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‘Need and Importance of Diabetes Supplies’

Wednesday, July 29th, 2009

Diabetes supplies are the self-testing machines to control the level of blood sugar in the body by monitoring them. Diabetes supplies include glucose monitors, lancets and test strips. They are spreading their clutches very quickly. Diabetes can affect anyone at any age. It is a lifelong disease. With the advance technology and continuous research, many therapies have been invented to reduce the affects of disease.

Once diagnosed with diabetes lifestyle of the person changes completely. His eating habits need to be changed. On the same note, they need to have special hand held devices injections of insulin to monitor blood sugar levels in the body.

There are over 171 million diabetic patients across the world. In the year 2007 America has approximately 23.6 million of the citizen suffering from diabetes. In such a scenario the need of diabetes supplies.

The diabetes supplies are the necessity and need of any diabetic patient. They are very expensive and in case, if you have no insurance you may end up choosing between diabetes testing supplies and food. These supplies are required to monitor the treatment. These supplies are vital to the treatment of the diabetic patient.

Once diagnosed with diabetes you have to take decision regarding how to control diabetes and take care of yourself. You have to obtain many diabetes supplies. Keep in mind the three categories of these supplies. The first priority will be insulin. You can use it either manually by using injections and syringes or by using the diabetic pump.

The next category is to monitor blood sugar levels constantly and carefully. For this, you need to have diabetic testing supplies. The third category is of miscellaneous diabetes supplies.

Self-testing kits are easily available with the chemist in the market. These kits include blood glucose meters and test strips. All you need to do is to put a drop of blood on the test strip and place this strip on the glucose meter. The meter calculates the blood sugar level in the body. Glucose test meter is important to manage your diabetes. Many diabetic patients who check their sugar levels at home do not know importance and seriousness of testing it.

While using these kits you have to be very careful. You should note down the readings immediately so that you can compare it with your doctor.

Healthy food is an important part of diabetes supplies. In order to maintain the sugar level in the body diabetic patients must lay stress on their diet. The diabetic patient needs special food prepared with ultra low or zero cholesterol and fats. Nowadays even popular soft drinks cater to the need of diabetic patient. Artificial sweeteners are easily available in the market providing sweetness without any ill or harmful effects.

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Discovery of Diabetes

Wednesday, July 29th, 2009

Diabetes is an ancient disease. It is not a newly discovered disease. There are evidences to prove that people of ancient civilizations such as Indian, Greece and Rome were aware of this disease. People have been suffering from diabetes for a long time but we came to now about it only in 1552 B.C.Since then many researches have been conducted in this field to make the masses aware of this disease. Therefore, the people who discovered diabetes belonged to ancient civilization.

Aerates coined the word diabetes. It is derived from the Greek verb diabainein. Sushruta who was the father of Indian medicine discovered the diabetes in 6th century B.C. and named it Madhumeha.Phsysician from French who discovered diabetes linked it to the diet taken by people at that time which led to the formulation of individual diet plan.

Sushruta, the person who discovered diabetes in India observed whether ants were attracted to the urine that was sweet in taste, as the test for diabetes. The people who discovered diabetes continue with the research. However, it was only in medieval times that the research on diabetes declined. In 1675,an English physician Dr. Thomas Willis added the word “mellitus” meaning honey ,to diabetes because of its sweet taste.

The primary test of identifying diabetes during medieval times was by touching, smelling or tasting the urine of the patient. This test came to be known as Uroscopy.The medicine scientist who discovered diabetes now wanted to find whether the urines presence in the sugar can be chemically tested or not. The first such chemical experiment was conducted in 19th century. The French physician Priory advised consuming excessive sugar .Since the cause of diabetes was still unknown, the therapies proposed during medieval times proved to be failure.

In 1900, Drs. Joseph von Mering and Oskar Minkowski conducted research on animals and discovered that pancreas played a major role in diabetes. The idea of insulin was conceived by Fredrick Banting in 1920.Dr. Banting along with his team of doctors and colleagues continued with the experiments on de –pancreatized dogs for a period of one year. Thereafter insulin was discovered as a very important hormone playing a major role in the disease of diabetes.

In 1922, Dr. Banting and his team treated the first patient of diabetes with the injection of insulin. They were honored with the noble prize for curing the person with the diabetes in 1923 in the field of Physiology .The awareness’ of the disease was spread in 20th century.
In 1936, Sir Harold Percival Himsworth distinguished Type 1 diabetes from type 2 diabetes.1970 was a turning point as personal glucose monitor was invented leading to the self-monitoring of the disease.

In 2007, it was found that the diabetic patients who were treated with stem cells from their own bone marrow needed no more insulin treatment.

The research on diabetes continues. The scientist who discovered diabetes made a very important contribution to the society.

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Signs and Symptoms of Diabetes

Wednesday, July 29th, 2009

When the human body fails to handle the sugar levels in the body, the situation is known as Diabetes. It is not something that is reflected in the mirror or some one can guess by looking at a person. One of the greatest problems related to diabetes is the failure to diagnose it. The signs and symptoms of diabetes are reflected in a person when blood sugar levels are very high.

The sign and symptoms of diabetes depend upon the blood sugar level in the body. Like hypertension, Complete Renal Failure etc. diabetes can also be silent killer. These symptoms can be missed and many times people ignore them.

The first and the most important signs and symptoms of diabetes leading to its prediction is excessive thirst. Let the weather be any if intake of water increases then you may be suffering from diabetes. Even after having your complete food if you feel hungry or the desire to eat repeatedly increases then make sure to consult your doctor. The reason can be high sugar levels.

Some people find it difficult to attend some party or function because of frequent urination. The reason for frequent urination is high glucose level in the body. In fact frequent urinary tract infection may be the reason for diabetes.

If a person is loosing his weight at a rapid speed, diabetes can be one of the reasons. This is one of the most common symptoms of the Type- 1 diabetes. In such a situation, insulin is not released by pancreas and body starts looking for the energy source. Because of which body starts breaking down the fat and muscle tissues for energy to perform daily tasks. Thus, a person looses his weight rapidly.

If by accident you got a cut on your hand and the healing process is very slow or wound is not healing at all then consult your immediately. Such wounds may turn into gangrene leading to the amputation of that particular part.

Other signs and symptoms of diabetes are lost or blurred vision, anemia, weakness, fatigue, skin infections, and hair loss. Most people don’t realize that hair loss is one of the early symptoms of diabetes.  So if you suffer from any of the signs and symptoms then make sure to visit your doctor as soon as possible.

There is need to spread to awareness about diabetes. Firstly the signs and symptoms of diabetes are difficult to recognize because either they appear gradually and slowly or appear suddenly damaging some part of the body. Though the fact is that above-mentioned signs are visible but are ignored or sidelined by most of the people.

People should be aware of the fact that diabetes is the beginning of the chapter in their life that will damage the entire body. Blindness, major urinary infection, renal failure, heart damage etc. are caused by diabetes. Well it is necessary to consult the doctor when suffering from any of the above symptoms but at the same time changes in lifestyle and diet can not only help to live a normal life but can also prevent the disease.

So if you have any of these signs and symptoms of diabetes or you recognize them in your relative, neighbour or friend tell them to visit doctor to live a normal and healthy life.

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Read how insulin pumps helps to get your life back

Monday, February 16th, 2009

Diabetes is one of the most dangerous diseases caused into the human body due to presence of glucose in the blood. Normally it comes through the hereditary but sometimes it could cause due to an environmental problem. The root causes of diabetes are mainly due to improper level of insulin. If it is abnormally more or less, results into diabetes. The easy way to observe diabetes is weight loss, lot of intake of fluids, change in metabolism system and lethargic physical movements etc. Any professional medical practitioner could have judged the problem by FPG, OGTT tests and come to a right decision. To measure the sugar level into the blood, glucose meter is a widely used electronic device by all the doctors. It provides some very significant information about the state of glucose into your blood and its remedies. A drop of blood is placed on a chemically treated disposable strip connected with the digital meter and the result is being displayed within no time on the glucose meter. To restore the insulin into the body again, insulin pump is one of the easiest options. The pump injects the amount of insulin through the syringe and a sharp needle. The stock of insulin is connected with the insulin pump and to be hanged around the waist or on the shoulder. The mechanism of a pump is consist of a thin tube connected with a cannula which is attached with the outer skin of the body and through that the insulin is being entered into the body. One has to use the insulin pump as per the doctor’s prescription and recommended doses. It could be a slow process of restoring the insulin into the body. Sometimes it is very painful and inconvenient for the patient to use the insulin pump but this method is a largely accepted alternative by the most diabetic patients. Moreover they have to take great care into their edible intake and ensure that it should be free from the sweetening agents that could cause more problems. The fast acting insulin pumps are also available but it may inject more insulin than the required and disturb the balance of sugar level into the blood.
Insulin is a type of hormone that helps to regulate the sugar into the body. Body stops functioning with its absence. It says that precautions are better than the cure and the same applies here too. One has to take acute precautions right from the day of diagnoses to have proper control on the problem. The proper level has to be maintained through the right administration of the medication. Though the ideas of attaching insulin pump with the body always, help the body to supply the required amount of insulin automatically but it is highly impractical as one has to move always with the pump. One has to take the insulin shots daily as per the medical prescription to maintain the sugar level in the body. There are three types of insulin such as rapid acting, short acting, intermediate acting and long acting, all these types help lowering sugar level into the blood on a diverse time slot. So far there is no reference is obtained about the oral insulin for the diabetes or insulin resistance. The patient has to educate himself about the required doses of insulin intake knowing the condition of the diabetic problem. Consultation to the doctor and change of life style is always advised to the diabetes.

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BLOOD GLUCOSE METERS

Monday, February 16th, 2009

Diabetes is not something different from an increase in sugar level in body. Sugar level means presence of glucose in our blood. Diabetes mellitus is name given to the disease and may be occurred due to heredity and also because of environmental problems. Disease results an abnormal increase in blood sugar level or deficiency of insulin in our body. Symptoms of this disease may vary from an individual to another. But some of the common symptoms are such as urine production in excess and that leads to high intake of fluid, weight loss, lethargy and certain changes in metabolism. FPG, OGTT etc are some of the test that is helpful in detecting or diagnosing this disease. All kind of test shows one common thing i.e. detection of blood glucose.

A Glucose Meter or Blood Sugar Meter is mostly used to determine approximately concentration of sugar present in the blood. It monitors all kinds of details that you require regarding disease of diabetes. And that valuable information will help you to control your problem or disease. Blood Glucose Meter is an electronic device. It requires small drop of blood as sample to test. This small drop of blood is placed on a disposable, chemical treated strip which lines with a digital meter. A digital display on Glucose meter will occur within seconds. This digital display is the final result and hence shows the amount or concentration of sugar in blood.

Glucose Meter comes in various sizes. Sometimes it is very large and sometimes very small. Usual size of this meter is around the size of palm of a man’s hand. Test strip that changes its color on reaction; is coated with a consumable element that react with glucose present in blood of our body. Strips are disposable and hence can be used once. Quality or size of these strips may also vary and depends on batch production.

Glucose level displayed by this Meter is in units- mg/dl; which means milligrams/deciliter. A milligram is the unit used for glucose and deciliter is used for blood. All Glucose Meters are having a digital clock inside that make records of past readings/results. Data shown by Glucose Meter can be transferred to computers also. Glucose Meter is an efficient thing in itself for detection of amount of glucose present in blood. It is easy and safe to use. Cost of this Meter is also affordable. You not need to visit hospitals again and again. Just check the level of your disease by sitting at home with absolute accuracy in results.

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