Diabetes Info

Food Pyramid for Diabetes

December 15th, 2007

The food pyramid, developed by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), is a research-based food guide, which helps Americans make the right food choices for good health.

 

The American Diabetics Association has strongly recommended this pyramid for diabetics. The diabetes food pyramid is not the same as the USDA food pyramid. It has been slightly modified to suit the special needs of diabetics. It groups foods on the basis of its carbohydrate and protein content, and not as mere classifications of food..

 

The diabetes food pyramid has six sections. The base illustrates the largest and the most important variety of food, and the top illustrates the smallest and the least important variety of food. The food pyramid is just a guide and not a set of rigid diet rules. The amount of food intake depends on the age, size, number of calories the person has to take each day, and the person’s goals.

 

The base of the pyramid is the most important for the diabetic. It contains carbohydrate rich foods, such as oats, wheat, rice, rye, peas, potatoes, lentils, and beans. The diabetic is recommended to take at least six to eleven servings from this group of food.

 

The second and third sections give equal importance to vegetables and fruits, which are a great source of fiber, nutrients, and vitamins. A diabetic has to take three to five servings of vegetables and two to four servings of fruit per day.

 

The fourth section is reserved for diary products that are rich in calcium and other minerals. If you are a diabetic, take two to three servings of this food group per day.

 

The fifth section comprises meat and meat products, which satisfy the body’s protein needs. Low fat sources of protein, such as lean red meat, chicken, or fish, are recommended for diabetics.

 

The last section contains the smallest variety of food, which the diabetic has to shun. The fats, sweets, alcoholic beverages, candy, cakes, and ice cream are found here, and these should be taken only one in a while. Daily intake is an absolute no-no.

 

You can download the diabetic food pyramid, print it, and paste it to the kitchen wall. It will serve as your faithful guide to healthy eating.

 

 

 

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Living With Diabetes

December 9th, 2007

Living with diabetes is not that easy. People, who have just learnt that they are diabetic, go through various stages of denial, anger, depression, and guilt. Yet, a good diabetes care plan goes a long way in helping you lead an active and happy life. 

Create a personalized meal plan: A personalized meal plan is very important to manage blood glucose, blood pressure, and cholesterol levels. You need to know the effects of various foods on your blood glucose level. Take the help of a health care professional and create a personalized meal plan. 

Regular checks: Take a yearly urine test for a protein called albumin in order to ensure that your kidneys are unaffected by diabetes. Get your eyes examined every year. Early treatment of eye problems can help you prevent serious conditions in future. Visit a dentist regularly to prevent serious infections in your teeth and gums. 

Skin care: Keep your skin clean and use skin softeners to combat dryness. Take special care so that minor cuts and bruises do not lead to major infections. 

Foot care: Diabetes reduces blood supply to your limbs, and this can cause numbness in your feet. Check your feet regularly for redness or patches. If you have sores, blisters, breaks in the skin, infection, or calluses, visit a podiatrist or your family physician immediately. 

Physical activity: Get at least thirty minutes of exercise everyday. A good meal plan and a good fitness program helps many people keep diabetes under control. 

In addition to the above, it is also very important to maintain normal body weight by being active and eating the right amounts of healthy food. If you are a smoker, quit smoking immediately. In many cases, diabetes gives rise to depression, anger, guilt, and stress. Do not hesitate to take the help of trusted family and friends to deal with these feelings. Keep track of the effectiveness of your diabetes care plan. Check blood glucose levels, blood pressure, and cholesterol levels on a regular basis. 

Many organizations, such as National Diabetes Education Program, American Diabetes Association, and National Diabetes Information Clearinghouse (NDIC), are mines of information and resources for diabetics, health care professionals, and the general public. 

 

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Pregnancy and Diabetes: What You Need to Know

November 29th, 2007

It has been estimated that out of every 100 women who are pregnant 3-8 women will suffer from  gestational diabetes. In most cases, the diabetes will disappear on having the baby. However the risk of having diabetes in future is still very much there.
Type 1 and 2 Diabetes vs. Gestational Diabetes

Gestational diabetes is a condition that is developed once a woman is pregnant. This symptom vanishes once the baby is born. However, the risk of procuring Type 2 diabetes is increased manifold. Type 1 and 2 diabetes conditions are formed in women who are not yet pregnant. If not curtailed or given treatment, Type 1 and 2 diabetes can cause birth defects to develop in the child to be born.

Side effects of gestational diabetes in pregnancy

When a woman has gestational diabetes it can result in defects in the baby such as an abnormally large head size, as well as other disorders. It can even complicate the process of labor and delivery for the mother and the child. A mother can control the formation of gestational diabetes just through proper diet and adequate exercise. However, in more serious cases the condition might necessitate insulin injections too. Many times excess sugar levels in the mother’s blood can result in the baby growing larger in size. This can cause difficulty in normal delivery and sometimes a caesarean operation might be needed.

Difficulty in diagnosis

The reason why gestational diabetes is so difficult to detect in pregnant mothers is because of the lack of definite symptoms. Most pregnant women suffer from the usual symptoms like thirstiness, urination and hunger pangs but these are symptoms typical of pregnancy as well. Hence detection becomes even more difficult.

How it affects the baby

• Gestational diabetes can result in a lower level of sugar in the baby’s body, a condition known as hypoglycaemia. The pancreas in the baby’s body continues to produce more insulin to respond to the high blood sugar amount in the mother.
• Sometimes jaundice can develop in the baby although this isn’t serious and disappears within a few weeks.
• Sometimes congenital defects like defects in the heart etc. may develop in the baby. At other times, the chances of giving birth to a stillborn baby are also increased.

Treatment and monitoring

It is essential to constantly monitor the condition of gestational diabetes in the pregnant mother. There are testing kits which help monitor the glucose levels in the mother’s blood. These can be used at home itself. During the first trimester of the pregnancy regular visits to the obstetrician is a must. Congenital defects will need to be monitored with an ultrasound during the second trimester,and during the last three months of pregnancy extra care needs to be taken.

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How Do You Detect Diabetes?

November 23rd, 2007

One of the main reasons diabetes remains one of the most difficult diseases to detect is because of its unusual symptoms. Most of the time symptoms go unnoticed simply because they are so common. If the condition is detected early on, it can be controlled successfully and also reduce the risk of complications. 

The urge to urinate

One of the earliest symptoms is excessive urination. If you have been drinking too much water and that’s what makes you visit the restroom several times a day, it could pass off as normal. This condition is so common that identifying it is extremely difficult.  

Feeling excessively thirsty

Water is great for our bodies. It cleanses the system, purifies the blood and is great for the skin too! In fact, it is the perfect beauty aid. But if you have been reaching for that bottle of water several times a day, then it may signal the onset of diabetes. The constant feeling of dryness in the throat as well as the need to keep drinking water is another common symptom that could indicate the presence of diabetes. 

Rapid loss in weight

You wake up every morning and step up on the weighing machine in your house. Of late you’ve been finding the scales going lower and lower – this in spite of the fact that your eating habits are the same as before. You might feel a sense of glory and achievement but you might want to keep it in check.  A major and unexplainable loss of weight is never a good sign.  If you have been losing weight rapidly over a short duration of time, it could indicate the early stages of diabetes. 

Irritable behavior

Have you been feeling bogged down by work lately? Do small things seem to irritate you more often? If you have been experiencing increasing spells of irritability, it could indicate an early stage of diabetes.  If you find your energy levels flagging, and are irritable most of the time, make sure to get a test done for Diabetes. 

 

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Diabetes in Children

November 20th, 2007

The incidence of Diabetes (common name Diabetes Mellitus) in little children is increasing at an alarming rate. Types of viruses like Coxsackie R or certain environmental factors can actually trigger a diabetic attack in children. Susceptibility to the disease is greatest during the initial primary schooling years or even during secondary schooling.  

Symptoms that help detect diabetes in your child

If your child complains of being thirsty most of the time, if there is a blurring in his or her vision or if there is numbness in the limbs, it could all indicate Diabetes. Many times decreased immunity levels in the child can lead to an increase in infections. Often wounds present on the body may take longer time to heal. Juvenile diabetes is often ignored simply because of the diversity of symptoms present and the commonality of these symptoms across children of all age groups and at varying levels of good health.  Very often these symptoms manifest themselves in disparate sets often leaving no set pattern to help in easy diagnosis. One day the symptom could be about feeling too hungry, the other day it could be blurred visions. The total lack of pattern and the sudden symptoms that appear all result in a failure to effectively diagnose this disease.  

Junk food and obesity – the biggest culprits

Fast food, lack of exercise and constant television viewing has all resulted in an increasing instance of diabetes in small children. The absence of healthy foods like green vegetables and salads or fruits along with the increased intake of canned food has resulted in increasing sugar levels in the body. It is estimated that more than 90% of children with diabetes aged less than 16 suffer from Type 1 diabetes.  

Injecting the insulin

As sad as it may sound, many children have to cope with daily injections to regularize insulin levels in the body. The pen injector is a popular choice these days and to avoid fatty deposits in the body the injection is usually rotated around fatty areas of the body. Blood sugar levels need to be monitored as many as four times daily to detect dipping or increasing sugar levels in the child’s body. With a pin prick on the tip of the finger the blood is extracted and with kind of specialized gadgets available these days, sugar levels can be monitored quite easily. Diabetes can be a painful and tedious disease to live with, especially for a child, but there are methods to curtail the progress of the disease so the child can live a healthy normal life. 

 

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Types of Diabetes

November 15th, 2007

Diabetes Mellitus, a chronic condition resulting from insufficient release of the insulin hormone in the body and hence leading to a high blood sugar level, is caused due to a number of factors such as sedentary lifestyle, hereditary and genetic factors, age of the person, nutritional intake etc. The result, however, varies from severity of the condition. Accordingly, there are three types of diabetes that may attack a person.

Type 1 Diabetes is a condition where the body stops producing the insulin essential to manage the blood sugar levels of the body. This is so because the glucose is not being absorbed by the cells, which is the main function of insulin, and is only building up in the bloodstream. This is also called juvenile diabetes but can also occur to adults. If not treated properly, it Read the rest of this entry »

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Symptoms of Diabetes

November 10th, 2007

Diabetes can and often does go undiagnosed because the symptoms can seem harmless and oftentimes normal. In both the known classes of diabetes, signs and symptoms are more likely to be similar. This is because the blood sugar is high, either due to less production of insulin, or no production or insulin resistance as the case may be. Either ways, if there is inadequate glucose in the cells, it can be identified through certain indicators. These symptoms are quickly relieved once the Diabetes is treated and also reduce the chances of developing into more serious stages and other branching health problems.

Diabetes Type 1

In type 1, the pancreas stop producing insulin. Due to the subsequent lack of that insulin, body cells do not get enough glucose for producing ATP (Adenosine Triphosphate) units which develops into the main symptom, in the form of nausea Read the rest of this entry »

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Causes of Diabetes

November 5th, 2007

The functioning of the human body depends heavily on the production of a hormone called insulin by the pancreas. If enough insulin isn’t produced, or when the insulin produced isn’t effective enough, the level of glucose in the body does not get regulated. This, at a very basic level, is the medical condition known as diabetes mellitus, or just diabetes.Type 1 diabetes

In Type 1 diabetes the insulin producing cells in the pancreas damaged or destroyed, resulting in lack of insulin. Ordinarily, it is the result of the body’s immune system attacking its own cells in the pancreas - known as an autoimmune Read the rest of this entry »

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Myths about Diabetes

November 1st, 2007

Diabetes is caused by poor and inadequate secretion of the insulin hormone, hence leading to improper absorption of glucose from the food, thereby reducing the energy levels in a person. This is a main cause of Type 1 diabetes where the cells that produce insulin are attacked in the body’s immune system.

It is said that diabetes, or hyperglycemia, in a person is hereditary in nature, and the presence of the disease in the family (blood relationship) enhances the chances of a person from suffering from it as well. This is quite true especially in Type 2 diabetes where there is a string genetic link of suffering from the disease. There are other reasons too that may inflict this condition on a person. Some of the most common causes are overeating, poor nutrition, sedentary lifestyle, obesity, Read the rest of this entry »

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