What To Know About Long-Term Diabetes Complications

What to Know About Long-Term Diabetes Complications

Living with diabetes brings many daily challenges and frustrations. You have to watch your blood glucose levels, pay close attention to what and when you eat, and take medications, including insulin. Added to that burden is the realization that if you don’t, your health could be seriously compromised in years to come.
Poorly controlled diabetes can lead over time to a number of complications. Some — like heart disease, stroke and kidney disease — can be life-threatening.
“The biggest one is cardiovascular disease,” said Arch Mainous III, a diabetes researcher and chair of the department of health services research, management and policy at the University of Florida’s College of Public Health and Health Professions.
Unfortunately, some damage may even occur before an individual is diagnosed with diabetes.
Heart disease is the No. 1 killer of people with diabetes; those with diabetes are up to four times more likely to develop cardiovascular disease.
“The problem is diabetes takes a long time to develop, and by the time somebody becomes symptomatic, they’re kind of down the road on some of these target complications,” Mainous said.
Prediabetes Is a Growing Threat
Because diabetes may hide in the body for years, millions at risk for the disease are not aware of it, Mainous said. In fact, a huge proportion of the American population — 39 percent, or 86 million adults — have prediabetes. And about 90 percent of those cases are undiagnosed, Mainous said.
“So there’s a whole lot more people at risk for developing diabetes, [but] if you identify these peop Continue reading

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Medical World News®: Diabetes Data

The CDC reports that more than 30 million Americans have diabetes, and an analysis of new Gallup-Sharecare data on diabetes by occupation.
CDC Report: US Diabetes Population Tops 30 Million
More than 30 million Americans have been diagnosed with diabetes, and 100 million are living with diabetes or prediabetes, the CDC says in a new report that shows how this growing health emergency hits hardest those least able to manage the disease or its effects. At current trends, 1 in 3 American adults will have diabetes by 2050.1
Type 2 diabetes (T2D), in particular, is most common among the poor, minorities, those with less education, and those living in the South and Appalachia, including several states that did not expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act.2 CDC updates diabetes data approximately every 2 years. The report released on July 18, 2017, includes data as of 2015 and shows that 30.3 million Americans, or 9.4% of the population, had diabetes, including T2D and type 1 diabetes (T1D).
The good news is that the rate of increase seems to be slowing, Ann Albright, PhD, RD, director of the CDC’s Division of Diabetes Translation, stated. “Diabetes is a contributing factor to so many other serious health conditions,” said Albright, who has made it a priority to find people with prediabetes, a condition that leads to T2D if left untreated.3
The CDC report predicts there are 84.1 million prediabetic individuals, which is about 2 million less than previous estimates.4 Working with the American Medical Association, Albright has made prediabetes the focus of a massive publi Continue reading

No More Finger Pricks for Some With Diabetes

If you have type 2 diabetes, chances are you prick your finger once a day or so to check your blood sugar.
But a growing body of evidence shows that for most type 2 diabetes patients, routinely tracking your blood sugar, or glucose, doesn’t make any difference for your health.
The exception is patients taking insulin or a sulfonylurea drug such as glipizide (which goes by the brand name Glucotrol) or glimepiride (Amaryl), which stimulates beta cells in the pancreas to produce insulin. That’s according to Dr. Jack Ende, president of the American College of Physicians, a professional organization of internal medicine specialists.
Both insulin and the sulfonylureas can lead to hypoglycemia, or too-low blood sugar, so it’s important to perform self-monitoring, said Ende, an assistant dean at the University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman School of Medicine in Philadelphia.
Good News for Many with Diabetes
“If you’re diet-controlled alone, or you’re just on metformin (a widely prescribed diabetes medication), which does not cause hypoglycemia, and you’re not interested in testing, there’s really no reason to do it,” he said. “It’s expensive [test strips alone cost around $1 each]. It’s burdensome.”
But, Ende said, he has some patients who, even though they’re controlling their blood sugar by diet alone, continue to prick their finger regularly to check their glucose.
Some health-care providers think self-testing makes patients feel empowered, thus enhancing their motivation to maintain control of their blood sugar.
— Dr. Laura Young, University of Nort Continue reading

Dates For Diabetes – Is It Safe?

Diabetes usually means a big “NO” to sugar intake. But how far is this true?
Most studies show that it is not.
Diabetes is the fastest growing disease in the recent times. Although diabetics are not required to abstain from sugar entirely, they are advised to limit its intake.
So, what do you do when you need to satisfy your sweet tooth? Eat dates, of course!
Dates are small and sweet fruits and have a surprisingly low glycemic index. Studies have been done to determine the effects of consuming dates on blood sugar levels. They concluded that eating dates does not cause a spike in the blood glucose levels.
In fact, they are extremely healthy – packed with an array of vital nutrients.
Let’s read more on why dates are one of the h
ealthiest snack options for you.
Table Of Contents
1. Dates – An Overview
Dates are one of the most commonly eaten foods in the Middle East. Their amazing nutritional qualities and health benefits are well known to people across the globe. The date palm is called “The Tree of Life” because of the long shelf life and rich nutritional profile of its fruits (1).
Apart from containing a high amount of fructose, they also contain an opulence of fiber and nutrients like vitamins A, K, and B-complex, iron, calcium, sodium, potassium, magnesium, and zinc. The presence of these nutrients in dates helps prevent constipation, heart diseases, intestinal problems, anemia, and diarrhea, among other conditions (2).
All well. But what about diabetes? What’s the connection between dates and diabetes?
[ Read: Health Benefits Of Dates ]
2. Dates For Di Continue reading

How Does Exercise Lower the Blood Glucose?

I recently was asked a fantastic question about how exercise lowers blood glucose levels. Exercise lowering the blood glucose is independent of insulin levels. I hadn’t really thought to explain it previously to our ADW clients. So I did a bit of reading to make sure that I really understood it myself! One of my better qualities as a veterinarian, I believe, is that I can explain complicated stuff in an understandable fashion. So, here goes:
When we eat, our bodies have the ability to store a certain amount of energy in either the liver or muscle cells. What isn’t used immediately can be stored in these tissues as glycogen, up to a certain limit anyway. Any excess beyond what is used immediately or beyond the capacity to store it as glycogen is then stored as fat.
Here’s the nifty part! The liver can turn the glycogen back into glucose if needed for use anywhere in the body. Our bodies are so clever! This is how the Somogyi swing can happen, aka rebound effect. For example, if the pet receives too much insulin which would drive the blood glucose too low, the liver can react and turn glycogen into glucose and save the day! Or, in the old fight or flight adrenaline situation, it can again turn glycogen into glucose for a pet to make a quick getaway. This is how the white coat syndrome happens and why I’m always encouraging owners of diabetic pets to do blood glucose curves at home instead of in the vet clinic setting. If a pet is stressed, this hepatogluconeogenesis, the liver making sugar from stored glycogen, can make the blood glucose level higher in the vet clinic Continue reading