T2 Diabetes Control-Living Healthy

We’ve all heard a lot about taking vitamin supplements to increase your wellness and enhance your lifestyle. Supplements including Saw Palmetto, Ginkgo Biloba, and Omega-3 among others have been touted as being advantageous for numerous ailments and conditions. However, have you ever heard of Cinnamon as a well-being supplement? Well, recently available analysis has suggested that cinnamon may possibly be advantageous in quite a few areas and especially in regards to diabetes and weight loss.

It turns out that Cinnamon appears to have the ability to lower blood sugar levels and improve the body’s natural production of insulin. One study discovered that there was almost a 30% drop in the participants glucose levels when consuming cinnamon. There was also a reduction of their triglyceride amounts. As you might know, starches and sugars are broken down from the body into glucose.  This glucose is then applied as energy to power your body and all it’s functions. The glucose can also be modified and saved as fat. Insulin helps manage the glucose level within the bloodstream. Unfortunately, over time, virtually all of us will lose some sensitivity to insulin because of age. This means that our blood glucose amounts can turn out to be greater then they really should be. Cinnamon contains polyphenols or anti-oxidants that can help regulate glucose amounts which might be valuable for those with diabetes or glucose intolerance. In reality, one researcher suggested that cinnamon may well have an effect nearly as impressive as statin drugs that are utilized by millions of persons to lower cholesterol levels within the blood.

How should you get cinnamon into your everyday diet? Well, experts have suggested a half teaspoon per day but it’s crucial to use the correct cinnamon. You will discover two kinds of cinnamon – Ceylon and Cassia. The difference between the two is that Ceylon cinnamon has much less coumarin in it then Cassia cinnamon does. Coumarin works as an anti-coagulant and can trigger liver inflammation if ingested in greater amounts. So, Ceylon cinnamon is the preferred cinnamon.  Nevertheless, coumarin is not water soluble so a water extract of cinnamon may perhaps be the best approach. With some research you ought to be able to locate a cinnamon supplement that’s a water extract.

So, while you might hear an awful lot about more exotic supplements like beta-sitosterol and omega-3 fish oil bear in mind that that favorite holiday spice, cinnamon, can be beneficial too. Just be sure to use it in moderation and always in a water extract form not in the powdered form.

Fans of detoxification diets and other “cleanses” believe that our bodies require a little assist with flushing out all the toxins picked up from the food we eat and our polluted environment. Some people with diabetes are of the opinion that cleanses are a way to get some assistance with weight loss. Let’s take a look at the pros and cons of this thinking.

Some of these detox diet programs involve only ingesting liquids, while others call for more invasive procedures like colonic irrigation. Most of these regimes ask that you stop eating most or all solid food. The issue with detox diet programs for some people are that the benefits are not worth the possible dangers, especially for diabetics. Still, some people swear by them.

Kirstie Alley is a prime example of a person concerned with the amount of toxins ingested in our daily diets. She has lately become more aware and has decided to personally change her eating habits to avoid the toxins as much as possible.
 
Here are a few facts you may not be aware of about detox diet programs. Read them, then determine for yourself if a detox is something you want to do if you are a diabetic taking insulin.

1. It may leave you severely dehydrated.

Detox diets usually limit your food intake. Since a person gets a good bit of hydration from the foods consumed, this could keep you from reaching optimal hydration. More worrisome is the fact that many detoxification plans include the use of laxative teas and diuretics.

Laxative teas take fluid from other parts of your body and force it into the large intestine, where it produces a loose bowel movement. Diuretics flush fluid from your system, causing frequent urination. When put together with laxatives, diuretics can lead to serious dehydration.

You may have read about some celebrities utilizing the Master Cleanse to shed 20 pounds in 10 days, but those same celebs acknowledge that they merely lost water weight – and gained it right back once the detox was over.

2. They could be addictive.

Your body can develop a physical addiction to laxatives. After a while, some dieters lose the ability to have a normal bowel movement without the aid of a laxative. Recovering from this condition can take awhile, and believe me, it’s not pleasant.

If you’re susceptible to eating disorders, you may turn out to be psychologically dependant on a very restrictive eating plan. This approach could also damage your metabolism, causing you to gain fat when you eat a normal quantity of calories.

3. Particular types of people should avoid liquid detoxes altogether.

A young, healthy adult might be able to follow a cleanse for a few days, but you will find some kinds of individuals who can really harm themselves with detoxification diets. These groups are especially vulnerable to malnutrition and dehydration.This includes children under 18, pregnant or nursing mothers, individuals with heart disease or diabetes, or anyone with an auto-immune disorder. Also, anybody with kidney or liver issues ought to avoid detoxification diets altogether. These people would do much better on a doctor-recommended diet plan and plenty of pure drinking water.

4. Their “advantages” could be the result of other things.

So, what about the tales of clearer skin, more energy, and less bloating that detox fans sometimes tell us about? As it turns out, those benefits could be results of other dietary changes. All those beneficial effects could come from just being properly hydrated at long last. Dieters who go on water fasts or other liquid-based diets might be well-hydrated for the first time in their adult lives. They attribute their clean skin and weight reduction to the detox, when just plain drinking enough water would have been sufficient.

After a couple of days, starvation causes a temporary spike in your energy levels and a feeling of euphoria. What this really may be is a survival mechanism of the human body from our “caveman” days, when our ancestors needed power to steer clear of predators and forage for meals in times of famine. Although detox diets can produce a fat loss, it’s essential to remember that this is temporary water weight loss, not permanent fat reduction. Some detox dieters lose a number of pounds, but only because of starvation as well as dehydration.

To better control diabetes, studies have shown that proper nutrition and carb control are essential in preventing wild flucuations in the levels of glucose in the blood. Most detox diets are composed of fruits and vegetables(carbohydrates) in the form of blended or juiced drinks, which spike the sugar levels much more quickly and then drop them just as fast. The fiber in most food is what slows down absorption in the digestive process and helps the body assimilate the carbohydrates at a more steady, managable rate.

How do we control our diabetes? I wonder how many times that’s searched for online per day; my guess, a lot. I know there are quite a few folks looking for a pill to take that will take care of everything and allow them to eat whatever they like. I wish there were such an animal, but there isn’t yet. So for now, we have to be responsible for our own health, or lack of it.

The general consensus from what I’ve read and discussed with my doctor is that as a society, we eat too much. Too much of everything at one meal; too many carbs, too much protein, too much fat. About the only thing we don’t eat too much of is fiber and the nutrients we would get from eating vegetables. Those, we could use a lot more of and we’d be just fine. But we’ve heard all that before, right?

I for one, am extremely fond of my carbohydrates as well as the fats I put on them to make them taste better. Truth be known, I’m a carb addict. There, I said it, I admit it… I love carbohydrates. The problem is that it was killing me, literally. The increasing weight, the cravings, the loss of energy and just plain not feeling well. All from eating too much of the wrong kinds of food in the wrong quantities.

A low carb diet has changed all that and turned me around for the better. I know you’re thinking OMG, I’m not going to go on the Atkin’s Diet, that’s not healthy. The original Atkin’s wasn’t healthy, you’re right. I don’t believe and neither do most nutritionists, that excluding a whole food group is a healthy choice. Plus the added saturated fats from all the wrong kinds of protein would give people health problems further down the road. The low carb type of diet that I subscribe to is a balanced and healthy one.
 
Back to the original question, how to control diabetes? The answer is to lower your daily carbohydrate intake. Not only lower your carbs, but change the type of carbs you are eating. As an example, my yummy baked potato that’s 4-3/4″x2-1/3″ with the skin, (which is the best part) is 51.0 grams of carbs. That’s without the butter and sour cream, or the cheese sauce that I could put on it if I were feeling daredevilish. That’s a lot of carbohydrates to shovel into your system at one time, even if that were the only carb you were eating during the meal. Usually that’s not the case if you drink milk (13grams per cup), or eat bread (@19-25grams) depending on what kind you like.

It boggles the mind sometimes and we wonder if we should carry around a book of food counts with us wherever we go. I know I get confused about what goes with what and have to look things up sometimes. If only we could all afford to employ our own personal dietitians, aye?
  

Yay... great-tasting fresh salad greens and other vegetables are the best to eat

My mother has diabetes and a host of other related problems from being overweight and her quality of life has suffered for decades. She cannot walk to where she would like to go, or sit where she would like to sit, or even get around the house to take care of routine chores that need to be done. Granted, she’s 90 years old now, but she hasn’t been able to do these things for years. She was diagnosed with diabetes in her early fifties, but didn’t take the steps to control it that she should have and landed in the hospital many times over the years. Her blood glucose would be anywhere from 500 to 900 mg/dls, she was dizzy and nauseous along with a host of other symptoms. She started taking a pill for her diabetes management, then it wasn’t enough so she progressed to another one, then another one, until finally the doctor put her on insulin after another trip to the emergency room.

My point is, that she thought she could eat all the boxed food she wanted, not have to look at the labels, or worry about what was being put into the mix. How wrong she was, there are generally more calories, more different kinds of fat, sugar, salt and a grocery list of strange chemicals in food that is prepackaged, to make it last on the shelf for at least three or more years. If she had taken the time to really look at the list of ingredients and find out what they all were, she probably would be much healthier today as a result of it. I don’t fault her for trying to find time-saving or labor-saving shortcuts to help get things done, I blame the food industry for not educating the public as to what the implications were for consuming their products on a daily or weekly basis.

 Many a pantry shelf is adorned with boxed stuffings, instant potatoes, instant rice, and assorted tuna, hamburger, and chicken ”helpers”. Eating any amount over the serving size(about 1/2 cup usually) is giving a person way too many calories and definitely too much salt. Who can eat just half a cup and be full? No one I know, and most people eat these side dishes as a meal with nothing else but the tuna helper. If there were a couple of vegetables and a piece of fruit, at least then we’d have a fighting chance for a somewhat healthy meal. But the sad truth is, it tastes really good with all the fat in the sauces and the salt, so we just load up the plate and eat too much.

The food industry needs to stop enticing us to become gluttonous and obese by adding trans fats to everything, and start helping us become healthy and in the process, much happier.

Boo....trans fats, not heart healthy

Trans fats, or transformed fats as they are called, have no nutritional value at all. They are merely there to entice and addict people to the taste of fat in some particular junk food on the shelf at the grocery store. Sounds like a harsh judgement I know, but I see the effects of trans fats on a person every day. My mother thought that the introduction of boxed foods was a lifesaver, but it turns out that it’s quite the opposite. With all the added unhealthy ingredients that are in box mixes, we are slowly being fatted up for the slaughter by companies trying to get us to buy “convenience” foods.

Being consistent with taking your insulin every day is critical to good health

Only after a 2 year-old boy’s death was blamed on the alcohol prep pads, were they recalled. The FDA didn’t think they posed an iminent health hazard until a hospital reported a life-threatening infection. The Wisconsin plant that had made millions of the now recalled alcohol prep pads had a history of problems, that the FDA knew about, yet didn’t step in to do anything about until a little boy died. That’s pretty pathetic in my book.

How do you feel about this?

My mother uses(correction-used), some of the alcohol swabs that were manufactured by them under the brand Equaline and thank God that they weren’t the ones tainted by the Bacillus cereus, a potentially life-threatening bacteria. She is a diabeteic and injects insulin twice a day, after swabbing the area with a (supposedly) sterile alcohol pad. I shudder to think what could have happened if she had gotten some of the tainted prep pads. At 90 years old, I don’t think she would have survived the infection and resulting complications. But I don’t suppose that the FDA is concerned about one little old Maine woman. They weren’t concerned about the health and safety of the 2 year old until he died. Then it became a problem.

Unfortunately, the problems stemming from the poor practices in that Wisconsin plant don’t end there. If you would like to read the whole article that stirred my ire, here is the link to it:http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/41768587/  . The link to the list of recalled items is broken, but there is a partial list on this document that I’ve linked to here: http://www.pbm.va.gov/vamedsafe/TRIAD%20GROUP%20RECALL_STERILE%20LUBRICATING%20JELLY%20_ALCOHOL%20SWABS_NATIONAL%20PBM%20COMMUNICATION_FINAL_012011.pdf . Sorry it’s such a messy link, but it’s okay, I checked it for safety. It’s just a pdf document that you can print out if you like. I did for my mom, to make sure she didn’t get any from that list. Of course, I do their shopping for them, so I won’t be getting any Equaline products from this day forward. Apparently there are problems with the Equate cold medicine products as well from that plant. Now a days, I say, “buyer beware”.

Think about how many times in your life you’ve depended on the idea that something saying that it was sterile, was actually sterile. How often have you cleaned a cut or wound with a sterile pad or put sterilized cream on an open wound for a loved one? How many times have you or a loved one been in the hospital and taken for granted that the supplies they used on you  or your family were sterile, as they were advertised to be? I don’t know about you, but that”s been quite a few times during my life. My son was in the hospital when he was about two and a half years old, so that could have been him in the news. I can’t even imagine the anquish of that mother over the senseless loss of her child. I send my silent prayers to her for comfort.    

Always check your blood sugar before exercising

Glucose from the food you eat goes into your blood and when needed, goes into your muscles for fuel. Your muscles store glucose as glycogen, but when that runs out because of physical activity, then it is replaced by taking glucose out of the bloodstream.

When you first start exercising, your body starts using up the glucose in your muscles and liver, then it gets it out of the blood, so your levels start to drop during prolonged exercise. Later, after you’ve stopped exercising your body replaces the used up glucose in in muscles and the liver. This can cause glucose levels to continue dropping several hours after you ceased to exercise, so monitoring it is very important. You should test to find out where your levels are and adjust them accordingly with a snack perhaps.

This is not an excuse to not exercise because it will lower your glucose. I know my mother has exercised after dinner and then checked her glucose later in the evening and had a snack before going to bed to prevent hypoglycemia while she slept. This worked out very well for her and she was much healthier for having done the exercise. It was after she stopped that her health deteriorated rapidly and she lost control of her glucose levels. It’s important to note that people who are taking insulin, a meglitinide, or a sulfonlurea should pay close attention to what their glucose levels are during and after exercise. They may drop too low and you’ll need to adjust with whatever your doctor recommends using, perhaps a glucose tab or two to get into your system quickly.

Regular exercise is a great tool for keeping your blood glucose levels in check. It can also affect how your body uses insulin. So, do exercise to get and keep yourself healthy, just do it wisely and pay attention to your body. Check your glucose level before you start exercising and if it’s less than 100 mg/dl, then have a snack. Have a snack, a piece of fruit or something that has about 10-15 grams of carbs in it, then wait for 1/2 hour. Test again and exercise only after your glucose level is above 100 mg/dl. With regular exercise and a balanced healthy diet, you can regulate your blood glucose much better than if you are a couch potato that eats fast food. Life will be much happier and more enjoyable for you and your family.