Living Well
Treating Depression in Diabetes May Extend Life
11/28/07
Living Well
Older adults with diabetes and depression live longer when they and their doctors confront and treat the depression. These findings appeared in a study published in the December issue of the medical journal Diabetes Care.
Chronic Stress Could Be Elevating Your Blood Sugar
11/08/07
Living Well, Diagnosis
Stress can complicate life with diabetes, according to the American Diabetes Association.
There are two kinds of stress. The first kind is the immediate stress one feels in a moment of thrill or panic. A roller-coaster ride or an argument can send adrenaline and other stress hormones pouring into the blood stream, along with an infusion of glucose from muscles and the liver. For most people this is an infrequent experience and it does not impact long-term blood sugar levels. However, if you work in an emergency room, or as a police officer, a few adrenaline rushes each day may be elevating your blood sugar.
The second kind of stress is the chronic stress that people live with every day. This prolonged state of mind can be harmful to people with diabetes.
Flu Shots Important for Diabetics
11/03/07
Living Well
The American Diabetes Association recommends an annual influenza vaccine for people with diabetes. The flu bug is starting to creep up on Americans. The northern regions of the country have already reported their first cases of influenza. For diabetics, a flu shot is usually worth the expense and the slight pinch.
The flu vaccine is not perfect, and it does not guarantee immunity to the flu. Vaccinated people still get the flu. There are many strains of influenza and the vaccine you receive may not match the strains that are active in your area.
Sleep Affects Insulin Secretion
10/10/07
Living Well
Too little or too much sleep strains the endocrine system and can affect blood sugar levels, according to an American Academy of Sleep Medicine news release.
Are You Getting Enough Sleep?
10/09/07
Living Well
By Amy Birkner
When life gets busy, usually the first thing to suffer is your sleep. You go to bed later, get up earlier, or just don't sleep well at all with too many things on your mind. Do you know that lack of sleep can affect your health?
Miss out on enough "shut-eye", and you could be sacrificing your energy, positivity, productivity, and memory. Managing your weight is one of the tools for managing diabetes, and losing sleep may affect your ability to live at a healthy weight. According to the National Sleep Foundation, nearly a quarter of American adults aren’t getting enough rest.
Twin Study Measures Stress in Diabetes
09/18/07
Living Well
Identical twins have the same genetic risk of developing diabetes and other diseases. So studying them allows researchers to measure the effects of stress on twins. If one twin has low levels of stress while their identical sibling lives in a high stress environment, it allows scientists to use those experiences to measure how much the stress influences diabetes.
Battling Third Cause of Type 2 Diabetes
09/13/07
Prediabetes and Impaired Glucose Tolerance, Type II Diabetes, Nutrition & Exercise, Living Well, Treatment Options, Prevention, General
Since the scientific identified a third cause of type 2 diabetes, we have to ask the question, how do we battle it? It may be too early for answers, but it is a great time to ask .
Diabetes is a problem that arises when one or both of the following conditions occur:
- A person's body cannot make enough insulin.
- A person's body is not able to use the insulin it produces to process blood sugar
Whole Grain Reaffirmed As Effective Diabetes Fighter
09/08/07
Prediabetes and Impaired Glucose Tolerance, Type II Diabetes, Nutrition & Exercise, Living Well, Prevention, General
Whole grains can reduce the risk of diabetes, and that medical notion was upheld in a recent scientific study from a major University. We've known the benefits of whole grains for a few decades. The fiber aids digestion, and helps the digestive system assimilate carbohydrates properly. The germ from whole grains is an abundant source of nutrients like phytochemicals, vitamins, and minerals. A professional nutrition publication authored by a group of professors from Harvard University reinforces how effective whole grains are at reducing the risk of type 2 diabetes.
American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists Releases Revised Guidelines
09/06/07
Diabetes Medications, Prediabetes and Impaired Glucose Tolerance, Type II Diabetes, Type I Diabetes or Juvenile Diabetes, Living Well, Treatment Options, Prevention, Disease Basics, General
After scouring the 66 pages of the newly revised Medical Guidelines for Clinical Practice for the Management of Diabetes Mellitus, just released by the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists (AACE), we want to introduce some of the content. In contrast to other medical guidelines, this set of diabetes guidelines is refreshingly specific and direct. It has exact recommendations for patients living with either type 1 or type 2 diabetes. We want to share some wisdom from this document and recommend some places to start researching.
Heart Images Identify Pre-diabetes Fat Deposits
09/05/07
Prediabetes and Impaired Glucose Tolerance, Type II Diabetes, Living Well, Treatment Options, Diagnosis, Prevention, General
According to research reported in this article, fat often builds up on the heart before the onset of diabetes. Researchers in Texas learned this while developing an exam that would allow them to take more complex images of the heart during an MRI scan.