Planning ahead when you travel decreases stress.
These five diabetes traveling tips are straightforward to carry out and vital to your diabetic management. Confirm your A1C blood sugar levels, your blood pressure and your cholesterol levels are OK. Get the suitable shots for any country you intend to visit. Two ) Wear a diabetes medical ID. Ideally it should be in the language spoken in the country you are visiting. Not everybody speaks your language and you do not want medical issues through misunderstandings. Three ) Keep your medicine and glucose nibbles in your hand-luggage. Check-in bag does, sadly, go astray. Four ) Keep your medicine in its original box, complete with drugstore labels. It'll forestall misunderstandings about why you are carrying drugs and, if you're on insulin, syringes. 5 ) be conscious of time area changes, particularly when changing your watch. Remember when you travel east your day becomes shorter, if you travel west your day becomes longer. Traveling needn't be dire. A reasonable perspective and a little bit of pre-travel planning can make things go much more smoothly.
Showing posts with label prevent. Show all posts
Showing posts with label prevent. Show all posts
Saturday, November 7, 2009
Friday, September 25, 2009
What Causes Diabetes
Learn what causes Diabetes Many people have become aware at what a terrible disease diabetes is. Thousands of people die every year from diabetes-related illness and complications. Diabetes can affect anyone, and, as of today, there is no cure. Most people know all of this, but they still struggle with some of the basic information about diabetes, such as what causes diabetes and how to prevent it. Here is so basic information about what causes diabetes and some advice on how you can change your life today to make it much easier to prevent diabetes. First of all, not all of diabetes is created equal. There are actually two types of diabetes, and what causes diabetes varies with both.
Diabetes itself is directly related to a chemical your body naturally creates called insulin. What insulin does is assist your blood in carrying sugar (used as fuel by cells all over your body). Without insulin, blood sugar levels skyrocket, causing a variety of serious, and in some cases, fatal results. If you are a grown adult and do not yet have diabetes, you cannot get the first type, Type 1 diabetes. What causes diabetes in children? There is a genetic disorder. Type 1 diabetes is not preventable, and is generally the more severe of the two types of diabetes.
If you do not already have type 1 diabetes, you will most likely not get it. Type 1 diabetes is caused by a malfunction in your liver; it no longer is able to produce insulin. There is no cure, but regular insulin shots. The more common type of diabetes that can be prevented is type 2 diabetes. This is also commonly called on-set diabetes, meaning it is something that is developed over time. In this case, prolonged and excessive blood sugar overwhelms the body's ability to produce insulin and that part of your liver "breaks", and this is what causes diabetes for most people. Scientists are working on a method to "fix" your liver, so that it can begin producing enough insulin again on its own, but until then, type 2 diabetics must also take regular insulin shots and closely monitor and restrict their diets for sugar. An unhealthy diet is the main culprit in what causes diabetes.
An excess of processed sugars, found in cookies, cakes, soft drinks and other "junk food", as well as a non-active lifestyle are the main problems. To prevent diabetes, you should work hard to have better cardiovascular health; regular exercise and a better diet. Knowing what causes diabetes is simple, and, now that you do, there is no excuse for you to not take steps today to improve your health and reduce your risk at getting diabetes.
Diabetes itself is directly related to a chemical your body naturally creates called insulin. What insulin does is assist your blood in carrying sugar (used as fuel by cells all over your body). Without insulin, blood sugar levels skyrocket, causing a variety of serious, and in some cases, fatal results. If you are a grown adult and do not yet have diabetes, you cannot get the first type, Type 1 diabetes. What causes diabetes in children? There is a genetic disorder. Type 1 diabetes is not preventable, and is generally the more severe of the two types of diabetes.
If you do not already have type 1 diabetes, you will most likely not get it. Type 1 diabetes is caused by a malfunction in your liver; it no longer is able to produce insulin. There is no cure, but regular insulin shots. The more common type of diabetes that can be prevented is type 2 diabetes. This is also commonly called on-set diabetes, meaning it is something that is developed over time. In this case, prolonged and excessive blood sugar overwhelms the body's ability to produce insulin and that part of your liver "breaks", and this is what causes diabetes for most people. Scientists are working on a method to "fix" your liver, so that it can begin producing enough insulin again on its own, but until then, type 2 diabetics must also take regular insulin shots and closely monitor and restrict their diets for sugar. An unhealthy diet is the main culprit in what causes diabetes.
An excess of processed sugars, found in cookies, cakes, soft drinks and other "junk food", as well as a non-active lifestyle are the main problems. To prevent diabetes, you should work hard to have better cardiovascular health; regular exercise and a better diet. Knowing what causes diabetes is simple, and, now that you do, there is no excuse for you to not take steps today to improve your health and reduce your risk at getting diabetes.
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
The incidence of childhood diabetes is rising: how to help prevent it
Not so long ago type 2 diabetes, also known as 'adult onset diabetes', afflicted mostly older folks. In fact, diabetes was almost unheard of in children. Today, there are many kids, not even out of grade school, who have been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes and now carries the moniker 'childhood diabetes'. While doctors previously theorized that older people had an accumulated lifetime of excessive sugar consumption, causing their pancreas to be taxed to a dysfunctional state, where it could no longer satisfactorily manage the amount of insulin in the bloodstream.
Many adult diabetics are overweight and don't get sufficient exercise. Doctors tell their adult patients to lose excess weight and implement a regular program of exercise.
What's confusing about the rise of cases of childhood diabetes is that these children should be too young to have accumulated organ damage to the point of acquiring diabetes. So what's different today than say, 50 years ago?
For one thing, today, kids are far more sedentary than kids of 50 years ago. In some schools, P.E. Is not even required. Kids today are far more likely to take the bus home from school than ride a bike. At home, computers, video games and TV are the standard entertainment venues. As for snacks, well, they've come a long way, baby! While a glass of milk and a cookie or piece of fruit was what Mom handed out 50 years ago, kids today are more likely to have a soda and something heavy on the sugar. Even regular meals are often the 'pop it in the nuke' variety, highly processed, with plenty of sugar and salt added. If you compare the typical profile of the adult diabetes patient with the parameters described above, it's probably worth a look to see how childhood diabetes fits the diet and lifestyle of the adult diabetes patient.
All the extra calories probably have much to do with the high rate of overweight kids we see today. A recent study, conducted at a prestigious health institute, sought to isolate the factors most important in the prevention of diabetes. One of their conclusions was that being overweight exponentially increases the odds of acquiring diabetes and that excess weight was perhaps a greater risk factor than lack of exercise!
Today's kids are used to fast food and ready-made meals, in many cases preferring this type of food to the old-fashioned meals Grandma might prepare. They're fast and easy and they taste good. The problem with this type of eating plan is that, consumed as a steady diet, you will gain weight. Combine this with sodas as the beverage of choice and sweet snacks and you've got a recipe for childhood diabetes.
So what can we do to help prevent childhood diabetes? First, sit down with your kids and talk with them about diabetes. Ask them if they know anyone at school with childhood diabetes. If you have an adult family member with diabetes, discuss some of the health problems that that person has to deal with, including heart and cardiovascular problems, painful nerve damage, kidney dysfunction, vision problems and having to monitor blood sugar levels several times a day. Let them know that you'll be making some gradual changes to their diet. This disease is too serious to ignore. With the incidence of childhood diabetes reaching epidemic proportions, it's just common sense to take steps to prevent this insidious disease with lifelong implications. If you present your information as a scientific lesson and not as a 'punishment', they may be more willing to go along with the program.
Kids want to be healthy. It's up to you to help them stay that way.
Many adult diabetics are overweight and don't get sufficient exercise. Doctors tell their adult patients to lose excess weight and implement a regular program of exercise.
What's confusing about the rise of cases of childhood diabetes is that these children should be too young to have accumulated organ damage to the point of acquiring diabetes. So what's different today than say, 50 years ago?
For one thing, today, kids are far more sedentary than kids of 50 years ago. In some schools, P.E. Is not even required. Kids today are far more likely to take the bus home from school than ride a bike. At home, computers, video games and TV are the standard entertainment venues. As for snacks, well, they've come a long way, baby! While a glass of milk and a cookie or piece of fruit was what Mom handed out 50 years ago, kids today are more likely to have a soda and something heavy on the sugar. Even regular meals are often the 'pop it in the nuke' variety, highly processed, with plenty of sugar and salt added. If you compare the typical profile of the adult diabetes patient with the parameters described above, it's probably worth a look to see how childhood diabetes fits the diet and lifestyle of the adult diabetes patient.
All the extra calories probably have much to do with the high rate of overweight kids we see today. A recent study, conducted at a prestigious health institute, sought to isolate the factors most important in the prevention of diabetes. One of their conclusions was that being overweight exponentially increases the odds of acquiring diabetes and that excess weight was perhaps a greater risk factor than lack of exercise!
Today's kids are used to fast food and ready-made meals, in many cases preferring this type of food to the old-fashioned meals Grandma might prepare. They're fast and easy and they taste good. The problem with this type of eating plan is that, consumed as a steady diet, you will gain weight. Combine this with sodas as the beverage of choice and sweet snacks and you've got a recipe for childhood diabetes.
So what can we do to help prevent childhood diabetes? First, sit down with your kids and talk with them about diabetes. Ask them if they know anyone at school with childhood diabetes. If you have an adult family member with diabetes, discuss some of the health problems that that person has to deal with, including heart and cardiovascular problems, painful nerve damage, kidney dysfunction, vision problems and having to monitor blood sugar levels several times a day. Let them know that you'll be making some gradual changes to their diet. This disease is too serious to ignore. With the incidence of childhood diabetes reaching epidemic proportions, it's just common sense to take steps to prevent this insidious disease with lifelong implications. If you present your information as a scientific lesson and not as a 'punishment', they may be more willing to go along with the program.
Kids want to be healthy. It's up to you to help them stay that way.
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