Peers May Influence How Well Type 1 Diabetes Is Managed

Peers may influence how well type 1 diabetes is managed

(Reuters Health) - How young people with type 1 diabetes relate to their peers may have important effects on how well they manage the disease and how distressing it is for them, a small study suggests.
Peers can help teens and young adults accept their disease and follow their treatment plans, but youth who are too attuned to what their friends think of them may neglect disease management to fit in, the authors report in Diabetes Care.
“This was one of the first studies to ask adolescents and emerging adults with type 1 diabetes about their relations with peers at a certain point in time and one year later,” lead author Koen Raymaekers from the University of Leuven in Belgium told Reuters Health by email.
“We found that more general positive relations with peers at one point in time predicted less diabetes-specific distress one year later,” he said.
But, because young adults who were very oriented toward peers at the start had worse blood sugar control a year later, paying additional attention to peer relations during this time seems important, Raymaekers added.
The researchers recruited more than 400 Dutch-speaking young people in Belgium, aged 14 to 25, with type 1 diabetes. The participants answered questionnaires rating how they felt about the support they got from their peers as well as their perceptions of their parents’ responsiveness to their needs.
The study team also measured “peer orientation” - whether participants were more likely to listen to their parents or to their peers - with questions such as, “Would you ignore your diabetes management ne Continue reading

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Vitamin D might prevent type 1 diabetes

Children who are genetically susceptible to type 1 diabetes could see their risk of the condition reduced if they get enough vitamin D. This is the conclusion of a new study published in the journal Diabetes.
Researchers found that children with low blood levels of vitamin D were more likely to experience islet autoimmunity, compared with those who had higher levels of the vitamin.
Islet autoimmunity is a process wherein the immune system mistakingly attacks the insulin-producing cells of the pancreas, causing type 1 diabetes.
Lead study author Jill Norris, Ph.D., of the Colorado School of Public Health at CU Anschutz in Aurora, CO, and colleagues say that their study is the first to show that higher levels of vitamin D may help to prevent islet autoimmunity.
Type 1 diabetes is a condition in which the body fails to produce sufficient amounts of insulin, which is the hormone that regulates blood glucose levels.
In type 1 diabetes, the immune system launches an attack on pancreatic cells called the Islets of Langerhans – which are often referred to as islets. These are clusters of cells that contain beta cells, whose function is to detect glucose in the blood and release it when required.
As a result of the immune attack on islets, the beta cells fail to produce sufficient amounts of insulin, causing blood glucose levels to become too high.
While type 1 diabetes can occur at any age, onset is most common in childhood. According to the American Diabetes Association, around 1.25 million children and adults in the United States have type 1 diabetes.
Addressing the controversy Continue reading

Role of the Gastrointestinal Tract Microbiome in the Pathophysiology of Diabetes Mellitus

Copyright © 2017 Muhammad U. Sohail et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Abstract
The incidence of diabetes mellitus is rapidly increasing throughout the world. Although the exact cause of the disease is not fully clear, perhaps, genetics, ethnic origin, obesity, age, and lifestyle are considered as few of many contributory factors for the disease pathogenesis. In recent years, the disease progression is particularly linked with functional and taxonomic alterations in the gastrointestinal tract microbiome. A change in microbial diversity, referred as microbial dysbiosis, alters the gut fermentation profile and intestinal wall integrity and causes metabolic endotoxemia, low-grade inflammation, autoimmunity, and other affiliated metabolic disorders. This article aims to summarize the role of the gut microbiome in the pathogenesis of diabetes. Additionally, we summarize gut microbial dysbiosis in preclinical and clinical diabetes cases reported in literature in the recent years.
1. Introduction
The gastrointestinal tract (GIT) harbors a dense and diverse microbial community, which includes archaea, bacteria, protozoans, and viruses, and is commonly referred to as microbiome. There are approximately 100 trillion bacteria that occupy the GIT mucosal surface, constantly interacting with metabolically and immunologically active cells. These microbes not only act as the first line of defense against Continue reading

What Can I Eat if I Have Gestational Diabetes? Food List and More

Gestational diabetes is diabetes that only occurs in pregnant women. That means you can't get gestational diabetes unless you’re pregnant. You may develop gestational diabetes for the first time during pregnancy or you might have a mild undiagnosed case of diabetes that gets worse when you’re pregnant.
During pregnancy, the way your body uses insulin changes. Insulin is a hormone that breaks the foods you eat down into glucose, or sugar. You then use that glucose for energy.
You’ll naturally become more resistant to insulin when you’re pregnant to help provide your baby with more glucose. In some women, the process goes wrong and your body either stops responding to insulin or doesn't make enough insulin to give you the glucose you need. When that happens, you’ll have too much sugar in your blood. That causes gestational diabetes.
If you have recently been diagnosed with gestational diabetes, or are curious about what will happen if you are diagnosed with it, keep reading to learn more about maintaining a healthy pregnancy.
Eat protein with every meal.
Include daily fruits and vegetables in your diet.
Thirty percent or less of your diet should be made up of fat.
Limit or avoid processed foods.
Pay attention to portion sizes to avoid overeating.
If you have gestational diabetes, maintaining a healthy, balanced diet may help you manage your symptoms without needing medication. In general, your diet should include protein plus the right mix of carbohydrates and fats.
Once you are diagnosed with gestational diabetes, ask your doctor about working with a registered die Continue reading

11 Symptoms of Type 2 Diabetes

Learning about the symptoms of type 2 diabetes brings you closer to having a better understanding of the condition.
Known as “the silent killer” because it doesn’t necessarily cause any obvious symptoms, type 2 diabetes is often diagnosed when a doctor orders blood tests. In some cases, doctors don’t detect diabetes until long-term complications associated with the disease develop, like eye diseases and heart problems.
Most symptoms of type 2 diabetes can be easily managed or prevented by checking your blood sugar levels tested regularly. If you think you may have diabetes, seek treatment as soon as possible. The better you manage diabetes over time, the less like you are to develop serious complications.
1. Frequent Need to Urinate
Medically known as polyuria, this symptom can be an early sign of both type 1 and type 2 diabetes. When blood sugar levels became elevated (above 160-180 mg/dL), glucose starts to leak into the urine. As the amount of glucose in the urine increases, the kidneys start to work harder to eliminate more water in an attempt to dilute the urine. As a result, a diabetic will feel the urge to urinate more often. Continue reading