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Gregory Santulli
Rx Valet is a wholesale mail order pharmacy and consumer advocacy program that guarantees you the lowest price for all your prescriptions.
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Gregory Santulli 2018-04-16

If your doctor prescribes an expensive drug and you’re uninsured or can’t afford the co-pays, don’t despair. So-called patient-assistance programs, many of them run by pharmaceutical companies, are available to help you get the drugs you need.

 

Each patient-assistance program sets its own eligibility requirements. The income limits vary widely, from 100% of the federal poverty guidelines (which in 2009 stood at $22,050 for a family of four) to over 300% of the guidelines, according to Rich Sagall, MD, president of NeedyMeds, an online clearinghouse of information for people who cannot afford medicine.

 

 

Most patient-assistance programs require the applicant to be an American citizen or legal resident, and most are restricted to the uninsured. “Most programs help people with no insurance, but some will help the underinsured,” says Dr. Sagall. For instance, some companies will provide medications to patients who have reached the limit of their prescription insurance; others help people on Medicare Part D, the federal drug-subsidy program. In general, however, if you qualify for government-funded programs (such as Medicaid), you probably will not be eligible for most patient-assistance programs.

 

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Gregory Santulli 2018-03-16

Most of us who’ve had diabetes for a while have at least a couple of well-meaning people in our lives who like to talk to us about our condition — the aunt who sneaks in comments about how we should be caring for ourselves, or a friend who always brings up the latest new item they read online saying we could cure our condition by simply doing x, y, or z.

 

Please understand, this is not just a trivial matter or a pet peeve. While, yes, it is highly annoying, more importantly, it can foster stigma around having diabetes. Too many “well-meaning” comments can send some people with type 2 Diabetesinto a spiral of shame and self-blame which can lead to self-sabotaging behavior. For example, for some with diabetes, knowing that a loved one is scrutinizing their weight can send them straight to the bottom of a carton of ice cream.

 

 

“You’re going to eat that?” This is probably the most common offender. Diabetes is unique to each person who has it. For some of us, a slice of bread is a no-no; for others, an occasional dessert works fine with the rest of our diet plan. Would you monitor someone else’s blood pressure before they add salt to a steak? I’m guessing not. So, please, back off and trust that we understand our meal plan. And even if we are making a poor decision at that moment, that is our responsibility, not yours.

 

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Gregory Santulli 2018-02-24

Exercise has huge benefits for people with diabetes. If you want to get more active, start your fitness program safely with these tips.

Know How Much Exercise You Need

Get about 30 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise per day, 5 days a week. You’ve got so many options. You could swim laps, dance around your dining room, shoot hoops, or take a hike. Choose something that makes your heart beat faster but doesn’t take you to your limits.

 

If you have type 2 diabetes, you should do two strength-training sessions a week and work all your major muscle groups (arms, legs, shoulders, back, abs, and glutes).

 

Protect Your Feet

Show them some TLC, since diabetes makes foot problems more likely.

Wear cotton socks and athletic shoes to lower your chances of getting foot injuries, especially if you have diabetic nerve damage or circulation problems. Your sneakers should fit well and have plenty of room in the toe.

Every day, check your feet for blisters, cuts, bumps, redness, or sores — even if you didn’t work out that day.

Watch Your Blood Sugar

Exercise can affect your levels right away and over a longer time.

If you take insulin or medications that lower blood sugar levels, test yours 30 minutes before you work out and then every 30 minutes as you exercise to make sure your numbers stay stable.

 

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Gregory Santulli 2018-02-07

Definition

A diabetes diet simply means eating the healthiest foods in moderate amounts and sticking to regular mealtimes.

 

diabetes diet is a healthy-eating plan that’s naturally rich in nutrients and low in fat and calories. Key elements are fruits, vegetables and whole grains. In fact, a diabetes diet is the best eating plan for most everyone.

 

Purpose

 

If you have diabetes or prediabetes, your doctor will likely recommend that you see a dietitian to help you develop a healthy eating plan. The plan helps you control your blood sugar (glucose), manage your weight and control risk factors for heart disease, such as high blood pressure and high blood fats.

 

When you eat excess calories and fat, your body responds by creating an undesirable rise in blood glucose. If blood glucose isn’t kept in check, it can lead to serious problems, such as a dangerously high blood glucose level (hyperglycemia) and long-term complications, such as nerve, kidney and heart damage.

You can help keep your blood glucose level in a safe range by making healthy food choices and tracking your eating habits.

 

Diet details

 

A diabetes diet is based on eating three meals a day at regular times. This helps your body better use the insulin it produces or gets through a medication.

 

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Gregory Santulli 2018-04-16

Every day, countless Americans receive medical bills they can’t afford to pay. The price of healthcare in the United States has cost more than other comparable countries for decades, but lately, it seems like our health is costing us more than ever.

If you’re among the millions of Americans struggling to pay their medical bills, and you don’t believe that you have been charged a true and accurate amount, it’s time to take a closer look at your medical bills and consider negotiating for a lower price.

Negotiating isn’t easy–

 

it requires a lot of time, organization, and patience– but when your bills start to shrink, you’ll know that the process was worth it. Learn how to achieve a corrected hospital bill that reflects only what you truly owe.

 

If possible, don’t wait for your bills to come to you; go to them first. Even before a procedure is administered, try negotiating with your doctor. Some doctors will allow you to pay with cash up front.

 

However, if you’ve already received your bill, you’ll need to learn how to negotiate for fair and reasonable pricing on your hospital bills from a different perspective. The most important thing to know is that, most likely, your hospital bills contain errors.

 

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Gregory Santulli 2018-03-16

It’s well known that having diabetes unfortunately puts a person at a greater risk of heart trouble. The problem has been that physicians with diabetespatients tend to concentrate primarily, if not solely, on blood sugar control. This can leave those patients at risk of heart attack or stroke. But that might change, based on a new study published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine.

The authors of the study reviewed the results of four clinical trials published in The New England Journal of Medicine over the past two years. The trials specifically studied people who had diabetes or who were at risk of diabetes and who had suffered a heart attack or a stroke.

 

 

This finding led the authors of the study to speculate that it was the “newer agents” found in the drugs that made the difference. According to Faramarz Ismail-Beigi, MD, one of the authors of the new review paper, this finding might necessitate a “paradigm shift” in the treatment of Type 2 diabetes.

 

As he put it, “We propose that we must shift from our previous paradigm with its monocular focus on control of blood glucose and hemoglobin A1C, to one of control of blood glucose plus preventing cardiovascular disease and death from cardiovascular causes.”

 

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0
Gregory Santulli 2018-02-24

Definition

A diabetes diet simply means eating the healthiest foods in moderate amounts and sticking to regular mealtimes.

 

diabetes diet is a healthy-eating plan that’s naturally rich in nutrients and low in fat and calories. Key elements are fruits, vegetables and whole grains. In fact, a diabetes diet is the best eating plan for most everyone.

 

Purpose

 

If you have diabetes or prediabetes, your doctor will likely recommend that you see a dietitian to help you develop a healthy eating plan. The plan helps you control your blood sugar (glucose), manage your weight and control risk factors for heart disease, such as high blood pressure and high blood fats.

 

When you eat excess calories and fat, your body responds by creating an undesirable rise in blood glucose. If blood glucose isn’t kept in check, it can lead to serious problems, such as a dangerously high blood glucose level (hyperglycemia) and long-term complications, such as nerve, kidney and heart damage.

You can help keep your blood glucose level in a safe range by making healthy food choices and tracking your eating habits.

 

Diet details

 

A diabetes diet is based on eating three meals a day at regular times. This helps your body better use the insulin it produces or gets through a medication.

 

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Gregory Santulli 2018-02-07

Eating more calories earlier in the day and consuming less food at night may also reduce the odds of a heart attack, stroke or other cardiac or blood vessel diseases, according to the scientific statement from the American Heart Association.

 

“When we eat may be important to consider, in addition to what we eat,” said Marie-Pierre St-Onge, chair of the group that wrote the guidelines and a nutrition researcher at Columbia University Medical Center in New York.

 

When people do eat breakfast daily, they’re less likely to have risk factors for cardiovascular disease like high cholesterol and elevated blood pressure. And people who skip this morning meal are more likely to have risk factors like obesity, poor nutrition and diabetes diet or high blood sugar.

 

That’s because meal timing may affect health by impacting the body’s internal clock. We may not process sugars as well at night as we do during the day, and studies of shift workers have linked this schedule with a greater risk of obesity and heart disease than a typical day job, St-Onge said by email.

 

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Gregory Santulli 2018-04-15

If you have Type 2 diabetes, chances are, you’ll be prescribed an oral diabetes drug fairly soon after your diagnosis. At some point in the course of your treatment, you and your doctor may also decide to add insulin or another injected diabetes drug to your treatment plan.

When deciding what drugs to prescribe or recommend prescribing, your doctor will most likely consider their track record of safety, effectiveness, side effects, how easy they are to take, and possibly what they cost. But another important aspect of drugs may be often overlooked: how likely you are to actually take them as prescribed.

Comparing oral drug adherence

 

In a recent study, researchers looked at how often patients took diabetes drugs as prescribed — covering both oral and injected drugs.

 

 

Published in the journal Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism, the study examined previously published data comparing two or more drugs used to lower blood glucose for Type 2 diabetes. They found a total of 48 such comparisons in their search.

 

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Gregory Santulli 2018-03-16

“Lose some weight” is probably one of the most common pieces of medical advice, particularly in this country (where a full 37% of adults technically qualify as “obese”). The benefits of losing weight are well known — weight loss cuts down on heart disease, extends life expectancy, lowers the likelihood of developing Type 2 diabetes, lowers the risk of stroke and heart attack, and on the list goes. And for anyone who already has diabetes, weight loss can be highly beneficial in improving blood glucose control.

 

Lower BMI (body-mass index, a measure of weight relative to height) is associated with lower insulin requirements for those of us with Type 1, and lowering or sometimes even eliminating the need for injected insulin for those with Type 2. Furthermore,

 

the insulin we DO inject works more efficiently as we lower our BMI, since decreasing excess body fat is known to improve insulin sensitivity.

I could go on, but I think the point is pretty clear — reaching and maintaining a healthy weight is a universally good idea, and one that all of us with diabetes should strive for (and I should point out here, I am part of that 37% of Americans I mentioned above, so I know how hard it can be to achieve that healthy weight — it has become a central focus for me lately, in fact, and the end goal is a long journey ahead of where I stand today). But reaching that healthy weight can be a complicated thing for anyone taking insulin.

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Gregory Santulli 2018-02-22

Non-invasive glucose tracking is the holy grail for diabetics. Everyone who is anyone in the world of wearables is working on ways to crack it, but it’s incredibly difficult to do.

 

Cardiogram, a heart rate tech company, believes it may have found the answer in the heart rate sensor that you’re possibly wearing right now. As part of a new study with researchers at UC San Francisco, Cardiogram found that its DeepHeart neural network can identify signs of diabetes with a simple heart rate sensor from devices ranging from Garmin watches to the first Apple Watch.

 

In the meantime, Cardiogram is looking to roll out the new ability to flag indicators of diabetes and pre-diabetes by the end of 2018.

 

How does it work? Essentially, it’s going off an idea that was established in a 2005 study that showed a correlation between heart rate variability and diabetes. It works like this: As your body developers insulin resistance, your sympathetic nervous system gets hyperactive and your parasympathetic nervous system withdraws. This causes an imbalance in your overall nervous system.

 

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0
Gregory Santulli 2018-02-06

The higher the glucose level, the more the connections between the building blocks fail—and the more insulin is released through leaks between the blocks. What I’ve just described, in layman’s terms, is the chemist John Fossey’s idea for how to deploy glucose responsive insulin, or GRI. Fossey runs a research group at the University of Birmingham in England, where he applies chemistry to try to solve real-world problems. 

 

Until recently, he knew little about the field of diabetes research. But through an email list, he caught wind of a request for applications put out by JDRF, looking for researchers outside the field who could bring new approaches to developing a GRI. To learn more about the project, he logged into a Webinar run by Dr. Sanjoy Dutta. 

As Fossey listened to the Webinar, he realized that his lab’s expertise in creating molecules of various shapes could be a good match. “I was listening to the presentation and I thought, This is us! We have this! I didn’t know about this need before.”

 

“It is our firm conviction that if we don’t continue to lead this area, this area will perish. I look at JDRF as oxygen in this field.” And part of that oxygen is bringing in knowledge from new corners of the science world. “We need some diabetes research expertise to help us reach our dream. John has a unique battery of expertise that we conventionally don’t work with—chemically activatable GRI.

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Gregory Santulli 2018-04-15

Researchers at the University of Texas have announced that they have created a wearable device that can measure diabetes-related compounds in tiny amounts of sweat. Regularly collecting information on these compounds, they say, can enable wearers who have diabetes to make smarter lifestyle choices that can help them better manage their disease.

The developers of the monitor explain that it detects amounts of cortisol, glucose, and interleukin-6 (IL-6). The necessity of measuring blood glucose levels in people with diabetes is well-known. 

 

The reason to measure cortisol is because cortisol increases in moments of stress and in such moments glucose levels tend to rise above the normal range — a situation that can lead first to prediabetes and then to full-blown Type 2 diabetes. Rising IL-6 levels are associated with cortisol secretion during psychological stress. IL-6 also increases basal glucose intake and can influence insulin activity, according to the researchers.

 

Original Post : Sweat Sensor for Diabetes

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Gregory Santulli 2018-03-13

Cold weather can throw off your diabetes management. Here are eight ways winter can present a challenge, and what you can do to maintain your blood sugar control.

1. Keep your diabetes supplies at the right temperature

Like extreme heat, extreme cold can affect your insulin and cause your blood glucose monitor to stop working properly. Joslin Diabetes Center advises not leaving supplies in the car in very cold weather.

 

The same applies to insulin vials, pens, and pumps. Cool is generally OK; very cold or freezing is not. Some experts advise keeping a Thermos of warm tea in your diabetes supply case — you have one of those, don’t you? — to keep supplies warm.

2. Stay out of the cold when you can

Pharmacist and diabetes educator Susan B. Sloane says that higher sugars may make you feel warmer in the cold, but they are still unhealthy. Sloane says, “Remember not to stay out long in extreme cold, especially if you have any cardiac issues or neuropathy. The cold weather can make blood thicker and more prone to clotting.

3. Keep feet and hands warm

Diabetes may reduce circulation to feet, leaving them less able to keep warm in cold weather. Winter may increase your chances of infection and nerve pain in your feet.

Wear the warmest socks and well-fitting shoes or waterproof boots you can get. Pay extra attention to your foot care; inspect your feet carefully every day and use moisturizer if the skin is drying (except between the toes). Wear warm gloves or mittens.

 

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Gregory Santulli 2018-02-21

If you have diabetes, exercise offers surprising benefits. As it lowers your stress levels, it lowers your blood sugar level.

 

How much exercise is right for you? For people with diabetes, The National Institutes of Health  (NIH) recommends 150 minutes of aerobic exercise each week. Exercise is so important for people with diabetes that the American Diabetes Associationrecommends that these patients miss no more than two days of aerobic exercise in a row.

 

There are many exercises that will benefit people with diabetes. Here are five we recommend:

 

Walking — Because anyone can do it almost anywhere, walking is the most popular exercise and one we highly recommend for people with diabetes. Thirty minutes to one hour of brisk walking, three times each week is a great, easy way to increase your physical activity.

 

Tai Chi —This Chinese form of exercise uses slow, smooth body movements to relax the mind and body. In 2009, researchers at the University of Florida studied 62 Korean women assigned to one of two groups—a control group and an exercise group that began a regular practice of Tai Chi. Those who completed the tai chi sessions showed significant improvement in blood sugar control. They also reported increased vitality, energy and mental health.

 

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Gregory Santulli 2017-12-17

Insulin resistance. Prediabetes. Metabolic syndrome. Obesity. Syndrome X. Type 2 diabetes mellitus.

 

Although varying in degree of severity, these diagnoses share the same underlying cause. I’ve set them aside in favor of the term diabesity to describe the state of metabolic imbalance and disease ranging from a little bit of belly fat to insulin resistance to full-blown diabetes.

 

A health epidemic

 

The term diabesity has been around since the 1970s, but data collected over the last two decades has brought it to the forefront today.

The sheer increase in cases of diabetes and obesity tells us something has changed. Worldwide, more than 100 billion people suffer from diabesity. And in the U.S., more than 100 million people are affected, including half of all people over age 65.

Getting to the root of the problem

Understanding a person’s biology is the basis of Functional Medicine, which is grounded in the field of systems biology. In the Cleveland Clinic Center for Functional Medicine, we ask each patient to answer 10 questions related todiabetes.

 

The questions include:

  • Do you have a family history of diabetes, heart disease or obesity?
  • Do you have extra belly fat?
  • Do you have high triglycerides or low HDL (or good) cholesterol?

Patients’ answers inform our understanding of the role lifestyle, health conditions and genetics plays in their disease.

 

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Gregory Santulli 2018-04-16

If your doctor prescribes an expensive drug and you’re uninsured or can’t afford the co-pays, don’t despair. So-called patient-assistance programs, many of them run by pharmaceutical companies, are available to help you get the drugs you need.

 

Each patient-assistance program sets its own eligibility requirements. The income limits vary widely, from 100% of the federal poverty guidelines (which in 2009 stood at $22,050 for a family of four) to over 300% of the guidelines, according to Rich Sagall, MD, president of NeedyMeds, an online clearinghouse of information for people who cannot afford medicine.

 

 

Most patient-assistance programs require the applicant to be an American citizen or legal resident, and most are restricted to the uninsured. “Most programs help people with no insurance, but some will help the underinsured,” says Dr. Sagall. For instance, some companies will provide medications to patients who have reached the limit of their prescription insurance; others help people on Medicare Part D, the federal drug-subsidy program. In general, however, if you qualify for government-funded programs (such as Medicaid), you probably will not be eligible for most patient-assistance programs.

 

Gregory Santulli 2018-04-15

If you have Type 2 diabetes, chances are, you’ll be prescribed an oral diabetes drug fairly soon after your diagnosis. At some point in the course of your treatment, you and your doctor may also decide to add insulin or another injected diabetes drug to your treatment plan.

When deciding what drugs to prescribe or recommend prescribing, your doctor will most likely consider their track record of safety, effectiveness, side effects, how easy they are to take, and possibly what they cost. But another important aspect of drugs may be often overlooked: how likely you are to actually take them as prescribed.

Comparing oral drug adherence

 

In a recent study, researchers looked at how often patients took diabetes drugs as prescribed — covering both oral and injected drugs.

 

 

Published in the journal Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism, the study examined previously published data comparing two or more drugs used to lower blood glucose for Type 2 diabetes. They found a total of 48 such comparisons in their search.

 

Gregory Santulli 2018-03-16

Most of us who’ve had diabetes for a while have at least a couple of well-meaning people in our lives who like to talk to us about our condition — the aunt who sneaks in comments about how we should be caring for ourselves, or a friend who always brings up the latest new item they read online saying we could cure our condition by simply doing x, y, or z.

 

Please understand, this is not just a trivial matter or a pet peeve. While, yes, it is highly annoying, more importantly, it can foster stigma around having diabetes. Too many “well-meaning” comments can send some people with type 2 Diabetesinto a spiral of shame and self-blame which can lead to self-sabotaging behavior. For example, for some with diabetes, knowing that a loved one is scrutinizing their weight can send them straight to the bottom of a carton of ice cream.

 

 

“You’re going to eat that?” This is probably the most common offender. Diabetes is unique to each person who has it. For some of us, a slice of bread is a no-no; for others, an occasional dessert works fine with the rest of our diet plan. Would you monitor someone else’s blood pressure before they add salt to a steak? I’m guessing not. So, please, back off and trust that we understand our meal plan. And even if we are making a poor decision at that moment, that is our responsibility, not yours.

 

Gregory Santulli 2018-03-16

“Lose some weight” is probably one of the most common pieces of medical advice, particularly in this country (where a full 37% of adults technically qualify as “obese”). The benefits of losing weight are well known — weight loss cuts down on heart disease, extends life expectancy, lowers the likelihood of developing Type 2 diabetes, lowers the risk of stroke and heart attack, and on the list goes. And for anyone who already has diabetes, weight loss can be highly beneficial in improving blood glucose control.

 

Lower BMI (body-mass index, a measure of weight relative to height) is associated with lower insulin requirements for those of us with Type 1, and lowering or sometimes even eliminating the need for injected insulin for those with Type 2. Furthermore,

 

the insulin we DO inject works more efficiently as we lower our BMI, since decreasing excess body fat is known to improve insulin sensitivity.

I could go on, but I think the point is pretty clear — reaching and maintaining a healthy weight is a universally good idea, and one that all of us with diabetes should strive for (and I should point out here, I am part of that 37% of Americans I mentioned above, so I know how hard it can be to achieve that healthy weight — it has become a central focus for me lately, in fact, and the end goal is a long journey ahead of where I stand today). But reaching that healthy weight can be a complicated thing for anyone taking insulin.

Gregory Santulli 2018-02-24

Exercise has huge benefits for people with diabetes. If you want to get more active, start your fitness program safely with these tips.

Know How Much Exercise You Need

Get about 30 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise per day, 5 days a week. You’ve got so many options. You could swim laps, dance around your dining room, shoot hoops, or take a hike. Choose something that makes your heart beat faster but doesn’t take you to your limits.

 

If you have type 2 diabetes, you should do two strength-training sessions a week and work all your major muscle groups (arms, legs, shoulders, back, abs, and glutes).

 

Protect Your Feet

Show them some TLC, since diabetes makes foot problems more likely.

Wear cotton socks and athletic shoes to lower your chances of getting foot injuries, especially if you have diabetic nerve damage or circulation problems. Your sneakers should fit well and have plenty of room in the toe.

Every day, check your feet for blisters, cuts, bumps, redness, or sores — even if you didn’t work out that day.

Watch Your Blood Sugar

Exercise can affect your levels right away and over a longer time.

If you take insulin or medications that lower blood sugar levels, test yours 30 minutes before you work out and then every 30 minutes as you exercise to make sure your numbers stay stable.

 

Gregory Santulli 2018-02-22

Non-invasive glucose tracking is the holy grail for diabetics. Everyone who is anyone in the world of wearables is working on ways to crack it, but it’s incredibly difficult to do.

 

Cardiogram, a heart rate tech company, believes it may have found the answer in the heart rate sensor that you’re possibly wearing right now. As part of a new study with researchers at UC San Francisco, Cardiogram found that its DeepHeart neural network can identify signs of diabetes with a simple heart rate sensor from devices ranging from Garmin watches to the first Apple Watch.

 

In the meantime, Cardiogram is looking to roll out the new ability to flag indicators of diabetes and pre-diabetes by the end of 2018.

 

How does it work? Essentially, it’s going off an idea that was established in a 2005 study that showed a correlation between heart rate variability and diabetes. It works like this: As your body developers insulin resistance, your sympathetic nervous system gets hyperactive and your parasympathetic nervous system withdraws. This causes an imbalance in your overall nervous system.

 

Gregory Santulli 2018-02-07

Definition

A diabetes diet simply means eating the healthiest foods in moderate amounts and sticking to regular mealtimes.

 

diabetes diet is a healthy-eating plan that’s naturally rich in nutrients and low in fat and calories. Key elements are fruits, vegetables and whole grains. In fact, a diabetes diet is the best eating plan for most everyone.

 

Purpose

 

If you have diabetes or prediabetes, your doctor will likely recommend that you see a dietitian to help you develop a healthy eating plan. The plan helps you control your blood sugar (glucose), manage your weight and control risk factors for heart disease, such as high blood pressure and high blood fats.

 

When you eat excess calories and fat, your body responds by creating an undesirable rise in blood glucose. If blood glucose isn’t kept in check, it can lead to serious problems, such as a dangerously high blood glucose level (hyperglycemia) and long-term complications, such as nerve, kidney and heart damage.

You can help keep your blood glucose level in a safe range by making healthy food choices and tracking your eating habits.

 

Diet details

 

A diabetes diet is based on eating three meals a day at regular times. This helps your body better use the insulin it produces or gets through a medication.

 

Gregory Santulli 2018-02-06

The higher the glucose level, the more the connections between the building blocks fail—and the more insulin is released through leaks between the blocks. What I’ve just described, in layman’s terms, is the chemist John Fossey’s idea for how to deploy glucose responsive insulin, or GRI. Fossey runs a research group at the University of Birmingham in England, where he applies chemistry to try to solve real-world problems. 

 

Until recently, he knew little about the field of diabetes research. But through an email list, he caught wind of a request for applications put out by JDRF, looking for researchers outside the field who could bring new approaches to developing a GRI. To learn more about the project, he logged into a Webinar run by Dr. Sanjoy Dutta. 

As Fossey listened to the Webinar, he realized that his lab’s expertise in creating molecules of various shapes could be a good match. “I was listening to the presentation and I thought, This is us! We have this! I didn’t know about this need before.”

 

“It is our firm conviction that if we don’t continue to lead this area, this area will perish. I look at JDRF as oxygen in this field.” And part of that oxygen is bringing in knowledge from new corners of the science world. “We need some diabetes research expertise to help us reach our dream. John has a unique battery of expertise that we conventionally don’t work with—chemically activatable GRI.

Gregory Santulli 2018-04-16

Every day, countless Americans receive medical bills they can’t afford to pay. The price of healthcare in the United States has cost more than other comparable countries for decades, but lately, it seems like our health is costing us more than ever.

If you’re among the millions of Americans struggling to pay their medical bills, and you don’t believe that you have been charged a true and accurate amount, it’s time to take a closer look at your medical bills and consider negotiating for a lower price.

Negotiating isn’t easy–

 

it requires a lot of time, organization, and patience– but when your bills start to shrink, you’ll know that the process was worth it. Learn how to achieve a corrected hospital bill that reflects only what you truly owe.

 

If possible, don’t wait for your bills to come to you; go to them first. Even before a procedure is administered, try negotiating with your doctor. Some doctors will allow you to pay with cash up front.

 

However, if you’ve already received your bill, you’ll need to learn how to negotiate for fair and reasonable pricing on your hospital bills from a different perspective. The most important thing to know is that, most likely, your hospital bills contain errors.

 

Gregory Santulli 2018-04-15

Researchers at the University of Texas have announced that they have created a wearable device that can measure diabetes-related compounds in tiny amounts of sweat. Regularly collecting information on these compounds, they say, can enable wearers who have diabetes to make smarter lifestyle choices that can help them better manage their disease.

The developers of the monitor explain that it detects amounts of cortisol, glucose, and interleukin-6 (IL-6). The necessity of measuring blood glucose levels in people with diabetes is well-known. 

 

The reason to measure cortisol is because cortisol increases in moments of stress and in such moments glucose levels tend to rise above the normal range — a situation that can lead first to prediabetes and then to full-blown Type 2 diabetes. Rising IL-6 levels are associated with cortisol secretion during psychological stress. IL-6 also increases basal glucose intake and can influence insulin activity, according to the researchers.

 

Original Post : Sweat Sensor for Diabetes

Gregory Santulli 2018-03-16

It’s well known that having diabetes unfortunately puts a person at a greater risk of heart trouble. The problem has been that physicians with diabetespatients tend to concentrate primarily, if not solely, on blood sugar control. This can leave those patients at risk of heart attack or stroke. But that might change, based on a new study published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine.

The authors of the study reviewed the results of four clinical trials published in The New England Journal of Medicine over the past two years. The trials specifically studied people who had diabetes or who were at risk of diabetes and who had suffered a heart attack or a stroke.

 

 

This finding led the authors of the study to speculate that it was the “newer agents” found in the drugs that made the difference. According to Faramarz Ismail-Beigi, MD, one of the authors of the new review paper, this finding might necessitate a “paradigm shift” in the treatment of Type 2 diabetes.

 

As he put it, “We propose that we must shift from our previous paradigm with its monocular focus on control of blood glucose and hemoglobin A1C, to one of control of blood glucose plus preventing cardiovascular disease and death from cardiovascular causes.”

 

Gregory Santulli 2018-03-13

Cold weather can throw off your diabetes management. Here are eight ways winter can present a challenge, and what you can do to maintain your blood sugar control.

1. Keep your diabetes supplies at the right temperature

Like extreme heat, extreme cold can affect your insulin and cause your blood glucose monitor to stop working properly. Joslin Diabetes Center advises not leaving supplies in the car in very cold weather.

 

The same applies to insulin vials, pens, and pumps. Cool is generally OK; very cold or freezing is not. Some experts advise keeping a Thermos of warm tea in your diabetes supply case — you have one of those, don’t you? — to keep supplies warm.

2. Stay out of the cold when you can

Pharmacist and diabetes educator Susan B. Sloane says that higher sugars may make you feel warmer in the cold, but they are still unhealthy. Sloane says, “Remember not to stay out long in extreme cold, especially if you have any cardiac issues or neuropathy. The cold weather can make blood thicker and more prone to clotting.

3. Keep feet and hands warm

Diabetes may reduce circulation to feet, leaving them less able to keep warm in cold weather. Winter may increase your chances of infection and nerve pain in your feet.

Wear the warmest socks and well-fitting shoes or waterproof boots you can get. Pay extra attention to your foot care; inspect your feet carefully every day and use moisturizer if the skin is drying (except between the toes). Wear warm gloves or mittens.

 

Gregory Santulli 2018-02-24

Definition

A diabetes diet simply means eating the healthiest foods in moderate amounts and sticking to regular mealtimes.

 

diabetes diet is a healthy-eating plan that’s naturally rich in nutrients and low in fat and calories. Key elements are fruits, vegetables and whole grains. In fact, a diabetes diet is the best eating plan for most everyone.

 

Purpose

 

If you have diabetes or prediabetes, your doctor will likely recommend that you see a dietitian to help you develop a healthy eating plan. The plan helps you control your blood sugar (glucose), manage your weight and control risk factors for heart disease, such as high blood pressure and high blood fats.

 

When you eat excess calories and fat, your body responds by creating an undesirable rise in blood glucose. If blood glucose isn’t kept in check, it can lead to serious problems, such as a dangerously high blood glucose level (hyperglycemia) and long-term complications, such as nerve, kidney and heart damage.

You can help keep your blood glucose level in a safe range by making healthy food choices and tracking your eating habits.

 

Diet details

 

A diabetes diet is based on eating three meals a day at regular times. This helps your body better use the insulin it produces or gets through a medication.

 

Gregory Santulli 2018-02-21

If you have diabetes, exercise offers surprising benefits. As it lowers your stress levels, it lowers your blood sugar level.

 

How much exercise is right for you? For people with diabetes, The National Institutes of Health  (NIH) recommends 150 minutes of aerobic exercise each week. Exercise is so important for people with diabetes that the American Diabetes Associationrecommends that these patients miss no more than two days of aerobic exercise in a row.

 

There are many exercises that will benefit people with diabetes. Here are five we recommend:

 

Walking — Because anyone can do it almost anywhere, walking is the most popular exercise and one we highly recommend for people with diabetes. Thirty minutes to one hour of brisk walking, three times each week is a great, easy way to increase your physical activity.

 

Tai Chi —This Chinese form of exercise uses slow, smooth body movements to relax the mind and body. In 2009, researchers at the University of Florida studied 62 Korean women assigned to one of two groups—a control group and an exercise group that began a regular practice of Tai Chi. Those who completed the tai chi sessions showed significant improvement in blood sugar control. They also reported increased vitality, energy and mental health.

 

Gregory Santulli 2018-02-07

Eating more calories earlier in the day and consuming less food at night may also reduce the odds of a heart attack, stroke or other cardiac or blood vessel diseases, according to the scientific statement from the American Heart Association.

 

“When we eat may be important to consider, in addition to what we eat,” said Marie-Pierre St-Onge, chair of the group that wrote the guidelines and a nutrition researcher at Columbia University Medical Center in New York.

 

When people do eat breakfast daily, they’re less likely to have risk factors for cardiovascular disease like high cholesterol and elevated blood pressure. And people who skip this morning meal are more likely to have risk factors like obesity, poor nutrition and diabetes diet or high blood sugar.

 

That’s because meal timing may affect health by impacting the body’s internal clock. We may not process sugars as well at night as we do during the day, and studies of shift workers have linked this schedule with a greater risk of obesity and heart disease than a typical day job, St-Onge said by email.

 

Gregory Santulli 2017-12-17

Insulin resistance. Prediabetes. Metabolic syndrome. Obesity. Syndrome X. Type 2 diabetes mellitus.

 

Although varying in degree of severity, these diagnoses share the same underlying cause. I’ve set them aside in favor of the term diabesity to describe the state of metabolic imbalance and disease ranging from a little bit of belly fat to insulin resistance to full-blown diabetes.

 

A health epidemic

 

The term diabesity has been around since the 1970s, but data collected over the last two decades has brought it to the forefront today.

The sheer increase in cases of diabetes and obesity tells us something has changed. Worldwide, more than 100 billion people suffer from diabesity. And in the U.S., more than 100 million people are affected, including half of all people over age 65.

Getting to the root of the problem

Understanding a person’s biology is the basis of Functional Medicine, which is grounded in the field of systems biology. In the Cleveland Clinic Center for Functional Medicine, we ask each patient to answer 10 questions related todiabetes.

 

The questions include:

  • Do you have a family history of diabetes, heart disease or obesity?
  • Do you have extra belly fat?
  • Do you have high triglycerides or low HDL (or good) cholesterol?

Patients’ answers inform our understanding of the role lifestyle, health conditions and genetics plays in their disease.