At a certain point in time, people come to realize that their lives can only gain meaning when they discover their true calling, through which they are able to help others. Life can not be solely defined by accumulation of wealth or achievement of self-motivated objectives. The full and true meaning of life can only be experienced by individuals when they finally realize that selflessness is the only thing that can make them happy.

Why Become a Volunteer for the American Diabetes Association?

We’re not saying that being a volunteer for the American Diabetes Association will be more fulfilling than being a volunteer for another non-profit foundation. We’re merely suggesting that you join the American Diabetes Association if you’ve had loved ones suffering from diabetes, and you had felt helpless because you’re unable to make them feel better.

Also, if you have no preferences when it comes to what field or for what purpose would you like to be a volunteer in, you should then consider seriously joining the American Diabetes Association. Being a part of this organization will not only improve the quality of lives around you but yours as well.

A Brief History of the American Diabetes Association

The association’s mission-vision is simple: cure, care, and commitment. The ADA made a lifelong commitment to providing care to diabetic individuals and finding an effective and permanent cure for the disease. The ADA extends its assistance not only to people diagnosed with diabetes but also to the generous and caring individuals who have freely given their time and love to attend to people with diabetes.

Founded n 1940, the American Diabetes Association is the organization with the most significant contribution in diabetic research next to the U.S. government, having donated over $200M already throughout the years. Its presence has been widely established across the United States with over 800 communities.

Why Is It Important to Help People with Diabetes

Shocking as this may be, diabetes actually kills more people every year than the mortality rate of AIDS and breast cancer combined. If early warnings and symptoms are not given the necessary attention and care, diabetes can lead to various medical complications, some of which are life-threatening. It has been estimated that approximately seven percent of the U.S. population are diabetic. Unfortunately, about one-third of this or around 6.2 million of these individuals continue with their lives without being aware of the dangerous state of their health.

The Responsibilities of Volunteers for the American Diabetes Association

An ADA volunteer has three primary responsibilities:

Extending Care - It’s every volunteer’s goal to provide as much care as possible, and of the best quality, to people diagnosed with diabetes

Eliminate Discrimination - Volunteers of the ADA strive to improve the outlook of society towards individuals with diabetes by getting rid of prejudices and misassumptions about the disease.

Social Involvement - Volunteers are not afraid to take a stand against any law-giving body or authority if the rights of diabetic patient are violated or if funding for diabetic research becomes insufficient

How to Become a Volunteer for the American Diabetes Association

The first thing you must do is register to become a Diabetes Advocate. You may do this online or better yet, find the nearest American Diabetes Association branch near your home and register there. Also, you can help the ADA simply by increasing people’s awareness of the symptoms and risks of diabetes. Warning one person about diabetes is already one life saved.

Karen Newton is a registered nurse and acclaimed author with over 25 years of health care experience. Her newest book, Diabetic Diet Secrets, is an easy to follow guide to losing weight and getting control of your diabetes. Karen offers a free Diabetic Tips Course at diabeticdietsecrets.com/diabetictips.htm diabeticdietsecrets.com/diabetictips.htm.

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Tags: american diabetes association, diabetic, diet

When people are diagnosed with Diabetes, their reactions range from, ‘So what, another pill,’ to, ‘My life is over.’ We’re going to examine the serious complications of the disease, the available treatments and, most importantly, how you can personally reduce the complications and medicines through diet and exercise to lose weight. Since Type 1 Diabetes occurs in childhood, with medicine and diet control required for survival, the focus in this article will be on the more common disease, Type 2 Diabetes.

What Is Type 2 Diabetes? This is a disease where the body has been overfed with carbohydrates (carbs) for so long, it develops a weird kind of reaction to them. Insulin is a chemical your body makes, to turn carbs into energy in your cells, but, when you’ve been overdosing on carbs for a long time, your cells become resistant to the insulin and can’t absorb the energy. Your cells begin starving even though there’s more than enough carbs for energy. The carbs stack up in your body as blood sugar (glucose) and eventually get added around your waist as fat, leading to obesity. The fat and starving cells make diabetics sluggish and tired, and almost continually hungry. It’s easy for Diabetics to develop food addictions because of this hunger. As we load up to satisfy our hunger, we send our blood sugar into a roller-coaster, where we risk stroke at high-sugar times and Diabetic coma at low-sugar times.

What Are The Diabetic Health Risks? Stroke and coma are just the 2 immediate extremes of Diabetes. When you add in the fact that Diabetes is the number one cause of kidney failure, a major cause of cardio-vascular diseases and a contributing factor in many cancers, pneumonia and other serious diseases, Diabetes could be the number one cause of death in the U.S. Short of death, Diabetes is nothing to ignore. It’s a leading cause of blindness, nerve diseases, periodontal disease, vaginal yeast infections and amputations of fingers, arms, legs, ears, noses and other extremities. It slows healing from all diseases and infections. Diabetes needs to be treated seriously in order to extend your life and retain a high quality of life.

What Treatments Are Available? Diabetes treatment can be as simple as monitoring and diet/exercise control, to adding a pill to your daily medicines, to insulin supplements, to complex and painful surgery and living assistance for normal daily activities. There are new treatments being discovered all the time but you should have the attitude of ‘less-is-more’ when it comes to treatment. The less treatment you need, the longer and better your life will be. Even with minimum treatment, you’ll need to monitor your blood glucose levels regularly to make sure everything is going right. Your doctor will recommend a home glucose monitor, other diabetic supplies and blood glucose lab tests about every 3 months. As your disease progresses, the monitoring and labs will be more extensive. Once you’re taking medicine, you should test your blood glucose at least twice daily, when you get up and 1-2 hours after your biggest meal. If you’re using insulin injections, you’ll be testing more often than that. No matter what stage of Diabetes treatment you’re in, diet and exercise can help.

How Do Weight Loss Diet And Exercise Help Manage Diabetes? Unfortunately, many people approach Diabetes like a headache…taking a pill is enough. With this disease, you have to look at diet and exercise as medicine. I reduced my average blood glucose by 50% (to normal) in 6 months just by changing my diet and exercise. Most medicines don’t claim to do as much. The diabetes.org/home.jsp” target=”_blank American Diabetes Association (ADA) is a great place to learn about the disease, treatment, diet, research, etc. Using the ADA diet as a guide, I ate smaller meals with 3 in-between meal snacks, keeping a balance of proteins, carbs and fats, I added high fiber fruits and vegetables, lots of water, and I watched my cholesterol. I should point out that I was less hungry on this diet than when I ate without control. I did aerobic walking and other exercises for 30 minutes, 5-6 days per week. As diabetics, if we reduce our weight by just 5 %, we can make improvements of up to 30% in our blood sugar. For a 200 pound person, that means losing 10 pounds…anybody can do that. You can find more information on e-health-fitness.com/weight_loss_tips.htm” target=”_blank diet and weight loss all over the internet. Just be careful to consult your doctor and not do any fasting type diets because they lower your blood glucose too much.

We who suffer from Diabetes need to recognize that this disease will progress, but we can control how fast it progresses. If we just take the meds the doctor gives us, the prognosis isn’t good for the length of our lives or the quality. If we decide to fight the disease by controlling our diet and exercise, we may not need medicine for years, we’ll add many years to our lives and have a far better quality of life during those years. What’s your choice?

Glen Williams is founder and CEO of EHF, Inc. and Webmaster for e-health-fitness.com e-health-fitness.com. He has done extensive research on personal and family health and fitness issues and has been helping and advising people on health since 1987.

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Tags: american diabetes association, cholesterol, diabetic, diet, exercises, lose weight, obesity, quality of life, weight Loss

The toes burn and tingle and sharp pains shoot into your legs. The bed sheets feel uncomfortable on the feet as you toss and turn, trying to get some rest. Your feet felt numb throughout the day, but now feel like they are on fire. Nothing seems to help as you watch the hours on the clock pass by, hoping to fall asleep.

Burning, numbness, tingling, hot and cold sensations, shooting and electrical pain are common sensations felt at rest in painful peripheral neuropathy. Neuropathy is an abnormality of the nervous system. There are many different types of neuropathy, but the most common neuropathy effecting diabetics is peripheral neuropathy.

Diabetic neuropathy is described as a loss of sensation that starts in the tips of the toes and gradually works its way up the legs, and in severe case into the hands. It is sometimes referred to as a stocking glove neuropathy because it progresses as if one was pulling on a stocking.

Sixty percent of diabetics have some type of neuropathy in their feet. Five percent of diabetics will experience painful diabetic neuropathy and the incidence increases with age. Over 45% of individuals who have had diabetes for over 25 years will experience some symptoms of painful diabetic neuropathy.

The cause of diabetic neuropathy is not clearly understood. Many believe that the damage to the small vessels surrounding the nerves, from the diabetes, causes damage to the nerves. Others believe the increase in blood sugar causes damage to the nerves. Despite the different theories, studies have shown better blood sugar control helps prevent progression of the neuropathy.

There are currently no treatments to help reverse diabetic neuropathy. There are no treatments which help reduce the numbness. But, there are many treatments to help decrease the pain associated with the neuropathy.

Your doctor may prescribe medications to help with the pain. There are many options, but until recently none were FDA approved for the treatment of painful neuropathy. Cymbalta®, duloxetine HCl, was recently approved by the FDA in September of 2004 for use in diabetic peripheral neuropathy at doses of 60 and 120 mg per day. This is the first drug approved for this use. Similar medications, like amitriptyline, desipramine and nortriptyline, have been used to help decrease pain and help with sleep.

Gabapentin, also known as Neurontin®, has been a successful treatment for painful diabetic neuropathy. Neurontin® was originally approved by the FDA for adjunctive use in seizures, but the benefits of this drug for other conditions, like neuropathy, soon became known. The manufacturers of Neurontin® were caught up in a controversy regarding their marketing tactics for this off label use. Many physicians still use this drug despite the controversy. Tegretol and Dilantin, common seizure medications, can be used in more severe cases. New treatments include lidocaine 5% cream, acetyl-L-canitine, nerve growth factor and Annodyne ®, infrared therapy.

To help treat painful peripheral neuropathy without prescription medications, consider the following tips:

1. Keep your blood sugar in control: Studies have shown that when blood sugars remain high, or roller coaster from high to low, peripheral neuropathy will worsen.

2. Exercise. This is probably the last thing you wanted to hear. Exercise helps increase circulation and stimulates the growth of new vessels which help slow the progression of the neuropathy. Exercising also helps to increase your pain threshold and to provide a distraction from the nerve pain in your feet.

3. Eat healthy. Besides helping to control your blood sugar, eating a wide variety of fruits and vegetables will add anti-oxidants to your diet. Anti-oxidants will combat the damaging oxidative effects glucose has on your nerves. In particular, try dark-green, leafy vegetables, yellow, orange, and red fruits and vegetables, citrus fruits and tomatoes.

4. Try red pepper powder. Capsaicin is the active ingredient in chile peppers. When applied to the feet it acts as a counter-irritant and can help decrease neuropathic pain. Capsaicin can be purchased at your local drug store. If you cannot afford capsaicin, try mixing 1 tablespoon of dry chile powder with 2 tablespoons of baby powder. Place the mixture in a sock and use the socks at night.

5. Try alpha lipoic acid. ALA is an effective anti-oxidant that has been shown to relieve pain associated with neuropathy in multiple studies. To help relieve pain, the dose must be at least 600mg a day. It is advisable to start with a lower dose, as higher doses can cause nausea, stomach upset, fatigue, insomnia and can lower blood sugar. In general, ALA is a safe supplement.

6. Try gamma linolenic acid. GLA is an essential fatty acid found in evening primrose oil. Most of the studies have shown modest results, but the possibilities are still encouraging. Take 360mg/day. Many indications require higher dosages, but side effects with long term use at higher doses may include inflammation, thrombosis (blood clots), or decreased immune system functioning.

Treating painful diabetic peripheral neuropathy is very difficult and many of the above mentioned therapies should be tried and combined. Don’t expect any “cures” and make sure you give each therapy a chance to work.

Christine Dobrowolski is a podiatrist and the author of Those Aching Feet: Your Guide to Diagnosis and Treatment of Common Foot Problems. To learn more about Dr. Dobrowolski and her book visit skipublishing.com/ SkiPublishing. To learn more about diabetic foot care visit northcoastfootcare.com NorthcoastFootcare/diabetes

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Tags: diabetic, diet, sensations, sleep

When Christmas is finally over after all the hype and the crazy food eating that accompanies it we’re left wondering how diabetics are supposed to live through and enjoy this holiday season.

During the holiday period many diabetics experience the worst levels of the year, mainly because everyone is eating the wrong types of food and far too much sugar. Everywhere you go you’re offered foods full of sugar and white flour - the worst enemies of the diabetic.

Whilst vegetarians have an acceptible Christmas alternative carved out for them, the battle still has to be won for the diabetic.

In our own family, we struggled to find healthy recipes for our Christmas meal and the dessert to follow… and failed.

Everything in the traditional recipe books was full of sugar, chocolate and fat. We are now starting to plan for Christmas 2007 and actively looking for recipes that we can enjoy all year round, but also during the holiday season.

One excellent find is the new cookbook entitled “The Diabetes Weight Loss Diet” by Anthony Worral-Thompson and produced in conjunction with Diabetes UK. This new cookbook is aimed at adults with Type 2 diabetes, but has some wonderful tasty and exciting recipes suitable for Type 1diabetics too. If you’re fed up with “boring”, healthy recipes, Anthony’s book is a breath of fresh air in the kitchen!

One of the reasons for the success of this book is that it’s based on Anthony’s previous offerings of low GI diet books. If you’re unsure what GI is or what it stands for - it could be worth visiting your local library or bookshop and learning something about it. GI or glycemic index is a measure of how swiftly a particular food enters the blood stream - for the diabetic, the lower the glycemic index, the better for your health.

Whilst the GI diet is primarily aimed at those who lose weight, it also offers some excellent possibilities for diabetics who are trying to improve their blood glucose control, feel healthy and reduce the risk of complications.

As always, only make significant changes to your diet in conjunction with your health care professional and dietician.

Jen Carter runs the Diabetia site which offers diabetia.com/Type_1_Diabetes.html information on type 1 diabetes, her diabetic daughter Alissa also writes articles for the diabetia.com Diabetia website.

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Tags: diabetic, diet, lose weight, vegetarians, weight Loss