Leonard Thompson and Insulin
Do you know who Leonard Thompson was? Well, as a very young man, a boy, really, he became a hero. On January 11, 1922, young Leonard became the first person injected with insulin. Born in 1908, Leonard was diagnosed with diabetes when is was 11 years old. By December of 1921, he weighed 65 pounds and was near to death. All, things considered, so far, he had beaten the odds. That is, up until the discovery of insulin, the way to treat diabetes had been through a diet low in carbohydrates and sugar and high in protein and fat. On average, that gave the diabetic an extra year of life. In November of 1921, Frederick Banting, then doing his research at the University of Toronto with Charles Best, publicly announced his discovery of the results of insulin injections given to dogs.
Gestational Diabetes
Gestational Diabetes affects about 4% of all pregnancies. According to the Joslin Diabetes Center article citing Doctors Florence Brown and Tamara Takoudes, co-directors of the Joslin-Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center Diabetes and Pregnancy Program, certain groups (African-American, Hispanic, American Indian and Alaskan native communities) are showing a rise in occurances. Make no mistake, though, any woman is at risk of developing gestational diabetes during pregnancy! It is a manageable condition, and a nutrition and fitness program can be developed. If necessary, specialists in the area can also help initiate an insulin program if that proves to be necessary.
Living With Diabetes For Kids - Young and Old
For those who become Diabetic at a young age, they want to and should be able to do just about everything their age group is doing. Overall, they can. Still, there are things they have to watch that other children their age do not have to worry about. For instance, going to parties and eating the same things the other kids are having. At a very young age, there is less of a problem. When they go to a party, you can have the hosting parent keep an eye out. You can make sure there are special treats for special kids. Unfortunately, kids do not stay those cute little things we think about when we think of our kids. By the time they get to their teens, kids are out asserting their independence and experimenting with this, that, and the next thing.
Diabetic Diets and Maintaining Glucose Levels
Is there a diet for diabetics? Well, according to nutrition experts no, sort of. Like everybody else, a diabetic should follow a "proper" diet. There is a difference, though. A diabetic should pay particular attention to carbohydrate intake, and they should be eating about the same amount of food at the same time, each day! As a diabetic, you should be eating starchy foods six or more times a day. First thing that comes to mind is bread. There is also cereal and starchy vegetables. Eat fruits and vegetables at least five times a day. Fruits and vegetables help to reduce or slow down the absorption of glucose to the intestines. Needless to say, eat sugars and sweets with a great deal of constraint.
How to Control Type 2 Diabetes Naturally - Forget the Drugs
Type 2 diabetes is becoming the number one illness worldwide at an alarming rate. We hear that it is hereditary or it is genetic. This is the mantra of the professionals who dish out the pills. The ratio of sufferers of type 2 diabetes has gone through the roof over the last fifty years. There is no way that our collective gene pool has gone from 1 in 100 000 to nearly 1 in 10 type 2 diabetes sufferers in such a short space of time. What has changed in such a short space of time however, is our diet. The majority of us surviving of quick fix junk, devoid of nutrition. Highly processed and full of refined carbohydrates and sugars. Most of this food does nothing for us except keep our blood sugar levels up and stresses out our pancreas's ability to continually produce insulin.
Aloe Vera - Good For Diabetes?
More and more studies are proving the significance of anti diabetic benefits of Aloe Vera. One of the studies performed in Thailand at the Mahidol University of Bangkok, was published in the journal of Phyto medicine in 1996, showed that 72 patients with high fasting blood sugar and typical diabetic curve of glucose tolerance that was never treated with hypo-glycemic drugs were selected to take part in the study. They used a placebo controlled double blind study to evaluate the effects of orally administered Aloe Vera supplementation on blood sugar, cholesterol and triglycerides. The study lasted for 42 days with the treatment group receiving 15 millilitres of Aloe Vera twice daily.
Coping With Diabetes in Children Type 1
Diabetes in children when it happens in the family drives the parents into a frenzy to learn everything about this condition. This is quite a challenging mission but it is good to step back and remember that the number one priority is to help the child manage this condition. It takes time to learn as much as one can about diabetes in children but as one gains knowledge, so will the self-confidence rise. Knowing that the child can still flourish will be quite a boost. Since there is so much to learn, where does one start? This really depends on the type of diabetes in children. If the diabetes in children is type 1, then concentrate on finding ways and means to deal with this.
Complications of Poorly Controlled Diabetes
What is known about the risk of complications in Type 1 diabetes? It is unusual for people with type 1 diabetes to have complications such as retinopathy and nephropathy within the first five years of their diabetes. Studies have shown that the risk of kidney damage and eye disease are more common in people with poor control. This risk rises steeply above HbA1c values of 9% and is highest if the HbA1c value is above 12%. The Diabetes Control and Complications Trial (DCCT) showed that 12% of people Type 1 diabetes who were intensively treated (tight control) developed new retinopathy changes after nine years, compared to 54% of people who were treated with conventional (less tight control) methods.
Diabetic Diets - Is it Alright to Have Sugar?
When people find out that they have diabetes, they assume they can no longer have sugar, but this is a false assumption. Their body does, in fact, still need sugar to supply their cells with the energy it needs to do their job. The difference between diabetics and non-diabetics is in how their body processes the sugar that is consumes. Being aware of how your body processes the sugar will help in finding the diabetic diet that is ideal for you. Typically when someone eats food in a regular diet, the pancreas kicks in and starts to process the sugar. The pancreas starts producing enough insulin to match the amount of sugar that is consumed. The insulin provides an entry way for the sugar to enter the cells in the body.
Are There Alternatives to Insulin Injections For Type 2 Diabetics
Of course there are alternatives to insulin injections but the keywords here are; dedication, perseverance and faith in yourself. It is no easy road to learn to control your sugar levels without the use of both oral or injection drugs but as thousands and thousands of real world examples, testimonials and success stories have shown, it can be done. What then is the game plan to insulin alternatives? To put is simply, your entire attitude towards food must change and we are not talking about laying off the odd cookie, we are talking about stripping every unnecessary item of junk from your diet and severely restricting the levels of foods that directly affect blood sugar levels.