Blood Sugars and Their Effect On Diabetes – Part 2

Now that you have a bit of an understanding the mechanics of Type I & II diabetes, let’s look at some symptoms. Remember that for the most part we will be discussing adult onset or Type II diabetes.

Some of the early symptoms include frequent urination, excessive thirst, numbness and tingling in your extremities, blurred vision, increased irritability; poor wound healing, frequent infections and sometimes unexplained weight loss.

Consider the fact that there are close to 3 million diabetics in Canada there are more than twice that number that are pre-diabetic or borderline diabetic and they do not even know. Many of these people will go on to become diabetic in the next decade.

There are certain factors that may increase your risk of developing diabetes. I think everyone is aware that being overweight or obese is a risk. Other things include a family history, certain ethnic propensities, high blood pressure, middle age, cholesterol imbalance, and of course inactivity or lack of exercise. Couch surfing does not count as an exercise!

Determination of the diagnosis of diabetes typically comes with your blood sugar levels tests after a 12 hour fast. We could go into numbers but that is not necessarily helpful in our overview. The stark reality is that whatever your readings IT CAN BE REVERSED.

The thing is that if you have many of the risk factors or symptoms get the tests from your physician to pinpoint where you are on the scale. There are several key tests that you can undergo like lipids etc.  Now you have a bench mark that you can work from.

If you have diabetes you will have some sort of a meter to check your blood sugars with some regularity. Typically they have a fingertip lance or prick to collect a drop of blood. I suspect soon there will be an app for your smartphone if there is not already one.

One of the key tools in managing and reversing this syndrome it Carbohydrate counting.  Carbohydrates are essentially complex sugars and understanding them is of paramount importance. We will be discussing these essentials next time. Have a great day!