lowerbloodsugar

Your fasting insulin level reflects how healthy your blood glucose levels are over time. Insulin helps sugar move from your blood into your cells, where it can be used or stored. Chronically elevated blood glucose leads to insulin resistance and numerous chronic diseases, including diabetes and heart disease. Elevated blood glucose and insulin resistance are epidemic today. An estimated one in four Americans are either insulin resistant or diabetic.

I work with an endocrinologist and not once has he did an insulin level test..Have you had it done before?

Source – http://fitness.mercola.com/sites/fitness/archive/2012/04/27/vitamin-d-and-blood-test-health-factors.aspx

At 2:17 marker, some startling figures on who controls the medical research publications..

Dr Berg does an awesome job of explaining the ins and outs of high and low blood sugar.
A must see for anyone with diabetes.

diabetes topics
Lower your blood sugar requires exercise, diet and sometimes medication.

After my sobering discussion with my physicians assistant, I started to do more research on the longer term affects of diabetes and the pancreas ability to stop producing insulin over time…in that type 2 over time starts to look exactly like type1.  The body quits producing insulin.  I ran across this article and was excited.

“If this could be used in people,” said Melton, Harvard’s Xander University Professor and co-chair of the University’s Department of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology, “it could eventually mean that instead of taking insulin injections three times a day, you might take an injection of this hormone once a week or once a month, or in the best case maybe even once a year.”

Diet Choices and Long Term Complications
Diet Choices and Long Term Complications

A healthy diet and moderate alcohol consumption may help people with type 2 diabetes reduce their risk of chronic kidney disease or slow its progression, a new study indicates.

Researchers looked at more than 6,200 diabetes patients, and found that nearly 32 percent of them developed chronic kidney disease and about 8 percent died during 5.5 years of follow-up.

Patients with the healthiest diets had a lower risk of kidney disease and of dying than those with the least healthy diets. Patients who ate more than three servings of fruit per week were less likely to develop chronic kidney disease than those who ate less fruit.

The study was published online Aug. 12 in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine.

Patients with the lowest intake of total and animal protein were more likely to develop kidney disease than those with the highest intake, the researchers also found. Moderate alcohol intake was associated with a lower risk of kidney disease and death. Sodium intake was not associated with kidney disease risk, according to a journal news release.

“A healthy diet and moderate intake of alcohol may decrease the incidence or progression of [chronic kidney disease] among individuals with type 2 diabetes. Sodium intake, within a wide range, and normal protein intake are not associated with [chronic kidney disease],” concluded Daniela Dunkler, of McMaster University in Ontario, Canada, and colleagues.

Could the new findings place an added burden on people who already have to be careful of their food choices?

“Patients with both type 2 diabetes and kidney disease may be frustrated by the numerous dietary restrictions that are recommended by their health care team,” Dr. Holly Kramer, of Loyola University, and Dr. Alex Chang, of Johns Hopkins University, wrote in an accompanying commentary.

“Patients may even ask ‘What can I eat?'” they added. “Perhaps the best dietary advice we can give to patients with type 2 diabetes and kidney disease is the same as the advice for those who want to avoid chronic kidney disease, and the same advice for preventing and treating hypertension, and the same dietary advice for everyone: Eat a diet rich in fruits and vegetables, low-fat dairy products, and whole grains while minimizing saturated and total fat.

Diabetes Article – Complete

Higher Blood Sugar Readings and Coffee
Higher Blood Sugar Readings and Coffee

Can coffee affect blood sugar?

The concern about how caffeine effects those with Type 2 diabetes revolves around several small studies. Most recently, Duke University studied 10 people (average age 63) wearing a continuous blood glucose monitor for 72 hours. All were regular coffee drinkers (four cups per day) and all were affected with Type 2 diabetes.

During the study the participants did not drink coffee and instead were given a 250 milligram capsule of caffeine (similar to drinking two to three cups of caffeinated coffee) at breakfast and another 250 milligram capsule of caffeine at lunch. This was alternated on an every other day basis with a placebo pill that did not contain caffeine for a period of two days.

Are there benefits to coffee?

While the Duke study suggests that caffeinated coffee may be a bad habit for diabetics, other studies have shown a decreased risk for developing Type 2 diabetes in those who drink two or more cups per day. To understand why there are puzzling contradictions in these outcomes, remember that coffee is not caffeine alone.

While the caffeine may potentially impede the movement of blood glucose into blood cells in those with Type 2 diabetes, there are other ingredients in coffee (not the cream and sugar) that may prove beneficial as our bodies attempt to control blood sugar:

If you are looking for every possible way to lower your blood sugar, moving to decaf is an option.  If you are like me, that will the last choice.  Exercise and diet are my first choices.

http://healthyliving.msn.com/diseases/diabetes/can-coffee-worsen-diabetes-1

Caffeine Affects Blood Sugar
Caffeine Affects Blood Sugar

Caffeine, which is absorbed into the system at an incredible rate, can temporarily raise blood sugar levels and make for an inaccurate FBS reading. Moreover, the chemical composition of roasted coffee beans is nearly 40 percent sugar (in the form of polysaccharides). Drinking coffee will stimulate the pancreas to excrete insulin, which balances blood sugar, and throw off your test results. http://healthyliving.msn.com/diseases/diabetes/can-i-drink-coffee-before-a-fasting-blood-test-1

Quest is a great local place to have blood work done and learn about diabetes, diabetes testing, diabetes research and more.

Blood Sugar & Diabetes
Blood Sugar & Diabetes

Understand how insulin normally works in the body and what happens when you have diabetes.

Regulate sugar in your bloodstream. The main job of insulin is to keep the level of sugar in the bloodstream within a normal range. After you eat, carbohydrates break down into sugar and enter the bloodstream in the form of glucose, a sugar that serves as a primary source of energy. Normally the pancreas responds by producing insulin, which allows sugar to enter the tissues.
Storage of excess glucose for energy. After you eat — when insulin levels are high — excess glucose is stored in the liver in the form of glycogen. Between meals — when insulin levels are low — the liver releases glycogen into the bloodstream in the form of sugar. This keeps blood sugar levels within a narrow range

If your pancreas secretes little or no insulin (type 1 diabetes) or your body produces too little insulin or has become resistant to insulin’s action (type 2 diabetes), the level of sugar in your bloodstream increases. This is because it’s unable to enter cells.  Complete article on how insulin affects blood sugar

source – ©1998-2013 Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research (MFMER)