New Diabetes Products For 2017: Apps, Glucose Gel, And Sweetener

New Diabetes Products for 2017: Apps, Glucose Gel, and Sweetener

For the last year, Diabetes Self-Management has been following all the new innovations and products aimed at helping to improve the lives of those living with diabetes. From the latest glucometers and monitoring systems to insulin pumps, pens, and treatments, several major advancements made their impact on the diabetes community in 2016.
When selecting some of the new products, we first talked to Gary Scheiner, MS, CDE, clinical director of Integrated Diabetes Services of Wynnewood, Pennsylvania. Scheiner, known as the MacGyver of diabetes products, has lived with Type 1 diabetes for more than 30 years. He tries out new products before recommending them to patients. “It’s important to see new products from the user’s point of view, not just from the [health-care practitioner’s] side of things,” said Scheiner.
In 2016, the pace of innovation continued to race ahead with unbelievable technology right out of a Star Trek episode. The growing use of smartphone technology and mobile applications has led to better access to blood glucose readings, general health information, and much more. Read on to learn about the newest products. We guarantee you there’s something here for everyone, whether you live with Type 1 or Type 2 diabetes.
In this installment, we look at mobile apps, glucose gel, and sweetener that have recently or are expected to soon hit the market.
Mobile apps
DietSensor is the first nutritional coaching app to help better manage chronic conditions like diabetes. Available since late last year, DietSensor tracks intake of macronutrients such as carbs, fat Continue reading

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Can Eating Rice Affect My Diabetes?

Having diabetes requires you to be vigilant about your diet and exercise habits. You have to watch what you eat every day to ensure that your blood sugar doesn’t rise to an unhealthy level.
Monitoring the carbohydrate count and glycemic index (GI) score of the foods you eat can make controlling your diabetes easier. The GI ranks food based on how they can affect your blood sugar.
If you aren’t tracking your diet, diabetes can cause more serious health problems. This includes cardiovascular disease, kidney damage, or foot infections.
Rice is rich in carbohydrates and can have a high GI score. If you have diabetes, you may think that you need to skip it at the dinner, but this isn’t always the case. You can still eat rice if you have diabetes. You should avoid eating it in large portions or too frequently, though. Many types of rice exist, and some types are healthier than others.
There are risks to having too much rice in your diet. A study in the British Medical Journal found that people who eat high levels of white rice may have an increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes. This means that if you have prediabetes, you should be especially conscientious about your rice intake.
If you’ve already been diagnosed with diabetes, it’s generally safe for you to enjoy rice in moderation. Make sure you’re aware of the carbohydrate count and GI score for the type of rice you wish to eat. You should aim to eat between 45 and 60 grams of carbohydrates per meal. Some varieties of rice have a lower GI score than others.
The Create Your Plate method used by the U.S. Departm Continue reading

Can Type 2 Diabetes Change to Type 1 Diabetes?

Although diabetes is common, many people who have been diagnosed do not completely understand how it develops or whether it is hereditary. Additionally, the fact that diabetes is broken down into two types creates more confusion for people.
However, it is important to realize that type 1 diabetes and type 2 diabetes have many major differences, and one type cannot lead to the other.
How Does Type 1 Diabetes Develop?
Type 1 and type 2 diabetes have different causes. Type 1 diabetes is usually diagnosed in children and young adults. A person must inherit a predisposition to the disease, and something in his or her environment will trigger it, such as a virus. In most cases, people inherit risk factors from both parents. Only 5 percent of people with diabetes have this form of the disease.
Type 1 diabetes develops when antibodies destroy the cells in the pancreas that produce and secrete insulin. Usually the body produces these antibodies to defend itself from foreign bodies, but sometimes these same antibodies turn on a person's own body. In the case of type 1 diabetes, the antibodies target the pancreatic cells, resulting in a lack of insulin production in the pancreas. This lack of insulin production is one of the main differences between type 1 and type 2 diabetes. These antibodies can usually be identified through blood tests . Individuals who have this type of diabetes require insulin therapy.
How Does Type 2 Diabetes Develop?
Type 2 diabetes is the more common type of diabetes. Research shows that 90 percent of diabetics have type 2 diabetes. Adults who develop diabetes Continue reading

Ketogenic diet for type 2 diabetes: Does it work?

Type 2 diabetes is a condition affecting blood sugar levels that can be managed by following a healthful diet and maintaining a healthy weight.
People who are obese can reduce their risk of developing diabetes by eating a balanced, nutritious diet. Following a diet that is full of vitamins and minerals and low in added sugars and unhealthful fats can help people to lose some of the extra weight.
People who lose 5-10 percent of their body weight can lower their risk of developing diabetes by 58 percent. For people with diabetes or people with pre-diabetes, losing the same amount of body weight can help provide a noticeable improvement in blood sugar.
For some people, the ketogenic diet is an effective way to control their diabetes. It has been shown to lower blood glucose levels as well as reduce weight.
Contents of this article:
What is the ketogenic diet?
Foods containing carbohydrates, such as bread, pasta, and fruit, are the body's main fuel source. The body breaks the food down and uses the resulting sugar (glucose) for energy.
A ketogenic diet is a high-fat, very low carbohydrate diet. It was initially developed and recommended for children with epilepsy.
The diet recommends that people eat 30 grams (g) of carbohydrates or below per day. The goal is to eat 3 to 4 g of fat for every 1 g of carbohydrate and protein.
Impact on blood sugar levels
Because the ketogenic diet restricts carbohydrates, there is not enough sugar available for the body to use as fuel, so it resorts to using fat. The process of breaking down fat is called "ketosis," and it produces a fuel source c Continue reading

Diabetes in your DNA? Scientists zero in on the genetic signature of risk

Why do some people get Type 2 diabetes, while others who live the same lifestyle never do?
For decades, scientists have tried to solve this mystery - and have found more than 80 tiny DNA differences that seem to raise the risk of the disease in some people, or protect others from the damagingly high levels of blood sugar that are its hallmark.
But no one "Type 2 diabetes signature" has emerged from this search.
Now, a team of scientists has reported a discovery that might explain how multiple genetic flaws can lead to the same disease.
They've identified something that some of those diabetes-linked genetic defects have in common: they seem to change the way certain cells in the pancreas "read" their genes.
The discovery could eventually help lead to more personalized treatments for diabetes. But for now, it's the first demonstration that many Type 2 diabetes-linked DNA changes have to do with the same DNA-reading molecule. Called Regulatory Factor X, or RFX, it's a master regulator for a number of genes.
The team reporting the findings in a new paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences comes from the University of Michigan, National Institutes of Health, Jackson Laboratory for Genomic Medicine, University of North Carolina, and the University of Southern California.
They report that many diabetes-linked DNA changes affect the ability of RFX to bind to specific locations in the genomes of pancreas cell clusters called islets. And that in turn changes the cells' ability to carry out important functions.
Islets contain the cells that make hormones, including Continue reading