Diabetes Mellitus Type 2 or simply type 2 diabetes is an alarming illness that is directly related to aging and lifestyle when the type 2 version is diagnosed usually in middle age. There is no question that contracting type 2 diabetes can be unnerving. This is because of the sudden health modifications that are necessary to keep the illness controlled. Lifestyle changes, diet and exercise, stress relief, all now need to be adhered to religiously or you risk worsening the condition and suffering health adversity.
No matter how well you care for yourself after you are diagnosed with diabetes, your body undergoes change and not desirable alterations by any means. The disease can be controlled to a certain extent and many manage the illness well but as you get older many secondary health problems begin to occur as a result of the diabetes. It is these secondary illnesses that place so much pressure on one’s health as they age with diabetes.
Many initial diabetes diagnoses can be managed by diet and exercise alone. Failure to regulate everything you consume and an inability to manage your weight can mean a worsening of the disease. When this happens, you will quickly be placed on medication to control the illness and fluctuations in your blood sugar levels. These medications, though lifesavers that they are, can be very hard on the recipients and many have a difficult time finding a proper dosage.
A medical researcher at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation, Dr. Steven Nissen, recently investigated the safety of one diabetes medication, a prescription pill many physicians were using to treat type 2 diabetes. Nissen’s research implied that the chances of suffering a heart attack was elevated by forty three percent in the people consuming this medication and there was a sixty four percent risk of passing away due to cardiovascular disease versus those patients who did not ingest the meds.
When the safety of any medication is suspect, it can be serious but this particular diabetes medication had high potential. Given the reluctance of many people to manage their diabetes with any medication, what can a person do who suffers with diabetes? Once you are prescribed drugs, can anything be done to treat the illness without the use of drugs?
Just now, diabetes is rated the third worst cause of death in America and it is an illness where the body fails to generate or correctly use the insulin required for the absorption of glucose – or sugar. The glucose begins to build up in the blood where it can achieve harmful levels.
Diabetes is in effect, a disease of the metabolism, which is how your system utilizes the food you digest for development and energy. Your digestion process breaks down the majority of food you consume and makes glucose, a rudimentary sugar that transfers into your blood stream where it nourishes your cells for vitality and development. This glucose requires the presence of insulin in order for it to pass into the cells. Insulin is a hormone manufactured in the pancreas, a hefty and crucial gland found in behind the stomach.
The pancreas automatically makes accurate quantities of insulin whenever you consume food so as to facilitate the transfer of glucose into the cells. Sadly, if you have diabetes, your pancreas will generate a small amount or no insulin at all, or your body’s cells basically will not react to the insulin your are creating. When this occurs, you begin to accumulate glucose in your blood; it spills over into the urine and is then excreted from the body.
Consequently, your body must do without a chief supply of energy and yet your blood might be full of glucose that is now capable of damaging your body. Since your pancreas is next in line as part of the digestive tract, everything you consume goes straight to this fragile organ. Rather than breaking down your food and creating insulin, the pancreas has now converted to a shock absorber in your system, responsible for many health issues, particularly as you progress in age.
Diabetes does not treat everyone equally, based on the severity of their diabetes as a whole, a person’s age and what else are affected, different levels of difficulty transpire. When diabetes goes bad, it is linked to many chronic health difficulties, affecting nearly all vital parts of a person’s physiology. Diabetes can lead to blindness, heart disease, strokes, kidney malfunction, amputations and damaging nerve disorders. Pregnant women are at great risk due to complications especially when diabetes in out of control. When you get older, the prolonged effects of being diabetic cast an incapacitating pall over your well being. This illness wears you down physically and mentally.
In the Far East, diabetes is treated in a much different manner than it is in Western medicine.
Based on medical theories in the West, the root source of diabetes as an illness is due to a mix of heredity and unfortunate lifestyle choices resulting in the body ‘s failure to manufacture any or enough insulin. Western diabetics may require daily insulin shots to regulate the illness. In Chinese medicine, diabetes is understood to be a wasting – thirst condition, diminishing – thirst disease, or a sugar urine disorder. It is caused by numerous reasons ranging from over consumption of fatty or sweetened food to emotional turmoil. The principal remedy is dietary, along with a regimen of acupuncture. Often, Chinese doctors have achieved excellent outcomes when not using insulin as part of the treatment.
Because diabetes can only be managed and not healed, eating a nutritious diet appears to be the foremost therapy in controlling insulin in diabetics. For that reason, the American Diabetic Association has suggested an ordinary “healthful” diet high in carbs and low in fat. This means, a diet comprised of forty to sixty percent of caloric intake from carbohydrates, twenty percent from proteins and thirty percent or lower from fats.
Carbohydrates can be located in fruits, vegetables, beans, dairy products and starch laden foods like breads and pastas. Purchase whole grain cereals and breads that do not contain trans fat. Steer clear of fried and starchy food high in fat. This means no tortilla chips, potato chips, French fries, pastries, or biscuits; these are now considered junk food for diabetics! Eat mustard rather than mayonnaise when making a sandwich.
Feel free to consume cooked vegetables but also have them raw with very little or no fat, sauces or salad dressing. Try using a bit of vinegar, lime or lemon juice lightly speckled with spices and herbs for flavored seasoning. Using these for taste will add nearly zero calories. Steamed veggies with a small bit of water or low fat broth. Combine with chopped onion, ginger and or garlic. Consume fruit that is dried or fresh but do not eat canned fruit since it will be laden with sweet syrups.
Purchase reduced sizes of fruits; eat it instead of drawing out their fruit juices. If you absolutely need fruit juice, have it diluted with water and have it in tiny amounts so you will not “abruptly shock” your pancreas gland. Ingest high sugar and high fat fruit desserts like apple or cherry pie – and not the type sold in supermarket bakeries – only on really special occasions and eat in moderation, and only if you cannot do without it.
Any meat you consume should be organic, beef, pork, and lamb with the slightest amount of fat attached. Be sure to ask the butcher to trim it or remove the fat yourself. Organic pork is not easy to find so you are better off staying away from it period. Try eating organic poultry – chicken and turkey – but skinless.
Prepare the meat using low fat methods, like steaming it, stir frying, broiling and grilling it will do. Keep away from the deep fryer, in fact, get rid of it entirely.
Diabetics have no choice but to keep away from some foods altogether.
Stay away from any sugar or artificial sweeteners, and that includes honey. Never eat chocolates or sweets of any variety, even the unsweetened kinds. If you have to have some chocolate, make it the dark type [and only because they have more cocoa and less sugar in them – be sure the label reads cocoa and not sugar]. Start getting used to reading the labels when you shop for all your foods. The makers of chocolate products would like you to think of their wares as being healthy; they also fund many of the studies stating their products are NOW healthy. You now know better and will now avoid them.
You must keep away from any foods where listed ingredients end with “ol” or “ose” since these are just other varieties of sugar! You must always remain vigilante since your life depends on it now. If your desire is to last a long time on this earth, controlling your diabetes with diet and exercise, along with a healthy lifestyle just became crucial. The drugs that are prescribed are not nearly miracle cures.
Fri, Apr 9, 2010
Anti Aging, Health And Aging, Lifestyle, Longevity