Battling For Health

Diabetes can present two main categories of problems, in the form of short term ill-effects and longer term harm. Minimizing both areas requires discipline.

Rapid spikes or dips in blood glucose level can result in several unpleasant effects: dizziness, disorientation, muscle weakness, nausea and others. For some diabetics, it’s very difficult to prevent this from happening at some time. But there are practices that can improve the odds.

Regular and careful monitoring is a must. It’s no picnic to endure a finger prick three times a day. For those who simply can’t muster the will, it is worthwhile to look into some of the newer glucose monitoring devices that don’t require it.

Some contain tiny, powerful lasers that create a hole through which blood oozes. They produce only a mild tingling sensation. One recent device senses glucose level through the skin using an infrared beam, requiring no blood sample at all.

The goal is to keep the glucose-insulin balance as close to normal levels as possible. Non-diabetics have a fasting glucose level under about 99 mg/dL. Even after a heavy meal, when glucose may rise to over 200 mg/dL, insulin is released which brings it back down within a couple of hours. That means that keeping the glucose level right isn’t so much achieving a static number as maintaining the correct dynamic balance.

Part of a long-term glucose monitoring strategy should encompass regular physician visits with a quarterly A1C test. Several tests exist to measure blood glucose level at a given time. The A1C test provides a picture averaged over a period of months. The name comes from HbA1c, an abbreviation for glycated hemoglobin.

Hemoglobin molecules in the red blood cells carry oxygen to tissues. The extra glucose in the bloodstream of a diabetic causes that hemoglobin to get glycated. That effect persists and allows an A1C test to measure the accumulated result.

Long term the effects will accumulate, good or bad. Over 10-15 years or longer, many diabetes patients of the past would endure blindness, kidney damage, nerve damage and other ill health effects. That no longer has to be the case. With contemporary understanding of the disease and modern technology it’s possible to reduce the odds of those effects nearly to those without the disease.

Exercise and diet are two key elements for the overwhelming majority of diabetes sufferers to help achieve the right glucose-insulin balance.

Keeping body fat low through proper diet and exercise will help. Body fat plays a role in how the body reacts to glucose levels, as well as affecting hormone production and release. While the mechanisms are still being investigated, many studies show there is a clear correlation between body fat and the severity of diabetes effects, as well.

Proper weight and body fat maintenance will also help keep blood pressure at the right level. Chronic high blood pressure is one of the major elements in increasing the risk of common diabetes problems: heart attack and stroke, eye and nerve damage, and others.

With diligence a diabetic can lead a normal life, one very much like those fortunate enough not to have the condition. A little attention a few times a day can lead to not having to pay too much attention at all.

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Hey guys, I’ve tried so hard to post here as much as I can but the holidays has finally taken its toll on me and I have given way to it. It is really difficult not to what with everyone around on the holiday mood.

Anyways, I just wanted to give you the heads up that this will be my last post here for year 2007. I reckon I’ll take  a couple of days off from the blogosphere before the big New Year comes.

If I don’t have too much hang-over, I’ll be back to blog here on January1st, 2008.

SO…you guys have a blast in your New Year’s parties.  But I can’t help but say: Go easy on the booze and don’t smoke and eat too much. It’s not good to welcome the year 2008 feeling heavy and bloated.

Have a prosperous New Year!

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We Have A New Template!

Welcome to the Battling Alzheimer blog. I have finally updated this blog with the new HART-Empire Network template that I have been installing on all the “Battling For Health” series of sites.

Please feel free to look around and give this template a good test spin, with your comments and rating of existing posts. I have updated a few plugins and have included a super caching plugin that should help speed up the viewing of existing posts and images.

At this time .. I am also excited to announce that a new author will be taking over this blog in 2008 .. and well, I’ll let that writer settle in and provide you with all the necessary introductions and new direction of for this blog .. for those “Battling The Monster: Alzheimer’s Disease”

Until then .. Season’s Greetings from HART-Empire Network and all the best for 2008!

Take care.
HART

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The word diabetes is common enough. Nearly everyone has heard it and may know someone who has it. But how many know what it is?

Diabetes is a medical condition identified by continual abnormally high levels of glucose in the blood. It is a disease that results when either the body fails to produce adequate insulin or the cells resist using the insulin produced.

In the first case (too low an amount of insulin produced) diabetes is called Type 1. In the second instance, the condition is known as Type 2 diabetes. Type 1 constitutes about 7% of cases, with Type 2 responsible for 90% or more. The disease affects about 7% of the population of the U.S., occurring more frequently among those age 60 or older.

There are other types, such as gestational diabetes that sometimes afflicts pregnant women, and others. But they are much less common and, in some cases, temporary.

Typical symptoms for either type are abnormally frequent urination, produced by the body’s attempt to clear excess glucose by elimination. As a result, unusual thirst is common, compensated for by drinking higher than average amounts.

Type 1 has historically been known as juvenile onset diabetes, since it affected mostly younger people. Similarly, Type 2 was called adult onset diabetes, since it was found mostly in older adults. In Type 1 diabetes, it’s believed that one of the primary factors causing the disease is an autoimmune system malfunction that affects the pancreas. Type 2 may be caused or worsened by obesity and other factors.

Both have genetic components as risk factors. But in either type, and regardless of the cause, the net effect is the same: an inability to clear glucose out of the bloodstream because of inadequate or faulty insulin production or use.

Insulin is the hormone chiefly responsible for regulating the level of glucose in the body. Many foods that contain carbohydrates are broken down by digestion and produce primarily glucose. That glucose is taken up by the body to supply the energy needed for cell repair, muscle movement and a thousand other functions. Insulin helps the glucose make its way into the cells.

When insulin is produced in too low an amount, or the body’s cells resist the intake of glucose by interfering with insulin’s function, diabetes is the result. Since the pancreas produces the overwhelming majority of the body’s insulin, when some condition causes it to malfunction, diabetes can result.

The condition, whether Type 1 or Type 2, is usually chronic. But chronic doesn’t mean that nothing can be done to minimize the effects. With proper diet and what are today relatively simple treatments, diabetes of either type is manageable. And the disease itself comes in a range of degrees. In some cases, the amount of insulin produced or used is only slightly under what’s needed. In other cases, the pancreas produces almost none or the cells resist it strongly.

Since excess glucose left in the bloodstream can lead to a range of complications, diabetes can have a number of follow on effects. But how severe those effects are depends on the severity of the insulin deprivation or resistance.

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By Robert Groth

Introduction to Multiple Sclerosis

Multiple Sclerosis is known to affect more than 250,000 people world wide and 400,000+ people in the United States of America alone! This disease affects more women than men, and most people show the first signs of this degenerative disease between 20 to 40 years of ages.

A chronic and potentially incapacitating disease, Multiple Sclerosis (MS) affects the central nervous system or the brain and spinal cord areas in your body. Believed to be an autoimmune disorder, MS is a condition where the patient’s immune system produces antibodies against their own body.

These antibodies and WBCs (White blood corpuscles) are then directed against proteins in the “myelin” sheath. The myelin sheath is made up of fatty substance that protects the nerve fibers in the spinal cord and brain. This attack usually results in injury and swelling to the myelin sheath and ultimately to the surrounding nerves. The injury leads to scarring or sclerosis in multiple areas of the central immune system, thus damaging the nerve signals and control muscle coordination as well as vision, and strength.

The nature of it is unpredictable and it can vary in severity from person to person. While some people experience only mild illness, it can lead to permanent disability in many others. Treatments for MS can help in modifying the course of this illness while relieving symptoms as well.

Signs and Symptoms of Multiple Sclerosis

The signs and symptoms are wide and varied. More often than not, they depend on the area where nerve fibers have been affected. Some of the common symptoms of it include:

- Feeling of weakness or numbness in one or both limbs. The feeling usually starts on one side of the body or begins in the bottom half of the body.
- Full or partial loss of vision, typically starts with one eye at a time accompanied by some pain when making eye movement
- Blurring of vision or experiencing double vision
- A tingling or painful sensation in some parts of the body
- Experience of tremor, inability to walk straight, or lack of proper coordination
- Dizziness
- Fatigue
- Muscle stiffness or spastic movement
- Slurred Speech
- Full or Partial paralysis
- Issues with bowel, bladder or sexual functions
- Forgetfulness/memory loss
- Lack of concentration

There are 3 forms of multiple sclerosis:

* Relapsing-remitting MS: Almost 80% people are affected by this type of MS. There are visible relapses with some amount of recovery in between.

* Secondary progressive MS: Technically secondary progressive MS is a form of progressive MS, but chances of relapse are mainly in early-to-mid stages. There is slow and regular loss of cognitive and physical functions. 50% of those who suffer from relapsing remitting MS develop this type of within 10 years of diagnosis.

* Primary progressive MS: There are no relapses in this type of multiple sclerosis. However, there is loss of cognitive and physical functions over a period of time. About 10% people are affected by this type of it.

© CG Groth Inc 2007

Robert Groth, author and speaker was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis in 1990. Receive more information and a free inspirational daily email on how you can beat multiple sclerosis at www.beatmultiplesclerosis.com

Article Source: EzineArticles.com/?expert=Robert_Groth

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By Christina Sponias

Only a philosopher could discover that the human being is completely absurd since this fact means that humanity is totally crazy. A psychiatrist could not come to that conclusion without being considered crazy.

Only a poet could listen to the inner voice of the unconscious wisdom, recognize her ignorance and feel how horrible it is to live in a place where everyone is crazy.

The cure of schizophrenia and psychosis is the total and absolute respect to the moral principles of goodness. A schizophrenic is someone who is completely dominated by the wild side of his or her conscience.

In case the patient is a murderer, one must learn how to forgive oneself, which is usually impossible to achieve since no one can forgive one’s own faults when they have caused despair and misery.

Schizophrenia is a very serious mental and psychic disease that cannot be cured because the wild side has completely dominated the human conscience. There is no human personality in the psychic sphere. This is why schizophrenics cannot recuperate their human conscience once they lose it.

However, they can learn the meaning of their actions and can regain their humanity if they are willing to endure suffering. Suffering is medicine when it gives the patient the necessary conditions that help one become sensitive.

In case schizophrenic patients are victims of other people’s cruelty, they must learn how to forgive their enemies, which is impossible because their enemies hurt them too much.

Schizophrenia is the result of human craziness, the massive craziness that governs our world, a world where terror, violence, immorality, hypocrisy, poverty and indifference coexist. This is the insane world of the crazy human being!

Psychosis is also the result of the same global insanity…

In fact, schizophrenic and psychotic patients are the biggest victims of violence and indifference.

However, they can regain their mental, psychological and emotional health through dream interpretation, even though the process is very difficult and time-consuming. Everything is difficult when we have to deal with diseases as terrible as schizophrenia and psychosis.

Time and many efforts are required, but the patients can be cured!

This is a miracle!

We can cure these horrible diseases and save the people who are affected by them today, but we must surely focus on craziness prevention from now on!

We must put an end to all the horrors of our lives, so that schizophrenia and psychosis ceases to exist in our population.

Massive psychotherapy is indispensable for humanity if we wish to save the human race and our own planet, since we have almost destroyed all the natural sources, and created an imbalance in the nature of Earth.

Unconditional and unrestricted peace, truth, wisdom, patience, piety and goodness are the cures for schizophrenia and psychosis.

Only when we become organized and everyone will be sensitive instead of being indifferent to the horrors they “don’t have the power to eliminate,” will humanity be characterized by psychological, mental and emotional health.

Prevent Depression and Craziness through the scientific method of Dream Interpretation discovered by Carl Jung and simplified by Christina Sponias, a writer who continued Jung’s research in the unknown region of the human psychic sphere.

Learn more at: www.booksirecommend.com

Article Source: EzineArticles.com/?expert=Christina_Sponias

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Indeed good news to women suffering from osteoarthritis.

Initial studies conducted in rats suggested that an existing drug – already known as calcitonin – can help older, post-menopausal women prevent osteoarthritis.

Currently, calcitonin is being used in the treatment of osteoporosis in women.

According to study co-author Morten A. Karsdal, head of pharmacology at Nordic Bioscience (a biotech company that is studying the drug’s prospects as an arthritis treatment):

”Patients “should be hopeful”. It is important to treat both loss of bone and loss of cartilage, the elastic tissue that helps bones tolerate moving against each other.

When bone turnover increases after menopause, due to lower estrogen production, a secondary effect is seen on cartilage, more cartilage is lost.

Ideally, all drugs that may be developed for osteoarthritis will be able to affect both bone and cartilage, as both are in disequilibrium in osteoarthritis.”

BUT we should remember that testing in humans won’t end for another three years — and there’s no guarantee that the drug will work as well in humans as in rats.

Said Dr. J.C. Gallagher, director of the Bone Metabolism Unit at Creighton University Medical School in Omaha, Nebraska:

Hips and knees can be especially susceptible. For many, pain on exercise is the major problem.

As a result, they stop exercising, and this leads to an increase in body weight which increases the ‘load’ on the joints and worsens the arthritis.

There are numerous treatments to relieve osteoarthritis pain but none to stop the wear and tear on the bone, joints and cartilage.

The form of calcitonin used in this study is the oral form which is off the market. Calcitonin is currently available as a nasal spray and an injection only – forms that haven’t been investigated as possible osteoarthritis treatments.

Suffice to say that the initial findings published in the August issue of the journal Arthritis & Rheumatism still has a long way to go before it passes suitability for human testing.

But then, an estimated 10 percent of Americans, and 80 percent of those over 55 women that are especially vulnerable to osteoarthritis will be wanting to know how this particular line of research goes.

Find more details from CBC.Ca News.

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The BMI (Body Mass Index) has become a useful tool in managing weight and body fat percentage in the last 20 years. Calculating it requires only simple arithmetic and can be performed by anyone. It’s important because it provides an objective measurement that, combined with the appropriate scale for age and body type, helps someone manage their body weight more scientifically.

Judgments about body weight can easily become clouded by emotionalism. It’s good to be passionate about managing your body, but you need to get a good grounding in facts, first. BMI is an important tool for achieving that goal.

BMI factors in not only your weight, but also your height. Simply divide your weight in kilograms (1 lb = 0.454 kg) by the square of your height in meters. (1 inch = 2.54 cm)

So, for a person 5 ft 7 in (67 inches) tall, who weighs 120 lbs the calculation would look like this:

Height: 67 inches x 2.54 cm/inch = 170.18 cm = 1.7018 m
Height squared: 1.7018 m x 1.7018 m = 2.896 m^2
Weight: 120 lbs x 0.454 kg/lb = 54.48 kg

So, BMI = 54.48 kg / 2.896 m^2 = 18.81

But what does this number mean? The following table lists one commonly accepted classification, using BMI:

Under 18.5 = Underweight
Between 18.5 and 24.99 = Normal
Between 25 and 29.99 = Overweight
Between 30 and 34.99 = Obese (Class 1)
Between 35 and 39.99 = Obese (Class 2)
40 and above = Extreme Obesity

Of course, anyone near the borderline of one classification shouldn’t panic, since these can’t be anything but guidelines. Nevertheless, anyone nearer the higher range should consider the health risks associated with a high BMI. Some of those are: hypertension, increased risk of cardiovascular disease (heart problems) and increased chance of diabetes. Consult a physician for details.

There are limitations on the usefulness of BMI. It doesn’t take into account different body types, athletic conditioning, age, muscle-to-fat ratio and other characteristics. As a result, it can overestimate the risk for stocky athletes and underestimate it for older individuals who have reduced muscle mass. And, gender isn’t taken into account either. Yet women, just as one example, have a naturally larger percentage of body fat than men, on average.

Another measure is useful to couple with BMI: waist circumference. Since, for men and women both (though particularly for men) body fat is stored preferentially around the waist this can be a useful piece of information. For most men around, say, 5 ft 9 inches a waist measurement over 37 inches (94 cm) is substantial, while one over 40 inches (101.6 cm) indicates a health risk. For women approximately 5 ft 7 inches tall, the numbers are 31 inches (78.7 cm) and 35 inches (89 cm), respectively.

Keep in mind that these are averages, but those with substantial waistlines can see the amount of excess fat stored, confirming that the numbers constitute a useful piece of information.

What to do with, or about, those numbers is a different story, of course. No single measurement tells the whole story about weight, body fat and how to manage it. But these represent useful and objective measures when considering any weight loss program.

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