Diabetes Blog

Diabetes Tests - Diagnosing and Monitoring Diabetes

Posted by john in Diabetes Care

Your physician may have suspected that you have diabetes because of a high sugar (glucose) level found in your blood or urine during a routine office visit. At the time you may not have noticed any symptoms. Many diabetics, however, do notice symptoms including excessive urination, unusual thirst, weight loss despite good appetite, or constant fatigue-and seek medical advice because of them.

Detecting High Glucose and Ketones

When adequately distributed throughout your body, glucose gives you energy. If the glucose level in your blood or urine is high, it means that the glucose is not being channeled properly. This happens when too little of the hormone insulin is produced or when the insulin that is produced is not used appropriately by the body.

Insulin is responsible for clearing sugar out of your blood­stream and getting it into cells, where it is used or stored. In a diabetic, because enough insulin isn’t there or isn’t working properly, glucose just accumulates in the blood. After a certain point the blood glucose becomes so high that the kidneys, which filter waste products from the blood, begin to overflow some of the glucose into the urine. Your physician can measure your glucose level through several tests using urine and blood specimens. In addition to measuring the glucose level, urine and blood tests can indicate the presence of ketones. Without insulin, fat stores in the body break down and substances called ketones, ketone bodies or acetone are produced. Because of their acidic nature, ketones can lead to complications when they accumulate in the blood. At high enough levels ketones overflow into the urine. Glucose and ketone levels in the urine and blood may be high because of stress as well as a low insulin level. A finding of high levels of glucose or ketones indicates to your physician that further investigation is necessary.

Urine Tests

Urine testing is part of most physicians’ routines in giving complete physical examinations. Urine tests are basic diagnostic
tools that can give physicians valuable information about how your body is working.

In a form of urine testing known as semiquantitative your doctor may use either a tablet or one of several brands of paper or plastic strips to determine the approximate sugar or ketone level in your urine. Only a small sample of urine is needed, and the test takes only a few seconds. The paper or plastic strips are coated with chemicals that change colors according to sugar and ketone concentration. For example, one type of strip ranges from yellow through green to dark blue. With this test a color closer to dark blue indicates a high concentration of sugar in the urine. However, if you are taking certain medications, aspirin, or vitamin C, these substances may interfere with the dyes on the strips and distort the readings. Your physician will ask you about medications you are taking so that test results can be interpreted properly.

An advantage of semi quantitative urine testing is that it is fast and can be done easily by your doctor. The disadvantage of urine tests, in general, however, is that they are less accurate and harder to interpret than blood tests. Because the point at which your kidneys begin to spill glucose into your urine may differ from the point in other people, urine test readings may not always accurately reflect the level of glucose in your blood.

Another urine test your physician may do is known as a quantitative measurement in a timed sample. This test might be ordered by your physician after a high or low reading has been found with a semi-quantitative test. One advantage of this type of test is that only glucose and ketones are measured, and other chemicals in your blood that might have caused false higher or lower readings with the chemically coated paper strips used in semi-quantitative testing are removed. Another advantage is that the exact concentration, rather than a range, of glucose and ketone in the urine is measured. Because the urine must be collected very accurately in such tests, (whereas only a small sample is necessary for the semi-quantitative tests), it is inconvenient. If the physician orders a 24-hour sample, this means that all urine during that period must be collected and brought to the laboratory. Another disadvantage is that, depending on the point at which the patient’s kidneys actually begin to spill sugar and ketones into the urine, this may or may not be an accurate reflection of glucose levels.

Blood Tests

Blood glucose tests are also used to indicate whether or not you have too much or not enough sugar in your blood and whether or not ketones are present. If you are curious about the numbers you hear or read, ask your doctor to explain your test results to you. Comparing blood test result& with others, however, is not a good idea, because different blood tests yield different results.
The easiest and fastest procedure for measuring glucose and ketones in the blood is to use plastic or paper strips like those
used in urine tests. These strips give a range, not an exact value. Other methods, called reagent kits and rapid analytical systems, are also used by many physicians. These tests use chemicals to test blood samples in a rapid single-step process.

Which is Better? Urine-Sugar or Blood-Sugar Test

• Urine or blood sugar tests are the commonest test performed to know the state of diabetic control.
• Blood contains some amount of sugar (80 to 140 mg%) round the clock, since certain tissues like brain cannot survive without readily available glucose.
• When the blood sugar exceeds, 180 mg% sugar appears in urine. Urine test is only a rough guide, e.g. if there is no sugar in urine it can only mean that blood sugar at that time is less thanl80 mg% (it can be anything 60 to 180 mg%).
• Since urine is secreted drop by drop by the kidney and stored in bladder to be evacuated at longer intervals. if we wish to correlate urine sugar with blood sugar level we must test second sample of urine i.e. evacuate the bladder, dicard it and pass urine after half an hour. test that sample.
• Blood sugar is more accurate parameter for assessing control of diabetes

Blood glucose concentration is one of the best measurements of the presence of diabetes as well as diabetic control. But, because this test measures the blood glucose level at only one instant, it may not represent your usual condition. For example, a trip to your doctor’s office can cause stress that can result in an abnormally high glucose value. Blood sugar is affected by the food eaten, the amount of time after or before eating, and activity and stress. A sample taken within two hours after you have eaten gives the most sensitive results after a measured glucose intake. Evaluating your fasting or before glucose intake level indicates the extent to which carbohydrates from your last meal have been removed from your bloodstream. The fasting glucose concentration is the measure of blood sugar after a lack of intake for more than four hours or overnight. If you have diabetes, your glucose concentration is usually lowest in this state.

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What Those with Non-Insulin-Dependent Diabetes Should Know?

Posted by john in Diabetes Information

It is possible that you had subtle symptoms of diabetes for years and did not know that you had the disease. Weight gain, increased thirst, and fatigue may have been building up over a number of years. Because the disease has been present for a long time, you may have some complications at the time a diagnosis is made. These might include hypertension (high blood pressure), heart disease, vascular disease (small blood vessel disease), or kidney disease. Your physician will treat these problems along with your diabetes. It is important to treat such complications as early as possible because a combination of high blood pressure, diabetes, and kidney disease is a triple threat to your good health.

Many people, however, do not have any complications and can take actions recommended by their physicians concerning diet, exercise, medication in the form of pills instead of insulin injection, and good mental health. If you have non-insulin-dependent diabetes, it is possible that your diabetes may reverse itself and that your blood sugar levels may return to normal and stay that way, particularly if you maintain good diet and exercise habits. Good diet, ideal weight, adequate exercise, adequate insulin availability, and a stable mental attitude are the keys to treatment for diabetes.

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What Those with Insulin-Dependent Diabetes Should Know?

Posted by john in Diabetes News

With insulin-dependent diabetes, when insulin injections begin your symptoms may disappear and the disease may go into a stage of remission or temporarily appear inactive. In this phase your pancreas will again secrete insulin. Your need for extra insulin may decrease or disappear. The remission phase frequently lasts as long as two or more years, and during this period it may be hard to believe that you have the disease. Your blood sugar level may remain within a normal range. Without explanation your blood sugar may go up again and again create the need for additional amounts of insulin. During the remission phase a well-balanced diet will be very important. If possible, you should try to maintain your ideal weight. However, the remission phase may end or may not Occur at all. When this happens your diabetes may be less stable, your pancreas will secrete varying amounts of insulin, and your condition may develop into what is known as brittle or poorly controlled diabetes because your blood sugar may fluctuate widely during the same day for no apparent reason. Brittle is simply the term some physicians use for a markedly fluctuating blood sugar level. In this stage it usually indicates poor daily management, and insulin, exercise, or activity may affect your blood sugar level. Better regulation of your diabetes may be necessary through dietary means, additional exercise, and alteration of your insulin intake. Close regulation may be a greater problem if you have little or no insulin production of your own.

Two Medical Emergencies to Know About

If you have insulin-dependent diabetes, you can avoid two medical emergencies by carefully monitoring your blood sugar level. Ketoacidosis (diabetic coma) is a condition of elevated blood sugar and breakdown of muscle and fat that results in a disturbance in the acid-alkaline balance in your body and causes loss of consciousness or coma. Diabetic coma can occur because of a lack of the necessary insulin dose in the presence. of the effects of stress (physical or emotional), infection, or major illness. Recognition of symptoms and prompt treatment by a physician are important. Symptoms may include flushed, dry skin, drowsiness, a fruity breath odor, deep labored breathing, vomiting, and abdominal pain.
Hypoglycemia (low blood sugar) is a condition that can occur because of an excess of insulin, too much exercise, or not enough food. Fortunately most cases of hypoglycemia are easily reversible. You can avoid this unpleasant complication by understanding how insulin, food, and exercise interact. Further, you can use urine testing or blood sugar testing as a guide in controlling your blood sugar. While many people with insulin-dependent diabetes seldom develop this complication it is a frequent and disturbing one that requires knowledge of diabetes and cooperation with your health care team.

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Controlling Diabetes

Posted by john in Diabetes Care

Diabetes can be controlled through effective management of the balance of sugar (or glucose) and insulin, to enable your body to function well. Your physician and health care team will tailor an individualized therapy routine to your needs. This may include special attention to your diet, a plan for exercise, and possibly medication in the form of injections of insulin or pills to be taken orally. The diet plan will help you control your intake of food as well as your weight. The amount of exercise you do will determine the rate at which your body demands sugar to produce energy, and insulin will regulate how fast and effectively the sugar is used to meet your needs for energy.

Why is it Important to Control Diabetes As Soon As it is Detected?

As soon as your diabetes is detected it is important that you immediately begin a program 10 control the disease. The aim of your treatment plan will be to restore the balance of sugar and insulin in your body and tu prevent and relieve symptoms. You can do this through diet, exercise, and blood sugar reducing medications and, most important, by understanding the disease, its complications, and its treatment.

A properly treated person with diabetes can be free of symptoms and feel well. Without adequate medical treatment, however, symptoms may appear or increase in severity. For example, in many people with diabetes complications occur in blood vessels. Because diabetics are more prone to problems with blood vessels, such conditions appear earlier and advance more rapidly than in non-diabetics. And since both the large and small blood vessels can be involved, complications, such as hypertension and atherosclerosis, often are the principal problems in the care of diabetics. While the mechanism of diabetic disease of the blood vessels is not clearly identified, it is also known that vascular disease (disease of the blood vessels) may not be as prevalent or proceeds more slowly in those with well controlled diabetes than in those in whom the disease is poorly controlled. Vascular disease causes other complications of the circulatory system, including heart attacks. Diabetic women, especially after menopause, have more heart disease than women who do not have diabetes. Also, because of changes in the arteries due to diabetes, some diabetics have peripheral circulatory disturbances, especially in their legs.

Diabetics have more kidney disease than non-diabetics. This occurs because blood vessels serving the kidneys often are affected , and recurrent infection of the urinary tract can be more common. vascular changes also can affect the eyes where blood vessels are very tiny and fragile. The fact that diabetes is the leading cause of blindness emphasizes the need for preserving the important faculty.

Neuropathy (damage to the neural pathways ) may be another long-term complication of diabetes. The most common form affects the legs and may cause numbness, tingling, and sometimes severe pain. Other nerve pathways can be affected as well.Diabetes feet are vulnerable to any kind of injury and foot care is extremely important. Joint and skeletal muscle problem are also affected by diabetes, as is the gastrointestional tract.

To prevent theses and other complication it is essential that you begin a treatment plan as soon as possible after your diabetes is diagnosed. An important part of your treatment will your diet.

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Diabetes Symptoms

Posted by john in Diabetes Information

About the time you were told that you had diabetes you may have noticed increased thirst, excessive urination, increased appetite and loss of weight, or itchy skin. You may also have noticed sore and cuts healed slowly, that you tired easily and became drowsy often, or that you had impaired vision. In the early stages of the disease, however, many people do not notice any symptoms. Many older adults who have diabetes have no symptoms other than a vague feeling of not being well. In such persons the disease is detected through a blood sugar test. Your physician may have suspected that you have diabetes by detecting glucose in your urine. The diagnosis may have been confirmed with further tests.

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Diabetes Diet - Paying Attention to Diet

Posted by john in Diabetes Care

Your doctor will determine the meal plan that is best for you, based on your age, weight, activity level, occupation, and other medical requirements. You will be responsible for controlling the amount of sugar that gets into your bloodstream by controlling the kind and amount of food you eat. While your diet may be “special” in the sense that you now will pay more attention to it than you did in the past, you are very likely to continue to eat the same foods as nondiabeticws should eat. The main difference will be in being sure to eat at the right time and to eat the amounts recommended by your doctor. Your doctor will tell you about a food exchange system that will enable you to have flexibility and normal food within your diet. By following the food exchange system you can trade, for example, an ounce of meat for a portion of cheese or an egg. There are many foods you can have without any restriction at all, such as many low-calorie vegetables, fatfree bouillon and broth, and decaffeinated coffee, and tea in moderation. You won’t need any special equipment for your kitchen, other than a standard eight-ounce measuring cup, a measuring tea spoon and tablespoon, and a small scale. Recommendations for your meals usually will be stated in terms of cups, tablespoons, and teaspoons. Sometimes a few weight measurements will be recommended.

Menu Planning

Menu planning will be an important part of your lifestyle with . If you have insulin-dependent diabetes, you will have to plan when and how much to eat so that meals and snacks coincide with the effects and timing of your daily insulin injections. You will also have to consume a specific number of calories to feel well and maintain ideal weight and a more normal blood sugar level. If your health care team recommends that you control your blood sugar level with diet and/ or oral medication, you will be asked to “follow a more regular, calculated meal plan to maintain normal weight and avoid sharp variations in your blood sugar. If you are overweight, you can use the plan as a weight-loss diet to achieve a more normal weight. Normal weight is important because excessive fat cells interfere with your body’s use of insulin.

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What Causes Diabetes?

Posted by john in Diabetes Information

Although the causes of diabetes are still unknown, medical science does know that certain factors contribute to its development. One factor is heredity. You may have a tendency to develop diabetes because other members of your family have it. A child of non-diabetics can become diabetic, however, since the disease may skip generations because of genetic coding that prevents it from appearing in every generation. Stresses that affect the cells of the body seem to set the stage for diabetes in these people. One such stress is extra weight. Obesity, affecting insulin utilization, contributes to diabetes. Researchers estimate that 80 percent of the people with diabetes are also overweight at the time they are diagnosed as having diabetes. Stresses can be emotional or physical, such as surgery or a serious infection, an accident, or emotional shock. Many medica­tions affect the body in a stressful way. Pregnancy also places extra stresses on he body, and diabetes is often diagnosed in pregnant women or women who have repeated miscarriages.
People who develop diabetes, especially Type II, frequently also have high blood pressure; people of middle or old age are more likely to develop diabetes than younger people, and women are more likely to have diabetes than men.

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What is Diabetes and Types of Diabetes

Posted by john in Diabetes Information

Diabetes is a disease that develops due to your body’s inability to make appropriate use of the foods you eat as a result of insufficient insulin.

Normally the food you eat is converted within your body into a form of sugar called glucose, which your cells use as a source of energy. Glucose causes an increase in your blood glucose level, which in turn signals the release of a hormone called insulin from the islet cells (the cluster of cells in the pancreas known as islets of Langerhans) of the pancreas, a gland in the abdomen. Insulin regulates the level of glucose in your blood and assists in utilizing and storing glucose in your body.

All human beings need insulin. Most people have enough. If you have diabetes, however, you may produce none at all or perhaps just not enough to help the glucose from your blood transfer to the appropriate cells. Without insulin, glucose isn’t used by your cells and thus builds up in your blood.

Diabetes is not contagious. There is no cure for it at this time. However, the disease can be controlled. This website will help you understand how to control your diabetes and the importance of doing so.

Type I

Type I is insulin-dependent diabetes, and it can occur at any age, though it most commonly occurs during youth. This type of diabetes used to be known as juvenile-onset diabetes and is still called that by some physicians and health care professionals. About one of every 2,500 children has this disease. Because the pancreas produces little or no insulin, such patients become dependent on outside sources of insulin. Before the discovery of insulin in 1921 children with insulin-dependent diabetes had a short life expectancy. Now the disease can be controlled with insulin, proper diet and exercise, and careful monitoring.

Type II

Type II is non-insulin-dependent diabetes; additional insulin is not usually required to sustain life. The American Diabetes Association further divides this category into subtypes that in a dude obese non-insulin-dependent diabetes and non obese non­ insulin-dependent diabetes. (Estimates are that 60-90 percent of those with non-insulin-dependent diabetes in western societies are obese.) Non-insulin-dependent diabetes used to be called maturity-onset diabetes and may still be called that by some health care professionals. Type II diabetes is much more common than Type I. If you have non-insulin-dependent diabetes, you are one of 5 million Americans with the disease. This type is less severe than insulin-dependent diabetes and starts more slowly. While patients with this type of diabetes produce some, or at times even excessive, insulin in their pancreas, it either is not enough for proper function or is not being produced quickly enough to influnce glucose levels in the blood effectively. This type of the disease usually occurs in middle or older age and frequently in overweight people. It can most often be controlled by diet alone or by a combination of diet, exercise, and oral medication.

Impaired Glucose Tolerance

Until recently the terms borderline chemical, and latent diabetes were used to refer to this condition. Now, according to recommendations by the American Diabetes Association, the term impaired glucose tolerance refers to the condition in which fasting plasma glucose level is normal but after glucose intake the levels are abnormally elevated.

Gestational Diabetes

The term gestational diabetes is used only to refer to diabetes that develops during pregnancy.

Other Types Diabetes

There are also many types of diabetes associated with certain conditions and syndromes, such as diabetes induced by drugs or chemicals, diabetes secondary to pancreatic disease, and diabetes secondary to endocrine disease. These types are not discussed in this book as they occur less frequently.

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Getting Acquainted with Diabetes

Posted by john in Diabetes Information

Getting acquainted with anything or anyone usually means asking questions, seeking answers, and thinking about new ideas. When you get a new car, for example, you want to know how everything works. Sometimes you want to know why things work the way they do and what to do in case they don’t work correctly.

Because your health is such a personal matter, you will have even more questions when you are getting acquainted with a disease. And, if you have lived with a disease for a long time, continued learning about-or, reacquainting yourself with the disease is an ongoing process.

If you are getting acquainted or reacquainted with diabetes, you will want to know what diabetes is all about and how you can successfully incorporate treatment for the disease into your lifestyle. In this chapter you will learn about what diabetes is, whether symptoms are always noticeable, what may cause diabetes, how diabetes can be controlled and why it is important to control it, what diet and menu planning will mean for you, and what those with insulin-dependent diabetes and non-insulin­dependent diabetes should know.

You may already know that there are two names for diabetes: diabetes mellitus and diabetes insipidus. The term diabetes mellitus was derived from the Greek words meaning passing through and sweet as honey. Diabetes mellitus is a condition characterized by an excess of sugar in the blood and/ or urine. Diabetes insipidus is characterized by an excess of fluid loss by the body. In this web site the word diabetes is used throughout and refers to diabetes mellitus, the disease you may have heard people refer to as “too much sugar.” for diabetes was endorsed by the board of directors of the American Diabetes Association at its 1979 annual meeting.

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