Basically there are two types of diabetes. Typically Type 2 diabetes begins to show itself through adulthood and Type 1 diabetes can happen even during childhood. An additional type of diabetes, which is closely associated to type 2 diabetes, is known as gestational diabetes. Type 1 diabetes is also known as juvenile diabetes, it can happen when an individuals very own immune system ends up attacking itself. This occurs when the body’s own immune system actually begins to attack and destroy the cells known as beta that an individuals body creates in the pancreas.

Diabetes Overview

The cause of diabetes is when an instability happens in the hormone insulin in an individuals body. For persons who are healthy, the pancreas secretes insulin in the right amounts for the type of food that the person consumes. The primary goal of this infusion of insulin is to assist in putting specific nutrients, particularly glucose, into the cells in the body. The persons system ends up using these nutrients as fuel for everyday tasks in a healthy person.

At this point, the quantity of glucose contained within the blood is decreased since the cells are loaded with nutrients. When this happens, an individuals beta cells will be given notice in the persons pancreas that they have to lessen the quantity of secreted insulin.

The helps keep an individual away from becoming hypoglycemia, which is also referred to as low blood sugar. Nevertheless, within a an individuals body that has type 1 diabetes these beta cells are destroyed. When this event happens, it throws an individuals body into complete disarray. When a person has type 2 or also referred to gestational diabetes, however, the reasons behind it are different.

Type 1 Diabetes

Typically individuals that are impaired with type 1 diabetes find that they have this disease prior to age 20, although it can happen at any age. Even though this type of disease is relatively not as common as some other types of diseases, it does happen to a great amount of individuals. Sadly, no one actually knows the cause of type 1 diabetes, or not the exact cause.

Nevertheless, it is clear that, at a minimum, a basic tendency toward this disease is genetics. It should be noted that there can be environmental causes at work here that make an individual more apt to this disease. It appears to happen when something in the environment, possibly a virus, invokes an individuals immune system to attack their own pancreas to the point where the individual is unable to create insulin in a correct way. This appears to confuse a persons body and is not curable when it ends up as type 1 diabetes.

The signs and symptoms for all the different types of diabetes can have numerous different things. A variety of them are hardly noticeable while others might make living life that is normal very challenging. Some of these signs and symptoms tend to incorporate an increased level of thirst, a higher level of appetite even after a meal is eaten, abdominal pain. unexplained weight loss, nausea, blurred vision, exhaustion, and excessive urination.

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Type 2 diabetes (also known as non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (NIDDM) or adult-onset diabetes) is the most common form of diabetes affecting around 90% of sufferers. It develops when your pancreas no longer produces sufficient insulin (the hormone which helps break blood sugar down for energy) or when your body’s cells become resistant to insulin.

It is not known exactly what triggers type 2 diabetes but development begins when the cells in your body stop responding to insulin. This restricts your ability to convert blood sugar into energy so the pancreas and liver both respond by releasing extra insulin and glucose. If this happens for a prolonged period, your pancreas’s insulin production capabilities become limited and your body’s cells start to further resist insulin. This eventually leads to your blood sugar levels becoming excessively high and the onset of type 2 diabetes.

Since type 2 diabetes often develops gradually over time the symptoms are very difficult to spot. In many cases there are no symptoms at all and even when symptoms do unfold they are typically so mild that the sufferer does not notice them. However, if you notice any of the following symptoms (no matter how slight) you could have type 2 diabetes:

- Cuts or sores that heal slowly.
- Feelings of drowsiness.
- Greater hunger and thirst levels.
- Soreness in your legs.

To get tested for type 2 diabetes you need to go and see your doctor. They will then test your blood sugar levels to gauge whether you have diabetes. Two of the most popular tests are the fasting plasma glucose test (where you fast for eight hours and then have your blood sugar levels measured) and the oral glucose tolerance test (where you consume a sugary drink and then have your blood sugar levels measured). If either of these tests confirm that you have type 2 diabetes your doctor will be able to give you further advice on effectively managing your condition.

Type 2 diabetes is associated with a number of complications and can cause serious damage to your body if not managed properly. Poorly management of the disease can lead to hyperosmotic non-ketotic acidosis (a type of coma brought on by a lack of insulin), damage to your eyes, damage to your heart, nerve damage and more. Thankfully, the majority of these complications can be avoided by following your doctors advice and managing your diabetes properly.

Your doctor is likely to make a number of recommendations in this area. You will be advised to get a blood testing kit so that you can continually check your blood sugar levels. You may also be prescribed insulin injections depending upon the severity of your condition (approximately 40% of type 2 diabetics require additional insulin). However, in most cases changes to your diet and exercise routine will be enough. On the diet side you will be advised to cut down on salt, reduce your alcohol intake and eat more frequently throughout the day. For the exercise you will be advised to participate in 30 minutes or more of moderate intensity activity per day.

The development of type 2 diabetes is heavily linked with poor lifestyle choices. If you want to stop this condition from destroying your health then you need to listen to your doctor and start making the correct lifestyle choices today.

Whilst every intention has been made to make this article accurate and informative it is intended for general information only. Diabetes is a medical condition and this article is not intended as a substitute for the advice of your doctor or a qualified medical practitioner. If you have any concerns regarding type 2 or any other form of diabetes you should seek the advice of your doctor immediately.

Tom Parker owns and operates a number of useful fitness resources and websites. The Free Fitness Tips blog provides you with fantastic, free advice on all aspects of fitness. For more detailed information on type 2 diabetes please visit the free Fitness Tips blog

Uncontrolled diabetes can lead to several other health complications that you may not think about until your doctor tells you that you have one of them. Anyone suffering with diabetes knows the typical problems associated with the disease-thirst, fear of wounds, waking up at dawn, lethargy, shakiness, etc.

While these problems should be enough to make you want to take a proactive stance on your life, all too often these very problems make people lead a life of ever increasing weight gain and stagnation. It is of utmost importance to gain control of your diabetes through the implementation of proper diet, exercise, and stress reduction.

These simple yet lifesaving lifestyle modification will allow you to stem the progress of the problems listed below and hopefully lessen your need for pharmaceutical control factors.

Some of the other health risks you may encounter are:

Heart Disease and Stroke- Diabetes increases the risk of heart disease and stroke. 50% of people with diabetes die of cardiovascular disease (primarily heart disease and stroke).

Your doctors order to maintain a diabetic diet may stem some of your body fat gain; exercise is the answer to a complete plan of attack on Heart disease and Stroke prevention. Lowering your carbohydrate intake is just not enough.

Kidney Disease- Diabetes is among the leading causes of kidney failure. 10-20% of people with diabetes die of kidney failure.

Renal disease will bring about the need for even more medication and possibly spending the rest of life on dialysis.

Diabetic retinopathy- is an important cause of blindness, and occurs as a result of long-term accumulated damage to the small blood vessels in the retina.

After 15 years of diabetes, approximately 2% of people become blind, and about 10% develop severe visual impairment.

Diabetic neuropathy- is damage to the nerves as a result of diabetes, and affects up to 50% of people with diabetes. Although many different problems can occur as a result of diabetic neuropathy, common symptoms are tingling, pain, numbness, or weakness in the feet and hands.

Foot ulcers- Combined with reduced blood flow, neuropathy in the feet increases the chance of foot ulcers and eventual limb amputation. Loss of mobility is the fastest route to excess weight and body fat gain which brings you right back to the top of this list.

The overall risk of dying among people with diabetes is at least double the risk of their peers without diabetes. Research the right foods to eat, how many meals a day you should be eating, and what time of day you should be eating them.

Start your exercise regimen today. Make sure it includes all components of fitness, stretching, weight lifting, and cardiovascular training.

Find techniques for reducing stress in your life. Everyone has something they can do to put a smile your face-a walk in the park, yoga, martial arts, playing with your kids, the list is endless.

Do not wait until tomorrow to take control of your diabetes. Save your life today!

Melford Bibens is an ACE certified personal trainer. He lost 150lbs in 1996 through a self-engineered fitness and nutritional program and has kept the weight off for more than ten years.

He is the author of
, a comprehensive guide to preventing or controlling diabetes.

Changing your lifestyle is hard, plain and simple. However, if your doctor has told you that you have pre-diabetes, also known as impaired glucose tolerance, the effort it takes to incorporate healthy foods and a little physical activity into your daily routine is well worth it.

A clinical study by the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases found that losing a mere 5 to 7 percent of your total body weight can significantly reduce the risk of developing full blown type 2 diabetes. The 2002 study found that a group of patients that followed a low-fat, low-calorie diet and exercised moderately for 150 minutes a week reduced their risk of developing diabetes by 58 percent.

The connection between weight and type 2 diabetes is undeniable. Obese people are five times more likely to get diabetes than people who maintain a healthy weight. Of the over 21 million people in America with diabetes, 95 percent of the cases are type 2. Other risk factors include heredity and sedentary lifestyle choices.

So, how can you make the changes to your diet and activity levels? Start off slowly. Swap out a salad for an order of french fries. Do without the ranch dressing though. Instead, try using straight balsamic vinegar or another low-calorie alternative. Then, incorporate a 10-minute walk into your daily routine. Whether it is before lunch, after dinner or first thing in the morning, make sure to make the time and effort every day.

Once you adapt to these basic changes, step it up a notch. After about a week, you’ll feel ready to make more challenging changes. Replace candy and sugary beverages with fresh fruit and unsweetened iced tea. Better yet, drink only water for a week. You’ll feel great, and your skin will be positively glowing. Also, extend your walks to 30 minutes for five of the seven days of the week. You’ll be amazed at the health benefits a nice walk will bring. You don’t have to run marathons to be physically fit. Walking burns calories and uses lots of muscle groups without putting lots of strain on your joints. It is ideal for weight loss.

Old habits die hard, but losing your vision or a limb to diabetes is much more difficult than eating a salad and taking walks. Being dependent on insulin and blood sugar testing devices is a difficult way to live. When your blood sugar constantly spikes and drops, it is hard on your body, your personality and the other people around you. You can become irritable, moody, aggressive and even manic. Your good health matters to each and every person that loves you. Your friends and family are counting on you to preserve your own health so you can enjoy many more years to come.

If you are a borderline type 2 diabetic, you don’t have to spend the rest of your life on medication if you learn how to change your lifestyle. It is not easy to do, but a life without needles and pills makes all the salads and aerobics worth the effort.

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There are many different diets circulating in the media as well as medicine today. Diets that focus on reduced carbohydrate intake, diets that limit or reduce fat intake, low-caloric diets, combination diets, blood typing diets, genotype diets, and diabetic diets can all be very confusing.

The topic of this discussion is the glycemic index. The glycemic index was first developed by Dr. David Jenkins who was a professor of nutrition at the University of Toronto in Canada. The first glycemic index was developed in 1981 by Dr. Jenkins. The purposes of determining glycemic index of particular foods were to determine which foods were best for people with diabetes. In the early 80s, most dietary programs that focused on diabetics were based on systems of different carbohydrate exchanges. Each exchange or each portion of food one was able to consume contained the same about of carbohydrate. The exchange system assumed that all starchy foods produce the same effect on blood glucose levels. Even though some earlier studies had also proven this was not correct, it was during that time that the phrase “good carbs and bad carbs” was developed and as time went on, we started to understand there were simple carbohydrates and complex carbohydrates and as time continued to go on, we realized that they had different effects on blood sugar levels, so in reality all carbs were not the same.

Dr. Jenkins was one of the first researchers to challenge the use of these exchanges and the first to really study the effect foods have on blood sugar levels as well as blood insulin levels. Dr. Jenkins’ approach was very scientific in nature which for the time was very unusual especially when trying to ascertain the effects different foods had on blood sugar level. Dr. Jenkins and his fellow researchers tested a large number of common foods with some very surprising results. For example ice cream which is greatly loaded with sugar content had less effect on blood glucose than ordinary white bread did, so basically the testing of individual food groups revealed surprising results in terms of affecting blood glucose levels, so Dr. Jenkins was actually a pioneer in developing a new means of classifying different types of carbohydrates.

His classification is known as the glycemic index, so what exactly is the glycemic index? The glycemic index is a means of ranking different food groups based on their immediate affect on blood sugar level. The foods that primarily affect blood sugar level are the carbohydrates. Proteins and fats do have an effect on blood glucose levels but not to the same degree that carbohydrates do, so for this reason carbohydrates were the primarily studied classification of food groups. For the comparison to be equal, all foods are compared with the reference food such as pure glucose in equivalent carbohydrate amounts so the basic standard is sugar and sugar is given a value of 100. All foods tested and given a glycemic index number and are compared to sugar. It was believed at that time, if we were aware of the impact of food on glucose levels, we could, by manipulating the foods we intook affect blood glucose levels, thereby normalizing and stabilizing blood sugar levels and in effect controlling diabetes. As a practical example and again glucose having a value of 100, potato chips have a glycemic index of 57, jelly beans which contain a great deal of simple sugar has a glycemic index of 80, peanuts on the other hand have a glycemic index of 7, tortilla chips or corn chips have a glycemic index of 42.

Again, all these are relative to glucose being 100 on the glycemic scale. As with most new discoveries in medicine or in scientific research, when new ideas are presented there is a great deal of controversy surrounding the theories and only over time and pending proven scientific results has the glycemic index now been accepted as the standard for measuring carbohydrate and their influence on blood sugar levels.

Other researchers over the past several years that have been involved in research considering glycemic index, include Dr. Jennie Brand Miller from the University of Sydney as well as Dr. Thomas M.S. Oliver and his colleagues at the University of Toronto. Foods containing carbohydrates that break down quickly during digestion have the highest glycemic index values. In other words, the glucose or sugar in the blood stream increases rapidly. Foods that contain carbohydrates that break down slowly release glucose gradually into the blood stream. These foods have a low glycemic index value. High glycemic index foods cause very wild, erratic elevations in blood glucose level and consequently reducing levels of glucose quickly in the blood stream. On the other hand, low-glycemic index foods are the slow and steady, low GI foods produce a smooth blood glucose curve without wild fluctuations. High glycemic index foods are useful in the treatment of hypoglycemia of short periods of time. Oftentimes after athletic competition or extreme physical exertion, high glycemic index foods are indicated again short term to reduce recovery time in these individuals.

As I previously noted, the glycemic index of pure glucose is set at 100 and the other food is ranked on the scale from 0 to 100 according to the actual effect on blood glucose levels. There are several foods that actually have a glycemic index greater than 100. These would include white flour and jasmine rice as well as a few others. The reason for this is that these types of foods unlike glucose are held in the stomach longer for digestion consequently altering the glycemic index and the effect of the glucose on the blood stream.

In summary, the glycemic index is a measure of the immediate affect of a food on blood sugar level. Glucose is the standard with a glycemic index of 100. All foods are ranked on a scale of 0 to 100.

Contact your healthcare provider or if you have further questions visit our website.

Dr. Lewis provides science based nutritional counseling utilizing whole food vitamins, minerals, homeopathics, and herbal remedies. Diagnostic testing is a key component in the evaluation process.
Dr. Keith E. Lewis, B.S.D.C. D.A.B.A.A.H.P., F.A.A.I.M.

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