Managing Diabetes
You can manage your diabetes and live a long and healthy life by taking care of yourself each day. Diabetes can affect almost every part of your body. Therefore, you will need to manage your blood glucose levels, also called blood sugar. Managing your blood glucose, as well as your blood pressure and cholesterol, can help prevent the health problems that can occur when you have diabetes. How can I manage my diabetes? With the help of your health care team, you can create a diabetes self-care plan to manage your diabetes. Your self-care plan may include these steps: Ways to manage your diabetes Manage your diabetes ABCs Knowing your diabetes ABCs will help you manage your blood glucose, blood pressure, and cholesterol. Stopping smoking if you smoke will also help you manage your diabetes. Working toward your ABC goals can help lower your chances of having a heart attack, stroke, or other diabetes problems. A for the A1C test The A1C test shows your average blood glucose level over the past 3 months. The A1C goal for many people with diabetes is below 7 percent. Ask your health care team what your goal should be. B for Blood pressure The blood pressure goal for most people with diabetes is below 140/90 mm Hg. Ask what your goal should be. C for Cholesterol You have two kinds of cholesterol in your blood: LDL and HDL. LDL or “bad” cholesterol can build up and clog your blood vessels. Too much bad cholesterol can cause a heart attack or stroke. HDL or “good” cholesterol helps remove the “bad” cholesterol from your blood vessels. Ask your health care team what your cholesterol numbers should be. If you are over 40 years of age, you may need to take a statin drug for heart health. S for Stop smoking Not smoking is especially important for people with diabetes beca Continue reading >>
Insulin For Type 2 Diabetes: When, Why, And How
Blood sugar control is one of the most important parts of type 2 diabetes management. Although you may be able to treat the condition at first with oral medication and lifestyle changes, such as exercise and weight loss, most people with type 2 diabetes eventually need to take insulin by injection. "There are several scenarios in which insulin treatment should start, including in patients with significant hyperglycemia who are symptomatic," explained Alaleh Mazhari, DO, an associate professor of endocrinology at Loyola Medicine in Maywood, Illinois. "In these cases, the need for insulin may be short-term. Other situations include patients who are on multiple diabetic medications with uncontrolled diabetes, and uncontrolled diabetes in pregnancy, to name a few." Here's what you need to know about taking insulin in the short term and the long term. Insulin for Short-Term Blood Sugar Control Doctors use a blood test called a hemoglobin A1C test to measure average blood sugar control over a two- to three-month period. The treatment target for most people with diabetes is an A1C of 7 percent or less; those with higher levels may need a more intensive medication plan. "The American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists recommends starting a person with type 2 diabetes on insulin if their A1C is above 9 percent and they have symptoms," said Mazhari. Symptoms of type 2 diabetes include thirst, hunger, frequent urination, and weight loss. Research published in February 2013 in the journal The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology reviewed several studies that focused on the temporary use of insulin to restore sugar control in people with type 2 diabetes. The results showed that a two- to five-week course of short-term intensive insulin therapy (IIT) can induce remission in patients Continue reading >>
- Stressing The Difference Between Type 1 And Type 2 Diabetes: Why Do We Care?
- This is why it's so important to know the difference between Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes
- Relative contribution of type 1 and type 2 diabetes loci to the genetic etiology of adult-onset, non-insulin-requiring autoimmune diabetes
What Really Happened In Memento?
Spoiler Alert! Short answer would be, as Carlos Rui Ribeiro said "We really don't get know what happened". I feel this is late answer for the question (judging from its Latest activity) but still I am going to write my interpretation of the movie as some part of my answer is not in existing ones. I am assuming you know basic story of memento (i.e. chronological sequence of events).I suggest you to have a look at this if you did not get the sequence (or you have forgotten) 1. "Remember Sammy Jankis" There are some black and white scenes where Leonard is talking on the phone with stranger(?). He is telling him about Sammy who, like Leonard, also had a short term memory loss. Lenny tells him about his profession before (apparent) murder of Lenny's wife. Leonard was an insurance claims investigator and that's when he came across Sammy Jankis. Sammy and his were supposedly in a minor car accident where he received short term memory loss. Leonard came in to evaluate him and at first thought Sammy was faking. Sammy's wife was also very confused of his new condition and found it hard to live with so she decided to evaluate Sammy as well. Sammy's wife was diabetic and needed an insulin shot everyday from Sammy. To see if Sammy was faking or not, she had him give her multiple insulin shots in one day. If he was faking, he would not give her multiple shots as it was a matter of her life. But, being legit (?), Sammy ends up unknowingly killing his wife and got placed in an asylum. 2. "Teddy - don't believe his lies" Let's have a look at what Teddy (John Edward Gammell) says in few last minutes of movie Leonard Shelby: He knew about Sammy, why would I tell him about fucking Sammy?! Teddy: You tell everybody about Sammy! Everybody who'll listen! "Remember Sammy Jankis?" "Remember Sam Continue reading >>
After Diabetes Has Developed, Can It Somehow Be Switched Back Off In The Human Body Over Time? If So, How?
Clearly, type 2 diabetes can be reversed to the point that insulin and other medications are no longer needed and hemoglobin A1c levels brought down to a healthy level, below 6.5% or even lower. This was just demonstrated recently by Virta Health, a San Francisco start-up led by Steven Phinney, Jeff Volek and Sami Inkinen. Here’s the paper, which was published earlier this week. I think this is just the beginning and, as I tweeted at the time, I think it and Virta are going to play a major role in changing the nutrition/obesity/diabetes world. The intervention in this case is primarily a ketogenic diet — or a low-carb, high-fat diet — with the necessary coaching, social context and medical support to make compliance relatively easy. Now, reversing diabetes is different than switching it off. Diabetes can be thought of as a carbohydrate intolerance disorder. Indeed, until the discovery of insulin almost 100 years ago, that’s how it was perceived. (Once insulin was discovered, the clinicians started thinking of it as an insulin-deficiency disorder and so drug therapy became the order of the day and carbohydrates were now necessary to balance out ill-dosed insulin shots.) So if we go back to thinking of it as a carbohydrate intolerance disorder, as I think we should, then removing the carbohydrates from the diet solves the problem. Makes sense, too. If you can’t tolerate a food and you don’t need it, don’t eat it. Anyone with a food allergy would tell you the same thing. So removing the carbs and replacing them with fat solves the problem for type 2 diabetics (and might also do wonderful things for type 1s), but it doesn’t switch the diabetes off. It just removes the trigger. Bariatric surgery also shows remarkable effects on diabetes, but does it do it bec Continue reading >>
Insulin For Type 2 Diabetes: Who, When, And Why?
Physicians who treat people with type 2 diabetes face difficult choices when selecting the best medical therapy for each patient. The decision process is further complicated by the fact that because type 2 diabetes is a progressive disease, therapeutic agents that were initially successful may fail five or ten years later. As recently as 1994, there were only two options for patients with type 2 diabetes: insulin and the sulfonylureas (such as glyburide and glipizide). The good news is that today, seven totally different classes of medications are available, as well as much better insulins. The bad news is that many physicians are more confused than ever, especially when faced with the option of combining two, three, or even more drugs at one time. In addition, the past several years have seen the advent of six combination drugs (such as Glucovance, Avandamet, and Janumet), with more on the way. Faced with this explosion of therapeutic options, many physicians are reluctant to start insulin therapy even when it is clearly indicated. Insulin Resistance and Deficiency in Type 2 Diabetes Most patients with type 2 diabetes suffer from two major defects: insulin resistance and beta cell “burnout.” Insulin resistance typically precedes outright diabetes by several years, appearing in adults and children who are overweight, sedentary, and have a genetic predisposition to diabetes. Patients with insulin resistance are often diagnosed with the metabolic syndrome, which predisposes them to both type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease. When food is ingested, insulin is secreted by the beta cells into the bloodstream. The insulin travels to the liver or muscles, where it attaches to receptors on the surface of the cells like a key in a lock. In non-diabetic people, this proc Continue reading >>
- Stressing The Difference Between Type 1 And Type 2 Diabetes: Why Do We Care?
- This is why it's so important to know the difference between Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes
- Relative contribution of type 1 and type 2 diabetes loci to the genetic etiology of adult-onset, non-insulin-requiring autoimmune diabetes
Regulating & Monitoring A Diabetic Cat Using Insulin
Not all cats with diabetes will need to be treated with insulin (some cats with mild diabetes may respond to and dietary change), but a majority of them will. The goal of treatment is to resolve the signs of the disease, maintain proper body weight, eliminate or reduce the likelihood of any complications, and provide the cat with a good quality of life. This can be accomplished by maintaining the blood glucose at an acceptable level (100-290 mg/dL; normal is 55-160 mg/dL). In addition to treating the diabetes, any other concurrent diseases such as pancreatic exocrine insufficiency, hyperthyroidism, Cushing's disease, and infections need to be treated as well. What should an owner know before trying to 'regulate' a cat with diabetes? Before treatment is started, it is important that the owner be well-informed and have the time necessary to make the correct decision since regulating a diabetic cat requires commitment. Owners should know: The cat will need to be hospitalized for a number of days and one or more blood glucose profiles (described below) will need to be performed. The initial regulation of a cat on insulin generally takes 2-8 weeks. The process of getting a cat regulated can be costly. Insulin must usually be given twice a day, every day at specific times, probably for the life of the cat. Insulin must be handled properly (refrigerated, not shaken, etc). There is a proper technique for administering insulin to a cat that must be followed. The type of insulin and insulin syringe that are used should not be changed unless under guidance by the veterinarian. The type and amount of food and when it is fed must be consistent. In most cases, foods high in protein and low in carbohydrates are recommended. These are usually canned foods. The cat will need to be caref Continue reading >>
Diabetes: How To Use Insulin
Please note: This information was current at the time of publication. But medical information is always changing, and some information given here may be out of date. For regularly updated information on a variety of health topics, please visit familydoctor.org, the AAFP patient education website. What is insulin, and why do I need it? Insulin is a hormone that controls the level of blood sugar (also called glucose) in your body. People with diabetes may not have enough insulin or may not be able to use it properly. The sugar builds up in the blood and overflows into the urine, passing out of your body unused. Over time, high blood sugar levels can cause serious health problems. All people with type 1 diabetes, and some people with type 2 diabetes, need to take insulin to help control their blood sugar levels. (The box below lists the different types of insulin.) The goal in treating diabetes is to keep the blood sugar level within a normal range. Do I need to monitor my blood sugar level? Yes. You need to check your blood sugar level regularly using a blood glucose monitor. Your doctor or the office staff can teach you how to use the monitor. You'll need to write down each measurement and show this record to your doctor, so your doctor can tell you how much insulin to take. How often will I need to take insulin? Your doctor will give you a schedule. Most people with diabetes need at least 2 insulin shots a day. Some people need 3 or 4 shots for good blood sugar control. When should I take insulin? If you take Regular insulin or a longer-acting insulin, you should generally take it 15 to 30 minutes before a meal. If you take insulin lispro (brand name: Humalog), which works very quickly, you should generally take it less than 15 minutes before you eat. What is different Continue reading >>
Insulin For Type 1 And Type 2 Diabetes
Examples The different types of insulin are categorized according to how fast they start to work (onset) and how long they continue to work (duration). The types now available include rapid-, short-, intermediate-, and long-acting insulin. Rapid-acting Generic Name Brand Name insulin aspart NovoLog insulin glulisine Apidra insulin human (inhalation powder) Afrezza insulin lispro Humalog Short-acting Intermediate-acting Long-acting Generic Name Brand Name insulin detemir Levemir insulin glargine Lantus Mixtures Generic Name Brand Name 70% NPH and 30% regular Humulin 70/30, Novolin 70/30 50% lispro protamine and 50% lispro Humalog Mix 50/50 75% lispro protamine and 25% lispro Humalog Mix 75/25 70% aspart protamine and 30% aspart NovoLog Mix 70/30 50% NPH and 50% regular Humulin 50/50 Packaging Injectable insulin is packaged in small glass vials (bottles) and cartridges that hold more than one dose and are sealed with rubber lids. The cartridges are used in pen-shaped devices called insulin pens. Inhaled insulin is a powder that is packaged in a cartridge. Cartridges hold certain dosages of insulin, and more than one cartridge might be needed to take enough insulin. How insulin is taken Insulin usually is given as an injection into the tissues under the skin (subcutaneous). It can also be given through an insulin pump, an insulin pen, or jet injector, a device that sprays the medicine into the skin. Some insulins can be given through a vein (only in a hospital). Powdered insulin is packaged in a cartridge, which fits into an inhaler. Using the inhaler, a person breathes in to take the insulin. How It Works Insulin lets sugar (glucose) in the blood enter cells, where it is used for energy. Without insulin, the blood sugar level rises above what is safe for the body. If the Continue reading >>
- Relative contribution of type 1 and type 2 diabetes loci to the genetic etiology of adult-onset, non-insulin-requiring autoimmune diabetes
- Relative effectiveness of insulin pump treatment over multiple daily injections and structured education during flexible intensive insulin treatment for type 1 diabetes: cluster randomised trial (REPOSE)
- Insulin, glucagon and somatostatin stores in the pancreas of subjects with type-2 diabetes and their lean and obese non-diabetic controls
Treatment
There's no cure for diabetes, so treatment aims to keep your blood glucose levels as normal as possible and to control your symptoms to prevent health problems developing later in life. If you've been diagnosed with diabetes, you'll be referred for specialist treatment from a diabetes care team. They'll be able to help you understand your treatment and closely monitor your condition to identify any health problems that may occur. Type 1 diabetes occurs because your body doesn't produce any insulin. This means you'll need regular insulin treatment to keep your glucose levels normal. Insulin comes in several different preparations, each of which works slightly differently. For example, some last up to a whole day (long-acting), some last up to eight hours (short-acting) and some work quickly but don't last very long (rapid-acting). Your treatment is likely to include a combination of different insulin preparations. Insulin Insulin injections If you have type 1 diabetes, you'll probably need insulin injections. Insulin must be injected, because if it were taken as a tablet, it would be broken down in your stomach (like food) and would be unable to enter your bloodstream. When you're first diagnosed, your diabetes care team will help you with your insulin injections, before showing you how and when to do it yourself. They'll also show you how to store your insulin and dispose of your needles properly. Insulin injections are usually given by an injection pen, which is also known as an insulin pen or auto-injector. Sometimes, injections are given using a syringe. Most people need two to four injections a day. Your GP or diabetes nurse may also teach one of your close friends or relatives how to inject the insulin properly. Insulin pump therapy Insulin pump therapy is an alter Continue reading >>
- Relative effectiveness of insulin pump treatment over multiple daily injections and structured education during flexible intensive insulin treatment for type 1 diabetes: cluster randomised trial (REPOSE)
- Diabetes in Dogs: Symptoms, Causes, & Treatment
- Type 2 diabetes and skin health: Conditions and treatment
Insulin And Type 2 Diabetes: What You Should Know
Insulin and Type 2 Diabetes If your health care provider offered you a medication to help you feel better and get your blood sugar under control, would you try it? If so, you might be ready to start taking insulin. Does insulin immediately make you think of type 1 diabetes? Think again. Between 30 and 40 percent of people with type 2 diabetes take insulin. In fact, there are more people with type 2 diabetes who take insulin than type 1 because of the much larger number of people with type 2. Experts believe even more people with type 2 should be taking insulin to control blood sugar -- and the earlier, the better. With an increase in people developing type 2 at a younger age and living longer, more and more people with type 2 will likely be taking insulin. "If you live long enough with type 2 diabetes, odds are good you'll eventually need insulin," says William Polonsky, Ph.D., CDE, associate clinical professor of psychiatry at the University of California, San Diego; founder and president of the Behavioral Diabetes Institute; and author of Diabetes Burnout: What to Do When You Can't Take It Anymore (American Diabetes Association, 1999). Producing Less Insulin Naturally Over Time Research has shown that type 2 diabetes progresses as the ability of the body’s pancreatic beta cells to produce insulin dwindles over time. Your beta cells -- the cells in the pancreas that produce insulin -- slowly lose function. Experts believe that by the time you're diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, you've already lost 50-80 percent of your beta cell function and perhaps the number of beta cells you had. And the loss continues over the years. "About six years after being diagnosed, most people have about a quarter of their beta cell function left," says Anthony McCall, M.D., Ph.D., endocri Continue reading >>
Timing Is Everything | Pet Diabetes Care
A friend recently told me that she always comes up with the perfect comeback. Her problem is that she thinks of it 20 minutes too late. Yep, sometimes timing is everything. When it comes to diabetes care of our pets, timing can make the difference between a well regulated diabetic pet and a “mostly” regulated diabetic pet. Routines may not be exciting, but routines make for a well-regulated diabetic pet! After two plus decades practicing veterinary medicine, I sometimes think I have heard it all. Then a client comes along and proves me wrong. Recently one of my own veterinary clients told me he routinely gave his cat the insulin then waited an hour before feeding his pet. I don’t know where this client got this notion as I had told him what I tell all my clients, to feed and give insulin at the same time every 12 hours. Now, whether one waits to see if Fluffy is eating before giving the injection is another story. For folks who have a pet with a hearty appetite that couldn’t imagine missing a meal, they may give the injection as the pet dives into dinner. A feeding frenzy is definitely a distraction to the quick poke of an insulin needle. For folks who have a finicky eater, they might watch to make sure the pet truly eats before giving the injection. Nonetheless, I would feed the pet essentially at the same time as the injection rather than waiting any length of time. The insulin needs something to work with. If food is not given with the insulin the pet could become hypoglycemic. How about the timing of meals? Does it matter if a pet eats in between insulin injections? Yes. Just as giving insulin without food can cause a low blood glucose reading, giving food without insulin will cause an elevated blood glucose test result. If you give a snack in the middle of Continue reading >>
- Advice to walk after meals is more effective for lowering postprandial glycaemia in type 2 diabetes mellitus than advice that does not specify timing: a randomised crossover study
- Timing of Delivery in Gestational Diabetes Mellitus: Need for Person-Centered, Shared Decision-Making
- Timing Luck And A Bit Of Diabetes
Type 2 Diabetes Faqs
Common questions about type 2 diabetes: How do you treat type 2 diabetes? When you have type 2 diabetes, you first need to eat a healthy diet, stay physically active and lose any extra weight. If these lifestyle changes cannot control your blood sugar, you also may need to take pills and other injected medication, including insulin. Eating a healthy diet, being physically active, and losing any extra weight is the first line of therapy. “Diet and exercise“ is the foundation of all diabetes management because it makes your body’s cells respond better to insulin (in other words, it decreases insulin resistance) and lowers blood sugar levels. If you cannot normalize or control the blood sugars with diet, weight loss and exercise, the next treatment phase is taking medicine either orally or by injection. Diabetes pills work in different ways – some lower insulin resistance, others slow the digestion of food or increase insulin levels in the blood stream. The non-insulin injected medications for type 2 diabetes have a complicated action but basically lower blood glucose after eating. Insulin therapy simply increases insulin in the circulation. Don’t be surprised if you have to use multiple medications to control the blood sugar. Multiple medications, also known as combination therapy is common in the treatment of diabetes! If one medication is not enough, you medical provider may give you two or three or more different types of pills. Insulin or other injected medications also may be prescribed. Or, depending on your medical condition, you may be treated only with insulin or injected medication therapy. Many people with type 2 diabetes have elevated blood fats (high triglycerides and cholesterol) and blood pressure, so you may be given medications for these problem Continue reading >>
Type 2 Diabetes And Insulin
People with type 2 diabetes do not always have to take insulin right away; that is more common in people with type 1 diabetes. The longer someone has type 2 diabetes, the more likely they will require insulin. Just as in type 1 diabetes, insulin is a way to control your blood glucose level. With type 2 diabetes, though, dietary changes, increasing physical activity, and some oral medications are usually enough to bring your blood glucose to a normal level. To learn about how the hormone insulin works, we have an article that explains the role of insulin. There are several reasons people with type 2 diabetes may want to use insulin: It can quickly bring your blood glucose level down to a healthier range. If your blood glucose level is excessively high when you are diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, the doctor may have you use insulin to lower your blood glucose level—in a way that’s much faster than diet and exercise. Insulin will give your body a respite; it (and especially the beta cells that produce insulin) has been working overtime to try to bring down your blood glucose level. In this scenario, you’d also watch what you eat and exercise, but having your blood glucose under better control may make it easier to adjust to those lifestyle changes. It has fewer side effects than some of the medications: Insulin is a synthetic version of a hormone our bodies produce. Therefore, it interacts with your body in a more natural way than medications do, leading to fewer side effects. The one side effect is hypoglycemia. It can be cheaper. Diabetes medications can be expensive, although there is an array of options that try to cater to people of all economic levels. However, insulin is generally cheaper than medications (on a monthly basis), especially if the doctor wants yo Continue reading >>
- Relative contribution of type 1 and type 2 diabetes loci to the genetic etiology of adult-onset, non-insulin-requiring autoimmune diabetes
- Relative effectiveness of insulin pump treatment over multiple daily injections and structured education during flexible intensive insulin treatment for type 1 diabetes: cluster randomised trial (REPOSE)
- Prevalence of and Risk Factors for Diabetic Peripheral Neuropathy in Youth With Type 1 and Type 2 Diabetes: SEARCH for Diabetes in Youth Study
Type 1 Diabetes
Type 1 diabetes is the type of diabetes that typically develops in children and in young adults. In type 1 diabetes the body stops making insulin and the blood sugar (glucose) level goes very high. Treatment to control the blood glucose level is with insulin injections and a healthy diet. Other treatments aim to reduce the risk of complications. They include reducing blood pressure if it is high and advice to lead a healthy lifestyle. What is type 1 diabetes? What is type 1 diabetes? Play VideoPlayMute0:00/0:00Loaded: 0%Progress: 0%Stream TypeLIVE0:00Playback Rate1xChapters Chapters Descriptions descriptions off, selected Subtitles undefined settings, opens undefined settings dialog captions and subtitles off, selected Audio TrackFullscreen This is a modal window. Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window. TextColorWhiteBlackRedGreenBlueYellowMagentaCyanTransparencyOpaqueSemi-TransparentBackgroundColorBlackWhiteRedGreenBlueYellowMagentaCyanTransparencyOpaqueSemi-TransparentTransparentWindowColorBlackWhiteRedGreenBlueYellowMagentaCyanTransparencyTransparentSemi-TransparentOpaqueFont Size50%75%100%125%150%175%200%300%400%Text Edge StyleNoneRaisedDepressedUniformDropshadowFont FamilyProportional Sans-SerifMonospace Sans-SerifProportional SerifMonospace SerifCasualScriptSmall CapsReset restore all settings to the default valuesDoneClose Modal Dialog End of dialog window. Diabetes mellitus (just called diabetes from now on) occurs when the level of sugar (glucose) in the blood becomes higher than normal. There are two main types of diabetes. These are called type 1 diabetes and type 2 diabetes. Type 1 diabetes usually first develops in children or young adults. In the UK about 1 in 300 people develop type 1 diabetes at some stage. With type 1 diabet Continue reading >>
Type 1 Diabetes
Type 1 diabetes occurs when the body stops producing insulin in the pancreas. The pancreas lies at the back of the abdomen and has two main functions: to produce a juice that flows into the digestive system to help us digest food to produce the hormone called insulin. Insulin is the key hormone that controls the flow of glucose (sugar) in and out of the cells of the body. Type 1 diabetes is caused by a lack of insulin output because of auto-immune damage to the pancreas gland. Damage to the pancreas can occur for a many reasons, eg a viral infection. But the most common cause in type 1 diabetes is the body's own immune system. Insulin-producing cells in the pancreas of people with type 1 diabetes are destroyed by cells that normally defend us from invading organisms. This is called an 'auto-immune' process, referring to the fact the body appears to turn against itself. The reason why this happens in unknown. Term watch Type 1 diabetes used to be called 'insulin dependent diabetes'. This is because this type of diabetes always requires insulin treatment. As some people with type 2 diabetes now also require insulin, the term type 1 is preferred. There are other auto-immune diseases, for example of the thyroid and adrenal glands. They are more frequent in people who have Type 1 diabetes. This may reflect an inherited tendency to developing auto-immune disease that is triggered by some other factor in the environment. Exactly what that trigger can be is still unclear, but there is some evidence to suggest that a virus infection or cow's milk could start the process off. What are the symptoms of type 1 diabetes? Glucose is one of the key fuels used by the cells of the body for its energy needs. The brain and nervous system use only glucose, while most other cells can also ut Continue reading >>
