Being diagnosed with diabetes can be a shock – especially if you weren’t expecting it. When you first learn the news, you’ll feel overwhelmed, uncertain and anxious. Some people even experience a period of depression as numerous questions plague them.
One of the most often asked questions among people with diabetes is what they can or can’t have to eat. It’s always best to have a guide that you can use while you learn how to manage your diabetes.
Knowing what to do can help you feel calmer and less worried about how you’re going to handle the diagnosis. In the book, What Do I Eat Now? A Step-by-Step Guide to Eating Right with Type 2 Diabetes, you’ll learn the basics of how nutrition impacts your diabetes.
You’ll also discover what carbohydrates do for your body and how they work in someone who has diabetes. The book also teaches how using portion sizes can help you be better able to manage your diabetes.
When you use the right portion sizes, not only does it help with blood glucose control, but it can stave off long term complications as well as help you lose excess weight. Portion control is one of the major steps in managing diabetes.
There’s also a chapter in the book on what to do at the grocery store. By shopping wisely and picking up foods that work with your diabetes rather than against it, you can have a healthier long term prognosis.
Also covered in the book is how to read food labels and understanding what the terms mean in relation to your diabetes. For a diabetic, eating out can be a good thing or a bad thing depending on how it’s approached.
Eating out is something that some people with diabetes think will blow their healthy eating plan. But going out to restaurants, including fast food restaurants, doesn’t have to include meals that send your glucose levels skyrocketing.
In the chapter on eating out, you’ll learn how you can eat away from home, enjoy delicious food and still maintain good control over your diabetes. Another area that can cause problems for a diabetic is in the area of snacking – especially if you have certain food triggers or use food to feed emotions.
The book will teach you that it’s okay to snack, but it’s how you snack that matters. By choosing snacks that are good for you, it’s okay to have something to eat between meals or when you just want something to munch on.
This book contains a variety of meals that you can include as part of your daily and weekly eating plan. By understanding the breakdown of the nutrition provided for each meal, you can learn the foods to eat that will help you take care of your diabetes.
There are a lot of books out there about dealing with diabetes. But some of them were written from a scientific point of view. When information isn’t given in easy to understand terms, it can seem like you’re reading Greek trying to figure out what the book is even talking about.
In the book Diabetes For Dummies, diabetes is broken down in an easy to understand manner that’s helpful for learning how to deal with the disease. Like all diseases, there are often new medications, helpful tools and improved care plans that evolve every year and by being on top of what’s new, you can better manage your condition.
Information on the latest ways to help you thrive while living with diabetes is found in this book. When you have a plan in place to deal with diabetes, not only is it easy to manage the day to day issues of the disease, but it’s also easier to avoid long term complications.
Plus, you’ll be able to use the book to know which diet and exercise plan is the right one for you. One of the things that this book does cover that a lot of the others don’t is dealing with the psychological impact of learning you have diabetes.
The psychological side – such as handling the anxiety, depression, numbness and denial, of diabetes – has to be treated in order for someone to be able to handle the physical side of the disease.
You’ll learn about the different and latest medication options for treating diabetes as well as the array of tools that you can use. The types of foods, meal planning and exercise plans to help you get rid of any excess weight that can impact how well you manage diabetes are included in the book.
This disease can affect different age groups – including children. Children are being diagnosed with type 2 diabetes at an alarming rate. You’ll discover how you can make sure that your child’s risk level is low as well as how to help your child manage the condition if he or she does have the disease.
The book talks about how you can recognize the often missed symptoms of diabetes and what causes both type 1 as well as type 2 to develop. You’ll learn about the hereditary as well as the lifestyle aspects that can raise risk levels.
The book covers the various parts of your body that diabetes can impact. You’ll learn how to successfully monitor your blood glucose and how to make sure the numbers stay in the healthy range.
Information not often found in other diabetes books is covered here such as the link between diabetes and erectile dysfunction and diabetes and Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome. Learning all that you can about diabetes and what it does to your body is the first step toward being able to manage it and in some cases, even reverse it.
Most people don’t pay attention to the risks involved with getting diabetes until it’s suddenly on their doorstep. When you’re diagnosed as having prediabetes, although it can be unsettling, it’s actually an opportunity to stop diabetes from happening to you.
If you take immediate action, you can get on track to making sure you don’t move from prediabetes to diabetes. You take action by following a plan like what’s outlined in The Prediabetes Diet Plan.
This book is a helpful guide that can teach you how reverse your diagnosis without using any fancy, weird or expensive items. It takes diet, exercise and the mindset that you’re going to make some changes in order to stay healthy.
A diagnosis of prediabetes warns you that your blood glucose is above normal levels. If you work to get these numbers back down and make changes, you’ll feel better physically and lower your risk factors.
The book can help you understand what prediabetes is and how it can affect your body. You’ll learn about insulin resistance and how this impacts your cells. The book also covers why what you eat and how you eat is so important to getting rid of prediabetes.
You’ll know what carbohydrates mean in relation to prediabetes and the importance of watching the carbs that you eat in your meals. The book can show you how to eat so that you get the nutrients that you need, but not the carb overload.
You’ll learn the types of foods for meals and even smaller on the go snacks to eat and how to count your carbs while still being able to eat normal foods. The book has a focus on losing weight through nutritional savvy eating and exercise.
Losing weight when you have prediabetes is one of the keys to reversing the diagnosis because being overweight and prediabetes go hand in hand. It’s one of the things that leads to insulin resistance.
The book touches on the physical risks of prediabetes such as developing heart problems and what can happen if you don’t stop diabetes from occurring. You’ll learn about supplements and how to shop for food – as well as the food choices to make while you’re eating at restaurants.
Taking care of your emotions is also talked about and this step is important as well. By taking care of your emotions, you can impact your physical health for the better – especially when you manage the stress in your life.
This book offers a comprehensive plan on the lifestyle changes that you can make to turn your life around and stop diabetes.
There are many different diseases that people get that because the genetic material for those diseases are passed down from generation to generation. Alzheimer’s is one such disease.
If you had a mother or father diagnosed with the disease, then your odds of getting it would be increased. However, some diseases will not automatically develop in the next family member – even if there is a history of the condition.
The reason for this is because at the root of some diseases is the ability to stop the condition from occurring. Diabetes is one of these conditions. It doesn’t matter if you had grandparents, parents or siblings diagnosed with diabetes.
You’re not doomed to get the condition if you’re proactive about it. That’s the key to preventing getting diabetes. Being proactive with your health. That means that you must take steps to do what you can so that the risk factors that go hand in hand with the disease don’t take control in your life.
The biggest risk factor for getting the disease is how much weight that you carry. For each pound that you are overweight, it impacts your risk level for developing diabetes. The reason that this happens is because of how the body’s cells are impacted by the fat.
People who are overweight struggle to be able to properly use the insulin their body produces. The cells become resistant toward insulin rather than having the sensitivity that you would normally have.
When your cells become insulin resistant, the glucose can build up in your bloodstream and lead to high sugar readings. This leads to organ damage, a higher risk of heart attacks, blindness, amputation and even premature death.
So if you are carrying extra weight and you have a family history of diabetes, lose weight so that you’re in the healthy zone for your height and frame. The second biggest risk to developing diabetes is the kind of foods that you eat.
If you eat a diet that’s high in calories and loaded with sugar, then your odds of getting the disease will increase. One thing about eating sugar is that it triggers a feel good hormone in the body, which can lead to craving even more sugar.
To keep diabetes at bay, it’s best to have a low carb, healthy meal plan. The third biggest risk to getting diabetes if you have a family history of the disease is being inactive.
If you spend more time sitting around watching television than you do being active, your chances of getting diabetes will increase. Exercise allows the body to be able to use the glucose properly and it keeps the cells from becoming insulin resistant. It also helps keep the extra weight off.
Diabetes has often been called a progressive disease. When you hear the word progressive, that can discourage anyone and it can be easy to fall into the trap of believing that there’s nothing that you can do to stop the disease.
But this simply isn’t true. Yes, diabetes is a progressive disease – but only for those who don’t fight back. If you fight back against a diagnosis of diabetes, not only can you reverse the condition, but you can end up in better health that you’ve ever been in before.
When it comes to reversing the disease, there will be both immediate and long term actions that will make the difference. It all starts with control. You must control the disease or it will control you.
To topple the disease, you first have to gain control over your lifestyle. This will give you immediate help toward reversing the disease. Most people end up with diabetes because they’re overweight.
Obviously, you can’t change how much you weigh immediately because that’s a change that will have to take place over time – especially if you have a lot to lose. However, you can change what you eat now so that you’ll feel the benefits of a new eating plan immediately.
Your short term reversal benefit will be that you won’t need as much medicine if you’re already on pills for your diabetes. If you’re eating in such a way that it’s to control your glucose readings, you’ll be able to come off the medications faster.
You do this by eating only healthy foods. For faster results with reversing the disease, choose a low carb diet. That means that you’ll switch out the high carb items for low carb.
Use decadent treats only occasionally instead of several times a week. Stop drinking your calories in sugary drinks. Switch to water, unsweetened tea or other low calorie drinks.
Change your white flour foods for wheat flour. Make two thirds of the foods on your plate vegetables and fruits while the other portion is some type of protein. As you eat right, you’ll see immediate results in your blood sugar.
This can happen in a matter of hours or days. Reversing diabetes by taking off the weight will depend on how much you lose. Some people can reverse their diabetes diagnosis in a matter of weeks.
For others it takes several months or a year. What you’ll notice immediately though, when you change the way that you eat is that your A1c numbers are coming down. You can easily go from a reading of almost 9 to a normal A1c reading just by controlling the foods that you eat.
Since the A1c numbers are based on the average of your readings over a three month period, you can easily reverse your diagnosis in three months. However, you can immediately improve how sensitive your cells are to insulin in as little as 7-10 days.
Sometimes, you can get a nagging suspicion that something isn’t quite right with your body’s health. Instead of going to the doctor, what some people do is ignore it. People ignore symptoms out of fear.
They imagine the worst possible outcome and they don’t want to think about it or get a diagnosis because they’re afraid that their worst fears will come true. Others don’t want to know what’s going on with their body because they’re accustomed to their lifestyle.
They know that a diagnosis might shake up their comfort zone. That’s what happens to a lot of people who have all the classic symptoms of diabetes. Some of these symptoms are excessive thirst, frequent urination and slow healing wounds.
Other not so common signs of diabetes are numbness and tingling – especially around the lips. A lot of people live in fear of being tested for diabetes – especially if they have a family history of it.
Maybe they’ve seen some pretty poor examples of how diabetes has been managed among the people they care about. It could be that a relative had the disease and continues to live exactly as he or she pleases without any changes.
That attitude can be passed down in a family and diabetes can be thought of as a family disease that one can’t do anything to change. This resistance to change not only keeps a lot of people from being properly diagnosed, but it also keeps people who are diagnosed from making the changes that they really do need to make.
It’s easier to eat what you’ve always eaten than to change your diet. It’s easier to sit on the sofa in front of the television than it is to exercise. It’s easier to cope with stress by overeating and battling anxiety than it is to take steps to eliminate stress.
So what ends up happening is some people decide that they’d rather not know if they have diabetes or not so that they can continue living just as they always have. But what they don’t realize is that they’re shaving many years from their lives.
They’re limiting the time that they have left and they’re also gambling with the consequences of diabetes that’s not properly managed. Diabetes is like any other condition.
If you do your best to take care of it, you can live a long, healthy and happy life. But on the flip side, if you do nothing to take care of it and you don’t make the necessary changes, you will end up paying the price.
You can end up losing sight in one or both eyes. This can lead to a loss of independence. You can end up losing a limb to the disease due to poor blood circulation.
Some people end up with more than one limb amputated. You can have a stroke or a heart attack or you can die much younger than you should have, due to the toll diabetes takes on the body.
While change can be hard, you deserve a beautiful life with the people that you care about. It’s easier to get tested and make changes than it is to suffer the consequences and wish that you had after it’s too late.
Whenever most people hear about diabetes, they assume there are just two forms of the disease. Type 1 is the kind you get as a child, while Type 2 develops over time. But there are actually eleven variations of diabetes.
Type 1 diabetes is a severe form of the disease that’s rooted in an autoimmune background. The body actually kills off the cells within the pancreas. In an autoimmune disease, the body’s immune system can often mistake healthy, necessary cells as a foreign invader and attacks them. When this happens in the pancreas, the body can’t make insulin. Anyone can have this form of diabetes.
Type 2 diabetes is what can develop when your cells are insulin resistant. In this type of diabetes, the body struggles to use the glucose properly. This can lead to high levels of glucose in the blood stream and damage to the organs. This form of diabetes can be reversed through diet and exercise.
LADA or Latent Autoimmune Diabetes of Adulthood is another form of diabetes. This form means that there will be higher than normal levels of autoantibodies in the pancreas.
People who have this type of diabetes usually have some kind of autoimmune disease. Doctors suspect this form of diabetes when the patient’s age and weight don’t fall into the same parameters as what’s considered to be normal Type 2 symptoms.
MODY means Maturity Onset Diabetes of the Young is a form of diabetes that has a stronger genetic component. This is due to one gene and if the parent has MODY, then the child has a high probability of getting it as well. It can be found in young people who have a healthy weight and can strike before the age of 25.
Double diabetes is when a person has a mixture of both type 1 and type 2 diabetes. When someone has type 1, it’s not related to being overweight. But someone with type 1 can develop type 2 diabetes if they become obese. This leads to insulin resistance and complicates the ability to use insulin.
Type 3 diabetes is caused by insulin resistance – but rather than dealing with the pancreas, this type is due to how insulin is affected in the brain. Studies have shown that this type of diabetes can lead to Alzheimer’s.
Steroid-induced diabetes is caused by steroid use when the person taking them already has a genetic propensity or other factors that give them a high risk level. Long term use of steroids – 3 months or longer – can cause diabetes.
Brittle diabetes is Type 1 diabetes that’s very difficult to control. This can be due to problems absorbing nutrients, trouble absorbing insulin, hormonal issues, medications that don’t work well together or problems with food leaving the stomach. Stress and depression can be factors of this type of diabetes.
Secondary diabetes is diabetes that occurs as a result of having a medical condition. Some of these other conditions that can cause secondary diabetes include polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), pancreatic cancer, Cushing’s or other autoimmune diseases.
Diabetes insipidus isn’t as common as the other types of diabetes. This rare form of diabetes has nothing to do with high levels of blood sugar or insulin resistance. One of the hallmarks of this form is the frequent urination but this frequency is due to vasopressin.
Diabetes insipidus is when you have to urinate more than usual and complications erupt from this, which are the result of a particular antidiuretic hormone known as vasopressin, which is a hormone that’s found in the brain. When there’s not enough production of vasopressin, it’s harder for the body to hold onto water. This form of diabetes causes the kidneys to work harder than they should.
Juvenile diabetes is diabetes that young people have. It can be found in children and in young adults. It is a metabolic disease and has a hereditary component as well as an autoimmune component.
Getting a diagnosis of diabetes can be a shock – especially if you don’t know much about the disease – or if you do know about it but what you know is pretty negative.
Being told that you have diabetes doesn’t mean that there’s nothing that you can do. Contrary to the popular belief that diabetes is permanent, you can not only stop the disease, but you can reverse your diagnosis of it as well.
However, it will take a strong mindset on your part and the willingness to keep focused on the end goal. You don’t live a certain lifestyle that causes diabetes to occur and then change it in a day.
It might take several days or weeks to get your glucose levels under control, but you can do it. You can lose weight and change your health for the better by following a 3-step plan, which will take you off the diabetes medication and keep you off of it for good.
Step 1 is engaging in nutritional awareness. Nutrition is the key to coming off of diabetes medication. When you’re taking medicine for the disease, the reason is because your cells can’t properly use the insulin that your body makes.
They’ve become resistant and part of the reason is because there’s too many fat cells. But altering the way that you eat can change all of that. You need a diet that’s based on whole grains, moderate intake of fruits, with vegetables and lean protein.
The best diet for you to not need your medication is a low carb diet. Some people choose to follow a vegetarian diet and that works well also. What you want to do is to choose a diet that leaves the starches and sugary foods behind. These can trigger a desire to overeat and they’re just not that healthy for you.
Step #2 is to get moving! Exercise is another key to reversing your diabetes to the point where you no longer need to take medication. You’ll want to engage in aerobics exercise along with some type of strength or resistance training.
If it’s been awhile since you exercised, you can start out with brisk walking. But you’ll want to exercise for at least 20 minutes to half an hour every day. Get a pedometer, join an exercise group, or find buddy support system to help you stay motivated to work toward your goal. Every pound that you lose is helping you reserves diabetes and exercise can do that for you.
Step #3 is to get stress under control. Besides nutrition and exercise, keeping the stress you have to deal with to a minimum is also one of the key factors to getting off diabetes medication.
There are two types of stress that can affect someone with diabetes. Those are mental and physical stress. When you’re under stress, it can be harder to have the mindset that you want to control or reverse the diabetes.
When you’re under stress, it can trigger a hormone release. These stress hormones then raise the glucose levels higher than what they normally are. Keep the stress in your life as low as possible.
There have been more than 400 different traditional plant medicines documented for treating diabetes. Few of these plants have been studied for their efficiency, although, in undeveloped countries they are often the main choice for non-insulin dependent diabetes.
Under no circumstances should children or adults who are insulin dependent discontinue their insulin injections. Herbal treatments may be used after consultation with your family doctor. If you do implement any dietary supplementation, it is wise to advise your doctor of any changes so they can have all of the facts when monitoring your health.
Certain minerals such as: Zinc 25mg; Chromium 50mcg-125mcg; Magnesium 300mg; and Manganese 15mg have been useful to help glucose metabolism normalize. Note that mg stands for “milligrams” and mcg for “micrograms”.
Other helpful supplements include: Vitamin B6 and B-Complex, Brewer’s yeast and Vitamins A, C and D. Brewer’s yeast naturally contains chromium and this mineral assists in the metabolism of sugar.
Some popular herbs for reducing sugar in the urine include: Sweet Sumach, Pipsissewa, Olive leaves, Jambul seeds and onions. Bitter Melon and Balsam pear have also been used successfully. Guar gum has been used in hyperglycemia to reduce the sugar in the blood.
Where the pancreas is still functioning, hypoglycemic herbs can be effective. Popular hypoglycaemic herbs used to raise blood sugar levels include: Goldenseal, Dandelion root, and German Chamomile.
Additional “anti-diabetic action” herbs include: Goat’s Rue, Bilberry berries, Fringe Tree, Fenugreek seeds, Aloe Vera and garlic.
Diabetic Neuralgia
Cayenne pepper has been successfully used for Diabetic Neuralgia. There are creams containing the active ingredient capsicum that may be applied and capsules are available for internal consumption. Cayenne is beneficial for increasing the circulation and this can be beneficial for some of the cardiovascular side effects of diabetes as well.
Diabetic Gangrene
Tinctures with equal parts of Echinacea and Thuja have been very helpful for this necrotic condition. The tincture can be taken internally, 30-60 drops and also rubbed externally onto the affected area.
Blindness, Glaucoma and Detachment of the Retina
Developing cataracts is a common occurrence in diabetes. Although surgery may be necessary, herbs can be supportive for these issues. Preventative checkups with the eye doctor and related health care specialists are the best defense for this complication.
Heart Disease and Kidney Strain
Coronary Heart Disease is common in diabetics. Women in particular need to be proactive so as not to develop atherosclerosis at an early age. Taking essential fatty acids can greatly benefit the heart and the cardiovascular system. They can help lower triglyceride levels and bring high blood pressure down. High blood pressure unfortunately can place extra strain on the kidneys. The kidneys may become exhausted from excreting too much protein.
Lime flowers, Hawthorn and Yarrow can be helpful for this situation.
Foot Ulcers
Feet that are exposed to unconscious bruising and chafing may develop an injury from which septic ulceration may occur. Chamomile foot baths are a very soothing and healing treatment that can be easily done at home. Remember to check the temperature of the water before soaking the feet.
Hyperglycemia (also spelled Hyperglycaemia)
Hyperglycaemia refers to having abnormally high blood sugar. The prefix “hyper” translates to “high.” The main symptoms of this condition include extreme thirst or polydipsia and frequent urination or polyuria.
Hyperglycaemia is a symptom that occurs in both Type 1 and Type 2 Diabetes.
In a healthy functioning system, the pancreas normally releases insulin after a meal to enable the cells of the body to utilize glucose for energy. In a non-diabetic, this fluctuation keeps glucose levels in a healthy range.
However with diabetes, the blood sugar levels become severely elevated. This can result in a medical emergency such as HHNS or hyperglycemia hyperosmolar state. Diabetic ketoacidosis or DKA can also be another severe consequence that can result from the body trying to cope with too much glucose.
Symptoms and Signs of Hyperglycemia
Diabetes is the main cause of hyperglycaemia; however, there are other medical conditions that may cause this condition to present including: Pancreatitis, Hyperthyroidism, Pancreatic cancer, Cushing’s syndrome, unusual tumors that secrete hormones, severe illnesses and certain medications.
The long term effects of hyperglycemia can be quite dramatic. Often, these issues develop slowly over a period of years, especially in diabetics who are not effectively managing their health properly.
Some key complications include: heart and blood vessel disease, which can increase the risk of peripheral artery disease, stroke, and heart attack. Nerve damage is another potential problem that can lead to tingling, pain and burning sensations. Gum disease and eye diseases including damage to the retina, cataracts and glaucoma are also prevalent.
Hypoglycemia (also spelled Hypoglycaemia)
Hypoglycemia on the other hand, is a medical emergency of diminished blood glucose or excessively low blood sugar. The prefix “hypo” translates to “low.” Also referred to as “Hyperinsulinism,” low blood sugar levels result from overstimulation of insulin in the pancreas.
The pancreas eventually becomes exhausted from releasing insulin too frequently in order to combat the high levels of sugar present in the blood.
Symptoms and Signs of Hypoglycemia
Symptoms of Hypoglycemia can vary greatly, however, the main concern are issues arising from an inadequate supply of glucose to the brain. Hypoglycemic manifestations can be divided into the following: Adrenergic manifestations due to falling glucose; lack of glucose in the brain resulting in neuroglycopenic symptoms; and glucagon manifestations.
Neuroglycopenic effects due to a shortage of glucose in the brain can cause a severe impairment of function, known as neuroglycopenia. Neuroglycopenic symptoms can range from dizziness, tiredness, weakness, blurred vision, confusion and difficulty concentrating. Inappropriate behavior can also occur that may be mistaken for intoxication. In severe cases, seizures, unconsciousness, coma and even death can occur.
Many people consider themselves to be “Hypoglycemic.” Typically, these individuals are referring to symptoms triggered by falling glucose adrenergic manifestations. This condition may present with anxiety, shakiness, coldness, dilated pupils, nervousness, tachycardia or rapid heartbeat and palpitations. Paresthesia or feeling of “pins and needles” or numbness is also commonly experienced. Immediately consuming some orange juice or candy can usually remedy this uncomfortable situation.
Glucagon manifestations of hypoglycemia may present with the following: abdominal discomfort; vomiting; hunger, stomach rumbling or borborygmus and headache.
There are some great ways you can be proactive with your diet and eating habits. Becoming educated on the glycemic index and starting to read food labels are great places to start. Try some new recipes and think positive about re-learning your relationship with food.