Fast And Reliable Diabetic Testing

Accu-Check Aviva

If diagnosed with diabetes, you must control excessive carbohydrate intake and remain on a healthy diet. Maintaining stable and well controlled blood glucose levels are essential to ward off the nasty effect of diabetes. You can easily do this by regularly checking your blood glucose levels with a blood sugar monitor also known as a glucometer. While it's easy to get overwhelmed with all the options available, the Accu-Check brand is among the leading manufacturers of blood glucose monitors, and is an excellent value.

A common question posed by newly diagnosed diabetics is: what is the most versatile and user friendly glucometer available? The Accu-Check Aviva easily meets both of these user needs along with other functions that were created to allow easy blood sugar testing. It also comes with an "advanced" lancet that ensures a minimal amount of pain when pricking the skin for a blood sample. The device ensures 97% accuracy, which means less cash spent on having to retest any false positives. Most of the errors are actually the result of improper usage including inadequately filling the test strip. Fortunately, this meter requires a very small amount of blood thereby making inadequate filling rarely a problem.

Accu-Check Aviva Benefits

Affordability

Most diabetics are already spending a mountain of money on drugs and insulin shots, so the relative low cost of buying an Accu-Check blood glucose monitor is a huge benefit. This includes many of the required accessories that have to be purchase from time to time, including the lancets and test strips. Fortunately, the meter is covered by most insurance plans including Medicare, thereby allowing you to keep more money on your pocket. A drawback is the cost of the testing strips relative to other brands, but truly a minor inconvenience compared to the performance of this device.

Versatility

The Accu-Check Aviva allows you to check blood at six different body locations so that you can give your sore fingers a rest from time to time. It is also easy to adjust the lancet for ideal depth depending on the thickness of your skin. Also, the lithium battery allows for 1,000 tests which should allow the average Accu-Check Aviva user about 9 months of testing assuming 4 tests per day.

Compactness

The Accu-Check is small and will easily fit in your hand letting you readily assess your blood from any location. It measures 3.7 inches long by 2 inches wide by 0.9 inches thick and only weighs 2 ounces. The monitor also has an area where the lancet device can attach to so it won't get lost on any trip away from home. Simply turn it on, prick an area of your skin, and add the test sample to the monitor for an accurate reading 97% of the time. In addition, the Aviva offers 7, 14, and 30 day blood glucose averaging, 4 customizable test reminders, and a downloadable 500 test memory.

Speed

You can get a reading on your Accu-Check Aviva in as little as 5 seconds with proper usage. The display also glows in the dark letting you easily read the meter at night while all of your readings are additionally kept for the last 500 readings, so that you can easily share your results with your physician.

The Accu-Check Aviva truly is an excellent glucometer with numerous benefits and one that will surely make your life much easier and more importantly, healthy.

Disclaimer: The information contained herein is for educational purposes only and should not be considered medical advice. Please consult your own health care provider for advice on how to treat any medical condition.

Martin North RN, BSN has 15 years clinical experience caring for diabetic patients and is committed to providing quality information to those affected. For information on how to reverse your diabetes visit http://www.reducemybloodsugar.com/

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Symptoms of Diabetes Include Pee, P, and P

The Main 3 Diabetic Symptoms

When learning about diabetes in nursing school, I learned that a simple way to always remember the most common symptoms was the "3 Ps" (polyuria, polydipsia, and polyphagia) in technical terms. In English, this meant one peed a lot, was more than thirsty than normal, and experienced an increased appetite, respectively.

Polyuria

If you were wondering if you may have this symptom of diabetes, an important question to ask is: am I making more trips to the bathroom to urinate than normal? If so, this should raise a red flag. This symptom happens because when blood sugar gets higher than it should, the kidneys, in an effort to maintain even glucose levels, will filter out more sugar out of the blood and expel it via excessive urination. Remember, the body always acts to maintain an even "state" which is called homeostasis.

Polydipsia

Also known as excessive thirst, this is the second red flag symptom of diabetes and is a direct result from the previously mentioned polyuria. With the kidneys pumping more fluid volume out of the body, the thirst receptors (osmoreceptors) are activated in an effort to correct the developing dehydration. So if you think you might have this diabetic symptom, pay close attention if the excessive thirst relates to the more frequent urination.

Polyphagia

If you experience the above 2 symptoms of diabetes, determining if hunger is excessive or a change from previous patterns can complete the red flag triad and be nearly diagnostic for diabetes. Because of the homeostasis mechanism described earlier, since the kidneys are getting rid of excessive sugar, the body is not getting the required glucose it needs to function properly. So, the brain is triggered to increase food intake which results in serum blood sugar levels returning to normal, theoretically, but they don't because of the inherent diabetic pathophysiology.

Additional Symptoms of Diabetes

Since the three above symptoms are so inter-related, it would be a mistake, if you suspected you may have diabetes to base this solely on one of the symptoms just described. The above triad is not totally diagnostic, therefore, testing in the form of a glucose tolerance test as well as fasting blood glucose levels are the gold standard health care providers use to arrive at a confirmatory diagnosis of diabetes

Aside from the "classic three", generalized weakness and fatigue is a common vague symptom that is a frequently overlooked symptom of diabetes. This occurs because of an excess of glucose outside of the cell; it's literally in starvation mode since normally, insulin helps glucose enter the cell. So when they cell can't function like they should, general weakness and fatigue develop.

In addition, another symptom is the development of something called diabetic neuropathy. This may not be noticeable for quite some time as it develops over a period of years, but can be very debilitating when it takes hold. Inflammation and decreased blood supply to the nerves caused by thickened small blood vessels are the primary mechanisms of this process. This results in the common description of pins and needles sensations. Fortunately, when blood sugar is brought down to normal levels, the neuropathy can be well managed and can lead to a reduction in pain and the pins and needles sensations.

Other symptoms of diabetes include blurred vision and even frequent infections or cuts that do not heal easily. Women should pay special attention to more frequent yeast infections as diabetes is considered an immunocompromised state.

Disclaimer: The information contained herein is for educational purposes only and should not be considered medical advice. Please contact your healthcare provider for medical advice and treatment of diabetes or any other medical condition.

MJ North RN,BSN has 15 years clinical experience caring for diabetic patients and is committed to providing helpful information to those affected. For information on how to reverse diabetes visit http://www.reducemybloodsugar.com/

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Managing Diabetes With Humalog

Potent Injectable Insulin

Humalog is an excellent short acting drug ideal for anyone who is suffering from diabetes. It is administered in the form of injections and is similar to other diabetes medications that are fast acting, such as Novolog. A relatively new drug, Humalog was developed by an American firm located in Indianapolis, Indiana and introduced to the marketplace in 2006.

Getting the Right Dosage of Humalog is the Key

With the inclusion of Humalog into a diabetic's daily routine, people are able to eat all the foods that they love. However, it's vital to measure the carb content of the food you are about to eat, since it has to be in perfect proportion with the Humalog that you will inject. The higher the carb count, the more insulin will be needed.

Thus, Humalog offers great flexibility in management of a diabetic's health. Humalog's fast-activity acts like your body's insulin and can make you feel like you don't even have the diabetes at all, as long as you get the right dosage every time. Humalog is consumed rapidly and begins working within minutes to lower your blood sugar right after injection.

Due to Humalog's rapid activity, you must ensure that you are able to sit down and eat immediately after injecting, or it'll shed your blood sugar too drastically and cause a load of undesirable side effects. It's also important to work with your doctor to check your glucose and A1C levels regularly so that they can work out your highs and lows of blood sugar throughout the day. This is the only secure way to get just the right amounts of Humalog into your system.

Side Effects of Humalog

As with any drug, there can be side effects when taking Humalog. These can include symptoms such as headaches, rapid pulse, difficulties in focusing, itching, swelling as well as a thickening or reddening of the skin. More serious side effects can even include seizures. Should you find that you have a serious inclination towards low blood sugar after taking Humalog, you may need to consider taking a bit of non-dietetic hard candy or glucose tablets. If you do experience any of these side effects, you should call your physician immediately. He or she can find a solution to the problem or effectively adjust the dosage for maximum efficacy and eliminate these side effects.

Making life livable is the aim of every diabetic and it is often as simple as learning to handle his or her blood sugar effectively. Often, this may require measuring one's blood sugar as much as 6 times a day.

Martin North RN, BSN has 15 years clinical experience caring for diabetic patients and is committed to providing quality information to those so affected. For more helpful information please visit http://www.reducemybloodsugar.com/

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Checking For Sweetness

Oral Glucose Tolerance Test

Being called "sweet" is usually seen as a good thing, but when it refers to your blood sugar, trouble could be lurking on the horizon. So, if there is concern your "sweetness" is due to the latter, your health care provider will order a test called the glucose tolerance test.

This gold standard assesses how your body responds to sugar. The glucose tolerance test can be easily performed at your doctors office, only takes a few hours to complete, and is nearly painless. It is an ideal initial assessment because it can be diagnostic for active diabetes or a precursory state known as pre-diabetes.

Note: this test is only helpful to diagnose high level of sugar in the blood. The other evil cousin, hypoglycaemia, or low blood sugar cannot be diagnosed using this method.

Glucose Tolerance Test Preparations

In preparation for the test, you can continue to eat normally, including regular intake of carbs such as fruits and vegetables. To prevent inaccurate blood sugar levels, just don't eat at a Vegas buffet or eat three pounds of pasta the evening before the test. Sometimes your doctor may recommend a more personalized plan, especially if you have any known illnesses or are taking certain medications.

At the beginning of the glucose tolerance test, you'll be given a cup of sweet syrupy liquid that must be consumed within 5-minutes, then a blood glucose reading will be taken. After waiting an hour, you will receive another finger-stick blood test. Then a second hour must pass before a third assessment is done. Some physicians do another evaluation and continue for a third hour, but the second one will typically be sufficient. If you had a "sweet tooth" coming into this test, it will definitely be cured after drinking all this sugar!

Interpreting the Results of a Glucose Tolerance Test

A number above 200mg/dl for two consecutive readings is a clear indication of diabetes. Yikes! But a blood glucose between 140 and 200 is an indication of being pre diabetic. If you receive a pre diabetic diagnosis, it's not the end of the world, but it's a wake-up call to begin making lifestyle changes to prevent developing full blown diabetes. Analysing for gestational diabetes is somewhat different as a level of 140mg/dl is confirmatory and if indicated, an evaluation might just take one hour instead of two.

If your blood sugar is mildly high, you will be given ideas for beginning a fitness plan and restricting sugary and processed carbs. But don't worry, as intelligent changes can amount to big differences in blood sugar levels. If the test results indicate you actually have diabetes, your doctor will likely initially prescribe an oral medication such as metformin to immediately bring down your blood sugar. This is a common initial prescriptive first step for the treatment of type 2 diabetes. But, if your blood sugar is significantly elevated, or doesn't respond to oral agents, your doctor may opt for starting you on insulin. If you are prescribed insulin, don't freak out, because diabetes can be well managed or even reversed in certain situations.

Just remember that a one-time elevated finger-stick blood sugar reading is not necessarily diagnostic for diabetes, but must be confirmed or ruled out by 2 glucose tolerance tests. So for best results, take these results very seriously and work closely with your health care provider to maximize chances of a healthy outcome.

Disclaimer: The information contained herein is for educational purposes only and should not be considered medical advice. Please consult your health care provider before starting any treatment regimen.

Martin North RN, BSN has 15 years experience caring for diabetic patients and is committed to providing quality information to those who are affected. For more information on how diabetes can be reversed please visit: http://www.reducemybloodsugar.com/

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The Best Alternative Diabetes Treatment

Patients diagnosed with diabetes should be very cautious of what they eat and the way they lead their life. For starters, they'll need to follow a healthy diet and do regular exercises. While diabetes mellitus may not have any outward symptoms, it is a very serious disease that can give rise to equally serious complications. As for those who were not diagnosed with this disease but are past their 50 years of age, always remember that prevention is better than cure.

Men and women who are in their golden years are the ones that are more prone to diabetes. It is to them that Holisticare is highly recommended. Holisticare is an alternative diabetes treatment that can prevent all the symptoms and complications of this disease.

As a natural diabetes treatment, Holisticare is made only with the most potent herbal medicines that can effectively fight diabetes based on the traditional Chinese methods of healing. It is specially formulated for individuals who are aged 50 years old and above. And more than just treating diabetes, it also helps prevent heart diseases and senility.

Clinical tests back up the effectiveness of Holisticare on a group of elderly patients suffering from Type II diabetes. For two months, 102 patients were given 2 capsules of Holisticare thrice a day. Berberine was also added to their treatment therapy. The other group, which consists of 51 patients, was asked to take the prescription drug Diamicron, on a dosage of 80mg twice a day.

The results were remarkable, for as many as 95 out of the 102 patients were tested to have lower blood sugar levels and cholesterol count. Comparing the results to the group who is taking Diamicron, Holisticare patients report of a very high 93.1% effective rating over the former's score of 72.5%.

This study only goes to show that holistic diabetes treatment prove to have similar, if not slightly better results, to that of commercial medicines. Holisiticare is highly recommended to patients who are looking for a more natural way to combat diabetes, including all the other diseases related to old age. What's more, this treatment therapy is known not to cause any side effects like most prescription medicines do. The common side effects that users of prescription drugs suffer from include hypoglycemia, weakened liver, and severe allergic reactions.

Holisticare, when combined with berberine, does become a very potent herbal diabetes treatment. Every individual past their age of prime should consider taking it regularly. Together, they can effectively fight diabetes and almost all other cardio-cerebro vascular diseases. Furthermore, the combination also has anti-inflammatory and antibacterial properties to help fight intestinal infections.

Take Holisticare as recommended and anyone can live a normal life despite his ripe age or present health condition. Holisticare comes in capsule form, thus making its administration very simple. Through it, diabetes can be easily managed, without any worries about complications or side effects.

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America Is Sickeningly Sweet With Prediabetes

A Growing Public Health Threat

Formerly called borderline diabetes until 1979, prediabetes refers to serum blood sugar levels that are higher than normal, but not high enough to indicate true diabetes. Specifically, a fasting reading of 100-125 mg/dl qualifies for a diagnosis of prediabetes.

In the US alone, this alteration in metabolism has truly reached epidemic proportions affecting an estimated 79 million Americans which works out to one in four. More worry some is that this number continues to climb. This is a major public health threat because prediabetes is a direct precursor to diabetes which raises risk factors for developing heart disease, stroke, blindness and other life altering conditions by a factor of 2-4 times.

Risk Factors For Acquiring Prediabetes

Why this borderline disease occurs isn't entirely understood by researchers, although there are particular risk factors, which are contributory.

Most risk factors arise from a patient's lifestyle and include sleeping less than six hours daily, age, eating excessive amounts of sugary foods, an acidic diet, obesity, as well as lack of exercise. Specific races are most at risk, including Asian Americans, Hispanics/Latinos and non-Hispanic Blacks. Other risk factors include high triglycerides and low HDL rates as well as being diagnosed with polycystic ovarian syndrome or cardiovascular disease. Patients with psychiatric illnesses such as schizophrenia who are on multiple psychotropic drugs, additionally have a high prevalence of prediabetes.

How Can You Diagnose Prediabetes?

The diagnosis of prediabetes can be made using several methods: a fasting blood glucose test, an oral glucose tolerance test and a random test. The first method requires fasting for a 24-hour interval after which a blood glucose reading is subsequently taken. Any reading between 100 to 125 mg/dL is considered positive. The second method requires drinking a glucose solution that is standardized. In this case, a reading between 140 to 200 mg/dL would indicate prediabetes. The third method involves a random fingerstick sample, which if over 140mg/dl, indicates the presence of the disease.

Prediabetes is frequently asymptomatic and the can only be properly diagnosed by checking blood sugar levels. Some people however develop symptoms of true diabetes including increased thirst and urination, unexplained weight reduction or gain, slow healing from small wounds like cuts and bruises as well as a general sense of malaise.

Several recent studies have assessed the function of drugs and lifestyle changes for the treatment of this borderline disease. This includes regular physical activity at least 5 times per week, reducing dietary fat and caloric intake and even weight loss pills to avoid the progression of the disease into full-blown diabetes. Reducing one's weight can certainly have a major impact on one's blood glucose levels.

Compared to other disease processes, prediabetes is unique in that there is a "window" which allows for lifestyle changes which can ward off progression to true diabetes in 80% of cases. It's the body's way of saying, "hey, wake up, you need to make some major changes if you don't want to develop full blown diabetes."

Disclaimer: The information contained herein is for educational purposes only and should not be considered medical advice. Please consult your health care provider for recommendations on how best to manage any medical condition.

Martin North RN, BSN has 15 years clinical experience caring for diabetic patients and is committed to providing helpful information to those affected. For information on how to reverse diabetes visit http://www.reducemybloodsugar.com/

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Managing Sweetness With Hemoglobin A1c

What is HbA1c?

The HbA1c test is also called the glycosylated hemoglobin test and is typically expressed as a percentage. If you are currently suffering from Type 2 diabetes, assessing your HbA1c can tell you how effective your treatment is and how well your diabetes is under control. High levels indicate a problem with current treatment and a physician may recommend appropriate changes to the doses or frequencies of medicines which are prescribed.

The key to keeping your HbA1c low is to regularly check your blood glucose levels using a quality glucometer, which is a significant component of any diabetes treatment regimen. A blood glucose test will give you a precise amount of the blood glucose levels found in your body at any specific point in time. The HbA1c evaluation will tell you how well your blood glucose has been maintained over the past 3 months on average. The HbA1c can quickly point out if you've been having too many bad days in regards to your blood glucose levels, which is a good indication that a change of treatment is in order.

How the HbA1c Test Works

Glycosylation occurs when hemoglobin attaches to red blood cells. The HbA1c blood test essentially quantifies the quantity of glucose that's attached to each red blood cell. A blood test is drawn and sent to the laboratory after which results arrive in a day or two. The perfect level is around 6.5%, but since this isn't always attainable, a level under 7% is usually desired. In fact, the real goal is the number agreed upon with your physician. It's vital that you keep that goal, while undergoing your particular diabetic treatment for optimal health and reducing potential dangerous, even lethal consequences of diabetes.

Anyone with diabetes should receive the HbA1c test every three to six months. Those who have higher amounts of blood sugar should get examined more frequently to ensure that their levels of blood sugars are reducing to the optimal amounts.

Assessing your HbA1c results with a physician at least once every 6 months will provide you with an excellent indicator on how well you are controlling your diabetes. While getting the test isn't as convenient as checking your glucose levels at home, knowledge of the results can help you and your physician take more decisive action on finding an ideal treatment regimen for you.

Sometimes, aside from a treatment change, an entire lifestyle change may be in order. Your physician will let you know what you have to do. The most important thing is to regularly check your blood glucose levels at home, so that you take action faster if your treatment requires modifications. Also, since the HbA1c level is a running average, this can lead to an increased level of compliance because it's much more difficult to "fudge" blood sugar numbers if someone at risk for not sticking to a treatment plan. Therefore, it can be of great benefit to the healthcare provider to devise alternative treatment plans if they are dealing with noncompliant patients.

Disclaimer: The information contained herein is for educational purposes only and should not be considered medical advice. Please check with your health care professional before implementing any treatment for diabetes.

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