If you are diagnosed with diabetes as an adult, you have diabetes type 2. When a child develops the disease it is called diabetes type 2. Sadly, the number of people with this disease increases each decade. Today about 5% of the world’s population has diabetes.

While there is no cure for diabetes that we know of, there are ways to prevent it. The key is to take care of yourself. Not only must you exercise regularly and avoid too much sugar, but you must also eat plenty of fiber and eat low carbohydrate foods.

Complications with Diabetes

If you have this disease, there are things you can do to minimize your risk of suffering further complications. People with diabetes have a higher chance of heart disease, kidney failure, teeth and gum diseases, and blindness. This is a very serious disease that requires respect and concern. If it is not managed, it will take its toll on your health.

Those with the disease are two to four times more likely to have a stroke or heart attack. They also have a higher risk for infections with their feet. If left untreated, these infections can result in amputation.

Blood Sugar Levels Explained

According to the American Diabetes Association your blood sugar falls under 100 you do not have diabetes. If your blood sugar test result is between 100 and 125 you have prediabetes, and if the result is 126 or above you have diabetes. If you have prediabetes you need to work with your doctor to keep your blood sugar level from going any higher.

If you are diagnosed with this disease your doctor will be doing an A1C test to get the average blood sugar reading. The American Diabetes Association recommends that this level not exceed 7.0. It is very important that you make appointments and keep them on a regular basis.

Importance of Daily Exercise

Regular, daily exercise is extremely important for keeping your blood sugar levels consistently low. If you do not have thirty minutes at one time each day, at least try to exercise three times a day for ten minutes. Any amount of exercise you can do will help.

For each 1% you can reduce your level it is believed that you can reduce your risk of various health problems by 40%. That should give you a great incentive for following your doctor’s advice.

Do Not Skip Meals

If you are living with diabetes then skipping meals will not benefit you in any way. Your body needs the food to signal the pancreas and liver to do their jobs. After eating the body tells the pancreas to increase the insulin output. The body also tells the liver to shut down making more sugar. Unless you eat, the body does not send out these signals.

For those with this disease, these signals are less pronounced than in people who do not have diabetes. By eating small amounts throughout the day you keep your insulin levels in balance and prevent spiking or dropping.

If you are not eating enough you can become nervous, dizzy, light-headed and shaky. You might begin to have trouble speaking with correct sentences. This condition is called hypoglycemia and is caused by low blood sugar levels.

Alcohol and Diabetes

The prescription drugs taken with diabetes can have undesirable problems when alcohol is consumed. Therefore it is very important to not drink any alcohol or at least to drastically reduce the amount you ingest if you have diabetes type 2.

By taking this disease seriously and managing the kinds of foods and the timing of meals and snacks as well as making time for a daily exercise routine, you can overcome the problems and live a long life.

For more information on diabetes and how you can prevent it or minimize its effects if you have it, visit http://www.thehealthandfitnesssite.com
 

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Excess sugar and stress are the two main cause of diabetes. This excess sugar causes the pancreas to secrete high levels of insulin. Insulin removes this excess sugar out of the bloodstream, converts it to fat and stores it in fat cells.

What’s the cause of insulin resistance?

Insulin becomes less efficient to process sugar due to increase in fat cell. This triggers insulin resistance or type 2 diabetes. Pancreas ability to secrete natural insulin hampers in this case.

Source of Glucose

Source of glucose is carbohydrates. Fruits and vegetables are the best source of sugar because these are natural fructose sugars.

Threat from sucrose

Man made foods such as candies, soft drinks, breads, processed meats, pastries have high sugar and these are dangerous. These foods enter straight into the blood stream and increase sugar level immediately.

Glucose that is not immediately burned for energy, stored as fat in fat cells by Insulin. In the process, blood sugar begins to drop and you started feeling hungry.

Solution to maintain your blood sugar

First recommendation is to eat carbohydrates such as fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and beans, which digest more slowly.

Proper diet increases blood sugar slowly and glucose is available as energy for several hours. Benefit is glucose is not needed to rush in to turn the sugar into fat.

Blood sugar level stays even and excess sugar does not have to be stored as fat; you don’t feel hungry just a few hours after eating. Added benefit is some carbohydrates contain nutrients such as fiber, which also help you lose and control weight, and remove waste from your colon.

Most Important point to remember to control blood sugar

Proper diet and moderate exercise is must to remain healthy. Junk food skyrockets your blood sugar. Unfortunately, this is often overlooked in diet plans.

Millions are people are suffering from diabetes and cholesterol across the globe. I too was suffering from cholesterol and hypertension for last few years. I was sick and tired of living on medicine, finally I decided to look for alternative medicine. Finally, I managed to reduce my blood sugar, hypertension with those simple techniques within 63 days. If you are suffering from high blood pressure and interested to manage it, visit the link on managing hypertension in natural process. Are you one of those 30% who don’t know they have the diabetes?

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After all, it’s epidemic in the US now. Hundreds of thousands of people get it every year. It has moved into the top 10 killers of people. It’s not contagious. You do not get it from a sneeze or not taking you vitamins.

You get Diabetes from being overweight. This is Type two Diabetes. It usually occurs after age 40. The overweight person circulates sugar in his bloodstream continuously because he is taking in too many calories. Sugar in the bloodstream causes the production of insulin in the pancreas. The insulin helps get the sugar into the cells so that they can be burned for fuel. This continuous production of insulin can have two results. The cells that produce insulin can get “burned out”. They just can not make enough insulin any more. Or the part of the cell that works with the insulin to burn sugar gets “burned out” from over use. Either way, the body can not get the sugar it needs.

What are the effects [symptoms] of Diabetes? You are tired because your body can not use sugar [almost all the foods we eat get turned into sugar]. You are thirsty [the body tries to lower the sugar level by adding water]. You urinate a lot [you just drank a lot of water].

Diabetes causes blindness,gangrene [yes gangrene, the limbs feet, hands, etc. die because they do not get enough blood and food]. Yes, Diabetes will kill you if nothing else does first.

How do YOU avoid Diabetes? Calorie restriction and exercise. That is right. You need to keep your weight down. Controlling your calorie intake and exercise are the only ways to avoid diabetes. If you do not take the calories in then you do not need to burn them off. Exercise is essential to burn calories and improve muscle tone.

In summary;the only way to avoid Diabetes is to keep your weight down.

Good Luck

Ray

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Ray_Sipe

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With all of the diabetes diet cookbooks and eating plans on the market, you might think that it is easy for diabetics to learn how and what they should eat, but the truth is that people may be getting inappropriate or inaccurate advice. According to the American Diabetes Association Diet experts, there is no single eating plan that works for everyone. A pre diabetes diet or a diet for those who are at high risk for developing diabetes may be quite different from a diet for those who are managing existing diabetes.

It would be great if everyone who is at risk for or suffers from diabetes would consult a nutritionist to help them design a specific eating plan based on their preferences and their individual needs for blood sugar, blood pressure and weight control, but since some people do not have that option and others simply want to “do it themselves”, the American Diabetes Association Diet experts have created some basic guidelines and recommendations. What follows is a brief summary of those guidelines.

The first recommendation from the experts applies to all individuals with problems controlling their blood sugar. Avoid the Fad diets. This is good advice for anyone. Fad diets never help people keep the weight off. They may lose weight quickly, only to gain it back in a short period of time. We have learned that “see-sawing” changes in weight are just as unhealthy as obesity. A safe diabetes diet or pre diabetes diet is a plan for life, not for short term weight loss.

The American diabetes association diet guidelines for people who are at risk for diabetes (a pre diabetes diet) call for high fiber foods, nutrient-rich foods and whole grains. Nutrient rich foods are sometimes referred to as nutrient dense foods. In short, the term means that the nutritional value of the food is high when compared to the caloric value. More complete information about nutrient dense foods is available on this web page.

The American diabetes association diet guidelines for people who already have diabetes are more specific. Get carbohydrates from fruits, vegetables, whole grains and legumes. Use low fat milk. Eat fiber rich foods. Less than 7 percent of total calories should come from saturated fat. Eat two servings of baked or broiled fish per week. Avoid trans fats. Reduce cholesterol intake to less than 200 mg/day.

The fish recommendation for the diabetes diet is because of the omega-3, long-chain fatty acids found primarily in fish. Some doctors recommend an even higher intake for blood sugar control and many recommend a fish oil supplement. There are other nutrients, botanicals and herbs that can help with blood sugar control and can be added to an appropriate diabetes or pre diabetes diet. For a complete list of diabetes specific dietary supplements, visit the Diabetes Type 2 Info Guide. There’s lots of information there for people who suffer from or are at risk for diabetes.

Patsy Hamilton was a health care professional for over twenty years before becoming a health writer. Learn more about managing diabetes at http://www.diabetes-type-two-info-guide.com

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Knowing about your body can be very beneficial to your health as you age. Knowing about your blood pressure can help prevent strokes, heart disease and kidney disease. In this article you will find everything you should know about your blood pressure.
Anyone can have high blood pressure. It doesn’t matter your age, race, ethnicity or gender. Many people suffer from high blood pressure and have a higher risk of strokes and heart diseases than those with regular blood pressure.

What is high blood pressure?

High blood pressure is the force of blood against the walls of your arteries. Your blood pressure is always rising and falling throughout the day and if it rises and stays that way over time, you have high blood pressure.

High blood pressure is usually referred to as hypertension. When you have high blood pressure it puts more pressure on the heart, making it work harder than usual. This is why you end up at risk for strokes or heart disease.

What is the normal blood pressure level?

The normal blood pressure level is less than 120 over 80 or less. The first number is your systolic pressure and the second number is your diastolic pressure. Your numbers are read 120 over 80, etc. If your pressure is 140 over 90 or higher you have high blood pressure.

What is systolic blood pressure? This is the force of blood in your arteries when your heart is beating.

What is diastolic blood pressure? This is the force of blood in your arteries when your heart is relaxing.

What are the risk factors of high blood pressure?

The most common risks of high blood pressure are stroke and heart disease. There are a few other risk factors that can be modified and some that cannot be. The following are some risks:

* Tobacco * Physical Inactivity * Diabetes * Abnormal Cholesterol * Being overweight

Who can get high blood pressure?

Unfortunately anyone can get high blood pressure but it is more common among African Americans. Nearly one in three American adults has high blood pressure. African Americans also have a much higher death rate from kidney disease and stroke than white Americans. Even so, with treatment you can help lower your blood pressure.

How can I lower my blood pressure?

Fortunately there are many different ways of helping to lower your blood pressure. Exercise is a great way to lower it. Doing physical activity will make your heart stronger over time. If you have a stronger heart it can pump blood easier lessening your risks of stroke and kidney diseases. It is never too late to start exercising!

If you are concerned about your blood pressure consult your physician. Ask any and all questions you might have and find the best way for you to lower it. If all regular ways fail, consider medication. Talk with your doctor about your health and lifestyle so he can choose the best medicine for you. If you want to live a healthy life, taking control of your blood pressure is very important.

About the Author
Visit Daves Health Buzz for more articles on blood pressure health http://www.daveshealthbuzz.com/blood-pressure

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