Diabetes And Yeast Infections: What You Need To Know

Diabetes and yeast infections: What you need to know

Yeast lives naturally in our bodies. However, if it begins to overgrow and become a yeast infection, it may cause problems.
Yeast can be found in the skin and near mucous membranes and helps to keep neighboring bacteria in check. A buildup of yeast is called a yeast infection and can cause pain, itchiness, and discomfort.
In this article, we explore the causes, symptoms, and possible treatments for yeast infections.
Contents of this article:
Overview
Yeast thrives in warm moist areas so yeast infections can occur in several places:
the mouth
the genitals
beneath the breasts
under folds of skin
Out of these, vaginal yeast infections are the most common.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 75 percent of women will have had a vaginal yeast infection at least once in their lives.
How diabetes and yeast infections are linked
People with poorly-controlled diabetes are at a higher risk of more severe and frequent yeast infections.
Researchers are still trying to understand completely how diabetes is linked to yeast overgrowth. However, there is evidence of several possibilities:
Extra sugars in yeast-friendly areas
When blood glucose levels are high, extra sugars may be secreted in:
mucus
sweat
urine
As yeast feeds on sugar, these secretions are the most obvious culprits for overgrowth.
Increased levels of glycogen, a polysaccharide used to store glucose, also occur with diabetes. Extra glycogen in the vaginal area can lead to a decrease in pH, which aids yeast growth.
A study in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology provides evidence for Continue reading

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Early Symptoms of Diabetes

What are the symptoms of diabetes?
Although the signs of diabetes can begin to show early, sometimes it takes a person a while to recognize the symptoms. This often makes it seem like signs and symptoms of diabetes appear suddenly. That’s why it’s important to pay attention to your body, rather than simply brushing them off. To that end, here are some type 1 and type 2 diabetes symptoms that you may want to watch out for:
If you’re experiencing frequent urination your body might be telling you that your kidneys are trying to expel excess sugar in your blood. The resulting dehydration may then cause extreme thirst.
Along the same lines, the lack of available fluids may also give you dry mouth and itchy skin.
If you experience increased hunger or unexpected weight loss it could be because your body isn’t able to get adequate energy from the food you eat.
High blood sugar levels can affect blood flow and cause nerve damage, which makes healing difficult. So having slow-healing cuts/sores is also a potential sign of diabetes.
Yeast infections may occur in men and women who have diabetes as a result of yeast feeding on glucose.
Other signs of diabetes
Pay attention if you find yourself feeling drowsy or lethargic; pain or numbness in your extremities; vision changes; fruity or sweet-smelling breath which is one of the symptoms of high ketones; and experiencing nausea or vomiting—as these are additional signs that something is not right. If there’s any question, see your doctor immediately to ensure that your blood sugar levels are safe and rule out diabetes.
So what Continue reading

What Is a Normal Blood Sugar Level?

The aim of diabetes treatment is to bring blood sugar (“glucose”) as close to normal as possible. What is a normal blood sugar level? And how can you achieve normal blood sugar?
First, what is the difference between “sugar” and “glucose”? Sugar is the general name for sweet carbohydrates that dissolve in water. “Carbohydrate” means a food made only of carbon, oxygen, and hydrogen.
There are various different kinds of sugars. The one our body uses most is called “glucose.” Other sugars we eat, like fructose from fruit or lactose from milk, are converted into glucose in our bodies. Then we can use them for energy. Our bodies also break down starches, which are sugars stuck together, into glucose.
When people talk about “blood sugar,” they mean “blood glucose.” The two terms mean the same thing.
In the U.S., blood sugar is normally measured in milligrams of glucose per deciliter of blood (mg/dl). A milligram is very little, about 0.00018 of a teaspoon. A deciliter is about 3 1/3 ounces.
In Canada and the United Kingdom, blood sugar is reported in millimoles/liter (mmol/L). You can convert Canadian or British glucose levels to American numbers if you multiply them by 18. This is useful to know if you’re reading comments or studies from England or Canada. If someone reports that their fasting blood glucose was 7, you can multiply that by 18 and get their U.S. glucose level of 126 mg/dl.
What are normal glucose numbers? They vary throughout the day. (Click here for a blood sugar chart.) For someone without diabetes, a fasting blood sugar on awakening Continue reading

Type 1.5 Diabetes: An Overview

Type 1.5 Diabetes (T1.5D) is also known as Latent Autoimmune Diabetes of Adults (LADA). LADA is considered by some experts to be a slowly progressive form of Type 1 Diabetes (T1D) while other experts in the field consider it a separate form of Diabetes.
LADA or T1.5D is sometimes thought of as T1D that is diagnosed in adults over the age of 30—T1D is commonly diagnosed in children and younger adults. T1.5D is often found along with Type 2 Diabetes (T2D): up to 25% of individuals with T1.5D also have characteristics of T2D.1 This is sometimes called “double diabetes”.
Individuals with T1.5D are all eventually dependent on insulin for treatment, and have a very high risk of requiring insulin within months or years (up to six years) after the initial diagnosis. This is in contrast to people with T1D—these people tend to need insulin within days or weeks of diagnosis.2 Individuals diagnosed with T2D relatively rarely require insulin treatment. Current recommendations are to treat individuals with T1.5D immediately with insulin, though this is not universally accepted (see below).
The Causes of T1.5D
Just as with other forms of diabetes, we don’t truly understand the underlying cause(s) of T1.5D. There are autoimmune components in Types 1, 1.5 and 2 diabetes with some overlap in the types of antibodies formed, so it is clear that as in T1D, the immune system has become “confused” and begins to act against the beta cells of the pancreas—the source of the insulin needed to control blood sugars. Both T1D and T1.5D have antibodies to glutamic acid decarboxylase or an Continue reading

Blood Sugar Levels for Adults With Diabetes

Each time you test your blood sugar, log it in a notebook or online tool or with an app. Note the date, time, results, and any recent activities:
What medication and dosage you took
What you ate
How much and what kind of exercise you were doing
That will help you and your doctor see how your treatment is working.
Well-managed diabetes can delay or prevent complications that affect your eyes, kidneys, and nerves. Diabetes doubles your risk for heart disease and stroke, too. Fortunately, controlling your blood sugar will also make these problems less likely.
Tight blood sugar control, however, means a greater chance of low blood sugar levels, so your doctor may suggest higher targets. Continue reading