Free Diabetic Supplies

A new grant awarded to the American Diabetes Association will fund research regarding how hormones in the gut could one day prevent or treat type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease. The American Diabetes Association- Novo Nordisk Clinical/Translational Research Award will provide $1.2 million to support researchers studying the effects of intestinal hormones on obesity and pre-diabetes, two risk factors for type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

The researchers will study the role of glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1) and other hormones in people at risk for or with diabetes. GLP-1 is a hormone secreted in the intestine during digestion that decreases blood glucose levels.

The two grants, totaling $600,000 per grant, will fund investigation in two key areas:
1. Preventing or treating obesity, pre-diabetes and type 2 diabetes. The research will help to better understand the role of incretins, including GLP-1, in the progression of obesity, pre-diabetes and type 2 diabetes. The findings could provide more insight into what biomarkers might be used to allow earlier intervention to prevent and/or treat obesity and/or pre-diabetes before type 2 diabetes develops.

2. Regulating weight, satiety and cardiovascular risk factors. The investigation will look beyond the direct effects of incretins, including GLP-1, and into areas such as weight control, satiety and the effects on cardiovascular risk factors such as triglycerides and blood pressure.

These studies re encouraging because they point to a situation where GLP-1 treatments can positively affect glucose metabolism and may increase beta cell mass, two important elements that could someday lead to a cure for type 2 diabetes.

Studies involving individuals with type 2 diabetes have determined that lowering their blood pressure protected their kidneys from renal disease.

It has been widely acknowledged that high blood pressure – especially when an individual has diabetes – can create very serious problems in the body including stroke, eye damage, cardiovascular issues and more. However, there is a particularly difficult problem with high blood pressure damaging the kidneys, especially in individuals with type 2 diabetes.

In a research study involving over 11,000 participants, researchers were trying to determine how lowering blood pressure – even lower than the normal 120/75 – would affect the kidneys. What they found was extremely encouraging. The researchers randomly assigned patients to a fixed combination of perindopril-indapamide or placebo.

The risk for kidney disease decreased by 21% in patients with BP–lowering treatment, according to the researchers. Lower rates of renal events/kidney problems were associated with lower systolic BP.

In another exciting discovery, renal disease was decreased in patients who did not initially have high BP. Risk for kidney disease was also reduced in patients with BP of 120/70.

These results raised the possibility that patients with type 2 diabetes should be considered for antihypertensive treatment even if they have normal BP, because bringing their blood pressure down to a low level – even lower than the suggested national “normal” numbers – could keep their kidneys from being damaged and keep them healthier longer.

These days when you look in the phone book or on the internet you will find lists and pages of diabetes supplies available. It wasn’t so long ago that if you had diabetes, you had to go to the pharmacy with your prescription from the doctor toget your supplies. Now there are entire companies that specialize in diabetes supplies. There are all sorts of syringes and needles of various sizes and materials. There are alcohol swabs and other supplies that can help administer insulin and keep people from getting infected and there are receptacles to throw needles and other used or contaminated supplies away without getting pricked or cut, thus keeping infection to a minimum.

There are many websites and many providers in the phone book, so searching for what you need can be a bit confusing. It is important that you take your time and compare the website, the materials advertised and the prices shown. Take the time to determine what is the best set of supplies for your situation.

Some information to compare is prices for each type of needle and syrige, the amount and the shipping prices. Some companies advertise free shipping and put in other charges like a handling fee that actually pays for the shipping. Sometimes the handling fee is pretty high. It is important to add up the entire cost and compare several different sites. Try to compare the same size and type of syringe and needle so that you are comparing what you need and the exact prices.

If you have questions, call the phone number and don’t be afraid to ask them. You can also call your local pharmacy. Check their prices for the same items. If the pharmacy’s price is a bit higher, let the pharmacy know how much less the price is through the mail order pharmacy. Quiie often, the local pharmacy will match the mail order price to keep you as a customer.

Wih so many choices you have to do more comparing, but because of these choices you should be able to get the supplies you need at a reasonable price.

Over the past few years there have been many discoveries regarding treatment, maintenance and control of diabetes. There are numerous accounts of diabetes controlled by diet and controlled by certain types and amounts of exercise.

Unfortunately, it is often difficult for many people to stick to a diet, especially if they have to eliminate certain things from their diet that they really like. Keeping up the willpower to avoid certain foods is too much for many people.

As for exercise, people say that they don’t have more than a very few minutes a day to spare, so they do not have time for a good workout. There is more information about exercise and diabetes that has recently
come out. It is somewhat different with a new way of thinking.

Regular aerobic exercise helps prevent diabetes. But if you don’t have time for several lengthy workout sessions each week, researchers have come up with a quick approach to diabetes prevention. They have shown that 7 1/2 minutes per week of high-intensity exercise substantially improved insulin sensitivity in healthy, sedentary people.

The study involved 16 young men who participated in two weeks of high-intensity interval training. The training consisted of four to six 30-second sprints on an exercise bike. The men rested four minutes between each sprint. The total time commitment of each workout session ranged from 17 to 26 minutes, and they burned only 250 calories a week from the workouts.

The study participants were given an oral glucose test, which measures how the body responds to sugar, before and after the two-week training period. In the later test, the amount of time the men’s blood sugar and blood insulin levels were above normal was reduced by 12 percent and 37 percent, respectively.

The authors of the study, from Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, Scotland, say they think the brief workout program works so well on insulin because it involves large muscle groups. Skeletal muscle is the major tissue responsible for the uptake of glucose following a meal. The kind of muscle contractions and breakdown of muscle fibers that occurs in high-intensity interval training seem to result in changes in muscle insulin sensitivity.

So even if you have only a small amount of time to devote to some intense exercise it can help control diabetes blood sugar and blood insuin and reduce blood sugar by 12% and blood insulin by 37%, not to mention the 250 calories burned by investing a few minutes per week. This should be easy to do in an effort to stay healthy and keep your symptoms under control.

There are some new and innovative approaches to help diabetic patients better manage their diabetes. Diabetes has become the most increasingly common condition, according to a report by the National Business Coalition on Health.

At least 85% of health plans now offer support for health promotion and wellness programs at no extra charge to purchasers, and 56% of health plans available offer free biometric testing, according to the analysis of 130 HMOs and PPOs nationwide.

About two-thirds of plans offer disease-management tools and 72% of plans offer practitioner and/or hospital comparison tools on diabetes care. The report used data from the coalition’s standardized tool, eValue8, to measure and compare health plans.

Diabetes medical costs and lost productivity totaled $174 billion in 2007 alone. Each year the total increases, especially since the number of people diagnosed with diabetes in increasing rapidly.

“The emerging diabetes epidemic is a tsunami approaching and employers need to head to higher ground by investing in health promotion, prevention and diabetes-care management,” said Andrew Webber, president and chief executive officer of the Washington-based National Business Coalition on Health.

The findings were released at the Health and Productivity Forum held by the Integrated Benefits Institute and National Business Coalition on Health in Los Angeles.

Many U.S. Hispanics with diabetes are unaware that a potential complication of their condition is eye disease, and they do not get regular eye exams that could identify any problems.

Eye disease is present in many individuals with diabetes but often they have not been diagnosed with diabetes or they assume the problems have to do with needing reading glasses or newer glasses and an eye exam.

That’s the finding of a new survey led by Johns Hopkins University, published in the current Archives of Ophthalmology. The researchers focused on Hispanics because their rate of diabetes is especially high – 1.9 times the rate in non-Hispanic white people – and because for some, the language barrier hinders discussion and understanding about the condition.

Even with bi-lingual or Spanish language conversations only 36 percent of newly diagnosed diabetics knew that. In addition, the percentage climbed to 52 percent among those who’d known they had diabetes for more than a year. Just 30 percent of the diabetics had been to the eye doctor in the previous year.

There are several reasons for this situation including lack of eye-care medical coverage, inability to obtain affordable private insurance or coverage at work, and inability to get medicaid due to various immigration and paperwork issues.

It is essential to begin taking care of your eyes as soon as you notice any sort of problem including blurred or fuzy vision, twitching, pain or anything else out of the ordinary. Often, the situation can be caught i time to keep the eyes from getting worse. In many cases, getting your eyes checked can identify the fact that you have diabetes, helping to save your health on a larger scale.

Don’t ignore your eyes. They can tell you and your doctor a lot about your health.

In today’s news there was a surreal, stunning and horrifying story regarding a 9 year old girl with diabetes who died due to neglect.

This little girl was dependent on her mother for care and control of her diabetes. These areas would include medication, diet and anything else that this young girl needed to keep her diabetes in check.

Unfortunately, Chastity Butler died because of “complications from diabetes.” She died in her mother’s bed lying next to a bag of candy and a artially eaten cupcake.

Child protective services and the Dallas Police Department were familiar with the case. They had been investigating the situation because they had learned that not only was the mother not helping the child control her diabetes, but the child’s sister was administering her insulin shots.

Chastity’s mother, 27 year old Georgia Lee Jones, was arrested on February 2nd, on the grounds that she neglected her daughter and because of that neglect, the mother contributed to Chastity’s death.

“Chasity’s diabetes was not monitored properly causing her to be constantly sick and in bed rather than leading a normal life like other children her age,” police documents say.

Jones’ husband and the father of their 5 children defended her Tuesday. They were young parents, 30-year-old Marqus Butler said, struggling to do their best.

He said that he felt they had been through enough in a statement on Tuesday afternoon. “She’s in jail right now. She lost her daughter. CPS just came in and took my children away. It’s like, when does it stop?”

Chasity’s four younger sisters, ages 2 to 8, have been placed with Butler’s mother, who with her husband was given permanent custody in December.

The Dallas County medical examiner ruled the death natural, due to diabetic complications.

Since more details are not available, there is no condemnation here, however there are many questions. The biggest question is “How could this happen in this day and age when so many people – both children and adults – have a tremendous amount of information. In fact, if anyone talked to Chastity’s mother and simply told her what Chastity could eat and could not eat, that alone could have saved her life.

For parents who have a child with diabetes, it is essential that you get the information that you need so that your child will live a long and healthier life.

If you have diabetes or know someone who does, there is some basic information you should know. For instance, it is important to know about diet and exercise plus what some of the harmful and serious health effects are if diabetes is not controlled.

In addition, you should know how and when to take your blood glucose level. You should know when and how sugar can be part of the equation and be able to create a healthy meal plan. Last but not least, you should know how physical activity fits into your entire plan.

If you look at diabetes as it regards your life and the choices you have to make, you will fare better. If you put together a plan that addresses your diabetes and your whole body and your entire life you will control your diabetes better and feel better, as well.

Here are the Five Facts about Diabetes as written by Griffin P. Rodgers, MD, MACP, Director, National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases.

(NAPSI)-To help people with diabetes better understand how to manage the disease, the National Diabetes Education Program provides five facts about diabetes.

Fact #1: Diabetes is a serious disease. It can lead to serious complications such as heart attack, stroke, blindness, kidney failure, and lower limb amputations. People with diabetes can take steps to manage it and lower their risk for complications. Make healthy food choices, be physically active, and stay at a healthy weight. Good diabetes care includes managing the ABCs of diabetes–as measured by the A1C test, blood pressure, and cholesterol–to help avoid having a heart attack, stroke, or other problems.

Fact #2: The only way to know for sure what your levels are is to check your blood glucose. The absence of symptoms of high blood glucose is an unreliable guide for judging glucose control, since symptoms may not occur until blood glucose reaches high levels. Diabetes is often called a “silent disease” because it can cause serious complications even before you have symptoms. Set your blood glucose targets with your diabetes care team. Ask your health care team to show you how to self-monitor your blood glucose. Keep a record of your results, and share them with your team. Also, know your A1C goal and keep a record of your test results, which reflect your average blood glucose levels over the past three months. It is the best way to know how well your blood glucose is controlled overall.

Fact #3: Small amounts of foods that contain sugar can be part of a healthy meal plan. If you choose to eat sweet foods, just have a small amount at the end of a healthy meal, not every day, or have a piece of fruit rather than a sugary snack.

Fact #4: A healthy meal plan for people with diabetes is a healthy meal plan for everyone. Eat foods that are high in fiber and low in saturated fats, trans fats, cholesterol, salt (sodium), and added sugars. Healthy foods include a colorful mix of fruits and vegetables, fish, lean meats, chicken or turkey without the skin, dry peas or beans, whole grains, and low-fat or skim milk and cheese. Ask your health care team for a healthy meal plan.

Fact #5: Physical activity is safe–and essential–for people with diabetes. Talk to your health care team about ways to safely increase your daily physical activity. Being physically active can help people with diabetes improve their blood glucose, cholesterol, blood pressure, and weight. It also helps improve strength, flexibility, and balance. Start by setting small goals until you reach at least 30 to 60 minutes of physical activity on most days of the week. Brisk walking is a good way to move more. For more information about diabetes, download or order the free Tips to Help You Stay Healthy tip sheet developed by the National Diabetes Education Program at www.YourDiabetesInfo.org or call 1-888-693-NDEP (6337); TTY: 1-866-569-1162.

Jan. 27, 2009 — Rigorous exercise of short duration can significantly affect the body’s ability to process sugars and fight diabetes, a new study suggests.

Web MD. had an article this week that talked about exercise and diabetes. The article discussed the fact that vigorous exercise can be a significant factor in helping the body to process sugars, thus fighting diabetes. The good news is that these exercise sessions can be of a short duration. A session every other day can help control ad process blood sugars immensely.

James Timmons, a professor in the school of engineering and physical sciences, at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, Scotland, says he and a team of investigators looked into the effect of “high-intensity training” on the insulin action and blood sugar control in 16 young, healthy male volunteers. They found that insulin sensitivity improved significantly in the two-week study.

Exercising on a regular basis can definitely reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes and heart disease – both of which are often linked to one another. Most people think they don’t have the time to exercise regularly. The new information strongly suggests that doing a few intense muscle exercises – only about 30 seconds for each exercise – improves your metabolism dramatically in just 2 weeks.

Timmons’ team found that “low-volume, high-intensity training … substantially improved both insulin action and glucose clearance in otherwise sedentary young males.” That shows that “we do not yet fully appreciate the traditional connection between exercise and diabetes,” Timmons says.

Using exercise bikes to perform quick, rigorous sprints for 30 seconds totaling 15 minutes over a two-week period the participants had been either sedentary or recreationally active, but none was in a regular or structured exercise program.

“This novel approach may help people to lead a healthier life, improve the future health of the population, and save the health service millions of dollars simply by making it easier for people to find the time to exercise.”

The findings about this type of exercise regimen are extremely valuable and quite significant, especially since diabetes has become an epidemic throughout the world and is still increasing. Knowing that a little exercise will help reduce the risk of developing diabetes can be a powerful tool in changing peoples’ lives.

Randy Jackson has been living with diabetes for 10 years now. As you can see from watching American Idol, he has energy, spunk, a sense of humor and more. He certainly has not let his diabetes affect his attitude or his lifestyle.

His secret? It’s really no secret. If you or someone you love has diabetes and lives a full life, they know the secret and they are doing what Randy does – following a regimen to help keep diabetes under control.

In an interview with Diabetes Forecast, the consumer magazine of the American Diabetes Association, the American Idol judge and Grammy-award winner shares his story of being diagnosed with diabetes, the hurdles he faced, and the path he chose toward better health.

Jackson was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes in 1999. He was stunned. “They were sneaky symptoms,” he says. “Of course, I didn’t take into consideration that type 2 diabetes ran in my family, because you always think that happens to somebody else, not you.” Soon after his diagnosis, Jackson changed various parts of his life. He changed his diet around by eliminating or minimizing “Southern-fried” foods he enjoyed eating, started an exercise routine, and after much careful consideration, had gastric bypass surgery. (Research studies have proven that gastric bypass surgery and another type of gastric surgery not only help control weight, but in addition, help lower and control blood glucose levels). As a result of these changes, Jackson has set out to talk to people about lifestyle changes that can prevent diabetes and its complications.

Jackson states that he checks his blood sugar three or four times per day. He also keeps healthy foods and snacks around so that he won’t “reach for something bad to eat, because I grew up with certain habits and they are still here.”

In addition to all of the other hats that Jackson wears he has written a new book about his experience with type 2 diabetes. The book discusses the psychological aspects of weight loss, which he feels are more important than people normally realize. “I’ve been on 80 million diets, lost a bunch of weight and gained it all back,” he states. “There’s more going on here than just food.”

Sometimes looking at diabetes through another person’s journey can help us to find our own unique path to better health and better outcomes.