Unfortunately, poor sleep affects and exacerbates symptoms of diabetes, leading to high blood sugar, insulin resistance, and even weight gain. As such, getting a good night’s sleep is essential for an effective diabetes management plan.
If you’re wondering what the best sleeping position for diabetics is, the answer is that it depends. That’s because diabetics that have co-occurring health disorders may benefit from specific sleeping positions.
We’ll discuss these considerations in more detail in this article. We’ll also go over additional information that is useful for improving your sleep.
Let’s dive in.
How Does Diabetes Affect Sleep?
One of the reasons why diabetes affects sleep is that symptoms of hypoglycemia and hyperglycemia can make it hard to fall asleep and lead to waking up at night.
When blood sugar is high, the kidneys excrete more urine in order to overcompensate. As a result, sleeping with high blood sugar levels can cause disturbed sleep because of frequent nighttime urination. Symptoms such as dry mouth, nausea, and headaches can wake you up at night or prevent you from falling asleep.
Low blood sugar can also lead to a condition called nocturnal hypoglycemia. This can affect sleep due to issues such as shaking, restlessness, abnormal breathing, and racing heartbeats.
The emotional toll of living with diabetes can also affect sleep because mental health problems such as depression and anxiety often lead to insomnia.
Diabetes and Co-occurring Health Disorders
People with diabetes often experience health problems such as Sleep Apnea, Restless Leg Syndrome, and Diabetic Neuropathy, which can significantly affect sleep.
It’s crucial to understand these conditions in order to assess whether there’s a possibility you may have them and to adjust your sleeping habits in a way that prevents their specific symptoms.
Sleep Apnea
Sleep apnea is a condition mainly characterized by a lack of proper breathing during sleep. This disrupts the body’s oxygen supply and can lead to a variety of unpleasant symptoms.
According to a study, 48% of people that had type 2 diabetes were also diagnosed with Sleep Apnea. Research also suggests that individuals with type 1 diabetes may be more likely to have sleep apnea.
There are three kinds of sleep apnea.
Obstructive sleep apnea is the most common type, and it is characterized by a relaxation in the muscles in the back of the throat. This over-relaxation leads to airways narrowing or closing, consequently causing a cut-off in breathing.
Central sleep apnea occurs when the brain is unable to send proper signals to the muscles that control breathing, resulting in periods of no breathing.
Complex sleep apnea syndrome occurs when obstructive sleep apnea and central sleep apnea occur together.
Central and obstructive sleep apnea tend to have the following symptoms:
Snoring
Episodes in which breathing stops
Gasping for air while sleeping
Insomnia
Morning headaches
Daytime sleepiness
Irritability
Restless Legs Syndrome (RLS)
Another sleep disorder often experienced by patients with Type 2 Diabetes is Restless Legs Syndrome.
This disorder is characterized by an uncontrollable urge to move the legs due to uncomfortable sensations such as throbbing and aching.
Accompanying symptoms include:
Sensations that start during rest, such as when laying down or sitting for long periods of time
Worsening of the symptoms at night
Leg twitching and kicking at night
Diabetic Neuropathy
Diabetic Neuropathy is a condition in which nerve damage causes symptoms such as sharp pains.
The most common kind of Diabetic Neuropathy is Peripheral Neuropathy, and it is estimated to affect between 6% and 51% of patients with diabetes.
Symptoms include:
Numbness to pain and temperature changes
Tingling and burning sensations
Sharp pains
Weak muscles
Extreme sensitivity to touch that leads to pain
Best Sleeping Position for Diabetics
The best sleeping position for diabetics highly depends on whether there’s a co-occurring disorder that affects sleep.
Therefore, it’s advisable to consult a doctor in order to diagnose or rule out these disorders in case you have associated symptoms. In turn, you can adjust your sleeping habits according to the following recommendations:
Best Sleeping Position for Sleep Apnea
If you have sleep apnea, the best sleeping positions are on your side or on your belly. That’s because these positions help the airways stay open, which in turn reduces symptoms of sleep apnea.
If you choose to sleep on your stomach, make sure to choose a thin pillow to avoid a stiff neck when waking up.
Sleeping on your back is not advisable because gravity can make the tongue relax, obstructing the airways.
To prevent sleep disturbance from Sleep Apnea, it’s also advisable to seek out treatments such as Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP).
Best Sleeping Position for Restless Legs Syndrome
If you have RLS, the best sleeping positions are on the side with a pillow in between your legs or on your back with a pillow under your legs because they promote blood flow.
Another tip is to use a Sequential Compression Device (SCD). This device fits in the legs and massages them by inflating and deflating. According to a study, using an SCD for an hour before bedtime for three months reduced symptoms of RLS and improved social function, daily task function, sleep quality, and emotional well-being.
Best Sleeping Position for Diabetic Neuropathy
According to a study, the best sleeping positions for patients with Diabetic Neuropathy are on the back with a pillow under the legs, on the side with a pillow in between the legs, and on a recliner. This is because these positions extend the spine, in turn decompressing the nerves that control the feet.
Best Sleeping Position for Diabetics
If you don’t have one of these health problems, you can sleep either on your back or on your side. Both these positions promote spinal support and alignment, which relieves pressure on the spinal tissues and allows muscles to relax.
Tips for Improving Your Sleep
There are a variety of ways to improve your sleep quality, and this article wouldn’t be complete without discussing them.
Let’s go over some tips diabetics can use to achieve a good night’s rest.
Maintain a Healthy Diet
A healthy diet, particularly one that controls blood glucose levels, not only helps you lose weight but is also essential for a good night’s sleep. That’s because blood sugar fluctuations are one of the most common causes of inadequate sleep for diabetics. They can cause both difficulties falling asleep and sleep disruption by making you wake up at night.
In order to ensure blood sugar control, it’s advisable to have a nighttime snack that has a low glycemic index and includes healthy proteins and fats. These foods can effectively satisfy hunger while preventing blood sugar spikes at night.
Engage in Regular Exercise
Regular exercise has been proven to promote quality sleep. Moreover, physical activity comes with an additional benefit: weight loss. A healthy weight helps reduce symptoms of diabetes, which in turn promotes better sleep.
Physical activity also offers a wide range of mental health benefits. This can be helpful for diabetics to cope with the emotional toll of their disease, and improved mental health can have positive effects on sleep quality.
Focus On Sleep Hygiene
Good sleep habits, also referred to as “sleep hygiene”, can help you get a more restful sleep.
Here are some tips:
Aim for consistency by sleeping and waking up at the same time each day of the week
Avoid electronic devices before bed
Keep your bedroom dark and quiet
Avoid caffeine and alcohol at nighttime
Take a warm bath at night
Get Enough Sleep
The National Sleep Foundation advises at least 7 hours of sleep per night. Sleeping less than six hours can be considered sleep deprivation and lead to consequences such as daytime sleepiness and lack of concentration. Moreover, sleep deprivation raises levels of cortisol, which can lead to weight gain and is associated with an increased risk of having a heart attack.
The best way to prevent the consequences of too little sleep is by maintaining a regular sleep schedule. In this way, you’ll know exactly how much you’re sleeping every night.
That being said, it’s also important not to get too much sleep. Sleeping too much can lead to back pain and headaches, as well as an increased risk of heart disease and obesity.
Reduce Stress
Stress and anxiety can lead to inadequate sleep and insomnia. As such, managing these emotions is essential for a better night’s sleep.
One quick, effective way to reduce stress is to practice deep breathing. This technique can be performed with the following steps:
Place your left hand on your chest and your right hand on your belly
Breathe in slowly through the nose, allowing your belly to rise and expand fully
Breathe out slowly through the mouth
Conclusion
Sleep problems can affect your life quality significantly. Fortunately, it’s possible to improve sleep by applying the tips we discussed in this article.
If you need help in managing your diabetes, make sure to check out the Klinio App. It allows you to manage various aspects associated with better sleep, including your nutrition and exercise levels.
Whilst some people like to focus on healthy eating and healthy meals simply as a lifestyle choice to help them maintain a good weight and a good figure, people with diabetes, have no choice but to be very strict with themselves and what foods they eat to prevent things like dreaded blood sugar spikes.
It is so important to maintain good blood sugar.
Keeping your blood sugar balanced is the most essential part of a healthy diabetes meal plan, but you would be surprised by just how easy it can be to make all of the wrong decisions for your diet and health goals when you don’t have any kind of clear structure or regime in your meals or day to day food choices.
To help with keeping on top of your diabetes management and therefore keeping on top of your blood sugar and overall healthy nutrition, one of the best things you can do is to meal prep (i.e., the process of meal preparation ahead of time).
What Is Meal Prepping?
Meal prepping is the term used for when a person plans their meals ahead of time, generally planning ahead for a week.
There are plenty of people who choose to meal prep who don’t have diabetes but rather who just want to make sure that the meals they are eating for lunch or every night after a hard day at work are healthy meals filled with great ingredients like brown rice, starchy vegetables or non-starchy vegetables, greek yogurt, chicken, lean proteins, whole grains and more.
Meal prepping is ideal for diabetes sufferers.
The key is to achieve a diet of well-balanced meals for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, as well as snacks that are filled with healthy fats and are preferably low carb and low calorie to stick to the eating healthy ethos.
Meal planning is the perfect food tool to both help manage your diabetes and encourage you to eat more healthy fats and maybe even lose weight if you are in the overweight or obese categories (which you typically will be if you have type 2 diabetes).
What Are The Benefits Of Meal Prep For People With Diabetes?
So, now that you know what meal prep is, let’s take a closer look at why meal prepping has been identified as a great tool for a diabetes meal plan. Some of the biggest benefits of meal planning for people with diabetes include:
Better Portion Control
According to the American Diabetes Association, one of the main factors that can lead to the developing and/or worsening of diabetes is portion size.
Portion sizes might not be something you have ever paid much attention to before, but when planning a week ahead and separating all of your food into individual Tupperware boxes, you have no choice but to be precise.
On average, people eat 45 percent more food than they should per meal.
Eating smaller and better serving sizes will help with your blood glucose/blood sugars, but it can also positively impact healthy weight loss.
When people lose weight, they reduce some of the most severe risks of diabetes, so it makes sense that mastering this side of your diet can be a very diabetes-friendly thing to do.
If you are unsure about portion sizes, look up images of a healthy plate. This will give a great picture of what a well-balanced meal of proper portion size should look like. It will help with decisions like how much chicken and vegetables to include in your meal.
If you like to follow recipes, always look at how many the recipe serves and either adjust according to how many people you feed or freeze the excess.
It Helps To Save Time
Some people seriously underestimate just how long it can take to put together a healthy main meal after a hard day at work, and if you are tired when you get home, you are much more likely to make bad decisions with different foods that aren’t very good for you.
If you sacrifice some time on your Sunday to meal plan and meal prep for an hour or two, you will save much more time over the week ahead.
Modern workers don’t always have time at the end of the day.
Coming home and putting something in the oven or microwave that you know has enough calories, enough vegetables, carbohydrates, etc., can make a difference in healthy eating.
Instead of being lazy and choosing to order takeout, you will have a week’s worth of meals and recipes that you can enjoy without worrying about poor nutrition. It makes life easier.
You Can Control Your Nutrition
Thanks to meal plans, you can make sure you know absolutely everything about your lunch and dinner daily.
When you pick something up from a takeaway or go out to eat at a restaurant, you can’t be 100 percent on top of things like carb counting, and carbohydrate intake is something that you need to be very aware of as a person with diabetes.
The power of putting together a healthy grocery list and making a week’s worth of meals from recipes that you know are low-carb meals and meals full of healthy fats from good food is something that will make your blood glucose a world of good.
Good nutrition is the key to good diabetes management.
By making meal plans, you can prepare breakfast, lunch, dinner, and even other recipes such as snacks for the entire week all in one go.
And the best part of doing it all for yourself is that you have the ultimate knowledge of the recipes you are making and the meals you are eating from your meal plan, which are all diabetes-friendly and might even aid in weight loss.
You Learn a Valuable Life Skill for Living With Diabetes
Part of living with diabetes is knowing what is best for you at all times, particularly your diet. This includes learning to cook a meal with foods that are not too heavy on carbohydrates and packed with healthy ingredients like vegetables, lean proteins like chicken and turkey, and making clever switches from butter to something like olive oil.
Olive oil spreads are also a great substitute that can be incorporated into many different carb-counting meal plan meals.
Nutrition experts recommend learning how to cook at home.
A registered dietitian or professional diabetes educator will tell you that one of the most important things in managing your diabetes is being able to prepare recipes for breakfast, lunch, and dinner that are as diabetes-friendly as possible.
Carb counting is a big part of the process, but having a good meal plan is more than just packing the most vegetables you can into meals.
It is important to understand how to cook food that will be kind to your body. Knowing how many carbs are in a low-carb lunch or dinner is a good start, but diabetes is much more than just paying attention to carbohydrates.
Take healthy cooking as a weekly prep challenge to master.
The healthier you can be in your food choices and recipes, the more in control of your diabetes you will be.
If you can learn to meal plan with a healthy grocery list and prepare amazing meals that focus on classic ingredients like vegetables, chicken, and other diabetes-recommended foods, then you will be living a much better life week to week.
It Can Lead to Bonus Weight Loss
It makes sense that if you are following a low carb, low sugar, low-fat diet recommended by the American Diabetes Association, you will end up losing some extra pounds that could be contributing to your diabetes symptoms.
Peer-reviewed for success.
Numerous peer-reviewed studies have established the connection between obesity and diabetes; therefore, if you can alter your eating habits to prepare lunch and dinner recipes that are good for your overall health, you will be putting your body in a better position to handle the challenges that diabetes presents week after week after week.
How to Make Meal Prep Easier
Have the Right Equipment
You don’t need to buy anything special to meal prep. Any average kitchen should typically contain everything you need. This includes a selection of knives, pots, pans, and storage containers.
Storage containers are essential. Not only are they needed to hold the meals and recipes you produce in advance, but they can also be used in the freezer. They are also the most convenient way to take your lunch to work. On the same subject, storage of your well-prepped food is important. For example, if you are making a chicken recipe for lunch, it is best to have ice packs on hand to help keep the container cool and the food fresh. Equally, if you want to make a hot recipe for lunch, there are thermos containers you can buy.
Follow Recipes
Recipes can be an essential part of your diet because whether you are diabetic or not, a boring diet can lead to poor choices when you feel like you are always eating the same thing.
Experiment with recipes using ingredients that you like and know are good for you. You don’t always have to eat chicken!
Look for recipes that are headed up as diabetes-friendly – you’ll find plenty online, or you can invest in a diabetic cookbook (or two). If you choose regular recipes, select those that give the nutritional breakdown, so you know exactly what you are eating.
Do Batch Cooking
Some would say that batch cooking is the preparation of all or most of your meals and snacks for the entire week on just one day of the week.
That’s just another definition of meal prep. For most, it has become either or both:
cooking larger portions of food so you can store some for later, or
making one base recipe that can be adapted into different dishes
Adding these principles to your meal prep will only enhance the abovementioned benefits.
Use a Handy App To Help You Plan Your Meals
If you think you might require assistance keeping on track with your meals and meal prep activity, then the Klinio app is perfect for you.
What Is the Klinio App?
Klinio is an ‘all-in-one’ diabetes management app that can be personalized to cover everything you need to keep track of in your everyday life.
The app offers a personalized meal plan for meals that can cover your calorie intake, sugar and cholesterol requirements, macronutrient quotas, and carbohydrates.
How Does the App Work?
Once you have added all your details and preferences, the app will start with meals that slowly reduce your carb intake, eventually getting you to a place where you have a customized and specialized meal plan that adapts with time.
It is a system that any registered dietitian would be proud of!
Moreover, medical literature tells us that there’s a relationship between stress and immune function (whereby stress triggers chemical reactions that negatively affect the body). Laughter can serve the opposite purpose by releasing neuropeptides that prevent stress, in turn improving the immune system.
In this article, we’ve gathered funny diabetes quotes from the Internet to encourage a positive approach to diabetes management. You’re bound to have the dia-best time!
Punchy Diabetes Quotes
For when you need that extra self-esteem boost.
-“I’m not ill, my pancreas is just lazy”
-“I’ve got a needle and I’m not scared of using it!”
-“Yeah, but can you chug a juice box in your sleep?”
-“I’m as healthy as a horse (if that horse has diabetes)”
-“Don’t mess with me, I attacked my own pancreas!”
Relatable Diabetes Quotes
Here’s the best collection of quotes you and your pancreas can probably relate to:
-Please don’t sugarcoat it, I’m diabetic
-“If you can’t handle me at my 387, you don’t deserve me at my 102
-Sugar? Nah, I’m sweet enough
-My doc said I shouldn’t be making puns on diabetes it’s a serious disease.
I said I can’t help it doc, it’s a pun-creatic disease.
-My body produces insulin like a cow produces rainbows: It just doesn’t happen
-“I ain’t doin it” – my pancreas
-Math problem: I had 10 chocolate bars and I ate 9. How many do I have now?
Me: Hyperglycemia”
-My doctor’s concerned about my high blood pressure. I told him next time don’t leave me sitting in the waiting room for two hours
-I got 99 problems and they all involve carbs
-My doctor told me to lose weight, but I don’t like losing
-Walk for the cure? Wouldn’t it be better if we ran?
-Healthy diet day 1: I have removed all the bad food from the house. It was delicious.
-Diabetics: the only people who take drugs to avoid getting high.
-“Life is like a box of chocolates…It sucks for people with diabetes.”
-When life gives you lemons, make Lemonade. With Splenda.
-Do you know the worst thing about being an alcoholic with diabetes is? All the shots.
-Diabetes is very serious. If it wasn’t they’d call it Livabetes.
Pick Up Lines
For when you meet someone super fine like your insulin syringes.
“I can’t stay near you much. You seem too sweet and I’m diabetic.”
“Enough carb counting. The only thing I want to count are the minutes until I see you again.”
“With you around Sweetie, who needs glucose tabs?”
“Baby, I just followed my CGM arrows and they pointed me straight to you.”
“Is your blood sugar low? “No, why?” “Cause you’ve been running through my mind all night.”
“I don’t need to check your blood sugar to know you’re a 10.”
“You’re like my insulin, I can’t live without you.”
“What type are you?
Me: Type-One-Derful”
Funny Diabetic Moments
To close it off, here are some of the funniest real-life diabetes moments:
“I was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes when newly divorced with two kids ages 8 & 11. Whenever we’d go out to eat, I’d order my food & then go to the restroom to inject insulin (because I wasn’t comfortable doing that at the table using a syringe & vial). The first time I did that when my kids were with me the waitress came back to our table after I left & she asked where I was. They told her I went to the bathroom to shoot myself. Needless to say, the waitress almost fainted.” – Barb Timmons Claus
“Had a low BG in high school to the point where I couldn’t walk. I sat down on the ground and I gave a dollar to my friend to get me a pop from the vending machine. He came back with a pop but knowing I was a diabetic brought me a diet lol… Laugh about it till this day.” – Eric Farias
“This happens often but while wearing a dress with my insulin pump, the pump slips from my bra and hangs between my legs!! Mind you I am a Kindergarten teacher so all the students laugh and say, “Look at your medicine!” – Cathy Stanley Stewart
“There were no pumps or testing sugar with a blood glucose meter. You peed on tape and compared the color it turned to on a chart. Anyway, my mother was always smelling my breath to make sure it didn’t smell “fruity” indicating my sugar was too high. People would be horrified when they heard her say “are you high? Let me smell your breath!” I didn’t get why people would stop and stare.” – Jill Bryant Weaver
Closing Off
Now that we’ve given your immune system a boost, how about improving your health further with the Klinio app?
Our personalized, science-backed solutions allow you to manage your diet, exercise levels, and blood sugar in a convenient way.
In patients suffering from gastroparesis, the stomach contraction is diminished, elongating the time food spends in the stomach before being expelled into the intestine. Diabetes happens to be one of the causes of gastroparesis in humans.
This article discusses the topic: diabetic gastroparesis, its causes, symptoms, diagnosis, and other vital aspects of the condition.
What is Diabetic Gastroparesis?
Besides diabetes, there are other causes of gastroparesis. However, diabetic gastroparesis simply refers to when the condition is caused by diabetes. According to a report, diabetic gastroparesis is a severe complication of diabetes associated with obstructions of the digestive tract, observed as delayed gastric emptying.
Gastroparesis is not limited to either type of diabetes, as type 1 and type 2 diabetes can be responsible for this disorder. Poor management of diabetes may lead to damaging the vagus nerve.
The vagus nerve controls the peristaltic movement of food in the stomach. When diabetes starts to hamper this nerve, the muscles responsible for the contraction of food in the stomach and other parts of the alimentary canal begin to lose their functions, resulting in this condition.
Why is Gastroparesis Called Delayed Gastric Emptying?
Gastroparesis is referred to as delayed gastric emptying because that’s exactly what happens in the condition. The condition prevents the contraction of muscles of the digestive tract, resulting in delayed stomach emptying of food into the small intestine.
Signs and Symptoms: What is the Effect of Gastroparesis on Digestive Tract and Stomach Muscles?
Most of the signs and symptoms of gastroparesis are related to the digestive system. However, just like any health condition, the signs and symptoms of gastroparesis may vary among different individuals.
Below are a series of symptoms associated with the metabolic condition.
Nausea
Heartburns
Abdominal pain
Vomiting of undigested food
Early satiety- feeling full after smaller meals
Abdominal bloating
Weight loss
Acid reflux
Irregularities with blood glucose levels
Loss of appetite
Stomach spasms, etc.
The severity of the damage to the vagus nerve is responsible for the seriousness of these conditions. Also, symptoms are more likely to occur after taking a diet high in fibers or fats, as these foods typically take longer to digest.
The common complications of diabetes often talked about include vision problems, slowed healing, and kidney and heart-related disorders. However, it is essential to note that gastroparesis is a severe complication of diabetes. Hence, the need for diabetic patients to visit the hospital for regular checkups and monitoring of their condition.
Gastroparesis Risk Factors
Factors that increase the tendency to develop gastroparesis include
Diabetes: both type 1 and 2
Gastric surgeries: especially of the esophagus or upper abdomen
Viral infections
Nervous system disorder, such as Parkinson’s
History of gastric disorders
Cancers, too, especially when close to the abdominal region, etc.
Overall, gastroparesis is an uncommon disorder, even in diabetic patients. However, it is a diabetic complication. A report states that it is even more common in type 1 diabetes patients than in type 2.
Another report suggests that it is more likely to occur in adult females than males.
Causes: How Does Diabetes Cause Gastroparesis?
If you have been paying attention as you read through this article, we have mentioned the primary cause: vagus nerve damage.
However, people with diabetes, especially for an extended period, tend to experience an impairment of this nerve, and perhaps some other ones in the body, resulting in the condition.
Diabetes, sometimes, may impair blood vessels that are supposed to transport oxygen and nutrients. So when the blood vessels that ought to supply the vagus nerve, for example too, are affected, it may also result in this condition.
Complications
If not quickly addressed, gastroparesis may become a severe disorder. Below are some of the complications of this disorder.
Malnutrition
Lack of appetite and early satisfaction are some of the hallmarks of gastroparesis. Poor appetite may prevent you from taking adequate nutrients to sustain your body.
Irregular Changes in Blood Sugar Levels
Irregularities in food movement from the stomach into the small intestine may cause erratic spikes in blood glucose levels. Though, gastroparesis does not cause diabetes. It, however, makes treatment and management of diabetes extremely difficult.
Bezoars
Extended periods of undigested food remaining in the stomach can cause them to harden, forming solid masses known as bezoar. Bezoars may cause simple disorders like nausea and vomiting, but it may be fatal if it remains for long. It prevents food from getting into the small intestine for proper absorption.
Inflammation of the Esophagus
Gastroparesis may cause the esophagus to get inflamed, causing problems with swallowing. Also, in cases of too much vomiting, it may lead to esophagus tears. Gastroparesis needs to be taken seriously, as it may be detrimental to overall health.
Extreme Dehydration
Frequent vomiting may lead to severe dehydration and extreme thirst.
In all, gastroparesis affects the quality of life. It causes erratic spikes in blood sugar levels – it may be too high or too low. When present in people with diabetes, it makes therapy difficult. In type 1 diabetes, for example, gastroparesis, patients would find it challenging to know the appropriate time to take insulin shots.
When sugar levels are too high over extended periods, there’s an increased risk of the following in diabetic patients.
Heart-related problems
Digestive and kidney diseases
Ketoacidosis
Eye problems, especially retinopathy
Amputation
Neuropathy
When sugar levels are too low over, it increases the risks of the following:
Diabetic coma – excessively low blood sugar.
Seizures – misfiring of electrical impulses in the brain.
Falls and shakiness.
Diagnosis
Gastroparesis often proves challenging to diagnose because of its similarities with other gastro-intestinal conditions like heartburn and acid reflux. So, if care is not taken, one may continue to treat the symptoms without necessarily addressing the primary cause.
Before diagnosing diabetic gastroparesis, your healthcare provider must have considered many factors – the signs and symptoms you complain about and your medical history, too, may prove vital in diagnosis. Your doctor may then request urine or blood tests to check for complications.
Some of the tests to confirm gastroparesis include
Imaging tests: to check for obstructions in the abdomen and stomach.
Barium beefsteak meal or barium x ray: it detects abnormalities in the digestive tract. It involves monitoring how long it takes for digestion to occur.
Esophagogastroduodenoscopy (EGD): a procedure that allows the examination of the alimentary canal – esophagus, stomach, and duodenum.
Gastric emptying scintigraphy or radioisotope gastric emptying scan: assesses the ability of the stomach to empty its contents.
Treatment and Therapy of Diabetic Gastroparesis
Control and regulation of blood sugar levels are of the utmost importance for patients with diabetic gastroparesis. Once diagnosed with diabetic gastroparesis, doctors often stress the need to monitor blood sugar levels in such patients, even more than in typical diabetes.
Therapy and treatment of the condition include:
Use of Medications
Your doctor may prescribe the following oral medications to treat gastroparesis.
Stomach muscle stimulators.
Antiemetics and drugs to reduce nausea vomiting.
Use of NSAIDs for pain management.
Adjustments to the dosage and timing of insulin shots, too, may be recommended. Also, people with diabetic gastroparesis must avoid opiates and other drugs that may delay stomach emptying.
Dietary Modifications
Doctors often recommend changes in dietary plans and eating habits for people with diabetic gastroparesis. You need to avoid high fiber and fatty foods, as these foods take time to digest. Instead, focus more on liquid meals, proteins like eggs and fish; they are easily digestible. Non-starchy fruits and vegetables are also good choices.
It is also essential to chew foods well before swallowing. You may need to see a dietitian assist you in working out a suitable dietary plan for the best outcomes.
Gastric Electrical Stimulation
This is used in severe cases where a device is surgically implanted into the stomach. This device releases electrical impulses that promote the simulations of the nerves and stomach muscles.
In rare cases of gastroparesis, doctors may recommend intravenous nutrition. Here nutrients and fluids enter the blood directly, through feeding tubes bypassing the stomach. It is perfect for regulating blood sugar levels. However, this is only done in severe cases of gastroparesis.
Conclusion
Healthy nutrition is key to avoiding many metabolic disorders, including diabetic gastroparesis. Avoid junk. Instead, focus more on eating a healthy and nutritious meal.
When suffering from diabetic gastroparesis, it is, in fact, more important to monitor blood glucose levels than in one with just diabetes. You may not be able to visit your doctor often, so you need to use diabetes management apps. These apps help you keep track of your blood glucose levels. A typical example of such an app is Klinio.
Apple is one fruit with various uses; whether it’s apple pie, apple juice or just as a snack, this fruit sure makes delicious delicacies. Apple cider vinegar (ACV) is a type of vinegar obtained from fermenting crushed apples (usually with high vinegar/acetic acid concentrations). It’s popular for its many uses, including as a preservative, cooking agent, etc.
Many have praised it for its health benefits, claiming it can cure illnesses, including chronic ones like diabetes and cancer. Although apple cider vinegar does offer various benefits to the body when consumed, these claims are backed by little to no scientific research and can’t be relied on.
This piece debunks popular myths about apple cider vinegar and throws light on its purported effectiveness in battling illnesses like diabetes, the existing varieties, and more.
Debunking Myths About Apple Cider Vinegar
For some years now, many have regarded apple cider vinegar as one of the healthiest foods. Some even named it a cure-all, home remedy for ailments. Namely, it’s received credit for helping with weight loss, lowering blood sugar, giving softer skin, etc.
While drinking ACV does have certain health benefits, many of these claims aren’t’ entirely true. Apple cider vinegar might not be the magic potion many think it is. Hence, in this section, we’ll be debunking some myths about ACV.
Myth 1: ACV lowers bad cholesterol
One of the major myths about ACV is that vinegar consumption helps reduce the amount of cholesterol and triacylglycerols in the body. This notion was made popular by a 2006 study claiming that acetic acid in vinegar helps reduce these “bad” cholesterols. What’s more, recent studies corroborate these findings, showing ACV does help lower lipid levels and protect the kidneys.
Unfortunately, both types of research featured rats and mice. There have been no further human trials to confirm ACV truly helps humans control their cholesterol levels. Although scientists are optimistic about these previous studies, there’s a need for more extensive studies that involve humans.
Myth 2: ACV can prevent cancer
Several foods have been tagged with the ability to prevent cancer or help manage its effects on the body, and ACV isn’t exempt from this list. While some of these foods might positively impact cancer patients, one shouldn’t place much faith in them.
For example, a few studies show apple cider vinegar can help slow the growth of cancerous cells. However, most of these studies are preliminary, and some are found inconclusive. Summarily, consuming ACV does have its health benefits, but “it shouldn’t be tagged as a miracle cure for cancer.”
Myth 3: ACV lowers blood pressure
In most people diagnosed with diabetes, high blood pressure is usually not far off. Statistics show that more than 5 out of 10 diabetes patients will eventually develop high blood pressure, reinforcing the prevalence of HBP among people with diabetes. Many natural remedies have been prescribed as cures for high blood pressure, which can either cause serious harm or just not deliver on their miracle cure promise.
Apple cider vinegar won’t lower your blood pressure. Most research suggesting that ACV lowers blood pressure feature only rats. Hence, we can’t expect the same result in humans, at least not until human clinical trials verify these claims.
Myth 4: ACV is just as nutritious as an apple
Yes, apple cider vinegar materializes by fermenting apples. However, it doesn’t contain the same nutrients as the parent fruit.
Apples are rich in potassium, vitamin C, fiber, etc. Most of these nutrients are absent or not in the right proportion in ACV as in apples. Hence, ACV shouldn’t be mistaken as a direct substitute for apples.
Myth 5: ACV has no side effects
Some claim consuming ACV comes with no side effects. This isn’t entirely true, as drinking too much ACV can be potentially damaging.
ACV contains acetic acid, which can erode the tooth enamel. Consuming it without adequate dilution can mean bad news for your teeth. It can also exacerbate some conditions like gastroparesis—a partial stomach paralysis, delaying emptying—especially in people with diabetes.
The Benefits of Drinking Apple Cider Vinegar to People With Diabetes
Having debunked some of the myths surrounding ACV, one question lingers — “Is it beneficial for people with diabetes?” Whether you’ve been diagnosed with diabetes or are nursing a prediabetes condition, you’re likely watchful of what you consume.
Some researchers have highlighted apple cider vinegar’s impact on diabetes. Are these health benefits baseless, or is there some truth to them? This section analyzes all of that and more.
ACV Controls Blood Glucose Levels
People with diabetes have a lot riding on their blood sugar levels. Excessively high levels can cause health hazards or even make a person with prediabetes develop type 2 diabetes. Hence, health professionals always promote a diabetes diet that aids less sugar intake.
People with this illness are advised to avoid processed foods with added sugar and foods with high carb content. This helps prevent blood sugar spikes and, in turn, lower blood sugar levels.
However, there are other foods you can consume that’ll help with blood sugar management. Foods particularly rich in fiber are appropriate for a diabetes diet, and studies have also shown that consuming apple cider vinegar can reduce blood sugar levels.
A 2018 study on patients with diabetes showed a significant but small reduction in mean HbA1C (glycated hemoglobin)—a blood sugar marker—after administering vinegar. However, researchers concluded there’s a need for more extensive trials to truly ascertain this treatment’s effectiveness.
Another study published in the Diabetes Care journal looked into how vinegar can help manage blood sugar levels. It concluded that consuming vinegar before bedtime significantly affects waking glucose concentrations in people with type 2 diabetes.
Additionally, a 2015 randomized study concluded that apple cider vinegar decreases postprandial hyperglycemia, hypertriglyceridemia, and hyperinsulinemia in people with type 2 diabetes. In simpler terms, this aqueous solution helps the body absorb sugar better and improves insulin sensitivity.
Looking at all these studies, we can boldly say that apple cider vinegar’s effects on blood sugar levels are evident, however small. Hence, taking ACV daily can positively influence a person’s with diabetes health.
However, experts call for further studies to ascertain the influence of ACV on blood sugar control. In this light, you’re advised not to substitute medical treatment with apple cider vinegar, at least for now.
ACV Helps With Weight Loss
Although many consider losing weight the healthy way to go, the truth is that “it’s easier said than done.” Regardless, you’d certainly feel a lot healthier after losing excess weight. Being obese is a risk factor for diabetes. Hence, people diagnosed with diabetes or those at risk of developing the illness are advised to maintain a healthy weight.
Whether to fit into that dress or reduce the risk of developing diabetes, maintaining a moderate weight can be daunting. The best way to do this is to do physical exercise and invest in a healthy diet. However, there are other means you can consider when looking to lose weight.
Some studies link apple cider vinegar with weight loss. Notably, animal studies point out that ACV helps burn fat, reduce appetite, and reduce fat storage, all of which collectively help with weight loss. While there’s no evidence that ACV will yield the same results in humans, it outlines a clear path that’ll most likely lead to losing some weight following ACV consumption.
Taking apple cider vinegar also leads to delayed gastric emptying, which is the time it takes food in the stomach to move to the duodenum. This delay causes the stomach to feel full for a longer while, preventing overeating and hence helping maintain a healthy weight.
However, a 2007 research on apple cider vinegar’s effect on type 1 diabetes patients with diabetic gastroparesis points out some alarming reports. Gastroparesis is a condition where the stomach muscles can’t push digested food further down the digestive tract. The research concluded that ACV intake in these patients might extend gastric emptying time, worsening glycemic control.
Sticking to a proper diet plan that includes nutrients like fiber and protein will also go a long way in helping you lose weight.
Other Health Benefits of Apple Cider Vinegar
Apart from the diabetes-inclined effects that ACV manifests, it has additional health benefits, as highlighted below:
It boosts skin health
It preserves food
A great disinfectant
It enhances gut health
Types of Apple Cider Vinegar
When shopping for vinegar, you’d certainly come across varieties of apple cider vinegar. There exist two major types of ACV, as listed below:
Apple Cider Vinegar With the Mother
During production, apples undergo fermentation to form ethanol, which is then converted to acetic acid following the introduction of bacteria. This process leads to strands forming in the cider, popularly referred to as “the mother.” These strands give ACV a cloudy appearance.
“The mother” has been observed to contain essential enzymes that help break down food and perform many other functions. It’s believed that leaving the mother in will enhance apple cider vinegar’s effects on the body. This component also comprises probiotics — healthy bacteria that boost the immune system and prevent bowel issues.
Filtered Apple Cider Vinegar
This type of vinegar has the mother strained out. Some manufacturers believe that the cloudy appearance “the mother” introduces to ACV may make people think the product has gone bad. Hence, they filter it to produce a liquid that’s clearer/amber-colored.
Experts claim many benefits associated with ACV reside in “the mother.” Therefore, filtering it out might not be the best option.
How to Make Apple Cider Vinegar at Home
You can get apple cider vinegar from almost any grocery store. However, if you want to save some money or want to DIY, you can follow simple steps to make your apple cider vinegar in your kitchen.
Here’s a list of what you need:
Apple
Water
Sugar/Honey
Now, we walk you through the various steps of preparing a wholesome ACV formula:
Step 1: Choose your apples.
Choosing the right apples is likely the most important step you would have to take. This is because the apples you choose significantly affect how well your apple cider vinegar turns out. Ensure you select sweet apples for your cider.
Also, to get the best flavor, you can combine varieties of apples. There’s also an option of using scraps from previously consumed apples. As such, you may want to keep apple peels and scrap when you’re done cooking by storing them in your refrigerator.
Step 2: Wash your apples.
Endeavor to wash any fruit before consuming it. This also goes for apples going into your vinegar production. Rinse them thoroughly with cold water and scrub clean of dirt and debris you don’t want in your vinegar. Also, if you’re using scraps, ensure they’re washed clean.
Step 3: Chop the apples, keep them in a jar and fill with water.
The next step to take is to chop your apples into smaller pieces. Cutting them into cubes will make the apples ferment faster. You don’t need to peel the apples before cutting them. If you’re using scraps, you can also cut them into smaller pieces.
Ensure you pour the apple slices into a glass jar. It’d be best not to use stainless steel to process your apple cider vinegar. When the apple ferments, the acidity will corrode the steel and compromise the taste and flavor of your cider.
Next, fill the jar with water, to the brim or until all apple cuts are covered with water. You can opt for filtered or mineral water for better results.
Step 4: Add sugar.
One teaspoon of sugar should suffice for your apple cider. The sugar will go through a fermentation process that turns it into alcohol, making the apple cider vinegar. If you’re worried about sugar, especially as a diabetes patient, you can choose honey. However, sugar might give you the best result.
Step 5: Cover and leave to ferment.
Cover the mouth of the jar with a piece of cloth and secure it in place with a rubber band. Ensure the cloth material is breathable to allow gasses to escape while the mixture ferments. However, the cloth shouldn’t be too porous to avoid external particles like dirt entering the jar.
Ensure you place the jar in a dark, warm place at about a temperature of 21 °C. This can be in the corner of your kitchen, at the bottom of the pantry, or any other ideal location.
Stir the mixture every two days while you wait and patiently observe the fermentation process. Fermentation should take about a week or two, after which the apples will sink to the bottom — an indication the fermentation process is complete.
Step 6: Strain the apples.
After confirming the mixture is perfectly fermented, the next thing to do is strain the apples from the cider. You can use a regular sieve or a clean piece of cloth. Then, turn the drained cider back into the jar, cover it with the fabric, and keep it in the same warm, dark place.
After doing this, leave the apple cider to ferment for another 3–6 weeks. Ensure you stir the jar often (3–4 days). Slowly but surely, this cider turns into apple cider vinegar.
Step 7: Pour into a lidded glass jar and store.
Transfer the fermented liquid into a clean glass jar with a tight lid and immediately store it in your freezer. This’ll end the fermentation process. However, if you keep it at room temperature, the liquid might continue to ferment in this state.
“The mother” might start to appear in the form of a gelatinous blob later. You can use this in future preparation of ACV to speed up the process.
Wrapping It Up
This guide has successfully explored the benefits of apple cider and its potential risks. Various myths still surround this drink, some of which have been debunked above. Previous research arrived at varying results, some of which praise the health benefits of ACV while others warn against its consumption. The scientific community asserts that there’s a need for more encompassing human studies to reinforce the positive effects one can expect from consuming ACV.
You can rest assured that consuming apple cider vinegar as a person with diabetes is relatively safe. However, ensure you take at most 2 teaspoons daily, diluted in a glass of water. Taking ACV directly without diluting can erode your tooth enamel in the long run.
Managing diabetes can be incredibly stressful when you don’t know how to go about it. Why not take the easy route by utilizing our diabetes management application, Klinio? This app is specially designed to help people with diabetes better manage their condition. You get access to a well-optimized diabetes meal plan, exercise routine from beginner to advanced level, weight management plans, and more.
More worrying is that a significant number of people that have it or are at risk of getting it (in a prediabetic state) are yet to be diagnosed. Men make up the greater part of this undiagnosed populace. What’s more, there are pointers that men are more likely to suffer from diabetes complications than women.
To diagnose diabetes, a specialist or endocrinologist will have to perform a diabetes test to check patients’ blood sugar levels and concentration. Patients can get different types of tests; the two most popular and often recommended tests are A1C and fasting glucose tests. While other blood sugar tests tell whether a person has diabetes or not, these two stand out and are often compared.
This comprehensive guide compares the A1C and fasting glucose test, highlights other tests, and outlines the steps people diagnosed with diabetes can take to live healthily.
Prediabetes: The Best Time to Get Diagnosis
Prediabetes is a serious condition that gives way to the more dreaded diabetes. People with prediabetes already have an impaired fasting glucose metabolism and typically experience an increase in high blood sugar.
Prediabetes isn’t considered diabetes because the blood sugar range isn’t high enough to meet diabetes requirements despite being higher than normal. However, it’s only a matter of time before people with the condition slip into full-blown diabetes.
A staggering 96 million US adults were diagnosed with prediabetes in 2019. In a broader perspective, over one-third of adults in the country had prediabetes at the time, with projections suggesting even higher numbers in 2022.
The risk of developing diabetes after getting prediabetes is significantly high. CDC reports on prediabetes show that up to 30% of those diagnosed with prediabetes will develop diabetes in 5 years or less. Undiagnosed prediabetes patients are even more likely to slip into fully-fledged diabetes sooner.
These prediabetes-associated risks reinforce why this stage is considered the best time for people to undergo diagnosis. Notably, people in the prediabetes stage are yet to develop impaired glucose tolerance that comes with significantly high blood glucose levels. With an appropriate diagnosis, people with prediabetes can avoid falling into the diabetes range and subsequent cardiovascular disease complications that extremely high blood sugar presents.
Sadly, most diabetics go through their prediabetes stage undiagnosed, only taking the needed tests when they slip into diabetes and start experiencing certain complications. Some may even end up not getting any diagnosis until certain complications have begun to metamorphose.
Blood Tests for Diagnosis
Up to four blood tests can help diagnose diabetes and high blood sugar. These blood tests are trustworthy, and experts employ them to check the blood sugar level of people with diabetes-related symptoms. Patients may perform some of these tests themselves as glucose monitors are available to patients to self-test their blood sugar.
Typically, all tests rank blood sugar levels in numbers, and the higher the number or percentage, the higher the level of blood glucose. Among the different blood sugar tests available for treatments, the A1C and fasting plasma glucose tests are the most popular.
Subsequent sections consider how these two tests work and compare them against each other.
A1C Test
This blood test determines the percentage of hemoglobin—the protein in the red blood cell—attached to sugar and gives an average of your blood sugar level in the past 2–3 months. The A1C test is also termed the HbA1C, hemoglobin A1C, glycosylated hemoglobin, or glycated hemoglobin test.
The test is considered normal when the A1C is below 5.7%, indicating blood glucose lower than 117 mg/dL, which aligns with the estimated average blood sugar level. In prediabetes, A1C levels range from 5.7% and 6.4%, while an A1C level of 6.5% or higher suggests type 2 diabetes. The results could be questionable in some cases; in such instances, the doctor may ask the patient to return for a retest to help conclude the diagnosis.
The following table outlines the different A1C test readings:
Type of Result
A1C Reading
Estimated Average Blood Glucose Level (mg/dL)
Normal A1C Result
<5.7%
<117
Prediabetes A1C Result
5.7–6.4%
117–137
Diabetes A1C Result
>6.4%
>137
How Does the A1C Test Work?
The effectiveness of the A1C test is rooted in the hemoglobin life cycle structure. For example, if a person’s blood glucose level is currently average but was high in the past few months, it’d reflect in the test result.
The hemoglobin records the high blood sugar of the past month, presenting as a higher A1C level. The hemoglobin cells live for about three months, so the percentage of this protein attached to glucose within this period reflects in the test result.
In essence, the A1C test shows the average reading of your blood sugar over the past three months. This gives the doctor a clear picture of your blood sugar control over time. Some people may present a wrong result if they have liver disease, chronic anemia, or kidney failure.
Ethnicity can also influence the result. Namely, people of Mediterranean, Southeast Asian, or African descent may have a rare type of hemoglobin that alters A1C results. Similarly, a decreased red cell survival can affect the A1C results.
Fasting Plasma Glucose (FPG) Test
Also termed the fasting blood glucose (FBG) test, this blood test measures the sugar level in your blood after undergoing overnight fasting. An average fasting glucose level is usually lower than 100 mg/dL. A prediabetes diagnosis is confirmed when the result sits around 100 to 125 mg/dL, while 126 mg/dL or more indicates diabetes.
Suppose your results show 126 mg/dL or more. In that case, it’d be best to retake the test on a different day to confirm your diagnosis.
The following table outlines the different FPG test readings:
Type of Result
Fasting Plasma Glucose (FPG) Level (mg/dL)
Normal FPG Result
<100
Prediabetes FPG Result
100–125
Diabetes FPG Result
>125
How Does the Fasting Glucose Test Work?
Blood glucose—or simply sugar—is the major sugar in the body. After drinking or eating, the body system breaks down the carbohydrates into sugar for energy purposes. The pancreas produces the insulin hormone, which helps transfer blood sugar into the cells in the body. It also stores part of the blood sugar for later use.
The insulin and glucose in the blood start decreasing as body cells use them up. In the case of diabetes, the body finds it difficult to regulate or control sugar. This problem could arise either because the body can’t effectively process the insulin or the pancreas isn’t producing enough insulin.
Therefore, the sugar level in the blood becomes higher than the normal range, which isn’t suitable for the body. So, the fasting blood sugar test measures the blood sugar only in the morning when you haven’t eaten. This is the best time to take the blood test as the sugar is still in its normal/unaltered range.
How A1C Blood Sugar Test Compares with Fasting Plasma Glucose Test (FPG)
Substantial research on HbA1C test comparison with fasting glucose test abound. These studies were designed to help doctors and diabetes experts determine which of the two most popular blood sugar tests is the most reliable. This section considers several of these scientific works to help patients know which test may be best for them at a particular time.
A 2010 study titled “A Comparison of HbA1c and Fasting Blood Sugar Tests in General Population” published in the International Journal of Preventive Medicine discussed how both tests play out in patients, pointing out their efficacy and reliability. The study’s objective was to highlight the importance of early diagnosis of diabetes in reducing complications by sampling random respondents from 30 different parts of Kerman city.
To ensure a cross-sectional population study, the total number of people involved in the research was 604. The test compared the HbA1c and FBS with Karl Pearson correlation to highlight their specificity, predictive, and sensitivity values in detecting abnormal blood sugar levels.
The study showcased a strong correlation between the two tests’ effectiveness in detecting diabetes in its early stages. However, the research confirmed the FBG test to be far more accurate in confirming a person’s blood sugar level, making it a more accurate test option than the Hb1AC test for early diabetes diagnosis.
Despite the result, the study confirmed the Hb1AC test to offer users good accuracy regardless. Also, the research points it out as an excellent metric for determining possible complications in diabetes’ latter stages.
The findings of some other studies deviated to an extent from what the earlier discussed research presents. Notably, one published in the PLOS One journal showed that the HbA1C was more likely to reliably highlight high blood sugar than the fasting plasma glucose test.
The study was performed on 3,523 Vietnamese respondents from the city of Ho Chi Minh, with 2,356 being women. The research’s objective was to consider which of the two blood sugar tests was more likely to detect diabetes in its early stages. The reliability of the tests was based on their capacity to determine prediabetes and diabetes.
From the study, the HbA1C was the most reliable as it detected prediabetes in 34.6% of all the women and diabetes in 9.7%. On the other hand, the fasting blood sugar test diagnosed 12.1% of the respondents with prediabetes and 6.3% with diabetes.
Based on the results, the researchers concluded that the fasting plasma glucose test is the less sensitive between the duo and, as such, may not be the most reliable. The HbA1C, on the other hand, had a significantly higher sensitivity — critical in determining diabetes in its earliest stage.
The researchers, however, acknowledged that the single population samples employed may have possibly altered the results. They highlighted the possibility of the results being different from what was recorded if larger populations were considered.
Based on the above research, determining which of the two blood glucose may depend on various factors other than capability. Both tests tend to work incredibly well in determining diabetes. However, their sensitivity levels may be different in varying circumstances.
Most health specialists usually perform several tests for their patients to ensure that they get extensive comprehensive information about their blood sugar.
The Other Two Tests for Blood Glucose Level
While the HbA1C and the FPG tests are the two major blood sugar tests, two more blood sugar tests help point out diabetes as well. These two tests complete the four major sugar tests that people with diabetes or at risk of the condition can go for, and they include the oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) and random plasma glucose (RPG) test. The following sections examine them in more detail.
Oral Glucose Tolerance Test (OGTT)
Although this test isn’t as popular as the first two tests this guide compares, it doesn’t make it any less effective. In reality, the reverse is more likely only when compared in terms of capabilities. The only downside of this test is that it takes time to execute.
The oral glucose tolerance test ranks blood sugar levels from 0 mg/dL to over 199 mg/dL. Normal/healthy blood sugar range sits just a little below 140 mg/dL. On the other hand, any significant low or high is deemed unhealthy for patients.
Blood sugar levels running from 140 mg/dL to 199 mg/dL are unhealthy and are indications that a person is prediabetic. What’s more, blood sugar levels above 199 mg/dL suggest that a patient has diabetes.
The oral glucose tolerance test is first taken after an overnight fast. That means that patients will have to take it in the morning and at a time when it’s been at least 8 hours since their previous meal a day ago. After taking that first test, they’ll have to take a sugary drink or glucose-filled juice and repeat the test after two hours.
If the patient’s sugar level settles below 140 mg/dL two hours after taking the glucose drink, the patient is deemed to have a normal blood sugar range.
The oral glucose tolerance test is deemed highly comprehensive because it considers the blood sugar level of patients during a fast and two hours after eating a sugar-filled food. At both test times, the patient’s sugar level mustn’t be higher than 140 mg/dL. If a patient’s sugar level goes above 140 mg/dL after any of the two tests, they have prediabetes, and if they go above 199 mg/dl, they have diabetes and urgently need treatments.
The following table outlines the different oral glucose tolerance test readings:
Type of Result
Blood Glucose Level (mg/dL)
Normal OGTT Result
<140
Prediabetes OGTT Result
140–199
Diabetes OGTT Result
>199
Random Plasma Glucose (RPG) Test
As the name implies, a random blood glucose test is as random as possible. Of the four, it’s the only test a patient can take at any time.
The test—abbreviated as RPG—also measures blood glucose levels from 0 mg/dL to over 199 mg/dL. A patient with a blood sugar level below 140 mg/dL isn’t at risk of prediabetes and diabetes. Blood sugar levels from 140 mg/dL to 199 mg/dL are unhealthy and are indications that a person is prediabetic. On the other hand, blood sugar levels above 199 mg/dL indicate that a patient has diabetes.
The following table outlines the different RPG test readings:
Type of Result
Blood Glucose Level (mg/dL)
Normal RPG Result
<140
Prediabetes RPG Result
140–199
Diabetes RPG Result
>199
Often, the random plasma glucose test isn’t considered as reliable as the other top three tests due to the possibility of food influencing blood sugar levels. As such, it’s often the least reliable test that doctors and diabetes health specialists use or recommend for patients. Conversely, experts consider the FPG and the HbA1C tests as better alternatives.
Additional Notes
Irrespective of the type of test that a patient may go for, it’s crucial they get the help and recommendation of a health specialist to obtain the best diagnosis. While a wrong diagnosis isn’t prevalent, there’s a possibility that people with diabetes may have the necessary information about the appropriate test to go for at a particular time. This typically leads to false readings that could leave them at risk of hyperglycemia and hypoglycemia.
Diabetes Risk Factors
So far, this guide has focused on the different tests that can diagnose diabetes, with a special focus on the HbA1C and fasting blood glucose tests. However, to enable proper diagnosis, it’s imperative that patients are willing to get tested, to begin with.
Most people with diabetes are often reluctant to get a diagnosis, with only a significant few attending regular diabetes checkups. The effect of this popular yet health-concerning decision is that most people are only likely to know they have diabetes when it’s gotten worse.
Therefore, to encourage people to do more diabetes-related checkups occasionally, the American Diabetes Association (ADA) and the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) outline some risk factors for the condition. The aim is to enable people to make diabetes testing a priority once they fall into any of the categories.
The major risk factors of type 2 diabetes are:
Genetics
Research proves that diabetes is indeed genetic. This means that people who have an ancestry with diabetes issues are more likely to get diabetes than those who don’t. Most people who develop diabetes in their lifetime are genetically vulnerable to the condition due to inherited altered genes.
Obesity
Being obese or overweight is a serious risk factor for people with diabetes. Once a patient’s BMI (body mass index) is above the normal range (18.5–24.9 kg/m2), they’re often likely to have increased blood sugar. The higher the weight of a person, the higher the likelihood of having type 2 diabetes.
Age
The older people get, the more likely they are to have their blood sugar level above the normal range and the higher their diabetes risk. People aged 45 and above are considered the category most prone to diabetes.
Gestational Diabetes
Women who’ve experienced gestational diabetes in the past are likely to develop diabetes over time. Gestational diabetes is temporary diabetes experienced by some women during pregnancy — these women have their blood sugar levels higher than normal during pregnancy. Although the blood sugar often goes back to normal after delivery, having this condition puts the mother at a heightened risk of developing type 2 diabetes later.
Managing Diabetes After Diagnosis: The Next Step
Diagnosing diabetes gives patients and their health experts the leverage to treat the condition before it leads to serious complications. Namely, patients and their health specialists can achieve normal blood glucose levels by implementing some blood glucose control tips with the right diagnoses. These tips help prevent mild to severe diabetes complications that put patients’ lives at risk, reinforcing the need for proper and early diagnosis.
There are several ways people diagnosed with diabetes can prevent the condition from getting worse and even help them get better. Body weight plays a major role in increasing diabetes and high blood sugar. So, patients need to adopt proactive management tips that control blood sugar levels and obesity.
Below are some steps that patients can take:
Eating Healthy
The following tips will enable you to adopt healthful diet practices to keep your blood sugar level in a safe range:
Eat Fiber
A plant-based diet provides the body with minerals, vitamins, and carbohydrates. Starch and sugar are carbohydrates that help provide energy for the body. Dietary fiber—also referred to as roughage—is a part of the plant that the body can’t absorb and digest. Food rich in fiber reduces the risk for diabetes and encourages weight loss.
Eat healthy fiber-rich foods like fruits, legumes, non-starchy vegetables, and whole grains. Eating fiber-dense foods will help reduce blood sugar and slow down your body’s absorption of sugar. It also helps manage certain risk factors like inflammation, heart, and blood pressure. Lastly, with fiber, you’ll get filled quickly and energized without eating so much.
Avoid High-Calorie Diet
Food with low calories (also called a fad diet), a low-fat diet like the keto meal plan, or paleo diet can help you lose weight. However, there’s little research about their benefits in preventing diabetes in the long term. Your dietary strategy should help you lose weight and encourage a healthy weight. A strategy with healthy dietary choices should enable you to nurture it into a habit or lifestyle.
Healthy options comprising some of your food preferences and traditions can benefit you with time. A simple way to eat good food appropriately is to divide the food on your plate into three sections. The three sections should contain non-starchy vegetables, fruits, whole grains, and foods rich in protein.
Opt for Healthy Fats
Fatty foods pack a high amount of calories; as such, you should only consume them moderately. When trying to lose weight, your choice of diet should contain food with “good” fat, also known as unsaturated fat. This fat, encompassing polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fat, encourages healthy blood cholesterol levels, with vascular and heart health.
Sources of unsaturated fats include:
Canola oil, sunflower, olive, cotton seeds, and safflower
Fatty fish like tuna, sardines, cod, mackerel, and salmon
Seeds and nuts like peanuts, almonds, pumpkin seeds, and flaxseed
The “bad” fats are saturated fat found in meat and dairy products; they should be minimal in your diet. Eating pork, lean chicken, and dairy products with low fat can help you limit your saturated fat intake.
Drink Tea or Coffee
Although it’s best to use water as your main beverage, studies prove that adding tea or coffee to your diet can help to prevent diabetes. Studies show that consuming coffee daily can reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes by 54%. Another research links a lower risk for the condition to daily consumption of green tea.
Coffee and tea contain polyphenols, an antioxidant that helps prevent diabetes. It’s recommended to serve tea or coffee plain or with a little quantity of milk. Using syrups or additional sugar can prevent the beverages from exhibiting their protective impact and increase your blood sugar instead.
Stay Active Physically
Exercising and consistent physical activity presents numerous benefits. These include blood sugar reduction, weight loss, and promotion of insulin sensitivity which helps to normalize the blood sugar. Adults who want to keep a healthy weight and lose weight should engage in resistance exercises and aerobic exercises and limit their inactivity.
Here are some exercise examples to engage in:
Resistance Exercise
Resistance exercise includes yoga, weight lifting, and calisthenics. Having 2–3 resistance exercises weekly helps keep you balanced with more strength and enables you to stay active.
Aerobic Exercise
Aerobic exercise includes swimming, running, brisk walking, or biking. You can engage in any of these exercises for 30 minutes every day and 150 minutes every week. Start with the moderate type before trying out vigorous ones.
Lose Some Weight
Losing some weight lowers your risk for diabetes. According to extensive studies, people who introduced changes in their diet and exercise experienced a 60% slash in diabetes risk after shedding just about 7% of their weight. The American Diabetes Association (ADA) advises that pre-diabetic people lose 7–10% of their weight to prevent the condition from progressing.
Losing weight is beneficial for healthy living in general. Use your current weight to create a weight loss program. Alternatively, you could speak to your doctor regarding your expectations and reasonable weight loss goal, like losing 1–2 pounds weekly.
Final Words & Summary
We can’t overemphasize the importance of getting tested for diabetes. It’s often recommended that people get tested occasionally and up to three times per year, even if they don’t show any diabetes-related symptoms. This is because prediabetes barely presents any symptoms to indicate that you may have high blood sugar. At this stage, only a test diagnosis will help you determine if your blood sugar is too high or low.
The A1C blood sugar test and fasting blood glucose test are among the two reliable tests that a specialist can use to determine whether you have high blood sugar. If your blood sugar after the test swings in the high range or is considerably close to being abnormally high, you may need to take proactive steps to prevent you from slipping into full-blown diabetes.
This guide outlines some of the best steps patients can take to prevent the continuous rise in blood sugar and diabetes complications. As can be seen from the different management tips highlighted, exercise and dieting are the two major factors in reducing diabetes.
For exercising, there are different ways and intensities you can adopt. The main focus is to ensure you’re losing calories — the only way to be sure of cutting off weight. On the other hand, dieting is more encompassing as it helps burn calories and decrease blood sugar levels. For this to happen, patients will need to opt for healthier food low in “bad” fats, carbs, and glucose. The aim is to eat food rich in vitamins, nutrients, and moderate healthy fats.
There are many ways patients can get foods that work for blood sugar. A dietitian is one of the best options, and so is a diabetes management app. However, the latter is often recommended due to the ease of use and the consistent update of the best tasty diabetes-friendly foods they offer.
Our Klinio app, for example, is one of the top diabetes-friendly food apps to go for. Our team of experts regularly updates our food catalog with the best meals for blood sugar sourced around the globe. The app is also great for creating weekly, monthly, and yearly food routines, making it easier for patients to determine what to eat daily.
Apart from receiving more attention and better management, the other negative effects of diabetes are discussed more often than the effects of diabetes on the sex life of people with the condition. The reason isn’t far-fetched — there’s a hovering stereotype attached to sex, presenting it as an exclusively private affair that even doctors shouldn’t overindulge patients in, especially if the former isn’t a sexual health expert.
However, turning a blind eye to how diabetes affects sexual desire, arousal, and performance only rids patients of important information that may explain their low performance in intimacy and how they can improve it.
This guide highlights exactly how diabetes affects sexual health, what patients need to know, and how they can revive their passion in the bedroom.
Type 2 Diabetes and Intimacy: How It Affects Men and Women
Sexual health is a serious concern for many people, and it’s disturbing that most don’t know that diabetes is at the forefront of the major causes of low libido. Namely, diabetes is highly correlated with sudden and steady sexual problems that many people experience.
While not as popularized as other diabetes complications, there’s been established research on how diabetes and high blood pressure decrease men’s and women’s libido, leaving them undesiring of sex. More concerning is that the change and fall in the sexual drive are often fast, almost uncontrollable, and usually frustrating for couples. Diabetes could see one of the genders who once had a thriving libido and desire become indifferent and almost irritated by sex.
Diabetes affects sexual life either directly or indirectly. For the former, high blood sugar drastically decreases libido, while for the latter, diabetes triggers symptoms like depression, causing a psychological loss of interest in sex. The problem with the two situations is that they could permanently hinder and block a person’s passion for sex, leading to serious dissatisfaction from the more willing partner.
Some similar conditions that affect sex life in men and women include:
Diabetes medications side effects
High blood pressure or hypertension
Chronic, consistent loss of energy
Depression
Hormonal changes
Stress, relationship issues, and anxiety
While the above are major causes of low sex drive in people that have diabetes, the condition also affects sex in men and women by causing the following:
Diabetic Neuropathy
This condition is common in people with diabetes and manifests as a loss of sensitivity in almost every body area, including their genitals. While the effect may be physically evident, it actually starts in the brain, making it a serious condition.
The condition may affect different nerves, and people may simply feel numbness and zero sensitivity during sex. Notably, some women may feel pain instead of pleasure, while men may experience erectile dysfunction. Generally, the condition makes sex extremely bland, numb, and even painful.
Relationship Concerns
The effects of diabetes on sex life may not be severe initially. However, a lack of communication and extreme self-pressure between people experiencing dying sex drive only worsen sexual performance.
Due to the inherent human behavior of trying to hide their flaws and vulnerabilities from others, once sexually active partners often attempt to mask their fading libido from their other half. They often try to get better as soon as possible, leading to serious nervousness during intimacy, which is often counterproductive.
Most sexually active partners who choose this option experience a faster decline in their intimacy life compared to those who open up to their partners. Studies indicate that the latter is more likely to get help and fix their problems. In a worst-case scenario, they usually find ways to ensure it’s not a big issue.
How It Affects Men
While diabetes does present some sex-related effects common to both genders, research indicates some are more specific towards the male gender, as we’ll observe below.
Erectile Dysfunction
Sexual performance has long been used as a yardstick to gauge a man’s prowess in a relationship. While this bias may seem a bit unfair, this sentimentalism still exists to date.
Two reasons are attributed to this bias; male biology and societal expectations. However, the first is more evident in a relationship with unsatisfied intimacy.
The male biological makeup requires men to put up a higher level of commitment to have a satisfying intimacy with their partners. The male penis is extremely sensitive, and diabetes-influenced health concerns are immediately evident in the form of erectile dysfunction.
Compared to a woman’s body that doesn’t always need arousal to achieve coitus, the male penis requires blood flow from blood vessels to achieve an erection. Diabetes and high blood sugar increase blood pressure and make blood flow to the penis area difficult to achieve.
Apart from distorted blood flow, high blood sugar also causes a drastic decrease in testosterone, which plays an essential role in male arousal. Without arousal and the desire to share intimacy, there’ll be no mental will and physical ability to achieve an erection. In other words, low testosterone also causes erectile dysfunction.
Without an erection, there can’t be penetration, explaining why most sexually frustrating relationships usually have males as the culprits.
Retrograde Ejaculation
This is a sexual complication that men experience during sex. This condition is characterized by semen being ejaculated inside the bladder instead of the normal release through the penis. This condition occurs when the internal sphincter muscles (ISM) don’t function properly.
The ISM is responsible for opening and closing passages in the body. In a normal male, the muscles close the passage of the bladder during ejaculation, forcing semen to come out of the penis. However, high blood sugar distorts the muscles’ function, leaving the bladder passage open and semen stored there until urination.
How It Affects Women
The female gender isn’t left out, as diabetes does trigger a series of events that alter their sex life. The following section talks more about this.
Low Libido
Low libido is often more common in women than in men. Many research suggest that women are more prone to draw close to celibacy in a relationship than men, and diabetes only makes it worse. While most women can still manage or try to be intimate with their partner, their high blood sugar-induced low libido only worsens with time and eventually becomes noticeable to even their partner.
Dryness and Pains During Sex
Apart from being a consequence of low libido, vaginal dryness is common in women with high blood sugar. This condition leads to painful sex due to excessively high friction during penetration. If not properly handled, it could lead to serious vagina peels, bumps, and other sexual health problems like inflammation in the vulva area.
Reducing and Preventing the Effect of Diabetes on Your Sexual Life
Your sex life doesn’t necessarily have to suffer if you have diabetes, thanks to groundbreaking discoveries in this field. Here are the best ways to ensure enjoyable intimate moments with your partner despite having high blood sugar levels.
Therapy Medications
Diabetes-influenced poor sexual performance can deal a great blow to a person’s confidence. Moreover, most people typically kickstart treatment with non-diabetes treatment methods having little results may create their psychology that nothing might work. However, using a diabetes-reacted therapy medication will gradually revive patients’ performance and increase sexual desire.
Hormonal Replacement Therapy (HRT) works for men and women by improving their sexual function and encouraging a healthy sex life. HRTs may come in the form of pills, creams, patches, and injectable medications.
Lubricants for Women
While opting for therapy helps in many ways, lubricants can also help women have less painful sex while treatments are yet to take their full effect. There are many safe and vaginal-friendly lubricants that women can use to make penetration effortless. Using them can help women look forward to having sex and warm up to it.
Adopt Natural Diabetes Management Methods
Implementing healthy natural lifestyle changes will help achieve low blood sugar and improve healthy sensitivity and arousal in males and females. This section highlights some of the major natural methods people diagnosed with diabetes can consider.
Dieting
Eating a balanced diet can help prevent you from developing diabetes. When dieting, you have to limit how you eat some foods and eat more of others. Overall, the key to avoiding diabetes through dieting is eating a bunch of healthy foods.
The following tips should serve as pointers when kickstarting your dieting journey:
Avoid sugary drinks
Eat smaller portions of food
Eat more fiber that you could find in whole grains, fruits, vegetables, and beans
Choose healthy grains like brown rice and quinoa
Stop drinking alcohol
Go for healthy proteins like eggs, tofu, salmon fish, and nuts
Your source of fat should be fish, avocado, olive oil, seeds, and nuts
Satchidananda Panda, a researcher from the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla, California, said intermittent fasting could boost the quality of a person’s life and reduce their diabetic risk. The most trusted intermittent fasting is the 16:8 strategy, where you eat for eight hours and fast for the day’s remaining hours.
Exercising
Exercising and staying active can help lower your blood sugar, reducing your diabetic risk. Dawn Sherr, RD, from the American Association of Diabetes Educators, says that exercising doesn’t translate into running a marathon. She added that swimming, working, and playing with kids are ways to exercise.
The following are easy exercises to help you get started:
Walk on a track outdoors or indoors
Join a dance group or class
Stretch
Ride an indoor stationary bike or an outdoor bicycle
Try tai chi or yoga
Go swimming
Use elastic bands or light weights to engage in resistance training
Play tennis with friends
It’s recommended that you speak with your doctor or health expert to determine the exercise package that best suits you.
Conclusion
This guide has successfully considered, to a large extent, how diabetes affects the love and passion that people share with their partners. An important point to note in this guide is that diabetes affects the performance of both men and women. Fortunately, we were able to consider the different ways the condition affects patients’ intimacy to help them know how to live healthily and restore their drive. Key among the few proactive steps outlined is the natural and effective dieting option.
Dieting is one of the best diabetes management recommendations for patients due to how it decreases high blood sugar, which directly connects with low libido. This article has successfully outlined the best categories of food that patients should eat.
The good thing is that patients can get the foods that fall into the respective categories by working with an endocrinologist, dietitian, or meal resource app. While the first two options require patients to meet up with an expert or book an appointment virtually, the third yields extremely fast results as hundreds of expert meal apps are available to patients.
OurKlinio app, for example, is one of the trusted meal apps that recommend the best foods people with diabetes should eat to drop their high blood sugar and improve their libido. You’ll get regular updates on the right foods to eat to improve your intimacy and have them in different varieties to avoid the blandness that comes with a repeated meals routine.
Anybody who has ever been diagnosed with a chronic health condition will know just how shocking and isolating it can be right at the start of the journey. In these initial stages, it is incredibly unlikely that you have all of the knowledge that you need to be able to navigate your new circumstances effectively.
Diabetes, in particular, is a condition that requires someone affected by it to learn and understand a lot of information in order to manage and control it and maintain a decent level of health. It can be difficult for people with diabetes to find support in their immediate family or friendship group who can relate to what they are going through on a daily basis.
As well as receiving and following advice about diabetes from their primary medical care professionals, patients can turn to dedicated diabetes support groups in order to get the support, tips, and overall health advice that they most need.
Let’s take a look at some of the biggest and best benefits that a person with diabetes can enjoy when they join a diabetes support group.
You Can Share Experiences And Information
Being in a support group filled with people who are all going through the same issues of diabetes as you can be rewarding and comforting, not only in the personal support that you receive in a friendly, human manner but also for all of the information and experiences that members will share.
Diabetes isn’t the same for every single patient – you might have some symptoms that others don’t and vice versa. All of you being in a space together to share your stories is a wonderful way to collect as much information as you can about the disease and improve your own knowledge of diabetes at the same time as making friends who can be genuinely empathetic to your situation.
Learn About Living With Diabetes
If you have no previous experience or knowledge of diabetes within your family, then it can be a shock to the system and hard to understand everything at first. Attending a diabetes support group can help you with discovering and learning how to live with this chronic health condition rather than thinking about how you wish you could simply ‘cure’ it.
Members in the support group will be happy to share their own tips and tricks that can help you to navigate your health with your diabetes in mind. Not only can you find support from a medical point of view, but you can also find support from a friendship point of view, making lots of unique connections with people you would otherwise have never met.
Make New Friends Who Also Have Diabetes
A support group does exactly what it says on the tin, it supports! You shouldn’t think of an invite to a diabetes support group as something to feel sorry about. You should instead treat it as a way to make new and interesting friends who are all going to be in the same state of health, both mental and physical, that you currently are.
When you can make friends with people who have the knowledge, tips and information that can help you to better manage your diabetes and therefore start to find a better, more positive way of life, that can never be a bad thing.
A sign of a good diabetes support group is finding people who you connect with and who you can begin meaningful supportive friendships with. There is nothing better than an email or two appearing in your inbox filled with not only information about diabetes, but also filled with friendly and positive messages from other members who are genuinely interested and invested in your diabetes journey.
Once you are member, you can then be the person to invite a friend if they ever get diagnosed with diabetes.
Discover More Help And Activities In Your State
A lot of people find themselves diagnosed with diabetes and then are left with no further information or direction other than being left to understand that they are currently unhealthy.
Finding a diabetes support group in your state is the key to unlocking all of the best tips and knowledge for how to best cope with your condition. When you find a diabetes support group in the place where you live, you can start to collect all of the relevant information about where to buy the best foods, where to seek further help if you need it, and what kinds of diabetes based activities there are in your area that you can choose to attend if you wish.
You Will Always Receive The Most Up To Date Knowledge and Facts about Diabetes
When you receive an invite to a diabetes support group, you can also think of it as an invite to receiving the most current and up to date news on the disease. Whether your diabetes support group is in person or more online via messaging and inbox emails, the most important factor is that you get support from like-minded people, and are always as educated and clued up as you can be on your own condition.
A diabetes support group means you don’t need to feel alone in dealing with your condition but it also shouldn’t be your only circle of trust. It is important to remain in contact with your professional healthcare and diabetes experts, especially before trying something tried and untested that lands in your inbox!
If you live with diabetes, the consequences of blood sugar fluctuations can be a constant fear.
Most people with diabetes use continuous glucose monitors (CGMs) to track their blood sugar levels in order to prevent the side effects associated with hyperglycemia and hypoglycemia.
But there’s an arguably better option to do so – diabetic service dogs.
These dogs are trained to detect blood sugar fluctuations, alert their owners, and even take care of them in case of emergencies.
Owning a pet also brings additional benefits for people with diabetes, including improved mental health and quality of life.
Let’s get started.
What Are Diabetic Service Dogs?
Diabetic service dogs are trained to detect changes in blood sugar levels for individuals with type 1 diabetes and insulin-dependent type 2 diabetes.
Diabetic Alert Dogs vs Medical Response Dogs
There are two types of diabetic service dogs – diabetic alert dogs and medical response dogs.
Alert dogs are trained to recognize high and low levels of blood sugar and alert you of these changes before symptoms take place. The way in which the diabetic alert dog alarms the owner depends on how it was trained. Some examples include staring, touching the owner with its nose, and holding a particular toy.
Medical response dogs can notice blood sugar changes and are trained to respond when dangerous symptoms of low blood sugar arise. This may entail alerting family members, bringing supplies such as food and medication, and dialing emergency numbers using a special device.
How Are Diabetic Service Dogs Trained?
Prior to alert and behavior training, dogs first undergo formal training on basic behaviors and socialization.
Then, they are trained specifically to detect changes in blood sugar.
It is believed that when blood sugar levels change, chemical changes in breath and saliva take place. Service dogs are trained to detect these changes in a variety of ways. A common training method is to expose the dog to different samples of the owner’s saliva or breath, including samples of episodes of high and low blood sugar.
They are then rewarded when they show signs that they can detect the specific compounds associated with high blood sugar levels and low blood sugar levels, usually through smell.
The training process also involves teaching the dog how to alert the owner when their blood sugar reaches dangerous levels. Additionally, they are trained to take care of the owner if symptoms of severe hypoglycemia or hyperglycemia take place and alert people such as family members if needed.
Are Diabetic Service Dogs Reliable?
According to astudy, diabetic alert dogs displayed a median sensitivity of 70% to hypoglycemic and hyperglycemic episodes.
This level of accuracy can vary depending on the quality of initial and ongoing training, as well as dog characteristics such as willingness to try new behavior.
It’s worth noting that the study above assessed the behavior of alert dogs trained by a specific charity, so results may vary depending on the organization you choose to train your dog.
The best way to ensure reliability is to choose among the training organizations that are legitimate and accredited. We’ll discuss this in more detail later.
For now, let’s go over the benefits of service dogs for people with diabetes.
How Can Diabetic Service Dogs Help Their Owners?
Diabetic service dogs can help people with diabetes cope with physical symptoms, provide emotional support, and improve their quality of life. Let’s discuss these benefits in detail.
Physical Benefits
The most significant way diabetic service dogs help their owners is by decreasing the risk of serious complications such as passing out and seizures. And if these consequences do arise, response dogs can ensure you’re taken care of.
Moreover, research shows that dog ownership by itself is associated with a lower risk of cardiovascular disease, which is sometimes experienced alongside diabetes.
Psychosocial Outcomes
When it comes to psychosocial outcomes, astudy performed by the American Diabetes Association showed that diabetic service dog owners experienced the following benefits:
Decreased concerns about blood sugar control
Better quality of life
Improved ability to participate in physical activities
Emotional Support
Additionally,studies also show that interacting with a pet increases levels of oxytocin, a hormone associated with positive emotions. This, in turn, triggers positive changes in the owner’s mental health, including decreased depression, anxiety, and stress.
Interestingly, some diabetic service dog training programs teach dogs specific emotional support and wellness skills.
This is relevant for those with diabetes since they tend to experience mental health problems such as depression more often than those without diabetes.
Exercise and Weight Loss
There are also benefits involved in the daily need to walk a dog. The most important one is that it promotes weight loss. This additional support in weight management is valuable for people with diabetes that are interested in shedding extra pounds and experiencing the benefits of doing so.
How to Get a Diabetic Service Dog
If you’re interested in a diabetic service dog, you can contact organizations such as Assistance Dogs International, which can help you find legitimate dog training programs in your area.
These programs often, but not always, offer support in acquiring the dog and training it.
If you choose such an organization that doesn’t offer acquisition services, or if you already own a dog, it’s important to take into consideration that not all kinds of dogs are suitable for training.
That’s because there are requirements in terms of smelling ability, temperament, friendliness, intelligence, and other traits.
Moreover, breeds such as poodles, labrador retrievers, and golden retrievers tend to perform better.
How Much Does a Diabetic Service Dog Cost?
There exact cost of a diabetic service dog highly depends on which training program you choose, but it ranges from $8,000 to $20,000.
Some insurance companies may cover these initial expenses, but this reduced cost often comes with a requirement: pet health insurance.
Of course, this excludes the monthly costs of maintaining the dog, which can be $150 and above, as well as ongoing training costs.
Challenges With Diabetic Service Dogs
If you choose to acquire a dog, it’s crucial to note that it is a lifelong commitment that includes many responsibilities. These include, but are not limited to:
Covering initial expenses, as well as those related to veterinary checkups, diseases, and medications
Grooming and bathing
Taking care of their nutrition
Training to prevent behavior such as scratching and chewing objects, as well as potty training
Giving them regular exercise
Moreover, service dogs need to undergo regular testing in order to ensure their ability to detect blood sugar fluctuations is still accurate. Additional training might be needed if their performance is not satisfactory.
Conclusion
Diabetic service dogs can help people with diabetes by detecting blood sugar level fluctuations and offering emotional and physical benefits. That being said, it’s important to take into consideration the costs and responsibilities associated with service dogs.
If you have diabetes, the Klinio app can help you incorporate healthier habits so that you can manage your diabetes in a convenient, effective way.
There are two main types of diabetes.
Diabetes Mellitus – also known as type 1 diabetes – is a genetic condition that usually occurs early in life. In this condition, the insulin-production cells in the pancreas are destroyed by the body’s natural immune system seriously hindering the body’s ability to control and manage blood sugar levels.
Once known as adult-onset diabetes, type 2 diabetes is lifestyle-led and is, unfortunately, a chronic health condition that is starting to also be seen among more children than ever before. In type 2 diabetes, your body either cannot produce insulin on its own or doesn’t produce quite enough insulin.
The result of this insulin sensitivity in both type 1 and type 2 diabetes is that your blood sugar and blood glucose levels are completely unbalanced to a dangerous and unhealthy degree.
Most people with diabetes (most especially those with diabetes mellitus) are prescribed medication to help with insulin resistance including
insulin therapy
metformin
sulfonylureas
meglitinides
At present, there is no way to cure diabetes mellitus. For both types, what you eat is really important, but for those with type 2 diabetes, an effort to control blood sugar levels through diet and exercise can help to reverse some of the worst effects of the disease.
However, these options are not always enough, and that is why dietary supplements that help with diabetes control are available.
To help you with your own blood sugar control and to better overall manage diabetes, here is a rundown of some of the best dietary supplements for diabetes and diabetic energy supplements that are widely available on the market right now.
Cinnamon Supplements
Cinnamon supplements might be unknown to you right now, but cinnamon has been used in Chinese medicine for hundreds and hundreds of years! Numerous studies have been conducted that have determined that cinnamon supplements can have a positive effect on a person’s blood sugar levels.
Of course, this is a key concern for people with diabetes (even gestational diabetes), so adding cinnamon to your diet in the form of dietary supplements is a good idea.
Chromium Supplements
It might sound like something from a superhero movie, but chromium is an essential trace mineral. Your body uses it to aid in the metabolism of carbohydrates, so it makes sense that somebody with a chromium deficiency might be at risk of diabetes.
It is important to note that chromium supplementation is only suitable for people with diabetes who have been diagnosed with a true chromium deficiency, as too high of a dose in your body can cause your blood sugar levels to fall too low.
Too much chromium can also cause kidney damage, which in turn can lead to serious kidney disease.
Vitamin B-1
Also known as thiamine, vitamin B-1 can be helpful to people with diabetes who might be starting to experience problems with their blood vessels and their heart.
Low amounts of thiamine in the body has been linked with heart disease and blood vessel damage, so you can take a vitamin B-1 supplement to combat the risk of heart disease.
Alpha-Lipoic Acid
Also known as ALA, alpha-lipoic acid is a very potent antioxidant that has been found by certain studies to be effective in some aspects of diabetes care. When taken in supplement form, it can reduce oxidative stress which translates into being able to reduce blood sugar levels.
It will also provide a person with lower fasting blood glucose levels, and help to decrease insulin sensitivity and insulin resistance.
However, it should be noted that more of a systematic review is needed for this particular supplement at the moment. Medical expertise demands that more experiments with potential drug interactions are needed to provide further clinical evidence of the benefits of ALA.
Bitter Melon
The vegetable, bitter melon has been used to treat diabetes and type 2 diabetes for generations in places like South America and Asia.
This is based on cultural and natural healing theories (for example ayurvedic medicine) rather than something that has been put under medical expertise or scientific scrutiny like for example, randomized controlled trials.
In terms of diabetes nutrition, bitter melon isn’t one of the ‘certified’ dietary supplements that would usually be recommended, but people with diabetes across the world continue to use it for diabetes management, so the non scientific argument for its positive effects on blood sugar and blood glucose is clearly strong.
More research is needed to be able to fully establish the extent of effectiveness of bitter melon in diabetes treatment as a way to manage blood sugar.
Green Tea
Green tea contains polyphenols, which are a form of antioxidants that can help people with diabetes and general overall health too.
Though you might not see it being listed on something like the American Diabetes Association website, there is no doubt that green tea is one of the most widely used alternative medicines in the world.
The main antioxidant in green tea that can be helpful for blood insulin levels is called epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG). Clinical trials have been conducted that have discovered that EGCG possesses varied health benefits that include:
lower risk of developing cardiovascular disease
prediabetes prevention of type 2 diabetes
the ability to improve blood glucose levels to ease some of the most serious diabetes complications
the ability to encourage more successful insulin secretion
Again, though a systematic review of green tea for medical treatment of type 2 diabetes has not been officially undertaken, it is a product that people with diabetes tend to consider completely safe and they experiment with green tea as a potential method of blood sugar control to improve levels of blood sugars.
Resveratrol
You might not have heard of it, but you have most probably consumed it many times! Resveratol is a chemical that is found in grapes and wine.
When tested on animals in disease control clinical trials, it has been seen to lower blood sugar levels, so it can be assumed that the same blood sugar and blood glucose benefits could be gained for humans.
It has also been identified as being able to reduce oxidative stress which is something else that concerns diabetes care.
If you are trying to live a healthier lifestyle to counteract your type 2 diabetes, then drinking wine to gain its supplemental benefits might not be the best idea in the world. More alcohol puts you at increased risk of things like liver damage and stroke, but that isn’t to say that the above supplements can’t be take in a non-alcoholic form in the future.
If you do include wine in your diabetic meal plan, choose red wine. Red wine has more resveratrol than white because the grape skins remain longer in the fermentation process.
Magnesium
Magnesium supplements are popular because magnesium is an essential nutrient for the human body regardless of whether you have type 2 diabetes or not.
It is known to be able to control and regular blood pressure, along with being able to improve the problem of insulin resistance which is obviously crucial for someone with type 2 diabetes.
Supplemental magnesium is something that is recommended for help to decrease insulin resistance in diabetic patients, and you can also get a good amount of the nutrient in your diet as well in the form of supplements.
Studies have found a strong link between a high intake of magnesium and/or magnesium supplements and lower rates of insulin resistance and insulin sensitivity. When it comes to recommended blood sugar supplements, magnesium is definitely one of the most popular and most accessible.
Vitamin D
Vitamin D is probably one of the most familiar supplements on this list, and is something that is taken by people all over the world. The body does not produce vitamin D naturally – it absorbs it from sunlight Vitamin D is needed by everybody, certainly not just those with type 2 diabetes.
Vitamin D is one of the most easily accessible and most affordable types of dietary supplements you can get and as well as helping with the regulation of calcium and phosphate, it has been identified that it is able to encourage a lower average blood sugar level.
As many people do not get enough vitamin d from sunlight, taking it as a dietary supplement for type 2 diabetes can have a double whammy effect.
Taking Diabetic Supplements Safely
In general, it is best to get the vital nutrients and vitamins you need from the food you eat but more and more scientific research is proving the efficacy of supplements.
People with diabetes mellitus and type 2 diabetes can both benefit from the right choice of supplements but there are two main points to remember:
never replace your prescription medications with supplements
always talk to your doctor before starting a course of supplements.
If you notice any adverse reactions that occur when you take dietary supplements of any sort, discontinue use and consult with your doctor.
If you use any of the modern blood sugar/insulin tracking devices, it would be useful to monitor the impact on your blood sugars when you take your dietary supplements.
Final Thoughts
Now that you are equipped with a list of recommendations for dietary supplements that can have a positive impact on things like blood sugars, metabolic syndrome, diabetic neuropathy, impaired glucose tolerance, and insulin production, hopefully you can make some small changes in your own life that can improve insulin sensitivity and glucose control.
Type 2 diabetes management is something that you are going to have to navigate for years, potentially for the rest of your life. If small things like probiotic supplements, fish oil, and other beneficial bacteria along with your healthy diet can make a difference for your glycemic control, fasting blood glucose, blood sugar and other complications, then there is no reason why you shouldn’t be exploring new options all the time.
