Disability Protection For Those With Diabetes: Know Your Rights

Disability Protection for Those with Diabetes: Know Your Rights

Before 2009, the U.S. judicial system had a habit of narrowly defining disabilities. This made establishing coverage under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) problematic for many people with diabetes.
Fortunately, alterations to the ADA in 2008 broadened the courts’ view.
The Americans with Disabilities Act Amendments Act of 2008 (ADAAA) makes it clear that those with type 1 and type 2 diabetes are entitled to disability protection. The ADAAA went into effect Jan. 1, 2009.
Life Activity Limitations
An individual disability, under the ADA, is a mental or physical impairment that significantly limits any life activities.
The ADAAA includes major bodily functions as a type of major life activity:
[A] major life activity also includes the operation of a major bodily function, including but not limited to ... circulatory, endocrine, and reproductive functions.
Because diabetes, by definition, impairs the functioning of the endocrine system in significant ways, it should be straightforward to easily prove that the disease causes substantial limitation in endocrine function, with minimal medical evidence.
Where proof of diabetes is required, a report from the individual’s physician or endocrinologist should be adequate. The report needs to explain the effects of diabetes on the endocrine system and provide relevant details about the patient’s condition and treatment.
'Regarded as' Impaired
Disability protection under the ADA also includes people "being regarded" as having an impairment.
The “regarded as” clause states that when a person is subject to an action – Continue reading

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Polycystic Ovary Syndrome and Diabetes

There are two common disorders that are caused, at least in part, by insulin resistance. Diabetes is one of them, and polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is the other. While the causes of each disorder are different, there are many common features.
PCOS is the most common cause of infertility in women. With PCOS, the egg sacs within the ovary clump together and form cysts, blocking the monthly release of eggs. As a result, women with PCOS have irregular menstrual cycles or no menstrual cycles at all, limiting fertility.
While the precise causes of both disorders remain elusive, there is a statistically significant relationship between PCOS and type 2 diabetes in several large recent studies. An Italian study, published in Diabetes, followed a group of 225 women with PCOS for up to 17 years. When the study ended, nearly 40% of the women in the study had developed diabetes. This contrasts with about 6% of healthy women of the same age in the same population who developed diabetes.
A Swedish study compared 87 women without PCOS and 84 women with PCOS. After 14 years, 21% of the women with PCOS developed diabetes, while only 4.5% of those without PCOS became diabetic.
Androgens and Insulin
With PCOS, the ovaries tend to make too many androgens, which are male hormones such as testosterone. There is some evidence that insulin resistance, resulting in high levels of insulin in the blood, might be a contributing factor to increased androgen production.
Metabolic Syndrome
The metabolic syndrome is defined as the presence of raised fasting glucose levels or diagnosed diabetes, abdomina Continue reading

Diabetes Has Been Cured In Lab Rats, Human Trials Upcoming

John Vibes
November 7, 2014
(TheAntiMedia) According to a study at the University of Alabama Birmingham Comprehensive Diabetes Center, researchers have cured diabetes in lab mice using a medication that is already on the market. The medication is called Verapamil, and is commonly prescribed for Blood Pressure problems.
Dr. Anath Shalev, a director at UAB, said that the commonly prescribed medication can “reverse the disease completely.”
“None of the therapies are actually addressing the underlying cause, namely the destruction and loss of insulin-producing Beta cells,” Dr. Shalev said.
However, Dr. Shalev says that Verapamil also seemed to increase levels of Beta cells, which would actually address the root cause of these problem. It has been reported that Verapamil research for diabetes in humans could begin as soon as 2015.
For more information on the human clinical trials or to enroll, contact UAB’s Kentress Davison at 205-934-4112 or 205-975-9308.
To fund diabetes research at UAB and much more, visit the Comprehensive Diabetes Center. Continue reading

Dietary Changes to Manage Diabetes

Everyone who receives a diagnosis of diabetes will need to learn how to manage it, and one of the primary tools for diabetes management is diet.
A healthful diet, well-balanced and with the right carbs, can go a long way towards evening out blood sugar levels.
Bad Choices for Diabetics
There is no single diabetes diet plan. Instead, dietary changes should be away from fast, processed foods and towards more wholesome and nutritionally valuable foods. Portion sizes mean a lot, but the source and quality of the food you are consuming matters more.
High-fat, sweetened, salty foods that are full of preservatives tend to pack little nutrition for each calorie consumed. For many Americans, these are the foods that make up a large percentage of their diet.
Trans-fats have now been outlawed, after preserving our food for many years, because of the harm they did to the cardiovascular system by raising bad cholesterol and lowering good cholesterol.
High fructose corn syrups are sweeter than cane sugar, and cheaper to produce. Unfortunately, high fructose corn syrups do not require digestion, and are instead absorbed directly into the bloodstream. This increases the need for insulin.
The amount of salt we consume has long been known to have a direct bearing on blood pressure.
Good Choices for Diabetics (and Everyone Else!)
Any diet that is rich in nutrients, full of wholesome foods that have not been processed, chemically preserved or added to is a good place to start.
People with diabetes always have to be aware of carbohydrate consumption. Carbohydrates become a source of glucose onc Continue reading

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Diabetes Information Made Simple
Several studies have shown that people with type 2 diabetes who’ve taken a diabetes education class have lower A1cs than those who don’t… knowledge is power!
Our free educational program will help you learn what you need to know to be healthy with diabetes. You’ll receive an email each week that will cover how to use your meter to be the expert on YOUR diabetes, how to eat your favorite foods while still keeping your blood sugar in range and more. Sign up here!
We get rave reviews from healthcare professionals and people who’ve taken our class—check them out here. Many people with diabetes say that they’re healthier now than they were when they were first diagnosed—you can be one of them. Getting the right information about what to DO is the key—let’s get started! Continue reading