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Over recent years, much of what was known about type 2 diabetes has been turned upside down. What is now known is so much more powerful… now there is an understanding of the real cause.

So how does type 2 diabetes start… often the first symptom is fatigue. You lost your spark. From there you noticed you were visiting the bathroom often, passing excessive amounts of urine. Thirst comes next, you find yourself drinking so much more water or fluids generally. What really is happening in your body is sugar is not able to move from your bloodstream into your cells. From that small problem comes so many others.

• Glucose or sugar is an energy source for your body. It supplies power to everything you do, from thinking to moving. So when it is unable to enter your cells, they become tired and you have no energy.
• The sugar from your bloodstream is then filtered through your kidneys, and in an attempt to excrete this high amount of blood sugar, large amounts of fluid are used. This fluid is pulled from your body and is why you make so many trips to the bathroom and why you feel dehydrated.
• Naturally you then feel very thirsty.

Therefore:

• fatigue
• frequent urination
• dehydration and thirst

are all symptoms of the one problem. Sugar being unable to enter your cells. you now have high blood sugar levels and high insulin levels. A provisional diagnosis of type 2 diabetes is made if you have these symptoms plus blood sugar levels of 126 mg/dl (7 mmol/l) or higher after fasting for eight hours. Your health care provider will then follow up with an oral glucose tolerance test or challenge, and if your level is shown to be 200 mg/dl (11 mmol/l) or higher two hours later… a definite diagnosis of type 2 diabetes is made. A normal glucose tolerance test value is less than 140 mg/dl (7.8 mmol/l).

A diagnosis of type 2 diabetes means the insulin in your body is no longer doing it’s job… it is unable to open the doors of your cells to allow sugar to enter. Your pancreas continues to produce more insulin in an attempt to fix this problem… it tries to overcome the resistance.

Treatment for type 2 diabetes.

• sometimes includes medications
• always includes a healthy eating plan in order for you to lose weight and reduce your blood sugar levels
• should include an increase in physical activity on a daily basis
• can include naturally occurring substances such as chromium and cinnamon

Learning all you can about type 2 diabetes and making a commitment to living a healthy lifestyle will reduce your risk of serious health complications.

Diabetes nowadays has grown to be a problem next to cancer or other respiratory diseases. It has become so common and yet so misunderstood. For a lot of people, diabetes is a hereditary disease. Hence, only genetic predisposition can cause diabetes. For some on the other hand, the diet of the people is the primary culprit for diabetes. How true or untrue are these? Are all people susceptible to this disease?

Could you be a diabetic?

Before identifying the possible victims of this deadly illness, it would be best to understand what diabetes is.

Diabetes is a metabolism problem where the pancreas either fails to produce enough sugar or to produce at all. It can also be the case that the cells of the body are not functioning well that’s why the insulin produced just passes out of the body leaving the body with little or no fuel to do everyday activities.

Furthermore, there are many types of diabetes all of which have their own causes and proper management. This can be very dangerous and even deadly that is why this disease should be taken seriously.

With this, it can be easily said that people who have problematic pancreas or cells are automatically at high risk to suffer this disease. As mentioned earlier, those who have genetic predisposition are usually among those who cannot run away from this high risk. People over the age of 45 are also very susceptible to this illness. This can be associated to failure of the body to function properly.

There is also such as thing as insulin resistance syndrome that predisposes people to diabetes. Studies also prove that race and ethnic backgrounds should be considered. Hispanics, Asians, Blacks and Native Americans are prone to developing type II diabetes. Being overweight (people who have greater than 25 body mass index) and hypertensive also increases the risk of developing certain types of diabetes. This is where the people’s diets get in.

The common belief that consuming a lot of sweets or sugary food causes diabetes may be considered as a taboo. Sweet foods are like fatty foods, they contribute to the development of other health conditions such as those mentioned above which in turn triggers diabetes. High cholesterol levels are also not exempted from being a culprit in the development of this health condition. Having a very sedentary lifestyle also does not help. Development of diabetes during pregnancy also increases the risk. Similarly, history of vascular disease and polycystic syndrome renders people very much susceptible to diabetes.

With the foregoing, it clearly nullifies the common beliefs mentioned above. A lot of people and virtually any people are really susceptible to diabetes. It’s just a matter of adapting a very healthy lifestyle that can steer people away from this doom. We all love to eat and relax, but as the saying goes we become what we eat (and in this case maybe what we do also!). Diabetes like every other disease is common, deadly and can be very limiting once we develop it so prevention is always important!

Diabetes is a chronic medical condition. The signs of diabetes start to set in when the body either does not produce or use the provided insulin. There are bright chances that person is suffering from diabetes but still he is not able to recognize some signs of diabetes. It is important that whenever these signs are seen the person should get tested with the best diabetic testing supplies.

There are two warning signs of diabetes

• Hypoglycemia
• Hyperglycemia

If a person is suffering from hypoglycemia it means that his blood sugar level has come down to an extent where it is causing

• Dizziness
• Shaking
• Hunger pangs
• Sweating

However if a person is hyperglycemic then the warning signs of diabetes may be

• Weight loss
• Nausea
• Light-headedness

If any of the above signs are seen it is better that person should plan a doctor’s visit and have him tested with the best diabetic testing supplies. The doctor will inquire about the family history of diabetes and ask for the flowing tests:

• Finger stick test:

This test involves pricking the finger with lancet (diabetic testing supply) to draw a drop of blood. This drop is then placed on test strip. This is done to check the exact concentration of glucose in the drop of blood with the help of blood glucose monitor.

• Fasting blood Glucose Test

This test needs fasting for 8 to 12 hours. The blood is then drawn in the laboratory for checking the concentration of glucose. The reading of fasting blood glucose must not go over 126 mg/dl. If it goes then it shows that person is diabetic.

Regardless if you have diabetes exercise is helpful for all individuals. Even if you have had diabetic complications you can definitely benefit from exercise. If you have diabetes exercise is important for your heart health as well as weight loss; it will lower your high blood pressure, and, in some cases, improve blood sugar control as well as leading to an overall sense of well-being. If you are pre-diabetic or have risk factors it can even help prevent type 2 diabetes in some people.

Please remember that it’s important to have both enthusiasm and common sense when you are starting an exercise program. If you are diabetic it is important to practice these precautions in order to stay safe and ensure that your exercise program is productive.

• Wear well-fitting, protective footwear.
• Drink plenty of liquids before, during, and after exercise to prevent dehydration, which can upset blood sugar levels.

If you use insulin you should also:

• Monitor your blood sugar before, during, and after exercise to determine your body’s typical response to exercise. If you have a reading of 250 mg/dL (13.9 mmol/L) or higher you should wait until your levels are under control before you exercise.
• Talk with your physician about the possibility of decreasing your insulin dose by about 30 percent during exercise.
• Choose an insulin injection site away from exercising muscles (for example, avoid the legs if running)
• Keeping rapidly absorbed carbohydrates on hand (glucose tablets, hard candies, or juice).
• Eat a snack 15 to 30 minutes before exercise, and again every 30 minutes during exercise.
• Eat a source of slowly absorbed carbohydrates (dried fruit, fruit jerky, granola bars, or trail mix) immediately after exercise. This should counteract a possible post-exercise drop in your blood sugar levels.

It is important to select an exercise program that is enjoyable to you and can be done comfortably, this will make it easier to stay motivated and stick with a program over time. If you have had a sedentary lifestyle you might find it difficult to start and continue with an exercise program.

If you have diabetic eye complications (proliferative retinopathy) I recommend you avoid high-impact activities and strenuous weight-lifting, which may increase your blood pressure and cause bleeding in the eye. If you have neurologic complications (peripheral neuropathy) it is recommended that you avoid running which may lead to foot ulcers and stress fractures.

When you were first diagnosed with type 2 diabetes you learned the extra weight you put on over many years, played a large role in you developing type 2. Carrying fat around your abdominal area led to your insulin becoming less effective … this is known as insulin resistance, meaning your body had to produce more and more insulin to control your blood sugar levels.

Eventually your pancreas could not produce enough insulin and your blood sugar levels started to rise. This is the point at which your type 2 diabetes occurred. Whilst sweet foods did not in themselves cause this condition, excess calories of any kind, sweets, cake, potatoes, sugary drinks and alcohol, or maybe not enough physical activity together with eating too much food, is clearly related to being overweight or obese. Add to this a genetic flaw and obesity makes you more likely to develop type 2.

Now you are at this stage you find you need to watch what you eat. Most people like fruit, and yes, you can eat fruit but you need to watch the amount and type you eat.

Eating fruits that contain high fructose or high fruit sugar levels, can lead to problems. This would be like eating pure sugar and pure sugar has a GI value of 100 and eating carbohydrates with a GI value that high would certainly negatively affect your blood sugar levels.

Actually health care practitioners who once believed all fruit was good for the body, have reconsidered that idea and can now see it’s the glycemic index of the fruit that matters most. Fruits that rank high on the GI scale include:

• raisins, they are  even higher than grapes
• pineapple
• very ripe peaches and nectarines
• cantaloupe and watermelon (but because they are primarily water you can eat one cup of them without having to worry about spiking blood sugar levels)

Lower ranking fruits include:

• cherries
• grapefruit
• prunes
• dried apricots
• apple
• pears
• plums
• strawberries
• oranges

The key is simply select the best carbohydrate fruits … low-GI, which are equal to fifty-five per cent or less on a carbohydrate ranking. Know which fruits have a high glycemic index and which ones it would be wise to eat in moderation:

• half cup pineapple,
• 10 grapes,
• 2 tablespoons raisins,
• a half a large peach or ripe nectarine

This is one of the ways you start to gain control over your blood sugar levels.

So, you’re looking for herbs for diabetes?

That makes all the sense in the world. Diabetes is potentially a killer disease (the seventh leading cause of death in America) but it’s also one of the most treatable diseases.

You can treat it naturally, but simply buying herbs won’t do.

Why would I say that?

You can get a list of herbs for diabetes – cinnamon, bitter melon, garcina cambogia hca and others. And they won’t have side effects but they may not have very positive effects either.

They need to be in the right formulation.

Let me give you an example. Garcina cambogia HCA is often recommended for diabetes. Now, it doesn’t work directly to lower high blood glucose (the cause of the damage diabetes is doing to your system). instead, it suppresses your appetite, which helps you lose weight, which lowers your insulin resistance. An important part of puzzle.

That’s great. And not enough in itself.

You need to use garcina cambogia hca in tandem with other herbs that have complementary effects (that make your insulin more effective, or fight inflammation, for example). And you need to use them in the right amounts so they work together.

How do you find that?

Fortunately there are formulations of herbs for diabetes that work together very effectively. Here’s what I look for when I recommend a supplement:

• Get scientific proof that the specific formulation lowers blood glucose.

That’s your end point, lowering blood glucose. And there are supplements that can do it reliably. You want something with documented proof that they lower fasting blood sugar below 120 mg/dl, below 100 mg/dl would be even better. And it should lower hemoglobin A1c (3 month blood glucose) into acceptable ranges (<6%).

• Get expert endorsements

Mainline medicine endorses the idea that you can control and reverse your diabetes through diet and exercise. If the supplement is good, it should be embraced by mainstream physicians who are willing to put their name behind their endorsement.

Testimonials are good too, but frankly very easy to fake. Identifiable experts are better.

• Get a low cost trial

You shouldn’t be worried about the side effects of herbs for diabetes. Herbs shouldn’t have any. But you do want to be sure you like the treatment. So you want a reputable firm that will refund your money for any reason or no reason.

Jerome Kaplan has 30 plus years of experience in the foot health products business. He recommends everyone take foot care seriously, because minor problems today can turn into disasters when ignored.

Who else would like a natural diabetes treatment that actually gets diabetes or pre diabetes under control?

That seems like a tall order. About half the population of adults in middle age (45 to 70) will struggle with diabetes. The rate is increasing. And the consequences are potentially devastating – kidney disease, blindness, and possible death.

So, what’s the biggest thing to focus on?

Consider this.

High blood glucose (sugar) is the heart of diabetes, it’s what is causing the damage to your body, overloading your kidneys, making your eyes swell, making your body tear down fat and muscle cells.

What lowers blood glucose? What’s the most effective natural diabetes treatment?

Exercising more and eating less. Exercise burns up glucose in place of insulin. Eating less puts less sugar in your system to begin with and as you lose weight your decrease insulin resistance.

Why is that important?

Your cells need glucose. It’s the fuel for your body’s furnace. Insulin is what gets your cells to open the gates to blood glucose.

You eat too much sugar over time and your cells become resistant to insulin; so they don’t allow the glucose in; they starve; and the glucose floats around in your blood and eventually your urine and wreaks havoc.

So, get this problem.

If you have diabetes (or you’re developing it) either you body doesn’t produce enough insulin (type 1) or your cells are becoming resistant to it (type 2), so you have too much sugar floating in your blood.

Eat less, you get less sugar in. Eat less, and your insulin resistance drops and your cells use more of the sugar and less floats around in your blood.

In fact, when Dr. Alan Rubin (the author of one of the leading desk references on diabetes) was asked for the simplest diet as a natural diabetes treatment, what do you suppose he said?

• Cut your portions in half.
• There’s a lot more you can do. But that’s the basics.

Now the good news.

If you don’t have a track record of success on a diet, you can still be successful with diabetes.

There are natural diabetes treatments that are optimized for what you need to do to fight diabetes: suppress your appetite, help insulin do it’s job, and attract glucose transporters so the sugar doesn’t float around in your blood.

Chromium is an element that helps insulin work better, meaning it helps the hormone escort glucose from your bloodstream into your cells. It is naturally present in the various foods mentioned above, but some experts recommend taking supplements as well. Whether this is a good idea for you or not, depends on how chromium rich your diet is.