The Differences Between Type One And Type Two Diabetes

Diabetes is an epidemic in 21st century Australia, with 280 Australians developing the disease every day. In 2017, approximately 1.7 million Australians are living with diabetes and around 500,000 of these people are undiagnosed.
Diabetes, in both its forms, is a complex disease that affects the entire body and can cause secondary conditions such as heart and kidney disease. Diabetes in Australia has risen significantly in the past few decades and there are some fundamental differences between the two types that are important to understand. Here is what you need to know.
What is diabetes?
When a person has diabetes, their body is unable to properly manage the levels of glucose -- or sugar -- in the blood. Insulin is the hormone that helps manage blood sugar and it is produced by the pancreas.
For the body to function efficiently, it needs to be able to convert glucose -- a form of sugar -- into energy. Glucose is the main source of energy for the body.
Type one diabetes is a condition where the immune system destroys the cells in the immune system that produce insulin. So essentially, type one diabetes occurs when the pancreas does not produce insulin.
Type two diabetes is a condition where the body becomes resistant to insulin or eventually stops being able to produce enough insulin for the pancreas to function properly. This can be influenced by lifestyle and genetic factors (but we'll get to that later).
Diabetes in Australia has gone up enormously over the last few decades and and it is likely to continue to go up.
How is diabetes developed?
While the inability to manag Continue reading

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CDC: November is National Diabetes Month

It's Your Life. Treat Your Diabetes Well.
November is National Diabetes Month. Here’s to managing your diabetes for a longer, healthier life.
There isn’t a cure yet for diabetes, but a healthy lifestyle can really reduce its impact on your life. What you do every day makes the difference: eating a healthy diet, being physically active, taking medicines if prescribed, and keeping health care appointments to stay on track.
The Basics
More than 30 million people in the United States have diabetes, but 1 out of 4 of them don’t know they have it.
There are three main types of diabetes: type 1, type 2, and gestational diabetes (diabetes while pregnant, which can put the pregnancy and baby at risk and lead to type 2 diabetes later).
With type 1 diabetes, your body can’t make insulin (a hormone that acts like a key to let blood sugar into cells for use as energy), so you need to take it every day. Type 1 diabetes is less common than type 2 diabetes; about 5% of the people who have diabetes have type 1. Currently, no one knows how to prevent type 1 diabetes.
Most people with diabetes—9 out of 10—have type 2 diabetes. With type 2 diabetes, your body doesn’t use insulin well and is unable to keep blood sugar at normal levels. If you have any of the risk factors below, ask your doctor if you should be tested for diabetes. The sooner you find out, the sooner you can start making healthy changes that will benefit you now and in the future.
Diabetes by the Numbers
• More than 30 million US adults have diabetes—and 1 out of 4 of them don’t know they have it.
• At leas Continue reading

The Full-Fat Paradox: Dairy Fat Linked To Lower Diabetes Risk

If you melt at the creaminess of full-fat yogurt, read on.
A new study finds the dairy fats found in milk, yogurt and cheese may help protect against Type 2 diabetes.
The research, published in the journal Circulation, included 3,333 adults. Beginning in the late 1980s, researchers took blood samples from the participants and measured circulating levels of biomarkers of dairy fat in their blood. Then, over the next two decades, the researchers tracked who among the participants developed diabetes.
"People who had the most dairy fat in their diet had about a 50 percent lower risk of diabetes" compared with people who consumed the least dairy fat, says Dariush Mozaffarian, dean of the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University, who is also an author of the study.
The study does not prove a cause and effect, but it builds on a body of evidence suggesting that dairy fat may have protective effects, both in cutting the risk of diabetes and in helping people control body weight.
"For a long time we've had this notion that saturated fat [the kind found in dairy products] is always bad for you," says Mark DeBoer, a pediatrician at the University of Virginia.
But this assumption is being questioned. As we've previously reported, DeBoer has studied the connection between dairy fat and children's body weight. And he published a surprising finding.
"It appears that children who have a higher intake of whole milk or 2 percent milk gain less weight over time" compared with kids who consume skim or nonfat dairy products, explains DeBoer.
And there's some evidence Continue reading

Almond Milk and Diabetes

Almond Milk in a Diabetes Diet
Looking for a healthy substitute for cow's milk or soy?
Diabetics in particular should consider almond milk. You can buy or make the drink yourself with ground almonds and water. Add non-calorie sweetener, if you like.
In addition to the variety of benefits in a diabetes diet, almond milk is dairy-free and vegan. It is also an excellent replacement for those that are lactose-intolerant.
Like regular milk, it contains protein, calcium and Vitamin D. When you purchase or make unsweetened almond milk, the total calories for an 8 ounce (1 cup) serving is less than half that of skim milk (40 calories vs. 90 calories). It also has about 1/6th the number of carbohydrate grams (2 grams vs. 13 grams).
Almond milk in a diabetes diet can help you lose or maintain weight, and may potentially prevent dangerous rises in blood sugar levels. This is due to its lower carbohydrate count and reduced calories compared to regular milk.
You can make almond milk by straining water through crushed almonds, to create a milky, nut-flavored liquid (directions below). People enjoy almond milk as a beverage and/or as a substitute for milk in recipes.
Almonds and Diabetes
Did you know that consumption of almonds can improve your diabetes health?
Medical studies have shown that consuming one ounce (approximately 10-12 almonds) before a meal may result in 30% lower blood glucose levels thereafter in diabetics, compared with 7% lower sugar levels for non-diabetics.
Over time, the benefits of almonds on diabetics are worth noting.
People with Type 2 diabetes who had one ounce Continue reading

Diabetes and Hearing Loss

A Surprising Complication
Ed Weinsberg wasn’t surprised when he developed burning sensations in his feet in 2006. His health care provider had told him he might experience this sign of peripheral neuropathy, a side effect of his recently diagnosed type 2 diabetes. Medication helped reduce the sensations. But a few years ago, Ed, 62, a former rabbi and author living in Sarasota, Florida, began to experience frustrating problems with his hearing.
“Every sentence began with, ‘What did you say?’ ” he says. “My ear, nose, and throat doctor wasn’t sure what was behind it.” By then Ed had already lost 50 percent of his hearing in his left ear. “But I suspected there might be a connection with my diabetes. I know it reduces blood flow to other parts of the body.”
Ed was onto something. Research shows that people with uncontrolled type 1 or type 2 diabetes are twice as likely as others to experience hearing loss. In a large study of people ages 20–69, researchers from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases found a strong association between diabetes and hearing problems, emerging as early as age 30.
A recent study from Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit reached much the same conclusion. Researchers found that in women younger than 60, hearing was worse among those with type 1 or type 2 diabetes compared to women without diabetes, according to study coauthor Kathleen Yaremchuk, M.D., chair of otolaryngology at the hospital. And women ages 60–75 with poorly controlled diabetes had significantly worse hearing than those whose diabetes w Continue reading