The Obesity Epidemic and Juvenile Diabetes

In recent years, there has been a sharp increase in the number of people with type 1 diabetes who are also obese. Even though obesity has been strongly linked to the pathogenesis as well as initiation of type 2 diabetes and a risk factor for complications, very little is known about its role in the development and progression of type 1 diabetes.

Recent studies suggest that obesity plays a role in the development of cardiometabolic complications, dyslipidemia, and insulin resistance in type 1 diabetes.

These co-morbidities may require to be addressed using therapeutic strategies in the context of insulin therapy which has been shown to promote weight gain. Therefore, there’s an urgent need for guidelines for the management as well as prevention of type 1 diabetes.

These clinical recommendations are being developed using a trans-disciplinary research approach addressing molecular mechanisms, metabolism, neuropsychology, novel therapeutics, and lifestyle.

Can diabetes lead to obesityWhat is the relationship between obesity and juvenile diabetes?

Type 1 diabetes, which is also known as juvenile diabetes, is a chronic immune-mediated condition that is characterized by the loss of beta cells in susceptible subjects.

Beta cells are mainly responsible for producing insulin in the pancreas. The main genes contributing to juvenile diabetes susceptibility are located in the HLA (Human Leukocyte Antigen) class 2 locus on chromosome 6.

The Human Leukocyte Antigen genes have been linked to about 50% of the familial clustering of juvenile diabetes.

Obesity and overweight are related to type 1 diabetes in various aspects. In addition to being a risk factor for juvenile diabetes, obesity can also be a challenge when it comes to managing and treating the disease.

Moreover, obesity and overweight increase the risk of micro and macro-vascular complications in juvenile diabetes. Such challenges typically arise in adolescence and may become even more common in adults.

Essential points

  • Obesity has been known to be a predisposing factor and concurrent phenotype for type 2 diabetes. However, its physiological attributes, consequences, and prevalence in juvenile diabetes are poorly understood.
  • As the prevalence of type 1 diabetes increases in the United States and many other parts across the globe, it is important to develop specific guidelines for the treatment and prevention of obesity and the achievement and maintenance of optimal glycemic control in type 1 diabetes.
  • The characteristics and role of energy balance in juvenile diabetes are not completely defined and are likely to be affected by both medical therapy and glycemic control.
  • Studies show that potential driving mechanisms of obesity in juvenile diabetes include microbiome, epigenetics, genetics, enteroendocrine hormones, and effects on various organs, organelles, cells, and tissues.
  • Developing well-defined weight management approaches in people with juvenile diabetes requires a multi-disciplinary research strategy that includes expertise in endocrinology, epidemiology, translational metabolism, exercise physiology, clinical psychology, nutrition, advanced analytics, and mathematical modeling.

The impact of obesity and overweight on juvenile diabetesDiabetes bracelet

It is evident that more studies need to be conducted to understand the role of the whole activity spectrum which includes sedentary behavior, sleep, and physical activity on youth with type 1 diabetes who are obese or overweight.

For example, although research clearly shows that fear of hypoglycemia can be a barrier to engaging in physical activity, its effects can be compounded for young adults who are obese or overweight and have a negative activity toward exercise.Juvenile diabetes bracelet

  • Sedentary lifestyle

Youth with type 1 diabetes may also be predisposed to weight gain as a result of supplementing carbohydrates to avoid hypoglycemic events as a result of physical activity. Addressing the role of sedentary behavior, especially reducing screen time, is one intervention strategy that can help expend calories without affecting variability in blood sugar levels.

  • Poor sleep quality

Obesity and overweight may have negative effects on sleep, especially in youth with type 1 diabetes. A 2006 study on adolescents and children revealed that sleep duration has an inverse relationship with obesity in youth, and being overweight increases the risk of a wide range of sleep problems.

Studies show that variations in blood sugar and nocturnal hypoglycemia alter sleep patterns in young adults with type 1 diabetes and thus they face a higher risk for obesity and poor sleep quality than those without diabetes.

Diabetes educators and nurses play a very important role in helping children and adolescents develop appropriate lifestyle behaviors to tackle the prevalent issue of obesity and overweight in youth with type 1 diabetes.

Although clinical care in juvenile diabetes has focused more on accurate carbohydrate counting and good metabolic control, weight control has been grossly overlooked.

Caregivers and healthcare professionals have paid less attention to issues related to sedentary behavior, sleep, and physical activity.

Read about Smartphone Diabetes Management Apps!

The bottom line

Given the high incidence of obesity and overweight in children and youth with type 1 diabetes, additional studies are needed to explore the consequences and antecedents of excessive weight in type 1 diabetes.

Although this article has identified viable lifestyle modifications for weight management including sedentary behavior, sleep, and physical activity, there’s a need for further research to inform effective intervention strategies for this vulnerable population.

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obesity and juvenile diabetes

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Type 2 Diabetes Recipe

Fortunately, current ideas about dietary restrictions for diabetics center more on carb counting for diabetics instead of simply avoiding all sugars and sweets. This means that a type 2 diabetes recipe doesn’t have to be bland or tasteless.

Many times, when a person thinks of diabetes the first thing that comes to mind is that sugar intake must be limited. Many people are simply uneducated as to the fact that the sugars that build up in the bloodstream of the diabetic is called glucose and is a sugar that is processed from all the carbohydrates that the body takes in, this means that not only is the chocolate bar dangerous, but the big bowl of white rice or the buttery baked potato and white bread can be an enormous no-no for the diabetic.

Low Carb Diabetic Breakfast Recipes

diabetic breakfast recipes low carbEven basic carb counting tells us that these starchy foods are quickly converted directly into glucose by the body. But with the proper type 2 diabetes recipe the diabetic can eat almost anything in moderation.

Even though glucose is essential since it provides fuel to power every cell in the body, it can be highly detrimental in high ranges, and the best way for the diabetic to live a long and healthy life is to keep glucose levels as close to normal as possible.

There are lots of diabetic diet plans available, and even whole recipe books written about carb counting for diabetics. The one thing to remember when choosing a diet plan of carb counting for diabetics is that the best dietary plan is the one you can live with and practice regularly and the best type 2 diabetes recipe is the one you enjoy preparing and eating!

It’s actually good if you can try and get out of the habit of reaching for the cereal and toast to get your body on the move in the morning. Unfortunately, we don’t always have time to spend preparing a complex breakfast on a busy work morning.

However, if you take a few minutes the night before to plan and prepare, you will benefit from a healthy, nutritious, delicious breakfast that will fill you full of energy and even more importantly, keep your blood sugar stable.

Here is a Favorite Type 2 Diabetes Recipe : Great for Breakfast!

Poached Eggs on avocado and white bean mash:

Eggs are a great source of protein to get you going in the morning. One of the healthiest ways to prepare your eggs is to poach them. Poaching could be a little ‘daunting’ for many basic home cooks, but once you have done it a few times, it becomes routine. Practice makes perfect!

Your ingredients:

  • 2 eggs (at room temperature)
  • 2 tsp of which vinegar
  • ¼ cup lemon juice
  • ½ avocado
  • ½ can cannellini beans
  • 1 clove garlic (crushed)
  • ½ cup parsley
  • 1 tsp chilli flakes or fresh chilli if you’d prefer.
  • Salt and pepper to taste.

Method:

  1. Mix the beans and the avocado in a food processor, or you can just mash by hand (Add a little olive oil if you want)
  2. Add in the parsley, garlic, lemon juice, chilli and salt and pepper to the mash and put aside.
  3. Add water to a saucepan with vinegar and 1 tsp of salt and bring to the boil.
  4. Reduce heat to a simmer and stir in a clockwise motion, to create a whirlpool effect.
  5. Crack the eggs into the water, one at a time (or you can crack into a separate bowl first if you find it easier.
  6. Cook for 2-3 minutes, then remove from saucepan with a slotted spoon.
  7. Serve the eggs on top of the mash.

Delicious!

Breakfast cereals you are able to eat – and those you should avoid!

Diabetic Complications

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Tips for Managing an 1800 Calorie Diabetic Diet Plan

1800 Calorie Diabetic Diet Plan

One of the ways that you can help fight your diabetes is by sticking to an 1800 Calorie Diabetic Diet Plan. This number may sound scary or restrictive at first, but know that this Calorie count is higher than an active 30 year old male in good shape needs to maintain his body.

The main idea behind the 1800 calorie diabetic diet plan is that you need to get 1800 calories each day, which should be manageable by most Americans.

The reason why this ‘should’ be manageable is that 1800 is near to the standard diet plan for healthy living.

How the 1800 Calorie Diabetic Diet Plan Can Help You

This diabetic diet plan helps you to maintain normal blood sugar levels, and is designed so that you can lose some weight as well which is always a good thing!  While on this diet it is also important that you try to keep active so that you can burn up any excess calories.  Indoor and outdoor activities are highly encouraged, so lace up those shoes and get out for a bike ride, jog, walk, or other physical activity.

When you are following this plan it’s very important to avoid carbohydrate foods that have a high Glycemic Index (GI).

These bad foods include:

  • Donuts
  • Sweet syrup
  • White rice
  • Bagels

Instead, replace those bad foods with fruit and vegetables.  It sounds bad at first, but once you rediscover how sweet and tasty an apple is, or how refreshing a raw, sweet pepper can be, it won’t take you too long to curb most of your sweet carb cravings.

Sample 1800 Calorie Diabetic Diet Plan

The first thing that you’ll likely ask yourself once you start to consider the 1800 Calorie Diet Plan is if you’ll actually have the will-power to stick with it.  It sounds great on paper, but reality is where we need to live, and it’s here that we also face the toughest challenges.

Three big keys here that I’ve found have worked wonders for myself:

  1. Learn the simple rules that you need to follow to live within the Calorie budget of the diet eg: how much protein, vegetables, etc make up each meal.  Once you know this you can start to improvise easily.
  2. Learn how to cook food that you like to eat.  If you don’t enjoy eating it, it’s highly unlikely that you’ll stick with this diet for any length of time.
  3. Learn how you can cook in batches to save time.  This was a big one for myself, because I look at time in the kitchen as ‘wasted time.’  To get over this lie that I tell myself (because time in the kitchen is never really wasted) what I did was cooked larger portions of food, so that I would have several meals that I could put into the fridge, reheat, and eat them quickly.This was also important because on those days when I was feeling lazy and didn’t want to cook, the meals were already prepared in the fridge waiting for me!

Here’s a sample plan that you can follow:

Breakfast:
A good diabetic breakfast idea is to have a large banana with a cup of skim milk, along with one and a half cup of bran cereal and a tablespoon of cream cheese.

Lunch:
For lunch, simply have an ounce of low fat Colby cheese, ½ cup of mild salsa, 2 ounces of baked nacho chips, 2 ounces of ground turkey, along with 2 cups of chopped lettuce.

Dinner:
Dinner may consist of two thirds of a cup of brown rice with salmon, a teaspoon of olive oil, ½ cup of cooked carrots, 1 cup of skim milk and three quarters of a cup of pineapple for dessert.

So don’t be afraid to get creative when designing your 1800 Calorie Diabetic Diet Plan so that you can enjoy keeping your body healthy and fit and your blood sugar levels down!

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Type II diabetic medications

Type II Diabetes MedicationsType II diabetic medications are in abundance and can be found in many different types and kinds as well as styles. There are these types of medications that can be found in prescription form or there is medication that can be found naturally and at modern day health food stores.

Some of the most common type II diabetic medications are Glucophage which can be used before a person has full blown diabetes in order to get their weight down and blood sugar levels as a precautionary measure or during their diagnosis of diabetes in order to help keep their blood sugar levels down.

Novolog and Humalog are two widely known and used diabetic medications because they come in insulin form which means that they are normally injected through a syringe or needle as needed. Many times with a diabetic they will need to monitor their blood sugar levels and amounts several times throughout the day such as first thing in the morning before they eat, around lunchtime and then again at supper or bedtime, during this time if their blood glucose levels are too high or too low they may need to inject themselves with amounts of novolog or humalog in order to control that number or reading.

With so many medications out there for diabetics often times it may be hard to understand what all the different medications are and how to use them properly but with the guidance of your family provider or physician they can walk you through the whole process and help you so that you can get the right treatment that you need in order to properly maintain and treat your type II diabetes. Type II diabetic medications come in all shapes, sizes, forms and kinds and getting knowledge about them is one of the most important things that you can do for yourself and your health!

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What are symptoms of a diabetic?

Symptoms of a DiabeticWhat are symptoms of a diabetic? Diabetes is a very serious non-communicable disease for all peoples ages including kids. Diabetes is a very serious non-communicable disease that is currently taking over the nation and the entire world. Today’s sugar filled foods and sweet desserts and the ability for diabetics to live longer lives and reproduce is only gasoline fuel to the already massive firestorm.

Diabetes is a non-communicable permanent disease where the person’s body is failing to get the required amounts of a vital chemical called insulin. This absolutely necessary chemical/hormone called insulin is produced by the pancreas organ. For some unknown medical reasons the pancreas organ will stop or slow in construction of this vital chemical/hormone. This chemical/hormone is used by the body’s systems to transform the blood sugar (glucose) in the blood into fuel that the cells are able to use. Without the proper amounts of this necessary sugar converting chemical/hormone the blood glucose levels in the blood stream begin to rise to extremely high levels.

Once they reach a certain high blood sugar level the body systems begins to suffer cell damage. The major cell damage most commonly associated with high blood sugar levels is nerve cell damage, heart damage, kidney damage, and eye damage. But this can all be avoided if the diabetic patient can lower their high blood sugar level and keep it at that lower blood sugar level. So what are symptoms of a diabetic?

There are a few symptoms of a diabetic? Over Excessive thirst, excessive urination, hunger, and excessive weight loss are all symptoms. The diabetic symptoms happen as the body tries to clean its self of the excessive sugar and feed the slowly starving cells. The cleaning results in excessive urination which results in thirst, and the hunger results in weight loss. These diabetic symptoms should be noticed and reported to a diabetic doctor soon. So now you know what some symptoms of a diabetic are.

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