Diabetes And Your Stroke Risk

Diabetes and Your Stroke Risk

Saebo
You may not think to connect two different health concerns like stroke and diabetes, but if you have diabetes, you are 1.5 times more likely to suffer a stroke. Why? It has to do with a key player in the body’s regulation of glucose (blood sugar): insulin. If insulin levels are off or it’s not put to proper use in the body, build up results and the likelihood of stroke increases.
Fortunately, there a number of ways to control your diabetes, and if you do that, you simultaneously decrease your risk of having a stroke. The research cited below will help you to understand the link between stroke and diabetes and which steps to take if you’re concerned for your health or that of a loved one with diabetes.
Understanding Diabetes
For our body’s cells to get the energy they need, insulin is required to regulate the process. In a way, it acts as an energy supervisor in breaking down the sugars you eat so they can be converted into energy. Diabetes results when the pancreas doesn’t create insulin, it doesn’t make enough of it, or cells don’t use the hormone correctly.
Diabetes is usually categorized as being Type 1 or 2. Type 1 diabetes typically manifests during childhood or adolescence, though it occasionally presents itself in young adults in their twenties or early thirties. This form of diabetes is characterized by a lack of insulin production in the body, and it is treated with insulin supplementation.
Type 2 diabetes is more common than Type 1; nearly 90 percent of diabetes patients suffer from it. This kind of diabetes occurs when the body does not produc Continue reading

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Regular alcohol consumption could cut diabetes risk, study finds

Regularly drinking a moderate amount of certain alcoholic drinks could reduce a person’s chances of developing diabetes, according to a study.
Consuming alcohol three or four days a week was associated with a reduced risk of developing diabetes – a 27% reduction in men and a 32% reduction in women – compared with abstaining, scientists found.
Wine was considered particularly beneficial, probably because it has chemical compounds that improve blood sugar balance, researchers in Denmark found.
Gin could have the opposite effect, along with other spirits, increasing women’s chances of getting diabetes by 83%.
Experts said the findings, published in the journal Diabetologia, should not be seen as a green light to drink more than existing NHS guidelines suggest.
The authors of the research, led by Prof Janne Tolstrup from the University of Southern Denmark, wrote: “Our findings suggest that alcohol drinking frequency is associated with the risk of diabetes and that consumption of alcohol over three to four weekdays is associated with the lowest risks of diabetes, even after taking average weekly alcohol consumption into account.”
In the past, studies have suggested that light to moderate drinking can reduce the risk of developing diabetes but there has been no research into the frequency of alcohol consumption.
Scientists studied data on 70,551 men and women who took part in a Danish survey. Respondents were quizzed about their drinking habits and monitored for five years.
Afterwards, participants were followed up and 859 men and 887 women had developed diabetes. The Continue reading

Diabetes and how it affects feet

If you have diabetes, you have probably noticed that it affects your health in many ways. But it can be easy to overlook one spot that often escapes close attention: your feet.
Understand the problem
Just a small foot sore can lead to a diabetic ulcer and even amputation if not treated properly and in a timely manner. So if you have diabetes, every cut or sore should be taken seriously.
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“Diabetes can lead to pressure or small blood vessel disease in your feet, causing nerve damage and circulation problems,” says Baker Machhadieh, MD, with Kettering Physician Network Endocrinology and Diabetes in Hamilton. “A loss of feeling — often in the feet or legs — means minor injuries can go unnoticed, allowing infection to set in.”
A diabetic foot ulcer can occur almost anywhere on the foot. But very often they appear on the ball, the bottom of the big toe, or the top or sides of the foot. It can be caused by ill-fitting shoes pressing or rubbing against the skin, or it can be triggered by an injury.
The good news is most diabetic ulcers and foot sores are preventable.
Practice prevention
Dr. Machhadieh says the first line of defense against ulcers and other foot problems is controlling your blood sugar levels and keeping your feet clean and well cared for. Here are other steps you can take:
• Wash your feet daily with mild soap in warm — not hot — water.
• Don’t let your feet dry out and crack.
• Rub lotion on your feet daily but not between your toes.
• Wear shoes that fit well but are not too snug.
• Continue reading

Are People With Diabetes More Prone to Aggression?

Relationship Between Blood Glucose Level and Self-Control
Blood sugar can make people do crazy things. According to a recent scientific study on the link between low blood glucose level and relationship clashes (Bushman et al, 2014), being hungry makes an individual generally cranky and act more hostile to others. In the study, couples who are hungry tend to have a much higher tendency to exhibit aggression towards each other and become more impulsive in their reactions.
This phenomenon is often referred to “hangry” (meaning feeling angry when you are hungry). If this irritable state can happen to any healthy person who experiences a change in their blood glucose level, imagine the ordeals individuals with diabetes frequently go through on a daily basis. However, do not jump to the conclusion that diabetes leads to aggression. In fact, scientists find a more direct correlation between blood glucose level and self-control.
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In a way, you can visualize self-control as a muscle that requires a lot of energy to sustain so that it does not become ineffective quickly. This energy source comes from the glucose in the blood. So what kind of activities can wear out this “muscle”? Any daily activities that require self-discipline such as forcing yourself to get out of bed early to exercise, resisting from having a soda drink or another cookie with your meal, stopping yourself from smoking, dealing with stressful situations at work and at home, and abstaining yourself from road rage.
As you can see, self-control plays a crucial part i Continue reading

Diabetes: New compounds may lower blood sugar but prevent weight gain

Researchers are one step closer to a new drug that could lower blood glucose levels in patients with insulin resistance, but without the potentially harmful side effects.
Insulin resistance is a known risk factor for type 2 diabetes. It arises when the body's cells are no longer able to respond to insulin, which is the hormone that regulates blood glucose.
As a result, blood glucose levels can become too high, and this may lead to type 2 diabetes. There are medications that can help to prevent the progression to type 2 diabetes in patients with insulin resistance, such as thiazolidinediones.
But unfortunately, these medications can promote weight gain and a number of other health problems.
Dr. Domenico Accili — director of the Columbia University Diabetes Research Center at Columbia University Medical Center in New York City, NY — and colleagues have identified a number of compounds that may be just as effective as current insulin resistance medications on the market, but which do not lead to weight gain.
The researchers recently reported their findings in the journal Cell.
FOXO1 and insulin resistance
The reason why currently available medications for insulin resistance can cause weight gain is because they target and block a protein called FOXO1.
While inhibiting FOXO1 reduces glucose production in the liver — thereby reducing blood glucose levels — it also increases the production of lipids, or fat.
"Thus, treatment of insulin resistance with a broadly acting FOXO1 inhibitor can lead to a host of unwanted side effects, such as weight gain," says Dr. Accili. "Unfo Continue reading