Can You Skip Meals With Diabetes?

Can you skip meals with diabetes?

The practice of intermittent fasting has garnered a lot of media attention in the last several years, prompting many people to ask questions about the safety and/or the health benefits of skipping meals.
For diabetics, however, the answers are more complicated.
While some studies suggest that short periods of fasting (14-24 hours) can actually improve insulin levels, people with current blood sugar problems should never attempt to skip meals unless under the supervision of a doctor.
Skipping meals can lead to serious consequences for diabetics, some of which may lead to dangerous health complications.
Low Blood Sugar
The most obvious side effect of skipping meals when you have diabetes is low blood sugar. Not eating can disrupt the balance between nutrient absorption and insulin levels, which can dramatically lower blood glucose levels.
Signs of low blood sugar include fatigue, dizziness, anxiety, heart palpitations, headaches or difficulty with speech.
Left untreated, low blood sugar may require hospitalization, as it can bring on seizures.
Overcompensation
Skipping meals might seem like a good way to reduce overall caloric or carbohydrate intake, but it may also cause overeating in general.
It's not unlikely to consume more calories and overcompensate by indulging after skipping breakfast and not eating until lunch, for example.
For diabetics, it's usually a better strategy to prevent hunger to begin with, which leads to balanced blood sugar levels, more stable energy and reduced cravings.
Medication
Some diabetes medications may be required to be taken with food. Skippin Continue reading

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Type 1 Diabetes looks like...

A blond boy who just finished third grade and has been losing weight. His parents think it’s from a growth spurt, but he's pale. Something isn't right.
It’s a 23-year-old woman who is starting her career in journalism and lately, she is always thirsty. She keeps extra sodas in her drawer at work and a water bottle with her everywhere she goes.
It looks like a 6-year-old poking his finger at a birthday party, squeezing out a precious droplet of blood and then laying that blood on a test strip…waiting for the countdown,
3…2…1...
He wants cake. It all depends on that number.
It looks like a 65-year-old grandmother who wears an insulin pump on her hip. A pump that delivers a constant stream of insulin, a hormone her body can’t live without for more than a handful of hours.
It looks like a 30-year-old man lying in bed, not able to open his eyes. His wife shaking him violently. She rubs glucose tabs on his lips, but he won’t eat. He gets combative. He doesn’t know where he is, and he is confused. 911 is called while his wife does everything she can to get sugar into his body.
It looks like a 40-year-old man who has a few extra pounds. He goes to the doctor and the doctor reveals his test results. His doctor automatically assumes he has Type 2 Diabetes. He doesn’t do the proper tests to find out he has type 1. The pills don’t do the job. He almost dies before the truth is found.
It looks like a mother who forgot to bring her daughter’s blood sugar monitor to ballet class. Her daughter says she feels dizzy. She feeds her hoping she is doing the right thing. Sh Continue reading

Stem Cells Of Type 1 Diabetes Patients Transformed Into Insulin-Secreting Beta Cells; Research May Lead To New Therapy

For those living with Type 1 diabetes, the condition is a part of daily life. Insulin shots, blood sugar monitoring, and carb counting become routine, and patients expect them to stay so for the rest of their lives. This form of diabetes currently has no cure, something researchers have been diligently trying to change. The most recent attempt to take down diabetes comes from researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and Harvard University, who have managed to change stem cells derived from diabetes patients into insulin–secreting cells.
Patients with Type 1 diabetes lack the ability to create their own insulin, meaning they rely on regular injections of the hormone to control blood sugar. The study hints at a possible new therapy for patients that relies on a personalized approach — using the patients’ own cells to create new ones capable of manufacturing the insulin they need. The research, published in Nature Communications, details new cells that produce insulin when they encounter sugar in both culture and mouse trials.
“In theory, if we could replace the damaged cells in these individuals with new pancreatic beta cells — whose primary function is to store and release insulin to control blood glucose — patients with type 1 diabetes wouldn’t need insulin shots anymore,” said Dr. Jeffery R. Millman, an assistant professor of medicine and biomedical engineering at Washington university and first author of the study, in a press release. “The cells we manufactured sense the presence of glucose and secrete insulin in response. And Continue reading

Bye Bye, Diabetes: 100 Years With This Vaccine, and We’re Finally Learning Its True Capabilities

A decades-old vaccine might have something to offer people with type 1 diabetes!
A research team at Massachusetts General Hospital is about to begin a five-year-long trial to determine whether BCG can be used in the treatment of diabetes. The life-saving vaccine has been used for nearly a century to prevent tuberculosis. However, recently it has demonstrated the it could have the ability to treat type 1 diabetes. Moreover, it might actually be able to reverse it!
The five-year trial will include 150 participants. They will receive two injections of the vaccine within four months of each other. Over the following four years, they will be given an additional BCG injection annually.
So, how does this incredible vaccine show promise for people with type 1 diabetes? In pre-trial studies, BCG was shown to destroy the blood cells that attack the pancreas and prevent it from making insulin. What’s even more amazing is that the vaccine actually increased the number of positive blood cells that repress diabetes.
Wanna learn more?
Check out the video below! Make sure to let us know what you think of this exciting new trial in the comments below!
★How Can I Help?★
Since 2004, the U.S. government has dispersed $150 million towards type 1 and type 2 diabetes-related efforts. However, to rework government budgets, Congress is now looking into transitioning funding from a three-year grant to a single-year renewable program.
Let’s speak up for type 1 diabetes research and keep the momentum going! Sign this petition to tell U.S. Senator Bill Neslon (FL), chair of the Special Committe Continue reading

Usher, Sugar Ray Leonard Help Raise Over $1M for Type 1 Diabetes Research

"We're going to find a solution. We're going to fight this. We're going to figure it out,” Usher said at the Juvenile Diabetes Research Fund's Imagine Gala.
Usher, Sugar Ray Leonard, Brec Bassinger, Hailee Steinfeld and James "Jimmy Jam" Harris were among the stars who stepped out on the red carpet Saturday for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Fund’s Imagine Gala.
The event, which took place at the Beverly Hilton, raised over $1 million in support of the research JDRF funds to find a cure for type 1 diabetes.
Usher spoke at the event about how Harris had reached out to him to perform at the gala. The singer-songwriter added, though, that he felt much more compelled to do more and speak to the audience since his son was diagnosed at the age of 5 with T1D.
“I now live with that reality — the agony of what I have to deal with alone. I feel like I’m a disappointment to my child,” said Usher. “If he’s too high, is it something that I did? Is it something I could have done better?”
Harris’ son Max was honored at the event as someone who motivates other kids and teens with the disease to live their lives as normal as possible. He continues to be active by playing sports, despite having been diagnosed with T1D at the age of 2. Now 17, Max serves as an inspiration to anyone who feels that they are limited due to diabetes.
Bassinger, also 17, has lived with T1D for almost 10 years, but didn’t fully understand what big changes were going to happen at the time. At the event, the young actress spoke about how she was able to overcome the hardships with the support of Continue reading