Have YOU Got Diabetes? The 10 Signs You Shouldn’t Ignore – And That Could Save Your Life

Have YOU got diabetes? The 10 signs you shouldn’t ignore – and that could save your life

DIABETES is a life-long health condition that affects about 3.5 million people in the UK alone.
In 2012 it was responsible for about 1.5 million deaths worldwide, according to the World Health Organisation.
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It is caused by high levels of glucose – or sugar – in the blood because the pancreas either does not produce enough insulin to break down the sugar or cannot effectively use the insulin.
Insulin is a hormone typically produced by the pancreas and allows glucose to enter the cells in the body, where it’s used for energy.
There are two types of diabetes, type 1 and type 2.
Type 1 diabetes is usually diagnosed during childhood and is a result of cells in the body that usually produce insulin being destroyed.
Type 2 is the most common form of the disease, according to Diabetes UK, and is caused when the insulin producing cells are unable to produce enough of the hormone.
Although it is considered a chronic disease it can be managed with healthy lifestyle choices such as a balanced diet, regular exercise and maintaining a normal body weight.
However, like all conditions, if it is not managed properly people may well develop uncontrolled diabetes.
This can trigger a range of conditions from frequent infections, vision problems and even kidney disease.
1. High blood sugar readings
This may sound obvious given diabetes is caused by high sugar levels.
Usually, diabetes medication and a healthy lifestyle will manage blood sugar levels to an almost normal level.
But when it is uncontrolled a person's blood sugar levels can remain very high - an obvious warning s Continue reading

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Diabetic Ketoacidosis Increases Risk of Acute Renal Failure in Pediatric Patients with Type 1 Diabetes

Condition often under-recognized, yet preventable and treatable.
Diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA) is a syndrome presenting in people with diabetes when insulin utilization is markedly diminished, whether via sudden increases in insulin requirements (most often due to acute illness) or sharp decreases in exogenous insulin administration (sudden cessation, for example). DKA is manifested as severe hyperglycemia, systemic acidosis, and severe dehydration due to rapidly increasing osmotic diuresis. This condition is especially worrisome in the pediatric diabetic population, as the resulting risk of renal injury often goes unrecognized at presentation.
In 2014, the results of the SEARCH for Diabetes in Youth Study suggested that approximately 30% of pediatric (<18 y.o.) type 1 diabetes patients presented with DKA at initial diagnosis. Other studies have looked at the treatment of DKA in the pediatric population, and its effects on morbidity and mortality, but until now, none have attempted to correlate DKA and acute renal failure. The current issue of JAMA Pediatric presents a study looking at the incidence of acute kidney injury in pediatric patients hospitalized for DKA and attempts to show a correlation between the two events. This retrospective review collected data on pediatric T1D patients admitted to the British Columbia Children’s Hospital with DKA between September 2008 and December 2013. Patients with the above mentioned conditions and complete medical records during that period were included. The primary objective was to determine the proportion of eligible subjects who Continue reading

Insulin overdose: Dosage, symptoms, and treatment

Insulin is an important hormone used in medical treatments for people with type 1 and type 2 diabetes. It helps the body's cells to properly absorb sugar.
Insulin is a lifesaving medication when taken correctly, but an insulin overdose can have some serious side effects.
This article explores signs of insulin overdose to look out for, as well as steps to take to avoid insulin overdoses.
Contents of this article:
Safe vs. unsafe insulin doses
There are a few things to consider to ensure a correct insulin dose. Insulin doses can vary greatly from person to person. The normal dose for one person may be considered an overdose for another.
Basal insulin
The insulin needed to keep the blood sugar steady throughout the day is called basal insulin.
The amount of insulin needed changes from person to person based on what time of day they take it, and whether their body is resistant to insulin or not. It is best to consult a doctor to figure out the appropriate basal insulin dosage.
Mealtime insulin
Mealtime insulin is insulin that is taken after a meal. Glucose (sugar) is released into the bloodstream as the body breaks down food, which raises the blood sugar levels.
In people with diabetes, this extra sugar must be met with extra insulin so the body can use it properly.
There are a few different factors to be considered in terms of the mealtime insulin levels. People with diabetes have to consider:
their pre-meal blood sugar
how many carbs are in the food they are eating
if they plan to do anything active after the meal
Then they must factor in their own level of insulin sensitivit Continue reading

Insulin price spike leaves diabetes patients in crisis

A massive spike in insulin prices is causing a health crisis for millions of diabetes patients who depend on the lifesaving drug, doctors say.
Now, after years of rapid increases having nothing to do with available supply and not matched elsewhere in the world, those in the U.S. insulin supply chain are blaming one another.
Tens of thousands of medical professionals are engaged in an intricate therapeutic ballet performed to protect the health, limbs and lives of the almost 30 million people in the U.S. suffering from diabetes.
But their efforts have been dramatically complicated by the soaring increase in the cost of insulin. They find themselves balancing the cost of the essential medication and their patients’ ability to pay.
“The manipulation of insulin cost is a medical crisis in Montana and everywhere else in this country,” said Dr. Justen Rudolph, a diabetes specialist at St. Vincent Healthcare in Billings. “My patients having trouble with their insulin availability range from teenagers to a 90-year-old man, and there’s not a day that goes by when I’m not talking to a patient about the cost of their insulin.
“They try to spread out the insulin they have to make do, and that’s not how you can control diabetes,” said Rudolph.
“Precision is needed to ensure the patient is getting the best type of insulin for their specific condition, in the right doses, at the right time to achieve the greatest benefit,” said Dr. Irl Hirsch, professor of medicine in the Division of Metabolism, Endocrinology and Nutrition at the University of Washington in Seattle.
Continue reading

Screentime linked to greater diabetes risk among children

Children who are allowed more than three hours of screentime a day are at greater risk of developing diabetes, new research suggests.
The study found that children who were glued to their screens for three or more hours a day scored higher on measures of body fat and had higher levels of resistance to the hormone insulin than their peers who spent an hour or less watching TV, videos or playing computer games.
But the authors cautioned that the research does not show that increased screentime itself results in raised levels of risk factors for the disease.
“Screentime could be capturing something about your behaviours – how much sedentary time you have and how much you break that up [or] what your dietary habits [are], potentially,” said Claire Nightingale, a medical statistician at St George’s, University of London and co-author of the research.
Writing in the journal Archives of Disease in Childhood, Nightingale and colleagues described how they sought to probe whether for children, as is known for adults, screentime is linked to an increase in risk factors for type 2 diabetes. To do so, they analysed data from the Child Heart and Health Study in England – a survey carried out between 2004 and 2007 of almost 4,500 children, aged between nine and 10, from primary schools in three UK cities: London, Birmingham and Leicester.
Among the questions asked, data was collected on the length of time the children spent watching TV, video games or playing computer games. A host of physical measurements were also taken including measures of the children’s body fat and resis Continue reading