Signs Of Diabetes

We are all encouraged to consume foods with more fibre, because dietary fibre is a vital item for keeping our bodies healthy. It is especially helpful for the colon.

Since attention to detail in diet is even more important to diabetics, it stands to reason that fibre is even more important to diabetics as well. And, indeed, diabetics are counselled to consume lots of fibre.

Fibre will also delay the on-set of diabetes in those people who are in a pre-diabetic state. Fibre assists reduce the blood-sugar levels naturally, so it will help everybody in their quest to maintain healthy blood.

The manner in which it does this is fairly easy to understand. Fibre is more difficult to digest than the remainder of the sugars and starches that surround it, so it has the impact of remaining in your digestive system for longer, thus helping you feel ‘full’ longer, and it is burned very slowly thereby decreasing spikes in your blood sugar level.

Blood-sugar spikes are bad news for anyone who does not want a spike in order to accomplish a task, like a weight-lifter or a sprinter. Spikes in children may lead to instances of hyperactivity in children.

The best sort of fibre is soluble fibre. This type of fibre is found in:

grain that has not been overly processed to get rid of the husk, so brown rice, whole wheat bread, cereals and pasta.

‘dry’ fresh fruits, not necessarily dried fruits, like bananas, mangoes, pineapple and apples

beans, lentils, legumes and pulses are stuffed almost full of dietary fibre and are easily added to soups and stews.

Another manner of feeling ‘full’ so that you can reduce the craving for a large meal is drinking water. Exchange plain tap water or bottled water for fizzy drinks. Your body may need the extra water to help it digest the extra soluble fibre that you are eating.

Fibre helps in all dietary situations, but is integrated into the calculations that some diets use. For instance, if you are counting carbohydrates as opposed to calories, you will have a limit or target number of carbs you should consume in a day.

This is 20 carbs a day in the initial phase of the Atkins diet. Some diets will allow you to subtract the amount of fibre from the absolute number of carbs for the purpose of your calculations.

So, for instance, you may consume 25 carbs, and, as long as the food contains at least five grammes of fibre, you have not broken the guidelines of the diet. You will have to check whether your particular diet allows for this variation.

It sounds like another burden to have to count fibre too as everything else you have to take into account before you may eat anything, but it will become second nature after a few weeks or months.

The best manner in which to get started is to buy a small guide that will go in your pocket or bag so that you can refer to it often.

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Owen Jones, the author of this article, writes on a number of subjects, and is now involved with Diabetes Cook Books. If you would like to know more, please visit our web site at Cookbooks For Diabetics.

Diabetes is a scary disease for most people, especially people who are not able to afford adequate medication, regular visits to the GP and self-testing equipment.

For these people, diabetes means what it has always involve throughout history: numb extremities, poor vision or blindness, amputations and an early death.

Therefore, it should become a major concern of everybody to learn how to try to avoid diabetes. The first thing is not to panic, because many individuals believe that we can bring things down upon ourselves by thought alone.

In other words, we are or get what we think of the most. It could be a fact, so do not worry, if you can help it. The people the most predisposed to diabetes are those who have a family history of it; those who are obese and some pregnant women.

If you fall into any or a couple of the ‘at risk’ categories, the first thing that you ought to do is acquaint yourself with the disease and how it can manifest itself, so that you are constantly on the look out for danger signs. Furthermore, you ought to also inform your GP that you are worried about becoming diabetic.

It is well-known that diabetics have ‘too much glucose in their blood’, but it is not at all certain that eating sugary or starchy foodstuffs to excess causes diabetes. If you do consume these foodstuffs to excess, the likelihood are that you will be obese and then there is a greater risk of diabetes.

However, if you eat these items and then burn them off through hard physical labour or exercise, in a way, you have not eaten them ‘to excess’. Nevertheless, it is worth contemplating your lifestyle and whether it could be improved.

Have your GP run a few check ups to see if you are in a pre-diabetic state and then you will have a clearer understanding of what you should do to steer clear of ‘definitely’ becoming diabetic.

Even if you can only afford one visit to the GP, this is the test you have to have.

One thing is certain, if you consume a healthy diet, you will have less chance of becoming ill for whatever reason. Eating healthily will give you a better opportunity of avoiding serious illnesses such as diabetes.

Starch and sugar are the enemies of diabetics because they raise the blood-sugar level very quickly resulting in spikes that a diabetic’s body cannot handle well. Steer clear of these fast burners and stick with slow-burning, fibrous fruits and vegetables. Meat is also slow-burning, as are whole grains, pulses, lentils and beans. Fish is low in calories.

Weight is a big issue and eating sensibly over a period of time will normalize your weight. You cannot become fat from breathing air, solely by eating more calories than you use up. You need to consume to give your body enough nutrients to do its job.

However, these nutrients come wrapped in calories and frequently with more than you require, therefore you need to exercise to burn them off. You do not have to work out in the gym to burn off a couple of hundred calories a day.

Take the dog for a walk or take your partner for a walk or even go alone. Buy a bike and cycle a bit each evening. Swim a little, but do something.

Owen Jones, the writer of this piece, writes on a variety of topics, but is now involved with diabetic friendly meals. If you would like to know more, please visit our web site at Cookbooks For Diabetics.

Not very long ago, it was not at all unusual to see blind people walking the streets tap-tapping away with their white sticks, being guided by a dog, usually a Labrador, but I have not seen anyone like that in Britain for years, as far as I remember.

That has to become a good thing; it has to mean that we are beginning to cure or at least alleviate most types of blindness.

My aunty had cataracts for years when I was a kid in the Sixties – it was just one of those facts of life. Some individuals got them when they were old and others did not.

My brother’s mother-in-law had cataracts in the late Nineties and she was enrolled on a two year waiting list to have them taken away, but at least she had hope and they were going to be taken away free of charge.

I do not know of anyone else that has eye trouble except myself. I could not get my glasses clean one day and then a friend said he saw a white spot in one of my eyes. He took me to the hospital and the optician said that I had ‘premature senile cataracts’.

Well, I live in Thailand now and he did not say those exact words. He told me that the cataracts were because I was prematurely senile.

I asked him if that was what he really meant; he looked it up in a book and we both had a hearty laugh about it, although he never really corrected himself.

My condition turned out to be a bit more serious than just cataracts, but when I went from the local hospital to a major hospital in Pattaya, the doctor saw me within 30 minutes and asked me if I wanted the cataracts taken away.

I said that I did and she was willing to do the operation there and then. I got it postponed for 24 hours, but she would have sorted my eye out that day in a 30 minute operation, which does not need anaesthetic. I think that that was wonderful.

We have come a long way from habitually seeing blind people on the street and putting up with cataracts through a two-year waiting list to immediate removal of cataracts by laser surgery in 40-50 years.

At least we have in the Developed World and in the East as well, if you have the money. There are still millions of people in Asia and especially in Africa suffering blindness and partial blindness for the sake of an easy 30 minute operation.

Two weeks after my surgical treatment, my other eye started to cloud over. It was as if it had been holding on with its last scrap of strength until I got his mate sorted out.

I had that one done last year and when I was allowed to take off my patch and look around me with two decent eyes again for the first time in a decade, I could not believe that I had forgotten how bright the world actually is and that I had not noticed how dingy my world had gotten.

If you are concerned about an eye operation, do not be. What you will experience when you can see properly again will make all the worry seem ridiculous and if you have the chance to give someone their eyesight back, please do it.

Owen Jones, the author of this article, writes on a variety of topics, and is now involved with 500 Delicious Diabetic Recipes. If you would like to know more, please visit our website at Easy Diabetic Meals

Despite the fact that pregnancy is a completely natural and normal procedure for women, there is no doubt that it brings with it both mental and physical stresses and strains on the person concerned.

Expectant mothers worry about whether the baby is well and whether they are doing all they could to give their baby every opportunity to do well.

This is usual for normal, healthy women, so how much more worrying and how much more problematic must pregnancy be for diabetic women? Firstly, the diabetic mother-to-be has to ensure that she is ‘normal’ and then worry like any ‘normal’ mother. This can add up to a lot of extra pressure.

Nutrition, so diet, and exercise are the real keys to success here. I do not mean dieting to lose weight either. During pregnancy is not the ideal time to attempt to lose weight!

Rather, the pregnant diabetic needs to eat sensibly and follow all the GP’s advice on what to eat in order to encourage the correct development of the baby.

Most people talk of two types of diabetes: Type I or juvenile diabetes and Type II or on-set diabetes in those who develop it later in life. However, there is a third, which just pregnant women can develop.

It most often manifests itself in the last third of the pregnancy and is not at all uncommon. In fact, The USA is the only major country that calls it a disease.

It is known as gestational diabetes and some medical professionals think that it is a fairly normal part of pregnancy, although it can be exaggerated in some women. About 3%-10% of pregnant women get gestational diabetes, depending on the population being monitored.

It can be easily treated in most cases, but must be treated, because it can affect the baby and may have longer term complications for the woman. Normally, the indications of diabetes disappear after giving birth. It may however lead to type II diabetes if not taken care of.

Pregnancy for women who were diabetic before they became pregnant may be more difficult and should be monitored more closely because of the constant state of flux of hormones that pregnancy causes. Insulin is also a hormone, obviously.

This does not mean that there will be issues, only that it is safer to be more cautious than normal. If the pregnancy was unexpected, there is nothing to be done, but being cautious, but if a pregnancy is planned, then the woman ought to get her body in the best possible condition before attempting to conceive.

This involves normalizing your weight and blood and being comfortable with the techniques that a diabetic has to get used to. If you are comfortable with your predicament, you will have that much less to worry about when pregnant.

It may be difficult for a non-professional to know whether a diabetic woman is fit enough to take on a pregnancy, so a visit to a physician is recommended.

There are dangers to diabetic women who become pregnant. The worst of these concerns are: diabetic retinopathy, high blood pressure, kidney disease, autonomic neuropathy or nerve damage to the internal organs, and cardiovascular diseases.

The risks can be reduced by frequent self-monitoring; medication; exercise and diet.

Owen Jones, the author of this article, writes on a variety of topics, but is now involved with diabetic friendly meals. If you would like to know more, please visit our web site at Cookbooks For Diabetics.

If you have been diagnosed with diabetes or that you are in a pre-diabetic state, it is very disconcerting. It is all is new to you and you have heard frightening stories about diabetes. Well, those horror stories are a fact for those who cannot afford treatment or who do not take the condition seriously.

Organ failure, blindness and amputations are the traditional result of diabetes unless it is treated. The first step after being warned of the disease is to learn as much concerning it as you are able to.

What it can do to you; how you can recognize the symptoms and what you can do to avoid the natural consequences of being diabetic. The consequences that have befallen diabetics for thousands of years.

It takes more thought, preparation and work to live with a disease than it does to live without one. That is understandable, but your life changes when you are given the information and you have to decide whether to tackle it or roll over.

‘Fighting it’ often means no more than living sensibly, maybe for the first time in your life. It involves taking the time to eat sensibly and not grab a chocolate bar or junk food. It might even mean learning to cook sensibly, if you never bothered before.

It will mean re-evaluating your life and deciding whether you want to carry on. However, if you opt to ‘carry on’, your old lifestyle will be closed to you, because that would mean certain death.

If you decide on ‘life’, then it means a change of lifestyle and that ‘new’ lifestyle is close to what you should have been living all your life, which is fairly ironic.

It will have taken you getting a life-threatening disease to do what you ought to have been doing anyway.

However, you will end up healthier than you were, which sounds ironic as well. In short, your illness, diabetes (mellitus) will force you to live a healthy life or die. This is the body’s ultimate method of having its own way.

At the end of the day, people do not die of diabetes. It is similar to AIDS in that respect – people do not die of AIDS. They die in both cases of complications caused by or as a result of diabetes or AIDS.

Some of these complications are:

Heart disease and stroke: diabetics have more risk of heart disease and a stroke because their blood, if unregulated, is thicker (with the extra sugar/glucose) and does not penetrate into the smaller blood vessels.

Kidney disease is a major hazard, but one which can be avoided, like most other health issues.

Sight issues, like cataracts are very common in cases of untreated diabetes. Numerous diabetics used to go blind as a matter of course.

Amputations were quite common too, because the thick blood cannot reach the extremities which tend to have narrower blood vessels, They die, resulting in gangrene.

All of these complications can be avoided by doing what your medical doctortells you, even though lifestyle changes are the hardest to implement

Owen Jones, the writer of this article, writes on a variety of subjects, and is now involved with how to cook for diabetics. If you would like to know more, please visit our web site at Cookbooks For Diabetics.

The main difficulty for diabetics is not the lack of insulin, it is the result of the deficiency of insulin and that result is that the blood becomes ultra-saturated with sugar (or glucose).

Everyone’s blood has sugar in it, the blood carries this energy to the limbs and organs to keep them functioning, but there is a fine balance between enough and too much.

Insulin regulates that balance, so if you do not make enough insulin, as diabetics do not, your blood becomes dense and sugary. That does not sound too bad on the face of it.

Maybe a diabetic should be able to run further and faster than others with all that extra energy being pumped about the body.

Unfortunately, it does not work like that. The dense, syrupy blood does not pass into the fine veins and capillaries, which causes a lack of energy in these places, which are frequently at the very ends of your body and in internal and external organs.

Skin, hair, eyes, teeth and toes are all starved of the sugars they need to keep them going, not just to keep them super-fit. The places with the finest blood vessels start to go first.

Not just that, but where the blood does get to can get more easily infected, because the bacteria think it is party time with all that extra food/energy in the blood.

A small infection that the body;s immune system could usually have dealt with in a day or two soon gets out of hand. This is a major difficulty for diabetics and one of the areas that is easily infected is the mouth.

Without the regular dental check-ups that affluent people can afford, the mouth would frequently get infected, as it still is in poorer countries and among poorer groups in rich countries. Children and older people are always requiring fillings, extractions and infections sorted out.

For diabetics who do not seek appropriate dental care this can soon become a major problem. Smoking worsens the problem. The concerns really start to mount up for smokers over the age of 45 when dental problems usually start to resurface after 20 odd years of relatively healthy teeth and gums.

Periodontitis is especially dangerous for diabetics. Periodontitis is an infection that affects the bones and gums in the mouth. It manifests itself in receding, bleeding gums. This exposes the blood rich in sugars to infection. Diabetics ought to inform their dentist of their condition and go for a check-up every six months.

Diabetics can easily lose all their teeth if they get periodontitis and it is easily done with high blood sugar levels. The first sign of such dental concerns is bleeding teeth or gums.

It is imperative to regulate the blood sugar level to as close to normal as you can to avoid these and other complications and the two first keys to use are diet and exercise, otherwise you may have to resort to medication.

Owen Jones, the author of this article, writes on a number of topics, and is now concerned with diabetic friendly meals. If you would like to know more, please visit our web site at Cookbooks For Diabetics.

The rate of diabetes is on the increase and has been for years not just in the West but in numerous countries is other parts of the world too. This has been linked to the increasing rate of obesity which in turn has been linked to various factors.

There are several ideas why the number of obese people is raising, the most popular of which are elevated prosperity, deskbound jobs, inactive lifestyle (far too much TV); poor diet (far too much junk food) and food additives.

A sedentary career and lifestyle ultimately often leads to a deficiency of exercise and a poor diet is normally the result of not being able to cook either because of a shortage of time or ability. Junk food fills the gap.

Therefore, two of the main reasons for of diabetes in later life are poor diet and shortage of exercise, which can often be distilled to one major cause: indolence. Can’t be bothered to cook or learn how to and would rather watch a film than go for a stroll.

This is not every diabetic’s reason for being ill, obviously. There are also genetic dispositions and organ failures, but Type II diabetes is associated with obesity which is reaching epidemic proportions.

However, in spite of the high numbers of diabetics, there is also a pre-diabetic state. This pre-diabetic state is when the blood- sugar levels are higher than standard, but are not critical. This again is most prevalent in the overweight.

A person in the pre-diabetic state will not notice anything, because a medical doctor has to do tests to determine the condition. People can go for years and even decades in this state with no apparent harm.

However, elevated blood-sugar levels do have damaging side effects. If you are in this condition, it is necessary to correct the condition of your blood in order to reduce your likelihood of becoming diabetic. The condition of having too much sugar or glucose in the blood is called ‘hyperglycaemia’.

Some of the most common symptoms of hyperglycaemia are: kidney damage; intestinal concerns; poor circulation in the extremities (so particularly the feet), which can produce feelings of tingling or coldness and sight impairment (particularly cataracts).

The problem for many people is that you have to work closely with your physician to bring your blood- sugar levels back under control. For those who live in remote areas or have little money this can become a big problem.

There are self-testing kits and medication for those who are able and willing to make use of them and they are far more preferable than having to inject with insulin everyday if you allow the situation get too far out of hand. Being pre-diabetic is a loud wake up call.

Exercise and a good diet of home-cooked food is the combination that will go a long way to improving the state of your blood. It is necessary to consume slow-burning foodstuffs like (meat and) vegetables rather than fast-burning sugary foodstuffs and it is vital to remove the excess sugar in your blood, if your internal organs cannot regulate it, by burning it off, which is best achieved by physical activity.

Owen Jones, the author of this article, writes on a number of subjects, but is now involved with Diabetes Cook Books. If you would like to know more, please visit our web site at Cookbooks For Diabetics.

Diabetes is a chronic disease which can have many side effects. The illness (normally) comes about as a result of the pancreas not creating sufficient insulin, which you require to deal with the sugar level in your blood.

Having diabetes, or too much sugar in your blood can have dire results such as cataracts (treatable blindness), decayed teeth and an elevated risk of general illnesses.

However what many people do not comprehend is that there is a link between high cholesterol levels and diabetes. This link is called macular edema and it has an effect on eyesight. If you have diabetes and elevated cholesterol levels, you should be paying meticulous attention to your diet in order to avert macular edema

Macular edema is frequently a painful, non-reversible kind of blindness.

In case you are unsure about cholesterol, it would be best if we discuss this subject in order to clarify. Individuals talk of ‘cholesterol levels’ because there are three measurements that are vital. HDL cholesterol is frequently known as ‘good cholesterol’ and LDL cholesterol is known as bad cholesterol.

It is vital to have LDL because it helps in the production of bile and vitamin D and it helps regulate hormones, but too much of it can block arteries and cause heart problems. HDL is ‘good’ because it soaks up LDL and takes it back to the liver where it is got rid of.

Those are the two key levels. You might be forgiven for thinking that it is best to have as much HDL as possible, and this is a fact, to a certain extent, because you do need LDL as well, but the combined of both of these levels is also important. You should not have a high level of both together either.

The other reason why these levels are more relevant to diabetics is because diabetics with a high level of LDL run roughly three times more danger of developing macular edema than non-diabetics. Therefore the danger of high cholesterol for diabetics is imperative.

This is such a serious problem that diabetics are warned to check their cholesterol levels very often. The good news is that diabetics will already be following a diet and the low cholesterol diet is fairly similar and is easy to integrate into your current one.

The foodstuffs that you should avoid to reduce your LDL cholesterol level include saturated fats such as are present in red meat and dairy products like full-fat milk, butter, cream and cheese.

It is also to be found in trans and hydrogenated fats, which are present in junk foods and cheap margarine.

The foodstuffs to eat in order to raise your level of HDL are basically mono- and poly-unsaturated fats, vegetarian foods such as fresh fruits and vegetables, soya products, fish, nuts and grains, particularly whole grains.

Roughage and fibre are what you ought to be looking for. Fish and olive oil are also useful in the fight against LDL cholesterol.

Owen Jones, the author of this piece, writes on a variety of subjects, and is now involved with 500 Delicious Diabetic Recipes. If you would like to know more, please visit our website at Easy Diabetic Meals

Diabetes can have various adverse effects on sufferers’ health and one of those ill-effects is dental quality. Diabetics have a problem dealing with sugars, which often leads to a condition called hyperglycemia, which means that there is too much sugar in the blood.

The opposite of having too much sugar in your blood is having too little and that is called hypoglycemia.

Both circumstances are regulated in healthy people by insulin and herein lies the diabetic’s problem – the body’s automatic production of insulin to regulate blood sugar levels. Both circumstances can have grave consequences.

Too much sugar in the blood could lead to complaints with the kidneys, the heart, the eyes and other organs, whereas too little glucose in the blood might result in fits and black-outs.

Tooth and gum disease is frequent as are other health problems. Factors that play a part in tooth and gum disease are age, heredity, smoking and oral hygiene, but the diabetic who is often hyperglycemic has a higher probability of developing a dental infection.

The diabetic is more prone to infection of any kind and one of the most prevalent is periodontitis, which affects the teeth, the jaw bones and the gums.

One of the visible symptoms of periodontitis is receding gums, which makes the teeth look unusually large, but also exposes the roots of the teeth to the air and food, causing sensitive teeth.

Therefore, diabetics must make certain that they make a particular effort to visit their dentist at least twice a year, because periodontitis can result in the complete loss of one’s teeth.

The extra sugar in the blood provides extra food for germs, so they reproduce much more quickly than normal. This rapid build up of bacteria produces red, swollen gums.

One of the first signs of gum disease is often bleeding. If your gums begin to bleed when you brush your teeth, book an early appointment with your dentist.

Diabetics, together with those who have an impaired immune system, run a far higher risk of developing periodontitis and so losing all their teeth, if it is left untreated.

Diabetics who have periodontitis are not certain to lose all their teeth, but it does have to be noticed and treated early because there are several ways that a dentist can cope with the infection.

One of the best tactics is to control your blood sugar levels in the first instance. This has to be achieved in conjuction with your doctor, but it will usually include correct dieting, exercise and taking insulin or a surrogate. Not smoking and maintaining your correct weight are also imperative.

Not all diabetics need to take insulin. There is far more understood about diabetes, diet, exercise and their interaction these days. Some diabetics can avoid taking insulin and all the side effects that that would normally entail by not eating sugary or starchy food.

The same effect can be had by consuming low-calorie meals frequently during the day instead of two or three substantial meals and by monitoring your blood-sugar levels.

This is the best means of avoiding the oral difficulties that diabetics can experience.

Owen Jones, the writer of this piece, writes on a number of subjects, and is now involved with 500 Delicious Diabetic Recipes. If you would like to know more, please visit our website at Easy Diabetic Meals

There is a fairly popular misapprehension that diabetics will suffer from kidney infection. This used to be true decades ago before there was any real awareness of the whys and wherefores of diabetes. Nowadays, the threat of kidney disease is still there, but it is absolutely not unavoidable.

Those who take care of their blood sugar level by eating the right foods and exercising, run very little danger of kidney disease at all.

And that is without the help and medication that doctors offer. All in all, if a diabetic gets kidney disease, it is because of inattentiveness to his or her health.

There are various types of kidney infection, but in general, kidney disease results in the body not being able to dispose of its waste products.

Urine is not just the excess of water that you drink, it is also the body’s means of passing out toxins and waste that your muscles create by doing their daily job.

If these toxins remain in your body, you will poison yourself. There is nothing you can do about that. Just by living, you create toxins that your body flushes out with bodily fluids which are made up of usually water, which is why it is very important to drink lots of water every day. Your kidneys treat this water and send it to your bladder.

If that system does not function, you are in serious trouble, unless you get treatment. This is not a new condition and doctors are very good at treating it, so it is no longer life-threatening – as long as you have it treated. However, kidney disease is still of course something to avoid at all costs.

A further difficulty is if the kidneys stop working because they cannot cope with the impurities that are passing through them. They literally get worn out and tired to death.

Dialysis may become crucial or a kidney transplant. This is of course a very serious state of affairs and one to be avoided at all costs.

If you have had a warning that you may be diabetic, be sure to heed that warning and lower your weight as a priority. Do this by eating food made with the requirements of diabetics in mind and exercise every day.

Best of all is to take action before you get the warning from your GP.

You know whether you are flabby or not. You know whether you are taking care of your body or not and you know whether you are at risk or not.

Most people do not have to be told, they know, but will not admit it to themselves.

Do not be one of those. Do not allow this to occur to you. Take action now. Of your own free will, before you have to.

Owen Jones, the writer of this piece, writes on a number of topics, and is now concerned with 500 Delicious Diabetic Recipess. If you would like to know more, please visit our site at Cookbooks for Diabetics