Seventeen million adults have type 2 (adult onset) diabetes in America, and each year two million additional adults are diagnosed with this disease. For these people, the disease literally takes over their lives, as the steps to monitor and control it can be all consuming.  Daily monitoring, frequent medical checkups and a highly restricted diet are necessary to keep glucose levels low and prevent an onslaught of damage that can be caused by diabetes.

Monitoring

One of the first things a diabetic has to learn is how to monitor his blood glucose (sugar) on his own, since this important measure can change constantly and elevated levels can be life threatening.  Normally, a glucometer is used to indicate the levels, and it is recommended that levels be measured before and after meals, since food is the main trigger for increases. (Although stress and pain can also trigger sudden spikes.)  Levels should read 70 to 130 milligrams (per deciliter) before meals and less than 189 milligrams after.

Checkups

As a control measure, a doctor will order an additional test called a hemoglobin A1C in his office from time to time.  This test measures the average blood sugar over the previous two or three month period.  This helps avoid a patient behaving well (i.e. eating properly) just before a doctor visit, thinking he will be able to hide the fact that his glucose has been too high.  A1C levels should be lower than 7%, and you can count on a grilling by your doctor is your glucose level is good but your A1C level is high.

Diet

But one of the most important and permeating factors in a diabetics life is his diet.  Adult onset diabetes (unlike juvenile diabetes, which is congenital) is caused by obesity and poor diet: too much sugar, or foods that break down quickly into sugar.  Diabetes are advised to eat less refined foods, which have a lower glycemic index and are therefore slower to raise blood sugar than refined products.  Diabetics should avoid sweets and processed starches such as soda, cakes, bagels, pasta, etc.  These items should be replaced in the diet with fruits, fresh vegetables, and whole grain products, all of which require processing by the body and therefore break down more slowly into glucose.

Diabetes cannot be cured; it can only be controlled.  To avoid some of the tragic consequences of diabetes, such as gangrenous limbs, blindness, stroke and death, it is imperative that the diabetic take his treatment very seriously and take every necessary step to monitor and control it.  If you don’t have diabetes, you can help to avoid it by avoiding too many sweets and refined carbohydrates, and getting plenty of exercise and maintaining a healthy weight.

If diabetes is left untreated, it can become even more serious in the elderly resulting in the need for a home health care worker. Even though most people in the medical profession are trustworthy, you may want to do a background check, just to be sure.

Overcoming Anxiety

If you or someone you know suffers from an anxiety disorder a zinc supplement may be the key to helping you handle your problems.  But first it is important to understand just what anxiety is and how it can be treated.

Defining Anxiety

Anxiety can be defined as excessive worry about many issues.  An anxiety disorder is when you have no way to control or channel that worry.  Some of the symptoms of an anxiety disorder can include sleep disturbances, irritability, getting tired easy, restlessness and, of course, the inability to stop worrying.  But anxiety disorders cannot be lumped into just one category, just as depression cannot be lumped into one category. Read the rest of this entry →

The earliest pioneers of physiotherapy can be attributed to the ancient Greeks. Hippocrates and later Galenus are said to have been the first real developers of physical massage and hydrotherapy. Since then, of course, physiotherapy has evolved into an independent branch of complementary therapy which channels several different medical applications.

Towards the end of the 19th century, physiotherapy began to be formally recognised as a healthcare discipline part of the nursing profession, being regulated officially by the Chartered Society.  Over the next twenty years, countries like New Zealand and United States of America established academic courses to advance the development of physiotherapy and set up a uniform framework for research into the field. Moreover, such research is arguably responsible for modern physiotherapy as we know it, with the first recognisable physiotherapy research published in 1921. In addition to this, the same year the Physical Therapy Association (and later the APTA) was founded in the USA, which was to inform the future development of the occupation across North America and Western Europe well into the next century. Read the rest of this entry →

Pituitary tumors often remain undiagnosed and unnoticed for years, and they can cause serious health problems and hormonal imbalances for patients. Often these hormonal irregularities are the first signs that something has gone wrong for both the physician and the patient. Typical symptoms include the following:

• Irregular menstrual cycles

• Decreased vision

• Unusual growth patterns

o Enlarged extremities

o Extreme height

o Unexplained weight loss or gain Read the rest of this entry →