Exercise and Diabetes II

Well, here is a good reason to push myself into an exercise regiment:

Lowering Blood Sugar through Physical Activity
Exercise can do more than help you lose weight. It can increase circulation, decrease stress, and reduce the risk for heart disease and strokes by lowering blood pressure and cholesterol. Getting some exercise is recommended for overall health. For people with diabetes, exercise can do even more. It can help keep blood glucose levels in range, and can go a long way towards preventing the complications associated with diabetes.

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People diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes usually have something called "insulin resistance." This means that their bodies still produce insulin, but it's not as effective at lowering blood glucose any more. Sometimes the insulin receptors aren't as sensitive, and sometimes the pancreas just doesn't make as much insulin as it used to. This insulin resistance is usually associated with increased fat and decreased muscle mass. Muscle cells use insulin much more efficiently than fat cells do, so building more muscle and reducing fat helps the body use the insulin that is produced thereby lowering overall blood glucose levels.


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How To Begin

Aim for 30 minutes of moderate activity five days a week. There are lots of different kinds of exercise. Try some of these or come up with your own:

Walking, biking, hiking, or dancing
Exercise videos and DVD's at home
Classes at the local Y such as yoga, tai chi, or pilates
Team sports like volleyball, martial arts, basketball, raquetball
Winter sports like cross country skiing, snowshoeing, or mall walking
Before beginning an exercise program, be sure to check with your doctor.

My favorite exercise is swimming not only because I've always loved it but also because of arthritis in my neck, spine, hips and ankles. Water keeps you buoyant and so you don't have any weight on the affected joints. I know what I should do and I even have a place where I can swim...it's a matter of making myself do it.

Fibromyalgia Funk

I don't know from day to day whether or not I'm going to experience a fibromyalgia fog or funk. Many times, I feel great the day before. Sometimes I have some warning, like symptoms of IBS. Today I was supposed to go to a birthday party/clan gathering for TB's mother. I wasn't feeling well yesterday and when I woke up this morning, I knew I was in trouble. It wasn't just the pain, which is mostly from arthritis is my spine and hips.

When I'm in a fog or funk it's hard to move. I feel like I'm in a big vat of molasses. I'd like to get moving but it takes a great deal of effort and it's easier not to. My brain seems to slow down too--or this molasses like malaise gunks up the brain cells and the neurons don't fire. I can't remember words for things that I know and can't seem to put together a coherent sentence. If I am in the store, I can't seem to make a decision about whether or not to buy something--which brand? do we need it?

People don't understand. I mean, I didn't used to understand and many times I still don't. They think it's an excuse to get out of doing something or if you take some herbs and other remedies it'll take care of all the problems so you can live your life. Well, I don't know about that. I see the doctor every six months about it unless there's a big issue going on (like the bursitis in my hip). Ibuprofen isn't working so now I'm taking Alleve and it the pain is really bad I take tramadol.

Tramadol works but I don't like to take it because it can cause seizures especially in someone like me who also takes zoloft. With the other medications I take, the combination also tends to slow me down even further and makes me very very sleepy.

Needless to say, I didn't go to the party and I've taken some tramadol. TB, who worries a lot about me, also stayed home. He is worried about me because on days like this, my ability to move around is very limited and I become very depressed and also feel guilty. I was going to push myself to go to the party because I know that the family would be disappointed and upset. I think I would have been able to pull it off were it not a 2-1/2 to 3 hour drive one way. On days like this, it just hurts to sit that long and when I do get out of the car I feel like I can barely walk.

I really start my day out with lots of good intentions. I mean to stay in touch with family members and friends, mean to take my grandson out to have a fun time, go exercise, have fun with my own kids...and then all of a sudden I just feel like I got hit with a sledgehammer. I'm only 52. I don't like feeling this way at all.

This is one I have to show my kids...

In this house, we all love to drink soda--diet soda because we are diabetics and overweight. Water is much better for us and we know it but sometimes we just want something that has more taste to it. My two older kids are basically addicted to diet soda and so is TB. I think we could easily go through $50 of soda in a week, diet Pepsi, Coke Zero and Diet Coke. The thing is, it's probably hurting us! After reading this, I must try my hardest to have a diet soda only with a meal, say dinner.

Study: Soda, even diet, can up heart risk
BOSTON (UPI) -- Drinking one or more soft drinks a day -- even diet -- may increase the risk of developing metabolic risk factors for heart disease, says a U.S. study.

"We were struck by the fact that it didn't matter whether it was a diet or regular soda that participants consumed, the association with increased risk was present," senior author Dr. Ramachandran Vasan, of the Framingham Heart Study and Boston University School of Medicine, said in a statement.

"In those who drink one or more soft drinks daily, there was an association of an increased risk of developing the metabolic syndrome."

Metabolic syndrome is a cluster of cardiovascular disease and diabetes risk factors including excess waist circumference, high blood pressure, elevated triglycerides, low levels of high-density lipoprotein "good" cholesterol and high-fasting glucose levels. Three or more of the risk factors increases a person's risk of developing diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

Individuals consuming one or more soft drinks a day had a 48 percent increased prevalence of the metabolic syndrome compared to those consuming less than one soft drink daily, according to the study published in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association.




Copyright 2007 by United Press International

Fat Cell Protein, Diabetes & Obesity

Another example of body chemistry working against us:

Obesity, diabetes tied to fat cell protein
CLEVELAND (UPI) -- U.S. scientists suggest a protein involved in the transfer of fat in the blood may influence how fat cells store fat linked to obesity and diabetes.

The study, published in the Journal of Biological Chemistry, looked at how the protein -- called cholesterol ester transfer protein, or CETP -- is involved in the cellular storage and regulation of cholesterol and other fats.

Richard E. Morton and Lahoucine Izem of the Cleveland Clinic say CETP may be essential for lipid metabolism and storage in fat cells and that fat tissue is not only an energy storage tissue but also a major endocrine organ.

"CETP is known to shuttle different types of fat between lipoproteins -- combinations of fat and protein that transport fats in the blood," Morton said in a statement. "In this study, we show that CETP also shuttles fats inside fat cells between two separate areas and that fat cells with reduced levels of CETP are unable to process fats normally."

CETP deficiency disrupts storage of important fats in fat cells, which can lead to insulin resistance -- a major contributor to diabetes -- and the abnormal release of cytokines, proteins that stimulate the immune system, according to Morton. "This unexpected contribution of CETP provides a new understanding of how our body stores and regulates fats and of conditions such as obesity and diabetes," said Morton.




Copyright 2007 by United Press International

The first step to solving a problem is always understanding it...so I hope that now scientists are working on a way to fix CETP deficiency.

Ain't Nothing Like The Real Thing Baby

A lot of recent research has been showing that taking vitamin supplements and other herbal pills don't really help that much fighting heart disease and reducing cholesterol. I used to take echinacea, tons of Vitamin C and Vitamin E because I thought they would help me. Well, it turns out that echinacea doesn't work as well as people hoped it did to prevent colds, Vitamin E can be deadly if you take too much of it and you piss out all the extra Vitamin C your body doesn't need.

I don't buy all the alphabetical supplements any more. I just stick with a multivitamin. I looked at the label contents and my goodness! Some provide way more than the recommended dosage to begin with so why would I need to get an extra bottle of B-12 or E? I used to buy all the minerals I could get my hands on but now I just stick with calcium (with D). The other stuff I take are: flaxseed oil, MSM, glucosomine chondroitin and CoQ12.

I still take the flaxseed oil in spite of the fact that I didn't see a reduction in my bad cholesterol or triglycerides.

Here is the bottom line truth: there is no substitute for the real thing. Eating fish (and not tuna fish in cans) brought down my bad cholesterol and triglycerides dramatically. For the other vitamin and minerals I go with expensive fresh produce: broccoli, corn, tomatoes, blueberries, strawberries, peaches, plums, zucchini, yellow squash and eggplant from the local farmstand. Now that we are eating fish twice a week, our red meat consumption has gone down to once or twice a week and that is healthier for all of us.

My continuing major gripe: why should it be so much more expensive to eat healthy foods?

I've got the fibromyalgia fog blues

It doesn't take much for the fog to set in these days. A couple of days ago, my grandson who has PDD-NOS (a form of autism) had a major meltdown and it was scaring and draining to watch his mom trying to restrain him so he wouldn't hurt himself. It hurts to be helpless.

I was still feeling okay but then my son came in just now to tell me that the battery or alternator in my car died while he was at work last night. He couldn't get the car to start and so he called home. Luckily his sister was awake at the time (I guess this was about 1 in the morning) and went to pick him up.

He tells me that she came in to wake me after they got back and told me what happened. I have absolutely no memory of it although my son says I answered that we'd call AAA in the morning.

I feel like a balloon that's been popped, sluggish and unable to think clearly. I know what I should do now. I just feel like I'm moving through a ton of molasses.

Eat Blue Tortillas!

Blue?? I think I've seen tortilla chips that were different colors but I sure don't remember any that are blue. However, I found this fascinating and will have to check into it:

Blue tortillas may help dieters, diabetic
CARACAS, Venezuela (UPI) -- People with dieting blues should try swapping white corn tortillas for blue, according to a study in Mexico, suggesting colored flatbreads are healthier.

Scientists in Mexico found that tortillas made from blue corn had less starch and a lower glycemic index than their white counter parts, and the blue tortillas had 20 percent more protein than white, according to the study published in the Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture.

Foods with a lower glycemic index are considered healthier as they slowly release sugar into the bloodstream reducing the fluctuations in blood glucose and insulin levels, said study author Juscelino Tovar of the Universidad Central de Venezuela in Caracas.

Low glycemic index foods are said to have long-term health benefits, reducing the risk of heart disease and diabetes as well as aiding and maintaining weight loss, according to Tovar.

One important benefit of the lower glycemic index blue tortillas is their potential role in preventing or controlling metabolic syndrome, a combination of disorders that increases the risk of heart disease, stroke and diabetes.

The blue coloring in the blue corn is due to the presence of anthocyanins -- the same health-promoting compounds found in berries and red wine.

I am looking for foods that have a low glycemic index number so this is worth looking into. I guess health food stores would have blue tortillas, even if the regular grocery store doesn't?

Dr. Weil's 3 Nutrition Tips for Arthritis

I really like Dr. Weil's website for all the useful information that can help me to live better and healthier. For instance, it's from his website (and not doctors) that I first learned how omega 3s can help my heart.

I suffer from arthritis in my neck, hands and spine and some days are pretty bad. So I find this information helpful:

3 Nutrition Tips for Arthritis

Stiffness, pain and swelling of joints are common symptoms of osteoarthritis. Aside from getting regular exercise (low-impact is the best) and maintaining a healthy weight, consider the following nutritional changes to help prevent or lessens symptoms.

Eat foods rich in antioxidants. Fresh fruits and vegetables are good sources, and may help reduce tissue damage from inflammation.
Get enough omega-3s. Oily fish such as wild Alaskan salmon, walnuts, freshly ground flaxseed or a good omega-3 supplement may help reduce the inflammation and pain of arthritis.
Regularly use ginger and turmeric for their natural anti-inflammatory properties.

Here again are the omega-3s. Luckily I have a new taste for fish I never had before! Also, I had no idea that ginger and turmeric had any anti-inflammatory properties. Well, I learn something new every day that can help me!