Useful Advice On How To Lower Blood Sugar

Ellen

Blood sugar may sound like an unusual term if you have not heard of it before but it is very important in regards to our health. It is simply the level of glucose that is found in the blood of a person which abnormally high and low levels of blood sugar can create problems. Talking about high blood sugar we need to know what exactly it is. It is the presence of sugar glucose in the blood in higher quantities than normal. The glucose then gets transferred to the urine making the urine a little sugary.

It is important that you do not let your blood sugar level reach a high level as it may lead to many complications. To help you with that the following are some ways on how to lower your blood sugar.

Eating the right kind of meals will help you out immensely and keep your blood sugar in check and at optimum levels as required by your body. Fruits and vegetables are preferable to lower the level since they take a little bit of time to be completely digested. They work in keeping your blood sugar in check even for diabetic patients. Everyone normally has the tendency of eating three times a day in large portions but you would be better off breaking down the meal portions and eating four to five times a day instead. Staying fit is another good way to keep the blood sugar in check. I recommend working out daily in order to keep the metabolism of your body going. If you want to lower the glucose content in your blood then an early morning workout before breakfast is very useful. This method is as useful as taking medicines itself. What you need to understand is that diabetes is seen to affect obese people more and working out will keep those extra pounds in check and indirectly decrease the risk of diabetes.

Caffeinated drinks should be totally avoided since they contain a lot of sugar and carbohydrates. While taking medication for other health problems make sure you check with your doctor because over the counter pills can work against you since many of them might increase your blood sugar level. The reason for increased blood sugar level is not the same for everyone, the metabolism activity differs from person to person. I recommend going to the clinic and finding the exact reason for your increasing blood sugar levels because high levels of stress are also known to increase the blood sugar levels. Make a note of all of these things because sometimes the smallest change can make the biggest difference in your overall health.

How To Lower Blood Sugar Quickly

Ellen

You can easily obtain high levels of sugar in the blood level by living an unhealthy lifestyle. This condition, also known as hyperglycemia, causes the glucose level in the body to fluctuate and increase temporarily. Severe conditions of high sugar levels can cause other health issues that are more dangerous and serious such as infections, blood problems or the inability to heal fast. Therefore, it is vital to stay informed and to practice prevention steps against high blood sugar level.

Some of the general symptoms that you can look out for include these: Frequent urination and during sleep, dry and itchy skin, fatigue, weight loss and thirst.Upon severity, you may experience dizziness that could leave to unconsciousness.

With that said, how could maintain a lower sugar level in your blood? Just like many other conditions, it is important to maintain a healthy lifestyle always. Regular and consistent exercise is so helpful in keeping the body balanced in so many ways. Many people think that exercising is too much of a hassle or an inconvenience. However, the amount of exercise that the body needs is only approximately 30 minutes a day. So there really isn’t an excuse that could be used against it. Lack of exercise can lead to an increase in weight as well which slows down many processes in the body, including the process of food sugars in the blood.

Another good way to keep away from high blood sugar is to eat smart. Not only would you want to eat balanced meals, but certain foods can maintain lower sugar levels in blood. Food items with such properties would include fruits and vegetables as they are slowest to digest. Grains are also great food items to consider in your diet plan. These food will remain in the digestive systems to keep the hyperglycemic body in control when everything else goes out of control. Another kind of food that seems to be very helpful in reducing blood sugar levels is cinnamon. You could be creative with your cooking and include cinnamon in your daily cooking. Besides eating healthy and keeping an eye out for special food, you could also consider eating in small portions throughout the day. This would mean having about 4 to 5 meals a day rather than 3 large and heavy portioned meals.

Just as the name of the condition proposes, abstaining from excessive dosages of sugar is highly important. In this unhealthy age and generation, it is very easy to lose track of your daily sugar intake and consume more than what the body requires. To avoid any mishaps that may occur with blissful indulgence, you should always check the ingredients and the properties of your food before eating. Always strive to eat healthy. Remember, we eat to live and not live to eat.

Another aspect of health that some people tend to neglect and forget at the same time is the mind. Our latest enemy, stress, is strongly prevalent among today’s generation. This sparks so many other problems because when bad stress kicks in the mind, the body is weak and finds it difficult to fight for control. Therefore, to maintain a low blood sugar level in the body, you should learn to live a healthy mind as well.

When all is healthy, life is golden because as the saying goes, the greatest wealth is health.

Low Blood Sugar Symptoms

Ellen

Low blood sugar, otherwise called hypoglycemia, is a problem that is incredibly common in people. While many people are known for having low blood sugar, it is rarely an illness that is without other illnesses acting with it. Typically, it influences people who are either very young or very old, but it has been known to have an effect on people of all different ages. Hypoglycemia, generally, is defined as a serum glucose level below 70mg/dL.

When the serum glucose level drops below 50mg/dL in blood, there begins to be damage in the brain. The reason for this is the fact that glucose is the energy for the body. So many of the body’s functions require glucose so when the blood sugar is low, it can be problematic. To regulate the body’s blood, it uses hormones such as insulin to ensure that blood sugar is not too high. On the flip side, to produce more glucose, the body uses glucagon to make more from food.

Symptoms of Low Blood Sugar

There are typically three stages of symptoms for those that have hypoglycemia. The first set is very typical symptoms of lots of different illnesses, so it can be difficult to pinpoint it. It is important, though, to ensure that stage two is caught because stage three is death.

  • Trembling
  • Clamming Skin
  • Palpitations
  • Anxiety
  • Sweating
  • Hunger
  • Irritability

If you are consistently hungry even after eating very large meals, there might be something that is not being processed (the glucose) and it is important to get that checked out. Once the brain begins to lose out on glucose, the following symptoms can begin to appear:

  • Difficulty making thoughts and getting thoughts out
  • Confusion
  • Headaches
  • Seizures
  • Coma

The simple truth is that glucose is necessary for the body. Without it, the body cannot produce energy. The way it works is simple. The body takes glucose and through different cell processes known as the Kreb Cycle and electron transport, the body turns that glucose into ATP which can then be used as energy. Without glucose, there is no ATP. Without ATP, organs begin to die. Once the brain begins to die, there is no going back.

After the coma has gone on for quite some time and there have been consistent periods of time where the individual is unconscious, the chronic hypoglycemia might result in death. Because of this, it is imperative that the individual go to the doctor when they begin noticing the symptoms described in phase one. Going to the doctor too early is better than going too late.

American Diabetes Association Diet

Ellen

For a diabetic, healthy food and nutritious diet is very important. The American Diabetes Association Diet has been recommended for all the diabetic patients all over the country by the ADA. These diet guidelines are very helpful to the patients as they ensure that they are eating healthy foods. The detailed information of the required vitamins and minerals are also provided by the ADA diet.

The American Diabetes Association has noticed that the food taken by the diabetic patients in their routine diet consists from the 4 groups of food items. One of the groups is proteins containing food such as eggs, fish, meat, nuts, poultry, dried beans and peanut butter. The other group is of the dairy products like skim milk, low fat milk, yogurt and cottage cheese. There is another group of breads, whole grains and cereals. The last group contains fruits and vegetables.
If all the diabetic patients follow their daily diet according to the American Diabetes Association Diet as mentioned above, then they can receive maximum nutrients which help to maintain good health. Most of the food items contain important nutrients such as proteins, vitamins, carbohydrates, fats and minerals.

As suggested by the American Diabetes Association Diet, the carbohydrates are the best sources that provide good amount of energy to the body. There have been two types of carbohydrates – good and bad. The items like lentils, beans, cereals and whole grains are included in the good carbohydrates.

The intake of proteins is also very essential for proper and healthy growth of the body. They help in maintaining the blood glucose level. If a person is having low level of blood glucose, then intake of proteins as well as carbohydrates is advisable. The carbohydrates help to increase the level of blood glucose whereas the proteins maintain the level of glucose in the blood and do not allow falling down.
As per the American Diabetes Association Diet, the fibrous food products as well as the food containing low index of glycemic are considered to be healthy for the diabetic patients. Peas, beans, whole grains and many such are included in the fibrous foods which help to reduce the levels of blood glucose and blood fats. The diet recommended by ADA also contains fats but in appropriate quantities.
There are certain things to be avoided which have been listed in the ADA diet. The food products containing high amount of fats should be avoided. Try to choose the meat that has low level of fat content. Olive oil and flax oil are advisable to be used for cooking. The diabetic patients should drink milk having low fats rather than drinking the whole milk. Make sure to remove the chicken skin before eating.
Try to avoid the diet that contains high amount of salt. The considerable amount of sodium in the diet is useful. While using the canned soups, ensure the ingredients of salt. The intake of sugar is totally eliminated from the ADA diet. The diabetic patients should not consume sugar coated cereals, syrup, table sugar, soda packed in cans etc.

Beginning Signs of Diabetes

Ellen

Diabetes is one of the most common problems all over the world and it is inevitable when people reach certain age. Knowing the beginning signs of diabetes is very much helpful in preventing diabetes. Obese and overweight are some of the major causes of this massive disease.

There are two types of diabetes and they are type I and type II. Children are the main victims of type I diabetes and adults are the main victims for type two diabetes. The signs are more or less same in both the types. The major cause of the diabetes is insufficient insulin from pancreas that increases the blood sugar level.

Losing weight is one of the major beginning signs of diabetes. Without undergoing the exercise or diet plans if weight loss happens then it should consider closely because it may bring potential major risks of diabetes.

Remember healthy weight loss prevent diabetes but at the same time losing weight by diabetes leads to great risks. Since weight loss is a common problem and less serious condition most of the people are not aware that it indicates diabetic risks and so they fail to take proper attention. With the result they need to face risky consequences later.

Becoming thirsty and feeling thirsty all the times is also the major beginning signs of diabetes. If a person faces this situation constantly then it is advisable to consider this problem very seriously to avoid high-factor risks. This particular sign comes under type II diabetes.

Frequent urination is another major sign of diabetes in the beginning stage, especially urinating very often in night-time. At the same time, sometimes people urinate very often without drinking water.

When people feel thirsty it is obvious that they drink plenty of water. When they drink plenty of water again it is very much obvious that they urinate very often. Thus, these two major signs have the bond between them.

Apart from these symptoms, sudden feelings of dry mouth gum, constant bad breath and gum disease and other mouth related problems are also the beginning signs of diabetes. When people experience such type of problems it is advisable to visit doctor and take initial screening tests as soon as possible.

Having sudden problems with the vision like blurred vision is also another major beginning signs of diabetes. This problem comes under type I diabetes and it requires medications.

Some more signs of diabetes in the beginning stage are – heredity problems, which can spotted in many family histories, sudden dryness of the skin or feeling the itchiness constantly is also the beginning signs. Apart from that being fatigue is also the major sign. If a sore take long time to heal process then it is also consider being the major symptom or sign of diabetes in the early stage.

To prevent the risks of diabetic, people should aware of these beginning signs of diabetes. Remember detecting the problems in the early stage always has the potential not only to prevent the side effects of diabetes but it also helps to treat the disease with ease.

Causes of Diabetes

Ellen

Diabetes (type 2), in simple terms, is when the insulin produced in the body fails to make proper use of it due to which the level of glucose in the blood increases. At this time, the body is said to be resistant to insulin. The other situation for diabetes is insufficient production of insulin in the body. This results in the deposition of sugar in the blood because glucose is not converted into energy which acts as the fuel for the body (type 1).

It has been very difficult to find the exact causes of diabetes, even though many research projects have been done. Some factors have been found which can cause diabetes. These factors when detected should be immediately treated properly.

One of the basic causes of diabetes is poor or improper diet. The diet containing high amount of fats and carbohydrates is not harmful to the body but it hinders the functioning of the pancreas. Due to this, the generation of insulin in the pancreas reduces which in turn increases the level of blood sugar thereby becoming the victim of diabetes.

Obesity is also considered to be one of the major causes of diabetes. There is a dysfunction of insulin in the person suffering from obesity because the tissue cells are resistant to insulin.
Diabetes can even be caused due to heavy stress or tensions. People suffer from different types of stress. Heavy work load and hectic schedules make the life of a person very busy and stressful. There can be emotional stress in the life of people. All these disturb the metabolism of the body. More worries and nervousness can also affect the blood sugar level which can cause diabetes. The rise in the blood pressure due to hypertension has proved to be directly affecting the diabetes.

Frequent smoking has worse effects on the body causing diabetes. Such smokers can also be affected by the diabetic retinopathy which is a disease affecting the eyes.
The person having inactive lifestyle has more chances of contracting with the diabetes. Such person should make a habit of doing the exercises for three or more times in a week in order to release from the contract of diabetes.

Age factor has been one of the causes of diabetes. Nowadays, diabetes is found in any age group of people but, mostly found in middle age and old age due to less practice of exercises.
From various research studies, diabetes has been found to be a hereditary disease. There are more chances of the child inheriting diabetes if both parents are diabetic.

There have been no answers for the question of why the pancreas sometimes stops secreting insulin in the body. But, one of the possible causes of diabetes is the infections in the pancreas which affects the production of insulin. It has been found that virus can attack the pancreas which affects the cells producing insulin. The stomach viruses as well as the bacteria are responsible for various kinds of damages which enable the ability to transmit proper signals to the liver. Such types of pathogens are usually found in the food products containing high amount of sugar. Glucose is also the best food for these micro-organisms.

Diabetes and Stevia

Ellen

Stevia is a shrub found in South America with leaves that are being used a source of artificial sweetener in Brazil and Paraguay along with Japan and many other countries since centuries now. Diabetes and Stevia are closely linked. Basically this herb is low in calories, which is the reason for it being used as an important source of sugar. It’s often used as non-insulin activator as a sweetener. The shrub cannot be used directly or poured into the food as it is. It is used in the form of sugar only. Variety of brands are using stevia in the form of sugar for creating false sweet in whatever it may be used with. The taste is almost like the natural sugar but with less harm which is a precaution to be maintained by a diabetic patient.

Every company uses Stevia in different forms. The contents and ingredients used inside them vary in accordance with the variations in the production processes and demands that they focus on in the market. This is connected with the requirements of the society too. In some products, there would be a sort of bitterness after the taste which is sometimes the result of process which extracting the defects of the herb. Now this entirely depends on the company’s systems and processes. They need to be highly careful about maintaining the quality of their product. Only with best quality control systems, efficient products can be developed and maintained in the market. Sweeter taste is not only sufficient enough, it’s really very necessary to develop a product with no bitterness kind of taste afterwards.
Diabetes and stevia are connected in a way that the diabetes patient is not allowed to have sugar whereas stevia supports the requirement by providing the necessary taste and with no side effects. FDA approval is required for the product which is being used as sweetener. With this support, the product gets recognition of safety which is required with its use. Since quite a long time now people have started understanding this connection and diabetes and stevia both have be accepted by the society. It’s better to take precautions that undergo losses; this fact rests on the truth that stevia as sweetener can help in protecting the person to much greater extent. Use of stevia in any type of food variety reduces the risk attached with the disease and protects the person from other disorders too.

Best brands have come ahead in the task of supporting diabetes and stevia by creating effective products to save the life of people that are already affected and also those who are under the risk. Saving yourself beforehand is the best technique. While preparing food, one should be very much conscious about the health and problematic situations that are being detected among people. Do not eat high sugar food and even if you are eating, make sure you are using the best substitute as sugar with good quality processing with the use of stevia. Create a diet chart for yourself and be careful, rest would be taken care by alternative solutions.

Diabetes Diet

Ellen

For a diabetes sufferer, it is very important to follow the instructions provided by the doctor regarding proper diabetes diet.

Here is a list of the food items that should be avoided by diabetics.

Sugar, honey and artificial sweeteners are the foods that come first in the list of avoidance for a diabetic. It is allowed to take a sweetener named stevia. It is actually very impossible to remove sugar from your routine diet, so it is recommended to gradually decrease the level of it from your diet.
Try to avoid chocolates and sweets completely. In case you wish to eat them, then opt for the continental dark chocolate which contains 70% of the cocoa solids and neglect the chocolates that contain high amount of sugars.

For a good diabetes diet, the food items containing carbohydrates ending with “ol” or “ose” like glucose, fructose, dextrose and many more should be avoided. Do not take biscuits, cakes, tarts, wheat, rice, barley, breakfast cereals, corn, pasta, bread and similar items in order to control the diabetes. There are some vegetables containing high amount of carbohydrates and starch such as carrots, potatoes, beet, beans, parsnips, peas and such.
The diabetic patient needs to avoid fruits such as banana, mangoes, water melon, grapes, sugarcane, jackfruit, strawberry and chikoos.

Regarding the milk products, it is advisable to take the milk in very small quantity. Cheese and yogurts should not be taken by the diabetic as they contain a large amount of fat. Make a habit of taking considerable amount of tea or coffee as well as the required quantity of sugar so that the sugar level in your body does not get increased.
The diabetic should not prefer to take junk foods or snacks available outside. Such food items have much more amount of calories.
Fruit juices are also not advisable in the diabetes diet as they contain high amounts of carbohydrates. If you really love to drink fruit juices, then take one part of the fruit juice and mix 3-4 parts of water in it to reduce the content of sugar.

The diabetic should not prefer saturated fats like dairy products, fatty meat, butter and many such fat containing products. You require unsaturated fats such as corn oil, soya oil, sunflower oil, or olive oil.

You might ask yourself — if the above food items are not suitable for the diabetic patient, then are there any food items left to eat? The answer is yes. The most important thing to be precise while preparing a diabetes diet — you should distribute the fruits, vegetables and other food items according to the levels of sugar, fat and carbohydrates.

Diabetes Research

Ellen

The American Diabetes Association has been working hard to try to find a way to help cure the people who suffer from diabetes. Diabetes, or diabetes mellitus to be exact, is known and believed to be a deathly disease that is triggered or caused by excessive sugar in the human body. People who suffer from diabetes possess a large quantity of blood sugar which the cells of the blood are not capable of taking in. And when these people get wounded, it is hard for them to stop bleeding and so it is hard for the wound to recover.

Concerning the horrible effect that can be brought by the diabetes mellitus disease, there are a number of institutions out there that are trying to find out more facts on this diabetes disease by carrying out attempts on diabetes research. One of them is the American Diabetes Association (ADA) which concentrates on the diabetes mellitus diseases. A diabetes research is considered necessary since the disease is spreading all around the globe and the sufferers seldom make it through to survive.

The researchers at the ADA have been conducting researches for the time being. One research has recently been carried out by its researcher Hanna E. Abboud, MD. The researcher is a graduate of the science center for health in a university in Texas.

His research concentrated on the oxidant stress that is possessed by the diabetic nephropathy. The research was started on January 1st, 2007 and is targeted to be accomplished in the end of this year of 2009.

The diabetes research mentioned above concentrated on the diabetic nephropathy since the diabetic nephropathy is considered as one very serious complication that is caused by the type 1 as well as type 2 diabetes and it often threatens someone’s chance of surviving.

Yet, the knowledge that mankind possesses is not yet adequate to tell how the diabetic nephropathy initiates and progresses in the human body. If only the researchers know how the system works for the diabetic nephropathy, there is a good chance that the kidney damage caused by the disease can be prevented, or at least be reversed.

This diabetes research is expected to figure out more facts on what the oxidant stress actually has to do with the diabetes as a medium for the kidney damage. It is said as kidney damage because this diabetic nephropathy is actually a kidney complication as well.

The research aims to find out about the cells that the uncontrolled diabetes targets the most, the kidney mesangial cells. The precise oxygen radicals enzymatic source is what the research aims to identify.

There are a lot of diabetes sufferers who experienced kidney complications. But there is actually something that can be done to help prevent this complication as well the other types of complications. Controlling the blood sugar by making use of the insulin as well the oral agents may help do this. But it is not easy to control the flow of the blood sugar and there are some of the patients who still experience kidney complications despite having their blood sugar controlled.

Because of the lacking of knowledge about this disease and how the disease works, ongoing researches on diabetes will still be needed to be carried out by the corresponding institutions.

Facts About Diabetes

Ellen

Diabetes mellitus is not what someone will be willing for. Nevertheless, it does happen to some of us or even many of us.
In fact, someone who suffers from this kind of disease is not alone. He or she has got company and according to the fact that is revealed in the United States, the United States itself possesses not less than 24 million people who suffer from this disease of diabetes mellitus. A lot of them are not even aware that they as well suffer from this kind of disease.

The American Diabetes Association had managed to gather the statistical data of the total amount of people who suffer from this diabetes mellitus in the United States alone in the year 2007.
The association was able to figure out that there were as many 17.9 million people who were diagnosed with the diabetes mellitus diseases. It also figured out that there were as many 5.7 million people who weren’t diagnosed with the disease but they, too, positively suffered from the disease.
Fifty seven million people were considered to possess pre-diabetes whereas as many one hundred eighty six thousand and three hundred people, or around 0.22% of the population, that aged below 20 positively suffered from diabetes. The American Diabetes Association was also able to discover that one in four to six hundred people under the age of 20 possessed diabetes type 1.

Around 2 million adolescents were found positively possessed pre-diabetes. There were as many 10.7% of the population or around twenty three and a half million people with the age above 20 possessed diabetes. It was figured out that there were not less than 12.2 million people that aged above 60 years old positively possessed diabetes mellitus whereas there were around 12 million men, or 11.2% of the population, possessed this disease and eleven and a half million women, or as many 10.2% of the population, turned out to possess this disease of diabetes mellitus.

For those people who are suffering from this diabetes mellitus, they are considered as recipients who are eligible for medical care and they deserve free test on the sugar level that flows in their blood. They are eligible to take the test from their doctor for a maximum of twice a year.
People who are considered at the risk of suffering from diabetes mellitus and deserve the free sugar test as mentioned above must meet some of the following criteria. The history in their family needs to have the diabetes history. It can either be their parents, their brothers, sisters, anyone as long as there is a family relationship among them.
Another factor that needs to be taken into consideration is that whether the person suspected to have diabetes possesses high pressure in his or her blood, which we usually call hypertension. People with high cholesterol level inside their body may as well be considered at risk of possessing diabetes mellitus as well as people who have overweight or obesity. Pregnant women are as well considered risky of diabetes.

Furthermore, people with medical care who are already positively diagnosed with diabetes are eligible for receiving self-management training on diabetes and they can ask for the help of their doctors for this purpose.
Although diabetes is not something anyone would want to live with, a person who has diabetes can still live his or her life fully and actively. It is, however, suggested that they plan their meals as well as try to be active and take medicine or treatment. They may also obtain some useful information from insulin making companies as well as other diabetes related product making companies that usually provides informational websites that contain diabetes tools along with the resources.