Diabetes And The Long Term Dangers
August 17, 2010
Diabetes has hidden dangers that begin before diagnosis and continue to worsen if certain steps are not taken to prevent the complications that are the true, "killers" in terms of diabetes.
Statistics show that there are around 18 million diabetics in America, both Type 1 and Type 2. It is amazing how many people, diabetics included, who have no idea what dangers a diabetic faces over their lifetime. A diabetic, all things being equal, lives almost 10 years less than their non-diabetic counterpart on average.
Why do diabetics life shorter life spans than non-diabetics? The answer is both simple and complicated. Simple in explaining in general terms, complicated in the medical sense. Without traveling the complicated route in this article, I will try to give a simple, straight forward answer to the above question. Diabetics live shorter lives than non-diabetics because of diabetic complications.
What Are Diabetic Complications?
Diabetic complications are chronic medical conditions that begin to affect the body of the diabetic. These complications are brought about mostly by a condition the medical community had named, "Advanced Glycation End products" which is simply, "excess sugar" saturating the inside of the cells of the body. This condition also called AGE for short includes coronary artery disease, vascular disease, blindness, kidney disease, retinopathy (blindness) and loss of feeling in the hands and the feet (peripheral neuropathy) among others.
Locating Diabetic Supplies to Manage Diabetes
July 19, 2010
In the United States there are around 17 million people with diabetes. Each of these people need certain Diabetic Supplies. While this may not seem like a huge number it does afflict around 6% of the population.
When a person’s body cannot produce enough insulin the effect is diagnosed as diabetes. A sobering fact about diabetes is that there are many people who have the illness but are unaware of the fact.
Often diabetes is undiagnosed because the symptoms appear to be harmless, but the effects of the illness can be very serious. Without the proper Diabetic Supplies to control their diabetes, the heart, eyes, feet and kidneys can all be impacted by untreated diabetes.
Today many people who have been diagnosed as diabetic are able to manage their glucose levels by utilizing some of the Diabetic Supplies available.
Glucometers and other home-use analyzing tools are now in common use and can be purchased at reasonable prices.
Exercise, weight control and diet are all foundation stones to use in living a healthy life style.
About The Author
Mike Yeager, Publisher
http://www.a1-medical-supplies-4u.com/productpage/medicalequipment.html
If You Have Diabetes, You May Be Entitled To No Cost Diabetic Supplies
June 20, 2010
This article is intended to inform people with diabetes in regards to their diabetic supplies. When I found out that my sister was diagnosed with the disease I started to research more and came across some useful information that might be helpful to others.
Diabetes is the country*s sixth leading cause of death by disease. As you may know it is the leading cause of blindness, kidney disease, heart disease and amputations. Diabetes claims the lives of more than 193,000 Americans each year. Approximately 18.2 million Americans have diabetes, but one-third of those are undiagnosed. And many people that do have diabetes pay for their diabetes supplies. If you have insurance and live in the United States, you may be eligible.
As of May 2004, forty-six states have some type of laws requiring health insurance coverage to include treatment for diabetes. The states not included are Alabama, Idaho, North Dakota and Ohio.
As of 2002, two states, Georgia and Wisconsin passed an expansion of current coverage requirements. In 2003 Hawaii adopted a resolution to clarify its mandate of diabetes education coverage. No new laws were passed during the first four months of 2004.
Medicinal Properties of Bitter Melon - Good for Diabetics
May 21, 2010
Bitter Melon is the English name of Momordica charantia, a climbing vine whose leaves and green fruits, although bitter, has been used to fight cancer, diabetes and many infectious diseases. It is also a powerful weapon against HIV/AIDS since some reports claim that bitter melon has substance Q. It is one of the most favorite egetables among the Chinese and the most popular herbal tea as well.
The fruits and leaves of bitter melon are a good source of minerals and vitamins, such as iron, calcium, phosphorus and Vitamin B. However, it is not known how much nutritional contents can actually be absorbed by the body’s digestive system of the plant become some of these substances exist in unabsorbable form.
Does Bitter Melon have Medicinal Properties?
Yes. Books and articles about bitter melon states that the extract from the leaves or roots shrinks hemorrhoids. The juice from the leaves is also good to prevent and lessen cough, for fever and against roundworms. Reportedly, it is also used to treat sterility in women and alleviate liver problems. Likewise, bitter melon has some antimicrobial activity and can help infected wounds.
Benfotiamine And Diabetic Retinopathy
April 23, 2010
Damage from diabetes can occur in different areas of the eye. It can occur to the cornea, nerves controlling the muscles of the eye, the lens, optic nerve and retina. The retina is the complication that most people and medical professionals think of first in terms of diabetic complications.
Diabetic retinopathy is simply damage to the light sensitive retina. This damage is brought about by hyperglycemia, the medical term for high blood sugar. Retinopathy is directly responsible for approximately 12,000 to 24,000 cases of legal blindness every year in the USA alone. It is reported that there are over 200,000 cases each year globally.
Diabetic complications are even more insidious than these numbers because there are several other types of diabetic eye disease created wholly or in part by high blood sugar in diabetics.
What Can Be Done To Prevent Eye Disease?
It stands to reason that the more informed a person is about a particular situation the better equipped they will be to handle it. Diabetic eye disease is just such a case in point. We need to think of the whole person and not just the eyes when discussing diabetic education because diabetic complications run from eye disease, heart disease, nerve damage, kidney damage, etc. Although benfotiamine has been found useful for all of the above, for the sake of this article in terms of prevention, we will discuss diabetic eye disease in terms of diabetic retinopathy.
Diabetic Frozen Shoulder. An Explanation of The Frozen Shoulder - Diabetes Connection?
March 25, 2010
Diabetic frozen shoulder is a major problem. The pain and limited function that it causes can seriously limit the normal activities of day-to-day life. Frozen shoulder is much more common in diabetic patients and this article aims to explore the nature of the Frozen Shoulder ? Diabetes connection.
There are many ways that diabetes can affect the muscles and joints. Sugar sticks to the collagen in cells and affects its ability to function. Diabetes can damage blood vessels and a poor blood supply results in scarring and damage in the body’s elastic tissues.
We know that some diabetic patients can have problems with changes in the gristle of their hands - and in men, the penis. Most experts think that diabetic frozen shoulder arises for the same reasons
Diabetes is known to affect the shoulder in several ways. Diabetic frozen shoulder seems to be the commonest - with up to 20% of diabetic patients developing frozen shoulder at some time or other.
Calcium spots in the tendons and muscle around the shoulder are also seen more commonly in diabetic patients - this probably relates to the fact that high blood sugars can impair blood flow through small vessels. Tendons are particularly vulnerable to this and respond by depositing calcium. These calcium deposits can sometimes be painless but often cause severe discomfort or limited movement. They usually show up on x-rays.
Diabetic Fruits
February 23, 2010
Fruit gives you energy, vitamins, minerals, and fiber.
Examples of fruits which are recommended to Diabetics include:
? Bananas
? Apples
? Fruit Juices
? Strawberries
? Raisins
? Oranges
? Mango
? Guava
? Papaya
Basically, for diabetics,One small apple, one-half cup fruit juice, or one-half of a grapefruit all considered one serving of fruit each.
Some of the healthy ways to eat fruits:
? Eat fruits raw or cooked, as juice with no sugar added,canned in their own juice, or dried.
? Buy organic fruits, which are basically nutritious.
? Eat pieces of fruit rather than drinking fruit juice. Pieces of fruit are more filling and fibrous.
? Drink fruit juice in small amounts.
? Save high-sugar and high-fat fruit desserts such as peach cobbler or cherry pie for special occasions.
High in fibre and very low fat, fruit has many health benefits. This makes fruit a recommended source of carbohydrate for everyone but especially diabetics.
Diabetic Complications - Can Benfotiamine Help Prevent Them?
January 27, 2010
Diabetic complications contribute too many life threatening diseases globally. The root cause of diabetic complications is elevated glucose levels which contribute to blood vessel damage. Diabetic retinopathy, nephropathy, or neuropathy are caused by damage to small blood vessel in the eyes, nerves and kidneys, etc. The bottom line of this damage is the lowering of the life expectancy of millions of diabetics worldwide.
What Can Be Done About It?
Few therapies are available today that treat diabetic complications. Most healthcare professionals recommend that their patients monitor their blood sugar by taking several blood readings a day to determine the amount of sugar in their blood. Blood sugar readings are generally higher from one to two hours after a meal.
It is suggested by these professionals that keeping blood sugar readings as close to normal as possible will reduce the onset of diabetic complications. Research has shown that there are four, chemical pathways that lead to diabetic complications. Instead of trying to explain these rather difficult chemical pathways, let the reader understand that diabetic complications are mainly caused by excess sugar in the cells, a condition known by the term advanced glycation endproducts (AGE) formation.
Diabetic Neuropathy
December 29, 2009
Diabetic Neuropathy, a nerve disorder caused by diabetes, is characterized by a loss or reduction of sensation in the feet, and in some cases the hands, and pain and weakness in the feet. The symptoms of diabetic neuropathy vary. Numbness and tingling in feet are often the first sign. Some people notice no symptoms, while others are severely disabled. Neuropathy may cause both pain and insensitivity to pain in the same person. Conventional medicine offers little in the prevention or treatment of diabetic neuropathy, yet there is a great deal of information available which shows that the proper usage of dietary supplements can be of significant benefit.
Diabetes is associated with a fatty acid imbalance. In experimental models, essential fatty acid desaturation contributes to reductions in peripheral nerve conduction velocity and blood flow. This fatty acid imbalance may be corrected by dietary supplements that contain gamma-linolenic acid (GLA), such as borage oil.
Nerve conduction and perfusion deficits in diabetics have been corrected by a combination of antioxidant and gamma-linolenic acid (GLA) supplements.
Deficient and toxic neuropathies can be alleviated by improving lifestyle and dietary factors. The following combinations of nutritional supplements might be particularly effective:
Living Healthy with Diabetes
November 30, 2009
Diabetes affects around 16 million Americans and about 800,000 new cases are diagnosed each year. Diabetes attacks men, women, children and the elderly. It spares no race.
Diabetes is the leading cause of kidney failure, blindness in Adults and amputations. It is a major risk factor for heart disease, stroke, and birth defects and it shortens life expectancy by up to 15 years. So you can see what I am up against. It is up to me to make sure that none of these things ever happen to my daughter. My daughter Ashley has Diabetes Type 1. She will be 10 years old March 15th. Ashley has been a diabetic for 5 years.
