Diabetes Diet Informations

Diabetes is a major concern nowadays, especially since if left untreated, it can cause massive complications to a person's health. For example, pregnant women who have been previously diagnosed with gestational diabetes run the risk of having type 2 diabetes, which may also affect the child they are carrying.

What is gestational diabetes?

Gestational diabetes is a condition wherein pregnant women have a hard time producing and using insulin. If untreated, this could result in the child being exposed to too much glucose, leading to an overly large baby upon delivery. The size of the child is also a cause for complications in gestation. Later on, the mother as well as the child may develop type 2 diabetes.

Treatment for gestational diabetes

Gestational diabetes is often tracked during the 6th month or 24th week of pregnancy. Gestational diabetes may be subdivided into two types, type A1 and type A2. Type A1 is muchlike type 2 diabetes, which can be controlled through various lifestlye changes. However, type A2 requires additional insulin treatment. Those who suffer from the condition are expected to adhere to a strict meal plan, preferably prepared by a dietitian. Regular physical activity is also prescribred, although it may be moderated to short walks.

Routine check-ups for blood pressure and blood sugar are also prescribed. Bear in mind that gestational diabetes can affect your health long after birth, even though the condition dissapears after delivery. This is why expectant mothers should be very careful with their health to ensure that of the child they are carrying.

Over the years, science has continually studied diabetes and how to successfully treat the condition. Symptoms as well as its various characteristics have been diagnosed, resulting in two basic types: type 1 and type 2 diabetes.

Diabetes type 1 and type 2

Diabetes type 1 is also known as juevenile-onset diabetes or insulin dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM). This is the condition wherein the pancreas is no longer capable of creating insulin. Hence, it cannot be treated by changes in the diet and those who have it would need insulin injections to be able to regulate glucose. On the other hand, type 2 Diabetes can be controlled through lifestlye changes. The most common type of diabetes, it occurs when the body stops accepting the insulin discharged by the pancreas. The most common reason for type 2 diabetes is a high-sugar diet combined with lack of exercise.

Gestational diabetes

This type of diabetes occurs during pregnancy, wherein the mother loses the ability to use her own insulin due to the hormones released by the placenta. Although gestational diabetes goes away once the mother gives birth, it is still important to treat the condition for the sake of the child. This is because gestational diabetes often exposes the fetus to too much glucose, resulting in an overly fat child that runs the risk of diabetes type 2 when grown to adulthood.

Diabetes is a lifelong condition that can be controlled, especially with the recent developments in medicinal science nowadays. However, it can also be avoided by some, provided that they stick to a proper diet and enough phy sical activity.

Treating diabetes is not just about taking pills and hoping for the best. It involves a number of factors that must be taken into consideration to effectively control any problems that may be caused by the condition. Aside from treatment methods like aromatherapy, acupuncture and sometimes even yoga, here are some of the alternative treatments for diabetes.

Supplements

Some supplements that are being viewed today as an alternative medicine for diabetes include magnesium and vanadium. Magnesium is said to be linked to insulin secretion abnormalities that may ultimately cause complications in diabetes. Vanadium on the other hand is derived from plant sources. However, both are still being studied and are not formally recommended as a supplement for people with diabetes.

Plant food

Plants foods that have been confirmed to help with type 2 diabetes include peas, okra, buckwheat and sage. Other green vegetables are also believed to be effective, which is not surprising since these primary producers contain the most fiber which are essential in controlling glucose levels in our blood.

Although research regarding medicines for diabetes continue, the time proven method of healthy living seems to be the most effective. There are many recommended diets for people with diabetes, with most of them containing fresh and healthy food products while continually staying off processed foods. However, keep in mind that experimenting with any type of alternative medicine should only be done with the approval of doctors to avoid risking your health.

Although diet changes are important when it comes to dealing with diabetes, there are a lot of foods that patients can still eat.

Types of foods suitable for diabetic individuals

Diabetics need food that have a low glycemic index, high protein content, rich in fiber, and low in saturated and trans fats. Processed foods are not ideal for diabetic patients.

Simple desserts for diabetics

Simple fruit desserts are the perfect desserts for diabetic patients. Lists of diabetic-friendly desserts, as well as recipes for diabetic-friendly meals are also available online.

Tips in sticking to a diabetes-friendly diet

There are many ways to stick to a diabetic-friendly diet. Knowing what you can eat and eating foods in moderation is the best way to stick to a diet that will not worsen your disease. Many have found out that total restriction actually backfires, and that it is more effective to eat food in smaller portions. This will allow you to include a small amount of sweets in your diet without having to compromise your health.

A diagnosis of diabetes is far from a death sentence. However, changes in lifestyle are needed in order to stay healthy and to avoid the complications that may arise out of this disease.

Sticking to a diabetes-friendly diet

Sticking to a diabetic-friendly diet is one of the main changes that you can expect to do when diagnosed with the disease. A diet like this is composed of low glycemic foods, fiber-rich foods, and foods that are high in protein. You will also need to avoid foods high in saturated and trans fats as hypertension also commonly occurs with the disease.

Desserts for diabetics

Fortunately, diabetics do not have to go off desserts for good. There are a lot of desserts, like fruit salads, salads with yogurt, fruit and banana cakes, and the like that are advised for diabetics. You can go online for healthy dessert recipes tailored for diabetics.

Exercise activities for diabetics

Diabetics also have to make a few changes in the way they exercise. Special foot protection is important when exercising since improper footwear can lead to blisters. Also avoid exercises that require heavy lifting. Always start slow and stretch before doing any kind of exercise.

If you are looking for information about diabetes and diet tips for diabetic patients, the Internet offers a vast resource of articles on the topic. From basic information to step-by-step instructions on how to care for diabetic patients, you can usually find what you are looking for in trusted online websites.

Online diabetes-friendly recipes

There are lots of recipes that cater to the dietary restrictions of diabetic patients. You can make a quick search using search engines like Yahoo or Google for recipes created with the diabetic diet in mind.

Diabetes organizations with websites

The websites of diabetes organizations are also available and easy to find online. For a comprehensive list, look up directories of diabetic organizations that categorize organizations according to non-profits, voluntary, governmental, and private groups.

Other reliable online diabetes resources

Other online sources for information on the disease include official medical websites, the websites of government organizations, health research centers and hospitals, and websites maintained by health professionals. You can also check online medical journals for more information about the disease.

My favorite neighbor Mrs. Lindbergh has type two diabetes. For several years, she has suffered from this disease. She told me that her love for sweet desserts like delicious Mango Pudding and chocolate chip cookies caused her diabetes. After years of treating and battling her type two diabetes, there are only a few improvements on the health condition of Mrs. Lindbergh. In fact, her left kidney failed because of diabetes. We are all so sad to hear that her health slowly falling apart. I also felt sad because whenever there's a neighborhood party, Mrs. Lindbergh can't eat a lot of delicious food that she likes since it's forbidden.

Last night when I was browsing the internet, I came across an article about low fat vegan's diet for diabetic people. In the article, it says there that the researchers discovered that the standard diet is less effective for diabetic people. They highly recommend that they follow low fat vegan's diet. It's healthy and good for people. Whoever follows this will lose fats and cholesterol. It can also help control your blood sugar.

After I read this article, I immediately went to my neighbor and let her read this article. I told her to consult her doctor and ask him whether she can take the low fat vegan's diet. Her doctor told her that it's okay for her to follow this type of diet. I was so happy to find out that there's still hope for my favorite neighbor.

I have a friend who weighs around two hundred pounds and above. Even though, she doesn't like to eat sweets and other pastries involving sugar, she has diabetes. We were all shocked by this news because we didn't see this coming. In fact, my friend has never in her life imagined that she will get this illness. When I narrated this story to my cousin who is a doctor, she told me that being overweight can increase the risk of having this disease. So as early as now, you can determine if you'll develop diabetes in the near future by looking at the weighing scale.

Dr. K.M. Venkat Narayan, the chief epidemiologist in the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention discovered in their studies that three out of four eighteen-year-old men will develop diabetes, while only thirty-five percent of eighteen-year-old women will develop diabetes in their lifetime. On the other hand, people with normal weight are also likely to develop this risk although the percentage is much lower for them. When I read about this stuff, I've realized that whether I'm too fat or just average, I'm still prone to developing type two diabetes.

I read an article in the internet about the connection of weight or BMI to the risk of diabetes. I printed the article using my laser jet 1600 printer so that my friends can read it. Based from the article, there's no clear explanation as to how being overweight can increase your chances of developing diabetes. The assumption is that fats can hinder the production of insulin. Insulin is responsible for converting sugar to energy. When I read the article, I was scared because I'm a little overweight. Whether the study is proven or not, the best way to prevent diabetes is to avoid eating super sweet pastries.

I'm a coffee junkie. My mother often tells me to stop drinking coffee because it's bad for my health. She keeps blabbing that it can increase my blood pressure and can make me look old because of caffeine. I refuse to believe her. Drinking coffee is still routine for me, especially when I found out recently that coffee can reduce the risk of diabetes in women. I've read this in the Internet. I even printed out a copy for my mother, using our new Hewlett Packard printer. After reading this, she drinks more than four cups a day of coffee.

Researcher Mark A. Pereira and his team discovered that women who drink more than six cups of coffee each day are more likely to develop a type two diabetes. Type Two diabetes, as we all know, occurs in middle age. But in the researches made by Pereira and company, it is found out that antioxidant is the anti-reducing element in coffee that prevents type two diabetes and not caffeine. Accordingly, it's better to drink decaf as it reduces the chances of getting type two diabetes. In the statistics, twenty-percent diabetes reduction can only be reduced when you drink coffee. On the other hand, thirty-three percent can be reduced if it's decaf. Incidentally., antioxidants protect the beta cells of pancreas from damages.

Rob van Dam, a researcher in Pereira's team had discovered in 2003 that the chlorogenic acid in coffee is good for the body. He observes that chlorogenic acid can lower the absorption sugar by the cells. In this way, the risk of getting diabetes will be greatly reduced. Although, Van Dam admits that this area should be further explore by experimenting on humans to understand fully the benefits of drinking coffee. With studies about the pros of drinking coffee in one's health, people are advised to drink and coffee not as a wake-up drink but for their own health as well.

He's a diabetic dude or he's nothing. I'm talking about my junior high classmate, Nick, who's as sickly as any tiny fellow can get. Diabetes runs in his family, but the symptoms never show up until in the early twenties, as in the case of his pretty twin sisters. He, on the other hand, had been pissing in his pants 24/7 ever since he was in third grade. When the student club members carried lunch boxes with Oreo and spaghetti, he won't join the potluck. Sometimes, he was branded the low-carb Johnny.

Don't ever believe anyone who says diabetes is contagious. It was a childhood myth we all loved to nurse in our stupid noggins. Nick didn't spread the disease, but classmates had spread the scuttlebutt that this lone fella was sick and therefore, we should all keep a wide berth. In reality, diabetes is truly safe - at least, to us who ate Oreos and spaghetti and didn't have diabetics in our families, nor lived with diabetic patients.

It was only later in high school that we learned about Type 1 diabetes. This type of "D" can still be cured, according to Nick's physician, as long as the glucose level in the body is maintained. Back then, the Biology teacher used to call Nick out in the front to lecture about the importance of insulin in the body. We would yawn, of course, but it would be another ten minutes before Nick shocked the whole class. He had later developed Type 2 diabetes, and now we see him in sunbathing in his lawn, strapped in his wheelchair.

I don't know if diabetics (especially those who cannot afford costly treatment without income support benefits) would consider it great news to know that it is now possible to transfer the islet-cell from a donor's body to the diabetic patient. But I do know that the process can get icky, since there's always the possibility that the diabetic will reject the beta-cell that is transplanted to his body. This can only occur if the diabetic patient does not undergo follow-up treatment, which usually takes months after the first transplant operation.

In order for the diabetic's body not to reject the new islet cells from a donor, the doctors would have to inject immunosuppressant drugs such as Rapamume. This drug will eventually be the new lifeblood of the Type-1 patient, since the moment he stops taking in immunosuppressants, his body will react on the foreign islets that have been injected on him. This would result in more complication instead of an increased survival rate.

Because only Type-1 diabetics are allowed to undergo this type of treatment, there is so much hope for children dependent on insulin. The question is, is there any difference between taking insulin and getting transplants if it meant getting attached to a lifelong drug treatment anyway? Annie, my former college classmate who is now undergoing the islet-cell transplant operation, says yes. Insulin treatment requires measurement, monitoring, and other tedious tasks day in and day out. Beta cell or islet transplant demands less work on the patient's part.

The first time I heard the term "polyuria", I wasn't scared. I felt that it was a little too tame a name for something that keeps a person occupied with his bodily fluids 24/7. When I was doing interviews with people who had diabetic symptoms back in New Orleans, the word itself struck fear among the patients. Imagine visiting the omnipresent public bathroom every 15 minutes or so, pissing a saucerful, and then going to the kitchen to get something to drink. Polyuria and polydipsia go together.

There was one patient that actually fell on the floor one time and just writhed. I imagined it was a possible episode of epilepsy, but it wasn't. The loss of calcium resulted in his violent spasms. The scary thing about this urinating excessively is that it causes a disturbance in the body chemistry. This symptom, along with excessive drinking, springs from the brain, the kidneys, and the fluids in the body. It may begin from as early as infancy.

A person who is urinating excessively has compounds in the bodily fluid that causes this nonstop release of water. Also, if there is any disease in the kidney, there is loss of control over the fluid release. The pituitary gland in the brain controls the urine flow from the kidneys - but polyuria destroys this ability to control the urinary tendencies. My brother once joked that if anyone among us suffers from polyuria, there should always be a constant supply of tampon and diapers in the backpack.

Before diabetes, there were only healthy episodes of nighttime sleep. I could snooze right on the sofa in front of the tube when the shows get a little boring, and wake up finding myself still dressed the way I was yesterday. It's not like this anymore. Before bedtime, there's always the necessary glucose test before sleep, and in the wee hours of the morning, often at 3 am. Also, there's the constant watch on the carbs that I eat at night. This means special pasta dishes that are made specifically for diabetics like me.

If I don't do this, I'd be experiencing the deadly Somogyi effect again. I'd been to the Diabetic Information Center and learned a lot about diabetic terms I wasn't familiar before. The DIC is a great place to be educated so you can fend for yourself when the doctor couldn't come to your rescue. I've learned the hard way that if I don't watch out for my glucose level, I'm going to rebound. Sometimes it happens because of what I ate, or sometimes it just happens with some medicines I take.

The Somogyi effect, according to the DIC, can spring from an instance of low level of blood sugar or what they call hypoglycemia. All humans metabolize sugars and release hormones in the body when the glucose supply is depleted. The trouble with diabetics is that the body produces epinephrine and glucagon - hormones that cause imbalance in the glucose level of the patients. If I don't check my BSL anytime during the dawn, I might vomit and be so thirsty when I wake up because of hyperglycemia, something that's very dangerous to me.