Foot Health | Diabetes And Your Feet

Foot Health | Diabetes and your feet

Diabetes is becoming more and more common, with almost 20 percent of Bahamians currently living with the disease. It is also one of the leading causes of death. With the increasing numbers of obesity and poor lifestyle choices, the World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that the number of people with diabetes worldwide is projected to increase exponentially and that deaths due to diabetes will double by 2030.
Uncontrolled diabetes leads to high blood sugar levels over time, which can have detrimental effects on the feet and many other organs in the body including the heart, eyes, and kidneys. All diabetics are at high risk for foot ulcers that take a long time, or never heal, leading to infections, amputations and possibly death. In five years, more people die from a diabetic foot ulcer or a lower limb amputation than persons with prostate cancer, breast cancer or Hodgkin Lymphoma.
Diabetes can damage blood vessels and nerves causing loss of feeling in both feet. Diabetes can also cause the feet and toes to be deformed and change their shape and the skin can become very dry and cracked. These changes put all diabetics at high risk for foot complications such as ulcers that take a long time or never heal leading to infections and even amputations.
Damage to the blood vessels can lead to Peripheral Arterial Disease (PAD) or poor blood flow to the feet. This decreased circulation or blood flow to the leg and foot will cause poor healing if there is a cut or sore on the foot. If there is an infection, it will take a long time to treat because there is not enough blood to tak Continue reading

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How being born in January can increase your risk for diabetes

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One of the wonderful aspects of living in the age of Big Data is the way scientists are able to discover new, previously undiscovered patterns in gigantic datasets. A team at Columbia University has studied the health records of over ten million people across three different countries and discovered some compelling links between a person's lifetime disease risk and the month they were born in.
Numerous researchers have tackled the strangely interesting correlations between birth month and disease risk over the years. The true goal of this research is to fundamentally understand what specific seasonal and environmental factors faced by a mother during pregnancy can affect an offspring's lifelong susceptibility to certain disease.
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These links are undeniably tricky to study. A conventional medical study involving groups of subjects would not be especially ethical, after all, we couldn't exactly withhold a certain environmental factor from a child intentionally to see if it increases their risk of diabetes.
Examining health records on the other hand leaves one with the eternal "correlation is not causation" problem. A team at Columbia University has come at this problem by examining giant volumes of data with a greatly targeted precision and 21st century computing power.
Following on from a 2015 study that concentrated on nearly 2 million people in New York City, the new study looked at the health records of 10.5 million people from five different climates in the Unit Continue reading

10 Facts About Diabetes Seniors Need to Know

Diabetes is a chronic disease related to insulin levels in the blood. According to the World Health Organization, this disease is an emerging global epidemic that can be attributed to increased rates of obesity and physical inactivity. It can often go unnoticed in seniors, and it’s important to pay attention to potential symptoms and have frequent checks of your blood glucose levels if you are at risk.
Here are 10 facts about the disease that seniors need to know.
1. Causes of Diabetes
Scientists believe that type 1 diabetes is caused by genes and environmental factors that can trigger the disease, such as viruses. Type 2 diabetes has been linked to excess weight and inactivity as well as genetics and environmental factors.
2. Types of Diabetes
Type 1 diabetes is characterized by a lack of insulin production. It is caused by the body’s immune system attacking the insulin-producing cells in the pancreas. The body stops producing insulin, and glucose rises to dangerous levels. Type 2 diabetes, or noninsulin-dependent diabetes, occurs more frequently in seniors and those over the age of 40. In Type 2 diabetes, the pancreas still produces insulin (but often not enough) or the organs in the body don’t use it properly, so sometimes there is too much insulin in the system. Type 2 is much more common than Type 1 and accounts for about 90 percent of all cases worldwide.
3. Treatments for Diabetes
Type 1 diabetes can only be treated with insulin injections — otherwise it can be fatal. There is no cure for it. Type 2 diabetes can be treated with diet and exercise or sometimes Continue reading

World Diabetes Day 2017: 8 crucial ways to control your blood sugar levels

A disorder of high blood sugar levels, diabetes is spreading its wings to include about 70 million people in India, both in the urban and rural areas. The serious condition exposes patients to several other complications and could be life-threatening. What’s worrisome is that it often goes undiagnosed and many are unaware of its long-term implications. From cardio-vascular diseases to its perilous effect on eyes and kidneys as well as the dangerous gestational diabetes and type 2 diabetes, the International Diabetes Federation (IDF) estimates that approximately five million people die each year as a consequence of the disease.
Diabetes is the general term used for a condition that leads to an increase in glucose levels in the blood. It occurs when the pancreas is either unable to make sufficient amounts of insulin, or the insulin produced does not act properly (a condition known as insulin resistance). But, with a proper diet and lifestyle change, you can control the disease.
On World Diabetes Day observed on November 14 each year — to raise awareness and provide affordable care to all — here are some important and key factors that you need to take care of so as to stop it from being fatal.
Dr S K Wangnoo, Senior Consultant (Endocrinology), Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals, New Delhi shares a few tips.
Family history of diabetes: You inherit a predisposition to the condition and then something in your environment triggers it, especially if there is a history of obesity. Type 2 diabetes has a stronger connection to family history and lineage than type 1, however, with pro Continue reading

The Ultimate Anti-Diabetes Diet

One of America's most common killer diseases, type 2 diabetes, jeopardizes the health, quality of life, and longevity of nearly 24 million Americans, according to the American Diabetes Association, and that number continues to rise. New cases have doubled over the past 30 years, and because the disease occurs gradually and often with no obvious symptoms, many people don't even know they have it. People who are overweight are at higher risk because fat interferes with the body's ability to use insulin, the crux of the disease.
But a solution to the problem is within reach: a groundbreaking eating plan not only helps prevent this chronic disease, but actually reverses it while also promoting weight loss. Focusing on plant-based meals,the revolutionary plan was developed by Vegetarian Times former Ask the Doc columnist, Neal Barnard, MD, and is backed by the results of his long-term study. Your doctor may not tell you about this diet: dietitians generally counsel overweight diabetics to cut calories, reduce serving sizes, and avoid starchy carbohydrates that raise blood sugar levels.
But Barnard's team at the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine and scientists at George Washington University and the University of Toronto thought this might be the wrong approach, considering that carbohydrate-rich rice, legumes, and root vegetables are staples throughout Asia and Africa, where most people are thin and diabetes rates are low. Barnard and his team studied a group of diabetics, comparing the effects of a diet based on standard recommendations versus a vegan-style diet wit Continue reading