Category - Healthy Tips

Diabetes Information Sites: Be Pro-Active

Managing diabetes is getting easier everyday.  New treatments and regimens are developed to aid the diabetic enjoy a healthier and happier life.  Your doctor is your first line of defense.  Here are some other organizations that can help in your everyday diabetes management.  Diet and exercise are key factors.

Diabetes Information Sites:

The organizations below can provide more information to help you control your diabetes,

American Association of Diabetes Educators
100 West Monroe, Suite 400
Chicago, Illinois 60603-1901
800-832-6874800-832-6874
800-338-3633800-338-3633 (for names of diabetes educators)
http://www.diabeteseducator.orgExternal Web Site IconAmerican Diabetes Association
1701 N. Beauregard Street
Alexandria, Virginia 22311
703-549-1500703-549-1500
800-ADA-ORDER800-ADA-ORDER to order publications toll free
800-342-2388800-342-2388 (800-DIABETES) for diabetes information
http://www.diabetes.orgExternal Web Site IconAcademy of Nutrition and Dietetics, formerly the American Dietetic Association
216 West Jackson Boulevard, Suite 800
Chicago, Illinois 60606-6995
800-745-0775800-745-0775
800-366-1655800-366-1655 (Consumer Nutrition Hotline, Spanish speaker available)
http://www.eatright.orgExternal Web Site IconAmerican Heart Association National Center
7272 Greenville Avenue
Dallas, Texas 75231
214-373-6300214-373-6300
http://www.heart.org/HEARTORG/External Web Site IconCenters for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
Division of Diabetes Translation
Public Inquiries and Publications

P. O. Box 8728
Silver Spring, Maryland 20910
800-CDC-INFO800-CDC-INFO
(800-232-4636800-232-4636)
TTY: (888) 232-6348
E-mail: diabetes@cdc.gov
http://www.cdc.gov/diabetesDepartment of Veterans Affairs

The Foundation of the American Academy of Ophthalmology Diabetes Project
P.O. Box 429098
San Francisco, California 94142-9098
800-222-EYES800-222-EYES (3937)
http://www.aao.org/aaoweb1/foundation/301.cfmExternal Web Site IconIndian Health Service Diabetes Program
5300 Homestead Road, N.E.
Albuquerque, New Mexico 87110
505-248-4182505-248-4182
http://www.ihs.gov/medicalprograms/diabetesExternal Web Site IconJuvenile Diabetes Research Foundation International
The Diabetes Research Foundation
120 Wall Street, 19th Floor
New York, New York 10005-4001
800-JDF-CURE800-JDF-CURE or 800-223-1138800-223-1138
212-785-9595 (fax)
E-mail: info@jdrf.org
http://www.jdrf.orgExternal Web Site IconNational Diabetes Education Program

National Diabetes Information Clearinghouse
1 Information Way
Bethesda, Maryland 20892-3560
800-860-8747800-860-8747
301-654-3327301-654-3327
Fax 301-907-8906
E-mail: ndic@aerie.com
http://www.diabetes.niddk.nih.gov/index.htmExternal Web Site IconNational Eye Institute
National Eye Health Education Program
Diabetic Eye Disease Public Education Program

2020 Vision Place
Bethesda, Maryland 20892-3655
800-869-2020

Diabetes & Wine: Does Alcohol Affect Blood Sugar?

Diabetes has become a common problem all over the world. It is a killer disease that affects the eyes, kidneys, bones and the heart as well. Hence as soon as you feel uneasy like extra fatigue or the urge to take more rest, feel weak or lose weight, immediately get the blood tests done to know the root of your ill health.

Does Alcohol Affect Blood Sugar

There are 2 types of Diabetes and for both types alcohol consumption is restricted as the drinks contain sugar content and therefore increase the sugar levels on the one hand and if excess alcohol is consumed sugar level drops down to unexpected levels and may be fatal.  On the other hand. Moderation is the key to good health and if you want to stay fit, control your lifestyle and follow a restricted diet pattern.

Drinking wine in moderation

Yet if you wish to drink wine, you can have it occasionally and that too after consulting your doctor. It is best to avoid that wine, which is sweet for it, has sugar content as well as fat. Both are harmful for a diabetic. But if you reduce the intake of other foods on the day you drink wine, then the chances of increase in blood sugar becomes lesser. Recent researches and analysis regarding diabetes and wine consumption show that moderate consumption of wine helps to keep a check on cardiovascular problems and increases mortality rate especially in type 2 diabetes cases. Controlled habits of drinking wine are not that harmful if you are conscious about your calories and the condition of your health. Red wine is said to have anti-oxidants but it is still to be proved.

The best way to stay healthy and unaffected even after drinking wine is to follow the rules given below:

  1. Go for regular check-ups of your blood sugar.
  2. Consult your physician and take his advice.
  3. Avoid sweet drinks or aerated drinks that contain sugar and do not mix sweetened juices with wine for that will add extra calories.
  4. Maintain diet chart and physical exercises to burn out the extra fats that accumulate on alcohol consumption.

However, if you can stay without wine and other alcoholic beverages, it is best to avoid them completely. If the consumption is more than your capacity, you lose your senses and even tend to eat more as wine works as an appetizer that leads to serious problems. Is there any need to invite problems when you can stay fit and happy for many years even with Diabetes?

Carbaholic Anonymous would like to thank Kevin Angileri for writing this article.  Kevin Angileri has written many of the articles on this website, and we would like to say thank you.  If you have a idea or suggestion for Carbaholics Anonymous, please get in touch with us.  If you have lost weight, and would like to share your story with us, please contact us asap.

Diabetes And Sex, Have Great Sex Despite Of Being Diabetic

Diabetes And Sex:

Diabetes is a dangerous illness that affects various aspects of our physical and mental health. With the aid of an efficient diet plan and exercise, you can keep the blood sugar in control.  Currently, there is no cure for Diabetes, but managing Diabetes is easily possible.  Personal involvement in your treatment along with diet and exercise will bring amazing results.  Among all the various health problems connected with Diabetes, one that is hardly ever discussed is it affects on sexual health.

We are humans and having a healthy sexual life is a good sign. Diabetes plays a vital role in sexual performance and it is something that makes it difficult to talk about. There are majority of the people that are not able to speak about their sexual problems and perhaps affecting the relationship.

Diabetes Can Affect Both Women And Men’s Sexual Health

A great misconception prevails that majority of the men suffering from diabetes have problem related to performing sex. Well, it is medical untrue. Both men and women have the negative impact on their health and sexual problem is one thing where both suffer. At times not having clear communication with the partner/spouse make it tough as communication skills pertaining to discuss sexual problems creates a fearful picture. Letting down our partner is one thing we do not want to do at all.

Factors That Contribute To The Sexual Health

Knowing that sexual problems for the individuals suffering from diabetes are common can help understand what is happening and overcome the fear about external help. Problems like stress, financial problems, relationship problems, depression and certain medications plays a vital role in causing sexual difficulties. Taking the help of the medical professional will do only good.

Over the time, poorly managed blood glucose levels can cause damage to the delicate blood nerves and vessels. This damage start affecting the blood flow and sensation to erogenous areas

How Diabetes Affect Men’s Sexual Health?

The most common complaints found in men suffering from diabetes are erectile dysfunction. This happens when the individual is unable to maintain or achieve the erection strong enough for the intercourse- this can happens due to Diabetes. The treatment varies depending from one person to another.

How Diabetes Affect Women’s Sexual Health?

There is very rare information about the women suffering from sexual problems because of Diabetes. With the research awareness, the usual sexual issues faced by the women are vaginal dryness, difficulty in achieving orgasms, no or less interest in sex, and painful intercourse.

Diabetes And Lack Of Libido

The lack of libido is the term used to describe the lack of interest in the sexual activity. The sexual desire is the complex condition that is developed by the amalgamation of personal, relationship and biological factors.

How Diabetes Plays A Vital Role In Causing The Lack Of Libido?

The low testosterone levels can cause lack of libido. Hence, individuals suffering from diabetes and low testosterone levels may experience the lower libido.

Maintaining Sexual Health With Diabetes

A sexual hurdle that arises with the diabetes is very frustrating and embarrassing. Causing anxiety, there has been several cases witnessed of breakups.  The couples not being able to communicate freely are the major problem here. People may feel like giving up on the sexual desires rather than finding ways to cope up with this problem. However, there are plenty of ways to alleviate this problem.

· Fighting Fatigue And Low Energy

If you are feeling bit low and fatigue, what you can do is change the schedule. Try having sex at different time when your energy levels are at peak.  There is no compulsory schedule to follow as in here; you can enjoy it when you feel like doing.  Try it in the early mornings, or in the late afternoon and see which schedule works best for you both.

· Weight And Diabetes

These two things are buddies. The more obese you, your blood sugar enjoys more of that me time. Being fat when you are diabetic is not the good news. Obesity itself minimizes the sexual desires, and if you are planning to have a kid there are lots of complexity that you will face. Diabetes and being overweight is a “No win combination. It should be encouraged to get into some kind of exercising that you like – you can choose dance, aerobics, cardio etc. to keep your weight in check and most importantly have a well-balanced nutritional food with it. It will not show you the result with just exercising or just eating healthy food, as both goes hand in hand.

· Enhancing Libido

Erection issues and vaginal dryness are the common problems that individuals from both the sexes suffer having diabetes. Consulting your health practitioner for the medication helps you to overcome this problem. The hormonal replacement medications are the best one to cure the problems. They are available in the form of creams, pills, supplements, and injectable medications.

· Improving The Dryness

The lubricants available in medication form are extremely helpful to deal with the vaginal dryness. There are plethora of over the counter medicines, as well as you can ask your doctor to prescribe one for you. Do not stop your medication while intercourse..

· Staying Fit All The Time

It is very important to take care of your health especially when you are a diabetic. Diabetes will need to have a definite meal plans to keep the blood sugar in control. To overcome the sexual problems, it is important to have a diet plan that makes you fit and helps you to keep your diabetes in check. Rather than drawing up a meal plan yourself, it is advisable to visit a dietician or your doctor will be the best person to guide you with this as he/she has the knowledge of your health.

· Talk More About It

Suffering from diabetes is a big deal, the thing is you have to just take good care of your health, remain fit by indulging in some physical workouts/Yoga etc. and most important talk openly with your partner. The more you talk, the better your understanding develops and this way your partner too will be able to help you to cope up with the problem.

Find other ways to express your intimacy with the partner, when desire is not at the peak. Cuddling, taking bath together, massages are just one of the great examples to express your togetherness. Making time for each other is more and beyond sex. Talking with your partner about your feelings and possible sexual problems will help the emotional issues associated with the sexual hurdles.

As explained, diabetes can lead to range of sexual problems. However, each problem is required to be assessed individually and the best treatment should be discussed with the health professional. Diabetes may make the sexual activities challenging but it doesn’t mean you must forget to have the pleasure of the sexual side completely.  Many times it has happened that if the illness like diabetes is brought under the control, the sexual problems automatically resolve themselves. The most important thing to remember is to not to give up what is the most vital need of the life.

What Will It Take For You Get Healthy – My Diabetes Story

My Weight Loss & Diabetes Story – How I Turned It Around

kim-before-199x300

Two years ago this past August, I found myself in the emergency room of a hospital in Orange County, CA while traveling for work. The doctors informed me that both my lungs were loaded with blood clots and they were moving me to ICU immediately. That was the start of my seven day hospital stay and taking blood thinners for the following six months to dissolve the blood clots. I remember talking with the doctor after being moved from the emergency room to ICU and telling him that after leaving the office, I felt very tired and light headed; so I just relaxed in the car before heading back to the hotel for the evening. After feeling better, I started the drive to the hotel thinking, I’ll just go back to my room and lay down. On the way to the hotel, I saw a gas station and thought, I’ll fill up the gas tank to return the car the following day and pick up some water and snacks before heading to the hotel. In relaying this story to the doctor, he informed me that if I would have gone to the hotel and laid down or flew home the next day, I would have died.ed

How would you feel if you found out that you almost died? Would you make changes in your life? Would you treat the people in your life differently? Would you look at your health and make the changes to become a healthier person? I truly believe that God guided me to that gas station instead of going back to the hotel to sleep (and never wake up). God said, you are not done on this earth and I have a plan for you; and in time, you will see that. Over the past two years, I’ve made some changes in my life to get healthy and along the journey I’ve inspired others to make changes in their lives as they have watched my transformation.

I have struggled being overweight since the fourth grade with high blood pressure, high cholesterol and diabetes type 2. In fact my diabetes A1C was 9.7 which is very high, normal is 5.7 and the doctors wanted to put me on insulin the same summer I almost died. This photo was taken at my highest weight, 315 pounds; and as you can see, a very unhappy person. For most of my life, I have worn a smile on the outside when inside there was a sad,lonely and insecure woman who always put others first instead of myself. Guess you could say, I was a very co-dependent, people pleasing person while at the same time, overeating and eating very unhealthy foods to try to stop the pain I was feeling inside.

While I’m still a work in progress; when it comes to losing weight and becoming fit, I’ve  released over 130 pounds in less than two years by adopting a healthy lifestyle. I’ve been off my medication the past four months and no longer have any health issues reaching one of my goals when I started this journey to a healthy lifestyle. About 4 months after almost dying and struggling with a dietitians diet, I decided to seek out a personal trainer. The personal trainer I worked with was certified with the American Diabetes Association to work with people who have diabetes. The trainer put me on a very strict diet. Keep in mind that for the first three months due to blood thinners, I was not allowed any greens. Imagine dieting and not being able to eat salad and other greens! Making the changes was not easy, but I knew that it took years of bad eating habits to bring me to the weight of 315 and while it was hard changing my eating habits, it was what I needed to do to lose the weight and get healthy. The exercise program was intensive working out six days a week.

I worked with several personal trainers and their diet programs over the next year; but found strict diet was not working for me and started to gain the weight back as I was making unhealthy food choices, feeling like I couldn’t stay on this strict diet the rest of my life. In fall of last year, I also suffered from severe arthritis in my knees; after all, my knees carried around 300 plus pounds for many years. So my cardio took a back seat while I underwent physical therapy for months to strengthen the knees. While they are not 100%, I find the mental strength to work out and through my struggles; because getting healthy and fit is important to me.

Unfortunately, I found that again another “diet” was failing me and I was gaining the weight back. So I started the search for a new health program to help me continue my journey. In January 2014, I found such a system that was more flexible allowing me to indulge from time to time, complete with nutritional cellular cleansing to release the toxins, meal replacement shakes and eating a healthy low-glycemic balanced meal(s). Let’s face it, diets don’t work. It’s about living a healthy lifestyle. Healthy lifestyle is a balance of 20% exercise and 80% nutrition. What you feed your body is so important. Are you getting the nutrients you need? Do you eat processed foods? Do you eat organic? Do you buy fish that is wild caught or farm raised? Educating yourself about eating clean and real foods is an important part of the nutrition.

kim 315 and july 2014

I never thought that I’d say this, but I love working out! I love lifting weights, squats and flipping 380 pound monster tires! Cardio, well that is another story; but I try to make it fun listening to some great music and letting my body move to the music on the elliptical (hoping no one is video recording it). Do you need to lose weight, do you struggle with health issues, would you like more energy and feel less stressed? One of the changes was putting myself first and learning to say “NO”. Yes, even to the people I love. If you don’t take care of YOU, how can you take care of the ones you love. Don’t wait for tomorrow like I was doing; embrace today and make the changes to a healthy lifestyle – for tomorrow may not come! Almost dying definitely was on of the reasons for making the changes I made in my life. I encourage you to make a commitment to make the changes you need to with exercise and nutrition to give you a healthy lifestyle.

Since almost dying, I’ve  embraced life and live it to the fullest! Skydiving in spring was an awesome experience and something I could not do when 315 pounds. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IVTBot-zR8w&list=UUpY8H0Z4c84kRMjR07SoybQ

Kim A. Bruck

https://www.facebook.com/lovelifedream13

lovelifedream@icloud.com

LOVE LIFE and DREAM!

Carbaholicsanonymous would like to thank Kim for allowing us to post this inspiring article.  We applaud her fine work and wish her more success.

Good Carbohydrates Are Must In Your Diet

Carbohydrates Information

From our childhood we are told to eat balanced meals for proper nutrition, of which, carbohydrates are an important part. Their primary function is to supply the body with glucose that is one of the main sources of energy.

Types of Carbs

Carbohydrates are grouped into two categories – good (complex) and bad (simple) carbs. The former takes longer to break down since it is created by three or more sugar chains linked together.  Foods containing good carbs are rich in both sugar and fiber. Bad carbs don’t need to break down as it is in the simplest form. Some examples are cookies, chips, soft drinks etc. Ingesting bad carbs on a regular basis can lead to sudden weight gain, increased risks of heart diseases, and more chances of diabetes.

Good Carbohydrates and Their Uses

Good carbs might take longer to break down but since they are rich in fiber, they help to regulate blood sugar levels. Your health can take a serious setback if the sugar levels in the blood rise quickly, which happens after consumption of bad carbs. Good carbs also provide the body with energy, minerals, vitamins, and phytonutrients. Phytochemicals act as anti-inflammatory agents and are natural sources of antioxidants.

Take a look at a few examples:

Fruits and Vegetables

Fruits and vegetables contain lots of vitamins, carbohydrates, fiber and other essential nutrients. It is advisable to consume at least 2 cups of fruits and 2.5 cups of vegetables per day (2000 calorie consumption) as part of your diet plan. If you eat them with the skin, your intake of fiber-rich sources will increase. For instance, eating a pear or consuming an orange rather than orange juice is healthier. It was debatable till a few years back that you should steer clear from potatoes and bananas. However, they are part of the “good carbs” group if consumed in moderation such as a small/medium sized banana and a 1/2 to 1 cup of potatoes.

Legumes

Peas, lentils, beans, etc. fall under this category as they are loaded with carbohydrates, protein, fiber, and don’t contain much fat. According to the Linus Pauling Institute, legumes can reduce the chances of Type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and prostate cancer. Having 3 cups of legumes a week on a 2000-calorie daily diet is sufficient.

Whole-Grain Products

Beans, brown rice, whole wheat bread, whole oats, millet, whole-grain barley, pasta & corn, buckwheat etc. are considered to be healthy for the body as they are high in vitamins, minerals, phytonutrients, and fiber. As mentioned before, they cause a slower modification in blood due to a low glycemic index. Ideally, you should choose breakfast cereals with more than 3 grams of protein and fiber that have less than 30 grams of total carbohydrates.

It is difficult to resist temptation especially when you are faced with eating your favorite cookies or hamburger. It is fine to give in once in a while, but don’t make it a habit as good carbohydrates are necessary for your system to function well and lower risks of ailments. According to Atkins, it is healthy if 30-40 percent of your daily calories consist of carbohydrates so please try to maintain that.