PrairiePundit

Washington Post: New CDC data shows danger of coronavirus for those with diabetes, heart or lung disease, other chronic conditions The report shows that people of any age with underlying medical conditions are at increased risk if they contract the virus. If you have diabetes, I think the best way to reduce this risk is to lower your A1C number.  To do that you have to significantly reduce the consumption of carbohydrates.   If you keep the intake of carbs to 4 grams or fewer per meal you will start to see your blood sugar numbers get down to the normal range even if your pancreas is not producing an adequate amount of insulin.  You should find that your need for insulin injections is also greatly reduced. I am not a medical doctor.  I have defeated diabetes twice with this approach.  The second time I got it was when my body had an auto-immune reaction to cholesterol medication.  But even with that, the low carb diet worked.  If you have...

NY Times: Small Advances Can Mean Big Increases in Medical Bills Some high-tech treatments help patients better control chronic diseases like diabetes, but they also drive an enormous surge in costs, and experts say many of them offer dubious benefits. When I was diagnosed with diabetes I followed the advice of medical professionals and took various meds for treatment that maintained my blood sugar levels but did little to lower my A1C marker in the blood test that the diagnosis is based on.  I started having trouble with anemia and my kidneys deteriorated. About a year ago I decided to go on a diet to defeat the diabetes. Eat to Live: The Amazing Nutrient-Rich Program for Fast and Sustained Weight Loss, Revised Edition Paperback  by Joel Fuhrman  and his book  The End of Diabetes   were a relatively pain free and hunger free approach. I lost 55 pounds and am no longer diabetic.  My A1C reading is in the normal range and I no longer take diabetic...

Dr. Joel Fuhrman's book is well worth your time if you have diabetes or know someone who does.  I have been following the diet since earth this year and so far have lost about 45 pounds.  I am off my blood pressure medication and have reduced my diabetes medication. You can find the book here: http://www.amazon.com/The-End-Diabetes-Prevent-Reverse/dp/0062219979/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1378008642&sr=8-1&keywords=the+end+of+diabetes+by+joel+fuhrman

Brian Lau, M.D.: A 15-minute walk after every meal – that’s what a new study says can lower blood sugar and the risk of type 2 diabetes. What’s more, it’s better than 45 minutes of sustained walking in the morning or afternoon. Elevated blood sugars, particularly after meals, can lead to diabetes, which doctors are expecting to see more and more of as the overweight age. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, type 2 diabetes affects 25.8 million Americans. It’s the leading cause of kidney failure, lower limb amputations that aren’t because of accident trauma, and new cases of blindness among adults in the United States. Diabetes is a major cause of heart disease and stroke – and, all by itself, is the seventh leading cause of death in the United States. One Soda Per Day Raises Diabetes Risk, Study Suggests In a study published Wednesday in the journal Diabetes Care, researchers monitored blood sugar levels in healthy adults with an average age of 70 who wer...

Guardian: ... Obesity is usually cited as the main driver of diabetes. But a new study by US medical researchers identifies sugar as a predictor of diabetes separately from obesity. ... The study "provides the first large-scale, population-based evidence for the idea that not all calories are equal from a diabetes risk standpoint", and suggests sugar has "a direct, independent link to diabetes", he added.  The more sugar was available in a country, the more diabetes it had, Basu's team found. For every extra 150 calories people in that country had from all sources, the prevalence of diabetes rose by 0.1%. But if those 150 calories came from sugar – about the amount in a 12-ounce can of soft drink – then the proportion of people with diabetes rose much more, by 1.1%. ... This does not surprise me at all.  One of the first things the doctors told me when I was diagnosed with diabetes was to drastically limit my sugar intake.  In my case the pancreas had sto...

Daily Mail: Drugs for high blood pressure and diabetes could also be used to treat DEMENTIA  Actually I have been taken medication for both for about three years.  Since I take them at regular times I have not had any difficulty remembering.   I think I had high blood pressure most of my life until the doctor who diagnosed my diabetes started a treatment for high blood pressure too.  I also think that this blog keeps me mentally sharp.

Daily Mail: 'Diabetes made me do it': Dad who 'shot dead wife and future son-in-law and injured pregnant daughter' claims he blacked out because of deadly levels of blood sugar When you blood sugar gets too low the problem is usually that you pass out, not engage in a in a gun fight.

Daily Mail: She's my little hero: Black and white cat saves diabetic owner by alerting sleeping husband after she collapses I think my cat is more likely to do that when she is hungry.

United with Israel: An Israeli team is developing a new method for treating Diabetes. About 285 million people are living with diabetes worldwide. Several kinds of treatment options exist, but all of them have drawbacks. For example, insulin therapy can trigger everything from weight gain to hypoglycemia, and its administration must be constantly controlled and monitored by the patient. But what if a diabetic patient’s own cells—extracted from mature tissue—could be turned into insulin-producing machines, secreting insulin automatically when needed? According to a biotech company named Orgenesis, this kind of cell therapy, known as autologous cell replacement, holds very real potential. Orgenesis’s efforts have been inspired by the pioneering research of Sarah Ferber, Ph.D., who is Director of Molecular Endocrinology at Sheba Medical Center in Tel Hashomer, Israel, and Chief Scientific Officer at Orgenesis. In the treatment being developed by Dr. Ferber and Orgenesis, a stan...

You can find more on the story including photos here .  Managing diabetes is not always easy.  With a toddler I am sure it is difficult for the parents.

allowscriptaccess="always" allownetworking="all" allowfullscreen="true" src="http://cdn.abclocal.go.com/static/flash/embeddedPlayer/swf/otvEmLoader.swf?version=&station=ktrk&section=&mediaId=8586864&cdnRoot=http://cdn.abclocal.go.com&webRoot=http://abclocal.go.com&configPath=/util/&site="> I have seen other reports where diabetes was cured with a pancreas transplant.

allowscriptaccess="always" allownetworking="all" allowfullscreen="true" src="http://cdn.abclocal.go.com/static/flash/embeddedPlayer/swf/otvEmLoader.swf?version=&station=ktrk&section=&mediaId=8454705&cdnRoot=http://cdn.abclocal.go.com&webRoot=http://abclocal.go.com&configPath=/util/&site="> He managed to call his parents who were Christmas shopping.

Watch the latest video at <a href="http://video.foxnews.com">video.foxnews.com</a> This is really cool.  I do not know if there are any dogs trained to do this in my area, but it is definitly an interesting dob.  BTW, the dog is named "Sugar."

Houston Chronicle: Mom says toddler saved her life with cell phone call Her two year old daughter made the call to her grandmother.  Doctors say the mother was 10 minutes away from dying when they got to her.

Guardian: ... Eleven people with diabetes took part in the study, which was funded by Diabetes UK. They had to slash their food intake to just 600 calories a day for two months. But three months later seven of the 11 were free of diabetes. "To have people free of diabetes after years with the condition is remarkable – and all because of an eight-week diet," said Roy Taylor, professor at Newcastle University, who led the study. "This is a radical change in understanding type 2 diabetes. It will change how we can explain it to people newly diagnosed with the condition. While it has long been believed that someone with type 2 diabetes will always have the disease, and that it will steadily get worse, we have shown that we can reverse the condition." Type 2 diabetes, which used to be known as adult onset, is caused by too much glucose in the blood. It is strongly linked to obesity, unlike type 1, which usually develops in children whose bodies are unable to ma...

Image via Wikipedia JOHN W. GRIFFIN JR. and VICTOR H. GONZALEZ, M.D. Every day in this country, there is a silent killer among us. It's more deadly than breast cancer and AIDS combined. Unless we join together and continue to fund our nation's effort to stop this epidemic, we will be unable to stop it. Nearly 26 million Americans are living with diabetes , and an additional 79 million have prediabetes and are at high risk for developing this terrible disease. Diabetes is serious, costly and deadly — and a threat to our nation's health care system and economy. One out of every five health care dollars is spent caring for someone with diagnosed diabetes, while one in ten health care dollars is attributed to diabetes. The national price tag for diabetes-related costs, including undiagnosed diabetes, prediabetes and gestational diabetes is a shocking $218 billion per year. Costly complications such as amputations, blindness and kidney disease will continue to grow unless w...

Image via Wikipedia Daily Mail: We all know how an apple a day is supposed to keep the doctor away – now it seems the same is true for tangerines. According to research, eating the fruit could protect against heart attacks, diabetes and stroke as well as staving off obesity. Nobiletin , a pigment found in tangerine peel, is ten times more potent than a similar one derived from grapefruit. ... The peel is probably a little bitter for most people. Perhaps you could grate the peel and add it to a tangerine and walnut salad with a maple syrup dressing. It would be an interesting combination of hat has been described as "super foods." Related articles Tangerines help prevent obesity, protect against heart disease (news.bioscholar.com) Substance in tangerines fights obesity and protects against heart disease (eurekalert.org) Health Benefits of Tangerines (brighthub.com)

Image via Wikipedia Daily Mail on Sunday: Blueberries , broccoli and fish rich in Omega 3 are among the best known superfoods. But now something rather sweeter can be added to the list of healthy foods containing high levels of antioxidants that boost the immune system. Maple syrup is even being described by scientists in America as a ‘one-stop shop’ for beneficial compounds. Tests on the syrup, which is made by boiling sap from the maple tree, found that it contains compounds which could help manage Type 2 diabetes , as well as acting as anti-cancer and anti-inflammatory agents. Researchers identified 54 compounds, twice as many as the syrup was previously thought to have. Five were found to be unique to maple syrup. Several of the syrup’s polyphenol, or water-soluble, compounds inhibited the enzymes that convert carbohydrates to sugars, raising the prospect of a new way of managing Type 2 Diabetes. They also found that many of the antioxidant compounds, which prevent t...

Image via Wikipedia BBC: Walnuts are the healthiest of all the nuts and should be eaten more as part of a healthy diet, US scientists say. Scientists from Pennsylvania told the American Chemical Society that walnuts contain the highest level of antioxidants compared to other nuts. Antioxidants are known to help protect the body against disease. The scientists said that all nuts have good nutritional qualities but walnuts are healthier than peanuts, almonds, pecans and pistachios. Dr Joe Vinson, from the University of Scranton, analysed the antioxidant levels of nine different types of nuts and discovered that a handful of walnuts contained twice as many antioxidants as a handful of any other commonly eaten nut. He found that these antioxidants were higher in quality and potency than in any other nut. ... Walnuts are also the lowest costing for the time being. That may change after this study if it drives up demand. I have been adding walnuts to my salads recently and...

Image via Wikipedia WebMD: Diabetes roughly doubles the risk of having a heart attack or stroke, a reality that’s put many doctors and patients on alert about the need to closely watch blood pressure , cholesterol, and other harbingers of an ailing cardiovascular system. But less attention has been paid to other ways diabetes may cut life short. Now an international team of researchers has produced one of the first comprehensive reports on the non-cardiovascular causes of death in people with diabetes, and it offers some sobering new findings. Pooling data from 97 studies representing more than 820,000 people, researchers found that 40% of people with high blood sugar died from non-cardiovascular causes. For example, compared to people who had not been diagnosed with diabetes, those with diabetes had triple the odds of dying of kidney disease and more than double the risk of dying of an infection (excluding pneumonia) or from liver cancer. Risks of dying from other kinds o...