Fighting Diabetes, Proactively!

NHS Choices , the website of NHS, today launched a new diabetes symptom checker on their website.

You can find out whether you have the risk of having Diabetes or not. This is very handy for all those who have a genetic probabilty of having diabetes.

Click below to check whether you have diabetes:
Diabetes Symptom Checker

This online tool also provides the user with clinically approved guidance on what their results mean and what next steps, if any, may be required.

“This interactive tool has been created with users in mind and is a valuable addition to an ever growing armoury of health resources being made available to the public by the NHS Choices,” said a spokesman. “It puts patients in the driving seat by giving them exactly the sort of reliable and dependable information they need to take control of their health at the click of a mouse.”

[via]

I was just going to run to the pantry to grab my 3rd cup of black coffee when I read this article. I sure need to cut down on my caffeine as well, though I already drink my coffee without sugar. And I have been drinking Tea only with honey.

People who gain weight are much more likely to develop Type 2 diabetes, characterized by increased levels of sugar, or glucose, in the blood. But Duke University researcher James Lane believes blood glucose can become elevated from more than just eating too much. The North Carolina-based scientist has been studying what happens to the blood glucose of diabetic patients after they drink caffeine.
“On average, the levels were 8 percent higher,” Lane reports. “We found that the response was to the meals. In other words, the glucose rise that occurred after each of the three meals was significantly larger on the day that they had caffeine as well.” For example, Lane says blood sugar levels after dinner were more than 25 percent higher on days when subjects had caffeine than on their non-caffeinated days. [source, VOA]

I don’t know if there are fewer incidence of Type-II Diabetes in Assam and Meghalaya, two states in India where chewing betel nut, called Tamul in the local parlance, or commonly known as Paan, is a favorite addiction, if this study by Gideon Philip of the University of Papua New Guinea’s School of Medicine is true.

Preliminary research by Gideon Philip of the University of Papua New Guinea’s School of Medicine and Health Science has found chewing betelnut controlled the incidence of type-2 diabetes.

Betelnut, or areca nut, contains arecholine and affects the brain’s nicotine and caffeine receptor.

Benaras, also made famous, by Amitabh Bachchan with his song “Khaike Paan Banaras walla”, from the film don, should also have less Diabetic people. But then there are many sections of India are are addicted to chewing paan. And then again, India has one of the largest incidence of Diabetes in the world.

Dr Neal Barnard, a US-based clinical researcher, famous for his work on reverse diabetes, plans to study the plans to study impact of a vegan diet on diabetes in India. He has done a experiment with the low-fat vegan diet in Americawhere 99 people with type 2 diabetes were made to live on the vegan diet, a vegetarian diet that keeps out milk and milk products as well, has found that it controls blood sugar three times more effectively than a conventional diabetes diet did. The effect was stronger than using medication.

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An apple a day keeps the doctor away, and that is the adage under which this blog was started.

Uncontrolled diabetes wreaks havoc on the body, often leading to kidney failure, blindness and death. A new study shows that the nation’s unchecked diabetes epidemic exacts a heavy financial toll as well: $174 billion a year.

That’s about as much as the conflicts in Iraq, Afghanistan and the global war on terrorism combined. It’s more than the $150 billion in damage caused by Hurricane Katrina.
The incidence of diabetes has ballooned — 1 million new cases a reported each year — as more Americans become overweight or obese, according to the study, released by the American Diabetes Association.
The cost of diabetes, in direct medical care and lost productivity, has swelled 32 percent since 2002, the report shows.
Diabetes killed more than 284,000 Americans last year, according to the association.
Diabetes costs the nation nearly as much as cancer, whose costs in 2006 totaled $206.3 billion, although cancer kills twice as many people, according to the American Cancer Society.

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Hillary with her talk of healthcare, should also include nationwide programs to educate people on preventive cure. That would cut the healthcare costs immensely and that could ve used for the cure of Cancer and suchlike. Diabetes, though a Menace and an Epidemic of sorts can be delayed or even controlled by having a healthy lifestyle and a good diet. Just cut that sugar, and potatoes. Eat lots of vegetables..