Common Knowledge About Gestational Diabetes

Common Knowledge About Gestational Diabetes

I did not become familiar with gestational diabetes until recently when my sister-in-law and my best friend were both diagnosed with it within a week. Many women I know, myself included, have made it through pregnancies without having any serious problems like gestational diabetes.

Basically, gestational diabetes is a disease that can come on during pregnancy but that usually disappears once the baby has been born. In some women, pregnancy results in their blood sugar levels getting out of balance. A pregnant woman might realize that she is having blood sugar problems on her own or it might take a doctor to determine that her levels are not normal. Regardless of how it is discovered, gestational diabetes is a serious issue that needs to be handled with caution and care throughout a woman’s pregnancy and after.

When my sister-in-law and my closest friend were struggling with feeling abnormally up and down during their pregnancies, their doctor took blood tests and determined that their blood sugar levels were being affected by their pregnancies and their food choices. They were both diagnosed simply by having this blood work done. At first they were hesitant and scared because gestational diabetes sounded huge and they didn’t know how relatively simple the treatment process could be.

Gestational diabetes, because it is primarily an imbalance of blood sugar, can often be regulated by changes in diet and levels of exercise. The amount of changes that are necessary are dependant upon how poor of habits the women have to begin with. My sister-in-law and my friend had to make different levels of changes to their diets, but neither had to make such significant changes that their lifestyle was radically altered. Mostly their changes consisted of going on a low-sugar and low-carb eating plan. Gestational diabetes brings a risk of the baby getting to large during its gestational period and needing to be delivered early or by c-section. The more the pregnant mother cuts down on sugar intake, the less likely it is that the baby will get too large to be delivered vaginally.

If you are pregnant or are thinking of becoming pregnant in the near future, take some time and learn about ways to prevent gestational diabetes. It is the best for you and your baby. Prevention is always a better option than having to find a solution to high blood sugar levels. Be wise with your food and exercise choices from the start and you should be able to avoid dealing with gestational diabetes in your pregnancies. Talk with your doctor and take every possible precaution.

By: Belina Storrey –

Controlling Blood Sugar In Type 2 Diabetes Without The Use Of Drugs

Controlling Blood Sugar In Type 2 Diabetes Without The Use Of Drugs

I was told in rapid succession that I was suffering from intermittent claudication (that’s blocked arteries in the legs), high blood pressure, Diabetes Type 2. and that I was overweight.

Not a lot of pleasure there! The intermittent claudication made it increasingly difficult to do much, so that in effect I had become a prisoner to my house and garden. Exercise was out of the question, my legs simply couldn’t cope, but it was hoped that angioplasty to each leg would cure the problem. It didn’t.

My high blood pressure, I was assured, could be treated by a cocktail of drugs and by weight loss. The cocktail of four different drugs worked, but I could not seem to lose weight.

So I was given a choice: the blood sugar levels could be controlled either by drugs or by diet. Since I was already taking four different drugs for blood pressure, I thought it best to try diet control. I was also hopeful that this might help me to lose weight. But where to start? My diabetic nurse provided me with a blood sugar monitor and said I should aim to stay under 9 as my reading. My Doctor said to stay under 7. Now she has reduced this to under 5. My current long-term reading is 5.3. A big drop from the high readings I used to produce.

So what did I do? At first I was taking blood samples three times a day and was truly astonished at how my blood sugar jumped about. Plain porridge and water, which I absolutely loved, would produce a reading of 16 and yet, being a slow release multigrain, I had always assumed it would be good for my health. A single apple, showed a reading of 12! Tea with milk but no sugar, 10. Obviously there was more to this than met the eye.

The first learning point was that the body needs water and lots of it. Out went sugared fizzy drinks and in came plain boiled water. The Swedes call it Silver Tea, I’m told, and it is very refreshing. Now a cup starts every day and two or three more follow. Low calorie tonic water is also useful (the quinine helps prevent cramps), mineral water (I especially like carbonated forms), low calorie Ginger Beer and cold filtered tap water.

The next, crucial, learning point: control your carbohydrate intake, in my case to under 40gms a day. Eliminate bread, cakes, sweets, pasta, rice, cereals, biscuits, sugars, fruit juice, potatoes, honey, jam, marmalade, baked beans. Reading the food labels is a real eye opener!

Instead, increase your intake of vegetables and low carbohydrate foods & fruits. All of the following are particularly good: Broccoli, cabbage, spinach, runner beans, brussels sprouts cauliflower, broccoli, peppers, tomatoes, courgettes, aubergines, swede, squashes, celeriac, green salads. Fruit can be very high in sugars, so use in moderation. Choose rhubarb, grapefruit, raspberries, loganberries, strawberries, blueberries, all of which are O.K. Do not add sugar, of course, so sweeten with cinnamon instead. Avocadoes are low in carbohydrates, but high in fat, so eat no more than half a fruit a day. Add nuts and seeds to your diet, again in small amounts.

As far as alcohol is concerned, all beers are out. One or two glasses of red wine a day are acceptable.

Avoid processed foods as much as possible and certainly do NOT eat hydrogenated fats of any kind. They are to my mind a food industry con. and of no use to any one other than manufacturers of processed food.

Buy only genuine, non-reconstituted lean meat, poultry, game and fish. Reduce your saturated fat intake by cooking on a griddle and cutting off any excess fat. Cook with olive and nut oils, as these unsaturated fats are good for you. Never use lard. Add game to your repertoire of ingredients, along with plenty of oily and white fish such as salmon, haddock, tuna, swordfish, mackerel & kipper.

I have never once felt hungry with this change in my eating habits to simple whole foods. I still find I miss eating plain yoghurt, vanilla ice cream and various cheeses. But then I occasionally do give myself a small treat – provided I stay within my allowance.

The results are good for my health:

My good cholesterol is high
My bad cholesterol is low
My type II diabetes blood sugar is well controlled by diet alone
I have lost 10 lbs in weight.

My next task is to lose another 30 lbs. I know now that this is achievable. The more weight I lose, the more able I am to increase my activity levels – and the more incentive I have to control my calorie intake. At last I feel that I am taking back control of my body and discovering that you really are what you eat!

By: Barry Gorman –

Can I Go Tanning With Diabetes?

Can I Go Tanning With Diabetes?

Diabetes and Tanning
If you are undergoing treatment for lupus or diabetes or are susceptible to cold sores, be aware that these conditions can be aggravated through exposure to ultraviolet radiation from tanning devices, sunlamps, or natural sunlight. In addition, your skin may be more sensitive to artificial light or sunlight if you use certain medications, for example, antihistamines, tranquilizers or birth control pills. Your tanning salon may keep a file with information on your medical history, medications, and treatments. Make sure you update it as necessary.

Protecting Yourself
Limit your exposure to avoid sunburn. If you tan with a device, ask whether the manufacturer or the salon staff recommend exposure limits for your skin type. Set a timer on the tanning device that automatically shuts off the lights or somehow signals that you’ve reached your exposure time. Remember that exposure time affects burning and that your age at the time of exposure is important relative to burning.

Knowing your Tanning Lotion
Some suntanning products don’t contain sunscreen. It only takes a few bad sunburns to raise the risk of skin cancer, and skin damage builds up over years even when no burning occurs. This is why sunscreen, which blocks UVA and UVB, is recommended. The FDA has expressed concern about suntanning products without sunscreen, and encourages consumers to check the labels for SPF protection.

Sunscreen is regulated by the FDA as an OTC drug. Look for products with a sun protection factor (SPF) of 15 or more. The higher the number, the better the protection. Sunscreen should be liberally applied to skin 30 minutes before going out in the sun, and then every two hours after that.

Tanning Salons
It’s true that most sun lamps emit mainly UVA radiation, and that these so­called “tanning rays” are less likely to cause a sunburn than UVB radiation from sunlight. But, contrary to the claims of some tanning parlors, that doesn’t make them safe. UVA rays have a suspected link to malignant melanoma, and, like UVB rays, they also may be linked to immune system damage.

Tanning Safely
We urge you to find out more about self tanning. You can self tan with a Sunless tanning lotion. Sunless tanning lotion is a tanning lotion that gives you that great tan without the dangers of UVA and UVB! Find out more about Self Tanning!

Carbohydrates, High Blood Sugars, Diabetes – Know The Connection?

Carbohydrates, High Blood Sugars, Diabetes – Know The Connection?

There is a strong connection between carbohydrates, high blood sugars and diabetes. Carbohydrates give your body the energy, or fuel, it needs to function properly.

There are two types of carbohydrates; simple and complex. Simple carbohydrates are in foods such as fruit sugar, corn or grape sugar and table sugar. They are single-sugar molecules. Complex carbohydrates are the foods that contain three or more linked sugars. So carbohydrates create blood sugars and that’s where the problems start for diabetics. Understanding more about the connection helps to control your diabetes…

A Personal Experience

I am a diabetic type 2 and, at the moment, I control my blood sugars through tablets and diet. Blood glucose control is extremely important for any diabetic – it is the only way of minimising future health complications; heart disease; neuropathy resulting in amputations; kidney disease and early death.

Four years ago my A1C sugar levels were starting to get out of control – they weren’t massively high but were creeping up. My Doctor increased my medication – with no real satisfactory results, my blood sugars were all over the place; I could go from a high reading at night and be woken by a hypoglaecemic (low blood sugar) in the early hours.

Then I discovered the Atkins diet and, because I wanted to lose weight, I started to follow the low carbohydrate, high protein menus.

That’s when I discovered the real connection between complex carbohydrates, high blood sugars and my diabetes. Suddenly my blood sugars stabilised and it was because I was no longer piling in huge amounts of carbohydrate, which were pushing my blood sugars far too high.

This seemed to fly in the face of conventional advice on the right diets – complex carbohydrate rich – for diabetes. You see, I already understood I had to avoid sweet, sugary food – these contained simple carbohydrates. I hadn’t realised that the more complex carbohydrate of bread, potato and cereals affected my blood sugars as well.

But (there’s always a ‘but’ isn’t there?) the Atkins diet did not really suit me. I had constant diarrhea which was stressful and debilitating. So I came off that diet after 3-4 months and, of course, my blood sugars began to get out of control again.

But now I knew about the connection, all I needed to do was find the right program for me that followed the low carbohydrate principle.

And just recently, whilst doing research for my diabetes website, I discovered a program that suits me, and which I describe in more detail on my website for diabetics.

My advice to any diabetic and pre-diabetic, do your research! Understand the close connection between the complex carbohydrates you eat, how they affect your blood sugars and how it can make it difficult to control your diabetes. Once you understand that link, look for a diet or system that you can adapt to safely bring your blood sugars back under control.

Remember, too many carbohydrates (complex or simple) give you high blood sugar levels and if you have diabetes it means your body cannot cope with the additional overload.

By: Carol Ann

Diabetes: Breast-feeding May Help Babies And Women Against Diabetes

Diabetes: Breast-feeding May Help Babies And Women Against Diabetes

Babies and women may be protected against developing diabetes disease through breast feeding, according to new research. This current study states that the longer women nursed, the lower their risks of developing diabetes.

Diabetes as a medical disorder characterized by varying or persistent elevated blood sugar levels, especially due to eating, is a serious disease which symptoms are very similar for all types of diabetes.

Breast feeding is when a woman feeds a baby or a young child with milk produced from her breasts. The best thing for feeding a baby is breast milk, as experts say, if the mother does not have transmissible infections.

Although study findings are not conclusive, researchers explain that breast-feeding may change metabolism of mothers which may help keep blood sugar levels stable and make the body more sensitive to the blood sugar-regulating hormone insulin.

This theory is based on some evidence that show that in rats and humans that are breast-feeding, mothers have lower blood-sugar levels than those who did not breast-feed.

According to the study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, women who breast-fed for at least one year were about 15 per cent less likely to develop diabetes type 2 than those who never breast-fed. For each additional year of breast-feeding, there was an additional 15 per cent decreased risk.

A total of 157,000 nurses participated in the new study. They answered periodic health questionnaires and were followed for at least 12 years. During the study, 6,277 participants developed type 2 diabetes.

By: Hector Milla