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Antioxidants have received a lot of attention in recent years, in relation to wellness and disease prevention. More studies are needed to better understand how antioxidants may affect diabetes management and treatment.  Several vitamins and minerals are classified as antioxidants. An antioxidant is a substance that reduces cellular damage. Our …

In 1986 the ADA released nutrition guidelines advocating a low-fat diet rich in carbohydrates (up to sixty percent of total energy). In dyslipidemic patients with type 2 diabetes the higher increase in dietary carbohydrates and restriction of fats was advised 55 . Soon after, The National Institutes of Health Consensus …

As health care professionals we often struggle with the issue of patient compliance. Whether we are trying to instill the concept of carbohydrate choices or achieving regular exercise, it is often difficult for us to motivate our patients to practice what we may be preaching. Perhaps one of the most …

Resistance is Futile Two months ago I wrote a Viewpoint (will be reprinted in 2 weeks) about lipid accumulation in places where it ought not to be, such as liver and muscle, and how this can contribute to the development of insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes. That article also …

I am proud to have survived having diabetes for 52 years and 4 months. For most of those years about the only change in care that I noticed was that needles got smaller and sharper.

Insulin itself may contribute to obesity. A high first-phase insulin response to intravenous glucose has been shown to be a risk factor for long-term weight gain, and this effect is particularly manifested in insulin-sensitive individuals. 76 Also, compared to normal children, Pima Indian children with elevated fasting insulin gain more …

Each hour, 178 people die from complications set off by diabetes. For 80 percent of these patients the killer is atherosclerosis involving the large blood vessels supplying heart and brain. Patients with diabetes are four times as likely as nondiabetic individuals to die of an MI. With endothelial dysfunction a …

Nitric oxide (NO) A diabetic environment high in free radicals and low in antioxidants may disrupt endothelial function. A highly active regulatory organ, the endothelium senses and assesses signals to which it is constantly exposed by the blood, and responds by secreting factors that affect blood vessels’ tone and structure. …

During pregnancy, a variety of important changes occur in a woman’s body that allow it to accommodate and nurture a developing fetus. Among these changes are alterations in how sugar is handled; early in pregnancy fasting sugar levels fall, while postprandial (after a meal) levels rise. By the end of …

Lifestyle factors have now been established as the key in developing 1 as well as preventing and reversing type 2 diabetes 2, 3 and heart disease.4 Hu and his colleagues at Harvard School of Public Health followed more than 42,000 male health professionals for 12 years and found that those …