Type 2 Diabetes - Clues For The Origin of Diabetes And Supplements To Help Protect Your Pancreas!

Changes in the pancreas that scientists once only thought occurred in Type 1 diabetes are now known to occur in Type 2 diabetes as well.

For a long time there was just one definition of diabetes. It was a disease in which blood sugar levels were too high. Before about 1950, the only medical treatment was insulin, and insulin was in short supply. It didn't really make a lot of difference whether diabetes occurred in childhood or adulthood, because there were very few ways for most doctors to treat it.

Types of diabetes: About 1950, doctors began making a distinction between childhood-onset diabetes, or Type 1, and adult-onset diabetes, or Type 2. When children got this disease, usually the only ways to control blood sugar levels were insulin or starvation. Without insulin, children either were limited to diets of as little as 500 calories a day, or they died of diabetic complications.

Adults were generally thought not to need insulin injections, which is just as well, because there wasn't enough to go around. They could live "many" years without injections, usually until they died of a heart attack or stroke in their 50's or 60's.

As scientists began to understand that the immune system attacked the insulin-making beta cells in the pancreas in Type 1 diabetes, they also recognized a "Type 3" kind of diabetes occurring in adults. This is the form of the disease known as LADA. It was understood to be a kind of "adult Type 1."

Nowadays, the way all three diseases are diagnosed is something like this.

1. Before the pancreas makes insulin, it makes a storage form of the hormone called proinsulin. Proinsulin is a "ball" of protein that "unzips" into insulin
2. Type 2's unzip proinsulin slowly
3. Type 1's don't unzip proinsulin at all

If scientists could just find the "zipper" that changes proinsulin into insulin, then there just might be a cure for diabetes. No more injections, no more drugs to make the pancreas work harder, no carb-blockers or hormone blockers in the stomach and intestines.

What can diabetics do right now? There is one hint from the recent research. Diabetes seems to result from stress on the endoplasmic reticulum, the part of the cell that makes proteins and also "detoxifies". Maybe, just maybe, helping the endoplasmic reticulum of the insulin-producing beta cells will stop their destruction, and maybe a "detoxifying" agent such as alpha-lipoic acid will do this.

How to protect the pancreas? There are some laboratory studies suggesting that a combination of alpha-lipoic acid and L-carnitine with the B vitamins biotin and nicotinamide might protect the pancreas from the effects of a high-fat diet and too much fructose. Of course, it's even better simply to avoid eating too much fat and fructose! However, consider adding these four supplements to your treatment program to slow, stop, and even contribute to reversing the progression of diabetes.

Type 2 Diabetes - How To Enjoy Holiday Treats Without High Blood Sugar Levels!

The holidays are upon us once again. Basically, from near Halloween until about New Year's Day, you would be justified in thinking that someone was out to intentionally fatten you up. Of course, by far the most immediate threat to a Type 2 diabetic isn't gaining a few pounds, which you'll no doubt lose with your New Year's resolution to run a mile every day... done laughing yet? You need to watch out during these few months especially, because it can be very tempting to go crazy... and the consequences can be pretty dire. But you don't have to turn into Scrooge... it's all about moderation.

Moderation: If you can go through Halloween eating huge amounts of candy and not suffer any kind of harm from it, you are one lucky individual. Just try to limit yourself to just a piece or two an hour, and you should be fine. If that turns out to be too much, give yourself a little bit longer between sugar rushes. Again, moderation is a big deal, especially in this two month period where excess rules like it did back in the 90's.

Chew Slowly: For one thing, you can limit your sugar intake by eating more slowly. Yes, it may sound stupid and obvious, but you would be amazed how quickly some people eat. Just take one bite, put down your utensil and chew slowly. This is an old dieting trick that can help you to eat less of sugary foods like cranberries and full-sugar pies. You'll ultimately find that by eating more slowly, your mind actually has a chance to acknowledge that hey, you've had enough to eat. Some people just keep pushing the food in there until they're absolutely "stuffed"... and say what you will about that being "the point", how much do you really enjoy being stuffed? Coupled with the side effects of having too much blood sugar, you might as well just give that a pass.

Substitutions: Another way to limit the amount of sugar you take in is to make some substitutions. Go a little lighter on mashed potatoes, and a little heavier into the turkey... suddenly the GI of your meal drops dramatically. Get used to sugar-free or low sugar alternatives to pies, and that will make a significant dent. Every recipe where you can cut down on the sugar and lower the glycemic index will have an impact on the nutritional quality of your meal. And not only that, but you'll also find that your family will develop better health habits over time through you "encouraging" them into doing so.

Just keep in mind that complaints are temporary, and the maintenance of stable blood sugar levels and good health is forever.

How to Reduce Blood Sugar Levels - 3 Steps to Get Adapted

Though it is not a big issue to reduce blood sugar levels with proper care, any person prone to diabetes begins worrying when he hears that diabetes cannot be cured as presumed. As diabetes is an innate disorder of the body due to many factors, any wonders performed by medical professionals cannot be set for curing diabetes completely. Once you are in sympathy of being diagnosed with diabetes, you may feel depressed to reflect your thoughts in a dark mirror. You will be helpless on what to do with a body being hyperlinked to a life long disorder. By gearing your 'Will' and becoming friendly to new lifestyle changes, you can reduce sugar intake in your bloodstream.

What you ought to do is simply to adopt a changed lifestyle and become accustomed to the inconveniences you are facing with type 1 or type 2 diabetes. It is not beyond reach to think of living with diabetes. Better management of diabetes cannot be an issue if you are well aware of what causes diabetes and the warning symptoms of diabetes. Taking early measures of diabetes treatment can enable you to dilute the early signs of diabetes. It's true that you can not only reduce blood sugar levels and get adapted to diabetes but even prevent diabetes. May I call you start the game and get adapted to diabetes?

Step.1=> Consult your doctor

If you feel yourself differently with suspected experience of formation of blood sugar, you should immediately consult your doctor and get diagnosed properly. He can suggest you how you can control sugar formation in your body. He may give guidelines on how to manage diabetes with medicine and life style change including exercise and diet.

Step.2=> Monitoring blood sugar levels

With regular monitoring of blood sugar count, you will be enabled to take proper steps to count down the amount of sugar intake in your body in diabetes treatment. Blood sugar readings can be regularly watched once in two months. Monitoring the sugar levels may help you start controlling the symptoms of increased blood sugar. That way, you can amply reduce the saturated sugar in the bloodstream.

Step.3=> Diet management with exercise

Reducing blood sugar levels indeed is dependent on your modified lifestyle with diabetic diet foods and daily exercise routine. Exercise is equally important as diet for reducing the elevated sugar levels of your body. Regarding diet, you should have the list foods to eat and list of foods to avoid. Exercise can help you burn the food intake with ease and generate energy.

What Every Diabetic Should Know About Carbohydrates

There's no doubt that carbohydrates have a great effect on the diabetic diet. Carbohydrates are the sugars that are released from our food by digestion. These digested sugars often called glucose cause the rise in blood sugar levels. The rise in blood sugar levels cause the release of insulin.Insulin job is to carry glucose to the cells for energy.Insulin keeps blood sugar levels in balance at a very narrow range ideally between 70-110 mg/dl. Our diets of highly processed foods in our modern world are very high in carbohydrates. And to many carbohydrates makes to much glucose in our blood.

Hyperglycemia is a high rise in blood sugar levels, going above the 110 mg/dl level causing a over stimulation of insulin.This is called glycemic stress.And years of glycemic stress leads to Insulin Resistance and type 2 diabetes. Its been commonly believed over the past 100 years,That there are simple carbs such as glucose,fructose,maltose or sucrose that would make your blood sugar level rise faster than the complex carbs,such as bread,potato's,cereal,rice or pasta. These complex carbohydrates are what we see at the base of the USDA food pyramid.suggestion that we eat 5-11 servings a day.Many physicians and dietitian's still recommend this today for a healthy diet. In 1981 a researcher Dr.Jenkins introduced a revolutionary new concept. The Glycemic Index.

The Glycemic Index rates how fast a carbohydrate food brakes down into glucose.This discovery has shown that many of what we thought was good carbohydrates actually turn into glucose faster than the simple carbs. Many complex carbohydrates cause hyperglycemia and over stimulate Insulin. A low carbohydrate diet is effective in the diabetic diet.

This diet eliminates many of the complex carbs and highly processed foods that have a high carbohydrate number on the label.If the nutrition label list only 10 carbs,These can be high Glycemic carbs that digest fast into glucose causing hyperglycemia and over stimulating Insulin.A diet to low in carbs can cause low blood sugar levels to fall below 65 mg/dl.hypoglycemia.

Our body's need a certain amount carbohydrates for optimal health and energy. Starting low Glycemic carbohydrate diet can be very effective in controlling blood sugar levels.A low glycemic carb might have a carbohydrate number of 35 on the nutrition label.But these kind of carbs digest slowly and slowly release a steady amount of glucose into the blood.

Not causing Hyperglycemia.And not over stimulating the use of Insulin. Low glycemic carbohydrates help keep steady blood sugar levels. Giving you more energy through your day.keep you hunger satisfied longer. And also has a side effect of weight loss.

Diabetic Cake Recipes - Can You Really Enjoy Cakes and Desserts When You Suffer With Diabetes?

When you understand the particular effect which diabetes has on your body, you can learn just how your day-to-day eating routine works with your condition; and simply schedule dinners, as well as indulge in sweets that you never thought you could have.

Let's take a very basic view of how diabetes can affect your entire body.

Your body takes all the food you eat and alters a lot of it into glucose (that is basically a liquefied sugar) - it then uses this glucose for strength - little bit similar to placing fuel in your vehicle. That glucose goes into your cells inside your system and the cells use the glucose as energy. We all have a hormone called Insulin - this is a little something produced by your body all by itself which also assists the glucose transfer very easily, directly into cells within your body.

Diabetes is known as an illness which comes about when the glucose cannot enter your own cells, due to the fact that either there isn't adequate insulin in the body to assist the glucose, or maybe no insulin at all; or there is sufficient insulin and there is a different biological reason why the glucose can't transfer to the cells.

If this is the result, that's the reason someone with diabetes is required to manage his or her blood sugar levels "manually" rather than leaving it to their very own body to regulate it. As for every person, it is important that you simply organize the food you eat simply by knowing what food creates glucose by knowing just what exactly carbs, sugars and nutrients do to your blood sugar levels.

Will it mean that someone with diabetes cannot eat sugar in any way - so they really are unable to munch on cake or desserts?

There is certainly still a misconception around that somebody who has diabetic issues simply cannot consume any kind of sugar whatsoever. One good thing is this isn't strictly accurate. For everyone who would like to have balanced nutritious eating plans, especially someone who has diabetic issues, has to really arrange their menu in advance and also eat all things in moderation.

Having plenty of quality recipes available which are really easy to bake, have got uncomplicated ingredients, with surprisingly yummy results just got considerably simpler.

Can you actually bake an incredibly tasty diabetic chocolate cake?

The fundamental thought to diabetic recipes is to use a lesser amount of sugar but not to lose any of the sweetness to the taste. Unfortunately, much less sugar may result in sweets tasting a little strange as well as sometimes totally inedible.

It does not have to be so. With good quality recipes it is possible to still produce delicious diabetic chocolate cake along with other diabetic sweets that are perfect for yourself and even the whole family. And you probably know this, less sugar in your diet is a must if you have diabetic issues but great for your family too - especially when they cannot taste the difference!

Type 2 Diabetes and Mashed Potatoes - How To Make a Favorite Comfort Food More Diabetes-Friendly!

There is no single food that causes more downfalls to diabetes control than mashed potatoes. Potatoes. a high glycemic form of carbohydrate are said to increase insulin resistance and the risk of Type 2 diabetes. A favorite side dish of the American Thanksgiving feast, spuds of all fashions make blood sugar levels soar, but there are three things you can do to minimize, or even eliminate, the damage.

1. Just say no to instant: When nutritional researchers measured the glycemic index of instant mashed potatoes, they found that the instant mashers made blood sugar levels go up faster even than eating glucose tablets. That seems a little unlikely, until you consider what's really in instant potatoes.

There are all kinds of additives, flavorings, and stabilizers designed to keep the flakes from smushing together in the box. When these chemical additives get into your system, you have an immediate reaction.

Without getting into the chemistry, this can be a "fast" allergic reaction or a slower immune sensitivity reaction, but both cause your adrenal glands to release cortisol, which in turn makes blood sugar levels go up. Simply peeling potatoes, boiling them, and mashing them up, makes their impact on glucose control much easier to manage. Instant has a glycemic index of about 110. Boiled red Russets have a glycemic index of about 78.

2. Don't eat them piping hot: Another factor that gets overlooked in choosing foods to keep blood sugar levels as near to normal as possible is heat. Hot foods... although not scalding hot foods... are digested more quickly than warm or room-temperature foods. If you just let your food cool down before you eat it, your body will digest it more slowly, and your pancreas will have more time to release the insulin needed to transport digested sugars where they need to go. You can still make your blood sugars soar out of control by eating too much cold carbohydrate food, but all other things being equal, warm food or cold food is better for diabetics than piping hot food.

3. Try cauliflower: If you trim away the green leaves before boiling, boiled cauliflower has the same color as boiled spuds. If you put an unshelled walnut in the water with the cauliflower while it's boiling, the walnut soaks up the "cabbage" flavor and the result tastes like potatoes. If you thoroughly drain the cauliflower in a colander before mashing, getting every last drop of cooking liquid out, then you have the same consistency as mashed spuds. But you'll have 80 per cent less carbohydrate.

Recommended Vegetables and Fruits for Diabetes

For a diabetic patient the choice of food which can be eaten is limited. Fruits and vegetables form a great part of a patient's diet and the good news is that almost all vegetables and most fruits are recommended for diabetes.

Recommended vegetables for diabetes: A diabetic patient can eat almost all vegetables. Vegetables are a power house of nutrients, low in fat content and rich in fiber. Onions and garlic are very good as they reduce the levels of glucose in the blood. Bitter gourd contains hypoglycemic agents and is yet another recommended vegetable for diabetes as it reduces the levels of sugar both in the blood and urine of the patient.

Vegetables like carrots, tomatoes, and spinach are a rich source of caroteniods which lower the odds of a person becoming diabetic. Vegetables like cabbage, peppers, chilies, celery, lettuce, broccoli, green beans are some of the recommended vegetables for diabetes. A diabetic patient can snack on raw vegetables like carrot sticks and have a salad. Vegetables should be eaten either raw, steamed or be preferably cooked in olive oil.

Recommended fruits for diabetes: The best fruits recommended for diabetes are berries as they are low in carbohydrates, and very high in fiber and antioxidants, the preferred varieties being raspberries, blackberries and strawberries. Apples, citrus fruits and stone fruits like peaches, apricots and nectarine are also highly recommended fruits for diabetes.

Apples should be preferably eaten with the skin as the skin is high in fiber. While avocado reduces cholesterol and is a rich source of magnesium and potassium, fresh figs are a source of essential minerals as also a store house of calcium, potassium and iron. Grape fruit is yet another recommended fruit for diabetes as it not only burns fat but also regulates glucose levels in the body.

A diet rich in the above mentioned recommended vegetables and fruits for diabetes will help the diabetic patient to maintain blood sugar levels in the body.