When it comes to having diabetes there are many different types of foods that one loves and just finds it very hard to get away from but by knowing the right foods that you can substitute with you can still have all of those foods that you love just in moderation. A diabetic food exchange list is a great way to learn what foods you can eat in exchange for the bad ones.
For example, when it comes to eating fruits the best ones to eat are a small banana, apple, strawberries or an orange has less sugar than peaches, watermelon or pineapple. When it comes to vegetables carrots, broccoli, cabbage and zucchini is better for you raw than cooked. When you cook vegetables if you eat them raw they have less natural sugar than if you steam them.
For a lot of diabetics they love their meats and dairy but a diabetic food exchange list can help you eat the right ones instead of the ones that can run your sugar up. Non fat or low fat yogurt is better than the regular, the same as fat free or skim milk is much better than whole milk is. Almost any type of meat or protein is good foods for diabetics as long as they are not coated in bread, fried or have some type of fatty, sugary sauce poured all over them.
So many diabetics have a hard time switching their carbohydrates because who doesn’t love their carbohydrates? Pretzels, whole wheat bread or white bread is much better than Italian or other types of breads such as donuts.
Just because you are a diabetic doesn’t mean that you have to completely quit eating all of the foods that you love and enjoy eating. But, by having a diabetic food exchange list handy you can eat the right foods that are good for you and are much better health wise than the ones that can harm you.
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.
Are you a diabetic and are having trouble maintaining your diabetes? Do you have a blood glucose level chart? A blood glucose level chart is a great way to maintain and keep your diabetes managed because it will allow you to have the resource to pull out when you are in doubt about your numbers and need help.
Are you a new diabetic and have trouble keeping up with all of your blood glucose readings and understanding what they mean? Diabetics often times find keeping up with their blood glucose readings hard to do and often times get overwhelmed when doing so.
For diabetics it doesn’t matter if you are young or old, have had diabetes for many years or have just recently been diagnosed it still can be the same…hard to manage.
Diabetes can often times seem challenging and with a blood glucose level chart you can throw those worries away because you will know that your diabetes are being kept up with by having that chart to look at when in doubt. A blood glucose level chart can be a convenient little tool that you can carry anywhere that you want to go and when in doubt you can pull it out and see what it has to say, compare your numbers to their numbers and see where you stand.
A blood glucose level chart is something that you can obtain for free through your local doctor’s office, library, pharmacy, online or through the American diabetes association.
It can be small and portable so that you can keep a copy in your pocketbook, briefcase, on your desk at work, in your car or anywhere else that you may need to be. So why not let a blood glucose level chart work for you? When in doubt you can check it out!
What are diabetes testing meters used for? Diabetes testing meters are devices that allow diabetics to check their blood sugar levels at any time they need. This is extremely useful so they can keep a normal safe blood sugar level at almost any time, which is a life saver, literally. Diabetes is where the pancreas starts to slow or sometime stop in the production of a hormone called insulin. Insulin is an absolutely vital hormone. It makes all of the energy that you body has. This means that when your body doesn’t have insulin it doesn’t have energy. This is by the sugar that is in the blood stream becoming bonded with the insulin.
Without this binding the sugar cannot be used by the cells. So if insulin levels are low, blood sugar is high. When it reaches a certain point it becomes a poison and starts to damage the body. The damage most associated with hyperglycemia is heart damage, nerve damage, eye damage, and kidney damage. Of which they all lead to a slow death, so using diabetes testing meters are a have to in order to stay healthy.
Diabetes testing meters are small handheld machines that are used to measure blood sugar. The unit uses test strips to do this. First a small sample of blood is taken and is placed in a test strip. The chemical reactions that happen inside of the test strip are read by the glucose meter. This then gives a excellent (and very accurate) glucose reading on a small screen. This allows people to check their blood sugar at any time and anywhere. So you should talk to your doctor about a new glucose meter or to your local diabetic testing meters dealer for more information.
Have you tried the Freestyle flash blood glucose meter? The Freestyle flash blood glucose meter is a very popular glucose meter because it is easy to use, portable, affordable and provides you with accurate and precise results each and every time.
The Freestyle flash blood glucose meter is rated high on the review list for blood glucose meters because of all the easy to use features such as large numbers so that you can read it easily, easy to use and understand owner’s manual, affordable price tag, precise and accurate readings each and every time. The Freestyle flash blood glucose meter has its own brand of test strips and lancets that go hand in hand with this meter so that you get accurate readings each and every time. So many other brands of blood glucose meters on the market do not give accurate readings when the same brand of test strips are not inserted because they will provide you with an ERR message which is the same as the Freestyle flash blood glucose meter, it will give you an ERR message if you do not use the same brand of test strips signaling to you that it will be unreadable and not able to provide you with an accurate blood glucose reading.
The Freestyle flash blood glucose meter is very dependable, reliable, accurate and precise on all of its readings therefore being a name and brand that you can trust. Why waste your time with the other brands of blood glucose meters out there when you can rely on the best?
Who wants to spend a lot of wasted money on a meter that could be harmful to them because it doesn’t offer accurate readings each and every time? Rely on a name that you can trust; the Freestyle flash blood glucose monitor!
