Jul
31
All forms of diabetes are characterized by a long-term excess of blood glucose, but the condition is no longer the deadly threat it used to be. Until the beginning of the twentieth century, doctors did not understand how to treat diabetes and most patients eventually died from the disease. Too much glucose has numerous ill effects on the body, including declining kidney function and slow wound healing as well as the possibility of a coma. Fortunately, monitoring and managing diabetes is now simpler than ever.
Diabetes occurs from either the body’s ineffective use of insulin or its failure to produce sufficient insulin. Type 1 diabetes results from the pancreas’ islet cells failing to produce sufficient insulin to permit blood glucose to enter the cells and be used as energy. Type 2 diabetes is termed insulin-resistant diabetes, since cellular resistance to insulin’s action allows excess glucose to stay in the blood.
But though they’re not completely known, experts agree that the causes of the different types of diabetes are generally a combination of genetic predisposition and environmental or lifestyle factors. In some cases, one or the other may dominate. Gestational diabetes, for example, affects about 3% of pregnant women usually from around 24-28 weeks into term. But it goes away after birth. Type 1, on the other hand, affects mostly juveniles and is largely genetic.
Symptoms of diabetes are generally the same, no matter the form of the disease. These symptoms include: extreme thirst, frequent urination, and occasionally stomach pains or dizziness. These symptoms can be caused by numerous diseases. If you suspect you have diabetes you should be tested by a doctor.
Those tests are simple and relatively painless, only requiring a small blood sample. Blood glucose level is measured, with normal running around 99 mg/dL, while diabetics have a level of 126 mg/dL or above. It may require more than one test to confirm the disease.
If a diagnosis of diabetes is made, the patient must begin routine blood glucose monitoring. New devices make this simple and nearly painless. Blood is taken by a tiny prick of the finger and put on testing strip, which is then read by a small device. The blood glucose level is accurately determined by these devices. A newer instrument which reads the blood glucose level through the skin, without a blood sample, has also been successful.
Though diabetes is still a serious disease, diabetes management is easier today than ever before. Most people with diabetes can ward off serious complications through a proper treatment routine. Diabetes is no longer the disabling problem it was in the past; now diabetics can enjoy the same long, active lives that everyone else does.
Jul
30
A Definition of Diabetes
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The word diabetes is common enough. Nearly everyone has heard it and may know someone who has it. But how many know what it is?
Chronic high blood glucose levels characterize the medical condition called diabetes. Diabetes occurs when the cells resist utilizing insulin to absorb glucose or when the system does not produce sufficient insulin.
When too little insulin is produced, Type 1 diabetes occurs. When the cells resist insulin Type 2 diabetes occurs. Type 2 is the most prevalent, happening in 90 % of all cases of diabetes. Type 1 is occurs in approximately 7 % of the cases. Diabetes afflicts some 7% of Americans, the majority of whom are 60 or over.
There are other types, such as gestational diabetes that sometimes afflicts pregnant women, and others. But they are much less common and, in some cases, temporary.
Typical symptoms for either type are abnormally frequent urination, produced by the body’s attempt to clear excess glucose by elimination. As a result, unusual thirst is common, compensated for by drinking higher than average amounts.
Type 1 has historically been known as juvenile onset diabetes, since it affected mostly younger people. Similarly, Type 2 was called adult onset diabetes, since it was found mostly in older adults. In Type 1 diabetes, it’s believed that one of the primary factors causing the disease is an autoimmune system malfunction that affects the pancreas. Type 2 may be caused or worsened by obesity and other factors.
Both Type 1 and Type 2 have genetic factors. Regardless of what initiates the condition, all forms of diabetes are the result of a failure by the body to clear glucose from the blood due to insufficient insulin or malfunctioning insulin use.
Insulin is a hormone. It primarily regulates the blood glucose level. Carbohydrates are used by the body to produce glucose. Glucose is used for energy which fuels muscle movement, cell repair, and numerous other functions. Glucose enters the cells with the help of insulin.
When insulin is produced in too low an amount, or the body’s cells resist the intake of glucose by interfering with insulin’s function, diabetes is the result. Since the pancreas produces the overwhelming majority of the body’s insulin, when some condition causes it to malfunction, diabetes can result.
Whether diabetes is Type 1 or Type 2, it is generally chronic. However, much can now be done to reduce the bad effects of diabetes. Either type of diabetes can be managed with appropriate nutrition and fairly easy treatments. Diabetes also varies in its degree of malfunction. Sometimes the insulin used or made is just slightly insufficient; in other instances, the cells are strongly resistance to insulin or the pancreas makes virtually no insulin.
Since excess glucose left in the bloodstream can lead to a range of complications, diabetes can have a number of follow up effects. But how severe those effects are depends on the severity of the insulin deprivation or resistance.
Jul
29
All Your Effort Gone In 60 Seconds
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The margin of time that determines muscle building success or failure in the gym is a heck of a lot shorter than you might think. Just as fraction-of-a-second moments during a 100 metre dash will make or break a sprinter’s race, fraction-of-a-second moments will also make or break your body’s muscle growth response in the gym.
There’s more…although each entire workout will last for about an hour, only about 60 seconds will determine what kind of gains you achieve. That’s right, how you choose to handle that 60 second time period could means great, mediocre or poor muscle building effects.
Let me try to explain. Every set of execises that you perform in the gym will give you benefits on the last 1-2 reps. Why? Because muscles respond to stress, so, the first reps you perform are nothing but a mechanism to trigger the stress your muscles need to grow.
Then, reps 1-4 are only performed in order to get to reps 5 and 6, the ones that really matter in the bodybuilding process. The first ones, do very little in terms of stimulating muscular growth.
In other words, it is only the very last 1-2 reps that will ultimately yield a muscle building response from the body. The longer you can push yourself to battle the weights during this small time frame at the end of each set, the greater results you will achieve.
There is simply no better way to trigger your body’s adaptive responses than to train until your muscles cannot move the weight another inch. The closer and closer that you can come to muscular failure, the more dramatically your body will respond.
Let’s do some math. If you perform 10 sets per workout, and have a margin of 6 seconds between success/failure per set, then it means that the way you handle that 60 seconds could mean a significant muscular growth…or a total waste of time.
Well, if we assume that you perform 10 total all out sets per workout and have a margin of 6 seconds between success/failure per set, this gives you 60 seconds of total time per workout to either battle through with full effort or to surrender and settle for mediocre results.
The closer and closer that you can come to muscular failure, the more dramatically your body will respond. Two seconds, five seconds, maybe another one rep, or two, would actually mean a great difference.
Training your muscles to muscular failure is the way to achieve betters results. If you drop the weight before you reach it you are compromising the results.
You must train hard and with full effort at all times. When the weight feels heavy and your muscles ache and burn with discomfort, you must push through and continue until true muscular failure is reached.
Every time you give up and take a rest, even if it’s just for a couple of seconds, you compromise your gains. Keeping this in mind at all times in the gym and will give you the better results than ever before.
Jul
20
Following A Diabetes Diet Plan
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One of the best and most recommended ways of keeping diabetes in check is by following a diabetes diet plan. Of course, you have to consult a nutritionist before you embark on one, but following such a diet plan is the ideal way of making sure that diabetes does not get the best of you. A qualified nutritionist can make sure that there is enough variation in the diet without sacrificing any of the essential nutrition that your body needs.
Since a healthy diabetic food plan depends on strict measurement of different kinds of food, it must be prepared with the utmost care, paying a great deal of attention to exact ingredient measurements. For instance, it should have 50% starch, 30% protein and 20% fat.
You will have to pass up on some of the food stuff that you like, like fried foods. Instead, you will have to focus on baked, steamed, boiled and broiled foods when you are on your healthy eating plan. Snacking between meals is not allowed either - and you must make sure that you never miss meals, because that can affect your metabolism.
Fruits and vegetables are ideal for your diabetes diet plan, but you have to ensure that they are fresh. Frozen foods have preservatives that include sugary and fatty chemicals. You will need dairy intake, but you have to stick to skimmed milk - whole milk products and confectionery items, as well as sweet desserts, are things you will have to learn to do without.
There are plenty of other things you will have to try your very best to avoid - alcohol tops the list. Other high-fat foods like red meat, potato chips, eggs, mayonnaise etc must also be avoided, if you can, as should bottled fruit juice, cooking sauces and carbonated drinks. When you are on a strict diabetic eating plan, the daily calorie intake you must aim at is 1800 calories. So you have to make sure that your daily diet is carefully planned well in advance.
The simplest and most nutritious diabetes diet plan for a single day can include a breakfast containing 2/3 cup of apple juice, cup of oatmeal, 1 slice of wholemeal bread toast, 1 soft cooked egg and 1 cup unsweetened skimmed milk. Lunch can be cup of tuna, 2 slices of wholemeal bread, cup diced tomatoes, 1 cup mixed fruit, 1 tsp margarine and 1 glass lemon tea. The ideal dinner meal would be 3 ounces of baked chicken, cup of mashed potatoes, 1 slice of wholemeal bread, 1 cup broccoli or tossed salad. Try not to use store-bought salad dressing. Instead, use a 1tsp of olive oil mixed with some vinegar mixed in chopped garlic and parsley/basil/sage or oregano to add flavor.
You need to know a good bit about what your body needs in terms of nutrition and how your metabolic system keeps you going to figure out a diabetes diet plan. You can turn to your doctor for help, and you can design a varied and nutritious eating plan that keeps you healthy and happy for a long time.
