Things I Want You To Know About Type 1 Diabetes

No pictures today. Instead, here is a list of things I want you to know about diabetes.
I want you to know that there is no “controlling” diabetes. There is diabetes management, there is experience, and there is a “be ready for anything at anytime”, but there is no control. We do our best to “manage” our daughter’s diabetes. But there are way to many variables that affect her blood sugar to EVER use the word control. And now that we are heading into puberty? Hormones and growth spurts and boys, oh my!
I want you to know that as much as we like to talk about how normal we try to make our daughter’s life, with diabetes there is no normal. My daughter has never been to a sleepover (not even at grandma’s). When there is a school field trip, one of us parents attends to take care of her food needs and insulin requirements. Everywhere we go, (even to the corner market) we carry a glucagon kit that has a needle straight out of this scene from Pulp Fiction. Even that trip to the market requires a backpack full of stuff. When her blood sugar is high, (which is often after meals) focus and attention are strained, making tests, studying, and learning difficult. My daughter can drink a juicebox and eat crackers in bed. Without waking up. We worry every night that she will go to bed and not wake up.
I want you to know that we live in a constant state of flux. Things change rapidly. One minute you are singing Christmas carols and decorating the tree, and the next minute you are in the ER and calling in to work sick for the next 4 days due to your child getting the flu. Continue reading

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Chuck: A Diabetes Alert Dog

Chuck is a diabetes alert dog that helps this patient detect when her blood sugar is high or low.
Type 2 diabetes is different from type 1 diabetes in many ways. As its alternate name of adult-onset diabetes implies, it is usually only found in adults. However, the rate of children acquiring the disease is going up.
Type 2 diabetes is also known as non-insulin dependent diabetes due to the fact that, unlike type 1, insulin injections are not always required for treatment.
In type 2 diabetes, the pancreas either doesn't produce any insulin, or the insulin that is produced is not properly utilized. This is due to a condition known as insulin resistance, which prevents key parts of the body (such as muscle, fat and the liver) from responding to insulin as they should.
Insulin resistance means that sugar never makes it into the cells where it can be used for the body's energy needs. Instead, massive levels of it build within the bloodstream.
Type 2 diabetes has a gradual onset
Type 2 diabetes also differs from its younger counterpart in that onset can be very slow, lasting for years. The gradual progression is typically not noticed by the individual until the condition becomes full-blown. Being overweight helps the disease to develop faster.
Genetics can also play a part in the likelihood of diagnosis. If a parent is diabetic, the chances of a child also becoming diabetic increases as much as threefold. People who smoke and drink large amounts of alcohol are also putting themselves at increased risk.
If the disease is not managed correctly it can lead to a wide variety of other Continue reading

Giving Up One Sugary Drink Per Day Could Reduce Type 2 Diabetes Risk By 25 percent

Replacing one serving of a sugary drink with water, tea or coffee can be a daily decision that significantly reduces diabetes risk, according to new research.
A large UK study of more than 25,000 people found that simply reducing consumption of soda or artificially sweetened beverages (ASBs) could lower the risk of type 2 diabetes by between 14 and 25 percent.
By having participants keep a detailed food diary for seven consecutive days, researchers were able to determine that diabetes risk increased with consumption of soft drinks, sweetened milk beverages and ASBs, but not with consumption of fruit juice, sweetened tea or sweetened coffee.
Consuming ASBs instead of sugar-sweetened drinks wasn't associated with a reduction in type 2 diabetes, the researchers found.
Unsweetened is still the healthiest option
While juice and sweetened coffee drinks weren't linked to an increased risk of diabetes, the study found that replacing one sugary drink with unsweetened coffee, tea or water would provide the most health benefits in terms of diabetes prevention.
The researchers estimated that cutting total daily energy intake from sweetened beverages to below 5 percent would be associated with a 7-percent reduction of new-onset diabetes cases.
"Our new findings on the potential to reduce the burden of diabetes by reducing the percentage of energy consumed from sweet beverages add further important evidence to the recommendation from the World Health Organization to limit the intake of free sugars in our diet," said Dr Nita Forouhi, of the UK Medical Research Council (MRC) Epidemiology U Continue reading

Untreated Diabetes: What Can Happen and Where You Can Get Help

Thanks to the miracle that is modern science and medicine, a discovery that you have a certain disease is not necessarily as scary or life-changing as it once was.
People who have diabetes seem to live somewhat normal, healthy lives – with the inconvenience of having to manage their blood sugar levels. One unfortunate side effect of this is that some diabetics, especially younger people who feel the invincibility of youth, may feel that “it’s no big deal” and leave their diabetes untreated.
A 2012 study from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality found that 2.4 percent of respondents with diabetes did not use insulin, take oral medication, or follow a healthy diet. Essentially, these people are letting diabetes “take its course.” So what can they expect in the future with untreated diabetes?
What Can Happen
Left untreated, diabetes can affect your long-term health in catastrophic ways. The most serious long-term effects are heart disease and possible kidney-failure. However, there can also be damage to your blood vessels and your eyes. Diabetic ketoacidosis, during which the body breaks down fat stores because it can no longer process sugar, is another serious health complication that can occur. And while mortality is inevitable for all of us, people who do not treat their diabetes will most likely die as a result of one complication or another.
Untreated diabetes can result in both temporary and permanent blindness. There can also be nerve damage in the extremities – typically the hands and feet – which can lead to infection, gangrene and amputation Continue reading

The #1 Food You MUST Avoid to FIGHT Diabetes (hint: it’s NOT sugar!)

If you listen to mainstream medicine, I’m sure you’ve only heard that you need to avoid sugar if you have diabetes or are pre-diabetic. But what if I told that mindset totally misses the mark and ignores perhaps a MORE important food that increases your risk?
According to Dr. Ray Peat, PhD, “Diabetes is just one of the “terminal” diseases that can be caused by the polyunsaturated vegetable oils.” [1]
What does he mean by polyunsaturated oils? He’s speaking to any oils that have a large percentage of polyunsaturated fats, like:
Corn oil
Soybean oil
Safflower oil
Nut oils
Canola oil
Peanut oil
Trans fats (artificially created)
These oils are VERY new to the food supply and were not a part of the diet until about 100 years ago. However, they are mainstream in almost every restaurant and processed food across America because they are incredibly cheap.
So what’s so bad about these fats? Polyunsaturated fats:
Have a direct correlation to the increase of heart disease
Interfere with thyroid gland function– impairing the metabolic rate
Block hormone secretion
Can contribute to high cholesterol
Damage all systems of the body if in excess: hormone system, immune system & oxidative damage
Interfere with digestion
Decrease energy production
Block protein digestion in the stomach [2]
Peat continues that “coconut oil, in diabetes as in other degenerative diseases, is highly protective.” Yet another reason to ditch the polyunsaturated oils in your pantry, and opt for real (saturated) fats like butter, ghee, coconut oil, and natural animal fats!
So what else can you d Continue reading