Juvenile Diabetes And Vaccination: New Evidence For A Connection

Juvenile Diabetes and Vaccination: New Evidence for a Connection

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In the fall of 1997, the Centers for Disease Control confirmed that the number of Americans living with diabetes has skyrocketed in the past 40 years with a record sixfold increase in this chronic disease since 1958. It is estimated that nearly 16 million Americans are suffering with diabetes and 5 million more may have it but not know it.
Over the past four decades, intensive national mass vaccination campaigns have dramatically increased vaccination rates among American children who now are getting 34 doses of 10 different viral and bacterial vaccines before they enter kindergarten. Recent published data in the medical literature suggest increasing numbers of childhood vaccines may be playing a role in the big jump in the number of cases of juvenile diabetes.
What is diabetes?
The most frequent kind of diabetes is diabetes mellitus, a chronic degenerative disease caused when the pancreas either fails to produce a protein hormone called insulin or the body's cells are resistant to the action of insulin. Without insulin, the body cannot process and use glucose, a blood sugar which is a chief source of energy for living organisms and is found in certain foods like fruit. If the body's cells have become resistant to insulin, glucose cannot be moved from the blood to cells in order to be transformed into energy.
There are two types of diabetes mellitus: Type I, called insulin-dependent juvenile diabetes, and Type II, called adult-onset diabetes.
Type I Diabetes - Type I diabetes, also called insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM), occurs mostly in children and y Continue reading

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Debbie Wilson: The Journey Back from Traumatic Brain Injury and Dementia, with a Side of Disappearing Diabetes

“In 2013, I had been diagnosed with dementia, and I could tell I was disappearing. I couldn’t even remember how to make myself coffee—or tell you how I take that cup of coffee.”
Debbie Wilson, Ph.D., is animated, cheerful, and relentlessly optimistic—not what you might expect from a woman who has spent nearly three decades battling seizures, repeated concussions, and complex medical complications from an accident that ended her career and took away her independence.
“I’ve experienced so much new and unexpected healing that even scientists don’t know about yet,” she says. “I just want to give hope to others.”
Very few people are in the position Debbie is when it comes to offering firsthand accounts of what medical cannabis can achieve when every other medical option has failed.
The Accident
Twenty-eight years ago, when she 35 years old, raising three children (including one in diapers) and working as a felony probation and parole officer, Debbie had just finished her second year of law school. The family was out celebrating that accomplishment when the unthinkable happened. A teenager driving a full-sized pickup truck backed up over her slight 5’1” frame in a parking lot.
Debbie’s neck was broken in multiple places. She lost several teeth at the roots. And unbeknownst to even the physicians at the emergency room where she was treated immediately afterwards, she sustained a severe enclosed traumatic brain injury (TBI). She was treated and released that evening, but within a day or two, it became clear something was very wrong.
The symptoms appeared Continue reading

Yes, You Can Still Have a Healthy Sex Life with Diabetes—Here’s What You Need to Know.

When you think about enjoying life and all its pleasures, great sex may be one of the first things to pop into your mind. The good news is that there’s no reason you can’t have a full and satisfying sex life if you have diabetes. But you need to understand how your disease can affect different aspects of your sexuality and sexual function. Here’s what people who have diabetes have to say about how to live your best life.
First, bear in mind that sexual intimacy can be physically vigorous, burning calories. That means that, like exercise, it may put you at risk of hypoglycemia—inconvenient when making love, to say the least. (Here’s what you need to know about hypoglycemia.) To keep blood sugar stable, it’s wise to take glucose readings before and after sex to get an idea of how your body responds. Try having a sugary drink or a small snack beforehand or, with your doctor’s approval, adjusting your insulin if you know that sexual intimacy is in the offing.
For Women Only
Sexuality is complex in women even without interference from a chronic condition, so it’s no surprise that they generally experience more sexual side effects related to diabetes than men. But the problems are not insurmountable. They may include:
Blood-sugar fluxes
Though it’s not a universal experience, many women notice their blood sugar rises a few days before their monthly period begins. Researchers suspect (though not all agree) that fluxes in female sex hormones, such as estrogen and progesterone, temporarily make cells more resistant to insulin. If you suspect this is a problem for y Continue reading

The Deal with Diabetes

Learn How it Affects You
What Is Diabetes?
Diabetes is a condition that causes high blood sugar levels. It is a chronic disease that can be managed but not cured. It does not go away. Knowing as much as you can about the disease is the first step to managing it effectively.
What’s Going On
Much of the food you eat is digested and changed into glucose. Glucose is the body’s main energy source. It is carried through the blood stream into the body’s cells. Once inside the cells, glucose is converted into energy. Insulin helps glucose get into the cells. Insulin is a hormone made in the pancreas that attaches to cells in the body and opens the cells, allowing glucose to get inside and be converted.
Diabetes is caused by a breakdown in this process. Insulin is either absent or poorly used, so glucose stays in the bloodstream. Glucose that stays in the bloodstream causes blood glucose levels to rise.
Types of Diabetes
There are three types of diabetes. Each type occurs for a different reason. All three types cause high blood glucose levels.
Type 1 Diabetes – The immune system destroys the insulin-producing cells in the pancreas. The cells stop making insulin, meaning that the body can’t use glucose for energy. That is why people with type 1 diabetes need insulin injections every day to stay alive.
Type 2 Diabetes – The pancreas does not make enough insulin or the body cannot use insulin properly, or, in many cases, it is a combination of both. Because of this, glucose is unable to get into the body cells to be used for energy. Treatment for type 2 diabetes includes a Continue reading

The Essential Diabetes Shopping List

Certain types of foods are better for your blood sugar than others. If you are diabetic and struggle with finding the right foods to eat or if you have a family history of diabetes, check out these food suggestions for the next time you go to the store. Registered dietitian and author of the book Skinny Liver, Kristin Kirkpatrick has tips and tricks to make sure your trip to the grocery store is beneficial to your overall health. Continue reading