The Struggle to Achieve Normal Blood Sugar Levels
The objective of every diabetic is to achieve normal blood sugar levels, the condition that distinguishes the non-diabetic from the diabetic.
For the latter, higher than normal blood sugar levels are a permanent fact of life that influences many of their thoughts and actions every day and if not brought under control, diminishes the quality of life.
To explain briefly, diabetes is a condition characterized by the presence of higher than normal levels of the simple sugar, called glucose, which is circulating in the body of the person with diabetes.
Glucose is present in everyone's bloodstream, especially after eating meals.
Foods classified as carbohydrates are the main source of the glucose.
The glucose is an essential fuel needed by the cells of the body.
In the case of the person with diabetes, their cells are unable to remove the sugar sufficiently from the blood, leaving it at an unhealthy level.
Diabetes is a serious and chronic condition for which there is no definite cure, although some physicians believe it can be almost eradicated by following a strict low carbohydrate dietary regime.
But professional opinions differ on that contention, a worthy subject of discussion for some other time.
What actually causes diabetes is uncertain but there are several known factors associated with the disease that can identify persons who are at a higher risk of developing the disease.
And Americans should be very concerned because they are among the most likely candidates to become diabetic.
While it is thought that heredity can play a part, the major cause appears to be the North American lifestyle.
That should probably be described as a "western world" lifestyle or perhaps a "developing world" lifestyle.
Our modern way of life and eating patterns seem to have created an epidemic that did not exist to such an extent one hundred years ago.
Although India claims that it is the diabetes "capital" of the world.
The diagnosis of diabetes is accompanied by a growing incidence of obesity and overweight.
Simply stated, we eat too much, we make bad food choices with a preference for sweet, rich, salty, fat foods, and beverages and we exercise too little, if not couch potatoes, certainly many of us lead a sedentary life that contributes to our being overweight and less robust and healthy than we could be.
There are three main types of diabetes, referred to as type- 1, type-2, and gestational diabetes.
Type-2 is the most prevalent, comprising about 90 percent of all cases, type-1 diabetes is also sometimes called by its older name of juvenile diabetes.
Gestational diabetes is a temporary form of diabetes that affects only pregnant women during their pregnancies.
America is heading towards a type-2 diabetes epidemic It's the type-2 diabetes that Americans should be worried about and is a reason to modify their diets and lifestyle if they are overweight and over forty years of age.
Middle age is a time when the disease is often diagnosed, even though there may have been many prior years when a forerunner of diabetes called pre-diabetes was present but unrecognized.
Some complications of diabetes:
What that test result shows may well set the tone of the day to come.
It does for me, a type-2 diabetic, the first thing being to decide what to eat for breakfast and for the rest of the day, I must not gain weight and I must choose foods that lower blood sugar levels, or at least prevent them from getting excessively higher.
Actually, a lowering of blood sugar levels can occur, over a period of time, by adopting an appropriate diet designed for that purpose.
Such a diet would be nutritious without supplying more calories than are required to meet the needs of the regular daily activities entailed in work and leisure.
The diet would eliminate the bad foods, especially those of high carbohydrate content that supply the most sugars.
It would emphasize the good foods such as fruits and vegetables, fish and lean meats and chicken, low fat milk and cheeses and whole wheat bread instead of white bread.
Together with a suitable diet, a very good way to keep blood sugars at lower levels is to follow an exercise program.
The muscles used in exercise are glucose burners, glucose is the fuel stored in the muscles that is used up when the muscles become active and, as required, they also take up sugar and fat from the bloodstream, it is a complicated process but it helps lower blood sugars and to lose weight, a double benefit, not counting the additional benefits to heart and lungs.
Admittedly, having said that diabetes is frequently diagnosed in middle age, age can present some problems in exercising.
Some people by their middle years are already experiencing other age related problems such as arthritis.
For them perhaps the exercise must be limited to walking but that is good too.
It is usually recommended that a walk should be brisk, though not overly strenuous, of about 45 minutes duration, and taken at least a few days every week, preferably everyday.
Walking for exercise often has to become a natural daily habit but it is so beneficial for those who are already diabetic and those who are not yet diabetic but battling to keep their normal blood sugar levels from escalating.
The point is to avoid becoming one of the 1.
6 million new cases of diabetes that the American Diabetes Association reports are diagnosed each year.
For the latter, higher than normal blood sugar levels are a permanent fact of life that influences many of their thoughts and actions every day and if not brought under control, diminishes the quality of life.
To explain briefly, diabetes is a condition characterized by the presence of higher than normal levels of the simple sugar, called glucose, which is circulating in the body of the person with diabetes.
Glucose is present in everyone's bloodstream, especially after eating meals.
Foods classified as carbohydrates are the main source of the glucose.
The glucose is an essential fuel needed by the cells of the body.
In the case of the person with diabetes, their cells are unable to remove the sugar sufficiently from the blood, leaving it at an unhealthy level.
Diabetes is a serious and chronic condition for which there is no definite cure, although some physicians believe it can be almost eradicated by following a strict low carbohydrate dietary regime.
But professional opinions differ on that contention, a worthy subject of discussion for some other time.
What actually causes diabetes is uncertain but there are several known factors associated with the disease that can identify persons who are at a higher risk of developing the disease.
And Americans should be very concerned because they are among the most likely candidates to become diabetic.
While it is thought that heredity can play a part, the major cause appears to be the North American lifestyle.
That should probably be described as a "western world" lifestyle or perhaps a "developing world" lifestyle.
Our modern way of life and eating patterns seem to have created an epidemic that did not exist to such an extent one hundred years ago.
Although India claims that it is the diabetes "capital" of the world.
The diagnosis of diabetes is accompanied by a growing incidence of obesity and overweight.
Simply stated, we eat too much, we make bad food choices with a preference for sweet, rich, salty, fat foods, and beverages and we exercise too little, if not couch potatoes, certainly many of us lead a sedentary life that contributes to our being overweight and less robust and healthy than we could be.
There are three main types of diabetes, referred to as type- 1, type-2, and gestational diabetes.
Type-2 is the most prevalent, comprising about 90 percent of all cases, type-1 diabetes is also sometimes called by its older name of juvenile diabetes.
Gestational diabetes is a temporary form of diabetes that affects only pregnant women during their pregnancies.
America is heading towards a type-2 diabetes epidemic It's the type-2 diabetes that Americans should be worried about and is a reason to modify their diets and lifestyle if they are overweight and over forty years of age.
Middle age is a time when the disease is often diagnosed, even though there may have been many prior years when a forerunner of diabetes called pre-diabetes was present but unrecognized.
Some complications of diabetes:
- Diabetics are at significantly greater risk of high blood pressure and cardiovascular events, with death by heart disease and stroke far higher than in the non-diabetic population.
- Diabetes is the leading cause of kidney failure each year
- Diabetes is the leading cause of newly diagnosed blindness in adults from 20 to 75 years of age with a reported 12,000 up to 24,000 new cases each year.
- Diabetes causes damage to blood vessels and the circulation system leading to nervous system damage resulting in many neuropathies and side effects, including impotence in men.
- Diabetes is the major cause leading to lower-limb amputations.
What that test result shows may well set the tone of the day to come.
It does for me, a type-2 diabetic, the first thing being to decide what to eat for breakfast and for the rest of the day, I must not gain weight and I must choose foods that lower blood sugar levels, or at least prevent them from getting excessively higher.
Actually, a lowering of blood sugar levels can occur, over a period of time, by adopting an appropriate diet designed for that purpose.
Such a diet would be nutritious without supplying more calories than are required to meet the needs of the regular daily activities entailed in work and leisure.
The diet would eliminate the bad foods, especially those of high carbohydrate content that supply the most sugars.
It would emphasize the good foods such as fruits and vegetables, fish and lean meats and chicken, low fat milk and cheeses and whole wheat bread instead of white bread.
Together with a suitable diet, a very good way to keep blood sugars at lower levels is to follow an exercise program.
The muscles used in exercise are glucose burners, glucose is the fuel stored in the muscles that is used up when the muscles become active and, as required, they also take up sugar and fat from the bloodstream, it is a complicated process but it helps lower blood sugars and to lose weight, a double benefit, not counting the additional benefits to heart and lungs.
Admittedly, having said that diabetes is frequently diagnosed in middle age, age can present some problems in exercising.
Some people by their middle years are already experiencing other age related problems such as arthritis.
For them perhaps the exercise must be limited to walking but that is good too.
It is usually recommended that a walk should be brisk, though not overly strenuous, of about 45 minutes duration, and taken at least a few days every week, preferably everyday.
Walking for exercise often has to become a natural daily habit but it is so beneficial for those who are already diabetic and those who are not yet diabetic but battling to keep their normal blood sugar levels from escalating.
The point is to avoid becoming one of the 1.
6 million new cases of diabetes that the American Diabetes Association reports are diagnosed each year.
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