Type 2 Diabetes - What Happens When Diabetics Don't Change Their Lifestyle?

If you have been diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes, you know all too well how important it is to maintain a healthy lifestyle. Not only does your lifestyle directly affect your diabetes, but ignoring such advice directly impacts so many other diseases and complications that are a result of diabetes running amok. Yet, there are still those who have Type 2 diabetes and make the decision not to make these changes. What happens to them?

The individuals who make the conscious decision to remain in the lifestyle that helped to bring about Type 2 diabetes do so because they choose to. But if they were fully aware of the consequences of this decision, perhaps more of them would change their mind and adapt a better way of life. It might be tempting to imagine that simply popping a few pills or taking insulin injections will take care of your problem. But Type 2 diabetes is a disease for which medication alone is not enough.

The management of your diabetes needs to be supported by:

a good diet,enough exercise, andproper medications.

When a Type 2 diabetic ignores a healthier lifestyle, they risk a multitude of complications. To begin with, they can experience episodes of low blood sugar: although this is rare for people with Type 2 diabetes who are not taking hypoglycemic drugs or insulin. High blood sugar is the greatest single danger for people with Type 2 diabetes.

When blood sugars are not stable, the organs of the body most likely to be damaged by diabetes are those that do not require the presence of insulin to metabolize blood sugar.

Organs that can be damaged:

eyeskidneysnervesblood vessels

Organs generally not damaged:

Several eye disorders are possible. Glaucoma, cataracts and retinopathy are common conditions that come from diabetes raging out of control. Left untreated, some of these can inflict permanent harm to your vision and even produce total blindness.

Large blood vessel complications can affect the brain, heart, legs, and feet in people with diabetes. Small blood vessel disease can lead to problems with the eyes, skin, kidneys, and nerves, and can slow-down healing.

Vascular problems are usually related to atherosclerosis, a hardening of the arteries resulting from a buildup of deposits along blood vessel walls. This also impedes blood flow. While this can destroy tissue, it also limits oxygen flow. One of the areas receiving less oxygen is an area that you always want to be well-oxygenated: the brain. Without proper oxygen, the brain experiences dizziness, lethargy, and an inability to reason and think clearly. Memory is also dramatically affected.

Restricted blood flow puts additional work on the heart, too. Now, it has to compensate for partially blocked vessels by pumping harder. This means an unnecessary strain being placed on it. This situation can cause a heart attack.

Let's not forget the kidneys. The body's filtering system has to overcome all of the extra glucose passing through it. Instead of releasing the normal amount in the urine, now it doesn't have the ability to keep up with the excess volume of sugar. The kidneys become damaged because of it and the individual has to be placed on dialysis permanently until a transplant can be arranged.

Another area where the extra sugar will attack is the nerves. All over the body, the sugar that is supposed to be burned for fuel is overwhelming the body. There is too much of it and it has to go somewhere. So it ends up in the bloodstream, coursing its way through the body and attacking nerves everywhere. These nerves will eventually fold under the constant barrage and become permanently damaged. This results in numbness, tingling and pain.

But the damage is not over yet. Even your hearing isn't spared damage. Tiny hairs in the inner ear are not able to process the sugar and you start to develop hearing loss. Your hair also begins to fall out. Your skin on your arms and legs thickens and glazes over. Your nails become brittle and sometimes yellowish. You develop bad breath and you experience severe gum disease and periodontal disease.

Not enough? Men suffer impotence, women develop yeast infections and urinary tract infections, while both increase their risk of heart disease, stroke and some cancers.

If that isn't enough reasons to keep your Type 2 diabetes under control, nothing will convince you.

To discover answers to questions you may be asking yourself about Type 2 Diabetes, click on this link... Natural Diabetes Treatments

Type 2 Diabetes - Easy Ways For Diabetics To Keep Their Body At A Healthy Weight!

Whether you are pre-diabetic or have been diagnosed with full-blown Type 2 diabetes, returning your body to a healthy weight and keeping it there, is crucial to help you live a long, healthy, happy life. No one wants to go through life feeling cruddy and not fitting into their clothes. Thankfully, there's a lot you can do each and every day to keep yourself living in a healthy body.

Here are some tips to get you started:

set goals that are realistic. You don't want to set such unobtainable goals you become frustrated. That just sets you up for failure.keep a record of everything you eat and drink. This will allow you to see patterns and know what you are doing wrong.cut out sugary drinks. You will be surprised at how much weight you can lose just by getting rid of sugary soft drinks, sweetened juices and sweet tea. These are just empty calories that you don't need.use smaller plates. When you eat off a smaller plate, you can fill it up and feel like you are going to eat a lot more food than you would be eating from a larger plate.dip your fork. Instead of putting dressing all over your salad, put it on the side and dip your fork in it before each bite. You will still get the taste, but with a lot fewer calories or kilojoules.slow down when you are eating. Savor the taste of your food. Don't watch TV or do anything else that will distract from enjoying each bite of your meal.never shop for groceries when you are hungry or tired.start each meal with a salad... how about a green salad with kidney beans and raw vegetables. You will feel full faster, but get more nutrients and fewer calories.don't eat in your car.choose lean proteins such as skinless chicken breast, and beans.eat vegetables at every meal.put your fork down between each bite of food. This will slow down your eating and allow you to really taste what you are eating. It also takes at least 20 minutes for your brain to get the message your stomach is comfortable and that you can stop eating.don't eat standing up, your brain and stomach are much more likely to register you are eating if you are relaxed and enjoying your meal.snack on raw fruits and veggies.use fruit for dessert... with a few chops of a knife, you can turn a few pieces of fruit into a beautiful fruit salad. Drizzle a little lemon or orange juice over the top to cover the fruit with it.drink at least 8 to 10 glass of water each day. Why not drink a glass of water before eating each meal.

Just following these simple rules will help you to lose weight and keep it off. Remember, it is a lifestyle change and not a diet. You should strive to live this way for life. Keeping a healthy body is critical to making sure that you live a longer life.

The only way to lose weight without medication or surgery is to take-in less energy (calories or kilojoules) than your body needs. There are no magic ingredients or food combinations to change this basic metabolic fact.

To discover answers to questions you may be asking yourself about Type 2 Diabetes, click on this link... Natural Diabetes Treatments

Diabetes diagnosed - a young teenager shares their story

AppId is over the quota
AppId is over the quota

In this story Umm Alkhayr describes being diagnosed with diabetes type 1...

Hey Readers

well I only had diabetes for 5 days .. but here's my story. I'm telling it so every teen who finds out they have diabetes knows that they're not alone and they're not the only people with diabetes.

My name is Umm Alkhayr. I come from a Somali background. No-one in my family has diabetes, well maybe my mother's side but she really wouldn't know because before she came to Canada she was born in a 3rd world country and if people were sick they didn't really know why they were sick. They probably say "it's just a cold" and get on with their daily lives. For example my uncle, my mom's brother, had diabetes for the longest time but he didn't know. He just found out when he went to the United Emirates.

Well anyhow - about a month or 2 months ago I been starting to get really sick. It didn't really bother me so I just avoided it as much as possible. I started to lose weight and get really thirsty; drinking water. My family nor me didn't really know what the symptoms of diabetes were.

As I just went on with my daily life things became more and more harder for me like staying in class without asking for the bathroom every 20 mins and even paying attention. I just began not going to school for about 2 weeks, not caring about my marks. My mom and family members ask me constantly "are you okay?"

I would hide my sickness however and whenever or wherever I would be till my family saw how I would always be tired because I would sleep half the time I was home. I dropped playing sports because it took up too much energy. I would come back from school around 4 and sleep till 8 without eating.

During school days I would never take lunch or even eat in the morning. I would probably only drink 4000 ml of juice and 4 L of water a day. In my mind I was losing weight and loving at that time I was about 120 pounds. All this time my skin was looking really nasty; always dry even if I put cream on.

Then one day came I ate so much junk, I ate even tho I wasn't hungry. Then I started vomiting, then I went to bed, got up 9times to drink orange juice till I finished the whole 2 L's.

The next morning my mother forced me to go to the doctors so we went together and they totally didn't even know what they were saying (like, come on - I had all they symptoms of diabetes) she said you're problem is facing a serious cold, but still we will have a blood test taken. And this was on Tuesday so she said come back Wednesday. We came back and did the blood test and we called for the test results the next morning. They said wait 7days.

So I just went to school with 3 bottles of juices in my lunchbox and 3 slices of pizza and chicken wings. After I ate all that at lunch I felt kinda high, but I still felt good in my head. I was still trying to hide it.

I was really sick so I asked my religion teacher if I could sleep during his class he said "yes" then right after I asked my gym teacher the same thing she said "yes". Then after few of my teachers spoke to me asking me if I was feeling alright because I didn't look too good I said "oh pssh nothing, I never felt better!" when really I felt so-o bad.

So she told me that I was really behind in her classes and I need to get up a lot from a 40 to at least a 60 because I been sleeping in her classes the past month. So I decided to go to library after school to do some assignments.

So me and my twin sister went to my mother's store to go get some money to eat before we go the library. She gave us money but begged me to go to the hospital before I go to the library. I said "no I'm not going" so she let me go and me and my sister went to get some food. Of course being 14 years old we spent all the money on junk food.

I drank about 2 cans of red bull and 1 chocolate bar thinking it would give me energy to do my work because lately I never had energy to stay up and do my work. So I started my assignment on the computer, printed it out and told my sister "o god, I'm so tired I'm going downstairs to sleep till mom comes pick us up." She said "okay" then, behind my back, she went to go call my mom saying that I went to sleep and I look really sick.

So my mom came 20 mins later and they both forced me in the car to go to the hospital which the whole time I'm like "I don't need to be here." So 2 hours in the emerg I asked my mom for money for food. She gave me 20 $. I used it on energy drinks, vitman water and pizza chips; junk like that.

An hour later I was going on and off to the bathroom then finally the nurse called my name and ask for a pee sample. So I gave it and she found sugar in it. Then she tested my sugar level. It was at 34 and she said I couldn't eat and my sugar was really high. Then she asked for a blood sample, so I gave it.

Then she told me that I have type 1 diabetes and I probably had it for 6 months and I didn't know. And she put me on machines, you know how it goes. The whole time it wasn't a big thing to me because at least it's not cancer.

I thank god for diabetes and not cancer. It's one of the fastest growing diseases in the world but I believe soon there will be a cure.

I haven't had diabetes for a long time to tell you there's ups and downs. I have no problems, then again I only had it for 5 days its REALLY NOT THAT BAD..

Thank you for sharing Umm - I'm sure many young teens will appreciate your story and maybe realise they need help if they are displaying any of the symptoms you describe.

If you have a diabetic teenager in your family check this free publication offering tips for teens on how to cope with diabetes; diabetes teens

Also get them to read this story from Donna Dexford: Teenage Diabetics at Risk

Other free publications offering advice can be found at Free Publications

kind regards,

Carol Ann

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