How a Low Carb Diet Can Benefit Children with Type 1 Diabetes

From asweetlife.org

For the past four years, the people in the Facebook group TypeOneGrit have been working to help each other achieve normal blood sugars by following a very strict diet described in Dr. Bernstein’s Diabetes Solution. Essentially, people on the diet are limited to eating a total of about 30 carbs a day; with no grains, no starch, no sugar, and no fruit. There’s no doubt that the diet stabilizes blood sugar: I’ve seen it in the even CGM graphs that people post on the page to motivate each other; and I’ve seen it with my daughter Bisi, who has type 1 diabetes, when we give her what my husband and I call magic waffles, and other low carb meals, and her CGM shows a beautiful straight line. (Though for our family—and I think this may be true of many—eating low carb all the time is not sustainable, since it resulted in big battles over every meal. Our compromise has been eating low carb dinners, and often breakfasts. It’s not ideal, but it’s the best we can do for the time being.) Despite these stable results, endocrinologists and nutritionists often tell parents that children need carbs for growth and brain development, or that eating low carb could result in dangerous low blood sugars, or that there’s not evidence that a low carb diet is healthy over the long term.

A study released earlier this month in the May issue of Pediatrics helps to address these concerns. Overseen by a group of doctors, scientists, and researchers, some of them with personal connections to type 1 diabetes, the observational study looked at the glycemic control of 316 people, 131 of them children, who are part of TypeOneGrit and eat a very low carb diet.  The results showed that participants were able to achieve “exceptional glycemic control”—respondents reported a mean A1c of 5.67%, with lower than average rates of hypoglycemia and hospitalizations for diabetes-related causes.  Meanwhile, children’s mean heights were “modestly above average for age and sex.”

Last week, I spoke with Richard David (RD) Dikeman— the main force behind TypeOneGrit—about the study, in which RD’s 15-year-old son, Dave, was a participant. We also talked about the radical changes in the field of diabetes management that RD is hoping to see, and how this study may lay the groundwork.
(This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.)

Tell me about this study and how it came to be.
It took a long time for this to happen. You can imagine that I’m approached a lot by researchers. But we wanted to have the right team. The people we had on board here, you know they were going to do everything right. This wasn’t take five people and have a quick interview and try to get into a substandard journal. All of the participants had their medical data verified by physician records. And we had to prove that all the participants had type 1 diabetes in the first place. To me that seemed kind of absurd, but to get into a journal like Pediatrics,  you just had to do it.  Also, a good subset of the authors understand and/or have type 1. That is hugely important, because you can’t understand just low carb; you need to understand how insulin works with low carb.

What was the genesis of this? How did your family decide to go low carb in the first place? How was the seed planted that you could do low carb with kids, when that goes against the typical recommendations when a child is diagnosed?
Yeah, when Dave was diagnosed in 2013, if you Googled low carb, type 1, which we did, you got an Amazon link to Bernstein’s book, but there was scant information, especially in terms of kids. Ekaterina  Lochoshvili-Griffin was probably the only resource you could find, and I think your interview with her was one of the things I found. Now you can find a lot more, but back then there was nobody. And she was especially speaking out about it.

What I remember is that people would say, Oh, you can’t put kids on low carb diets because it will stunt their growth, and her work with her son, Alexander, was showing that that wasn’t the case.
Right. Growth was one of the things that was important to track in the study. If you are looking into low carb and a doctor tells you that your child needs carbs for growth and energy, that comment is going to stop people in their tracks permanently, because it seems so true.
Our doctor said the same thing to us. When Dave was in the hospital in DKA, the doctor explained diabetes to him by saying, insulin makes your blood sugar go down and carbs make it go up, and you need to find the balance, or you’ll lose your legs and go blind—which he actually said. And Dave said, “Well, I won’t eat carbs then.” We all laughed at Dave, because you need carbs for growth and energy, right? But in reality, that’s not correct. What you need for growth is protein and normal blood sugars. And that’s what the diet that people are following in the group revolves around.

What did you find in the study?
What we found was that indeed there are no adverse effects to growth from the high protein diet with normal blood sugars. We know that kids with the sort of blood sugars which on average are being established by the ADA diet run into all kinds of problems in childhood; for instance, differentiated white-grey matter in the brain, and that’s been established by a longitudinal study. The struggle now is for the diabetes associations and the physicians to come to terms with what really amounts to math, and how to properly educate people and themselves. This is a mathematical statement; the paper proves that: the people who had the lowest carbohydrate intake in the group were the people who had the best A1Cs, and the people who strayed from the Bernstein 30 grams, their blood sugars were higher.

What is your hope for what this study will accomplish?
Well, I have two hopes. The first hope is, if you look at the study, people are getting a lot of pushback from their doctors if they tell them they’re having their child go low carb. The world of food is so bizarre in the West right now that people are legitimately fearful of having doctors report them to child protective services for feeding their kids a diet of meat and vegetables, which is so absurd, because when we were kids, grandma was rightly chasing you around saying eat your meat and vegetables. And now the people who most need to follow that advice are fearful that their doctors are going to call CPS on them.

Has that happened to people?
Sure, people have been threatened with that.  It’s a very common topic in the group.
So the first thing I want to do is give people a piece of paper with some real data on it that’s been published in a major journal that they can take to their endocrinologist and say, “Hey, step off.”
The second thing is, there are some physicians out there who want to do the right thing and I think are totally hamstrung by the ADA guidelines and fearful of giving people advice which differs from the guidelines, which obviously aren’t working. So this paper is, I think, a step in the right direction to change the guidelines and give doctors that ability. The goal is not to force people to adopt a certain diet: it’s just to tell the truth. We want to empower people who are following the diet; give people information who are newly diagnosed and want to get off the roller coaster; and to start instructing the physicians and the diabetes associations that they need to be looking at alternative methods.

Now for any parent of a child who’s diagnosed who does some research, this study will likely pop up in Google. So from now on, people are going to be asking these questions much more commonly than they were, and finding this method.
There’s another study by Joslin that shows that over the past decade we’ve seen a skyrocketing of obesity in kids with type 1. Type 1 kids are now developing double diabetes: insulin resistance and type 1. The head researcher at Joslin, named Osama Hamdi, attributes it to the modern t1d culture of eat what you want and take insulin. He’s saying that people have optimized their therapy with pumps and CGM. That refrain of eat what you want and bolus is the standard of care right now. And that’s what you hear from newly diagnosed people. Look, here you have these two studies: this disaster that’s happening with standard care, and then these Grit kids who are getting damn near normal blood sugars.

https://asweetlife.org/how-a-low-carb-diet-can-benefit-children-with-type-1-diabetes/?utm_source=ASweetLife.org+List&utm_campaign=5800ab3d27-ASweetLife+Weekly+Update++-+Nov.+14%2C+2017_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_5125b14cf8-5800ab3d27-413392997

Diabetes type 2 - Add this 79p spice to your tea to lower blood sugar

From express.co.uk

DIABETES type 2 symptoms include weight loss, feeling very tired, and passing more urine than normal. Adding this cheap spice to your diet could lower your blood sugar, it’s been revealed.

Diabetes affects about 3.7 million people in the UK.
About 90 per cent of those cases are type 2 diabetes, according to the NHS.
The condition is caused by the pancreas not producing enough of the hormone insulin, or the body not reacting to insulin.
Diabetes symptoms include blurred vision, having an unquenchable thirst, and having cuts or wounds that take longer to heal than normal.
You could lower your risk of high blood sugar by adding cinnamon to your morning tea, it’s been claimed.

Cinnamon could lower your blood sugar levels and improve your sensitivity to insulin, according to nutritionist Dr Josh Axe.
It works by blocking enzymes called alanines. The enzymes are usually used by the blood to absorb sugar.
With fewer alanines, less glucose enters the bloodstream after a high-sugar meal, the nutritionist said.
“Cinnamon is known to have an anti-diabetic effect,” he said.
“It helps lower blood sugar levels and also can improve sensitivity to the hormone insulin, which is the vital hormone needed for keeping blood sugar levels balanced.”

If you have diabetes, adding cinnamon sticks to your drinks could help to reduce symptoms, revealed medical website WebMD.
“Plain water is always good, but water infused with fruits and vegetables is more interesting,” it said.
“If you’re not a hot tea drinker, try cold tea with lemon or a cinnamon stick.”
Alternatively, try supplementing cinnamon, Axe suggested.
Taking cinnamon supplements could still have significant positive effects on blood sugar, he said.

You could also lower your risk of diabetes by eating a healthy, balanced diet, said the NHS.
There aren’t any foods that diabetes patients should actively avoid, but try to limit the amount of sugar, fat and salt in your diet.
If you’re thinking of changing your diet plan, try making small changes every week to lower the impact on your blood sugar.
Keeping active will also lower your blood sugar.
Aim for at least 150 minutes of moderate activity every week.

https://www.express.co.uk/life-style/health/966013/diabetes-type-2-symptoms-diet-spice-cinnamon-blood-sugar

5 ways diabetes can make you feel alone

From metro.co.uk

After living with type 1 diabetes for about 25 years, you’d think I’d be absolutely fine when it comes to how I feel handling it in a group setting. Nope, not always. Don’t get me wrong, things have got easier over the years. However, there’s always those moments when I feel completely alone. It’s nobody’s fault; it’s just the situation, and one of the many aspects of living with a chronic illness that
I find challenging. Here are some of the ways my diabetes can give me that isolated feeling when I’m meant to be having all the fun with family and friends.

1. The dreaded blood sugar tests
Part of keeping everything under control with diabetes is ensuring that my blood sugars are stable, which means regular testing. This always involves pricking my finger to get some blood out. The process is straightforward enough, but I’ve had some raised eyebrows, grossed-out faces, and even the odd ‘ugh’ or ‘ew’ directed at me, especially if I’ve been sat in a bar or a restaurant. Therefore, I can often be found in a toilet cubicle, alone, checking how much insulin I’m going to need to eat that four cheese pizza I have coming to the table we’ve booked. There’s nothing like sitting on a loo when you don’t need to go to really feel separate from the group.

2. Carb counting
Remember that four cheese pizza I just mentioned? Well, it’s going to take mental arithmetic and experience to ensure that I’ve worked out the amount of carbohydrates in that treat. I can’t just get stuck in like everyone else, so there can often be an awkward pause while people I don’t know that well see me frowning as I try to make the best guesstimate possible. I envy the rest of the table as they tuck in without a care (quite rightly so), and this can bring home how different my daily life can be. I know I’ll have to keep checking my sugars that night, while they’re sleeping and dreaming of Italy.

From testing your blood in public to carrying your kit, diabetes can make you feel alone in a group (Picture: Ella Byworth for metro.co.uk)

3. Oh no, not a hypo
Hypoglycemia or a hypo as us diabetics call it, is when our blood sugars drop too low. This can cause a range of symptoms depending on the severity. However, I always end up sweating, extremely anxious, cold and shaky; I’ll cry, and usually go home early. Nobody likes to be the first to leave, and leaving before the party’s started is guaranteed to give me serious FOMO.

4. No switching off
No matter how many cocktails I’ve treated myself to, there’s no getting away from all that counting, testing, and potential hypos. This can sometimes impact how present I feel; my mind will often be wandering off and worrying about whether I gave myself any insulin after that fourth mojito. When your mind’s elsewhere for a while, it can be challenging to get back into the swing of things and feel at one with your gang.

5. Stuff
I can pretty much guarantee that in any group setting I’ll always be the one carrying the most stuff around. Sometimes I’d like to take a teeny bag out with me, and feel part of the small bag crew. All the kit, all of the time, can make me feel different. Feeling different can often lead to the sense that you’re always going solo, no matter how many lovely people are around you.

https://metro.co.uk/2018/05/26/5-ways-diabetes-can-make-you-feel-alone-7572090/

Food insecurity linked to type 2 diabetes risk

From deccanchronicle.com

Being on a limited budget may result in having to rely on cheaper, high-calorie foods that contribute to weight gain and the risk of chronic disease, the authors write. (Photo: Pixabay)
People who cannot afford to eat regularly or to eat a healthy diet have more than double the average risk of developing type 2 diabetes, a study suggests.
To reduce the burden of diabetes on individuals and the national healthcare system, policymakers should consider intervening in this pathway early by reducing food insecurity, the study team urges in the journal PLOS ONE.
Household food insecurity is defined as having uncertain or insufficient food access due to limited financial resources. Being on a limited budget may result in having to rely on cheaper, high-calorie foods that contribute to weight gain and the risk of chronic disease, the authors write.
 “Increasingly, food insecurity is being recognized as a significant social and health problem in Canada, but there isn’t a great deal of evidence that has linked food insecurity to the risk of future chronic diseases, such as type 2 diabetes,” lead author Christopher Tait said.
Tait, a researcher at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto, and colleagues analysed data from a 2004 national health survey. Survey participants were representative of 98 percent of the Canadian population, and the analysis focused on 4,739 men and women over age 18, including 277 who were classified as food insecure.
The study team also matched these people to a national database of people diagnosed with diabetes through 2016, making for an average of nearly 12 years of follow-up.
People who were food insecure at the time of the original survey tended to be younger, female, non-white, lower in income and had lower-quality diets compared to food-secure individuals. Food-insecure adults were also more likely to be smokers, less physically active and obese.
By the end of the follow-up period, 577 participants had developed type 2 diabetes. Those who were food-insecure had 2.4 times the risk of those who were not. When researchers accounted for obesity, the diabetes risk was still two-fold higher with food insecurity.
The findings speak to the importance of understanding the health burden associated with food insecurity, which has been steadily increasing in Canada over the past decade, Tait said.
 “Our findings also emphasize the need to continue to monitor this important marker of economic deprivation. This is particularly relevant given Statistics Canada’s decision to make food insecurity measurement optional at the provincial-level as of 2013, which may be a missed opportunity moving forward, he added.
Testing strategies for reducing rates of household food insecurity will be important, Tait said, citing the Ontario Basic Income Pilot as an example of such a strategy. Also, he said, efforts are needed to meaningfully address the broader systemic factors that shape food environments, access and availability.
It’s well known that high and frequent intake of fast foods and processed foods are related to increased risk of obesity, unhealthy blood fat levels and diabetes type 2, among other diseases, said Sandra Arevalo, director of nutrition services and community outreach at Community Pediatrics, a program of Montefiore and The Children’s Health Fund in New York City.
 “What I have seen in my practice in the South Bronx, located in the second poorest congressional district in the U.S. and working with the NYC homeless, is that people who are food insecure consume more foods with low nutritional value, which are more affordable,” said Arevalo, who wasn’t involved in the current study.
 “Healthier foods such as fresh fruits and vegetables, low-fat milk, lean cuts of meat and low-sodium foods should be subsidized as a measure to prevent the increasing incidence of diabetes type 2 and to support diabetes control among patients,” she said.
More diabetes prevention programs and diabetes self-management education that includes points for selecting healthier foods, shopping tips to save money, meal planning, and cooking classes are needed, Arevalo added.

https://deccanchronicle.com/lifestyle/health-and-wellbeing/260518/food-insecurity-linked-to-type-2-diabetes-risk.html

Diabetes type 2 symptoms: Eat THIS many fruits and vegetables a day for blood sugar levels

From express.co.uk

DIABETES type 2 is more likely to appear as we get older, while diabetes type 1 usually appears shortly after birth. Diabetes symptoms include frequently needing the loo, feeling more hungry and thirsty than usual and unexplained weight loss. If you suffer from the condition, you should eat this much fruit and veg a day in your diet to help maintain your blood sugar levels.

Diabetes type 2 symptoms include unexplained weight loss, frequently needing the toilet and tiredness or fatigue

The condition often develops in later life due to a poor diet, being overweight and lack of exercise

Treatment for diabetes type 2 involves changing your diet and lifestyle

You should eat this many fruits and vegetables a day if you suffer from the condition

Diabetes has two main forms, diabetes type 2 and diabetes type 1. They are both caused by problems with the hormone insulin, that is responsible for regulating blood sugar levels.
Symptoms of these conditions tend to include needing the toilet regularly, increased hunger and thirst and tiredness.
Treatment for diabetes focuses on maintaining blood sugar levels which, if too high, can cause damage to blood vessels, and raise the risk of kidney and heart disease.
Ways to maintain blood sugar levels involve changing your diet to contain fewer high-fat, high-sugar foods.

You should try to eat this many fruit and vegetables a day in your diet to avoid fluctuations in blood sugar levels.
Diabetes UK suggests that everyone should eat “at least” five portions of fruit and vegetables a day to help with blood sugar levels.
“Naturally low in fat and calories and packed full of vitamins, minerals and fibre, fruit and vegetables add flavour and variety to every meal,” says the national charity on its website.
“They may also help protect against stroke, heart disease, high blood pressure and some cancers.”
The charity suggests trying a rainbow coloured selection of different fruits and vegetables every day to get as many as you need.
“Fresh, frozen, dried and canned fruit in juice and canned vegetables in water all count,” it adds.

It says that diabetics who have been told not to eat fruit because of the sugar it contains, should disregard this as a “myth”.
“The concern has been that because fruits contain sugar, it makes your blood glucose go up.
“In fact, most fruits have low to medium glycemic index, so they do not lead to a sharp rise in your blood glucose levels compared to other carbohydrate containing foods like white or wholemeal bread.”
The NHS also advises diabetics to eat “plenty of fruit and vegetables - at least five portions per day.”
Fruits have already been shown to reduce the risk of developing diabetes.
A study of half a million people, published in PLOS Medicine, found that fruit consumption was linked to a 12 per cent reduction in risk of developing diabetes type 2.

Eating nuts such as cashews, almonds and hazelnuts should help maintain your blood sugar levels.
Adding about 57g of tree nuts could improve glycaemic control and blood lipids in type 2 diabetes patients, said scientists at the International Tree Nut Council.
The nuts - which include almonds, Brazils, cashews, hazelnuts, pecans, pine nuts, pistachios, macadamias, walnuts and peanuts (which aren’t technically a nut) - should be added to your diet as a replacement for carbohydrate foods, the researchers claimed.
Patients following the diet plan could lower their blood sugar levels, despite the higher fat intake.
It could also reduce their risk of cardiovascular disease, as the amount of ‘bad’ cholesterol in their blood could be lower.

https://www.express.co.uk/life-style/health/965365/diabetes-type-2-symptoms-diet-fruit-vegetables

Type 2 Diabetes and Healthy Living - The Health Benefits Of Fasting

By Beverleigh H Piepers

When someone says the word "fasting" to you, do you automatically cringe? Like, how could you fast? Well, do not be so quick to assume this mindset. Fasting has caught on by storm as more and more people are adopting an intermittent fasting approach.
When we talk about fasting here, we are not referring to fasting for days on end. It is merely fasting for up to 16 hours a day of which half you will be sleeping and then eating in an 8-hour window. It has been demonstrated eating in this manner can not only help boost weight loss success but may also contribute to increasing health as well.

Here are some of the critical benefits of knowing about intermittent fasting...

1. Improved Heart Health. If heart health is a concern for you, intermittent fasting can help. This diet plan protocol helps to...

• reduce low-density lipoprotein (LDL) or "bad" cholesterol,
• improve triglyceride levels, and may
• also, lower your risk of heart attack and stroke.

Too many people are falling prey to heart disease these days, it is vital we do all we can to protect our heart health. While fasting has some protective mechanisms, it is also wise to eat healthy foods with this approach.


2. Enhanced Growth Hormone Release. Next, you have enhanced growth hormone release. When you fast, your body will be releasing more of the hormone that...

• helps to prevent aging,
• helps assist with forming a leaner body composition, and may also
• assist to promote stronger bones as well.

As we get older, our natural release of growth hormone tends to decline, so intermittent fasting can be one way to help offset this. You may not be able to bring your levels back up to what they were when you were in your 20's or 30's, but it can make a difference.


3. Greater Longevity. Those who fast regularly also show signs of greater longevity. Intermittent fasting can help with cellular repair and maintenance, meaning it could help your tissues survive better and keep regenerating as they should. So, in turn, intermittent fasting may boost the number of years you will live.

Current research done on rat populations shows those who fast every other day may live up to 84% longer than those who do not.

4. Improved Insulin Sensitivity. Finally, improved insulin sensitivity is the last benefit you can look forward to if you choose to do intermittent fasting. Improving insulin sensitivity can go a long way towards helping better manage Type 2 diabetes and blood sugar levels. Also, there should also be a decrease in your total body fat mass.
We are seeing rates of insulin resistance skyrocket in today's society, so this is an excellent way to combat that issue.
There you have a few of the different benefits intermittent fasting provides. As you can see, it is one diet plan you will want to consider.

Type 2 diabetes is not a condition you must just live with. By making easy changes to your daily routine, its possible to protect your heart, kidneys, eyes and limbs from the damage often caused by diabetes, and eliminate some of the complications you may already experience.

http://ezinearticles.com/?Type-2-Diabetes-and-Healthy-Living---The-Health-Benefits-Of-Fasting&id=9946612

Your spouse’s BMI may predict your diabetes risk

From futurity.org

New research links the BMI of one spouse and the other spouse’s risk of developing type 2 diabetes.
The researchers say efforts to detect undiagnosed diabetes and so-called pre-diabetes should not focus exclusively on the individual, but rather on couples and households.
“We have discovered that you can predict a person’s risk of developing type 2 diabetes based on his or her partner’s BMI. This means that you can tell whether a person has a heightened risk or not on the basis of the partner’s BMI,” says University of Copenhagen postdoc Jannie Nielsen, first author of the study in the journal Diabetologia.
The three researchers have examined data from 3,649 men and 3,478 women from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing in the UK. In the UK, an estimated five million Britons have a high risk of developing diabetes.

Husbands and wives

From other studies the researchers knew that spouses are often similar in terms of body weight, among other things, because people often marry someone similar to themselves and often share dietary and exercise habits when living together.
Therefore, the researchers also examined whether the heightened risk of developing type 2 diabetes of an obese woman, for example, was merely a result of her own body weight. Here the researchers found a difference between the two sexes.
“If we adjusted for the women’s own weight, they did not have a heightened risk of developing type 2 diabetes as a result of their husband’s BMI. But even when we adjusted for the weight in men, they had a heightened risk,” says Nielsen.
A man whose wife had a BMI of 30 kg/m2 had a 21 percent higher risk of developing diabetes than men whose wives had a BMI of 25 kg/m2—regardless of the man’s own BMI.
The researchers have not examined why only the men still had a heightened risk after own weight adjustment. They do have a theory, though, which involves who is in charge of the household.
“We believe it is because women generally decide what we eat at home. That is, women have greater influence on their spouse’s dietary habits than men do,” Nielsen explains and refers, among other things, to a US study, which showed that women more often than men are responsible for doing the household’s cooking and shopping.

Household risk

Diabetes can cause damage to the heart, kidneys, and eyes. According to the Danish Diabetes Association, 35 percent experience complications by the time they are diagnosed with diabetes. Therefore, early detection is vital.
“The earlier a disease is detected, the higher the potential for successful prevention and treatment. We know that type 2 diabetes can be prevented or postponed, reducing the number of years that patients have to live with the disease. Just as related complications can be postponed through early detection,” says Nielsen.
If type 2 diabetes is detected at an early stage, medical treatment can wait while the patient begins lifestyle changes such as eating a healthy diet and doing more physical exercise.
Based on the study, Nielsen believes that early detection of type 2 diabetes can be improved if we change our approach to the disease. “Our approach to type 2 diabetes should not focus on the individual, but instead on, for example, the entire household. If a woman has a heightened risk, there is a strong probability that it is shared by her husband.”
“We know that men are less inclined to go to the doctor. So if a woman comes to her GP with risk factors for type 2 diabetes, the GP should therefore perhaps ask her to bring her husband next time,” says Nielsen.
A postdoc scholarship from the Independent Research Fund Denmark supported the work, which was a collaboration with postdoc Adam Hulman and professor Daniel R. Witte from the public health department at Aarhus University.

https://www.futurity.org/bmi-type-2-diabetes-spouses-1764462-2/

Diabetes: Are You At Risk?

From guardian.ng

Diabetes is a life-long disease in which the body can neither produce insulin nor use the insulin it produces. A specific cause of diabetes has not been identified. However, having one or two risk factors makes one more prone to develop diabetes. The presence of a risk factor or more doesn’t mean that one would develop diabetes.

What are the risk factors for type 1 diabetes?

Type 1 diabetes is caused by the body attacking itself by mistake. It is more common in children but can develop in adults too. Type 1 diabetes is inborn and risk factors are not as clear as in other types of diabetes. Some established risk factors include:

• Having a parent or sibling with type 1 diabetes.
• Being White.

What are the risk factors for type 2 diabetes?

Type 2 diabetes is a lifestyle disease that develops over time based on our lifestyle choices. You’re at risk of developing type 2 diabetes if you:

• Have prediabetes.
• Are overweight.
• Eat unhealthy food.
• Are 40 years or older.
• Have a parent, brother or sister with type 2 diabetes.
• Are not physically active.
• Are a female and had gestational diabetes or given birth to a baby who weighed four kilograms or more.
• Are Black.
• Are hypertensive.
• Take excess alcohol.
• Take steroids containing drugs for a long time.
• Smoke.

What are the risk factors for gestational diabetes (diabetes during pregnancy)?

You’re at risk of developing gestational diabetes if you:

• Had prediabetes before getting pregnant.
• Had hypertension before getting pregnant.
• Had gestational diabetes during a previous pregnancy.
• Have given birth to a baby who weighed more than 4 kilograms or more.
• Are overweight.
• Are more than 30 years old.
• Have a family history of type 2 diabetes.
• Have a hormone disorder called polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS).
• Are Black.

What are the risk factors for prediabetes?

You’re at risk of developing prediabetes if you:

• Are overweight.
• Eat unhealthily.
• Are 40 years or older.
• Have a parent, brother, or sister with type 2 diabetes.
• Are not physically active.
• Are a female and had gestational diabetes or given birth to a baby who weighed 4.5kg.
• Are Black.
• Smoke.
• Take excess alcohol.

What are the symptoms of diabetes?

Diabetes may present with no symptoms, especially in the early stages. Most people are unaware that they have diabetes and symptoms typically develop over time. You may have diabetes if you:

• Are always hungry.
• Are always thirsty.
• Are always tired.
• Urinate frequently, especially at night.
• Lose weight suddenly.
• Have a wound which will not heal.
• Frequent infections.
• Persistent headaches relieved after eating food.
• Have blurry vision which developed over a few months.
• Feel numbness or tingling sensations in your hands or feet.
• Breath odour that is fruity, sweet or acetone.
• Have sexual problems (poor erection).

As with other symptoms, these are not specific to diabetes and the only way to be certain is to consult your doctor if you have any of the above symptoms. Early diagnosis, treatment and good control are vital for good health and reduce the chances of developing serious complications like heart disease, kidney disease and blindness.

https://guardian.ng/life/wellness/diabetes-are-you-at-risk/

Manage Diabetes Naturally: Follow These Easy Tips To Keep Blood Sugar In Control

From ndtv.com

Daily medication and the health troubles that silently come along with diabetes are always troublesome. Follow these natural diabetes remedies to control your sugar levels.

Regular medication and the health troubles that come along with diabetes are always troublesome. In order to manage diabetes naturally, one must have to follow a strong routine, which includes maintaining a healthy weight, morning walks, yoga sessions, and paying close attention to your diet and caloric intake. Moreover, it is important to keep your blood glucose level in control, and monitor your blood sugar and medicines regularly. However, at times it becomes quite difficult to follow such stringent diet and routine, and mostly we get swayed whenever we see scrumptious desserts. It is seen that people with diabetes complain of having strong urges of having sweet things, which is completely normal. However, eating sweets once in a while is allowed, but it is important to keep it in moderation. Therefore, to help diabetics we have rounded up a few natural diabetes remedies that will help to control sugar levels.  

What Is Diabetes?

Diabetes is classified as a group of metabolic diseases that cause high blood sugar levels. The reason behind having diagnosed with diabetes is because of inadequate production of insulin by the pancreas or when the cells of our body do not respond to the insulin produced.
 

Types of Diabetes:

 

• Type-1 diabetes is a situation where one's body is unable to produce insulin. It majorly develops in childhood or adolescence, however, it may occur at any age. 
• The second condition in which the cells in our body fail to respond to the insulin produced, this is called type-2 diabetes.
• Other than these two types, there is also a third kind, gestational diabetes, which affects females during pregnancy.

How To Manage Diabetes Naturally?

1. Maintain A Healthy Diet: It is very important to keep a track of your carb intake. As carbs are broken down into glucose, resulting increase in our blood sugar levels. Therefore, curbing carb intake may help with balancing our blood sugar control. Experts always advise to eat good amount of fibre-rich foods, this may help control our blood sugar. Moreover, adding more of soluble dietary fibre, fresh vegetables and bitter herbs to our diet will be beneficial.

2. Keep Yourself Hydrated: Backed by a lot of studies, drinking adequate water helps control the blood sugar levels. Good amount of water intake (say about 2 litres a day) will prevent situations like dehydration, and will help kidneys to flush out the harmful toxins through urine. It is important to drink water regularly, as it re-hydrates the blood, which lowers your blood sugar levels and further reduces the risk of having diabetes. Always pick drinks that are calorie-free.

3. Consider Drinking Copper Treated Water: As per Ayurveda, copper has many health benefits and one of them is to keep diabetes in control. Regular intake of copper treated water will help in diabetics to control the symptoms. All you need to do is to put one cup of water in a copper glass at night and drink the water next morning.

4. Have A Sound Sleep: Doctors always recommend to have at least 8 hours of sleep. As it is believed that having a sound sleep maintains a good mental as well as physical health. Improper sleeping habits may affect your blood sugar levels and insulin sensitivity, which is a root cause of weight gain. 

5. Maintain A Healthy Lifestyle: Do you know that a stressful life can not only hamper your peace of mind, but also harms your health?! For diabetics, maintaining a healthy lifestyle and managing the stress levels is imperative, as it may affect their blood sugar levels. When we are under stress, hormones like glucagon and cortisol are secreted, which, in return, spike up our blood sugar levels. Doctors always recommend to manage stress by indulging in some physical activities like regular workout, yoga, swimming, et al.

Follow these natural diabetes remedies to control your sugar levels; however, consult your doctor before you add/try anything new to your diet. 

https://www.ndtv.com/food/manage-diabetes-naturally-follow-these-easy-tips-to-keep-blood-sugar-in-control-1853888

Losing 15 per cent body fat could reverse type 2 diabetes, Irish researchers say

From diabetes.co.uk

Losing just 15% body weight could be enough to put type 2 diabetes into remission, researchers have said.

A team from the Irish Society for Clinical Nutrition and Metabolism (IrSPEN) reports that losing 15% body weight - irrespective of the person's Body Mass Index (BMI) at the start - can lead to type 2 diabetes remission.

IrSPEN has released the guidance ahead of European Obesity Day on Saturday 19 May, which brings together healthcare, patient and political communities to improve prevention and treatment for obesity, which is significantly linked with type 2 diabetes.

IrSPEN says their findings are based on several studies including the DiRECT trial, which was published recently in The Lancet, where almost half of type 2 diabetes participants managed to achieve and maintain remission at one year after adopting a calorie-restricted diet.

Now, IrSPEN is now advocating the benefits of weight loss for people with type 2 diabetes, regardless of whether their BMI is above or below 30 - the marker classified as being obese - because doing so has clear benefits.

The society says that achieving 15% weight loss in people with type 2 diabetes could also save up to £440 per person per year in direct Irish healthcare costs.

Professor Carel le Roux from irSPEN, said: "This year's theme of the European Obesity day is 'Tackling Obesity Together' as it is now apparent that there is no single silver bullet, but rather that multiple approaches have to be used to optimally treat patients who have complications of obesity.

"For people living with diabetes as a result of obesity, the disease usually requires the combination of specialist diets, specialist exercise and medication and or surgical treatments.

"Not every patient responds equally to these treatments. However, reversal of complications such as diabetes can be achieved in two in 10 people with the use of specialist diets, another three in 10 with medication and another five in 10 with surgical treatments."

Editor's note: Thousands of people have lost weight and in some cases put their type 2 diabetes into remission from following Diabetes.co.uk's pioneering Low Carb Program, which shows users how to reduce their HbA1c levels and enjoy eating healthily.

People with type 2 diabetes or prediabetes who complete the program sustainably lose an average of 7kg after one year, and more than 40% of people with type 2 diabetes who start the program on medication eliminate a medication at the one-year mark.

https://www.diabetes.co.uk/news/2018/may/losing-15-per-cent-body-fat-could-reverse-type-2-diabetes,-irish-researchers-say-91853081.html

Type 1 Diabetes: Low Carbohydrate Diet May Help Control Blood Sugar Level

From medicaldaily.com

There is no known cure for type 1 diabetes, a condition which is managed by administering insulin with an injection or insulin pump. But encouraging findings from a new study showed that a diet low in carbohydrates was an effective tool to control blood sugar levels in a group of patients.
The paper titled "Management of Type 1 Diabetes With a Very Low–Carbohydrate Diet" was published in the journal Pediatrics on May 7.
Researchers from Boston Children's Hospital in Massachusetts recruited 316 members from a Facebook community called TypeOneGrit, a group for those with type 1 diabetes. 42 percent of the participants were children. The participants followed a very-low-carb diet as recommended in the book Dr. Bernstein's Diabetes Solution by Dr. Richard Bernstein, one of the co-authors of the new study.
Dr. Bernstein developed type 1 diabetes at the age of 12 and is considered a pioneer for his well-known advocacy of the low-carbohydrate dietary approach.
Participants reported an average daily carbohydrate intake of 36 grams, which made up 5 percent of total calories. Usual recommendations state that carbohydrates should make up 45 percent of total calories, which includes 45 to 60 grams per meal and 10 to 25 grams per snack, arriving at a total of 135 to 230 grams per day.
The participants also took smaller doses of insulin than what is usually recommended for patients on normal diets.
Despite this, the researchers found that the patients had exhibited "exceptional control" over their blood sugar levels with no increased risk of adverse events. A1C levels fell from 7.15 percent (within the diabetic range) to 5.67 percent (within the normal range), while children did not experience stunted growth or other such complications.
"Their blood sugar control seemed almost too good to be true," said lead author Belinda Lennerz, a pediatric endocrinology instructor at Harvard Medical School. "It’s nothing we typically see in the clinic for Type 1 diabetes."
While it can be hard to maintain, a low-carbohydrate diet can offer a number of benefits such as blood glucose control, low-calorie intake, increased vegetable intake, and a reduced risk of high blood pressure, metabolic syndrome, and cardiovascular disease.
However, this dietary approach has been subject to debate. Some experts have raised doubts about very-low-carb diets possibly increasing the risk of hypoglycemia or low blood sugar. Another concern is that the diet may be detrimental by stunting growth in children. But the results of the new study have opened up further discussions on whether the diet can be offered as a management tool to patients.
"We think the findings point the way to a potentially exciting new treatment option," said co-author Dr. David Ludwig, a pediatric endocrinologist at Boston Children’s Hospital.
Because the study was an observational one, the authors cautioned that more research is needed to confirm these findings in the form of controlled clinical trials.

https://www.medicaldaily.com/type-1-diabetes-low-carbohydrate-diet-may-help-control-blood-sugar-level-424116

Diabetic Emergencies: What to Do

From news-medical.net

Diabetes is a metabolic disorder, which is characterized by the inability of the body to produce or use insulin properly. As a consequence, the level of glucose/sugar in the blood increases, leading to serious health issues including vision loss, kidney failure, heart attack, and stroke. Normally, sugar in the bloodstream enters into the cells in response to insulin.
According to the World Health Organization, about 422 million people are affected by diabetes worldwide, and it is predicted to be the seventh leading cause of death by 2030. However, the onset or consequences of diabetes can be prevented or at least delayed by controlling body weight, ensuring regular physical activity, having a healthy diet without excessive carbohydrate intake, not smoking, and routine blood sugar monitoring.
Once it develops, complications may be prevented or mitigated by medical treatment in addition to the above measures.

Diabetic Emergencies

An acute or abrupt increase or drop in the insulin level is often the trigger for an emergency situation in a patient with diabetes, and this can be life-threatening if not controlled immediately. Too high a level of insulin causes a significant lowering of the blood glucose level, a condition termed hypoglycemia, which may rapidly result in insulin shock. In contrast, an extremely low level of insulin causes a sharp increase in the blood sugar level, a condition termed hyperglycemia, which may ultimately lead to a diabetic coma.

Clinical Features of Various Diabetic Emergencies

To effectively control the situations arising from diabetic emergencies, it is important to understand the signs and symptoms associated with too high or too low blood glucose levels.
The general consequences of Hypoglycemia include:

• Weakness and lethargy
• Rapid heart rate
• Hyperventilation
• Confusion and irrational behaviour
• Extreme hunger
• Lack of sensation in the hands or feet
• Odourless breath
• Headache
• Trembling
• Pale and sweaty skin

The general consequences of hyperglycemia include:

Feeble and rapid heart rate

Nausea

Warm and dry skin

Confusion

Unsteady movement

Sweet fruity breath

Extreme thirst

Abnormal breathing

Drowsiness, followed by loss of consciousness

Diabetic Ketoacidosis

This is another serious complication in which the patient has very high blood glucose levels but not enough insulin to use the sugar for energy, resulting in the breakdown of lipids in the body and resulting accumulation of ketoacids from fat molecule metabolism.
The general consequences of diabetic ketoacidosis include:

• Vomiting
• Dehydration
• Labored breathing called Kussmaul breathing with gasping respiration
• A fruity odor caused by ketones in the expired air, similar to nail polish
• Rapid heartbeat
• Incoherence and disorientation in advanced cases

In such a situation emergency medical help should be availed of to prevent death.
In all these conditions, the immediate care depends primarily on the state of consciousness and the vital parameters, such as body temperature, heart rate, breathing rate, and blood pressure. Depending on the severity of situation, measures to be considered include:
If the person is unconscious or unresponsive, he or she should be treated under medical supervision on an emergency basis.

If the unconscious person shows any signs of slipping into a life-threatening state, chest compression should be performed till medical help arrives.    

If the person is conscious and alert, administration of sugar or sugary substances like fruit juice or fizzy drinks is recommended.

After providing a sugar dose, the vital parameters of the person should be monitored constantly to identify any worsening of the situation. An improvement usually occurs within a few minutes if the symptoms are due to hypoglycemia.  

If the situation does not improve and the person becomes confused, immediate medical assistance is mandatory.

Under any circumstance, insulin or other medications should not be administered without medical supervision should be strictly avoided.   

Wearing a diabetic emergency ID card is also highly recommended for diabetic patients, especially those on anti-diabetic medications, as these can alert bystanders or medical professionals about the situation in case of emergency.  

https://www.news-medical.net/health/Diabetic-Emergencies-What-to-Do.aspx

Pancreatic cancer: Weight loss and combating diabetes can reduce your risk

From express.co.uk

PANCREATIC cancer symptoms include stomach and back pain, nausea and blood clots. For diabetes type 2 sufferers, they are at greater risk of developing the condition owing to their symptoms. You should do this to lower your risk.

Pancreatic cancer symptoms may only appear when the condition is already advanced, making the condition harder to treat.
Currently, this cancer is the UK’s fifth biggest cancer killer, for which survival rates have not improved since 1970.
According to the Office for National Statistics, less than seven per cent of people diagnosed with the condition are expected to live for five years.
People with type 2 diabetes are at twice the risk of developing the condition, although this still represents just two per cent of people with the condition.
You can reduce your risk of developing pancreatic cancer, whether you do or do not have type 2 diabetes, by maintaining a healthy weight.
“We can say quite clearly that when people lose a substantial amount of weight the risk of cancer goes down substantially,” said Professor Roy Taylor at Newcastle University, who has previously led research into treating type 2 diabetes.
The same can be said for type 2 diabetics, who are at an increased risk of developing pancreatic cancer due to their condition.
“It is the case that for people with type 2 diabetes, pancreatic cancer is much commoner,” said Professor Taylor.
“However, add to that the factor that type 2 diabetics levels of insulin are higher than for overweight people, and their chance of developing pancreatic cancer is more likely.”

Although a cause and effect relationship hasn’t been established, the hormone insulin is involved in both regulating blood sugar levels and helping cells maintain themselves. In diabetics its level is much higher, which can encourage cancer growth, putting type 2 diabetics at greater risk.
However, the risk of developing pancreatic cancer if you have diabetes is still low. Just two per cent of people with type 2 diabetes are likely to develop it.
You can reduce your risk even further by getting your diabetes under control, and taking up a healthy lifestyle.
“What’s important is that people affected by diabetes don’t panic,” said Cancer Research UK on their website.
“Someone who has diabetes won’t necessarily also develop pancreatic cancer.”
Dianne Dobson, an advice nurse at Pancreatic Cancer UK said, “You’ll often find pancreatic cancer patients are not overweight at all.
"But at the same time have developed pancreatic cancer.
“We just don’t know why that is,” she said.
She advised that people who have type 2 diabetes and become unstable should speak with their GP immediately.
This could be an early warning sign of the cancer, as the tumour begins to disrupt the pancreas.

https://www.express.co.uk/life-style/health/958390/pancreatic-cancer-diabetes-type-2-treatment-prevent

New Contact Lens Could Ease Blindness Caused by Diabetes

From healthline.com

Researchers are working on a “glowing” contact lens that people would wear at night to lessen the progression of a common type of blindness.

If you’re living with type 1 or type 2 diabetes, you undergo an eye exam every year to detect signs of retina damage due to high and fluctuating blood sugar levels.
For many, even reasonably good diabetes management can’t prevent ongoing damage to the blood vessels in the eye. In the most advanced (yet quite common) cases, blindness is a devastating reality.

The future of diabetes technology looks brighter, though, with a “glowing” contact lens specifically designed to prevent further damage to the blood vessels of your retina.
The lenses are worn only at night and researchers say they could offer a long-term solution to a long-term problem.
The lenses were developed by Colin Cook, a graduate of the California Institute of Technology, and a research team led by Yu-Chong Tai, the Anna L. Rosen professor of electrical and medical engineering at Caltech.

Avoiding treatments

The contact lenses would be easier for patients compared to today’s invasive and often painful treatment methods.

“Existing treatments, though effective, are painful and invasive, involving lasers and injections into the eyes,” researchers said in a recent press release.

Because of the painful aspects of these treatments, patients often avoid seeking treatment, don’t schedule annual eye exams, and endure the progression of their disease until it’s too late to intervene and save their vision.

Stacey Divone, a patient with type 1 diabetes, had been seeing her ophthalmologist for more than 20 years as part of routine diabetes eye care.
“I started seeing him every six months because he had been seeing some slight changes in my eye vessels and wanted to stay on top of it,” Divone told Healthline.
Images of her eyes showed swelling near the macula (the back) of her eye, which meant Divone needed to see a retina specialist quickly.
After further testing, it was discovered that blood vessels in her left eye were leaking and immediate treatment was necessary.

“I had an intravitreal injection of Lucentis a couple of weeks later. They inject this medication directly into your eyeball,” said Divone. “While they do put a lot of numbing drops into your eye beforehand, the moment you see that needle come up to your eye and the liquid is actually flowing into your eyeball, it’s a very unpleasant feeling.”
Even during the two days following the procedure, Divone said the pain in her eyes felt like “razors.”

Potential groundbreaking treatment

Creating a gentler and far less invasive method of treating one of the leading causes of blindness in the United States would be groundbreaking for the nearly 30 million people living with diabetes.
Since the retinopathy is largely the result of too little oxygen getting to the nerve cells of the retina, the key to Cook’s design is that it reduces the oxygen needs of the retina while a patient sleeps by providing a small amount of light through the glow of the lens.
“Your rod cells, as it turns out, consume about twice as much oxygen in the dark as they do in the light,” explained Cook.

This understanding explains a longstanding hypothesis that the damage of retinopathy progresses the most quickly at night, when oxygen demands are high.
“If we turn metabolism in the retina down, we should be able to prevent some of the damage that occurs,” added Cook.
The source of light in the lens is similar to the glow used on watch faces. It contains a radioactive form of hydrogen gas that can provide light for approximately 10 years.
The lenses themselves, Cook told Healthline, would last approximately one year before a patient needed to replace them, similar to the lifespan of extended-wear contacts currently on the market.
“I feel incredibly blessed that my eyes have been stable since that one treatment,” said Divone.

Despite knowing how critical her eye exams are for her long-term vision, Divone said she now experiences a great deal of anxiety before and during her exams with the ophthalmologist and retina specialist.
“I absolutely fear needing another injection. The idea of a contact lens instead,” she said, “would make such a difference for me and for others with diabetes.”

https://www.healthline.com/health-news/new-contact-lens-could-ease-blindness-caused-by-diabetes#3

Recipe: Mini Pepper Nachos

From asweetlife.org

Who says nachos need to be made with tortilla chips? Since both my husband and my kids are big nacho fans, I needed to find a way to make a healthier version. All summer long, we’ve been chomping away on mini peppers and it suddenly occurred to me that they would make a pretty great chip alternative. To my surprise and delight, my kids thought so too. This whole platter did not last long!

Ingredients

• 1 tbsp chili powder
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 1 tsp paprika
• 1/2 tsp kosher salt
• 1/2 tsp pepper
• 1/2 tsp oregano
• 1/4 tsp red pepper flakes (more if you like it hotter)
• 1 lb ground beef
• 1 lb mini peppers, halved and seeded
• 1 1/2 cups shredded Cheddar cheese
• 1/2 cup chopped tomato
• Other toppings as desired (sour cream, olives, chopped jalapeño, avocado, etc.)

Instructions

1. In a small bowl, combine chili powder, cumin, garlic powder, paprika, salt, pepper, oregano and red pepper flakes.
2. In a large skillet over medium heat, brown ground beef until just cooked through, about 7 to 10 minutes, breaking up any clumps with the back of a wooden spoon. Add spice mixture and sauté until well combined. Remove from heat.
3. Preheat oven to 400F and line a large baking try with parchment paper or aluminium foil. Arrange mini peppers in a single layer, cut-side up but very close together.
4. Sprinkle with ground beef mixture and shredded cheese (make sure every mini pepper gets a little meat and cheese!). Bake 5 to 10 minutes, until cheese is melty.
5. Remove from oven and top with chopped tomatoes and any other desired toppings. Serve immediately.

Yield: 6

Cholesterol: 96mg

Food energy: 351 kcal

Total fat: 21.97g

Calories from fat: 197

Carbohydrate: 6.58g

Protein per serving: 28.41g

Total dietary fibre: 2.39g

https://asweetlife.org/mini-pepper-nachos/?utm_source=ASweetLife.org+List&utm_campaign=04217a8737-ASweetLife+Weekly+Update++-+Nov.+14%2C+2017&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_5125b14cf8-04217a8737-413392997

8 tips for traveling when your child has diabetes

From mysouthernhealth.com

Summer outings and getaways should be fun and relaxing for everyone. And they can be — even if you’ve got meds and supplies to pack for your child with diabetes. Along with toting the bathing suits and sunscreen, you may have to do a little extra prep and planning, but these tips will help make the tasks more manageable.
Cindy Lybarger, a nurse practitioner and program coordinator at Vanderbilt’s Eskind Pediatric Diabetes Clinic, offers her best advice for hassle-free travel.

1. Bring more supplies than you think you will need.

Lybarger recommends bringing double the amount of supplies you would normally use. “If your child wears a pump or CGM, and you are going swimming, for example,” she said, “anticipate you might need to change the site more frequently.”
Because you will be out of your child’s normal routine, you will likely need to check blood glucose more often, so bring plenty of extra testing supplies. “You should be able to get a vacation override at the pharmacy to be able to fill a prescription before it would normally be due,” Lybarger explained. Pack extra batteries for a pump or meter, as well.
Bring a diabetic travel kit to be prepared for severe hypoglycemia and ketone strips to manage an illness if it happens. “You probably won’t need these, but you’ll be ready if you do,” Lybarger added.

2. Keep your supplies at the proper temperature.

“Make sure insulin is not exposed to extreme heat or cold,” Lybarger said. “Either extreme temperature can cause it to inactivate and it won’t work well.” Insulin can be kept cool using chemical coolants that last for 72 hours and can be reactivated with water. She recommends FRIO insulin cooling cases, available in a variety of sizes.

3. Pack supplies in your carry-on bag if flying.

You always want your supplies with you, not stuck in a cargo hold. You never know when luggage may get held up or sent to the wrong destination. “Some people keep duplicate supplies in two different bags, just in case one is lost,” Lybarger said. Place them in a clear, plastic container to aid in inspection.

4. Bring snacks in case of a hypo event.

Pack glucose tabs, gel or juice. Concentrated liquid glucose comes in a 2-ounce size that contains 15g, so it is a good alternative for a liquid source of glucose in a carry-on bag. If your liquid containers are larger than 3.4 ounces, you may be asked to remove them for inspection.
“Don’t forget to bring extra pre-measured snacks, such as crackers, to use after a low-blood glucose reading,” Lybarger said. “Pre-packaged snacks with a label are ideal, but you can package them yourself to save money. Just write the carb count on the bag.” Make sure you keep treatments for hypoglycemia readily accessible in your hotel room, too.
Keep your child hydrated throughout the day. Plain water is best, Lybarger added.

5. Place medical info on your child and with supplies.

Your child should wear a diabetic ID bracelet or necklace that includes emergency contact information. Keep a pharmacy label on insulin and other meds you’ve packed, Lybarger recommended. You don’t need to carry a letter from you physician, but you may want to print and carry a TSA Disability Notification Card if flying.

6. Here’s what you need to know about TSA screenings at the airport:

• Plan to allow two to three hours for getting through security to minimize stress.
• Prior to a screening, always inform the TSA officer that your child has diabetes and wears an insulin pump and/or sensor. Also, be sure to let the TSA officer know if your child has low blood glucose during the screening process.
• Insulin pumps and sensors can be worn through standard metal detectors but not through full-body airport scanners. You can request a pat down with visual inspection of your devices instead. “Consider discussing this possibility with your child prior to traveling,” Lybarger said.
• Don’t put your pump or CGM transmitter, receiver or sensor through any kind of baggage X-ray machine. Before your screening process, you may wish to remove these items and ask the TSA officer to perform a visual inspection of your devices and supplies.

7. Keep your child on a routine if possible.

Plan ahead with an itinerary and include time for breaks, blood glucose checks, meals and snacks. Lybarger explained, “If there is a significant time difference, consider setting a reminder (to your local time) of once-daily medications, such as basal insulin injections.” Talk to your diabetes team about other special considerations, such as basal programming of your pump, if you will be staying in a different time zone for more than a few days.

8. Consider calling ahead to the places you will visit.

If you’re heading to an amusement or water park, you might want to check to see if they offer special assistance passes for families with children who have diabetes or other chronic illnesses. They may also have valuable information to help make your day go as smoothly as possible.

http://www.mysouthernhealth.com/traveling-with-diabetes-child/

How a Low-Carb Diet Might Aid People With Type 1 Diabetes

From nytimes.com

Like many children, Andrew Hightower, 13, likes pizza, sandwiches and dessert.

But Andrew has Type 1 diabetes, and six years ago, in order to control his blood sugar levels, his parents put him on a low-carbohydrate, high-protein diet. His mother makes him recipes with diabetic-friendly ingredients that won’t spike his blood sugar, like pizza with a low-carb, almond-flour crust; homemade bread with walnut flour instead of white flour; and yogurt topped with blueberries, raspberries and nuts.

Andrew’s diet requires careful planning — he often takes his own meals with him to school. But he and his parents say it makes it easier to manage his condition and, since starting the diet, his blood sugar control has markedly improved and he has not had any diabetes complications requiring trips to the hospital.

“I do this so that I can be healthy,” Andrew, who lives with his parents in Jacksonville, Fla., said of his diet. “When I eventually move out and go to college, I’m going to keep up what I’m doing because I’m on the right path.”

Most diabetes experts do not recommend low-carb diets for people with Type 1 diabetes, especially children. Some worry that restricting carbs can lead to dangerously low blood sugar levels, a condition known as hypoglycemia, and potentially stunt a child’s growth. But a new study published in the journal Pediatrics on Monday suggests otherwise.

It found that children and adults with Type 1 diabetes who followed a very low-carb, high-protein diet for an average of just over two years — combined with the diabetes drug insulin at smaller doses than typically required on a normal diet — had “exceptional” blood sugar control. They had low rates of major complications, and children who followed it for years did not show any signs of impaired growth.

The study found that the participants’ average hemoglobin A1C a long-term barometer of blood sugar levels, fell to just 5.67 percent. An A1C under 5.7 is considered normal, and it is well below the threshold for diabetes, which is 6.5 percent.

“Their blood sugar control seemed almost too good to be true,” said Belinda Lennerz, the lead author of the study and an instructor in the division of pediatric endocrinology at Boston Children’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School. “It’s nothing we typically see in the clinic for Type 1 diabetes.”

The new study comes with an important caveat. It was an observational study, not a randomized trial with a control group. The researchers recruited 316 people, 130 of them children whose parents gave consent, from a Facebook group dedicated to low-carb diets for diabetes, called TypeOneGrit, then reviewed their medical records and contacted their medical providers.

While it was not a clinical trial, the study is striking because it highlights a community of patients who have been “extraordinarily successful” at controlling their diabetes with a very low-carb diet, said Dr. David M. Harlan, the co-director of the Diabetes Centre of Excellence at the UMass Memorial Medical Centre, who was not involved in the study. “Perhaps the surprise is that for this large number of patients it is much safer than many experts would have suggested.”

“I’m excited to see this paper,” Dr. Harlan added. . “It should reopen the discussion about whether this is something we should be offering our patients as a therapeutic approach.”

The authors of the paper cautioned that the findings should not lead patients to alter their diabetes management without consulting their doctors, and that large clinical trials will be necessary to determine whether this approach should be used more widely.

“We think the findings point the way to a potentially exciting new treatment option,” said Dr. David Ludwig, a co-author of the study and a pediatric endocrinologist at Boston Children’s Hospital who has written popular books about low-carb diets. “However, because our study was observational, the results should not, by themselves, justify a change in diabetes management.”

About 1.25 million Americans have Type 1 diabetes, which occurs when the pancreas does not produce enough insulin to regulate blood sugar levels. Managing the condition requires administering insulin throughout the day, especially when consuming meals high in carbs, which raise blood sugar more than other nutrients. Over time, chronically elevated blood sugar can lead to nerve and kidney damage and cardiovascular disease.

The standard approach for people with Type 1 diabetes is to match carb intake with insulin. But the argument for restricting carbs is that it keeps blood sugar more stable and requires less insulin, resulting in fewer highs and lows. The approach has not been widely studied or embraced for Type 1 diabetes, but some patients swear by it.

TypeOneGrit has about 3,000 members on Facebook who ascribe to a program devised by Dr. Richard Bernstein, an 84-year-old physician with Type 1 diabetes. His book, “Dr. Bernstein’s Diabetes Solution,” recommends limiting daily carb intake to about 30 grams, the amount in a sweet potato, large apple or two slices of whole wheat bread.

Dr. Bernstein argues that the fewer carbs consumed, the easier it is to stabilize blood sugar with insulin. He recommends foods like non-starchy vegetables, seafood, nuts, meat, yogurt, tofu and recipes made with soybean flour, sugar substitutes and other low-glycemic ingredients. His plan emphasizes protein intake, which he says is especially important for growing children.

Dr. Carrie Diulus, an orthopedic surgeon with Type 1 diabetes who follows a low-carb vegan diet, credits the Bernstein approach with helping her keep her blood sugar under control. “It allows me to perform complex spine surgeries without worrying about my diabetes because my blood sugar stays relatively stable,” said Dr. Diulus, who helped inspire the new study when researchers learned about her participation in the TypeOneGrit community.

The most striking finding of the new report was that A1C levels, on average, fell from 7.15 percent, in the diabetic range, to 5.67 percent, which is normal. The rate of diabetes-related hospitalizations also fell, from 8 percent before the diet to 2 percent after, including fewer hospitalizations for hypoglycemic seizures.

Those following the diet had increased LDL cholesterol, likely from consuming more saturated fat, which some experts said was potentially concerning and deserved further study. But other heart disease risk factors appeared favourable: They had high HDL cholesterol, the protective kind, and low triglycerides, a type of fat in the blood linked to heart disease.

Dr. Joyce Lee, a diabetes expert at the University of Michigan who was not involved in the study, said the findings were impressive and merited further follow-up, and that patients who wanted to explore a low-carb approach might do so while being monitored by their health care team. But she also noted that the patients in the new study were a “highly motivated” group, and that it would be difficult for many people to adopt the restrictive regimen they followed.

“The reality is that it’s really hard to do low-carb, given our cultural norms,” said Dr. Lee, a professor of pediatrics at the University of Michigan.

In an interview, Dr. Bernstein, a co-author on the paper, said it demonstrates what he sees in his practice: That there are diabetics on his regimen “who are walking around with normal blood sugars and they are happy about it, healthy, and growing if they are kids.”

Derek Raulerson, 46, a human resources manager in Alabama, agrees. Both he and his son, Connor, 13, have Type 1 diabetes. Mr. Raulerson said he struggled for years to control his blood sugar. But six years ago, he gave up juice, bread, potatoes and other simple carbs, and made protein and non-starchy vegetables the focus of his meals.

Since going low-carb, he said, he has lost weight, cut in half the amount of insulin he uses daily, and watched his A1C fall from the diabetic range to normal levels.

“I have normalized, steady blood sugars now,” he said. “I am no longer on the roller coaster.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/07/well/live/low-carb-diet-type-1-diabetes.html

Diabetes type 2: Switch to this colour milk at no extra cost to slash blood sugar levels

From express.co.uk

As soon as diabetes type 2 symptoms appear, you should see your GP.
Diabetes UK estimates that almost 3.7 million people suffer from diabetes in the UK, with 90 per cent having developed type 2 diabetes.
People are more at risk of developing the condition if they are overweight, have high blood pressure or have previously had a heart attack or stroke, among other factors.
Treatment includes changes to diet and lifestyle, focusing on exercising more regularly and eating more healthy foods.
Diabetes UK recommends that you should drink red topped, skimmed milk, to combat your condition.
“All of us, whether we have diabetes or not, need some dairy products,” says the charity on its website.
“Some dairy foods, however, can be high in saturated fat, so choose lower-fat alternatives where you can.”
The charity recommends switching to a lower fat milk if milk is already in your diet, with the red topped skimmed, or skim if you’re in the US, milk being best for sufferers.
This is because it contains the least amount of fats. If you have diabetes type 2, it is important to reduce fat consumption, as this can lead to your body receiving too many calories, causing weight gain and affecting diabetes control.
Red topped milk can be purchased from most UK supermarkets for the same price as other milks, including blue topped full fat milk.

"Switching to lower-fat milk, such as semi-skimmed milk (green top) from whole milk (blue top), which contains the most fat, is a good start,” said the charity.“To make even more of a difference, try one per cent fat milk (orange top) or even better skimmed milk (red top).
“Lower fat milk will have all the goodness of whole milk, including calcium, all you lose is the fat.”
They recommend that you should drink up to three portions of 190ml glasses a day, it this is your only source of dairy, which contains important calcium.
Skimmed milk contains about 0.1ml of fat for every 100ml, whereas one per cent, orange topped contains 1ml, semi-skimmed, green top, contains 1.8ml, and whole milk, blue top, contains 3.6ml.
Previous research has shown that diabetes type 2 can be reversed, if sufferers make changes to their lifestyle and diet.
“It is certainly possible to wake up the insulin producing cells of the pancreas by losing a substantial amount of weight,” said Professor Roy Taylor at Newcastle University.
He has previously led research into reversing this condition.
“This happens because the fat content in there pancreas decreases.
"Previous studies have shown that fat stops insulin release. The insulin producing cells recover their special function, and this continues providing fat is not allowed to accumulate.”

https://www.express.co.uk/life-style/health/955566/diabetes-type-2-symptoms-milk-red