pre diabetes | Diabetes Healthy Solutions

What are freestyle glucose meters used for?

What are freestyle glucose meters used for? Freestyle glucose meters are very important as they let people monitor their blood sugar whenever they need to. Diabetes is a very serious condition that affects not only the diabetic, but everyone who comes into contact with them. Diabetes is a condition in which the pancreas lows and sometimes stops producing a very important hormone called insulin. Insulin is used by the body to make fuel for the cells. The hormone must bind with the glucose in the blood before the cells can use it. When the insulin levels are to low the glucose levels then begin to rise. At a certain level they damage the body. The damage that they most often cause is heart damage, nerve damage, eye damage, and nerve damage. This makes using a freestyle glucose meter a must for those who have diabetes or even pre-diabetes.

A freestyle glucose meter is a small handheld machine that is used to measure blood sugar. First a small sample of blood sugar must be gotten. This is done using a lancet. A lancet is a small needle used to gain a blood sample by pricking the finger. (Or arm) The blood sample is then placed in a disposable test strip and inserted into the freestyle glucose meter. The machine then takes the sample and thru analyzing special chemical reactions gives you a correct measurement. The measurement is correct to the parts per million amounts and is generally received in a few seconds. So talk to your doctor about getting a freestyle glucose meter to help with controlling your blood sugar levels. Also see about getting a painless non invasive glucose meter. This uses electromagnetic fields to detect glucose levels and is fairly accurate. (Although not as accurate as a freestyle glucose meter)

What are Type 1 Diabetes Statistics?

What is type 1 diabetes statistics? Diabetes is a disease that is taking over the world by storm. 25.8 million Adults and children (just in America) have diabetes. This is probably due to diabetics passing the defective gene on (because they live longer) and today’s sweet filled diets. Diabetes is a disease where the body’s organ called the pancreas stops or slows in the manufacturing of a vital hormone called insulin. Insulin works with the body to transform the glucose (sugar) in the bloodstream into fuel that the cells can use. Without it the glucose cannot be absorbed into cells so it builds up in the blood stream. The damage that is done once it reaches a certain level is heart damage, eye damage, nerve damage, and kidney damage. This makes knowing type 1 diabetes statistics very serious. It also means that the world should be aware of these numbers.

Statistics for Type 1 diabetes- 25.8 million People have diabetes; 18 million are diagnosed with it. 79 million also suffer from pre-diabetes. It is believed that around 200000 die every year from diabetes. This also is responsible for 67% of high blood pressure cases, is the leading cause of blindness, and accounts for 44% of kidney failure cases. This makes this one of the more dangerous conditions. This can be slowed if people will eat low carb diets and avoid simple sugars. Our diets of candy bars and sugar filled fruit cause much of our diabetes cases. Today’s society also does very little exercise, these results in large amounts of sugar building up. If you are worried about having diabetes see if you have the symptoms and talk to your doctor about your chances of getting diabetes.

How to test for diabetes

How to test for diabetes can occur in several different ways, the most popular is by a fasting blood glucose test that can be performed in your doctor’s office.

How to test for diabetes can be done for a variety of reasons such as if a person is expecting a baby and is experiencing signs and symptoms of diabetes or pre-diabetes then a doctor or OBGYN may request that the mother is tested for diabetes.

Other reasons that a pregnant lady could be tested for diabetes is because they are over the age of 40 and/or has a strong family history of diabetes.

How to test for diabetes can also be done through a urine sample. A fasting blood glucose test can be done by taking a urine sample to see if your glucose level falls into the category of diabetes or pre-diabetes.

If a person is diagnosed as having pre-diabetes it can often times be treated through diet and exercise. Often times by changing up a person’s diet and lowering the amount of sugar that they ingest will take care of any pre-diabetic symptoms.

If a person is diagnosed as having full blown diabetes then generally they will be asked to monitor their blood glucose level for a few days to a few weeks often times more than once a day, once in the morning fasting and once in the evening after meals have been eaten and then they will be called back into the doctors’ office for proper insulin level adjustment and medication adjustment.

How to test for diabetes is often times tested through a fasting glucose test which is performed in the doctor’s office where the patient will be required to come in fasting and then asked to drink a bottle of sugar water and then after waiting a short period of time the urine or blood will be tested for glucose levels to determine if a person is diabetic or not.

how to test for diabetes

What Should Your Blood Sugar Level Be?

What should your blood sugar level be? Your blood sugar level is a need to know for those who have diabetes or have pre-diabetes. As diabetes ravages the world more and more people ask “What should your blood sugar level be?’’. Diabetes is a disease where the body does not have sufficient amounts of insulin. Insulin is a chemical that is produced by the organ called the pancreas.

The insulin is responsible for changing the sugar in the blood into fuel that the body can use. When the insulin amounts are to low the sugar levels begin to damage the body. The damage that can be done when the sugar is to high includes heart damage, nerve damage, eye damage, and kidney damage. This makes knowing how much your blood sugar should be a need.

So what should your blood sugar level be? For a normal person it should be anywhere from 64.8 mg/dl to levels of 120.4 mg/dl. These depend on when the last meal was and the size of the meal. For diabetics the amounts of sugar in the blood can skyrocket to levels of 200 mg/dl which are very dangerous. In order to keep a steady and healthy blood sugar level you should do several things.

Talk to your doctor, he can give you the best information on how to care for your blood sugar.
Diet, talk to your doctor about a special diet. For diabetics this means eating sugar free foods, and foods that are high in dietary fiber.
Exercise, talk to your doctor about exercise. This plays a major role in containing your blood sugar. Also talk to other diabetics as they may have experience in what works best.

So now that you know what your blood sugar level should be – what will you do to better contain it!

Do you Know the Type 2 Diabetes Statistics?

Do you know the type 2 diabetes statistics? Statistic show that diabetes and diabetes type 2 affect 25.8 million people in the United States only, making it one of the worlds (besides AIDs) biggest health concerns.

18 million are currently diagnosed while another 7 million are still yet to be diagnosed. It is also the seventh leading form of death for Americans. The vast amounts of diabetes is due to the high sugar amounts in today’s food and medical advances that keep the defective diabetes gene in the population.

Some statistics about type 2 diabetes state that 215000 people under 20 will be diagnosed with type one or two diabetes. Type 2 diabetes causes (and is the leading cause) kidney failure, blindness, and lower limb numbness. People over 65 are 25% of the United States diabetic patients, meaning that more people develop diabetes at a later state.

Pre-diabetes is also increasing because many of the younger generation have high blood sugar but not enough to really matter or effect the body. Gestational Diabetes occurs when a woman is pregnant and can be dangerous to both child and mother. Type 2 diabetes statistics show that two out of ten mothers will develop this during their pregnancy. Also five to ten percent of these women will keep the diabetes after the pregnancy. These women also have an increased chance of getting diabetes in the next ten years after the pregnancy.

The amount of money spent in the United States on diabetic supplies and medications annually is 174 billion dollars, and will only increase as more people are diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. Type 2 diabetes diets can help by reducing the amounts of diabetes in the United States. See if you’re at risk for developing type 2 diabetes by looking up type 2 diabetes statistics and talking to your doctor.