Treating Diabetes with Food and Medicine

Over 246 million people worldwide are afflicted with diabetes. It is responsible for 6% of the world's mortality rate 250 billion dollars in health care costs.

There are 4 types of diabetes: insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (also called type 1 diabetes or juvenile diabetes), non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (also called type 2 diabetes, adult-onset diabetes or late-onset diabetes), diabetes insipidus and gestational diabetes.

Insulin is a protein hormone takes away glucose (natural sugar found in edible plants and fruit) from the liver and turns it into glycogen (animal starch; complex sugar) so that it can be used by the body for energy.

Type 1 diabetes occurs early in a person's life and is when the pancreas has stopped making insulin. A Type 1 diabetic gives himself insulin shots with a syringe daily or wears an insulin pump that measures vital signs, blood sugar and amount of insulin needed at any particular time. Type 2 diabetes occurs later in life. This form of diabetes only makes a little bit of insulin or the digestive cells don't pay attention to the insulin. This person usually takes medicine to measure blood sugar. He can also wear a pump that regulates glucose factors.

Diabetes insipidus doesn't involve sugar. Sometimes it's called water diabetes.. The body has trouble making vassopressin, a hormone that concentrates urine so the body doesn't lose so much water.

Gestational diabetes involves a pregnant woman is who gets high blood sugar. She overproduces insulin to lower the high blood sugar levels but the high sugar never goes down. The sugar reaches the baby and he makes insufficient insulin to combat the hyperglycemia so his body turns the sugar into stored fat.

Consuming low glycemic foods help regulate blood glucose. Low cholesterol foods keep blood vessels and arteries unclogged. Low salt foods help a person to not lose so much water from frequent urination. Lean protein maintains even blood sugar levels for a lot longer than carbohydrates.

A diabetic person needs to watch the sugar grams he intakes by reading the labeling on packages in the grocery store. For example, a carton or bottle of juice with 23 grams of sugar may be too much sugar but twelve grams of sugar may prompt him to buy the bottle or carton of juice. Fruit juices laden with high fructose corn syrup must be avoided. Fruit juices only containing natural sugar from the fruit itself are encouraged. These sugar grams may be equal in quantity to those obtained from high fructose corn syrup, but the body of a diabetic can process and convert the natural sugar better than it can the refine high fructose corn syrup.

The most that doctors recommend for their patients is 300 grams per day of sugar. Still, some diabetics only need 120 grams per day. Other people can survive with 180 grams to 200 grams per day of sugar. It all depends on the trial and error of the doctor working with his patient to get the right dosage of insulin and the right diet balanced together to promote a healthy eating lifestyle.