Using Aromatherapy To Relieve Diabetes Symptoms

Using Aromatherapy to Relieve Diabetes Symptoms

For those living with diabetes, aromatherapy or the use of essential oils can directly improve quality of life and help relieve their symptoms. Aromatherapy has often been relegated to the same category of medicine as crystal healing and reiki massage. “New Age” stores with chime music playing and incense burning in all four corners always seem to feature a display of essential oils by the cash register. However even though some vendors may make claims of essential oils that they can’t follow through on, medical research has proven that some oils can have genuine therapeutic value, both in terms of relieving stress and lowering blood pressure through aromatherapy, and also via physical means such as wound care and improving circulation.
What is Aromatherapy?
Aromatherapy is the use of essential oils to effect changes in your body, whether physical or emotional. An essential oil is basically a plant extract. The volatile compounds of various herbs, roots, and other plant material are extracted via pressing, heat processing, and other methods, and then mixed with what is called a carrier oil, a neutral oil such as jojoba oil, to allow it to be used in a targeted way. There are hundreds of plant species which have been recognized in various cultures and time periods to be helpful with any number of ailments.
The use of, and various methods of extraction for, essential oils is thought to originate with Ibn al-Baitar, a Muslim physician and chemist who lived in Spain in the late 12th and early 13th century.
The term aromatherapy was coined by a French perfumer in 1937. Ren Continue reading

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Lack of Sleep May Raise Child's Type 2 Diabetes Risk: Study

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Lack of Sleep May Raise Child's Type 2 Diabetes Risk: Study
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TUESDAY, Aug. 15, 2017 (HealthDay News) -- Children who get too little sleep may be more likely to have risk factors for type 2 diabetes , new research suggests.
The study of more than 4,500 British kids found a link between kids' sleep habits and certain diabetes "risk markers." Children who slept fewer hours each night tended to be a bit heavier and to show more insulin resistance .
Insulin is a hormone that regulates blood sugar levels. When the body starts to become resistant to insulin, that can be a precursor to type 2 diabetes .
So, the findings raise the possibility that childhood sleep habits could affect the odds of diabetes -- or other health conditions -- later in life, said researcher Christopher Owen.
"We believe that these small differences [in diabetes risk markers] early in life could plausibly persist," said Owen, a professor of epidemiology at St. George's, University of London.
Past studies, he noted, have found that diabetes risk can "track" from early life to adulthood.
However, the new findings do not prove that a lack of sleep causes kids' diabetes risk to rise, said Dr. Nicole Glaser.
Glaser, a pediatrician and professor at the University of California, Davis, cowrote an editorial published online with the study in the Aug. 15 issue of Pediatrics.
In it, she points out that there could be other explanations for the link between Continue reading

Study Ties Inflammation, Gut Bacteria to Type 1 Diabetes

THURSDAY, Jan. 19, 2017 (HealthDay News) -- People with type 1 diabetes show changes in their digestive system that aren't seen in people who don't have the autoimmune disease, a new Italian study finds.
Those changes include different gut bacteria and inflammation in the small intestine. The differences may play a role in the development of type 1 diabetes, the researchers said.
"For years, we have looked for the cause of type 1 diabetes in the pancreas. Perhaps, we looked in the wrong place and there is the possibility that the intestines play a key role in the development of the disease," said study senior author Dr. Piemonti Lorenzo. He is deputy director of the San Raffaele Diabetes Research Institute in Milan.
However, Lorenzo said it isn't possible to "draw definitive conclusions" about whether these intestinal changes can cause the autoimmune attack that leads to type 1 diabetes.
In type 1 diabetes, the body's immune system mistakenly attacks healthy cells in the body. Specifically, the disease causes the destruction of insulin-producing islet cells. That leaves the body unable to produce enough insulin, a hormone necessary for cells to use the sugars from foods as fuel.
Out of every 1,000 adult Americans, between one and five have type 1 diabetes, according to the Endocrine Society.
The new study included 54 people who had endoscopies and biopsies of the first part of the small intestine. In an endoscopy, a long, flexible tube with a camera is threaded down the throat -- while a person is sedated -- so a doctor can see the digestive tract. The same tube can Continue reading

Leptin Resistance: The Other Hormone Important for Managing Diabetes | Everyday Health

Eating a Mediterranean-style diet with lean protein, whole grains, and healthy fats can help increase leptin sensitivity.
When most people think of diabetes and hormones, insulin which controls blood sugar levels by ferrying glucose to cells for energy is usually the first that springs to mind. But there are many hormones at play when it comes to blood sugar levels and weight, and anyone living with diabetes or prediabetes should consider them all when striving to better manage their symptoms. Key among these is leptin, a hormone produced by fat cells that helps the body regulate energy by telling the brain its had enough to eat, according to a review published in December 2012 in the Indian Journal of Endocrinology and Metabolism .
Leptins action is to inhibit appetite, to stimulate the burning up of fatty acids, to decrease glucose, and to reduce overall body fat and weight, says VandanaSheth, RDN, CDE , a spokesperson for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. The problem, Sheth explains, is, just like insulin resistance whereby cells are resistant to insulin, leading glucose to accumulate in the blood people can develop leptin resistance, an effect that can further complicate their diabetes management .
When this occurs, Sheth says, People can gain weight, have increased body fat, and, even though there are adequate fat stores, their brains are getting the signal that they are hungry, so they eat more. It's a vicious cycle.
Unfortunately, just adding more leptin, as people with diabetes often do with insulin injections , cant fix this problem because the issu Continue reading

ADA guidelines embrace heart health

Recent studies that confirm the cardiovascular benefit of some antihyperglycemic agents are shaping the newest therapeutic recommendations for patients with type 2 diabetes and comorbid atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD).
Treatment for these patients – as all with diabetes – should start with lifestyle modifications and metformin. But in its new position statement, the American Diabetes Association now recommends that clinicians consider adding agents proved to reduce major cardiovascular events and cardiovascular death – such as the sodium glucose cotransporter-2 (SGLT2) inhibitor empagliflozin or the glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1) agonist liraglutide – to the regimens of patients with diabetes and ASCVD (Diabetes Care 2018;41(Suppl. 1):S86-S104. doi: 10.2337/dc18-S009).
The medications are indicated if, after being treated with lifestyle and metformin therapy, the patient isn’t meeting hemoglobin A1c goals, said Rita R. Kalyani, MD, who led the ADA’s 12-member writing committee. But clinicians may also consider adding these agents for cardiovascular benefit alone, even when glucose control is adequate on a regimen of lifestyle modification and metformin, with dose adjustments as appropriate, she said in an interview.
“A1c remains the main target of sequencing antihyperglycemic therapies, if it’s not reached after 3 months,” said Dr. Kalyani of Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore. “But, it could also be that the provider, after consulting with the patient, feels it’s appropriate to add one of these agents solely for cardioprotective benef Continue reading