Should People With Diabetes Soak Their Feet In Epsom Salt?

Should People with Diabetes Soak Their Feet in Epsom Salt?

People with diabetes need to be aware that a potential complication is foot damage. Often this is caused by nerve damage and poor circulation. Over time both conditions might be caused by high blood glucose levels.
In order to lower the risk of foot damage, you need to take good care of your feet. Some prefer to soak their feet in Epsom salt. But people with diabetes should not do this. Soaking the feet if you have diabetes might raise the risk of foot issues.
Before you decide to soak the feet in Epsom salts, make sure to consult your doctor.
What is Epsom Salt?
Epsom salt scientifically is known as magnesium sulfate. It is actually a mineral compound which comes with different uses. Epsom salt is a common home remedy for different problems and has beauty and health benefits.
Why People Use Epsom Salt
Boosts the levels of sulfate and magnesium in the body
Soothes pain and muscle aches
Removes splinters
Provides relief from itches caused by poison ivy and sunburn
Decreases swelling
Foot Complications and Diabetes
In order to understand why individuals with diabetes should not soak their feet in Epsom salt, it is vital to understand how the condition itself might affect the feet.
High blood glucose levels can lead to damage to the nerves in the body. This is known as neuropathy. Peripheral neuropathy is actually the most common type of neuropathy for individuals with diabetes. It is a damage of the nerves which serve the arms and legs.
As a consequence, individuals with diabetes might lose feeling in their feet. As a matter of fact, it is common for individuals with diabetes Continue reading

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8 Things You Didn't Know About Gestational Diabetes

8 Things You Didn't Know About Gestational Diabetes
8 Things You Didn't Know About Gestational Diabetes
You probably know the basics about diabetes that develops during pregnancy, but you might be surprised by some of the details surrounding GDM.
8 Things You Didn't Know About Gestational Diabetes
Pregnancy can be tough, and when you add gestational diabetes into the mix, things can get a lot harder not only physically, but mentally and emotionally as well.
Diabetes occurs when the pancreas fails to produce enough insulin to regulate glucose (sugar) in the blood. In the case of GDM (gestational diabetes mellitus), a woman who has never had diabetes before experiences high blood glucose levels during pregnancy. The cause of GDM is unknown, but risk factors include a family history of diabetes, a history of birthing babies over 9 pounds, obesity prior to pregnancy, high blood pressure, and a history of unexplained miscarriage or stillbirth. African American, Hispanic, American Indian, Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander women are also more likely to develop GDM.
If its not well controlled, the condition can be dangerous for the mom-to-be and also for her baby, as excess glucose can cross the placenta and cause complications such as premature birth and stillbirth.
So while a pregnant woman diagnosed with GDM is already worrying about the effects it might have on her and her baby, she might also worry about what people will think and how to handle the diagnosis. If you know someone with GDM, the best thing you can do is educate yourself about the disea Continue reading

Why Isn't Postprandial Insulin Assay Being Used to Predict Diabetes Onset?

While promising, there is no way to know whether introducing lifestyle changes to patients who are diagnosed earlier will positively effect their outcomes.
With James DiNicolantonio, PharmD; Elena Christofides, MD, FACE, and Robert Lustig, MD
The current strategy for screening patients for prediabetes and diabetes—using fasting glucose, oral glucose tolerance testing (OGTT), and hemoglobin A1C—still may be missing millions of individuals with these conditions,1 according findings published in BMJ Open Heart.
Focusing only on glucose levels is too little, too late, said study author, James DiNicolantonio, PharmD, a cardiovascular research scientist at St. Luke's MidAmerica Heart Institute in Kansas City. He and three colleagues made a case for employing the postprandial insulin assay as a more efficient tool to diagnose prediabetes and diabetes sooner than the current standards.1
By the time people are diagnosed using standard glucose testing, ''these individuals likely will have lost up to 50% of their beta cells,'' Dr. DiNicolantonio told EndocrineWeb, ''When a person is diagnosed with prediabetes [using standard glucose testing], the patient will have likely lost 25% of their beta cells."
He added, ''the reason for this outcome is that we have been relying on the wrong surrogate marker: glucose. A patient can be severely ill and still have glucose levels in the normal range; by the time the patient becomes hyperglycemic, the disease had progressed significantly."
Building a Case for the Insulin Assay
Using the postprandial insulin assay, Dr. DiNicolantonio believes th Continue reading

Online Peer Health for Managing Diabetes

Peer-based support groups have been successful for a multitude of conditions and afflictions. These communities provide support, advice, and experience to help with everything from addiction to chronic pain to managing diabetes. But could the same benefits be seen on the web? Michelle Litchman , a diabetes researcher, looks into the potential health benefits of social media-based peer health groups. She shares their initial findings and what this research could mean for health care.
Health tips, medical news, research, and more for a happier, healthier life. From University of Utah Health Sciences, this is The Scope.
Diabetes is one of the biggest health epidemics facing us today and managing the disease is important not only for the well-being of those that have it, but also as a way to control healthcare spending since people that don't manage the disease tend to develop more serious chronic complications.
Michelle Litchman is a researcher and diabetes nurse practitioner who is going to study improving Type I diabetes outcomes with an online peer health intervention. And we're going to break this down a little bit and talk about what exactly that means and what it could mean for managing diabetes. So, first of all, tell me about peer health. What does that mean?
Peer health is the interaction, education, and support offered by peers who have the same medical condition to promote health-enhancing change. So, essentially, what that means is when you are trying to find someone else who maybe understands the same things that you are going through, so in Type I diabetes Continue reading

Stem cells from our own bodies could cure MS and diabetes | Daily Mail Online

Zoe Derrick was 'cured' of MS after getting stem cell treatment in Mexico
But when Gregg Burgess-Salisbury, from Berkshire, had stem cell treatment two years ago it didn't work, and he is still confined to a wheelchair
Steve Storey, from Sheffield, was paralysed with MS but had successful therapy
Experts warn the risky and invasive treatment is a lottery for patients
Stem cells could cure diabetes and repair cartilage, liver, brain and soft tissue
Zoe Derrick was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 2012 and had to travel to Mexico for stem cell therapy. To do this, she had to go back to part-time work and they have now had to sell their house to pay off the 15,000 loan they had to take out
Zoe Derrick was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis after the birth of her second son, Freddie, in January 2012.
'At first, I thought breastfeeding was the reason I was so, so tired all the time,' she says. 'It was so bad that Paul, my husband, was having to help me up the stairs.
'I kept tripping on the pavement when I was pushing the pram, then I trapped my hand in the car door. It was very bruised and swollen, but I couldn't feel a thing. I should have been in agony.'
An MRI scan that night revealed patches of damage all over her brain. Zoe, with her medical training as an NHS midwife, knew what it meant.
'I wondered how I could be alive, let alone speak.'
Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a neurological condition in which the immune system destroys the vital protective sheaths around nerves, causing damage that can have a devastating and paralysing effect on functions including m Continue reading