Diabetes Mellitus Treatment

In patients diagnosed with diabetes mellitus (DM), the therapeutic focus is on preventing complications caused by hyperglycemia. In the United States, 57.9% of patients with diabetes have one or more diabetes-related complications and 14.3% have three or more.[1] Strict control of glycemia within the established recommended values is the primary method for reducing the development and progression of many complications associated with microvascular effects of diabetes (eg, retinopathy, nephropathy, and neuropathy), while aggressive treatment of dyslipidemia and hypertension further decreases the cardiovascular complications associated macrovascular effects.[2-4] See the chapter on diabetes: Macro- and microvascular effects.
Glycemic Control
Two primary techniques are available to assess a patient's glycemic control: Self-monitoring of blood glucose (SMBG) and interval measurement of hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c).
Self-Monitoring of Blood Glucose
Use of SMBG is an effective method to evaluate short-term glycemic control. It helps patients and physicians assess the effects of food, medications, stress, and activity on blood glucose levels. For patients with type 1 DM or insulin-dependent type 2 DM, clinical trials have demonstrated that SMBG plays a role in effective glycemic control because it helps to refine and adjust insulin doses by monitoring for and preventing asymptomatic hypoglycemia as well as preprandial and postprandial hyperglycemia.[2,5-7]
The frequency of SMBG depends on the type of medical therapy, risk for hypoglycemia, and need for short-term adjustment of therapy. Continue reading

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How to Avoid Diabetes Naturally

Q: I feel moody a lot, and it’s not just PMS. I also crave sweets. I think these are related! What can I do? —Jane P., Seattle
A: We’ve all heard the saying, “everything in moderation.” It may seem banal, but it’s actually sage advice. Humans work best with routines. Go to bed and arise at the same time; brush your teeth morning and night; set aside 30 minutes for exercise each day; and so on. This doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t be spontaneous from time to time, but a regular, stable routine can make all the difference in the world to your outlook, and your health.
This is especially true of blood sugar—one of the most important aspects of our physiology that needs stability. The key is keeping track of blood sugar levels and how different foods affect them. Glucometers are widely available and inexpensive, though the test strips can be costly.
A morning reading, after fasting overnight for 8 hours, should be under 100 ng/mL, but 75–90 is better. Below 60 suggests hypoglycemia, a different problem that requires professional support. More often, however, Americans carry a high blood sugar load, and we currently have an epidemic of diabetes in this country. Unfortunately, this is mostly due to the awful “food” we eat, especially processed grains (cereal, chips, pasta, crackers, donuts, bagels, white bread, cake, cupcakes), and poor-quality fats (found in everything from salad dressings to fried foods).
After eating, it’s normal for blood sugar to rise, up to over 140. But 2 hours later (or 3 hours, later in pregnant women), blood sugar should return Continue reading

How Not to Die from Diabetes

Kendra: fair questions and I am glad that you are preoccupied by these issues, as you should be.
Let’s think about what are we trying to achieve here: lower blood sugar levels after meals, shorter spikes, better A1C, and I do not know if that is your case, but possibly some weight loss. In addition, the goal also is to protect your organism from damage from the high sugar spikes, such as damage to the blood vessels or kidneys.
This is why, whenever in doubt about a certain food, think: will it help my goal or not? With that in mind, let’s go over your questions.
Processed food are truly foods that have been altered from their natural state: for instance ground flour, even 100% whole grain, is processed because it was ground. Is that fact important to your goal? Yes, because, once the grain is broken in thousands of pieces by grinding, your digestive enzymes get to reach it thousands of times faster, therefore the flour carbohydrate is broken down into sugars and released in the blood much faster, so you can experience the sugar spike.
Is it better than the white flour? Yes it is, because it still contains the bran i.e. the fiber, that was found to delay enzymatic action and the sugar spike would be blunter. Is it better than eating cracked wheat or whole wheat kernel, which would be the true “whole food”? No, it is not. The whole food will always prevail.
About the 100% whole grain breads and even the Zeroodle products (they don’t seem to contain additives, I saw just black bean and water as ingredients in pasta, not bad), got to ask yourself what does that do to Continue reading

Women with diabetes are especially prone to developing heart disease

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Women typically don’t develop heart disease — or high blood pressure, one of its major risk factors — until after menopause. But “if you have diabetes, that rule no longer applies,” says Christine Maric-Bilkan, a program officer in the vascular biology and hypertension branch of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute.
Diabetes “dramatically increases the risk” of heart disease at any age — overall, people with diabetes are twice as likely to have heart disease or a stroke as are other people — and its impact “tends to be greater in women than in men,” she says. Diabetes, a disease in which the body either doesn’t produce enough insulin (Type 1) or cannot use it properly (Type 2), can cause spikes in blood sugar. Over time, these spikes can damage nerves and blood vessels, putting diabetics at elevated risk of heart disease and stroke.
Uncontrolled diabetes also contributes to vision loss, kidney failure and amputations, according to the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases.
People with diabetes are up to four times as likely to develop cardiovascular disease as are people who do not have diabetes, according to the Cleveland Clinic. Women with diabetes are twice as likely to suffer a second heart attack and four times as likely to suffer heart failure as are women who do not have the disease, according to the American Diabetes Association.
“The risk of developing hypertension doubles in men and quadruples in women if you have diabetes,” Maric-Bilkan says. (Hypertension is a major contributor to heart dis Continue reading

Are You One Of The 33% With Prediabetes? 90% Don't Realize It

Developing Type 2 diabetes is a bit like getting dumped in a relationship (only much worse). Even if you are blind-sided when it occurs, it really doesn't occur overnight. Instead, you may miss the many warning signs, until your doctor tells you the bad news (about diabetes, that is, and not about your relationship).
The just released 8th Edition of the International Diabetes Federation's (IDFs) Diabetes Atlas confirms that the global diabetes epidemic continues to get worse. This year 10 million more people are living with diabetes than in 2015, meaning that 1 in 11 adults now has diabetes, for a total of 425 million people. Diabetes includes type 1 diabetes (otherwise known as juvenile-onset diabetes) in which you don't make enough insulin and type 2 diabetes (previously known as adult-onset diabetes, although now more and more children are developing it) in which your body doesn't effectively use the insulin you produce. There are other types of diabetes but the vast majority (around 90%) of all diabetes cases are type 2 diabetes.
A major aim for World Diabetes Day, which is today, and Diabetes Awareness Month (which is this month, November) is to help "people learn their risk for prediabetes and Type 2 diabetes along with steps to take to potentially reverse course," as Heather Hodge, Director of Chronic Disease Prevention Programs at the YMCA-USA (also known as the Y-USA for short, in case you don't have enough time to say the MCA) explained.
The lead up to type 2 diabetes can be missed at two different stages. The first is not properly addressing obesity or being over Continue reading