Can you answer Raaz’s question about Diabetes?:

Checking BG levels while fasting and post fasting. Are you allowed to take medication or not while testing Blood Glucose after taking medicine at breakfast ? Should I delay taking the medicine after breakfast. Pls help, am confused, my Doctor is out of the country.

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Probably the last thing on anybody’s mind when dealing with diabetes is jewelry. After all, bracelets, necklaces and anklets may not seem to serve any purpose beyond being decorative. However, when it comes to chronic diseases like diabetes, being identified as having a medical condition is often necessary. This is why diabetes bracelets are often worn not just to inform anyone about the wearer’s health status but also to alert people, such as rescuers, first-aid staff and medical professionals of the appropriate action to perform when the wearer is involved in an emergency.

When Knowledge Can Save a Life

When diabetics were first encouraged to wear diabetes bracelets, some people were not very supportive of getting “tagged” as a diabetic. However, the fact that the bracelets were medical alert tags quickly showed why it was a necessity. Today, it still is.

Diabetes requires special medical care and attention. In some emergencies, the patient may not always be able to speak or communicate or he may even be unresponsive. Furthermore, an emergency may occur when a relative or a friend who has knowledge about the patient’s diabetes may not be around. In these cases, a diabetes bracelet can silently inform the attending medical personnel of the patient’s disease.

This way, the proper treatment and medications can be administered without worrying about possible side effects or drug interaction. Imagine being in a situation where medical treatment that is otherwise safe and effective can actually put your health and your life at risk. This is often the case when a diabetic is treated without the medical staff’s knowledge that he or she has diabetes.

Preparing for an Emergency

Diabetes can be a tricky and rather deceptive condition to have, primarily because blood sugar levels can fluctuate unpredictably. When blood sugar levels suddenly drop or sharply rise, blackouts can occur, requiring medical attention. Having a diabetes bracelet will let the medical staff know how to make the appropriate medical decisions that can save your life. In case you ever figure in an accident, any medications that may be necessary in order to treat you won’t affect you in a negative way.

Always ensure that you or your loved one is wearing a diabetes bracelet before leaving the house. If necessary, pack an extra bracelet especially during special trips, particularly if you will be traveling alone. Always wear the bracelet where it can be spotted easily and avoid taking it off. It might cramp your style, but it can mean the difference between living a healthy life and suffering the consequences.

Bracelet for a Cause

One simple diabetes bracelet can actually make a big difference in the fight against diabetes. Certain groups sell bracelets, donating proceeds to support associations dedicated to helping people with diabetes. Often, the proceeds even fund further research about the disease.

The diabetes wristband that states, “Insulin is Not a Cure”, for example, is being promoted by the Diabetes Research Institute Foundation to support the foundation of the Education for Children with Diabetes. So now when you buy a diabetes bracelet, you might want to consider purchasing from groups that actually help push the struggle against diabetes forward. Further research is necessary in order to understand the real causes of this disease and probably even more in order for scientists to produce a cure.

Getting “Tagged”

These days, different bracelets are available for different medical and non-medical concerns but the need for a broader awareness of diabetes is still an important and necessary issue. Diabetes bracelets can be as simple as those made with rubber or as detailed as those made with metal and beads. Some diabetes bracelets can also be customized, including not just a simple alert but also other information such as your name, address, contact number or contact information of a person you’d like to contact in an emergency.

If you would like to help support the diabetes cause by using a diabetes bracelet, buy from groups and associations that actually donate proceeds or at least a portion of it to a related cause. Organizations who do this will state it in their websites, brochures or company ads. If you’re buying from a retail shop, you can also ask the salesperson if the proceeds from the sale are actually going to fund diabetes research or support groups. This is an excellent way to do your part in the fight against diabetes.



Thanks to Flor Serquina for contributing this article to our Diabetes blog:

Symptoms Of Type II Diabetes

It can send a chill up anyone’s spine being informed by your physician that you have borderline diabetes. This is a disease that can literally alter your life. But, each year, hundreds of thousands of Americans are being told just that as the number of diabetes cases continually rises. Currently, there are over 18 million known case of diabetes in the U.S. that have diabetes. It’s estimated that there’s approximately 6 million more people that have diabetes and don’t know it. And it remains a serious health problem costing patients billions of dollars in health care every year.

What exactly is borderline diabetes? Sometimes called pre-diabetes, it’s a condition where a person has glucose levels between normal levels and levels that would identify them as diabetic. The reason that many people don’t know they have the condition is that it’s relatively free of symptoms. In a person without diabetes, the body will produce insulin to help the cells break down food into energy. In diabetics and pre-diabetics, however, either the body is unable to create insulin or it is unable to utilize the insulin. This is one reason why people with borderline diabetes tend to be tired much of the time. They are eating, but their body is unable to break down the food into usable energy.

Many doctors have stopped using the term borderline diabetes to describe this condition as, in their minds, a person who exhibits the symptoms of pre-diabetes is, in truth diabetic. and they see no real medical reason to obfuscate the diagnosis. They also feel that telling a person that he or she has borderline diabetes will cause the person to not take the diagnosis seriously - since it is only borderline. Others feel that the condition of these patients is more accurately described as insulin resistant or impaired glucose tolerance. Other doctors, however, still use the term and find it useful to keep the distinction between pre-diabetes and diabetes.

For medical care physicians that continue to use the term, borderline diabetes is diagnosed when a person’s glucose level, as determined by glucose tests, fall between 100 to 125 milligrams per deciliter.

Unfortunately, in most cases, a person who has borderline diabetes will see the disease progress to diabetes. In some cases, however, with a change of eating habits and other healthy lifestyle changes, the disease will be reversed.

Many health experts believe that pre-diabetes is a preventable disease. Studies have shown a distinct correlation between the increase in the amount of fast foods that we eat and the new incidences of type II diabetes. Likewise, there is a correlation between our increasingly sedentary lifestyles with increases in the number of people diagnosed with diabetics. Making the defeat of diabetes even more urgent is that a person with pre-diabetes or diabetes is at greater risk for a host of other diseases including heart disease, stroke, liver disease, and more.

Luckily, researchers have begun to identify and catalog the many risk factors that predispose one towards developing diabetes. Hopefully, in the near future, diabetes will be looked upon as a long forgotten disease of the past.



Thanks to Alice Saracho for contributing this article to our Diabetes blog:

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