Sugar & Diabetes: What Even Young, Fit People Need To Know

November is Diabetes Awareness month, and although most people are aware of the disease, for many it’s still a somewhat abstract concern. Diabetes is often chalked up to genetics, deemed inevitable, or dismissed as something only old or extremely overweight people have to worry about — but this is far from the truth. Type 2 Diabetes can affect anyone, at any age, and usually it’s not the result of cruel fate, but our own choices. What you’re eating now plays a direct role in whether you could develop Type 2 Diabetes; we talked to the experts to understand just how this disease takes over and what we can do.
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Which type is which?
The two main types of Diabetes are Type 1 and 2. "In a nutshell, Type 1 is an autoimmune condition, while Type 2 is a lifestyle disease," says Francesca Orlando-Baldwin, CGP and Nutritional Therapy Practitioner. The difference is all about insulin, a hormone produced by the pancreas that takes sugar out of the blood and stores it as glucose in the liver, muscles, and fat cells. "Type 1 Diabetes typically affects young people and only represents about 5 to 10% of the population," says Ron Rosedale, MD, author of The Rosedale Diet, and co-founder of the Colorado and Carolina Centers for Metabolic Medicine. With Type 1, the pancreas is unable to produce insulin, whereas "Type 2 is a disease of insulin excess," he says. "There is too much insulin in the body, brought on by too much sugar in the blood."
Eating for illness
When people eat diets high in refined carbohydrates — Butterfingers, bagels, and pretty much anything on the Bu Continue reading

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10 Ways To Help Lose Weight And Decrease Your Risk For Diabetes

Avoid Midlife Weight Gain
Are you pear shaped or apple shaped? Many women put on weight in the thighs and buttocks while others maintain thinner legs and buttocks, but develop an apple shaped abdomen. It is the apple shaped body that is associated with higher rates of elevated insulin levels, which can lead to further weight gain and the following diseases:
Inflammation
Diabetes
Heart disease
Are you at Risk for Diabetes or Other Metabolic Issues?
Risk factors for women for diabetes and metabolic issues include:
Gestational diabetes (having diabetes during pregnancy)
Having had a large baby over 9 pounds
Pre-eclampsia or toxemia of pregnancy
Polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS)
Other risk factors for both women and men include:
Genetic factors such as family history of type-2 diabetes.
Race, including Blacks, Hispanics, American Indians and Asian descent.
Advancing age, especially over age 45, is a non-modifiable factor.
Fat distribution in the abdomen and physical inactivity.
All adults should have a fasting blood sugar every three years after age 45.
Decrease Your Risk for Diabetes
There are several ways to decrease your risk for diabetes:
Lowering elevated blood sugar levels
Sensitize the body to insulin to promote abdominal weight loss
If you are insensitive to the effects of insulin, more insulin is made which in turn causes other problems like disruption of ovulation. Excess insulin secretions are hard on your pancreas and this occurs due to ‘insulin resistance’ of the excess fat cells in one’s body. For folks with type-2 diabetes, lowering the sugar levels to nor Continue reading

Gestational Diabetes and PCOS

What is Gestational Diabetes and what does it mean to my unborn baby?
Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS) is a common cause of female infertility because it causes many types of menstrual irregularities, including the absence of a period.4 If you don’t ovulate or this process is impaired, then pregnancy is unlikely. So treating PCOS symptoms and addressing a condition called Insulin Resistance, which influences PCOS, is very important for women wishing to conceive.4 If a woman does conceive in spite of Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome it is not all smooth sailing. Unfortunately, there will be a new series of health issues concerning PCOS and pregnancy.3 Women with PCOS have a higher risk of several pregnancy problems, including gestational diabetes, miscarriage, premature delivery, pregnancy-induced hypertension, and babies with high birth weight.8 It is crucial for women with PCOS to work closely with their obstetrician during pregnancy to minimize the risk of these problems.
What is gestational diabetes?
Gestational diabetes happens when a pregnant woman’s body has an impaired ability to process glucose. This results in high blood glucose levels that can cause serious complications for the woman and her growing baby.9 During pregnancy elevated blood sugar can be passed to the baby through the placenta producing a larger baby with potentially immature lungs. A large baby also means a more dangerous birth for both mother and child. Gestational diabetes affects about seven percent of all pregnancies and usually develops after the 20th week.5
Since gestational diabetes can be t Continue reading

Experiencing the MiniMed 670G System after 43 Years with Diabetes

In March, we shipped the MiniMed 670G systems to customers in the Customer Training Phase. Among them is Laura, Medtronic Clinical Specialist in Phoenix, Arizona, who has been a part of the Medtronic family – both as a Certified Product Trainer and employee – for 26 years. Today, she shares her experience with the new system.
I’ve been on the MiniMed 670G system for a month, and haven’t felt this good in 43 years living with diabetes. I love it!
When the FDA approved the MiniMed 670G system, I cried tears of joy. I couldn’t believe this day had finally come.
Insulin pumps and continuous glucose monitors (CGM) are a huge part of my personal and professional life. Watching and personally experiencing the advancements in pump and sensor technology has been amazing. My first insulin pump in 1980 weighed a whopping 2.7 pounds (in comparison, the MiniMed 670G system is 1/5 pound)!
After 43 years of living with diabetes and 37 years pumping, I’m ecstatic to be on this journey with the world’s first hybrid closed loop system – the MiniMed 670G system!
I live an active lifestyle, and no day is the same. For people with diabetes, this means insulin needs vary each day. I love that the MiniMed 670G system understands this – getting to know my insulin needs more every day, and automatically adjusts and personalizes insulin delivery 24 hours a day.
I’ve struggled with hypoglycemia unawareness for many years, and the new Suspend before low feature – to me – is a miracle! Suspend before low kept me from going low four times in the three days before I turned on Auto Continue reading

Relative effectiveness of insulin pump treatment over multiple daily injections and structured education during flexible intensive insulin treatment for type 1 diabetes: cluster randomised trial (REPOSE)

Abstract
Objective To compare the effectiveness of insulin pumps with multiple daily injections for adults with type 1 diabetes, with both groups receiving equivalent training in flexible insulin treatment.
Design Pragmatic, multicentre, open label, parallel group, cluster randomised controlled trial (Relative Effectiveness of Pumps Over MDI and Structured Education (REPOSE) trial).
Setting Eight secondary care centres in England and Scotland.
Participants Adults with type 1 diabetes who were willing to undertake intensive insulin treatment, with no preference for pumps or multiple daily injections. Participants were allocated a place on established group training courses that taught flexible intensive insulin treatment (“dose adjustment for normal eating,” DAFNE). The course groups (the clusters) were then randomly allocated in pairs to either pump or multiple daily injections.
Interventions Participants attended training in flexible insulin treatment (using insulin analogues) structured around the use of pump or injections, followed for two years.
Main outcome measures The primary outcomes were a change in glycated haemoglobin (HbA1c) values (%) at two years in participants with baseline HbA1c value of ≥7.5% (58 mmol/mol), and the proportion of participants achieving an HbA1c value of <7.5%. Secondary outcomes included body weight, insulin dose, and episodes of moderate and severe hypoglycaemia. Ancillary outcomes included quality of life and treatment satisfaction.
Results 317 participants (46 courses) were randomised (156 pump and 161 injections). 267 attended cou Continue reading