The Diabetes Blog

If you are planning to conceive or are pregnant, then you’d better get your blood sugar levels tested. According to a research conducted by Kaiser Permanente, a health care provider of California , it was found that the number of pregnant women who were diabetic prior to pregnancy has increased twofold in the last seven years.

Though the sample population was from Southern California, the results hold true for the pregnant population of the entire United States. This is a matter of great concern because it implies a lot of health complications for both the mother and the baby. The study was published in Diabetics Care, a journal of American Diabetes Association (the research funding body).

In order to protect yourself from diabetes you need not spending long hours in gymnasium, as doing household chores is capable of doing that. This fact rolled out from a new study, conducted by Australian researchers.

As per the findings of this study, light exercise that hardly runs you in sweat is quite sufficient to lower the risk of developing diabetes and several other cardiovascular diseases that comes flocking with blood glucose.

This is good news; especially for housewives and people who wish to protect themselves from diabetes but cock their noses at the very thought of spending hours in gymnasium. This study is quite reliable as it comes after monitoring the glucose levels and routine daily activities of 173 people over a week.

However, we can’t keep a blind eye to the importance of strenuous exercise, as it is also important for physical wellbeing. Harping on the same through Professor David Dunstan, a senior research fellow at the International Diabetes Institute in Melbourne said:

The message that 30 minutes of moderate to vigorous exercise a day is important for good health still stands.

Image

Via: The Australian

A diabetic would know well, how it feels when first diagnosed with the disease - at least sure of the fact that he has reached a point of no return in its onset. Today, there are 20.8 million children and adults — i.e. 7% of the population — in the United States alone are suffering from diabetes, according to the American Diabetes Association.

And the most unfortunate part is that, while an estimated 14.6 million have been diagnosed, 6.2 million people - i.e. nearly one-third — are unaware that they are surviving with the disease.

But, here is a good news for the diabetics. The disease is no more ‘a point of no return reaching’ thing. Researchers have uncovered a process that reveals the mystery how the body’s metabolism in a diabetic state after only relatively limited exposure to high glucose levels can be locked!

The Dr Antonio Ceriello Warwick-led research team reveals that the damage in diabetic state seems to be done in a process — called glycation. This is how the team explains its findings:

It is when early on in a period of high glucose levels glucose sugar molecules are able to bind to proteins in the mitochondria of cells (the parts of cells governing the production and regulation of energy). This persists even if glucose levels later fall to normal. This inhibits and distorts the mitochondria’s normal function and results in an overabundance of the production of free radicals (or Reactive Oxygen Species - ROS) which cause oxidation and thus continued diabetic complications.

To avoid complication in diabetes, a very early tight control of glucose levels is needed is the key to it. Nevertheless, the control needs to be supplemented with the use of antioxidant agents, which can help mitigate the complications- progression.

Image

After establishing itself as a heart-friendly drink, read wine is now once again ready to be there on your dining table; this time as an antidote to diabetes.

A breakthorough concept in bandages has surfaced on the horizon which is boon for diabetics. HealFast is a bandage designed by Donn Koh that uses electric fields to accelerate the healing process and prevent further infection in the surrounding tissues.

Healfast is a simple solution to counter the wounds inflicted by pressure sores and chronic ulcers in diabetics. Applying this bandage is a simple task. Just place this bandage on the wound and peel off the protective covering, and the bandage is ready for action. When a person applies this bandage by pressing it down on his wounds, an electric charge is activated and results in a weak electric field which accelerates the healing process and prevents the surrounding tissues from getting infected.

I find this concept very helpful because even a small cut or scratch can spell disaster for a diabetic. HealFast’s amazing power can arm the diabetics with an increased sense of security.

Source

Booming economy has brought India on the stage where it vies with countries like China and the US. Well, on one issue, it is set to outshine these rivals even! Thanks to the rising graphs of diabetes in India - set to touch 57-mn mark by 2025, leaving behind big stalwarts like China and the US even. The root cause of the problem seems to be lying in the new chic of ‘eating more and taking less exercise’.

Researchers at the University of California, Irvine believe it may be possible to develop a breath analysis test to monitor blood sugar.

If you are heart patient or have ever incurred heart attack, so may be another health threat in the form of diabetes is not far away. Credit to bring out this assumption goes to the collaborative efforts made by researchers from Harvard Medical School and Italy.

During the course of study that followed around 8,291 Italian patients, having sustained a heart attack within the previous three months, experts came out with such findings. As per the conclusion, patients with heart attack were 4.5 times more likely to develop diabetes. And shockingly, such patients were 15 times more likely to develop a pre-diabetes condition known as Impaired Fasting Glucose (IFG). Factors like older age, use of beta-blockers, diuretic use, higher blood pressure, inactive lifestyle were also associated with new onset-diabetes or IFG.

With this revelation, a new debate has been kicked off, stressing the need of intensive study over this correlation.

Image

Source

According to a new finding that people who have sleep apnea are at greater risk of getting type 2 diabetes.

The researching team from Yale University School of Medicine — observed nearly 593 patients who were referred for evaluation of sleep apnea. Team asked each one of them to stay in the sleep lab for a night for a sleep test, which is known as polysomnography.

The team monitored the patients for — 6 years and discovered that patients who have sleep apnea had greater risk of becoming diabetic by more than 2 and 1/2 times, in comparison to those who don’t have nighttime breathing disorder. They were categorized according to their severity of sleep apnea, and the patients with more severe sleep apnea are at greater risk of becoming diabetic patients.

Obstructive sleep apnea is caused by a blockage of the airway, usually when the soft tissue in the rear of the throat collapses and closes during sleep. Sleep apnea is characterized by pauses in breathing during sleep and this disturbs the sleep hundreds of times over a night. Obesity is most likely to be considered a major cause of sleep apnea. The sleep apnea is found to be linked with hypertension, stroke and heart problems.

The continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) — is a therapy which is used for the treatment of sleep apnea. In this type of treatment the air is passed through a mask when the patient is sleeping, by keeping the airway open. This therapy is proved to be helpful in the treatment of sleep apnea. But it is yet to find out whether this therapy for sleep apnea could really help in improving conditions such as diabetes.

Nader Botros, M.D., of Yale University mentioned that our further move in this case is to find out whether therapy of sleep apnea is improving the diabetic parameters of an individual or not and along with this they also want to determine the negative effects of diabetes.

Dr. Botros said in a prepared statement:

The impact of diabetes on public health is great. Diet and exercise, along with a medication regimen, are the mainstays of treatment, but unfortunately diabetes remains a major public health challenge. New approaches are needed to better understand the risk factors for diabetes in order to develop additional preventive strategies. Understanding the link between sleep-disordered breathing and diabetes may represent one such approach.

The study is presented on 21st May at the American Thoracic Society 2007 International Conference.

Image credit

Source

Recent study conducted on diabetes has shown that Nutraceuticals have the capability to control diabetes.

Nutraceuticals denote foods having medicinal effect on the health of human beings. According to the American Diabetes Association, if you have the symptoms of developing diabetes then appropriate change in diet will certainly do wonders for you. A change in diet along with physical activity will surely reduce the risk of diabetes.

To make your life healthy and diabetes free, here are a few healthy foods. Just make them your friends and see the way your health as well as life improves. One of the most sought foods is soluble fiber. Major benefit of soluble fiber is slowing down the absorption of carbohydrates. Easily available sources of fiber are oat bran, nuts, barley, flax seed, fruits like oranges and apples, and vegetables like carrots.

Do you know Coffee is another great nutraceutical? It comprises of chlorogenic acid which act as an antioxidant. After having food, it aids in slowing down the release of glucose in our blood stream. Barley malt also has the same effect. It is also helpful in promoting regularity of bowels.

A few more popular nutraceuticals include magnesium, chromium piccolinate, conjugated linoleic acid, bitter melon and our beloved cinnamon. These nutraceuticals effectively enhances glucose tolerance as well as insulin sensitivity.

Via: thediabetesblog