7 Ways Diabetes Affects Your Body

Diabetes is being called an epidemic for a reason. With more than 29 million Americans suffering from the disease, and diagnoses on the rise, the disease has quickly become one of the most common reasons for a visit to the doctor in the U.S. The most common form of the disease, type 2 diabetes can be a byproduct of modern lifestyles (think: more eating, less moving). This can result in the body becoming unable to use insulin, the hormone that normally regulates blood sugar, normally. When insulin function is out of whack, you can end up with sky-high blood glucose levels. While smart eating and exercise can both help to keep diabetes under control, many patients require oral medications or insulin injections as forms of treatment, too. That’s because type 2 diabetes can wreak real havoc on your health. Curious how? Watch the video to learn more about the seven ways type 2 diabetes can affect the body.
Diabetes is being called an epidemic for a reason. With more than 29 million Americans suffering from the disease, and diagnoses on the rise, the disease has quickly become one of the most common reasons for a visit to the doctor in the U.S.
The most common form of the disease, type 2 diabetes can be a byproduct of modern lifestyles (think: more eating, less moving). This can result in the body becoming unable to use insulin, the hormone that normally regulates blood sugar, normally. When insulin function is out of whack, you can end up with sky-high blood glucose levels.
RELATED: More Aggressive Type 2 Diabetes Treatment May Lead to a Longer, Healthier Life
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Diabetes and Sleep Apnea: How Sleep Affects Blood Glucose and Diabetes

Treat Apnea to Control Diabetes?
Sleep apnea can affect diabetes control in many ways. Struggling for air may put your body into fight-or-flight mode, releasing stress hormones that can raise blood glucose levels. If you're tired, you won't want to take that walk around the block after lunch. While you're at work, you might keep snacking to stay awake.
But can treating sleep apnea lead to better blood glucose control? Arvind Cavale, M.D., an endocrinologist in Feasterville, Pennsylvania, refers about 60 percent of his patients with type 2 diabetes for sleep studies. Cavale says treating sleep apnea reduces insulin resistance, improves alertness and motivation, and leads to more stable blood glucose levels. "We use correction of sleep apnea as a tool in controlling diabetes," he says.
Does This Sound Like You?
This is not a happy scenario: You're soooo tired. As soon as your head hits the pillow, you're asleep. But a little while later, someone nudges you awake. You go back to sleep. Just as you get into a deep sleep, you're nudged again. Sleep ... nudge ... sleep ... nudge. All night long.
The next day, you might wake up with a headache, snap at your family over breakfast, have trouble concentrating at work.
Irritability. Car accidents. Depression. High blood pressure. All because of those nightmarish nudges throughout the night.
If you have obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSA), you're getting those nudges. It's your body fighting for air. And sleep apnea may be one explanation for difficulty in controlling blood glucose and blood pressure levels.
With OSA, something part Continue reading

Diabetes Related Vertigo: Causes and Treatment

Vertigo is an abnormal sensation of motion that can happen when a person is sitting still or when their movement through space is inaccurately sensed.
Knowing where we are in space and how we are moving requires reliable information from five senses:
Our vision orients movement by taking cues from vertical objects and the horizon.
Our inner ear orients us to angular movements as we turn our head and to our acceleration as we move forward.
Touch orients us as our weight presses us against things (e.g., feet to the ground, butt to a chair).
Proprioception detects the position of our neck and limbs as we move.
Our hearing orients us to objects reflecting sound and to sound emitting objects.
Any impairment of these senses can lead to an experience of vertigo, disequilibrium or dizziness. Medical issues, including diabetes and heart disease, can potentially disrupt the functioning of these senses through nerve damage or circulation impairment.
Vertigo and Disequilibrium
Spinning vertigo is when either the environment appears to be spinning or a person feels that they are spinning within the environment. Positional vertigo is a spinning sensation occurring after a person repositions their head. A spinning sensation is often caused by inner ear problems.
Disequilibrium is the sensation of an impending fall or the need of external assistance to maneuver from here to there. Some people describe a floating sensation or that the floor or room appears tilted. This can be an inner ear or other motion-sensory issue, or it can originate in the central nervous system.
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Diabetes cured in mice. Are we next?

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According to the Center for Disease Control, 1.25 million people suffer from type 1 diabetes in the US alone. So far, it can only be managed with diet and regular doses of insulin, but scientists at UT Health San Antonio have invented a way of curing the disease in mice that may one day do the same for humans even with type 2 diabetes.
Type 1 diabetes is a particularly unpleasant condition. It occurs when the pancreas ceases to produce the insulin needed by the body to metabolize sugar and, until the invention of artificial insulin injections, it was as deadly as cancer. Type 2 is the less severe form of the disease, where the body produces insufficient insulin; it can often be managed through diet alone.
Add some color to your diet with this recipe for rainbow sheet pan veggies, using Eggland’s Bes...
Surprisingly, diabetes is an autoimmune disease. Insulin is made by specialized cells in the pancreas, called beta cells, and sometimes the body's immune system turns against itself and attacks these beta cells, destroying them. Diabetes results when this destruction is over 80 percent.
Invented by Bruno Doiron and Ralph DeFronzo, the UT Health technique uses gene transfer to alter cells in the pancreases of mice to make them think they're beta cells and start making insulin. This involves taking selected genes from external beta cells and using viruses as carriers to move them into the new host cells, in the diabetic pancreas.
According to DeFronzo, the altered cells then produce insulin, but only in the presence of sugar, which is how a functioning beta cell is Continue reading

The Diabetes Diet

What's the best diet for diabetes?
Whether you’re trying to prevent or control diabetes, your nutritional needs are virtually the same as everyone else, so no special foods are necessary. But you do need to pay attention to some of your food choices—most notably the carbohydrates you eat. While following a Mediterranean or other heart-healthy diet can help with this, the most important thing you can do is to lose a little weight.
Losing just 5% to 10% of your total weight can help you lower your blood sugar, blood pressure, and cholesterol levels. Losing weight and eating healthier can also have a profound effect on your mood, energy, and sense of wellbeing. Even if you’ve already developed diabetes, it’s not too late to make a positive change. By eating healthier, being more physically active, and losing weight, you can reduce your symptoms or even reverse diabetes. The bottom line is that you have more control over your health than you may think.
The biggest risk for diabetes: belly fat
Being overweight or obese is the biggest risk factor for type 2 diabetes. However, your risk is higher if you tend to carry your weight around your abdomen as opposed to your hips and thighs. A lot of belly fat surrounds the abdominal organs and liver and is closely linked to insulin resistance. You are at an increased risk of developing diabetes if you are:
A woman with a waist circumference of 35 inches or more
A man with a waist circumference of 40 inches or more
Calories obtained from fructose (found in sugary beverages such as soda, energy and sports drinks, coffee drinks, and Continue reading