The challenges of detecting the symptoms for diabetes can be many but understanding the disease, and its symptoms can help those who are afflicted live normal lives. It all starts with glucose and the fact that there is not enough in the body’s cells. Instead, there is an overload of glucose in the blood.
There are two types of diabetes. For Type 1, the challenge is that the abundance of glucose in the blood is due to the fact that insulin produced by the cells have broken down and been decimated. For Type 2, the cells have, somehow, become resistant to the insulin that gets produced.
Recognizing the symptoms for diabetes can be challenging if one is not alert to one’s own body reactions.
The major symptoms include:
- Too much urination due to an increase in the glucose. The kidneys are constantly filling up due to no insulin and too much glucose. The kidneys are unable to effectively filter the glucose back into the blood.
- A loss of weight without dieting or exercising and weakness are definite symptoms for diabetes. The pancreas begins to break down in its ability to produce insulin. The body’s cells are not getting their energy from glucose so the cells begin to feed on fat and muscle.
- Constantly being thirsty. The kidneys are pulling out as much water as they can, and many trips to the bathroom eventually cause a continuous dehydration.
Other symptoms for diabetes include:
- tingling in the extremities
- dry and itchy skin
- constant and prevailing fatigue
Somewhere between the 24th and 28th week of your pregnancy, your obstetrician is going to have you take a glucose tolerance test to check for gestational diabetes. There isn’t much that needs to be done to prepare for the test, however, you will have to fast for 8-12 hours before the test is administered. Many women schedule the glucose tolerance test first thing in the morning to prevent having to fast during the day. You will not have to alter any of your eating habits during the weeks leading up to the test.
On the day of the test, you will have your blood drawn. This will give the physician a baseline reading. Then you will have 5 minutes to consume a glucose solution, which will contain about 95 grams of sugar. Your blood will be drawn 2 hours after you drink the solution to measure your body’s reaction to the glucose. If your blood sugar levels are elevated you will have to repeat the test with a blood draw at one, two and three hour intervals.
If you are at risk of, or diagnosed with gestational diabetes you will have to carefully monitor your glucose levels and your diet throughout the rest of your pregnancy.
For the millions of Americans managing diabetes every day, each year brings with it new hope for treatment, particularly in the delivery of insulin to the body.
But before we discuss the types of treatments available, it’s first important to fully understand how diabetes affects the human body. Diabetes, for all intents and purposes, stems from an individual having an excess of glucose in their blood.
Glucose – also referred to as “blood sugar” – is “food” for cells in muscles and tissue as well as the brain, providing them with critical energy. But an excess of glucose can severely impact neurological and cardiovascular functions, such as causing numbness in limbs.
Therefore, the cornerstone of diabetes management is keeping glucose levels stable using insulin. Normally, diabetics should periodically monitor their blood sugars and inject insulin as appropriate. But there have been some encouraging developments on that front.
Insulin pens, for example, deliver insulin just under the skin and already contains insulin; as a result, diabetics don’t need to withdraw insulin from the vial into the needle. Insulin pumps, meanwhile, can be used instead of injections; a computer chip continually monitors blood sugars and automatically releases insulin through a tube under the skin.
Talk to your doctor to see if either option would be right for you.
Everybody else seems to be doing it, and now a new report has indicated the benefits of a greener diet for diabetes sufferers, according to one expert.
Amy Campbell, an Education Program Manager specializing in diabetes control claims that going green can have a real positive effect on controlling blood glucose levels. Of course, every diabetic knows the importance of fresh fruit and vegetables in reducing glucose absorption and the value of foods containing fiber in controlling blood sugar levels, but the positive effects of a vegetarian diet are less well known.
As well as ditching meat, sufferers are being encouraged to shop local and buy produce which is allowed to ripen naturally in the field, meaning less artificial additives and sweeteners have been added.
Living life as a vegetarian, or even cutting down on your meat consumption is by no means restrictive and the American Diabetes Association has recently revised its meal exchange list thanks to a growing interest in the subject.
If you’re considering going green, or cutting out meat, it’s important to make the change gradually, allowing your body to slowly realign itself to your new diet and allowing you to closely monitor how the changes affect your body and your condition. You may find eliminating some foods has a positive effect while other changes may not suit you. Give yourself time to adjust.
Every newly diagnosed diabetes sufferer should seek the opinion of a professional dietician and develop a meal plan suitable for their own lifestyle, in order to minimize complications without taking the fun out of food. Remember, nutrition plays a major part in diabetes control, and while you have the same nutritional requirements as anybody else, special attention to what’s in your food is advisable.