Diabetic Live

The Best Way to Avoid Diabetes: What if I told you it was possible to delay or even prevent diabetes? What if I offered a solution that has proven itself over and over again? Would you take my advice?

Americans have a love affair with food. We delight in every crispy fry and whip cream topped desert. We snack on decadent chocolate and love those bacon double cheeseburgers with an extra large soda.

Of course we can justify the indulgence. We work hard. We must manage enormous stress. Food is our coping mechanism of choice.

The problem is that proportionally Americans are getting larger and we’re exporting the fast paced, stress filled and often sedentary lifestyle around the globe. The world is getting bigger and with that growth comes the potential for onset diabetes.

We don’t want it, we certainly don’t want to talk about it and we’ll avoid finding out for sure. If we just push through one more day perhaps the disease will go away thinking we just aren’t interested.

The truth is diabetes will set up house without your permission. It can be hereditary, but it’s often the result of accumulated lifestyle choices.

If your idea of a diet is simply to consume whatever pleases you most you may eventually struggle with the reality of diabetes. If your idea of exercise is a trip from the easy chair to the kitchen or to find the remote you may be setting yourself up for issues related to diabetes.

If you’ll think back to the beginning of this article I mentioned the possibility of delaying or even preventing diabetes if caught early enough. Would you like to know the secret?

If you can adjust your eating habits and exercise routine in order to lose 5%-7% of your total body weight you can slow down the diabetic freight train. Obviously this advice is for those who are overweight or even obese, but it is also a cautionary tale to all who believe a diet based on personal tastes alone is acceptable.

Five percent of your body weight could be less than ten pounds. What that means is a little motivation toward improved personal health care today could result in improved personal health long term.

If this is indeed a case of a runaway train then doesn’t it make sense to try to stop it before it crashes?

I know the choices at a fast food restaurant are enticing, and it’s so convenient to order from a numerical menu and drive away clamping your jaws around a #2 with a fist full of fries, but there might be a similarly convenient way to manage meals on the go with a menu that may be more nutritionally sound.

In most grocery stores or supermarkets you will find a deli with pre-packaged meals. In most cases these meals cost less than take out and may be better nutritionally than fast food. They will probably even taste better.

Take advantage of the salad bars and the pre cut fruit cups. The point is there are ways to make better food choices that facilitate meaningful life changes.

Park a bit further away from the store and walk a bit more. Take your pet for a walk. Take your spouse for a walk. Ride your bike. Visit a community aerobics class. Swim.

Find ways to include activity in your daily routine. It doesn’t have to be an all-day ordeal. A few minutes of activity is worth more than you may realize.

The combination of better food choices and a more active lifestyle will reduce stress, increase energy, reduce weight, and will remain the best alternative to diabetes prevention or delay.

Diabetes A History Lesson: Diabetes – a Greek word meaning ‘to siphon’. Not a very pleasant picture is it?

For more than 3,000 years there has been an acknowledgement of the disease known as diabetes. Physicians, in their limited understanding of the disease, offered hope in the form of such remedies as oil of roses, raw quinces, gelly of viper’s flesh, and fresh flowers of blind nettles – although at the time most physicians also realized that even with their best care the patient would likely die within a year.

Aretaeus who is credited with naming the malady referred to the disease as a liquefying process of the body. It may have seemed that way due to the more frequent urge most diabetics have to urinate and the intense thirst many diabetics face without proper care.

Between the 17th and early 20th century physicians diagnosed the disease by tasting the patient’s urine. A sweet taste generally elicited a prognosis of diabetes.

Prior to 1923 there was very little a diabetic could do, but wait certain death. Doctors tried to find a cure or at the very least something to slow the process, but the patient would invariably enter a diabetic coma and would pass away within a few hours to a few days.

Leonard Thompson was the brave boy who first received insulin. This inaugural use of insulin was accomplished when experiments on a diabetic dog conducted by Canadians Frederick Banting and Charles Best led to a breakthrough 3,000 years in the making. This duo discovered pancreatic fluid was useful in keeping the pet alive. That led to the discovery that insulin may be the needed element for diabetics. This breakthrough was proclaimed miraculous.

The ‘siphon’ of diabetes was slowed substantially over the next few decades as physicians learned there were actually two types of diabetes requiring different treatments. More effective insulin types were produced.

Insulin was administered by injection, but the glass syringes and large needles had to be boiled for daily sterilization and were used repeatedly until 1961 when single use syringes were finally made available.

Glucose meters arrived in 1969. These bulky first-run machines were replaced by smaller and smaller devices over the years.

By 1979 insulin pumps were available for diabetic sufferers. The pump served to imitate the body’s normal distribution of insulin. This was also the year the A1c test was developed as well as a bulky device that allowed for insulin delivery within the body without the use of a needle.

Believe it or not it wasn’t until the early 1990s that medical professionals finally began advising their patients that effective control of blood glucose was important to the overall success of managed care as well as enabling the patient to live a longer life.

Science continues to fine-tune treatment options by investigating ways for the body to use insulin more efficiently and stimulating the body to aid in the effort of eliminating excess blood glucose. The end result is more treatment options for diabetics and a greater freedom to enjoy a life that would likely not have been possible 100 years ago.

The onset of diabetes can be emotionally challenging, but the scientific advancements in just the last twenty years has provided substantial freedom to diabetics and has allowed an incredible life extension to many who might otherwise have had no hope.

Much is made of diabetes and rightfully so. Much is now known about the disease, how it affects the body and ways to minimize its advance. Information is now available to help many avoid the struggles associated with diabetes.

Perhaps one day diabetes itself will be – history.

Tattoo Contemplation For The Diabetic: At the age of 17 Dustin Rykert was diagnoses with Type 1 diabetes. This wasn’t a good day for Dustin. He was a star football player with his eyes on a future NFL contract.

In 2002 when he was suited up for college play at Brigham Young University (BYU) he was beginning to get used to a lifestyle that other players never had to think about.

At the time Rykert told BYU Net News, “”I have to make sure the blood sugars are high enough during practice so I don’t pass out but low enough that I don’t become so thirsty all the time.”

These adjustments followed Rykert to the NFL where he briefly played for the Oakland Raiders. His tenure in the NFL was short lived, but it was reported that during this time Rykert received a diabetic tattoo.

The idea of a tattoo may hold only a marginal appeal to diabetics due to potential complications stemming from the procedure. The potential for infection can be problematic for diabetics, but in Rykert’s case the role of a tattoo just made sense when he was on the football field.

Reports indicate Rykert received a diabetic tattoo on his chest. The claim was that a diabetic bracelet did not withstand the rigors of playing football so the tattoo was considered a viable alternative.

There are genuine concerns for those who desire a tattoo and also live with diabetes. However, according to an ABCNews.com report there is a growing trend by younger diabetics to leave the bracelets and necklaces behind in favor or a diabetic tattoo.

The best course of action is to visit with your primary care physician first about issues that may be of concern, but according to Dr. Michael Zbiegien in that same ABCNews.com report there are a few issues to take into account when a diabetic tattoo is considered.

• Make sure blood sugars are in good control before getting a tattoo.
• Do not get body art if you have a hemoglobin A1c above 8 percent.
• Make sure you go to reputable a tattoo artist.
• Do not get a tattoo in an area with poor circulation such as your feet.
• Try to avoid tattooing common injection sites.

While there may be circumstances where a diabetic tattoo may seem to make sense to the patient many doctors will insist that the Medic Alert jewelry is still the best lifeline in the case of a medical emergency. EMT’s are trained to inspect the patient for Medic Alert jewelry. They may not perform a visual inspection to look for a tattoo.

One concern medical practitioners may have in relation to the act of tattooing is that dirty needles could cause the individual to contract hepatitis. Proponents of diabetic tattooing would argue that the same risk would apply to any individual seeking a tattoo.

Perhaps the most important factor when contemplating a tattoo as a diabetic is whether you have been effective in the management of your blood glucose. If you do not take your disease seriously it is likely there could be complications in relation to both healing time and infections.

One diabetic in voicing her opposition to the idea said, “I lost a leg due an infection that set in following a paper cut. I don’t think I’d be interested in a tattoo.”

Some companies have developed temporary tattoos for the same purpose, but have not gained wide spread acceptance.

The Controversy Of Pre-Testing: Many primary care physicians have suggested that patients 45 years of age and older receive Type 2 diabetic screenings every three years so the disease can be treated more effectively in its earliest stages.

However, a 2008 report from Annals of Internal Medicine indicates a diabetic screening may not be needed. This report suggests detecting hypertension may be a much better indicator of the presence of diabetes. According to that report, “The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) revised guidelines recommend[ing] that doctors screen for type 2 diabetes only in adults with sustained high blood pressure above 135 over 80 millimeters mercury (mm Hg).”

The scientific community may be at odds over the effective early diagnosis for diabetes. Many physicians still support regular diabetic screenings, but this newer information is based on additional studies. The report stated, “Intensive lifestyle modification in persons with pre-diabetes delays the progression to full-blown diabetes, but whether treatment alters final health outcomes could not be determined from the studies reviewed.”

What this research tends to suggest is that early treatment of diabetes or even pre-diabetes may have some positive effect it may not significantly alter the final progression of the disease. The role suggested is one of monitoring blood pressure as an indicator of the potential presence of diabetes. This would reduce the diabetic testing of many individuals and may reduce health care costs until such time as diabetes has been diagnosed using the more streamlined blood pressure testing as a pre-test for the disease.

Dr. Susan L. Norris told Reuters Health, “Aggressive lifestyle changes can dramatically reduce the incidence of diabetes, but it is not clear whether the diagnosis of pre-diabetes confers any particular health benefit over and above what one might expect if all obese patients were counseled to pursue these lifestyle changes.”

Norris seems to suggest that individuals should pursue positive lifestyle choices even without a diagnosis of pre-diabetes. If individuals committed to health goals that included a balanced diet, physical exercise and stress reduction they would already be pushing the potential of diabetes further away.

Perhaps the point of this report is that wise choices over a long period of time can result in a better health picture overall. The potential reduction in testing would likely result in significant health savings for patients and allow simple blood pressure checks to alert health care providers to the potential onset of diabetes. Admittedly blood pressure checks can be self administered at many pharmacies and are routine checks when visiting your doctor.

Included in their report the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force stated,  “Screening for type 2 diabetes provides few benefits.” As previously stated their singular exception was for those suffering with hypertension.

There is also the potential that excessive focus on the disease might result in excessive patient stress regarding its potential impact. The end result may be a low cost and low stress method of monitoring the potential without making it a proverbial dragon to be faced with fear and trembling.

The American Diabetes Association indicates 7.4% of Americans have diabetes. The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force seems to be indicating it may not be necessary to subject the other 92.6% to regular tests.

While some may argue the validity of testing this does provide room for discussion with your doctor when you have questions about the potential for diabetes.

What Is Gestational Diabetes: Many have heard the term “Gestational Diabetes”, but have never really been sure what it was. The word gestational has to do with pregnancy while the word diabetes in this case refers to insulin levels that are not sufficient to manage blood glucose. Unlike Type 1 or Type 2 diabetes this type generally goes away following delivery.

The development of this condition during pregnancy appears to be influenced significantly by hormone release typical in pregnancy. Women who develop gestational diabetes will typically do so in the final trimester of pregnancy.

The American Diabetics Association (ADA) indicates there are about, “135,000 cases of gestational diabetes in the United States each year.”

Normally glucose is used by the body to create energy, but in the case of gestational diabetes insulin does not provide the support the body needs for the conversion process. This deficit results in a condition called hypoglycemia. What this essentially means is your body has more glucose than it needs and struggles to either use or eliminate it without the aid of sufficient insulin.

It is important to know that diabetes during pregnancy requires managed care just like Type 1 or Type 2 diabetes. Without proper care and attention the mother could unintentionally be placing their unborn child at risk.

Two Scenarios

Tanya is six months pregnant. Her doctor just informed her that she has gestational diabetes. A managed care plan was offered and Tanya took advantage of the proactive steps needed to protect herself and her child. With proper care Tanya delivered a beautiful and healthy baby and is on the road to personal recovery.

Kelly heard that gestational diabetes takes care of itself following pregnancy so she didn’t think it was important to modify her personal care plan. After all, she only had three months left before the baby was due. How much harm could happen in three months?

What’s Going on Inside?

Your baby is connected to you via the umbilical cord. When you have high blood glucose so does your baby. When your body is working overtime to manufacture insulin so is your baby’s. When your child can’t produce enough insulin to take care of the flood of blood glucose it will store that glucose as fat. The end result is a chubby baby that may have long-term trouble getting rid of their baby fat and may experience respiratory issues following delivery.

The ADA indicates, “Babies with excess insulin become children who are at risk for obesity and adults who are at risk for type 2 diabetes.”

By working with a primary care physician during pregnancy to manage your blood glucose you are offering improved health to your unborn child.

Long-term Results

By working with your health care provider to manage your blood glucose and then continuing positive lifestyle changes following pregnancy you can give your child a healthy start while minimizing the real potential of developing Type 2 diabetes later in life. This is true for both you and your child. This is why gestational diabetes should not be viewed as only a temporary problem that will go away after pregnancy. It is a condition that essentially places a billboard in your life asking for personal change.

Virtually all health care providers will suggest a three-prong approach to successful long-term management.

1. Effective personal weight management.
2. A plan for regular physical activity
3. Informed choice and discipline in food selection.

Estimates indicate gestational diabetes will affect 3-8% of the population. Your physician will generally check for this condition prior to your third trimester.

Chronic Pancreatitis: Excellent physical condition is everyone’s golden dream. However, some conditions hinder the realization of this dream. Chronic pancreatitis is one such condition. Constant inflammation of the pancreas leads to irreparable corrosion of the pancreatic structure and function.

Characteristics of Chronic pancreatitis
To adequately comprehend the complication, it is important to examine various aspects of the condition. It is vital to understand as to what according to the experts are the symptoms of chronic pancreatitis. How this condition is diagnosed, and what are its causes and treatments?

Chronic pancreatitis is characterized by persistent and sporadic abdominal pains. This is due to poor absorption of fats in the food that you eat. Considerable weight loss may also be observed in patients. Nevertheless, patients show these symptoms differently with some appearing really sick, while others do not appear unhealthy at all. Some patients may have pains after taking high fat and protein meals.

Doctors diagnose chronic pancreatitis based on your symptoms or history of acute pancreatitis, heat-ups, or excessive alcohol use. Tests on pancreatic structure and function are done to establish any malfunction. Blood tests are less useful in diagnosing chronic pancreatitis. However, they may indicate high level of glucose in the blood. The high levels of glucose imply that your pancreas might not be in a position to produce enough insulin to regulate sugar levels in the body.

The highest percentage of chronic pancreatitis in adults is caused by alcohol abuse. Most patients have had a history of long time alcohol consumption. However, a few cases of chronic pancreatitis are inherited, while others have no known cause. The unknown causes are referred to as of idiopathic origin. Chronic steroid and anti-inflammatory use may be another cause but it is less frequent. In children, cystic fibrosis is the most common cause of chronic pancreatitis. In other parts of the world like tropical regions, acute protein and energy malnutrition is a widespread cause of chronic pancreatitis.

Management of Chronic Pancreatitis
Management of chronic pancreatitis ranges from medical measures to therapeutic endoscopies and surgery. Therapeutic endoscopy means performing a treatment inside your intestine using special instruments that go through the scope. One effective preventive treatment is that as a patient you should avoid alcohol. This applies to all chronic pancreatitis patients with no regard to underlying causes of the complication.

Avoiding alcohol makes management easy and averts worsening of the situation. Treatment is directed towards the underlying cause and focused to rest the pancreas and intestine so as to relieve painful heat- ups. This can be done with the patient receiving only intravenous fluids instead of solid oral foods.

However, all these might not adequately address severe abdominal pains. High doses of analgesics therefore become necessary to ease the pain. Chronic pancreatitis may lead to diabetes which can be treated by long term insulin therapy.

As has been established, chronic pancreatitis is a complication of the pancreas. This creates insufficient absorption of fat in your diet. The major cause of the complication is alcohol abuse. The outstanding symptom is constant abdominal pains while treatment ranges from medical measures to surgery and use of herbs. All these when put into proper use will enhance your health and avoid chronic pancreatitis. However, preventive measures remain the best way to avert the complication.

Impaired Glucose Tolerance (IGT) is a fasting plasma glucose level less than seven mmol/l with a 2-hour oral tolerance test of glucose, at a value of between seven point eight and eleven point one mmol/l. This condition is usually characterized by insulin resistance and hyperglycemia, and is usually considered as a stage in the development of diabetes mellitus (type two).

Also, you can define it as a condition of fasting glucose being between six point one to six point nine mmol/l. It is a pre-diabetic stage of dyglycemia that is associated with heightened risk of cardiovascular pathology and insulin resistance. The most consistent predictor of the condition’s progression to diabetes is baseline plasma glucose. This condition is also known to be a risk factor for cardiovascular disease.

Investigation of Impaired Glucose Tolerance
In the UK, studies shown that the prevalence rate of impaired glucose tolerance of people between the ages of 35 to 65 is 17 percent. In the United States, between ten and fifteen percent of adults are known to suffer from this condition. But who is most at risk? Risk factors that lead to the development of the disorder include obesity, hypertension, and first degree diabetes. Also, certain ethnic groups such as Asians and people of afro-Caribbean origin are known to be greatly susceptible to this condition.

Between twenty and fifty percent of people suffering from impaired glucose tolerance will end up with (type two) diabetes within a period of ten years of diagnosis. Presently this condition is not clearly associated with such microvascular complications as neuropathy, retinopathy, and nephropathy.

With impaired glucose tolerance, you usually become asymptomatic. You may have symptoms similar to those of cardiovascular disease sometimes with mild conditions of hyperglycemia. This disease is associated with hypertension, raised serum cholesterol levels, abnormal heart findings, angina, stroke, and arteriosclerosis as well.

During investigation of the condition, you are subjected to an overnight fast that lasts between eight and fourteen hours at which time smoking is not allowed. The patient, depending on age, is then given anhydrous glucose dissolved in water. Fear blood tests? Blood sugar levels are tested before the test is conducted and thirty minutes successively after the test up to a total of two hours.

Early diagnosis and treatment of impaired glucose tolerance has shown to favorably reduce by 58% possibility of its worsening to diabetes. It is recommended that people who have suffered from the condition must go for annual screening to prevent worsening health conditions.

Management of Impaired Glucose Tolerance
Management of impaired glucose tolerance includes use of drugs and changing the patient’s lifestyle. Non-drug measures have been known to go a long way in management of the condition if combined with use of drugs. Such lifestyle intervention measures include increasing your physical activity, increasing dietary fiber intake, reducing intake saturated fats and sugar, and weight reduction for overweight people.

Treatment of the condition using drugs is equally important. One way of treatment involves reversal of iatrogenic causative factors of glucose intolerance that are drug related. Agents such as ACE inhibitors, thiazolidiones and angiotensin receptor antagonists have also been used to prevent worsening of the condition.

To improve glucose uptake, oxidation, and regulation; your doctor may opt to use carnitine temporarily as long as your glucose level is maintained within the norm. Use of acarbose and metformin has also been established to reduce chances of the condition developing into type-II diabetes.

It is a sure fact that prevention is better than cure. You can prevent the disease by eating healthy diets that consist of high fiber, lots of vegetables and fruits, and low fat. Avoiding alcohol abuse and maintaining regular physical activity will go a long way in preventing the disease.

Resistin – Hormone Related To Obesity And Type 2 Diabetes: Nowadays, obesity and diabetic conditions have become popular medical topics of discussion in many circles. There have been various debates over what really is the cause of these two medical conditions. Type II diabetes, an epidemic in industrialized countries, has for a long time been associated with obesity.

One of the most unmistakable characteristics of Type II diabetes, or adult on-set diabetes, is target-tissue insulin resistance, which is triggered by the body’s fat cells. However, until a few years ago, it was not clear which fat cell protein was responsible for this.

Discovery of Resistin
In 2001, a group of researchers led by Dr Mitchell A. Lazar from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, discovered a hormone that links obesity to Type II diabetes. They called the hormone, resistin, which stands for “resistance to insulin.” The hormone was first found in lab mice, but was later found to exist in the human body as well.

Scientists argue that this newly discovered hormone explains how obesity exposes people to the threat of the diet-induced Type II diabetes. Dr. Lazar and his team first carried out some tests in mice to find out what fat cells were responsible for insulin resistance. They treated cultured fat cells with glitazones which is the recommended treatment for Type II diabetes.

In doing so, they identified a new hormone that was expressed only in adipose tissue, or adipocytes, of obese rodents, where it was produced in plenty. The production of this hormone was found to be suppressed when the mice were treated with glitazones. They named this hormone resistin.

Resistin and Type II Diabetes
Resistin is a unique signaling molecule, or messenger RNA, which prompts tissue resistance to insulin. This greatly hampers the subsequent and all important glucose uptake triggered by insulin. Thus, obesity may result in your elevated levels of resistin, which, in turn, results in insulin resistance and Type II diabetes.

Further research has linked resistin to other physiological systems such as inflammation and energy homeostasis. Inflammation is the first inborn immune response to infection. Resistin increases transcriptional events leading to an increased expression of several pro-inflammatory chemicals in the body.

There certainly is medication that is used to combat this hormone for those who suffer from Type II obesity. However, this is not to say that the condition is curable, but it can be regulated using different anti-resistin antibodies.

Glitazones are the most recommended class of medication designed to reverse the basic problem of resistance to insulin in Type II diabetes. Administration of these anti-bodies has been known to improve blood sugar and insulin action in diet-induced obesity cases. Their greatest effect on the blood glucose occurs after eating.

The drugs reverse insulin resistance in your body by improving the sensitivity of insulin receptors in muscle, liver, and fat cells. This helps your body use insulin better. It also helps keep your liver from overproducing glucose. Also, it is known to lower blood sugar levels about 15%, while at the same time lowering insulin levels by 20%. In addition to improving insulin sensitivity, glitazones may even decrease cardiac risks.

Medical researchers are busy trying to find a drug that will be suitable enough to block the effects of resistin, but unfortunately, it will still not offer a once and for all cure for obesity. However, if you stand by the adage “prevention is better that cure,” it will not hurt to keep yourself healthy and to stay away from foods that might lead to obesity. You will save a lot of money, and yourself if you just keep it healthy.

Can Science Reprogram Your Pancreas: Your pancreas is a very versatile organ. It provides both endocrine and exocrine function.

The endocrine function of the body allows hormones to be released to all other areas of the body. For instance your thyroid is part of the endocrine system and regulates the rate at which your body will burn energy.

The pancreas secretes hormones such as glucagon, which is used to regulate how fast your body burns carbohydrates. Glucagons essentially instruct your liver to convert glycogen into blood sugars that your body can use as fuel.

The pancreas can also send out instructions via the hormone known as insulin. This function is the opposite of glucagons. In essence insulin tells the cells in your body to take glycogen into their membranes for storage effectively removing excess blood sugar (glucose) from the blood stream.

Glucagons and insulin have to work together to correctly adapt the blood stream to the metabolic needs it may face at any given moment.

The pancreas also secretes somatostatin, which is used by the body to regulate hormone-induced growth. And finally pancreatic polypeptide is released to regulate all functions of the pancrease.

Pancreatic activity also comes in the form of exocrine functions. That simply means that apart from hormonal duties the pancreas is called upon to release enzymes that are efficiently used to aid in proper digestion.

For the diabetic the pancreas is an essential part of the body’s natural defense against this disease. It appears the glucagons are readily able to signal the release of blood sugar, but the body becomes resistant to the signal of insulin to do its job effectively.

Many times the release of insulin is impaired, especially in Type 1 diabetics making insulin injections or pumps a regular part of the diabetic’s life.

Research in 2008 by Harvard University suggests that it may be possible to turn on dormant pancreatic cells to take on the function of insulin production.

Most cell-based research in recent years has focused on stem cells, but the study headed by Doug Melton bypasses some of the controversy surrounding stem cell research by simply finding ways to enlist existing, but dormant cells into service.

Researchers are calling the process “direct reporgramming”. The premise behind the study is that every cell has the body’s DNA. If it could be reprogrammed to act as a cell designed for insulin production this could eleviate much of the problems associated with diabetes. The study has proven effective in mice who suffer with Type 1 diabetes.

In Type 1 diabetes the body attacks the beta cells that manufactire insulin. This process could reprogram new cells to take over the role of insulin production.

In their study, Harvard researchers saw beta cells transform and begin take on the role of insulin producers within ten days of reprogramming.

The potential of this finding provides hope for patients with diabetes, but it also has strong applications for use in treating other diseases. While studies on stem cells will likely continue, this new approach seems to suggest damaged cells in almost any situation could be replaced by cells that have been reprogrammed for new use.

It may still be a few years before this process is available to the public, but the preliminary findings provide encouragement that may likely expand beyond diabetic research.

Diabetic Shoes Can Provide Comfort And Joy: In past decades a doctor might look at a patient’s foot and say, “Buy a good pair of shoes and everything will be all right.”

There were times when the doctor’s advice didn’t quite go far enough, but when it comes to diabetes the good doctor may have been right. If you have diabetes the shoes you wear are extremely important.

We all want shoes that fit well and are comfortable, but for the diabetic there is a potent medical reason for a good fit and comfort. You see, as diabetes progresses, peripheral neuropathy may disallow the patient from recognizing when damage may be done to their feet. As nerves in the feet are damaged they mask pain. The patient may not often do a self-inspection on their feet while infection may be setting in. This damage can result in foot ulcers, but it can also lead to gangrene and potential amputation.

When diabetic shoes are used there is an improved chance that damage will not occur. Manufacturers have developed these shoes to provide practical comfort. You will not find diabetic high heel shoes or shoes with pointed toes. These can cause both pressure and intense rubbing on toes that often result in damage.

It can be exceptionally difficult for the diabetic to manage healing in their feet primarily due to poor circulation.

Wider and deeper than comparable shoes this type of footwear works to cradle the diabetic foot in comfort that can add additional mobility to everyday life. What’s more, private insurance or Medicare may cover the cost for these shoes.

Information About Diabetes indicates proper footwear for diabetics should include the following.

 

• Diabetic Shoes need to have a breathable construction – sandals and fabric shoes are good for this.
• Deep and wide designs that allow room for custom pedorthic insoles.
• Designs with no interior seams (or covered seams) to prevent rubbing injuries.
• Diabetic Shoes need a roomy “toe box” to prevent pinching or squeezing of the toes.
• Elastic or easily adjustable fit, to prevent the diabetic shoe from sliding around on the feet.

The soft shoe materials used in the construction of diabetic footwear remain an important function because it is friction that typically leads to foot ulcers. These shoes avoid friction. Inserts within the shoe are designed to provide relief for various foot deformities that might be problematic for the long-term care of the diabetic foot.

While many well-stocked shoe stores may feature diabetic shoes your physician may suggest the purchase of custom made shoes that are designed specifically for your foot requirements. Again, in many cases this is treated as a prescription and may be covered under your health care plan.

Advances in design can allow your diabetic shoes to remain tastefully elegant while maintaining the best possible care for your feet. On the other hand the managed care of diabetes is much more important than impressing others. Expect comfort in your diabetic shoes. You will likely be impressed by the quality and selection of this type of shoe allowing a choice you can not only live with, but also show off.