Skiing And Diabetes – Tips For Skiing And Snowboarding With Diabetes

Skiing And Diabetes – Tips for Skiing and Snowboarding with Diabetes

Skiing is not only enjoyable, but it gives one the benefits of moderate to intense aerobic exercise. I grew up on Beech Mountain, in North Carolina, where our family had a condominium. I was called the “snow plow queen”. I would dress up in ski garb to the point of barely being able to walk, and thrust out onto the highest peaks, one aptly named “Sky Dive.”
Often it was pleasant and sunny, barely even cold. These were the best days by far, where you could ski in your jeans, a t-shirt and gators to keep the snow out your boots, with your jacket tied around your waist.
Kelly and I skiing on Sugar Mountain
My friend Kelly, who had Type 1 diabetes, lived at a time when control of diabetes was harder to achieve. Three years ago, she passed away due to complications related to her Type 1 Diabetes. I think she is one of the main reasons that I became a certified diabetes educator, and decided to raise awareness about diabetes by writing about it.
Kelly loved to ski, but that didn’t come without its consequences. Several times, while skiing on Sugar Mountain, Kelly would have episodes of low blood sugar. She didn’t have a pump, and she was on multiple daily injections at the time. What’s more, she weighed about 90 pounds soaking wet at age 18.
Our friend, Janelle and I were well versed in taking care of Kelly every time she would have a low or a high blood sugar. Her mother made sure that everyone who Kelly went out with knew about her diabetes and the necessary steps to take in case of an emergency.
One time when we set out to hit the slopes of Sugar Mountain on a be Continue reading

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Diabetes Health Professionals

Diabetes is a complex and serious condition potentially affecting many systems of your body. Because of this, you may need to visit a range of health professionals regularly, and have them as part of your team. People often ask about what roles different health professionals play in diabetes management and who and when they should see them. There are a number of health professionals who you do need to see regularly, and others who you might call on or be referred to at times. Many of their roles overlap, but each person has their own area of expertise and training.
You!
The number one person in the management of your diabetes is YOU! You will be the person making most of the daily decisions, with the support and back up of your health care team when needed. This includes management of medications and insulin; and food and exercise choices. It also includes things like working out what to do about low and high blood glucose levels, and making decisions about things like alcohol, drugs and eating out.
You will be the one dealing with daily life stress such as other illness, going to work and caring for your family, at the same time as managing your diabetes. Basically you will are the expert about you and your diabetes. This takes time and it is important to take this time, to learn as much as you can. If you are new to your diabetes diagnosis, try not to panic about all there is to learn and not to worry about what you don’t know. Focus on what you are learning and what your priorities are at this moment in time. It is important that you can have easy access to medical car Continue reading

The Perfect Treatment for Diabetes and Weight Loss

Do doctors treat type 2 diabetes completely wrong today – in a way that actually makes the disease worse? Many people would correctly say yes. There’s a better way.
What is the perfect treatment for type 2 diabetes – and for weight loss? Many people would say a strict LCHF diet – I would have said that myself, at one time. But that may just be a good start.
Many readers have told me about the Canadian nephrologist Dr. Jason Fung and his exciting work. But it was only recently that I got to meet him and record this interview.
Dr. Fung
Dr. Fung treats people with severe type 2 diabetes, and to them LCHF may not be effective enough – even if it’s a good starting point. Dr. Fung has found something significantly more effective. And as a side effect it’s also likely to be the world’s most effective method for weight loss, whether you have diabetes or not.
In this 12 minute interview – that you can see above – he goes through all the basics.
Observe: This treatment is extremely effective. If you have diabetes and take blood sugar lowering medication (especially insulin injections) you may need to reduce the doses a lot to avoid potentially dangerous hypoglycemia. You may instantly become too healthy for your medication.
More knowledge
There is a 32 minute second part to the interview, where Dr. Fung goes through many more practical tips and answers common questions. This second part is on the membership pages (free one month trial):
The Perfect Treatment for Diabetes and Weight Loss – full interview
Here are a few of the things Dr. Fung mentions in the full Continue reading

A Prescription for a Plant-Based Diet Can Help Reverse Diabetes

Mark Hatfield via Getty Images
Chances are good that you have diabetes or know someone who does. Even if you don’t, you’re paying for the care of millions of people with diabetes through your taxes. It’s a disease that affects people of all backgrounds, income levels, and, increasingly, ages, and it costs our country nearly a quarter trillion dollars every year — that’s well over the total yearly revenue of electronics giant Apple.
New statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that 29 million Americans have diabetes and another 86 million have prediabetes. Hardest hit are Native Americans, followed by African Americans and Latinos. They are at far greater risk for heart attacks, blindness, amputations, kidney failure, painful nerve symptoms, and loss of a decade of life compared with those who do not have the disease.
But a recent report has found that one simple prescription could help reverse diabetes, improve blood sugar, and lower weight, blood pressure, and cholesterol. It could allow the 115 million Americans with diabetes or prediabetes to dramatically reduce their medications or get off them entirely. And all this is possible, the analysis found, not with a new magic pill, but with tried-and-true, simple changes to diet.
A team of researchers from the United States and Japan, including the Physicians Committee’s Susan Levin, MS, RD and myself, published a new meta-analysis showing that a plant-based diet significantly improves diabetes management.
Combining the results of six prior studies, we found that a plant-based diet boost Continue reading

Diabetes

Diabetes is the result of the body not making enough insulin to keep blood glucose (sugar) levels within the normal range. If the glucose in a person’s blood is too high, over time it can lead to damage of multiple body systems, including the feet.
There are three main types of diabetes:
Type 1 diabetes: is a chronic condition where the pancreas produces little or no insulin, a hormone needed to allow sugar (glucose) to enter cells to make energy for the body.
Type 2 diabetes: (adult-onset or noninsulin-dependent diabetes) is a chronic condition that affects the way your body metabolises sugar (glucose), an important source of fuel for the body.
Gestational diabetes: is a condition where women, without previously diagnosed diabetes, show high blood glucose (blood sugar) levels during pregnancy. Gestational diabetes is caused by faulty insulin responses.
The effect of diabetes on the feet
Some people with diabetes develop complications due to their diabetes. Two of the common foot related complications of diabetes are:
Damage to nerves (neuropathy)
Damage to blood vessels (vascular disease)
Diabetic Neuropathy
People with diabetes sometimes develop nerve damage to their feet which may result in either whole or part of their feet becoming numb and insensitive to pain or injury.
If you have diabetic neuropathy in your feet you are:
More likely to get an injury AND less likely to know to get help for the injury early on.
Diabetic Vascular Disease
Diabetes can cause the lining of blood vessels to become thickened meaning that less blood is able to travel through the blood vess Continue reading