What is type II diabetes? Type II is the most common form of diabetes. More and more people are becoming diagnosed with diabetes and many more unaware they are at high risk of developing diabetes. Many people are at a higher risk than others due to their past medical history, ethnicity, race, weight and age. Latinos, Native Americans, African Americans and Mexicans are more susceptible to diabetes than other races. The Elderly age is also more suspectible to diabetes than others due to being older.
In type II diabetes, the body can’t make enough insulin or the cells won’t accept it. Insulin is a must because the body has to have insulin in order to use glucose for energy. The food that you eat is turned into fuel which is what you need to live off of. When your body breaks down the glucose it gives you the energy to keep pushing through and makes it through the day.
Starches such as cereals, pastas, potatoes and other sugary foods are the worst for diabetics because starch turns into pure sugar versus natural sugars such as fresh vegetables and fruits. When you have too much glucose in your body your body can’t break it up fast enough which either causes your insulin to be too much or too little and can signify to the rest of your body how it needs to work harder in order to keep up so that it can regulate everything and keep you healthy and your diabetes maintained.
What is type II diabetes? Type II diabetes is plainly where your body isn’t able to produce enough insulin in order to regulate your body or your body can’t absorb all the insulin you have been making in order to maintain a level of normalcy so that everything can work together.
When it comes to having diabetes, a diabetic glucose tester is a necessity when it comes to daily living. Diabetic glucose testers come in a wide variety of sizes, styles, brands and price ranges.
For many diabetics, portability, size, accurate and affordable is all the main things that they look for in a diabetic glucose tester. Who wants to walk around carrying a large, big, bulky glucose meter when you can carry something that is more discrete and easy to keep up with? For many, a diabetic glucose tester needs to be something that they can carry in a backpack, purse or briefcase so that it can go with them to work, play, the gym, on vacation or anywhere else that they need to take it.
Diabetic glucose testers come in ones that are convenient and have small carrying cases that can store all of your lancets, testing booklets, glucose reading logs, medications, insulin and anything else that you need such as testing strips. There are also diabetic glucose testers that can be carried around and look like purses so that people don’t even have to know that you have diabetes they are so discrete.
Diabetic glucose testers can be relatively difficult at times to purchase especially if you a new diabetic. The best way to avoid confusion when it comes to purchasing diabetic glucose testers is to read reviews and find out all that you can about the one you are interested in or any of them for that fact. When you read about reviews especially when it is about a product that you may know nothing about you can hear personal reviews from people who have used the product and can provide you with personal opinions on how it works and how they feel about it.
Vanadium is a trace element that occurs naturally in both animals and plants.
Although it is not yet classified as an essential nutrient, Vanadium is a very important potential medicinal agent mainly because it appears to mimic the actions of insulin because of its unique ability to normalize blood glucose levels. Animal studies and a few human studies have proven that vanadium lowers blood sugar level and improves sensitivity to insulin. In one human study, vanadium also lowered the total bad cholesterol (LDL).
What is the relationship between vanadium and diabetes?
Research shows that vanadium improves the body’s metabolism of glucose (also known as blood sugar). Moreover, it promotes the glucose of blood sugar into the cells where it is normally broken down and used to produce energy.
Compounds of vanadium have several insulin-like effects which include the ability to significantly improve insulin resistance and homeostasis in patients with diabetes mellitus. Moreover, it improves muscle and liver sensitivity in patients with type II diabetes.
How does vanadium work?
The compounds found in vanadium have the ability to stimulate the uptake of glucose, lipid and glycogen synthesis in adipose, hepatic and muscle tissues and the activities of gluconeogenic enzymes (glucose-6-phosphate and phosphoenol gluconeogenesis) in the kidney and liver. Moreover, the lipolysis in cells contributes to the anti-diabetic mechanisms and insulin-like effects of vanadium.
Vanadium activates various vital elements in the insulin signal transduction path-way in order to mediate metabolic actions of insulin in the body. Vanadium enhances insulin action and signaling because it increases the tyrosine phosphorylation of various substrate protein sand also inhibits the activity of PTPases (protein tyrosine phosphatases) which are negative regulators of the insulin signaling pathway.
· Hypoglycemic effect of Vanadium
Peroxovanadium and organic compounds have an acute glucose-lowering effect a few minutes or hours after their administration. Moreover, vanadium compounds have proven to be quite effective in modifying lipid and glucose metabolism in cultured cell lines, adipose tissue, muscle and the liver.
· Effect on glucose transport
Vanadium evokes an increase in the transportation of glucose which is psychologically relevant. It also restores the cell surface translocation and expression of insulin sensitive protein in the skeletal muscle and heart. Therefore, vanadium enhances glucose transportation through an effect on protein GLUT-4.
· Effect on glucogenesis
In addition to the stimulation of uptake and utilization of glucose, vanadium also decreases the production of hepatic glucose which in turn improves glucose homeostasis.
Clinical studies in human subjects have documented significant improvement in insulin sensitivity and glycaemic control.
Dietary sources of Vanadium for Diabetes
Some of the best sources of vanadium are
shellfish,
mushrooms,
parsley,
black pepper,
dill weed,
radishes,
cereals,
olives,
corn,
wine,
grains,
beer, and
grain products.
On the other hand, vanadium exists in various forms, including vanadate, vanadium oxide, vanadium pentoxide, and vandyl sulfate which are commonly found in various nutritional supplements.
Some of the herbs that contain vanadium in average amounts include parsley and dill.
How should vanadium be taken?
Vanadium supplements should not be given to children. Although we don’t know the exact amount of vanadium needed by the human body, the average diet normally provides 6 to 18 mcg of vanadium.
Precautions
Due to the interactions with medications and the potential side effects of vanadium, dietary supplements should be taken under the supervision of a knowledgeable and reliable medical practitioner. Common side effects of vanadium include nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, gas and stomach pain.
People with anemia, an infection, high cholesterol, or health problems that cause low white blood cell count should not take vanadium without consulting a doctor first. Since vanadium may lower the blood sugar level, diabetics who are taking medication to control their blood sugar (drugs for diabetes) might be at risk of low blood sugar and hypoglycemia if they take vanadium.
Vanadium doses of more than 1.8 mg per day can cause kidney or liver damage.
Possible interactions
People who are being treated with medication such as antiplatelets (blood thinners) or anticoagulants should not take vanadium without consulting a health care provider. The risk of bleeding might increase when vanadium is taken with colopidogrel (plavix), warfarin (Coumadin), aspirin and heparin.
It is evident that the relationship between vanadium and diabetes is possibly promising and tenuous all at the same time. However, diabetes mellitus is still a major health problem for humans despite the availability of various oral glycaemic drugs and insulin.
Therefore, there is need for new therapeautic approaches that can treat diabetes effectively and more efficiently.
When it comes to glucose meter ratings there are any number of glucose meter reviews posted online and they can occasionally be found in medical magazines. When it comes to any kind of ratings, including glucose meter ratings, the smart consumer reads the ratings and understands that they are just guidelines and may even by biased in one direction or the other depending on the way the ratings may be slanted by the manufacturers and suppliers.
No matter what the glucose meter ratings are or what the reviews say the smart consumer should always do their own research before deciding what to buy. After all, everyone is different, every situation is different, and when the glucose meter ratings or reviews say that 8 out of 10 consumers preferred brand X it doesn’t necessarily mean that brand X is the right brand for you.
If you make a ratings and reviews based purchase without doing your own research you may suddenly find that you belong to the 2 out of 10 people who thought that brand X was the worst thing on the market.
There is a large number of glucose meters on the market today, and they all have features only dreamed of a few years ago. Some of today’s new glucose meters can even be plugged into your computer and the data downloaded directly into your glucose charting program so that trending and tracking your blood sugar can be done with just a few clicks of the mouse. Glucose meters are like cell phones, not everyone wants or needs the newest smart phone on the market, and some people actually prefer a simple and straightforward glucometer without all the bells and whistles. The best glucose meter ratings are the ones you do yourself during your pre-purchase research.
Consumer ratings and reviews on any product provide an invaluable tool for those in the market to begin their search for the right product. When it comes to glucose meter ratings and reviews be sure and check things out for yourself before you buy.
Accucheck glucose meters are one of the new breed of compact glucometers. The accu check glucose meters are so small as to fit neatly in the palm of the hand and so light at to be practically unnoticed when stowed in a purse of carry bag for easy travelling. The newest accu check glucose meters are a miniature when compared to the bulky meters that were available just a few years ago, and it is so sensitive that it takes only the smallest amount of blood to read the glucose level. This means that a thinner gauge lancet can be used to obtain the blood sample and this of course means a great deal less discomfort than the meters that were used just a few years ago.
The accu check glucose meters are also fast. The days of waiting a minute or more for a glucose reading are gone, the newer model meters are able to read the blood sugar in just a few seconds. The accu check can store and recall a multitude of readings complete with a time and date stamp for each reading, and can even be set up to make trending and tracking your blood glucose levels quick, simple, and easy.
If you are a diabetic who also uses insulin, the accucheck glucose test meter even allows you to record your insulin doses for easy tracking and access, so practically all your treatment information can be kept in one place.
If you are in the market for a new glucometer, or if you are newly in need of one, the accucheck glucose meters are one of the best options on the market today. When you buy an accu check you will get all the best features of the new generation glucometers rolled into one compact yet powerful little unit.
