Broccoli Sprout Extract May Help To Treat Type 2 Diabetes

Broccoli sprout extract may help to treat type 2 diabetes

An effective new treatment for type 2 diabetes could be sitting in your fridge, according to the results of a new study.
Researchers found that a compound found in broccoli sprouts and other cruciferous vegetables led to a significant improvement in fasting blood glucose levels among obese adults with type 2 diabetes.
Furthermore, the compound, which is called sulforaphane, was found to reduce the amount of glucose produced by cultured liver cells, and it also appeared to reverse abnormal gene expression in the livers of rats.
The study - conducted by Annika Axelsson, of the Lund University Diabetes Center in Sweden, and colleagues - was recently published in the journal Science Translational Medicine.
Type 2 diabetes is the most common form of diabetes, accounting for around 90 to 95 percent of all diagnosed cases.
The condition arises when the body is unable to use the hormone insulin effectively, causing blood glucose levels to become too high. Unless blood glucose levels are controlled, type 2 diabetes can cause a number of severe complications, including heart attack, stroke, nerve damage, and kidney failure.
While there are medications, such as metformin, that can help people with type 2 diabetes to manage their blood glucose levels, Axelsson and team note that some patients are unable to use them due to their severe side effects, which include kidney damage.
As such, there is a need for safer alternatives. Could sulforaphane meet this need?
Sulforaphane improved liver gene expression, blood glucose levels
To answer this question, Axelsson and colleagues created a gen Continue reading

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7 Things You Need To Know About Exercising with Diabetes

If there’s one thing people with diabetes know, it’s that regular exercise requires more than just discipline and hard work. Mismanaging your blood sugar, diet and exercise intensity levels can have adverse and unpredictable effects on your body.
This month, we spoke with Dr. Jonathon R. Fowles, an exercise physiologist at the Centre of Lifestyle Studies at Acadia University, to help answer some common questions about exercising with diabetes:
1) How often should I exercise?
“Regardless of whether you have type 1 or type 2 diabetes, the CDA recommends 150 minutes a week of moderate to vigorous exercise,” Fowles says.
“You should be combining both aerobic (running, swimming etc.) and anaerobic (resistance training, weight lifting) activity.”
2) What are the benefits?
“People with type 2 diabetes can expect to lower their AIC levels after a couple months of meeting the guidelines, and drastically reduce the progression of their diabetes, as well as their cardiovascular risk,” Fowles says.
For people with type 1 diabetes, Fowles says the benefits are a little different.
“The combination of exercise with insulin can be quite dramatic. People with type 1 diabetes should communicate openly with their diabetes educator or physician, to learn the interaction between exercise, food and insulin," he says.
“The evidence isn’t quite as strong for glucose regulation for people with type 1 diabetes, but it’s definitely beneficial for their cardiovascular risk reduction, overall health and quality of life.”
3) Why is anaerobic exercise important?
While the treadm Continue reading

A cure for diabetes: Crash diet can REVERSE Type 2 in three months... and Isobel and Tony are living proof that you CAN stop the killer disease

A crash diet lasting just three months can reverse Type 2 diabetes, a landmark study has shown.
Nearly half the people who underwent the diet saw their condition go into remission — providing the strongest evidence yet that diabetes can be eradicated by simply losing weight.
The patients had struggled with their condition for up to six years, using drugs to control their blood sugar levels.
But a year after starting the 850-calorie-a-day diet, 75 per cent were drug free and 46 per cent had seen their blood sugar drop so far they were no longer considered diabetic.
Among those who lost the most weight the results were even more extraordinary, the Lancet publication shows.
Some 86 per cent of people who lost more than 15kg (2st 5lb) went into remission, along with 57 per cent of those who lost 10kg (1st 8lb) to 15kg, and 34 per cent of those who lost 5kg (11lb) to 10kg.
The British project — led by the universities of Newcastle and Glasgow — could fundamentally change the way the NHS deals with the UK's booming diabetes epidemic.
More than four million people in Britain have Type 2 diabetes, costing the NHS £14 billion a year.
The disease — driven by obesity —was thought to be incurable once developed, and patients are usually just given drugs to control their blood sugar.
Study leader Professor Roy Taylor, of Newcastle University, said: 'These findings are very exciting.
'The weightloss goals provided by this programme are achievable for many people.'
The team believes Type 2 diabetes is caused when accumulated fat in the pancreas and liver interferes with insulin Continue reading

Slideshow: Diabetes Complications -- Eye Problems and Blindness

Diabetes can make you more likely to have eye problems. Your blood sugar (glucose) levels may be high because your body can't make or use insulin properly. Too much blood sugar can build up and harm your nerves and blood vessels. Damage to the blood vessels in your eyes can lead to vision loss or blindness. Anyone with diabetes is at risk, so it’s important to get yearly eye exams.
Diabetes can affect your eyes in different ways. When your blood sugar is high or when you start insulin treatment, you may have blurry vision or other problems. But your eyes can be damaged even if you don’t notice any changes. Don’t wait for symptoms to arise to get your vision checked.
Diabetic Retinopathy
The retina senses light coming into your eye, and it sends messages to your brain about the things you see. Damage to blood vessels inside the retina from blood sugar buildup is called diabetic retinopathy. You might not notice changes at first, but over time the walls of your blood vessels may leak fluid. When you’ve had diabetes for a while, blood vessels can form scar tissue and pull the retina away from the back of your eye. This can lead to severe vision loss and even blindness.
Your doctor can diagnose retinopathy during a thorough eye exam. He’ll use a special dye to find leaking blood vessels. In the early stages, diabetic retinopathy often can be treated with laser surgery called photocoagulation. The laser seals the blood vessels and stops them from leaking and growing. The procedure can't restore lost vision. Combined with follow-up care, though, it can lower your chance Continue reading

How Well Do You Know Your Diabetes Management Plan?

As a person with diabetes, you are in charge of your diabetes management. Your doctor, diabetes educator, dietitian, and other members of your team are there to give input on your plan, but between checkups, your diabetes care is your responsibility.
Having the information you need is key to successfully managing your diabetes. It’s important to truly know what your diabetes plan is and to understand how to carry it out. It also helps to know why you’re doing the things you’re doing. For example, your doctor may tell you that you need an HbA1c test result below 7%, but you may not feel that striving for that is worth the effort unless you know that a result under 7% is directly associated with fewer long-term complications. In addition, knowing what, knowing how, and knowing why can help you problem-solve should something go wrong.
The following questions are designed to get you thinking about how well you know your diabetes control plan, while encouraging you to seek out the missing answers.
Medicine
Do you know the names of the medicines you take for your
diabetes?
Drugs often go by two different names: the generic name, which is the scientific name of the drug, and the brand name, which is the name you’ll see in large print in TV or magazine ads. Drugs sold as generics are labeled only with their generic names, while brand-name drugs are labeled with both the generic name and the brand name. For example, the long-acting insulin Lantus is marked with both its brand name, Lantus, and its generic name, insulin glargine. In most cases, knowing one or the other is pro Continue reading