How a diabetic Alert Dog can Help

How a Diabetic Alert Dog Can Help.

For insulin dependent diabetics, I think this is such a great idea! They are often known by the acronym ‘DAD’. They are a service dog, specially trained to warn their human companion when their blood sugar is too low or too high. They can also remind their diabetic friend to take their insulin at the right time.

This of course can be very useful in managing your diabetes. A diabetic service dog also can help to save lives by preventing permanent health damage due to

seizures,
passing out, and
brain damage.

Diabetic Alert Dogs – smell great!

Pardon the pun, but in fact the canine nose has more than two hundred million scent receptors compared to a measly 5 million scent receptors in humans. Moreover, a large portion of a dog’s brain is devoted to processing olfactory (sensory) information. This makes a dog’s nose far superior to that of a human!

Dogs can smell things that humans simply cannot smell. The training they receive to become a diabetic alert dog teaches them how to hone in on specific scents associated with high and low blood sugar.

When a person’s blood sugar rises too high, they produce ketones that can be easily detected by a trained canine nose, while the human nose smells nothing different. When a person’s blood sugar drops too low, they produce excess nitrogen in the form of urea that escapes through the skin pores.

This can be easily detected by a trained canine nose but not a human’s nose.

Common Breeds of Diabetic alert Dog

The most common types of dogs that become service dogs for diabetics are

poodles,
labrador retrievers, and
golden retrievers.

These breeds are chosen because they usually have a good temperament, an extremely good sense of smell, and can be trained more easily than most other breeds.

How old you ask? is a Diabetic Alert Dog

A fully trained diabetic alert dog is usually one to two years old when they are paired with their diabetic friend. Sometimes these service dogs are also trained to alert a family member when their companion’s blood sugar goes too high or too low. This can be especially helpful with smaller children.

Sleeping can be a dangerous time for an insulin dependent diabetic because a sleeping person is unaware of their own symptoms of low blood sugar and high blood sugar. An alert dog can be a real safety net, especially for a young child. They are taught how to wake their companion up and signal to them if their blood sugar becomes too high or too low during the night. This is particularly important for sound sleepers who have extreme fluctuations in their blood sugar levels.
Driving is another potential danger for diabetics since blood sugar irregularities can cause black outs and sleepiness while driving. In extreme cases, some diabetics are advised to not drive because it can be too risky.

This can become quite frustrating, even just when driving to work, school, or just performing basic everyday life tasks, such as shopping for instance. However, having a diabetic therapy dog riding along with you can give you back your freedom!

Kids with diabetes are notoriously forgetful and or resistant to testing their blood sugar. I think the practice of adding friendly reminders to cell phones and social media services is a brilliant idea – but a lot of the time (like my good friends daughter) even with these kid friendly technologies, kids just don’t like to test! However, giving them a lovable playmate at the same time –allows kids to take a little of the seriousness out of their situation. Takes the focus off the fact that they may well be chronically ill.

Training for a diabetic alert dog.

Part of the training they receive is obedience training so they can fit into a normal household without causing any additional stress. In fact, a diabetic alert dog has a calming effect and help to reduce anxiety in their diabetic companions. This is a significant advantage of having a DAD that is a sometimes overlooked. These dogs help their diabetic companions cope with the day to day stresses of living with diabetes. Since these dogs are service animals, they can go almost anywhere with their companions.

If you need more info or wish to find out about getting a diabetic alert dog, please checkout diabetic alert dogs.

The Facts about Diabetic Retinopathy

Diabetic retinopathy is a complication of diabetes that mainly affects the eyes and it is the leading cause of blindness especially among diabetic (both type 1 and 2) adults aged between 20 and 74 years. It occurs when elevated blood sugar levels damage the tiny light sensitive blood vessels and tissue inside the retina (at the back of the eye).

Stages of diabetic retinopathy

1. Mild non-proliferative retinopathy: This is the earliest stage that occurs when diabetes affects the circulatory system of the retina thus weakening the walls of retinal capillaries forming microaneurysms. Microaneurysms are small outpunches of the small blood vessels which can leak blood and fluid leading to edema and swelling in the retina which result in small dot-like hemorrhages.

2. Moderate non-proliferative retinopathy: As the disease worsens or progresses the nourishing small blood vessels of the retina are blocked.

3. Severe non-proliferative retinopathy: As many more tiny blood vessels in the retina are blocked, several areas of the retina are deprived off blood and oxygen supply. In an attempt to maintain adequate blood supply, sends signals to the body to stimulate the growth of new fragile blood vessels in order to bring in nourishment.

4. Proliferative retinopathy: Once neovascularization (formation of new blood vessels in the retina) occurs the condition becomes worse. Proliferative retinopathy is mainly characterized by the growth of fragile abnormal tiny blood vessels both on the retinal surface and also on the vitreous gel inside the eye. If left untreated, these fragile and delicate blood vessels leak blood leading to severe vision loss or even blindness resulting from retinal detachment.

Signs and Symptoms of Diabetic Retinopathy

Patients are normally asymptomatic in the early phases of diabetic retinopathy. However, in the more advanced stages, complications may start developing and the patient may experience several symptoms including blurred vision, distortion, floaters, and acute progressive loss of vision. There are also other signs and symptoms of diabetic retinopathy which include;

Microaneurysms: This is the earliest clinical symptom of diabetic retinopathy. They occur secondary to outpunch of capillary walls due to pericyte loss. They primarily appear as small red dots mainly in the superficial retinal layers.
Dot and blot hemorrhages: If they are very small, they appear similar to microaneurysms. They occur as a result of rupturing of the microaneurysms in the deep layers of the retina such as the outer pexiform and the inner nuclear layers.
Flame-shaped hemorrhages: These are splinter hemorrhages that mainly occur in the superficial nerve fiber layer.
Hard exudates and retinal edema: These are caused by breakdown of the retina-blood barrier. This allows leakage of allowing leakage of lipids, serum proteins, and protein from the tiny blood vessels.
Macular edema causes visual impairment.
Complexity reading due to blurred or distorted vision.
Pain in the eyes.
Distorted central vision.
Abnormal patterns or floaters in the field of vision.

Who is at risk of Diabetic Retinopathy?

Diabetics (both type 1 and type 2) are at risk of developing this and other eye diseases which can result in severe loss of vision and/or blindness. This can occur much earlier and is likely to be more severe is a person’s diabetes is poorly managed or left untreated. Additionally, pregnant women who are diabetic should guard their vision by having a comprehensive dilated eye examination.

Treatment of Diabetic Retinopathy

· Glucose control: Intensive glucose control especially in patients with IDDM (insulin dependent diabetes mellitus) decreases the progression and incidence of diabetic retinopathy.

· Laser photocoagulation: This entails the use of a high focused beam of light (energy) to stimulate a coagulative response.

· Pan-retinal photocoagulation: This procedure involves the application small laser burns over the retina in order to spark the central muscular area. This can eliminates the blood vessels completely and stop the leaking.

· Vitrectomy: This procedure is very effective in case of tractional retinal detachment, long standing vitreous hemorrhage, and combined rhegmatogenous and tractional retinal detachment. Treatment of diabetic retinopathy is often very successful especially in preventing, delaying or reducing loss of vision. However, all these procedures do not eliminate the disease entirely.

Prevention

Diabetic retinopathy can be prevented or slowed down by keeping all systemic parameters under control. Such systemic parameters include kidney function, blood sugar levels, lipid profile (triglycerides and cholesterol), hemoglobin levels, and blood pressure. Meditation practice is very effective in reducing and preventing stress. This helps prevent a rise in blood sugars. Moreover, mindful and responsible food choices supports healthy blood sugar level. Yoga and exercise are essential in the management of the blood sugar levels mainly because it helps move glucose into the muscle. On the other hand, yoga postures can be modified to accommodate diabetic people.

For more information, follow our suggested link.

Good food for diabetes

Diabetics often times think that being a diabetic means that they don’t get to eat good food but that is far from the truth because good food for diabetes can be the same as anyone can eat, me or you. Good food for diabetes comes in a wide variety such as cookies, crackers, snacks, fudge and many other foods as well.

Eating high fiber foods is highly recommended to control diabetes. Good sources of soluble fiber such as oats, soy beans, peas, wheat and other whole grains have the added benefit of lowering LDL, or bad, cholesterol levels.

Some foods that are high in fiber can also do double duty as a good source of protein. Legumes like beans, peas and sprouts can be both a great source of fiber and protein. You can also snack on nuts such as peanuts, sunflower kernels, almonds and pistachios for good sources of healthy protein. Try to stick to the unsalted versions of these nuts however, so that you don’t ingest the extra sodium. Low-fat or skim milk and cheese are also healthy ways to obtain protein and calcium.

Non-starchy vegetables like celery, lettuce and spinach should make up 80 percent your daily servings of produce. Eating fruits and vegetables that vary in color daily will also provide different vitamin and mineral benefits.

All of these are good foods for diabetes because they are low in carbohydrates and high sugar which is a main staple item when it comes to being diabetic and safely managing your diabetes. Good food for diabetes is always a key element when it comes to being diabetic because with too much carbohydrates and too much sugar you can start having other medical problems that if left untreated can cause more serious and even deadly medical problems.

What is the Cause of Diabetes?

In order to understand what is the cause of diabetes, it’s important to get a few of the basic facts about the disease first.

Diabetes is a non-communicable disease that affects people of all ages from kids all the way through to seniors. Diabetes is a very serious, not only because of the health risks associated with it, but also that it is affecting more and more people every year, not just in North America, but across the entire world.

Diabetes is the Lack of, or Inefficiency of Insulin in Your Body

The way that our body becomes energized is by having the food we eat be broken down into glucose so that it can enter into the blood stream and be delivered to the cells that need energy.

For the cells to use this energy they need insulin, produced by the pancreas. Without the insulin, it’s like the cells are starving for energy because they can’t access the glucose in the bloodstream.

This is really bad, and another way to think about how bad this can be is to think about how you breathe. Your body needs oxygen to survive, and the lungs are the organs that can change the oxygen in the air into oxygen that is usable for your body.

If you think about the way that lungs convert the oxygen so that it can be used, insulin is doing the same thing with the energy being delivered to the cells. Without the insulin, the cells starve, just like without our lungs we would not be able to breathe.

Without the proper amounts of this necessary sugar changing chemical/hormone the blood, glucose levels in the blood stream begin to rise to extremely high levels. Once they reach a certain level the body systems begins to suffer cell damage.

Understanding this condition can be complicated. A good start for someone who wants more insight and possibly a need to help can begin by looking into their choices of masters of nursing programs. You can learn at your own pace and gain the experience needed to truly help friends, family and people alike.

The major cell damage most commonly associated with high blood sugar levels are:

Severe nerve cell damage
Heart damage
Kidney damage
Severe eye damage

This can be avoided if the diabetic can regulate and keep their blood sugar amounts in a normal range for their body that is neither too high or too low.

The next important thing to understand is that there are two different types of diabetes:

type 1 diabetes
type 2 diabetes

The Cause of Type 1 Diabetes

Unfortunately, there is nothing that someone can do about type 1 diabetes, at least not with the current medical expertise that we have today. Type 1 diabetes is caused because your body has ceased to produce insulin.

For one reason or another your body has attacked the pancreas and it is no longer able to function correctly. This type of diabetes can affect anyone and is not dependent on lifestyle.

Type 1 diabetes usually occurs in people under the age of 40, and rarely affects those over 40, and those affected will need to take insulin to regulate their blood sugar level for the rest of their lives.

The Cause of Type 2 Diabetes

Luckily, type 2 diabetes is preventable and in some cases reversible. The reason that we can affect this type of diabetes is that it is largely caused by poor diet, and lack of exercise.

Genetics can come into play here, so if someone in your family has developed type 2 diabetes then you may be at a higher risk for developing it yourself, so you should take care to live a healthy lifestyle so that you won’t have to worry about diabetes.

More good news: 85% of people with diabetes have type 2 diabetes. What this means is that it is within your power to resist the development of diabetes.

Remember that the main causes of type 2 diabetes are:

Lack of exercise
Poor diet
Excess body fat for a prolonged period of time

The Major Causes of Diabetes

The amount of insulin being produced by the body is not enough
The cells have developed a resistance to the insulin and it is not working as effectively as it once did.

The problem with insulin resistance is that what used to work fine for the body, slowly becomes ineffective over time. With this in mind it’s important to realize that your general health and fitness level is very important, and if you want to avoid problems like diabetes later in life, that you should be making good health choices today.

What are treatments for type ii diabetes?

What are treatments for type ii diabetes? Diabetes is a very serious disease. This disease affects over 28 million in the United States alone. The rest of the world is just as plagued. This disease is permanent and can be very life threatening to the body. Diabetes is where the body is producing small or none of vital chemical called insulin. The pancreas is responsible for the production of this vital chemical. The insulin chemical is used by the body as a sugar bonding agent. The chemical must bond with the body’s blood sugar before the body’s cell is able to use the fuel. Without it the sugar levels rise and begin to damage the body’s organ systems. Type ii diabetes is where the person has had a high blood sugar level for so long that their body has suffered damage and is no longer creating enough of this vital chemical. However with this type the body is still producing enough that the body does not need insulin injections. The damage with the diabetes is damage to major cells. The cells most commonly damaged by the diabetes are the heart cells, the kidney cells, the eye cells, and the nerve cells. All of these damages are permanent and will not be notice by the diabetic till years later in their lives. So what are treatments for type ii diabetes?

Treatments for type ii diabetes include proper diet, exercise and blood glucose monitoring. Exercise stimulates insulin production for the body while improving your overall health. However the body should not exercise until told to by your doctor. Diet is important because you monitor what kinds of food you’re taking in and how much food your taking into your body. Glucose monitoring is important so that your blood levels stay at the level you want they and if they are above the level you can do things to drop it. So talk to your doctor about treatments for type ii diabetes.