Diabetes Treatment Today
Y course helps those at risk for diabetes
It’s hard to admit life’s taken an unhealthy turn.
But that’s the reality for many frantically busy adults who sacrifice good food choices and fitness. Nearly 23 million Americans today live with Type 2 diabetes, a preventable but increasingly common chronic health condition.
Tampa resident Mary Shorter watched as diabetes nearly killed her older sister, and she vowed a year ago to avoid a similar fate. It started by acknowledging that her sedentary habits and what she ate were keeping her body from producing sufficient insulin.
“I refuse to be a diabetic,” says Shorter, who already has lost more than 45 pounds. “I’m doing everything within my powers.”
She knew a diabetes-fighting strategy involved more than just weight loss. She wanted to learn more about nutrition and exercise, and recently enrolled in a 16-week diabetes-prevention class just launched at five Tampa Metropolitan Area YMCA branches.
Four weeks into a class at Valrico’s Campo Y, Shorter and three other women are filling out food journals, reading food labels and learning the differences between carbs, fats and sugars. Instructor Mae Allen doles out lifestyle changes in small bites, offering tips for navigating restaurants and stressful situations.
“You may have ups, you may have downs, but you can get back on it,” says Allen, one of 12 Y lifestyle coaches trained to teach the course at the Y or for community groups.
The 16-week commitment keeps the topic from becoming overwhelming, and a weekly weigh-in holds students accountable, participant Jeannette Hirschkowtiz says.
What affected her most was hearing how classmates have seen fathers, sisters and friends affected by diabetes, the Valrico resident says.
“I have a 6-year-old. Oh, my gosh, I didn’t want to be in a wheelchair. … It began sinking in that (the risk for diabetes) is real,” says Hirschkowitz, who was diagnosed as pre-diabetic and reluctantly signed up for the class.
The Y classes are part of a national partnership with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which estimates 1 in 10 Americans has Type 2 diabetes. A recent report issued a more dire prediction: 1 in 3 Americans will be diagnosed with the condition by 2050 if drastic changes aren’t made.
The 16-week Y diabetes prevention course and year-long maintenance follow-up are based on CDC studies that show a 7 percent loss in body weight can reduce the risk of developing diabetes by 58 percent. For a 200-pound man or woman, that translates to just 14 pounds, says Maureen Chiodini, the Tampa Y’s associate vice president of membership and programs.
“It’s not overwhelming,” Chiodini says of the plan that encourages weight loss of 1 to 2 pounds a week and promotes physical activity of at least 150 minutes a week.
Enrollment for the class is ongoing; it costs $100, or $50 for Y members. Participants must be overweight or obese and at high risk for developing Type 2 diabetes. Those already diagnosed as pre-diabetic also qualify.
Martha Gutierrez of Valrico signed up to set a better example for her 11-year-old daughter. She is now working out before the weekly class and has changed when and what she eats, switching, for example, from granola bars to high-fiber bars.
Shorter, whose sister spent three months in a diabetic coma, now takes her sibling along for a daily walk. She spends 30 minutes walking a day; her sister is working up to walking five.
“If there was any way I could … influence other kids in my family, I would,” Shorter says. “I want to wake up every morning saying I’m healthy.”
Dietary intervention may lower risk of type 1 diabetes
It is generally thought that genetic predispositions determine whether or not a child will develop type 1 diabetes. While genetics play a large role, a new study from European researchers has found that nutrition in the early stages of life may also factor into the equation.
For the study, which was published in the New England Journal of Medicine, researchers examined 230 newborns who had at least one family member affected by type 1 diabetes and tested positive for genetic predisposition to the disease.
Half of the newborns were weaned onto regular cow’s milk while the remainder were weaned onto a hydrolyzed casein-based formula. Researchers found that 8 percent of children in the cow’s milk group developed type 1 diabetes by age 10 while only 4 percent of children in the formula group developed the condition.
“The study showed that the safe and simple dietary intervention applied in this pilot trial was capable of reducing the emergence of diabetes-predictive autoantibodies by about 50 percent by age 10 in the participants carrying increased disease risk,” said Mikael Knip, the University of Helsinki researcher who led the investigation.
Symptoms and causes of juvenile diabetes explained
Juvenile diabetes or juvenile diabetes mellitus is now more commonly called Type 1 diabetes. It’s a syndrome with disordered metabolism and inappropriately high blood glucose levels due to a deficiency of insulin secretion in the pancreas. Juvenile Diabetes is believed to be an autoimmune disorder and there is also a strong hereditary component. Researchers believe an environmental trigger or virus causes the body to attack the beta cells in the pancreas, and once these cells are destroyed the body can no longer produce insulin.
LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) – Rapid weight loss is one of the first symptoms of diabetes, especially if the child also has increased hunger and especially after eating. Other Symptoms include frequent urination, dry mouth, fatigue, blurred vision and numbness or tingling of the hands or feet.
There are many myths and misinformation about diabetes. There is also confusion between type 1 diabetes and type 2 diabetes. The symptoms for both are for the most part the same, however, the cause and treatment is very different.
Juvenile diabetes can affect anyone of any age, but is more common in people under 30 years and tends to develop in childhood.
The risk of juvenile diabetes is higher than virtually all other severe chronic diseases of childhood. Juvenile diabetes tends to run in families. Brothers and sisters of a child with juvenile diabetes have at least 100 times the risk of developing juvenile diabetes as a child in an unaffected family.
The symptoms of Type 1 diabetes and Type 2 diabetes are extremely similar, but the two are caused by very different bodily malfunctions. It is important to know which type the individual is afflicted with in order to provide the right treatment, which also varies between types.
It’s not always apparent that a child has type 1 or juvenile diabetes. Some of the symptoms seem like average childhood problems that occur. Nausea and/or vomiting can be misconstrued as the flu. Irritability, being tired and listless may be attributed to behaviors all children exhibit at one time or another. The discovery of juvenile diabetes may happen during a visit to a physician for another ailment such as a vaginal yeast infection for girls or even a routine examination.
Juvenile diabetes is the idea that it can be caught from another person. Juvenile diabetes, along with the other types of the disease, is absolutely not a contagious disease. Another misconception about the disease is the traditional belief that eating sweets can directly cause diabetes. In a way, eating too much sweet may eventually cause diabetes because doing so can lead to obesity. But eating sweets does not cause diabetes. Stress is never a cause of juvenile diabetes or any type of diabetes.
Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation announces $100 million diabetes initiative
The Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation has announced the launch of a five-year, $100 million initiative that will draw on the organization’s experience with community-based, non-medical support services to help people living with type 2 diabetes better manage the disease.
Type 2 diabetes is the most common form of diabetes in the world, affecting one in 12 Americans. People with the disease either do not produce enough insulin, an enzyme that allows glucose to bring energy to cells, or their cells do not respond to the insulin they do produce – a disorder called “insulin resistance.” When glucose cannot be metabolized, cells can starve, the affected person can become severely dehydrated or even comatose and excess glucose in the bloodstream can damage the eyes, kidneys, nerves, heart and other organs.
The initiative, called Together on Diabetes: Communities Uniting to Meet America’s Diabetes Challenge, will work to further develop effective self-management for those affected by the disease and help engage people and communities in the fight against type 2 diabetes. The program will also include an “innovation fund,” which will support efforts to encourage and test new ideas for controlling type 2 diabetes.
“Type 2 diabetes is one of the United States’ greatest health challenges and disproportionately affects the poor, minorities, and the elderly, many of whom are not receiving the care and support they need to improve their glycemic control,” said Bristol-Myers Squibb CEO Lamberto Andreotti. “Together on Diabetes will draw on the strengths of communities and support public and private sector partners coming together to identify and implement disease management approaches that work for large segments of the population.”