diabetes
Diabetic travellers
Whenever you travel it is essential to plan ahead. A visit to your Diabetic Adviser or GP as soon as you are aware of your travel schedule is a good place to start. If you plan carefully now, you will save yourself from a lot of trouble later on. Plan Ahead It is important to think through...read more
Diabetics can walk for life
If you're diabetic, a new study finds that you'll probably live longer simply by strolling. An analysis of 2 900 adults who had diabetes for an average of 11 years found that even two hours of walking weekly reduced the risk of death by 39 percent. Included in that reduction...read more
Diagnosing Type 1 & Type 2
Diagnosing Type 1 diabetes Diabetes is diagnosed quite simply by measuring the levels of glucose in the blood. The normal fasting levels are between 3,3 mmol/l and 5,9 mmol/l.The World Health Organisation defines diabetes mellitus as a condition fulfi...read more
Dietary recommendations for diabetics
General Dietary Recommendations The diet advocated for diabetics is not a 'special diet'. It is a healthy diet which is recommended for everyone. Everyone with diabetes has different dietary requirements depending on age, weight, activity. It is suggested that your GP refer...read more
Do you have diabetes?
Diabetes is on the increase, but it is an easily treatable condition.Our bodies are like a motorcar; they need fuel to provide us with energy. This energy comes from glucose, a type of sugar that is found in what we eat and drink. However the glucose cannot ...read more
Everything about type 1 Diabetes
Soon after eating a meal, the digestion process begins to turn part of the foods we have eaten (the carbohydrates) into fuel for the body. This fuel is called glucose, which is a sugar. Glucose provides energy which is absor...read more
Frozen shoulder and diabetes
There are many ways that diabetes can affect the muscles and joints. Sugar sticks to the collagen in cells and affects its ability to function. Diabetes can damage blood vessels and a poor blood supply results in scarring and damage in the body's elastic tis...read more
Gestational Diabetes
Diabetes affects approximately 1 out of every 100 women in her childbearing years. Gestational DiabetesApproximately 2 to 5% will develop "Gestational Diabetes" during her pregnancy. This condition usually appears in the later stages of pregnan...read more
Gestational diabetes and your unborn child
Diabetes mellitus may have very serious consequences for the unborn baby. The chances that a mother with poorly controlled diabetes mellitus loses her baby, is significantly increased. Pregnancies complicated by gestational diabetes also carry a higher risk ...read more
How can I take care of myself if I have gestational diabetes?
Taking care of yourself when you have gestational diabetes is very much like taking care of yourself when you have other types of diabetes. But it can be a little scary when you're pregnant and you also have a new condition to take care of. Don't worry. Many women who've had...read more
How to manage Type 2 Diabetes
If you have Type 2 Diabetes, you have the most common form. Either your body nor pancreas does not produce enough insulin in your pancreas, OR your blood cells ignore the insulin present in or near them. Type 2 diabetes used to be called adult-onset orread more
Hyperglycaemia: protect your heart by lowering your blood sugar levels
Is heart health compromised by the high blood sugar levels of diabetes, or by other conditions such as hypertension that can be triggered by diabetes? In short: Which comes first and which matters most. Two studies indicate that hype...read more
Hypoglycemia
Glucose, a form of sugar, is the body's main fuel. Hypoglycemia, or low blood sugar, occurs when blood levels of glucose drop too low to fuel the body's activity.Carbohydrates (sugars and starches) are the body's main dietary sources of glucose. During diges...read more
Key facts about diabetes
What is diabetes? Diabetes means that your blood sugar is too high. Your blood always has some sugar in it because the body uses sugar for energy; it's the fuel that keeps you going. But too much sugar in the blood is not good for your health. Your body cha...read more
Management of type 2 diabetes
Step 1 Diagnosis This is made by 2 simple fasting blood tests in most cases. If the blood glucose is 7mmols or higher or if you are having symptoms of diabetes and one fasting blood glucose reading 7mmols or higher then a diagnosis of diabetes can be made. Step 2 Education...read more
Menstruation and diabetes control
We are all aware of the analogy about one's diabetes control being like riding a roller-coaster. The goal is to turn the roller-coaster into a go-cart running on a flat track. We want to eliminate the extreme ups and downs and keep things on an even keel. But a woman with di...read more
Nutrition and diabetes
Nutrition is essential Aggressive management of your blood sugar (glucose) is essential to prevent further complications of the disease such as blindness, amputations and kidney disease. While diabetes often requires insulin or oral medicat...read more
Pre-diabetes
Pre-diabetes: impaired glucose tolerance and impaired fasting glucose Prediabetes is a condition that raises the risk of developing type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and stroke. People with prediabetes have blood glucose levels higher than normal but not high enough to be cla...read more
Prevention of diabetes complications
Diabetes can affect many parts of the body and can lead to serious complications such as blindness, kidney damage, and lower-limb amputations. Working together, people with diabetes and their health care providers can reduce the occurrence of these and other...read more
Pros and cons of pumping
Advantages Flexibility of lifestyle. You can get up when you want, go to bed when you want, eat when you want. You are no longer tied down by having to do things at set times, or plan things such as exercise in advance. You don't even have to plan a stressful event in...read more
Something more about obesity
The current opinion in medicine is that diet is definitely not entirely about willpower. It's controlled mostly by the brain, which gets signals and sends signals to other organs and systems implicated in metabolism. We came to think of dieting as a matter of willpower becau...read more
Take control of blood sugar levels
Most people have at some stage experienced what it’s like when your body doesn’t have enough fuel. You start to have food cravings, feel irritable, shaky, unable to concentrate, and may even feel dizzy...These sensations are caused by low blood sugar and are perf...read more
Tips for people with diabetics
Summer barbecues, picnics and family reunions can stir up thoughts of good, down home cooking. If you have diabetes, these events can pose special challenges. How can you stay healthy and still enjoy those traditional meals? You can do it—by planning ahead, choosing wi...read more
Treating diabetes
The treatment of Type 1 diabetes The most important aspect of the treatment is the subcutaneous administration of insulin to maintain tightly controlled glucose levels throughout day and night. The tight control is important to prevent long term complications such as blindn...read more
Type 1 diabetes
What causes it ? By the time a person with Type 1 diabetes experiences symptoms, almost all the beta cells in the pancreas have been destroyed. This destruction is almost certainly as a result of an automimmune process in which the body produces antibodies to its own cells....read more
