5 Steps For Managing Diabetes On Campus

5 Steps for Managing Diabetes on Campus

Tips for making college a safe and healthy home away from home
Well before you get to college, find a diabetes care team near campus. Your current pediatrician or endocrinologist may know of nearby doctors, nurses, and diabetes educators. Or reach out to your local American Diabetes Association office for referrals, says Paul Madden, MEd, the Associations director of type1 and type2 diabetes programs.
Plan to get to know the folks at your campus health centerand make sure they get to know you, Madden says. Students, not their parents, should call ahead of their move to introduce themselves as someone with diabetes. Then, within a couple days of school starting, visit the health center and share information about your diabetes, such as medication and insulin dosages, and perhaps bring backup insulin vials or pens to store there. This serves two purposes, Madden says: If you run low on insulin in your dorm room, it may be easier to walk to the health center than get to a pharmacy. It also makes you a familiar face with your care team on campus.
The people you live withroommates, resident advisers, and resident directorsshould know you have diabetes, says Christina Roth, CEO and founder of the College Diabetes Network, an online and in-person network of college students and alumni with diabetes.
Its wise to teach your roommates to administer glucagon in an emergency. Alternatively, Madden suggests telling them, If I cant safely drink something sweetnot alcohol!please call the health center or 911. Help them understand (and remember) by printing and distributing diabetes Continue reading

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New clinical trial could offer a functional cure for people with type 1 diabetes

New clinical trial could offer a functional cure for people with type 1 diabetes
New clinical trial could offer a functional cure for people with type 1 diabetes
The ViaCyte trial is being run at three sites in North America, including University of Minnesota Health.
Greg Romero (right) has to live with his type 1 diabetes all day, every day. But a new clinical trial offered through University of Minnesota Health could give him a functional cure for his disease.
Greg Romero cant run or hide from his type 1 diabetes .
Its the main priority I have, taking care of this disease, he said. Every minute of every day.
Romero has been diabetic since he was 11 years old, but in the past several years his disease has become more complicated. Hes developed hypoglycemia unawareness, which means hes not able to feel when his blood glucose drops to dangerously low levels. Even with new technology that routinely provides him insulin and monitors his blood glucose levels, managing his disease is an ever-present responsibility.
Now, theres a sign of hope. Romero is one of a handful of people in the world participating in a new clinical trial thats studying whether pancreatic progenitor cells, transplanted into a person with type 1 diabetes, can become cells that produce insulin naturallyeffectively curing the disease. Developed by ViaCyte, the trial is available at three sites in North America, including University of Minnesota Health.
Learn more about University of Minnesota Health diabetes care.
These pancreatic progenitor cells are a renewable resource. A single progenitor cell Continue reading

Genetic Association of Waist-to-Hip Ratio With Cardiometabolic Traits, Type 2 Diabetes, and Coronary Heart Disease

Assumptions of a Mendelian Randomization Analysis
Genetic variants, which are assigned at birth and largely randomly assorted in a population, can be used as instrumental variables to estimate the causal association of an exposure (eg, waist-to-hip ratio [WHR] adjusted for body mass index [BMI]) with an outcome of interest (eg, coronary heart disease). This approach rests on 3 assumptions. First, the genetic variants must be associated with the exposure (assumption 1). Second, the genetic variants must not be associated with confounders (assumption 2). Third, the genetic variants must influence risk of the outcome through the exposure and not through other pathways (assumption 3). Mendelian randomization can be extended to estimate the association of exposure with outcome that is mediated by a given a mediator (eg, triglycerides).
A polygenic score of 48 single-nucleotide polymorphisms was used as an instrument to estimate the causal association of waist-to-hip ratio (WHR) adjusted for body mass index (BMI) with cardiometabolic quantitative traits, type 2 diabetes, and coronary heart disease; sources of data for analysis included the UK Biobank and publicly available genome-wide association studies. CARDIOGRAMplusC4D indicates Coronary Artery DIsease Genome-wide Replication and Meta-analysis plus the Coronary Artery Disease Genetics Consortium 11 ; CKDGen, Chronic Kidney Disease Genetics Consortium 12 ; DIAGRAM, Diabetes Genetics Replication and Meta-analysis 13 ; GIANT, Genetic Investigation of Anthropometric Traits 14 , 15 ; GLGC, Global Lipids Genetics Consortium 16 Continue reading

Diabetes: How to spot the signs before it’s too late

Sometimes the hustle and bustle of life distract us so much that we can’t see the signs our bodies give us about the condition of our health, especially with diseases like diabetes at an all-time high in this country. I know this to be true because there have been times that I’ve worn myself down by ignoring what my body was trying to tell me and I’d become sick for weeks at a time. In the midst of getting things done and being a “boss” too many people let their health decline; sometimes to the point of no return.
I have been dealing with a diabetic mother for a long time now. There are good days and not so good days. I can gauge the seriousness of her condition daily based on the signs, but it was not always like that. When she was first diagnosed with the autoimmune disease (type 2 diabetes) about 12 years ago, there were a lot of scary trips to the hospital and a lot of days not knowing what to expect next. Take it from me that it’s true you become a kind of “expert” about a disease when faced with it personally. That’s why knowing what to look for is so important. It can literally be the difference between life and death.
So here are some tips on knowing the signs of type 2 diabetes so that you can better manage, maintain and deal with it.
Know Your Family History
This is a key component of knowing the signs. Due to genes, people are predisposed for certain types of diseases, just like they can be predisposed for certain body types. Having an understanding of where the disease falls in your family, if at all, is a great start because it will give you a Continue reading

The Ultimate Guide How To Lower Your Risks Of Gestational Diabetes

The Ultimate Guide How To Lower Your Risks Of Gestational Diabetes
Gestational diabetes is high blood sugar which develops during pregnancy.It usually disappears after giving birth. Gestational diabetes can appear at any stage of gestation but is more common in the second half. It affects about 6 percent of all pregnant women.
Gestational diabetes is the result of changes that occur in all women during pregnancy. The increased levels of hormones such as cortisol, estrogen, and human placental lactogen, can interfere with your bodys ability to manage blood sugar. This condition is known as insulin resistance.
Usually, your pancreas can compensate for insulin resistance by increasing insulin production to about three times the average amount. If your pancreas cannot adequately increase insulin production to overcome the effect of increased hormones, your blood sugar levels will increase and cause gestational diabetes.
Gestational diabetes usually doesnt cause any symptoms. It mostly comes to light when the doctor tests your blood sugar level during screening for gestational diabetes. The symptoms may show up if your blood sugar level gets too high (hyperglycemia).
The symptoms may include increased thirst, a dry mouth, tiredness, and need to use the toilet more often than usual. But some of these symptoms are normal during pregnancy. They arent certainlya sign of a problem. So talk to your midwife or doctor if youre worried about any symptoms youre experiencing.
Risks of having a giant baby.If you have high blood glucose levels, it can cause high blood glucose levels Continue reading