory tests and visits to your diabetologist than people without diabetes. This blog tells you how you will monitor your glucose levels.

Monitoring Diabetes

When you have diabetes, your glucose levels fluctuate much more than those of people without diabetes. In people without diabetes, fasting glucose levels in the morning are usually between 60 and 100 mg/dl. Before each meal, the levels are below 100 mg/dl. The peak values one to two hours after a meal are in the 120s and usually stay below 140, even after a meal rich in carbohydrates.

Conceptualizing Home Monitoring

Blood glucose monitoring at home is an important part of diabetes management and serves a number of purposes. First, monitoring at home makes it easier to detect low blood glucose reactions, because you cannot rely on how you feel to detect low glucose levels. Many people with diabetes develop hypoglycemic unawareness meaning they can have glucose levels in the 40s and 50s and still feel quite fine. For this reason, measuring glucose levels frequently allows detection and treatment before the glucose levels fall too low. This monitoring is particularly relevant when exercising or performing activities such as driving or operating machinery, when you need to be alert.

Second, home monitoring allows you to detect high glucose levels. Elevated glucose levels may reflect dietary indiscretion or failure to take or to adjust diabetes medications. If you are on an insulin pump, there is not a big depot of insulin in the subcutaneous tissues, and if for any reason the insulin delivery gets interrupted, glucose levels can go very high and DKA can develop over a few hours. Persistently elevated high glucose levels increase the risk of developing long term complications of diabetes.

Finally, home monitoring allows you to adjust medication doses, particularly insulin. If you’re an insulin-treated patient, check your blood glucose levels at least four times or more a day. If you have type 2 diabetes controlled with diet only or are on medications that do not cause low glucose levels (like metformin, rosiglitazone, or exenatide), checking blood glucose levels a few times a week may suffice. However, if you have type 2 diabetes and are taking oral medicines that can cause low glucose levels (sulfonylureas, repaglinide, and nateglinide), one or two blood glucose checks per day are necessary.

For more information, contact Diabetologists in Ghaziabad. They will assist you monitor your blood sugar levels in a more secured way.

Managing Diabetes While Travelling

Source: www.diabetes24-7.com 

With proper planning and regular consultation with a diabetologist, there is no problem traveling with diabetes. The things you need to think about and plan for include the following:

• Managing diabetes supplies

• Diabetes management during your flight

• Adjusting insulin for time changes

• Managing diabetes complications

• Avoiding or treating traveler's illnesses, especially gastroenteritis.

Take adequate supplies for your diabetes management when you travel. In fact, take twice the amount of diabetes medication and supplies that you will normally need. If you are on an insulin pump take some basal insulin such as insulin glargine and syringes in case you have a pump failure. Keep the insulin cool by packing it in an insulated bag with refrigerated gel packs. Stay in touch with your diabetologist in Noida if anything goes unexpected on the flight.

Also take glucose tablets, gels, and snacks for treatment of hypoglycemia and a glucagon kit and ketone testing strips. Ideally, take two glucose meters and pack them in separate bags. Keep most of your supplies in your carry-on luggage, but keep some supplies in your checked luggage, just in case you lose your carry-on luggage.

Managing Diabetes on the Airplane

If food will not be served on your flight, take food and fast-acting carbohydrate with you. If it is a long flight with a meal (and keep in mind that in-flight meals are rare these days), it is not necessary to order a special meal on the plane, but it is a good idea to have some food with you (two to three snacks) in case the meal is delayed. Inject your insulin dose after your meal arrives. Since the pressure in an airplane is different than the pressure on the ground, do not inject air into the vial before drawing up your insulin into the syringe. Check your blood glucose frequently during the flight. You may need a little more insulin because you are inactive. If you are traveling alone and are concerned that you might experience hypoglycemia, tell the flight attendants that you have diabetes so they can keep an eye on you.

Drink plenty of fluids during the flight. Wear loose-fitting shoes because your feet might swell, and walk around the airplane when possible and do some leg stretching exercises to avoid blood clots.

Facts About Type-2 Diabetes

Type-2 diabetes is the most common form of diabetes, more than type-1. It is generally common in adults, aged people, overweight. But off late, we are witnessing an exponential rise in the number of youths suffering from this dreadful disease. The culprit, however, is the lack of physical exercises, extra amount of hours dedicated to work and lackluster eating habits. A combination of all these can result in causing type-2 diabetes in any person regardless of age and sex. Let’s have a closer look on what causes diabetes, what are the symptoms, things to consider and more.

Symptoms:

One of the many concerning issues with Type 2 diabetes is in the initial stages symptoms can go unnoticed. This means most of the patients diagnosed with it have symptoms way before the actual disease has set in or before they know it. It also states that a large proportion of people with Type 2 diabetes either show signs of damage to the eyes or hardening of the arteries from the time diabetologists commence the treatment. The primary symptoms are very much similar to type 1 diabetes.

• Tiredness and dizziness.
• Frequent urination.
• Thirst. There may be some weight loss in special cases. However, it is more evident in type 1 diabetes.
• Genital itching due to yeast infection.
• Rash skin, recurrent infection. For e.g. boils.

Ways to help

When you visit a Diabetologist in Mumbai, he will list out certain parameters to look after. They are:

• Keep monitoring your weight and blood pressure. If you feel you are flabby, hop in a pair of shoes and start running.
• Try keeping your arteries clean and blood circulation healthy. If you smoke or consume excess alcohol, now is the time to give up.
• Pay attention to what you eat. Have a balanced diet rich in carbohydrates, fibre and minerals, instead of fat.
• Measure your blood sugar levels regularly and keep in touch with your experienced diabetologist.

In the longer run, diabetes can be controlled with the right kind of foods and in appropriate amount. However, you need to keep a tab on your weight as it can seriously outweigh your efforts to curb the effects of diabetes.

Don’t Allow Diabetes To Let You Down

Diabetes is a chronic condition in which blood sugar (also called glucose) accumulates in your blood. The full name of the disease, diabetes mellitus, literally means “honey diabetes.” Since the time of ancient Greece, people have noticed a sweet or honeyed smell in the urine of those affected by the disease.

There is no cure for diabetes. However, diabetes can be controlled. Controlling diabetes means keeping your blood sugar at levels that are the same as—or close to—those of a person who does not have diabetes.

There are two primary kinds of diabetes, and the cause of your elevated blood sugar depends on which kind of diabetes you have.

                                                             TYPE-1 DIABETES

Type 1 diabetes used to be called “juvenile diabetes” because it normally occurs in people under the age of 30. If you have type-1 diabetes, your pancreas no longer produces insulin, a vital hormone that helps your body turn sugar into energy. Without this essential hormone, the sugar in your system accumulates in your blood. Type 1 diabetes is considered to be an “auto-immune” disease. It occurs when the immune system mistakenly attacks the pancreas and destroys its ability to make insulin.

Although family history plays a role in the development of type 1 diabetes, 90 percent of the people who get it have no family history of the disease at all. No one knows for sure why it strikes some people and not others. People with type 1 diabetes have to take insulin to control their blood sugar. Consultation with Diabetologists in West Delhi is particularly helpful because of their expertise in diagnosing diabetic patients.

                                                           TYPE-2 DIABETES

Type 2 diabetes used to be called “adult onset” because it normally occurs in people over the age of 30.

Type 2 diabetes is more likely if you have a family history of diabetes. It is closely related to excess weight and a lack of physical activity. African-Americans, Latinos, Pacific Islanders, Asians, and Native Americans are all at high risk for type 2 diabetes.

Although type 2 diabetes normally strikes people over the age of 30, it is on the rise among children. Diabetologists think this is directly related to a lack of physical activity and the increase in obesity among the young.

If you have type 2 diabetes, your pancreas still makes insulin. But it may not make enough, or your body may have become resistant to it. The first line of treatment for type 2 diabetes is exercise and weight loss—many people can control their blood sugar levels with exercise and diet alone. There are also oral medications that can be used to treat the disease.

Type-2 diabetes tends to be progressive and a substantial number of people with type 2 diabetes ultimately need to take insulin to control their blood sugar.