A Lack of Sleep Causes a Whole Host of Health Problems

Not getting the sleep that you need can cause many health problems for you. Some of these problems you might see immediately, while some will show up later. When you cheat your body out of sleep, it will eventually have to account for that missing piece of the puzzle.

Not getting the right amount of sleep affects your heart. If you get fewer than 4 hours of sleep every night, the risks of an adverse heart event increases. That might not seem like a big deal, but this increase is nearly 50%.

Without enough sleep, you can develop heart disease and you become closer to having a heart attack or a stroke than you might realize. The fatigue that occurs from a lack of sleep affects the heart where it doesn’t work as well as it should.

Another health problem that occurs with a lack of sleep is an increased risk of cancer. Studies have shown that people who don’t get at least 7 hours of sleep every night experience a significant chance of developing prostate or breast cancer.

The risk of cancer increases when sleep loss is compounded by weight gain. One cancer that’s directly related to weight gain, especially around the abdomen, is colorectal cancer.

This risk is high in both men and women. Obesity is a common side effect of a lack of sleep. When you gain too much weight, this causes fatigue because it puts a strain on your organs - especially your heart....

What Can the Diabetes Freedom Course Teach You?

Educating yourself is the key to getting free from diabetes complications. One of the best things you can do to help deal with the disease is to take a course on how to live a healthy lifestyle.

The course, Diabetes Freedom, teaches you that and more. But the course also teaches you what you might be eating every day that can actually make your diabetes symptoms worse.

There’s a green vegetable that you might think is healthy. It’s not - and you might accidentally be sabotaging the control of your diabetes by eating it. You can’t help what you don’t know, but what you don’t know can have serious consequences.

That’s why you need to understand how to fight back using the Diabetes Freedom material. The course gives you a manual that covers the three stages to ending diabetes complications.

Once you buy the course, you’ll gain access to a list of foods and beverages that are recommended for diabetics. But you’ll also get the information on which foods and drinks you need to stay away from.

In the first stage, the course teaches you how to follow an eating plan that can have your diabetes symptoms under control within just two months. In the second stage, you’ll learn about healthy fatty acids and how you can use these to gain more energy and help stabilize your blood glucose levels.

The third stage of the course shows you how you can put principles in place to control your diabetes for life. You’ll learn what super drinks are and how to apply them as part of your healthy eating plan....

Diabetes Is One Disease That Can Be Managed and Reversed

Diabetes is not a death sentence like some people fear once they hear the news. Hundreds of years ago, before the medical field gained the knowledge on how to deal with the disease, the prognosis wasn’t good.

But now, a diabetic can live a life that’s just as healthy as someone who doesn’t have the disease. In fact, the bright side of this diagnosis is that it does put you in control of your destiny, helping you feel more empowered.

By taking certain action steps, you do have the power to manage it. As long as you’re willing to step up and make changes in your life, you can handle the disease or even make your numbers return to normal.

But you do have to be willing to make these changes in order to fix the problem. You may need to give yourself some time to come to terms with the diagnosis because you might feel shocked once you’re told.

That’s normal. But just realize that you’re not alone. If you’ve been diagnosed with the disease, the first thing you want to do is find a support system or group so you can surround yourself with help and positive support....

How Diabetes Complications Can Upend Your Life

Unfortunately, not everyone will put in the work to manage their diabetes. Like any other disease, if you don’t care of yourself, it will get worse. Some of the complications that occur with diabetes can be mild and more of an annoyance than something that disrupts your life.

Some of the mild complications concern the urge to urinate more frequently. This happens because the glucose levels are too high and the body is trying to expel the extra glucose.

Not only can this lead to dehydration but it can also cause sleep disturbances, because you might have to get up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom. Neuropathy, also known as nerve damage, can happen as a result of having diabetes.

This can feel like tingling or a pins and needles effect. The longer your glucose levels remain out of control or your diabetes isn’t diagnosed, the worse the nerve damage can be.

You can begin to have areas of your body where you lose sensation. You’ll notice this by touching the affected area with something such as the tip of a pen. If you run the pen across the damaged area, you’ll notice that you’ll have areas where the pen can touch the skin and you won’t feel it.

Other complications aren’t so mild and can be more extreme. People who have diabetes are more likely to experience cardiovascular problems. This can be things like heart disease and heart attacks....

Relying on Quick Fixes Like Insulin Can Be Frightening

Sometimes people don’t want to put in the work to address the physical issues involved with having diabetes. This can happen because they might not know what to do. Or they might feel overwhelmed, and this leads to inaction.

But sometimes, people don’t change their ways because they’re set in their habits. They want to eat whatever they want. They don’t want to put any portion limits on the foods that they eat.

So they continue to overeat. Those who are sedentary will often resist change, especially if they’ve been non-exercisers for the majority of their lives. Some people don’t know how to put in the effort and some people choose not to.

The end result for both types of people is the same, however - diabetic complications and a life cut shorter than it should have been. Others decide that they can just rely on quick fixes and think that solves the problem.

So what they do is they figure that their insulin is just going to take care of the diabetes.
They’ll eat whatever they want, won’t exercise and then try to handle it by adding more insulin in order to try to counteract their bad habits.

Assuming that the insulin is going to erase the unhealthy lifestyle is a mistake because it doesn’t work. You can end up eating more than what your insulin dose can handle, so you still get the complications from the disease because your levels aren’t being managed....

Diabetes Is One of the Most Prevalent Diseases in the World

Out of all the diseases in the world, diabetes is known as one of the most common ones to have. According to statistics, more than 30 million Americans have some form of diabetes.

But out of this high number, nearly a third of the people who have diabetes aren’t even aware that they do. These are people who may be having symptoms, but they’ve either been attributed to something else or they’ve been ignored.

It used to be that once you reached a certain age, your risk of developing diabetes increased. But now, you can be diagnosed with it even in childhood. More often than not, diabetes is lumped into three categories.

These are type 1 diabetes, type 2 and then the kind that you can get when you’re pregnant, which is known as gestational or pregnancy-onset diabetes. With type 1 diabetes, it’s usually kids and younger people who get diagnosed with this (although some adults have also been diagnosed later in life).

The symptoms can range from thirst to extreme irritability to fatigue. With this type of diabetes, it means that the pancreas is incapable of making enough insulin to adequately handle glucose control.

When you have type 2 diabetes, more often than not, people associate this diagnosis with being overweight. But you can get this type even when you’re not overweight. With this type, it means that while your pancreas does produce insulin, something has gone wrong with the way that the body is able to use it.

Sometimes the use is impaired by carrying too much weight - but other times, it can be due to a medical cause. With gestational diabetes, women who are expecting a child develop abnormally high glucose levels....

If You’re Diabetic Get Plenty of Vitamin A for a Healthy Immune System

While many people associate vitamin C with being the most important immune system vitamin, you shouldn’t forget about the other vitamins which can also play major roles in keeping you healthy.

Vitamin A is often overlooked when compared to vitamin C and D, but it has a lot of health benefits that you could be missing out on. One thing that vitamin A does for your immune system is that it helps you maintain healthy mucus.

While it does seem gross, and though you might not have known it, the mucus in your nose and throat is actually your body’s first line of defense against viruses. It’s meant to catch anything that’s not supposed to be there, which is why your body produces more of it when you get sick.

Another immune system boost that it gives you, which is also helpful for diabetics in particular, is its anti-inflammatory properties. Vitamin A can help quickly reduce and control inflammation, which helps your immune system.

Many diabetics experience inflammation, which is uncomfortable, so this will also help you feel a lot better in your day to day life. Vitamin A is often found with beta-carotene, something that helps improve eye health, which is definitely an important thing for diabetics.

Diabetes can greatly increase your chances of things like cataracts and poor eyesight, so taking care of your eyes is important. The best source of vitamin A and beta-carotene you’re going to find is carrots.

They’re a very diabetic-friendly vegetable since they’re so low in sugar, and they can be prepared in a ton of different ways. You can have carrots as a snack throughout the day, though you might want to stay away from sauces that might contain more sugar.

Just eating them raw will help you keep your blood sugar under control. They’re also great roasted in the oven or cooked up into a sauce, and you can also add them to soups for extra flavor. 

They pair well with almost any meat, and are also great in salads. You can also find a decent amount of vitamin A in foods like spinach and broccoli, though not in the same amounts. 

Still, if you don’t like carrots, broccoli and spinach are great ways to boost your cooking and can be eaten in whatever way you find most appealing. 

Diabetes can greatly increase your chances of things like cataracts and poor eyesight, so taking care of your eyes is important. The best source of vitamin A and beta-carotene you’re going to find is carrots.

They’re a very diabetic-friendly vegetable since they’re so low in sugar, and they can be prepared in a ton of different ways. You can have carrots as a snack throughout the day, though you might want to stay away from sauces that might contain more sugar. 

Just eating them raw will help you keep your blood sugar under control. They’re also great roasted in the oven or cooked up into a sauce, and you can also add them to soups for extra flavor. 

They pair well with almost any meat, and are also great in salads. You can also find a decent amount of vitamin A in foods like spinach and broccoli, though not in the same amounts. 

Still, if you don’t like carrots, broccoli and spinach are great ways to boost your cooking and can be eaten in whatever way you find most appealing. 

Selenium-Rich Foods for Diabetics to Improve Their Immune Health

Your thyroid gland plays an important role in your body, by managing hormones and helping regulate metabolism. A poorly functioning thyroid can lead to a number of problems, especially for diabetics who already have enough to deal with.

Unfortunately, diabetics experience thyroid problems at a higher rate, and the thyroid problems then make their diabetes worse. Since your thyroid helps regulate most other systems in your body, it can affect your immune system if it’s not working properly.

There are even cases where your immune system will damage the thyroid, making everything worse. However, to combat this, you should include snacks in your diet that give you a nice little boost of selenium, which helps your thyroids perform better.

By getting your thyroids under control and having them work better, you’re going to be able to control your blood glucose levels much easier, something that is crucial for diabetics.

Selenium doesn’t just help your thyroids, though. It’s also been found to help your immune system and even heart health, both of which are also very important for diabetics.

Now it’s just a matter of finding the right food to get your selenium from. You don’t need a lot at all - around 50-60 micrograms per day is fine. As long as you stay under around 400 micrograms you’ll be fine, but you shouldn’t go over that amount.

The first common source of selenium is chicken. Of course chicken can be cooked in a ton of different ways, plenty of which are fine for diabetics. You want to avoid fried altogether, but you can season it and pan sear or bake it instead.

You should also be sure to avoid sugary sauces like barbeque sauce. Selenium can also be found in eggs in decent amounts. Eggs are a good food for diabetics because they’re high in protein and fairly low in carbs, especially if you’re not adding in things like cheese to the mix.

Just having some sunny side up or scrambled eggs in the morning is a good way to get those nutrients in early on. Finally, the best source of selenium is Brazil nuts. Just 5 whole Brazil nuts is enough to give you your daily intake.

These can be eaten as a quick snack in the afternoon or along with another meal, and they’re low carb enough for diabetics to not have to worry about them. 

How Omega-3 Foods Bolster a Diabetic Immune System

You may have heard of omega-3 fatty acids before, often times found on pill bottles of vitamins. Omega-3s are very good for you, with their primary benefit being heart health. They help improve blood flow and can reduce the symptoms of inflammation, making you much more comfortable and making your heart much healthier.

The main immune system benefit of omega-3s is that part of them help your white blood cells communicate better and make them stronger. If you’re not aware, your white blood cells perform a very important task in your body, which is finding and fighting foreign bodies such as viruses.

The white blood cells will alert the rest of the body when it finds a virus, and will start to break down the virus cells and dispose of them. If you want to have a good immune system, you need to have strong white blood cells that have all the nutrients they need, and omega-3s are an important component of that.

For diabetics, the best source of omega-3s that you’re going to find is fish. Fish are a great source of these fatty acids, while being fairly low carb at the same time. While salmon is the most common fatty fish that you’ll find, there are others that you might find to be better or more convenient to buy.

Something you need to be careful of is how the fish is prepared. Of course a fish isn’t going to be diabetic friendly if it’s been deep fried, but oven roasted or pan seared fish is great.

If you’ve never cooked fish at home before, don’t worry, because it’s very easy to do. If you’re buying a whole fish then you’ll need to remove things like scales, but if you just buy the fillets already precut, then it’s much easier and you don’t have to worry about cleaning it up nicely first.

All you need is some seasoning and an oven and you’re good to go! You should also avoid eating your fish with certain things if you’re diabetic. For example, many people like to put sauces on their fish.

These sauces can have tons of carbs or sugars depending on what it is, so you want to avoid those as much as possible. Additionally, you should avoid high carb side dishes, such as French fries, which are frequently served with fish.

Try some oven roasted vegetables or a small salad instead, both of which are much more diabetic-friendly options.

Pairing Protein, Fiber and Zinc to Boost Your Diabetic Immune System

There are some often overlooked micronutrients that are key parts of your immune system. While everyone focuses on vitamins, they may forget that things like protein, fiber, and zinc are all very important parts of helping your immune system stay strong and competent, and call all be found in some great diabetic-friendly foods.

Protein is very important for your immune system. Many people may only associate protein with the stuff that weightlifters drink in order to get big muscles, but protein is actually the building block foundation of most cells in your body.

This includes your immune system. If you don’t get enough protein regularly, your body won’t be able to produce strong white blood cells, nor will those cells be able to use the other nutrients efficiently.

Zinc is used in most processes by your white blood cells. White blood cells are important because they’re your primary defense against viruses that are trying to take hold in your body.

If they don’t have things like zinc that they need to use to gain energy or communicate, then they won’t be as effective. It’s good for diabetics in general to get a healthy amount of zinc, because it helps mitigate some of the long term effects that diabetes can have on you.

Specifically, diabetes and high blood sugar can damage your heart as the years go on, but zinc helps strengthen your heart so that it’s not much of a problem. Finally, fiber has a much better use than just making sure you’re taking regular bathroom trips. 

It actually helps improve your gut bacteria health greatly, which is an important part of your immune system that handles contaminates that may be found in your food. Fiber is also great for diabetics, since it helps keep your blood sugar much more stable, and makes insulin much more effective.

If you really want to go for one food that will help you boost all of those things, you should look into hummus. It’s made with chickpeas, which contain all of those nutrients in good amounts, and it has been recommended to help diabetics boost their immune systems. 

Typically, people eat hummus with things like bread or crackers, but you can also use slices of raw vegetables and it’ll be just the same. You want something firm so that you can sort of scoop the hummus, such as long slices of bell peppers.