Diabetes and Exercise - Why the Connection is Vitally Important

Almost twenty-one million people in the US are living with diabetes and an estimated 6.2 million of these people don't know that they have diabetes because they are undiagnosed. People with diabetes, on average, have medical expenditures that are 2.3 times higher than non-diabetics, according to the American Diabetes Association. Another study in Population Health Management estimates that diabetes is costing our nation $218 billion dollars in health care every year. Yet, most diabetes cases are preventable or reversible through exercise, weight loss, and healthy living.

I find myself wondering. What if the 6.2 million people who were undiagnosed knew they had diabetes? Or the estimated 57 million Americans with Pre-Diabetes were educated on how they could mange their health and avoid becoming a Type 2 Diabetic?

Being diagnosed as Pre-Diabetic does not mean that Type 2 diabetes is inevitable. If you lose weight and increase your physical activity, you can prevent or delay diabetes and even return your blood glucose levels to normal (ACSM 2006). (See sidebar for diabetes terms defined)

This is a very important point that many people do not understand - if you exercise and lose weight you can prevent or delay diabetes.

Do you know the signs of diabetes? Take a look around you. Do you see any signs of diabetes in your friends and family right now? (See sidebar for common signs of diabetes) It is very possible that there are people that are diabetic (or will become diabetic) around you every day. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that one in three Americans may develop diabetes in their lifetime. Those statistics are staggering and PREVENTABLE for most.

What about Type 2 diabetics that have been diagnosed? What if we educated them that through diet and exercise they could reduce their medication or eliminate it? What would this do for our health care crisis? I know that we'd first have to break through many myths, magic solutions, and limiting beliefs. The pharmaceutical companies won't be happy with me letting this secret out either. But, what the heck, our health care system is in a crisis! Our Nation is sick! There, I said it. So let's get down to the business of taking some personal responsibility for our health.

Many of you who are trying to understand diabetes and take responsibility for your health immediately have several questions:

o Should you cut out sugar?
o Is your weight putting you at risk?
o If you are skinny, you don't have to worry, right?
o Can exercise and diet really help YOU?
o How do I control blood sugar levels?

And then there are the issues that you might not even know to ask about:

o Having diabetes for more than five years can increase your likelihood of developing cardiovascular disease
o Regular exercise can make you more sensitive to insulin, which can reduce medication dosages

First, let's talk about insulin, the prime medication that keeps diabetics functioning and then you can see the answers clearly to your questions.

How does insulin work? Insulin is the main hormone that controls the entry of blood sugar from the blood stream into the cells of the body to be used as energy. How does exercise influence the insulin hormone? Exercise has an insulin-like effect on the body. When exercising, your muscles require a steady flow of sugar to keep contracting and keep you moving. Exercise increases the rate at which your muscles take up the sugar from your blood stream; so exercise acts the same as insulin by emptying the excess sugar in your blood stream into your muscles. This action, therefore, lowers your blood sugar. One twenty minute walk a day can lower glucose levels by twenty points.

Here is a great example to explain insulin's function in your body. Think of insulin as a bus for a moment. Glucose (sugar) is the passenger. There are two types of diabetics. Type 1 diabetics manufacture no insulin (or have no bus), which, according to the Center for Disease Control, is 5% - 10% of all diagnosed cases. The second type (Type 2), have insulin resistance, which means the bus is there, but it is not picking up passengers and, there are less buses running the route. According to the Center for Disease Control, Type 2 diabetes accounts for 90%-95% of all diagnosed cases.

When you exercise, your muscles work harder than usual and require more fuel than usual; so your muscles send out their own buses to pick up the sugar in the bloodstream and carry it back to the muscles. Working muscles take over for insulin and (for Type 2 diabetics) they can even show the buses (insulin) how to work again (pick up passengers).

Exercising has many benefits for a diabetic. It increases glucose uptake by the cells, improves insulin sensitivity by improving glucose metabolism and reduces the risk of cardiovascular disease. Reduction of blood glucose levels improves insulin sensitivity by making it more effective. Exercise may reduce dosage requirements or need for medication and improve the ability to lose and/ or maintain body weight if combined with an intuitive diet. (See sidebar for Safe Exercise Check List)

There are many popular myths about diabetes. Here are a few that I hear often.

Myth #1 - Diabetics can't eat sugar or sweets and the only reason they have diabetes is because they ate too much sugar. Yes, simple carbohydrates or sweets do raise your blood glucose levels but if you eat them in moderation and make them part of your meal plan, you can safely eat an occasional sweet

Myth #2 - If I'm skinny I'm fine. Diabetes is only a disease that obese people get.
Not completely true, 20% of people with Type 2 Diabetes are slim. Yes, being obese does put you at risk for Type 2 Diabetes, high blood pressure and high cholesterol. The key thing to remember is that there is not an atypical "diabetes" body type, genetic trait, race, age or gender. Type 2 diabetes is caused by lifestyle choices and diabetes is a disease to take seriously.

Myth #3 - There is no natural remedy for Diabetes. If I take insulin or insulin sensitivity drugs I can continue with my same lifestyle choices and be alright. Well there is a natural remedy, it is called exercise and balanced eating. You can keep a tight control on diabetes by monitoring your glucose levels, combining exercise with balanced eating, or use medication.

Myth #4 - Well I'm only borderline and 170 mg/dl blood sugar reading is normal for me. You may feel normal being a diabetic but high glucose levels are not safe. There is no such thing as borderline. You either are a diabetic or you are not a diabetic. This is a serious disease that requires you to take personal responsibility for your body. There is serious health complications associated with diabetes, especially when you are stressing your body with high blood sugar levels. You have to start to make lifestyle changes so that you can live a quality life over the long term.

Myth #5 - Exercise! What can that do for me? Blah! Blah! Healthy Lifestyle Blah! Yeah, Yeah, I know. The American Diabetic Association recommends 150 minutes of exercise a week. This is exercise of 20-60 minutes, in continuous sessions, 3-5 times a week. The Diabetes Prevention Study revealed that exercising for a total of two hours a week can reduce the risk of developing diabetes by 50%, that can be as little as 20 minutes, 6 days a week. Take a short, ten minute walk before and after work and you can prevent diabetes or lower your glucose levels.

The fact is, over 90% of diabetes cases are preventable and can be maintained with some natural remedies such as exercising, healthy eating, and/or combined with low doses of medication without tapping into our health care system to the tune of $218 billion. Start gradually and exercise a little everyday until you build up to the recommended guidelines. Eat a balanced, healthy diet and lose the all or nothing approach. Get educated about your disease, determine what your beliefs are about diabetes and make lifestyle changes starting today. (See sidebar Want to Learn More)

Diabetes is serious but you can do something about it!

Side Bars:

Diabetes Terms Defined
o Type 1 = Auto immune disease that destroys insulin producing cells in the pancreas. The body cannot manufacture its own insulin because the beta cells of the pancreas that are responsible for insulin production are destroyed. About 5-10% of all diagnosed cases (CDC 2005)

o Type 2 = body loses its sensitivity to insulin so the body's cells are unable to utilize insulin properly (also knows as insulin resistance or adult onset diabetes). About 90% - 95% of all diagnosed cases (CDC 2005)

o Pre-Diabetes = If you have a fasting plasma glucose test (FPG) and your levels are 100 mg/dl to 125 mg/dl you are diagnosed as showing signs of becoming a diabetic unless you make some lifestyle changes

o Gestational Diabetes = When pregnancy hormones interfere with the mothers insulin, causing glucose levels to rise. This is a form of insulin resistance that in most cases ends with the birth of the child.

o Metabolic Syndrome = A combination of medical disorders that increases the risk factors of developing cardiovascular disease, obesity, hypertension, low high-density lipoprotein (HDL), high cholesterol levels and elevated plasma triglyceride levels.

o Hypoglycemic = abnormally low blood sugar levels which could be caused by excessive insulin, or your diet. Signs would be: trembling or shakiness, nervousness, rapid heart beat, increased sweating, headache, impaired concentration or attentiveness, unconsciousness and coma

o Hyperglycemic = abnormally high blood sugar levels. Signs would be: frequent urination, great thirst, nausea, abdominal pain, dry skin, disorientation, labored breathing, and drowsiness.

Do you know the signs of diabetes? Some very telltale signs include:
o frequent thirst, hunger and urination
o weight loss
o fatigue
o crankiness
o frequent infections
o blurred vision
o cuts/ bruises that are slow to heal
o tingling and numbness in hands and feet
o recurring skin, gum and bladder infections

Safe Exercise Check List
o Get physician clearance before starting any exercise program
o Test your blood glucose level before exercise, immediately after exercise, and again two hours after exercise
o Follow general guidelines for a safe exercise session; warm-up, cool-down, stretch, adhere to an intensity of Type 1 (3 to 5 RPE) and Type 2 (3 to 6/7 RPE), drink plenty of water
o Wear well-fitting, well cushioned, supportive shoes
o Wear polyester or cotton polyester socks so that your feet stay dry and minimize trauma to the foot
o Avoid strenuous, high-impact or static activity unless specifically approved by your doctor
o Carry a carbohydrate snack with you of 10-15 grams of carbohydrate
o Wear identification that tells others you have diabetes in case of a hypoglycemic response http://www.n-styleid.com
o Know and monitor signs of exercise induced hypoglycemia
o Do not exercise if 250 mg/ dl blood glucose levels or if you have ketones in your urine
o If you have autonomic neuropathy, peripheral neuropathy, neuropathy, retinopathy or any other related conditions to diabetes, you must get a doctors approval before starting an exercise program. These conditions require specific and strict guidelines.
o Exercise with a partner until you know your response to exercise
o Always check your feet before and after exercise for lesions
o Drink plenty of water. A good rule is to take a mouthful or two at least every fifteen minutes

Kimberly Searl has been a fitness professional since 2005. She holds a bachelors degree in Applied Science from Youngstown State University. Kimberly is also certified as a W.I.T.S. Personal Trainer, Master Fitness by Phone® Coach, Classical Pilates Teacher, 200 r.y.t. YogaFit® Instructor, Intuitive Eating Coach, Get A Grip/ Aging Gracefully Coach, A Diabetic Lifestyle Specialist Coach and A.F.A.A. Group Exercise Instructor.

Kimberly opened Mind/Body: Balance in 2007. Her business specializes in designing exercise programs for individuals, special populations, diabetics and clients wanting and needing to make long-term lifestyle changes. Kimberly strives to inspire clients to transform their mind and body; finding balance through learning and self-discovery.

Want to Learn More? Additional Resources:

Benefits of exercise to diabetics

How you can naturally reverse diabetes

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Diabetes Cure: A Roadmap To a Reversing Diabetes

You First Need To Change Your Mindset

Traditional medicine teaches you to "manage" your diabetes. Everything in traditional treatment revolves around "controlling" your blood sugar. You will need a radical shift in how you approach things if you want to reverse your diabetes. "Managing the disease" and "controlling blood sugar" is not going to cure diabetes! Curing diabetes is a very obtainable goal but in order to reach that goal you must first make it your primary goal - NOT just controlling blood sugar. You need to get down to the root causes of the disease and fix THOSE. If you do this, your blood sugar will go down naturally.

Food Can Be Medicine and It Can Be Poison

Hippocrates, the ancient Greek physician, is known for saying, "Let food be thy medicine and let thy medicine be food." Food can literally cure disease or it can cause disease, depending on what you eat. People with diabetes have damaged their cell membranes through years/decades of eating toxic foods... and no, I'm NOT talking about sugar or fat. The endocrine system of diabetics is damaged and their hormones are out of balance. Eating the right food and eliminating toxic food like trans fat is literally like taking the right medicine and it will literally put you on the fast track to reversing your diabetes.

Start Taking Better Care of Your Emotional and Mental Health

When most people think about getting healthy and curing disease, they automatically focus on their physical health. However, you need to understand that your emotional and mental health very directly and emphatically affect your physical health. In fact, emotional and mental stress is the #1 overlooked cause of diabetes. Research has clearly shown that stress causes insulin resistance. It causes an increase in stress-related hormones which over time cause diabetes. Reducing stress will help cure your diabetes.

Exercise More But Not Necessarily In the Traditional Sense

It has been well proven that exercise can help with reversing diabetes. However, if you haven't exercised for a long time, the idea of starting to exercise may seem daunting. If you are feeling this way, I want you to remember that exercise does not have to be a high energy activity like jogging, lifting weights, or aerobics. Research has shown that just a small amount of low-impact exercise can reap a huge benefit. Just a simple walk in your neighborhood, a little yard work, or just getting out of the house doing light activities can make a world of difference.

Dig Deeper, Pay Attention To Details, and Don't Be Fooled By the Over-Simplification of Facts

If you get the right information, you will have the power to cure diabetes. You need to start digging deeper and understanding that details matter. Don't accept everything at face value. Don't rely on what you read in magazines or on the internet. The popular press often glosses over pertinent information - information that you need to really make a plan work. The press often omits important details and they almost always over-simplify to the point of not giving you all the information you actually need. You need to seek more detailed information whenever possible. You need to understand how important this is.

Take Good Care of Your Soul and Spirit

For some people this means being involved in organized religion. For others, however, this may mean something quite different: learning to take time to smell the roses, reconnecting with family and friends, pursuing hobbies that bring you great joy, visiting places that give you a sense of internal peace, exploring the wonders of nature, meditation, listening to 30 minutes a day of music you love, adopting a pet to share your life with, etc... Only you can decide what lifts your spirit and nurtures your soul. The point that I am making is that you need to make this one of the highest priorities in your life and don't let anything stand in your way of doing so.

Be An Active Participant In Your Own Diabetes Cure

Most people that have cured their diabetes have one thing in common: they took charge of their own destiny. If you want to reverse diabetes, It is extremely important that you do not blindly follow what your doctor (or anyone) tells you. Your doctor should be an important adviser to you but he/she should not be running the show - YOU need to be the one in charge. The opinions and approaches of doctors vary widely. Some doctors are more compatible with the goal of curing diabetes naturally than others. If you find that your current doctor is resistant to this idea, it is probably in your best interest to shop for a new doctor.

Are You Ready To Cure Your Diabetes?

For much more information on how to cure diabetes just click on the link. Find out what foods you need to eat to cure your diabetes and how they work, what foods literally cause diabetes and how you can avoid eating them by mistake, and learn exactly what other steps are necessary to cure your diabetes.



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The Truth About Diabetes and Reversing Diabetes Naturally

Diabetes has hit epidemic proportions in the USA & the truth about diabetes is that a lot of the people suffering from diabetes are not going to enjoy the truth.

The truth about diabetes is that it is primarily a lifestyle disease that is generally self inflicted & for the most part, readily preventable.

The truth about diabetes is that by making a few better informed health choices, you can greatly reduce your likelihood of developing type 2 diabetes, minimize its effects & in many cases, reverse it.

Our lifestyles are making us sick, with 23.6 million people (11.2% of the population) with diabetes, costing $174 billion in the USA in 2007.

Reversing diabetes naturally could save thousands, even millions of lives. Reversing diabetes naturally could save billions of dollars for taxpayers a year.

Type 2 diabetes, NIDDM, sugar diabetes, Non Insulin Dependent Diabetes Mellitus: These are all names for an acquired condition that used to affect people in their 50s & 60s but is now affecting more & more people in their 20s & 30s.

It was originally thought to be a condition that was partly due to genetic factors (like type 1 diabetes), but health research is beginning to dispel this myth.

Genetics doesn't suddenly make people get diabetes at age 55 in one generation & then 25 in the next generation. The truth about diabetes is that it is more linked to lifestyle choices than genetic factors.

Yes, you may have a family history of type 2 diabetes but the truth about diabetes is that most people tend to develop the eating & exercise habits taught to them by their parents at a young age.

The truth about diabetes is that to change your life, you need to become better informed, make different choices & take appropriate action.

Here's a brief high school biology/ college physiology review...

Stay with me here because it will all become very clear in a minute as you begin to understand the truth about diabetes.

Insulin is the hormone produced by the body to break down the glucose in our diet & ultimately convert it to energy.

The Islets of Langerhans are the cells in the pancreas that produce Insulin.

The more sugar you have in your diet, the harder these cells have to work to produce more Insulin.

If the demand for Insulin is too great (as a result of too much refined sugar in the diet), these cells can't keep up & they fatigue & they fail...make sense?

That's the first key element in the truth about diabetes.

If you're not convinced, try this:

Get down on the floor & do as many push-ups as you can.

Rest for 20 seconds, then do as many again.

Then rest for another 20 seconds & do as many as you can until you can't even push your chest off the floor.

Regardless of how fit you are, you are going to feel the muscle burn right away & probably even more in the morning as well.

Now, if you repeated this process of training your muscles to fatigue 3 to 5 times a day, every day, what do you think might happen?

Would you get bigger, stronger muscles or would you lose energy & muscle mass, ache a lot & lose power?

Research has shown that overtraining without sufficient rest & recovery time causes muscles to weaken, get smaller & can cause long term damage. Learn more about the effects of exercise on diabetes; Its benefits and complications here.

The truth about diabetes is that the same principles apply to the Islets of Langerhans, the cells that produce Insulin in your body.

If you overload them with too much sugar in your diet & do it day in, day out, those cells will fatigue, producing less Insulin & over time they will be destroyed (a process called beta cell destruction)...and that's the first part of the truth about diabetes.

Yes, there are viruses that accelerate beta cell destruction as well but the truth about diabetes is that the main factor in beta cell destruction is long term sugar overload.

In other words, the truth about diabetes is that it is largely a result of your habits.

The second main factor in the truth about diabetes is a progressive reduction in the Insulin receptors in the insulin target cells in the body. The main factor that causes this depletion of target cells is being overweight.

Why?

Because a build up of excess fat in the body disrupts normal physiological function.

Along with excess sugar in the diet, excess fat causes a disruption to the body's metabolism & inhibits the absorption of key nutrients such as Potassium, Magnesium, Zinc & various vitamins that promote healthy cell growth & immune function.

So, the truth about diabetes is that excess sugar in the diet & excess body fat greatly increases your chance of developing type 2 diabetes.

Let's say that again...the truth about diabetes is that it is largely a result of your habits.

Click here to Find out the Secrets of Reversing Diabetes Naturally in 30-60 Days from a nutritionist.

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Natural Diabetes Cures - If There is No Cure, Why Do Thousands Cure Diabetes Each Year?

Natural health is my career and simple natural diabetes cures have been my passion for years now. And it seems like others are wondering the same thing I am, "If there is no cure for diabetes, why do thousands cure diabetes each year?"

It is said that diabetes is an epidemic! Over 62 million Americans are diabetic or pre-diabetic. That is 1 and 5 Americans are dealing with diabetes and insulin issues. And if you check out the American Diabetes Association (ADA) website, you will find that there is still no cure for diabetes. The ADA still believes insulin is our best option. And so do pharmaceutical companies which make billions of dollars off of diabetic patients.

Yet thousands of people and some doctors state that you can naturally cure diabetes with your diet and lifestyle.

Who is telling the truth?

Facts about Natural Diabetes Cures

In 2003, Duke Researchers experimented with a low carbohydrate / high fat diet. The diabetic study resulted with 17 out of 21 patients reducing their medicated insulin or discontinuing it altogether after 16 weeks.

Diabetic research has also visited tribes in northern countries like Greenland, and found that diabetes is extremely rare in many native cultures. About 1 in every 2000 Eskimos were found to be diabetic or pre-diabetic.

And there are numerous other studies which are showing surprising findings. Here is what you need to do to naturally reverse diabetes. You may be able to cure diabetes in weeks too!

Cure Diabetes Naturally with These Secrets

1. Diabetes may have taken years to develop but will only take 4 weeks to cure... if you are serious about it. For most of your life you have probably developed bad habits which may have contributed to your diabetes. Breaking those habits is difficult but can be done. Having a positive attitude is important in your journey.

2. You need to remember this important rule, "You are what you eat!" If you study diabetics' nutritional plans, you will usually find high carbohydrate foods, high processed foods and little minerals and vitamins. With this in mind, you may need to completely change your diet. You can start with avoiding all processed foods which include fast foods, canned foods, and most boxed foods. Eat fresh foods that are raw!

3. The ADA recommends a diet with carbohydrates. Scientifically, we know that carbohydrates convert to sugar by the body. You should avoid most carbohydrates and begin to make foods choices with protein and fresh fruits and vegetables. More vegetables are the better option.

4. Your body is littered with toxins, cholesterol, plaque, radicals and even more junk then I should mention. Fortunately, water can change all of that very quickly. Make sure you are drinking at least 16 ounces of water for every 2 hours you are awake.

5. Finally, educate yourself. Thousands of people make millions of dollars off of your disease. Learn how to reverse diabetes naturally and completely cure it in 6 weeks. You can start tonight!

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Reversing Type 2 Diabetes - Is It Possible?

In the long-term, diabetes causes very serious medical problems such as heart disease, stroke, kidney disease, nerve damage, neuropathy, glaucoma, cataracts and retinopathy, a weakened immune system, and digestive problems.

Though these medical conditions develop slowly, eventually they can be devastating. Persons who let their diabetes get out of control risk going blind, experiencing a variety of infections, having a foot or leg amputated, requiring kidney dialysis or a transplant, or becoming incapacitated or dying from a stroke or heart attack, among a host of other serious outcomes.

Thus taking steps to beat diabetes is critical. It's not that hard - so it can be done.

Diabetes and your genes

There is a persistent myth that diabetes is all about poor diets, unhealthy life-styles and obesity.

While it may be true that most people who are diabetic are overweight, some thin people also get diabetes. And some people who have an unhealthy lifestyle manage to avoid the disease. Why so?

It is because genetics plays a part in the onset of diabetes. This can be seen from the fact that diabetes seems to run in families.

However, unlike other kinds of genes, the diabetes gene does not 'dictate' that you will get diabetes. It only makes it likely that diabetes will develop under particular circumstances.

For example, if the gene that controls the colour of your eyes says that you eyes will be blue, then your eyes will be blue and there is nothing you can do about it. The same goes for the type and colour of your hair. If your genes decree wavy, brown hair for you then that's what you get.

The kinds of genes that govern diabetes are different. They merely state that if certain conditions come about then you will get diabetes, ie they predispose you to getting the disease.

For example, if your parents were diabetic, it is likely that you inherited the genes that predispose you for type 2 diabetes. So, if you eat the same food as your parents, you are likely to develop diabetes. But if you change your diet and lifestyle, you can probably avoid your parents' fate.

The big question is, once your diabetes has developed, can it be cured?

The short answer is NO. There is no cure.

But you can beat your diabetes - ie prevent the horrendous consequences mentioned above from developing - by eating a plant-focused diet and taking up exercise.

This is relatively easy to do. If your diabetes is not too far advanced, you should be able to stop taking your diabetes medications.

You may also be able to reverse your diabetes - ie revert to your state of health before you ever had diabetes at all - by eating a vegan diet and following an extreme exercise regimen.

Beating Diabetes

To beat your diabetes, you must reduce the excess amounts of glucose and insulin swirling around in your bloodstream.

To do so, you need a diet that is: (1) low in sugar, (2) low in fat, (3) low in salt, (4) high in fibre, and (5) digested slowly. Your diet must also exclude all dairy products and eggs.

The easiest way to devise such a diet is to concentrate on natural, unprocessed foods that are mostly plants. You also need to drink plenty of water, to aid the absorption of the fibre you eat.

You should also take a range of supplements in order to cover any possible dietary deficiencies you might encounter by avoiding dairy products.

This is the basis of the diet I am using to beat my diabetes, so I know it works.

And it is easy to put into practice. All you need to do is to learn how to read food labels so that you can buy the most appropriate food products.

Because you have diabetes, you are likely to be quite overweight if not obese. Once you have been following a beating-diabetes diet like this for three or four weeks, you will notice your weight beginning to drop rapidly.

This is due to the reduced fat and sugar in your diet. You weight will drop until it has reached its natural level with a BMI (body mass index) of less than 25.

Exercise

I got my blood glucose under control by following the kind of diet outlined above without doing any extra exercise. So it seems that exercise is not necessary in order to beat your diabetes.

However, I have since discovered that exercise does help. For example, I eat the same breakfast every day and check my blood glucose two hours later. Normally I get very similar results. But I have noticed that if I go for a 20-minute walk before checking my blood, my glucose reading will be up to ten percent lower than it would be without that walk.

My experience with diabetes and exercise is borne out by recent studies.

In one recent study, people with type 2 diabetes exercised for 175 minutes a week, ie 15 minutes a day for seven days a week and ate a low calorie diet. Within one year, ten percent were able to give up their diabetes medications or had improved to the point where their glucose readings could be classified as pre-diabetic rather than diabetic.

These average results were much better for those who has less severe or newly diagnosed diabetes or who lost the most weight. Among these people, 20% were able to give up taking their diabetes medications.

I feel that if the subjects in this study had been put on the sort of diet I outlined above, rather than a diet that merely restricted calories, most of them would have been able to give up their medications entirely as I have done.

Reversing diabetes

Properly-conducted clinical trials (published in 1990) showed that a vegan diet along with changes to a patient's lifestyle can reverse blockages in arteries.

This diet excluded all meat, fish, dairy products and eggs, so that all animal fat and cholesterol was eliminated from the diet.

Each patient had an angiogram when they first joined the trial and again after one year. An angiogram is a an x-ray technique that uses a special dye and a steady stream of x-rays to take pictures of the blood flow in an artery or vein in the head, arms, legs, chest, back, or stomach.

The results of these trials were impressive. The patients' chest pains ceased and their average LDL (or 'bad') cholesterol level fell by 40 percent.

In addition, comparing the angiograms at the start of the trial with the angiograms taken after one year showed that blockages in the coronary arteries (the arteries that lead to the heart muscle) were starting to shrink and that these arteries were opening up again.

The difference could be seen clearly on the angiograms of 82 percent of patients after one year on the special diet and exercise programme - with no heart bypass operations, angioplasties (artery-widening techniques) or cholesterol lowering drugs.

Given the strong connection between heart disease and diabetes - two-thirds of diabetics eventually die of heart disease - it is likely that such a diet can reverse diabetes to the point where the patient is as healthy as he or she was before their diabetes developed, provided the diet is leavened with a rigorous exercise programme.

Conclusion

It seems to me that you can beat your diabetes, ie prevent it damaging your body beyond repair, by following a plant-focused diet along with some exercise. Max sidorov in his book titled "the 7 steps to health and the big diabetes lie" provides a detailed step-by-step diet program that if you strictly follow, is guaranteed to reverse your diabetes. 

Reversing your diabetes, so that you revert to the state of health you were in before you developed diabetes, would be a much harder thing to do. But I believe it can be done, by eating a strictly vegan diet (no meat products of any sort at all) and an extreme exercise programme.

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What Does It Mean To "Reverse Diabetes?" If You REALLY Want To Reverse Diabetes You Need To Know
We see the term "reverse diabetes" thrown around a lot lately but what does it actually mean? How do people define it and what exactly are they trying to say when they use this phrase?

The bottom line is this: there are no hard and fast rules and there is no official definition for this phrase. "Reverse diabetes" means different things to different people and it's important for you to always be aware of the context in which it is being used if you want to TRULY reverse your diabetes.

Some people simply mean when they have their blood sugar under control through medication - through oral medication, insulin injections, or a combination of both when they use this term. To these people, if they stay within a normal blood sugar range most of the time, as defined by their doctor, they claim they have "reversed" their diabetes even if that means taking pills of giving themselves injections. However, most people looking for a more natural way, a more holistic way, and a more permanent way to cure diabetes reject this particular usage of the phrase "reverse diabetes" and find it very misleading to those of us who want to find a cure - not just "manage" the disease and wait for it to get worse.

Other people say they have "reversed" their diabetes if they have changed their diet and, through these dietary changes, they keep their blood sugar levels under control. Many of these diabetics are happy if they keep their HbA1c under 7 because that is what the American Diabetes Association is recommending these days. However, by most lab standards you need a HbA1c of less than 6 to be considered in the normal blood sugar range. Some people in this category still need a low dosage of oral medication to keep their blood sugar under control but others are able to do so through a strict observance of a low carb, usually very low carb, diet.

To those of us who are looking for a TRUE reversal of diabetes, we want to correct what is causing the diabetes. In other words, we want to eliminate the underlying problem. If an occasional scoop of all-natural ice cream or a slice or two of healthy bread sends your blood sugar on a roller coaster ride, we do not consider this a TRUE reversal of diabetes. Just because your blood sugar stays within the normal range when you don't eat any carbs or very few carbs doesn't mean you have reversed you diabetes if what's causing the diabetes is still there. Controlling your carb intake without correcting the underlying cause for the diabetes may keep the primary SYMPTOM of diabetes under control (blood sugar) but have you really reversed the disease if it all it takes is eating an orange for your blood sugar to sky rocket again? For those of us seeking a true diabetic reversal would answer this with a resounding "no."

To TRULY "reverse diabetes" you need to correct the underlying causes. While it is true that an overindulgence of carbs and sugar can exacerbate the ill-effects of the disease once it is full blown, eating carbs didn't CAUSE the diabetes. For that matter, being over-weight didn't CAUSE the diabetes either. The same thing that causes the diabetes can also cause you to gain weight. Gaining weight is just another symptom (in some people) that will naturally improve if you correct the underlying cause.

Dietary changes are necessary if you want to TRULY reverse diabetes but it is certainly NOT all about eliminating carbs. Eliminating carbs will NOT correct the underlying problem. With a TRUE reversal of diabetes, you CAN eat carbs in moderation. Instead of focusing on controlling blood sugar levels, if you focus on what actually CAUSES the high blood sugar in the first place then you can truly reverse your diabetes.

Learn how to correct the underlying cause of diabetes, not just control the symptoms, and reverse diabetes naturally here.


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Knowing the Psychological and Social Effects of Diabetes

Apart from the physical effects of diabetes, it also has psychological and social effect on the sufferer even when the disease is well managed. These effects range from minor to more complicated.

Firstly, the idea of living with a disease for life can be quite shocking. It can lead to worry and anxiety. Worry in turn can lead to fear and all these can make the sufferer begin to loose interests in life and everything that makes his everyday living meaningful. For example, He might stop visiting his friends and acquaintances or stop playing the games he like and instead,"worry and worry".

When people worry, they get so depressed and this depression can affect the self- esteem greatly. It (depression) is also known to be the main cause of suicide, which is very bad. In social circles, a diabetic might feel that he is worse than others, even though its not true. This can further affect the self-esteem and make the diabetics less social. All these can affect relationships,when not well managed on the part of friends and loved ones. It has also been found that diabetics are less likely to get jobs than non-diabetics. This makes them less able to fend for themselves. All these make the quality of life, for these patients, extremely too low.

Whenever you meet them, ensure that you treat them with understanding because you might never know; it might just be in your gene waiting to pass on to your unborn children. All I am trying to say is "show love to all men and treat diabetics with care and understanding".

The best way and time to take care of diabetes is to begin to treat it at its early stage. You can only know is early stage when you have understood its signs and symptoms.



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