Control Diabetes in Six Easy Steps (Lynn Sonberg Books) - Softcover

Florman, Samuel

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0312286260 ISBN 13: 9780312286262

Verlag: St. Martin's Griffin, 2002

Inhaltsangabe

Take Charge...It's Easy!

Diabetes has reached near-epidemic proportions in America. If you or someone you love has been diagnosed with it, you need to keep blood sugar in normal ranges and avoid serious complications. But how can you help control diabetes and not let it control you?

This handy guide offers step-by-step pointers to not only handle diabetes and keep it from getting worse-but also to reverse the harmful effects of the disease. It covers:

* What you need to know about the disease
* Six simple diet principles that can control blood sugar!
* Nutrients with remarkable healing power
* Herbs that bring blood sugar down
* A smart program for daily testing
*The right exercises to do
* Essential tips for taking medication
* The sugar-stress connection

Developed with the help of a team of experts, Control Diabetes in Six Easy Steps, can stop your frustration and fears...and let you take charge of your health.

Learn The Truth About Diabetes...

* Are there forbidden foods in diabetes therapy? See what few foods are off-limits-and be surprised!
* What sugar substitute is not only non-caloric, all-natural, and 250 times sweeter than sugar? If you haven't heard of "stevia," it's time to get the facts!
* How hard is it to change your diet? Find six "nothing-to-it" nutrition principles that make meals a cinch.
* Can anything repair nerve damage (neuropathy)? Check out alpha lipoic acid...and the top ten nutrients for keeping you complication-free.
* Exercise can bring you spectacular health benefits if you prepare. Find out how to protect your feet and keep your glucose from going crazy.
* What is the effect of stress on diabetes? Negative emotions can send blood sugar skyrocketing...unless you know what to do.

...And More!
Knowledge Is Your Best Weapon To Stop Diabetes

Über diesen Titel

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Maggie Greenwood-Robinson, Ph.D. is the author of numerous health books, including Wrinkle-Free: Your Guide to Youthful Skin at Any Age, The Bone Density Test, The Cellulite Breakthrough, and Kava: The Ultimate Guide to Nature's Anti-Stress Herb.

Auszug. © Genehmigter Nachdruck. Alle Rechte vorbehalten.

Control Diabetes

In Six Easy Steps

By Maggie Greenwood-Robinson

St. Martin's Press

Copyright © 2002 Lynn Sonberg
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-0-312-28626-2

Contents

Acknowledgments, 
Authors Note, 
Introduction: Embracing a New Way of Life, 
Part One: Diabetes: What You Need to Know, 
• Stopping a Silent Killer, 
• Unmasking Trouble: How Your Doctor Diagnoses Diabetes, 
• Preventing Life-Threatening Complications, 
• Choosing Quality Caregivers, 
• Medical Tests and Medications That Can Save Your Life, 
• Eat to Beat Diabetes: Understanding the Role of Nutrition, 
• The Exercise Connection, 
Part Two: Control Diabetes in Six Easy Steps, 
• Step 1: Follow a Healing, Healthy Diet, 
• Step 2: Drive Diabetes into Retreat with Natural Remedies, 
• Step 3: Test Your Blood Sugar Regularly, 
• Step 4: Get Fit to Fight Diabetes, 
• Step 5: Take Medicine if Your Doctor Prescribes It, 
• Step 6: Defeat Stress with Positive Living, 
Glossary, 
Resources, 
References, 
Index, 

CHAPTER 1

Stopping a Silent Killer

If you have diabetes, take comfort in knowing that you're not alone in your challenges. In the United States, there are 16 million people with diabetes, and some 2,200 more are being diagnosed each day.

There are many more people who have diabetes but aren't even aware of it — 5.4 million Americans to be exact, according to the American Diabetes Association. In fact, diabetes has been dubbed a "silent killer" because in the early stages of diabetes there are very few symptoms, or the symptoms are so mild that they don't seem to warrant serious attention. In fact, most people are unaware that they have it until diagnosed with one of its life-threatening complications, such as blindness, kidney disease, nerve disease, or cardiovascular disease. The early warning signs of diabetes are listed in the box on page 4.

Diabetes is on the rise too. Consider: While deaths from heart disease and cancer are falling, deaths from diabetes have been escalating for the past ten years. Though treatable, diabetes is the seventh leading cause of death in the United States. It contributes to nearly two hundred thousand deaths a year.

Even so, there is tremendous hope. Of all life-threatening diseases, diabetes is one of easiest to get under control, because it can be managed mostly with something we all need to do: healthy living.

WHAT IS DIABETES?

For background, diabetes is a disorder of metabolism — your body's food-to-fuel process. More specifically, diabetes is a sugar metabolism disorder in which there's too much sugar (glucose) in the blood. Glucose, your body's chief fuel, is always traveling through the bloodstream. Under normal conditions, it goes from the blood into cells, where it nourishes and energizes those cells. Glucose enters the cells with the help of a hormone called insulin, which is produced by beta cells in the pancreas, a flask-shaped organ situated behind and just below the stomach.

When you eat a meal, beta cells release insulin to help your cells use and store glucose from the digestion and absorption of food. Insulin is thus the main regulator your body uses to reduce levels of glucose in the blood. Normally, blood glucose stays in the range of 70 to 115 milligrams per deciliter (mg/dl). This is the unit of measure used to describe how much glucose is in your blood at any given time.

In diabetes, though, two things can go wrong. Either the body doesn't make any or enough insulin — a condition termed insulin deficiency. Or cells don't respond properly to insulin — a condition called insulin resistance — and they receive no nourishment. In both situations, glucose is unable to enter cells, and it starts building up in the bloodstream — a condition called hyperglycemia or high blood sugar.

When there is too much glucose in circulation, it gums up the blood vessels that feed your organs and limbs. This is a toxic situation that provokes all sorts of metabolic problems. Blood can't travel to where it needs to go, causing problems in circulation. Your body is starved of energy, and eventually its organs deteriorate — unless blood sugar can be brought under control.

Although diabetes is often thought of as being a single disease, it is actually a family of disorders, all involving faulty metabolism of glucose. There are three major types of diabetes: type 1, type 2, and gestational diabetes.

UNDERSTANDING TYPE 1 DIABETES

Also known as insulin-dependent diabetes, type 1 diabetes is a disease in which the body either produces little insulin or no insulin at all. The disease was once called juvenile-onset diabetes, but that name has been dropped because type 1 diabetes strikes young and old alike.

Type 1 diabetes is caused by damage to the pancreas. Within the pancreas are clusters of various types of cells called islets of Langerhans. Beta cells, which make insulin, are located in the islets.

The job of the pancreas is twofold: to secrete powerful digestive enzymes for the breakdown of food and to promote the production of insulin from beta cells in the pancreas. Insulin helps glucose gain entry into cells where it is used to supply energy.

In type 1 diabetes, because the body can no longer produce insulin or make enough of it, cells cannot absorb the glucose they need for fuel. To compensate for this, the body starts breaking down proteins and digesting its own muscle tissue for fuel, resulting in muscle loss and weakness. There is also a flash flood of glucose in the blood — a surge that ultimately leads to diabetic complications. Type 1 diabetic patients, who typically get the disease at a young age, must rely on daily injections of insulin to survive.

In type 1 diabetes, insulin-producing beta cells are killed off by the body's own immune system. Upon invading the pancreas, immune cells called T cells and B cells mistake beta cells for germs and attack them — a physiological blunder referred to as an autoimmune response. This is why type 1 diabetes is referred to as an autoimmune disease. No one knows for sure why the body mounts such an attack, but researchers believe multiple forces may be at work.

RISK FACTORS FOR TYPE 1 DIABETES

Type 1 diabetes accounts for about 5 to 10 percent of those diagnosed with the disease. Major risk factors include:

• Family history. At greater risk of type 1 diabetes are children and siblings of people with the disease.

• Racial background. There is a higher incidence of type 1 diabetes among whites than is found in other racial groups.

• Age. Half of those diagnosed are under age twenty.

What causes type 1 diabetes? Here's a closer look at how type 1 diabetes may develop.

Heredity

As noted above, type 1 diabetes tends to run in families. Thus, you're at a greater risk of developing type 1 diabetes if your parents or siblings have the disease, or if you're white. Whites — particularly those of European descent — are more prone to type 1 diabetes than are people of other races.

Whether you will develop type 1 diabetes also has to do with your genes, the basic units of heredity that carry instructions for individual characteristics. Although many different types of genes may lead to the development of type 1 diabetes, researchers...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: St. Martin's Griffin
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2002
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 0312286260
• ISBN 13: 9780312286262
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Auflage: 1
• Anzahl der Seiten: 288
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: KreGa Onlinehandel GmbH; 4950000000000; info@krega-onlinehandel.de; ; Birkenweg 31; Brakel; 33034; Deutschland