One of the most common treatment of diabetes medications taken in tablet form is sulfonamides, taken once or twice a day. It works by increasing the natural production of insulin in the body, so insulin injections are not necessary. The types of sulphonylureas available glibenclamide, glimepiride, and chlorpropamide, and they can cause various side effects. Sulfonamides work over a long period of time so that they can cause levels of blood sugar to drop too low, causing hypoglycemia. They are also known to cause nausea, stomach pain and weight gain excessive. On rare occasions, diabetics can take sulfonamides experience lumpy red rash on their skin.

Biguanide, otherwise known as metformin, a diabetes drug taken two to three times a day. It prevents the liver to produce new glucose and insulin also assists in the exercise of glucose to cells of the body. Side effects of this treatment are mild and include a stomach ache, nausea or diarrhea. Side effects decrease over time, and may be limited by taking tablets biguanide with food.

A recent addition to the list of medicines for treating diabetes is thiazolidinediones, which has two types, pioglitazone and rosiglitazone. This type 2 diabetes treatment is to reduce the body’s resistance to insulin, allowing diabetics to use insulin produced naturally more efficiently. There are side effects associated with thiazolidinediones, which include weight gain, increased incidence of pain, headaches, and some water retention. On rare occasions, May diabetics develop respiratory tract infections when taking the thiazolidinediones.

If you are at high risk of hypos when taking sulphonylureas, your doctor recommend May prandial glucose regulators who also increase production of insulin in the pancreas, but only over a short period of time. These can cause side effects such as nausea and stomach pain, but they are minimal when tablets are taken with meals. Diabetics taking prandial glucose regulation May also experience weight gain, but a flexible dosage can usually solve this problem.

A different approach in the fight against hyperglycemia associated with type 2 diabetes, is to take an inhibitor of alpha glucose. These reduce the speed at which carbohydrates are taken in the bloodstream so that your blood sugar levels do not increase too rapidly. The usual dose for alpha inhibitors glucose, such as acarbose is three tablets per day. However, your doctor May suggest a low dose to begin to minimize side effects as diarrhea, bloating and wind.

The human body naturally produces a hormone called incretin, which regulates the amount of insulin that we make, and limits manufacture of glucose in the liver. DPP-4 inhibitors are a type of diabetes treatment drug that increases incretin levels, helping to control diabetes type 2. These tablets can be taken alongside other drugs treating diabetes, such as thiazolidinediones, but should not be taken by patients who are also using insulin.

At some point most Type 2 diabetics is that they need to switch to insulin to treat their condition. This is often because, after many years of treating diabetes drugs pancreas is not able to produce enough insulin. Although the idea of insulin injections can be terrifying for some, needles used are very small that the injection occurs just under the skin. Insulin is injected into the stomach, buttocks or thighs, and injection sites are varied to reduce insulin build. For those who can not cope injections, the passage form of diabetes drugs to insulin can be facilitated by the use of an inhaler or insulin pump.

Genetics

Obesity/potbelly

Stress

Physical inactivity

Pancreatic infections

Elevated Serum cholesterol and triglyceride levels

You will find that most risk factors responsible for diabetes, also are factors that exist for heart disease.

Diabetes is due to insulin that is either insufficient or ineffective leading to increased blood glucose levels. This leads to symptoms of polyuria (frequent urination), polydipsia (excessive thirst).  Insulin is a hormone secreted by the pancreas.  When glucose levels are elevated, insulin changes glucose into energy that the body can use for fuel.

Inefficient insulin and it’s affect on the body:

When insulin is produced but the body fails to use it appropriately,  it is said the body is resistant to insulin.  A second reaction is when the body does not produce enough insulin to change glucose into energy.  In both cases the insulin is inefficient and causes blood glucose levels to rise in the blood.

Is it curable?

Presently no, but there are several exciting and experimental procedures being performed that are showing high success rates. these procedure include;

Pancreatic Transplant: For those with uncontrolled Type 1 DM, but have a functioning kidney.  Thankfully, these patients no longer need insulin injections to keep them alive.  Additionally, their risks for developing complications associated with diabetes is greatly decreased.

Kidney/Pancreas Transplant: Reserved for patients who have substantial kidney failure, as well as uncontrolled Type 1 diabetes.  This surgical procedure allows the patient to be free of dialysis treatments and insulin injections.  Patients who avoid rejecting their organs in the first year after surgery, have a greater likelihood of non-rejection for 10 years and more.

Islet Transplants:  This procedure is currently in clinical trials and involves replacing the bad Islets Of Langerhans with good islets from a deceased donor.  Islets of Langerhans are the insulin producing beta cells of the pancreas.  The islets are extracted from the donor pancreas and injected into the liver of the receiver. The cells start manufacturing insulin which works to regulate blood sugar levels.

All of these procedures are currently experimental and are not yet approved by the FDA.  In a study of 36 patient who received islet transplant, only five remain free of the need for insulin 2 years after their transplant.

The search for better treatments and a cure for diabetes is on-going, and it is hoped that a cure will present itself in the very near future.  But until then, lifestyle changes will help those who are living with diabetes to live a long and productive life in spite of having the disease.

David Panofsky, 35 of Madison, Wis.; Doug Bursnall, 31, of Wales; and

Katherine Bradt-Wells, 30, of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, climbed

to the summit of Aconcagua last year. And they have a lot more in common than mountain climbing. They all have Type I, or insulin-dependant diabetes, and they are all vegetarians. In fact, everyone on the 26-member Team International Diabetes Expedition Aconcagua 2000 (IDEA 2000) has Type I diabetes.

For people with this disease, the pancreas does not release sufficient amounts of insulin, a protein hormone necessary for the body to regulate the metabolism of sugar and certain carbohydrates. Diabetics may require insulin injections and blood testing — as often as eight times a day. Untreated, the disease can cause blindness, nerve damage, cardiovascular disease and kidney failure.

Panofsky, Burnsall and Bradt-Wells are also members of the Diabetes

Exercise and Sports Association (DESA), an international organization made up of amateur and professional athletes whose mission is to help people with diabetes achieve their athletic goals. The team’s success at Aconcagua served as a statement against the stereotypes that tend to define diabetics: that their activities must be restricted because they can become quickly incapacitated. And for Panofsky, Burnsall and Bradt-Wells, the trek to the summit was also a way of dismantling one of the myths about nutrition, meat and muscle power. A vegetarian diet, says Brandt-Wells, “Is much easier to digest to get important nutrients and vitamins – especially at high altitudes like 20,000 feet, where the altitude interferes with digestion.” Food poisoning is also avoided, points out Brandt-Wells, because vegetarian fare is much less likely to spoil than meat.

Most diabetics suffer from Type II diabetes, a non-insulin-dependent disorder that tends to develop in overweight adults and is often preventable. Type II diabetes can be caused by poor diet, excessive weight and a sedentary lifestyle. It is more easily treated than Type I diabetes, according to Stephen Clement, M.D., director of the Georgetown University Diabetes Center in Washington, D.C., mostly through oral medication or insulin injections, diet and exercise.

To reduce weight and increase insulin sensitivity — making insulin work better and thus reducing dosages — ‘‘eat less, exercise more,’’ said Marion Franz, a registered dietician and former director of Nutrition and Professional Education at the International Diabetes Center in Minneapolis, Minn. Reducing food intake, being selective about what they eat and exercising help keep diabetics in fit condition.

Speaking at the DESA annual conference held this month in Washington, D.C., Franz emphasized the benefit of eating smaller portions of lean meat — or replacing meat altogether with peas, beans, lentils, soy protein, whole grains, fruits and vegetables.

Last year, the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, a health-advocacy organization based in Washington, D.C., and Georgetown

University Medical Center Department of Endocrinology published the

results of a study on the effectiveness of a vegetarian diet for

diabetics. In conjunction with the Diabetes Action and Education

Foundation in Arlington, Va., the Physicians Committee compared

‘‘fasting’’ glucose levels — the blood-sugar levels that result in the

absence of food for 12 hours — and weight loss of Type II diabetics,

using two types of diets for a period of three months. The pilot study had

13 participants; a follow-up study begins this year at The George

Washington University Medical Center with 60 participants.

‘‘We compared two different diets,’’ said Mark Sklar, M.D., an associate professor at Georgetown University Hospital’s Department of Endocrinology, ‘‘one, a high-fiber, low-fat, vegetarian diet that contains no animal products; and the other, a more common American Diabetes Association (ADA) diet, which contains meat and dairy products.’’

‘‘The vegan meals were made from unrefined vegetables, grains, beans,

and fruits, with no refined ingredients, such as vegetable oil, white flour, or white pasta,’’ said Neal Barnard, M.D., president of the Physicians Committee. ‘‘These meals averaged just 10 percent fat (as a percentage of calories), 80 percent complex carbohydrate and 10 percent protein. They also offered 60-70 grams of fiber per day and had no cholesterol at all.’’

The comparison (ADA) diet contained more plant-based ingredients than

the average American diet but still relied on the conventional chicken and

fish recipes. This diet was 30 percent fat and 50 percent carbohydrate. It

provided about 30 grams of fiber and 200 milligrams of cholesterol per day.

REDUCED INSULIN DOSAGES AND BETTER CONTROL

The fasting blood sugars in the vegetarian group decreased 28 percent,

whereas the ADA group’s blood sugars dropped only 12 percent. The

vegetarians needed less medication to control their blood sugars, whereas

the ADA group needed just as much medicine as before.

While the ADA dieters lost an impressive 8 pounds on average, the vegetarians lost nearly 16 pounds. Cholesterol levels also dropped more in the vegetarian group, compared to the ADA group.

Study vegetarian dieters said they were pleased with the weight loss

and the reduction or elimination of insulin injections or oral medication.

‘‘Being able to take control of my diabetes has been a wonderful thing,’’

said Scott Johnston, 34, a business consultant from Arlington, Va. ‘‘Had I

known that this diet would have such a powerful effect, I would have

adopted it years ago.’’

‘‘In the beginning, it’s not an easy diet,’’ said Sheldon Berman, 62,

of Washington, D.C. ‘‘But I managed to lose 17 pounds. I’m no longer on

medication for diabetes, and I am no longer on medication for blood

pressure. … The overall mental outlook on how I feel about myself as a

diabetic is much more hopeful now, as I am self-sufficient with a diet

that makes sense for me.’’

Worldwide, more than 125 million people have either insulin-dependent

or non-insulin dependent diabetes, according to Stuart Sundem, a senior

community health specialist at the International Diabetes Center in

Minneapolis, Minn. And that number is expected to skyrocket to more than

300 million by 2025, as Asian countries adopt Westernized lifestyle patterns of high consumption and sedentary activity, he said.

Francine Kaufman, M.D., president-elect of the American Diabetes

Association and chairman of Children’s Hospital Endocrinology Division in

Los Angeles, cites ‘‘fast food laden with fat and lower levels of activity’’ as the culprits for approximately 25 million cases of undiagnosed diabetes worldwide.

This month, the National Institutes of Health and the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases released the results of their own Diabetes Prevention Program study, showing that Type II diabetes can be prevented.

The study maintains that two different approaches — diet and exercise

therapy, and the administration of a diabetes medication, metformin –

were both effective. Just 30 minutes of daily exercise coupled with a

low-fat diet increases insulin sensitivity and reduces weight, possibly

eliminating the need for insulin injections altogether, according to the

report.

Christopher D. Saudek, M.D., president of the American Diabetes

Association and a principal investigator says ‘‘the Diabetes Prevention

Program conclusively proves that Type II diabetes is not inevitable for

people at high risk of developing it.’’

The DPP is the first study to demonstrate that prevention strategies

can work across the broad spectrum of racial and ethnic diversity. Both

lifestyle and medication interventions worked with those of Caucasian,

African, Latino, Native American, Asian and Pacific Islander origin.

Judith Ambrosini, another DESA member, has lived with diabetes for more

than 40 years. Currently a food columnist and caterer in Boston, Massachusetts, she became a vegetarian 20 years ago while living in Italy. ‘‘I

would go into town to the butcher shop,’’ she said, ‘‘but by the time I

got there, all that was left were brains, intestines and hearts.’’

She opted for the traditional Italian fare of pasta and vegetables when

she realized that she had better ‘‘make friends with this thing

(diabetes) — it will be with me for the rest of my life.’’

Mothers worldwide tell their children to eat their vegetables. This advice

may very well hold the answer to combating diabetes.

WEB-LINKS

Bruce Andrew Peters: http://www.GreatWriteUp.com

DESA: www.Diabetes-Exercise.org

IDEA 2000: www.IDEA2000.org

Physician Committee for Responsible Medicine: www.PCRM.org

International Diabetes Center: www.idcdiabetes.org