8 Things That Affect Your Blood Glucose Levels

There are so very many things that affect your blood glucose levels that it’s hard to know where to begin. Everything from the type and amount of food you eat, to how hot it is that day are known to have an effect. The eight items below are amongst the top things that affect your diabetes:

1. Caffeine - depending on how much coffee, and other caffeine rich beverages you drink in a day, can have an effect on your metabolism, causing fluctuations in your readings. A higher metabolism will cause you to burn more calories, thereby affecting the insulin dosage needed to control your diabetes. Drinking 5 or more caffeine rich products, (coffee, diet soda, cocoa [also sugar rich]) can increase your blood sugar. Caffeine affects two hormones, glucogon and adrenaline, which in turn release sugars stored in the liver.
2. Heat - A hot day, or even a shower or bath that is too hot will affect your sugars. Heat can cause your sugar levels to fluctuate. According to the Mayo Clinic, diabetics often have damage of the sweat glands affecting the body’s ability to cool down. Dehydration can be a result of a hot day, as well as a result of high blood glucose levels. High levels cause the body to excrete more urine, causing dehydration if one does not increase their intake of caffeine free fluids like water, seltzer, and sugar-free drinks. Heat can cause dehydration as well and could result in the more serious affects of heat exhaustion. Remember, try to keep out of the direct sunlight on a hot day, drink lots of fluids, exercise in the cool of the morning or late evening. You may find, like me, that you just cannot take the heat like you did before the diabetes.
3. Exercise - exercise must be carefully done and balanced, with readings taken before and after to make sure that your levels are not dropping. If you are feeling at all strange for any reason, take a reading even in the middle of your routine.
4. Weight loss - Though generally good for the overweight diabetic, weight loss will have a great effect on how much insulin you have to take. So will weight gains.  If you are on oral medications, weight loss can affect the amount you need to take of these as well. Certainly, if you are overweight, working on losing the excess will be most beneficial, but don’t take over-the-counter medications and weight-loss formulas without being under the care of and with the approval of your doctor(s) and health care professionals. Combine diet and exercise for the best results if you are able to, again, under your doctor’s supervision.
5. Medications - Everything from your diabetes medications and insulin changes, to over-the-counter medications such as cold tablets, headache medications, vitamin supplements etc., can change or affect your blood glucose. Have caution in taking ANY medications or supplements and please, talk to your doctor first, then your pharmacist before taking anything.
6. Illness - Fluctuations in your sugar levels is very common when one is ill. Some of it is due to the fact that, many times, your appetite is low when you are ill. The medications, be they prescription or other remedies, can interact with the diabetes medications you are on and should only be taken on the advice of your physician. Often too, your pharmacist will have an even better idea of what will or will not react with any medications you are on.
7. Food - What you eat, how much you eat, when you eat - all will have an effect on your glucose levels. Carbohydrates turn in to glucose in the blood far more readily than protein or fats. Some green vegetables, like lettuce and celery, have little or no effect on glucose levels, while white rice or potatoes have a dramatic effect. Always include a protein with whatever you eat. A handful of nuts is great with a snack. A piece of cheese (1-2 ounces) will help slow down the absorption of carbs into the blood stream as glucose. 
8. Sleep - Though a lack of good sleep patterns has been pretty well researched, and links have been discovered between that and the development of diabetes, the effects of poor sleep patterns can be extrapolated to affect those who already have diabetes. A lack of sleep, either in total or in the stages of sleep, can effect glucose resistance. This means that the cells that take up the insulin for use in the body aren’t working properly. Lack of proper sleep also affects your immune system in staving off colds, flu, heart ailments, and infections, all of which also affect or are affected by diabetes.

I know that many more things can affect your diabetes control and I can’t begin to go into them all in one article. Do your research. Know how your body feels. Be aware. Test often. These go a long way toward your control and overall health.

EXPERIENCING A DIABETIC LOW

Just a few days ago I was sitting in my easy chair feeling all snug and warm. I had tested my blood sugar for my bedtime reading a short while before, eaten my evening snack and taken my long-acting insulin. In my case it is Lantus. I finished watching a movie that I had in, and got up to ready myself for bed. Now I had been feeling just fine. My numbers were excellent when I ate my snack, took my meds, (I take a number of different things for diabetes related problems), and my insulin, and only about ½ hour had passed so I was not anticipating any problems. As I got up to head for bed,  I felt very weak. Like my muscles couldn’t hold me up for long.

I am one who doesn’t always feel a low coming on so, as is my custom when I feel off at all for any reason, I tested my blood sugar once again. I was dangerously low! So low it scared me some. I took some glucose tablets, which I carry everywhere, to bring it back up. Then I called the hospital. If I kept going down it wouldn’t be long til I was in a coma! I live alone so I wanted someone on the line with me until I got my sugars back up. I didn’t know if I had inadvertently taken my insulin twice or what was going on. I didn’t want to slip into unconsciousness with no one being aware I was in trouble. It took me 25 minutes to get someone on the line! By then I had brought my blood sugars back up and was doing ok.

I put in a report with the diabetic teaching center the next day, as I was advised to by the hospital once I finally got through. This was, in turn, sent to the makers of Lantus in case it was a bad batch.

This type of reaction is very unusual for the long-acting insulin. I had eaten enough to keep my numbers good til morning. It was the third vial in that batch, and the fourth dose out of that vial, with no other problems, so it was not likely it was a bad batch. A report went in nevertheless.

After a lengthy discussion with the diabetic nurse at the teaching center we came to the conclusion that I may have hit a vein when I took the insulin and it worked far faster than it was supposed to as a result.

Though I usually have good control of my diabetes, the concern is now that I don’t feel a low coming on. If I hadn’t got out of my chair at that precise time and felt weak enough to check, if I had gone straight to bed, I would have slipped into a coma without anyone knowing. If I hadn’t eaten the dozen or so crackers with peanut butter, I would have already been in a coma and been unable to help myself.

The diabetes nurse is now concerned about my lack of warning symptoms. She is working with me to re-set my system. This is done, apparently, by keeping your blood sugars on the high side for a period of time. So for the next couple of weeks I will be trying to keep my readings between 8 and 12. The diabetes nurse thinks that this may reset my ability to feel a low coming on. I hope it works. It is certainly a scary feeling to know you have no physical warning of a dangerous low. Especially when you live alone and could lay there for days and not be found. I am not much of a social butterfly and may not even receive a phone call for many days at a time, let alone someone dropping by.

As Wilfred Brimley says on the diabetes commercial. “Test your blood sugar, and test it often.” Because of this lack of warning, there are days that I test 8 - 10 times. Like I said, if I feel the least bit off, I test. And it has already saved me.

Please be aware at all times of how you feel. Don’t rely on your body’s early warning system to be aware of a low, it doesn’t always work.

NATURAL AIDS FOR DIABETES CONTROL

I have recently been online with a view to finding natural alternatives for controlling my diabetes. A number of ads I saw offer “cures” for diabetes, but when I went on the sites they wanted to sell me some supplement or other with no documented facts that show their product works at all. This is kinda like the old time “snake-oil” salesman to my way of thinking.

For me, unless there are actual studies showing some improvement for the diabetic patient, I won’t even talk to my doctor about it.

And please! Never take any form of treatment, natural or otherwise, without being under the supervision of a qualified professional. And I do mean your doctor. Many natural aids to the diabetic person are researched, but can pose a threat if taken in too large a dose, or in conjunction with other supplements and/or prescription drugs.

Also, please do your own research on anything you consider taking. The internet has made it easy for a person to access studies in relation to many health issues, and diabetes is no different. Many of the studies’ findings are worded in ways that most can understand, especially those with diabetes who are familiar with terms associated with the disease. Some, though, I found to be far over my head. They were written in very scientific terms and annotations.

Amongst the herbs, spices, minerals (trace and others the body needs to function properly), enzymes, and elements I viewed that have been studied in view of their effects on diabetes are:

•    Ginseng
•    Cinnamon
•    Zinc
•    Aloe vera gel
•    Jambolan - belonging to a species of cloves
•    Bitter melon extract
•    Chromium
•    Magnesium
•    Zinc

I am sure there are many I haven’t read about yet as well. There are also numerous natural aids that I have not as yet looked for studies for. Amongst these are :
•    Indian Kino/Malabar Kino
•    Blueberry leave
•    Gingko Biloba
•    Stevia - I have read this is unproven, but still good as it is an alternate sweetener
•    Gymnema Sylvester
•    Fenugreek
•    Mango leaves

There are traditional cures/treatments said to be useful for diabetes too, and though I find these very interesting, I still opt for the ones that have been studied and have proven to have some positive effect. 

 

The cost of supplements, no matter what medical plan you are under, will come out of your own pocket. I don’t know about you, but I have no extra money for something that is not proven to be beneficial to my diabetes. “Snake-oil” salesmen beware, there's no easy sale here.

I know many believe that, even if a cure for diabetes is found, there is too much money involved in the sale of diabetic supplies and medications for the pharmaceutical companies to allow it to come to light. This could be true. But why take something that is only said to work, without any documentation to back it up? To me this is just foolish, but that is only my opinion on the subject. It’s your health and you must make your own decisions regarding it. Please make them “informed” decisions between you and your health care professionals.  

Stem Cell Treatment For Diabetes in Germany !

Well, Christmas is over and the New Year has come. I have taken a bit of a hiatus during the season. I’ve gotten a new job after more than two months with no work and things are stabilizing at home once more. Now I can get back to blogging.

      I have not stopped reading and learning however, and one bit of information that has come to light in my research is that Germany is already using stem cell transplantation in relation to diabetes! I’ll tell you, if I could afford to go there, I would be on the first available flight!

     They are not only using stem cell transplantation for Type 1 diabetics as the research in Canada is doing, but for type 2 diabetes as well. What wonderful news!

     It is a five-day process that begins with taking the bone marrow from your hip. Your own bone marrow, which has no chance of rejection by your body and eliminates the need for anti-rejection drugs for the rest of your life. This part of the process takes about 30 minutes and is done under only a local anesthetic. After the procedure you may return to your hotel or wherever you are staying and resume normal activities.

    On day 2 they separate the stem cells from the marrow in a government-approved laboratory. As I have said before, stem cells can become any cell in the body, in this application they are directed to the area they are needed, the pancreas.

     That is done on the third day of the process. To accomplish this stem cells are injected, via catheter, into the pancreatic artery. The catheter is a thin wire with a small hole in it that is fed from the femoral artery into the pancreatic artery using an x-ray scanning to guide the insertion. Alternatively the stem cells can be delivered intravenously for those who cannot be catheterized. This process takes about 90 minutes and requires two to three hours in the recovery room to make sure the injection site is not bleeding.

     For those with diabetic neuropathy a portion of the stem cells will be injected into the leg muscles. You will be required to stay for a fourth day as a safety measure and are able to go home on the fifth day.

      The results of the treatment, after following 50 patients, were that more than 50% of them showed improvement with 40% of patients being type 1 and 60% being type 2 diabetics.

         Improvements reported included more stable blood glucose levels, lower fasting blood glucose levels, decreased leg pain, lower blood pressure and the elimination of hypoglycemic episodes. Nearly 1 in 4 male patients regained erectile function.

     To learn more about this treatment do a search for Xcell-Center. There is an online evaluation, stories of others who have undergone the process, and  a link to their research information.

    In the meantime, you can do as I am doing and take matters into your own hands. I have started taking a product called StemEnhance whose function is to get your own body to release more of these body repairing cells to help your own body heal itself. Read about it through the link on the side. They have videos and explanations of their research as well.

     If I can release enough stem cells on my own, using this product, my body may be able to repair itself, or at the least improve. For me it may take longer than some because of multiple health problems. My income does not allow me to take as many in a day that I would like to.

     The recommended dosage is 2 a day for one in good health, but I would like to take 4 to 6 a day. One day I may be able to. In the meantime I have noticed an increase in energy.

     I have seen a friend of mine go from sleeping most days away (chronic fatigue syndrome) to becoming a very functional person. It used to be hard to have a conversation with her because her fatigue slowed her mental functions dramatically. Now she is a pleasure to have a conversation with. She also reports that her fibromyalgia symptoms have abated dramatically as well. And she is able to hold a job!

     Other testimonials on the site are dramatic too, but this I have seen with my own eyes, and experienced in my own body. And, as I have said before, if it is going to help get me maybe off insulin, or dramatically reduce the amount needed, I’m going for it! I hate needles!