Getting A Diabetes Alert Dog: How And Where

Getting a Diabetes Alert Dog: How and Where

There are no licensing or certification standards that diabetes alert dog (DAD) providers must adhere to.
Be prepared to educate yourself about the alert dog training process and to investigate potential providers if you are interested in getting a DAD.
DADs are amazing service dogs that alert people with diabetes (usually Type 1) when their blood sugar is high or low. The dogs detect glucose shifts early on, giving the human ample time to test and make adjustments before the high or low becomes life-threatening.
What Is Required of DADs
There is more to being a proficient DAD than recognizing the glycemic scent. According to the Diabetes Alert Dog Alliance, all DADs ready to be placed should meet these minimum requirements:
The dogs must be certified as physically fit by a veterinarian, be free from pests and parasites, be well-groomed, and relieve themselves in suitable locations.
The dogs must be non-aggressive and calm in public places, not seeking attention, bothering the general public, or disrupting businesses.
The dogs must be confident and comfortable in a variety of settings and recover their poise quickly after novel experiences.
The dogs must demonstrate obedience to voice and/or hand signals for staying, sitting, coming when called, lying down and walking in a controlled manner with their human companions.
The dogs must perform a minimum of three tasks: alerting to high blood sugar, alerting to low blood sugar, and getting help (for instance: alerting someone, bringing a medical kit, plus another assigned task).
The dogs should be monitored monthly during the f Continue reading

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7 Atypical Heart Attack Symptoms for Diabetes

The most common reason people die from a heart attack is because they don’t seek help soon enough. They ignore their symptoms or miss them entirely. For a person with diabetes, this is even easier to do, which is scary because those with diabetes are increased risk of having a heart attack. In fact, 65% of people with diabetes die from heart disease or stroke.
Lack of awareness is one of the main problems here. Many people with diabetes don’t know their risk of having a heart attack is greater, and they don’t know that the signs to look for are not necessarily the same as the classic heart attack symptoms. Because of this, heart attacks are more likely to be fatal in those living with diabetes.
Nerve damage may cause people with diabetes to miss the symptoms that would ordinarily alert them to the occurrence of a heart attack. Neuropathy and nerve damage around the heart specifically can cause the warning signs to be less noticeable.
We’ve compiled a list below of classic heart attack symptoms and how they may manifest themselves differently in those with diabetes. Another thing to remember is that women often have different heart attack symptoms than men, so even if you’re a woman who doesn’t have diabetes, some of these symptoms may be things you should watch out for too.
1. Chest Pressure
Chest pain is a common symptom of a heart attack, but for someone with nerve damage, this pain may only be a mild pressure, something you wouldn’t ordinarily get concerned about it. In fact, about a third of heart attack patients don’t report having any chest pain at all Continue reading

Warning: Adult type 1 diabetes cases being misdiagnosed as type 2

The number of type 1 diabetes cases that are being wrongly diagnosed as type 2 diabetes is rising, according to a recent article from CBS News.
Most of the 26 million Americans who have the condition are type 2 diabetics, but a wrongful diagnosis can be dangerous - even deadly.
Adult diagnoses are often type 2
Type 2 diabetes is often called adult-onset diabetes because it does not appear until lifestyle factors like obesity or lack of exercise predispose a person to the disease. Type 1 diabetes, on the other hand, is an autoimmune disorder that requires patients to take insulin injections in order to survive; no amount of dietary changes or exercise can help.
And while adults are often diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, more and more of them actually have type 1, the article states. Pennsylvania resident Marc Bieber's type 2 diabetes diagnosis did not respond to conventional treatment, and he found out dangerously late than he has type 1 diabetes instead.
“The last time I left the hospital I had a tremor in my hand and my speech is kind of slurred now,” Bieber said.
Signs and symptoms
When type 2 diabetes doesn't respond to pills, or if a patient's blood sugar doesn't stabilize, it could indicate that type 1 is present. Other symptoms include high blood sugar with weight loss.
“Occasionally, someone will come in and they don’t have the classic features of someone with type two,” Dr. Jennifer Holst told CBS News. “Some reports show up to 10 percent of people who develop diabetes as an adult could have a type one diabetes.”
These patients might not have a family h Continue reading

Diabetes Technology Inches Closer To An Artificial Pancreas

Every person who uses insulin to manage diabetes wants what they don't have — a replacement for their malfunctioning pancreas. And though the technology isn't yet to the point of creating an artificial pancreas, it's getting a lot closer.
Just last week, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved a mobile app-based system that can monitor a person's sugar levels remotely. Parents can monitor a child's sugar while she or he is in school, for example, providing greater peace of mind.
That technology is the latest step in an evolution aimed at letting people manage diabetes without the burden of calibrating insulin doses themselves. So far we have devices that deliver insulin and devices that continuously monitor blood sugar. Getting those two pieces of equipment to talk to each other would make the process safer and simpler. That's the technology that people really want. And that's starting to happen.
Because that technology is rolling out bit by bit rather than all at once, it makes more sense to call it an artificial pancreas "system," according to Aaron Kowalski, chief mission officer and vice president for research at the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF), a top funder of research into the systems. The devices are "trying to replace mechanically what's lost in diabetes," Kowalski tells Shots.
The healthy human pancreas is an awesome machine, secreting the exact right amount of insulin into the bloodstream to allow the glucose from your food to enter your cells and be used for energy. When you eat, your pancreas secretes more insulin. When you exercise, it Continue reading

World’s First Diabetes Emergency Kit

Natural disasters are likely to send anyone into a state of chaos and turmoil. But if you have diabetes, they can be especially dangerous, as they have the ability to completely shatter your management plan. So having a plan is a necessity that many people don’t realize until it’s too late.
For one mom, an earthquake caused her to have this epiphany. While in the midst of experiencing the quake, it occurred to Gillian Miller that she needed to have an emergency kit for her daughter, who suffers from type 1 diabetes. And that is how the world’s first diabetes emergency kit was born!
Miller, of The Diabetes And More Company Inc., realized that the aftermath of the earthquake could cause her family to lose electricity for an undetermined amount of time, making insulin delivery a complicated, if not impossible task. In that moment, she realized that many people likely had the same fears.
Check out the video below where Miller describes how this event, as well as her daughter’s previous experience with Diabetic Ketoacidosis, compelled her to make sure her family and others could be prepared for the worst case scenario.
Take a look, and as always, make sure to let us know what you think in the comments below! Continue reading