Helpful Diabetes Information

Reversing Insulin Resistance

A lot of people have no idea what insulin resistance is, and they may have it. When this diagnosis is made, it is often in conjunction with polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS). This is a reproductive disorder that can render a women infertile if it is not cared for and reversed. Someone with PCOS usually has resistance to insulin, and that means she gains weight very easily. When this happens, the reproductive system gets out of whack and she is temporarily infertile. One of the keys to restoring fertility is reversing insulin resistance.

At its most basic, insulin resistance is when the body does not register the insulin that is it producing. When that happens, it keeps producing it in overdrive. When a person with this condition eats anything that affects the blood sugar, it makes that person even hungrier because the body is not registering things right. Someone with this condition gains weight because the body wants to store sugar as fat immediately. This is one of the keys to reversing insulin resistance.

As you may have guessed, reverse insulin resistance is going to have something to do with the amount of carbs that you eat each day. The Atkins diet was seen as a fad for a while, but those that want to work on reversing insulin resistance are actually the ones that should be on this diet. You don’t have to do Atkins to go about reversing insulin resistance, however, as you can just watch what types of carbs you are putting into your body. You want to get those that are low on the glycemic index.

Your overall eating habits (even without a specific diet program) can help with reversing insulin resistance. You have to eat more meats and fats, and cut down dramatically on your carbs. When you do eat carbs, you want them to be the ones that have the least affect on blood sugar. That stops the over-production of insulin, and it also helps someone with this condition to slim down. Good carbs include green vegetables, some fruits, and whole grains. Think of avoiding white foods and you are on the right track. There are many diets out there that can help with reverse insulin resistance if you need something more structured.

Once the process of reversing insulin resistance is starting, the changes in the body are going to be very good ones. That means that fertility is going to be restored as the body begins to make less insulin and the weight starts to come off. Other than fertility reasons, reversing true insulin resistance can help you avoid type 2 diabetes. If left unchecked, the body will have made so much insulin that it just stops, and that is when diabetes occurs. Not only can this help you with the family that you want, reversing insulin resistance can add quality years to your life.

More Alternative Health articles and advice

Diabetes and obesity go hand in hand as mass killers of society. Diabetes is the sixth most common cause of death in the United States and the primary cause of diabetes is obesity.

Although diabetes is treatable with proper glycemic control and insulin therapy, it’s estimated that about a third of diabetics have never been formally diagnosed and therefore are never treated. So, the big question is how do we stop this huge epidemic and how can those disposed to diabetes and obesity reduce the risk of death and sickness in their future?

The solution is simple. Taking the sugar out of your diet, getting out and exercising on a daily basis, nutritional supplementation, and taking control of what you eat will increase one’s chances of living a healthy life. It sounds simple but as we “foodies” know, it’s not quite that simple. We just have to make up our minds is it more important to fill our bodies with sugar laden goodies or to have a few toes amputated in the future?

For a long time now, diabetes has simply been thought of as a relatively benign sickness of the old, but now those of relatively younger ages are becoming affected. Diabetes is the primary reason for blindness among adults. According to the American Diabetes Association, diabetes has the possibility, for the first time in over a century, shrink Americans life expectancy.

Sooner or later diabetes will affect us all, whether it is taking care of family members with the illness or simply resulting in higher insurance premiums and taxes. In this couch potato society in which we live, there has been a sharp rise in cases diagnosed worldwide. So, as a society is there anything can we do to stop this and to call attention of this problem?

In addition to the things listed above, we also need to inform people to get checked by a doctor. Some symptoms that you could have undiagnosed diabetes are frequent urination; wounds that will not heal; constantly thirsty; recurring skin, bladder, and gum infections; numbness in hands and feet; blurred vision; and Just because you may not experience any of these symptoms, do not think that you’re off the hook.

A lifestyle change will have to be made to prevent the disease from possibly invading your future. Studies show that nearly 60% of newly diagnosed cases could have been prevented or at least greatly reduced if the individual had simply got down to a health body weight. In this day of fast food and little or no exercise, it can be hard to make the choice to eat responsibly and get enough of exercise. Everyone has their excuses but we need to give them hope that it can be done and examples of how to start.

As a nation we can curtail the epidemic of diabetes and obesity but only if we get the word out and encouraging those who are eating themselves to poor health

Learn about diet for diabetes

There is some confusion around the most appropriate diet for the diabetic with no single regimen being proven to help the condition.

There is conflicting dietary advice given almost every day from so called experts in their fields. This is made worse by the popular press selectively reporting snippets from medical papers that often has the effect of skewing the misinterpreting the original message.

Undoubtedly, refined white sugar and products containing this substance are not going to be helpful for the diabetic simply because of the almost immediate absorption of this substance into the blood as glucose. But there is more to a diet suitable for diabetics than just sugar considerations.

There have been claims of type 2 diabetes being cured by diet alone although the diabetic associations are adamant that no cure for diabetes exists.

Christian Roberts of the University of California undertook research into diet and diabetes and found that in 50% of those studied, who followed a diet based on pritkin principles, the type 2 diabetes symptoms were reversed.

The regime for this study involved participants exercising for one hour every day and following a diet that was based on vegetables and whole grains with a little animal protein.

Another small study in the USA concluded that high fibre diets assisted in keeping blood glucose levels low.

There is controversy over the dietary recommendations being offered by the diabetic associations both in the UK and the USA. Their current advice is for diabetics to follow a low fat, carbohydrate based diet despite what appears to be fairly compelling evidence to the contrary.

The problem everyone faces in deciphering what represents a safe diet, whether they are diabetic or not, is in knowing which research to trust. Just about every piece of research undertaken has an agenda to be fulfilled. It may be that the research is being sponsored by a drug company to prove the benefits of a particular drug treatment; it may be that the research is undertaken by someone who is simply setting out to prove a pet theory. There is too little research that is truly independent and undertaken without prejudice to the outcome.

It has been suggested, and some would say proven, that an Atkins type diet high in fat and protein and low in carbohydrate is the most suitable for a diabetic and it would certainly seem logical that restricting (particularly refined) carbohydrates would help to prevent elevated glucose levels in the blood stream.

There is a link between insulin, glucose and cholesterol – particularly what is termed “bad cholesterol” and proponents of the Atkins diet claim that cholesterol levels are not adversely affected by this diet regime. Of course there are contrary views.

It is important for diabetics to realise that everyone has an individual metabolism and physiology. What may be a healthy diet for one person could be life threatening for another. A diet based around healthy protein – organic white meat and fish; natural carbohydrates – vegetables, salads and fruit; and monounsaturated fat supplemented by the essential fatty acids is a good starting point. Once this is established there is no reason why, under controlled conditions, individuals should not try introducing whole grains to see what effect they have on their glucose levels. In this way diabetics can assess for themselves what represents a healthy, life saving diet.

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Gestational diabetes is a condition wherein a pregnant woman experiences a rise in her blood sugar levels during pregnancy. The pregnant women who experience gestational diabetes are those who have had no diabetes before it. Many doctors believe that this form of diabetes is caused or triggered by the imbalanced hormones in a pregnant woman’s body caused by pregnancy.

In some cases, women who are prone to diabetes might develop diabetes during pregnancy because of this susceptibility. There are several factors to this and one is genetic, the diet and other environmental factors. The risk of giving birth while undergoing this condition is a bit high since there are complications from diabetes which can be compounded by pregnancy.

Gestational diabetes is what doctor’s call a condition where the individual has glucose intolerance during pregnancy. This disease or condition usually resolves itself after the woman has given birth and her hormones go back to normal.

Symptoms Of Gestational Diabetes

Gestational diabetes is a pregnant women only type of diabetes. Since it occurs in pregnant women only, chances are the symptoms can be contributed to the pregnancy instead of the diabetes. This is the reason why most doctors order a test for the pregnant mother when she is around her fourth or fifth month of pregnancy. There are three ways to test a pregnant woman if she has gestational diabetes. It is sometime done with a blood test, an oral glucose tolerance test or a screening glucose challenge test.

There are some symptoms of gestational diabetes which can be attributed to it. These symptoms are being thirsty a lot, fatigue or tiredness, nausea, increased urination, blurred vision and recurrent yeast infections. These symptoms are sometime mistaken as symptoms of pregnancy which is why it is important to have tests done before it is too late.

Treating Gestational Diabetes

Most cases of gestational diabetes can be controlled or treated with strict diet and exercise. The condition usually clears up within a few months of the mother giving birth to the child. In some cases, doctors will recommend the pregnant woman to have insulin injections to help maintain and balance her gestational diabetes.

Unlike the other types of diabetes, this one is basically caused by the pregnancy so it can usually be treated by the end of the pregnancy. Since the woman’s hormones usually go back to normal a few weeks after she gives birth, you can hope that the diabetes goes away with it, too.

There are basically three types or forms of diabetes, Type 1 diabetes, Type 2 diabetes and gestational diabetes. All three diabetes types have subtypes under them. Diabetes is a disease which is characterized by the high levels of blood sugar in the body.

Type 2 diabetes is a condition of the body where the muscles and tissues develop insulin resistance, deficiency of insulin and hyperglycemia. This condition can be treated with by changing one’s diet and lifestyle. Adhering to a strict diet which is specifically made for type 2 diabetes individuals and taking up exercise can help control and reverse the effects of this for of diabetes.

Cause Of Type 2 Diabetes

The main cause of Type 2 diabetes is insulin resistance of body cells. This may be because the insulin are substandard as produced by the beta cells in the pancreas or the tissues themselves do not respond to the insulin. It is believed that genetics plays a vital role in diabetes. Those who have a long history of diabetes in the family tree run the risk of developing the disease sometime in their lives.

Obesity, improper diet and lifestyle are some of the factors that trigger diabetes in people. If your family has a history of diabetes and you suffer from being overweight, you had better have annual check ups regarding the risk of developing Type 2 diabetes. There are many symptoms of Type 2 diabetes which may go unnoticed by the individual. This is because the symptoms are by far quite common and easy to take for granted. Among the symptoms of this form of diabetes are increased urination, excessive thirst, blurry eyesight, numbness in the fingers and toes, increase abdominal girth and many more.

Treating Type 2 Diabetes

Type 2 diabetes can be easily treated or controlled. Sticking to a special diabetic diet and exercising can help reverse Type 2 diabetes. Weight loss is the goal of the special diet and exercise. Weight loss can help bring back sensitivity to insulin in our muscles and tissues.

There are also drugs and medication which can control the release of blood glucose and also increase the body tissues’ uptake of glucose. These drugs balance the effects of insulin in the muscles and tissues and give the diabetic person a chance to live a normal life. Although Type 2 diabetes is more complicated than Type 1 diabetes, it is by far easier to cure and control.