Giving Thanks All Year Round

Well, Thanksgiving was nice. A day to feast with family and/or friends and give thanks for all we have. Felt good, didn’t it? Why not keep it going?
Gratitude expert Richard Emmons, PhD, and others have collected and conducted studies showing that giving thanks improves physical and psychological health. It improves self-esteem, social relationships, and sleep. Gratitude even helps people overcome trauma.
I believe gratitude is the surest, easiest path to happiness and a fulfilled life. The more thanks you give, the better you will feel. We don’t always have a feast to give thanks for, but we have so many things that enrich and enable our lives every day, things we rarely even think of.
Here are some you’re swimming in right now and probably haven’t noticed:
Air. This is not just an inanimate thing that happens to be there. It’s continuously created by every, animal, plant, and bacteria in the world. You could thank them, and the people who fight so hard to keep air breathable by controlling pollution.
Water. Not just the water you drink, cook, and clean with, but all the water inside you. Water is life. You’d be dead in a second without it.
Food. If you thanked all the plants and animals you eat; the insects that pollinate the plants; the bugs, worms, and germs that make the soil; the people who farm the food and get it to you; those who pay you the money you use to buy it; and so on; you’d never stop. And don’t forget the sun, whose energy you’re eating.
Warmth and shelter. If you have those, you’re truly lucky. Think about how you got it and how it’ Continue reading

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Obesity and Type 2 Diabetes in Young People: A Matter of National Concern

Obesity and Type 2 Diabetes in Young People: A Matter of National Concern
Evidence-Based Diabetes Management > June 2017 Published on: June 27, 2017
Obesity and Type 2 Diabetes in Young People: A Matter of National Concern
A claims data review suggests new approaches are needed for prevention, screening, diagnosis, and treatment of obesity and type 2 diabetes in the pediatric population.
Type 2 diabetes (T2D) was once so rare in children that it was often called adult-onset diabetes to distinguish it from type 1 diabetes (juvenile diabetes). A growing body of evidence has shown, however, that the prevalence of T2D is increasing among the nations young people and that a major contributor to this increase is the epidemic of obesity in the same population.1,2 Our recent white paper, Obesity and Type 2 Diabetes as Documented in Private Claims Data: Spotlight on This Growing Issue Among the Nations Youth,3 examines these trends.
Consulting our FAIR Health database, which, at the time, included more than 21 billion privately billed healthcare claims nationwide (and has since grown to over 23 billion), we analyzed data from 2011 to 2015 to look for trends and patterns in obesity, T2D, and other obesity-related conditions in the nations pediatric population, which we defined as youth aged 0 to 22 years. As a point of comparison, we also studied adults 22 years or older. Claims data are a useful means of investigating public health issues because they reflect actual healthcare utilization and the information provided on claims indicates the assessments of providers, who are Continue reading

Diabetes & Hispanic Farmworkers: A Family Affair

By Elisabeth Almekinder RN, BA, CDE 2 Comments
One of my favorite diabetes classes to teach is my migrant farmworkers class. This class lets me get right in community health grass roots programs where diabetes education can really make a difference. What they lack in resources, they gain in community and family support that is unmistakably helpful and effective, not to mention uplifting.
Before we continue with this article, I wanted to let you know we have researched and compiled science-backed ways to stick to your diet and reverse your diabetes. Want to check out our insights? Download our free PDF Guide Power Foods to Eat here.
A large migrant farmworker class, which included children, grandchildren, and community members, was held at the local high schools health center. Along with a healthy meal, daycare was provided as well as Spanish materials for diabetes management. All class members signed a release for pictures.
Henrico, a farmworker, came in to see the nurse practitioner. He had lost 30 pounds recently. He was cachectic, literally bones with skin pulled over it. He was limping into the clinic in his work boots, favoring his left leg. The lab did a random blood sugar that was 1064 mg/dL. He looked dehydrated, and exhausted.
Melina, one of our farmworker staff, walked him in.
Melina interpreted, I feel very tired, she said.
The worst part was when Henrico took his boots off. Inside his work boots, with dirty socks from working the fields that morning, Enrico had a blister. It looked just like an ordinary looking blister.
The nurse practitioner said, Oh Continue reading

Crossfit: How This Man Gained 20kg Of Muscle Despite Having Diabetes

Crossfit: How This Man Gained 20kg Of Muscle Despite Having Diabetes
Jay Maryniak wasnt your typical 9 year old. He was an athlete with a bright future in baseballbut he was also a little rough around the edges. When he wasnt stealing from other people, he was smoking cigarettes. At just 11 years old, he tried his first sip of alcohol.
During his teen years, Maryniak started using pills. It began with smoking and drinking on the weekends. Hooked on the feeling, Maryniak forgot about sports and focused on partying with his friends. By 15, he was smoking a pack and a half a day.
Then he started to experiment with more dangerous pills. He became a black-out drinker and woke up every day looking to get his next fix.
It started out innocent, Maryniak says. It was fun, and then I got addicted.
For many years, Maryniak knew he had a problem, but it wasnt until he turned 20 that he realized how serious it had become.
I finally hit a pointI couldnt work anymore; I couldnt do anything, he says. I was smoking and taking pills. I was out of control.
Finally, I was in so much pain, emotionally, I couldnt take it anymore. I hated myself. I hated the person I became. That was the moment I knew I had to do something, or I would die doing this.
After reaching out to his dad for help, Maryniak walked into rehab in November 2005. For the two weeks that he was there, he felt the symptoms of withdrawal, struggled to accept the fact that he could never drink again, and wanted nothing more than to just go home. He was given the option to leave early, so he took it. Twenty-year-old Maryn Continue reading

How a Health Diary Can Help Your Diabetes

How a Health Diary Can Help Your Diabetes
How a Health Diary Can Help Your Diabetes
Some surprising reasons to write it all down.
Ever gain five pounds and really have no idea what could have caused it? Youve been eating as you normally do and taking your regular walks. Except maybe you forgot to account for those pieces of birthday cake at the office, the sampling around the table at a recent dinner with friends, or the missed exercise due to a stretch of bad weather. Its easy to forget, or ignore, the little things.
So how do you keep a handle on your health care habits? Since having someone follow you around with a video camera all day is probably not an option (unless you have your own reality TV show), keeping a health diary or using a health diary app to log things like food, exercise, and blood sugar test results is the next best way to get an accurate picture of your healthcare habits.
Any written or electronic record you keep of health-related activities (e.g., eating, exercise), of regular test results (e.g., blood glucose, weight), or of your physical or emotional status (e.g., logging pain symptoms, mood changes) can be considered a health diary. You can search the Internet for loads of examples. Sometimes theyre called logs, trackers, or journals.
While you can log everything from sleep patterns to pulse rate, closely tracking the three key areas of blood sugar , food, and exercise will give you a solid foundation on which to keep tabs on your diabetes.
Making daily entries in a health diary, or on an app using your smartphone or other device, raises y Continue reading