And the Winner Is…. (Diabetes Book Give Away)

At the beginning of this month, we introduced you to Cherie Burbach, (Diabetes – Cherie Burbach Guest Post & Book Giveaway!)

Cherie graciously donated a book for a give away and for a chance to win, readers were encouraged to write in why they wanted to win the book or with a type about living with diabetes.

The contest ended this past Sunday night. The eligible entrants were assigned a number in order of their published comments. The total number of entries was entered into the randomizer at Randomizer.org.

The winner of Cherie’s book, 21 Simple Things You Can Do To Help Someone With Diabetes, is Brenda, who wrote:

My husband found out that he is pre-diabetic and I would love to win this book to help me to help him.

You will be receiving an email for information regarding shipping.

To everyone else, thank you for entering the contest and please consider buying Cherie’s book if  you feel it would be helpful.

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Diabetes – Cherie Burbach Guest Post & Book Giveaway!

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Cherie Burbach, author of 21 Simple Things You Can Do To Help Someone With Diabetes,
has written a guest post for Gadabout Health. She has also graciously offered a copy of her book to give away to a Gadabout Health reader.

Get a Diabetes Restart

Down in the dumps about having diabetes?  Have you fallen behind with exercise and diet goals?  If you’re beating yourself up over not being perfect, give yourself a break.  You’re human.  Besides that, negative self talk will only make your motivation level even worse.  If you’re feeling a bit pessimistic about your diabetes, here are a few tips to help you turn your attitude around.  For example:

Instead of kicking yourself for having that piece of cake, focus on eating smart the rest of the day.

One piece of cake occasionally isn’t going to send your blood sugars into a tailspin, but continuing to eat poorly the rest of the day will.  Don’t think that because you’ve eaten one “bad” thing you might as well keep going.  In fact, stop looking at foods as “bad” and “good.”  Aim for a healthy diet overall, one filled with variety that will satisfy you, keep your energy up, and nurture your body. Read more

Do You Fill All Your Prescriptions?

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When you visit the doctor and he or she prescribes you some medication, do you always get the prescription filled? If you do, you may be surprised to find out who many people don’t fill them and this is an important issue in health care today. After all, a country can have the best health care system in the world, but if the patients, the health care consumers, don’t fulfill their part of the bargain, then it’s all for naught.

To find out how pervasive this problem could be, researchers in Massachusetts studied thousands of prescriptions that had been written for patients, over the course of a year. The results, which were published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine, were disconcerting. The researchers found that of prescriptions given to 75,000 Medicare patients, 28% of first-time prescriptions were never filled. And even prescriptions that were filled weren’t always filled, with 40% being what was called low refill adherence. Most of these medication prescriptions that were not filled were for illnesses such as diabetes or heart disease, as well as for high cholesterol – all chronic illnesses that need to be managed to reduce the risk of severe and fatal events.

Health literacy is an important issue in health care today. It means understanding what is going on with your health and why treatments are done and medications are taken. What needs to be learned now is the reason why the medications aren’t taken. Is it because these diseases aren’t as “in your face” as others, meaning that the symptoms aren’t obvious enough that patients feel that they need to take their medications? Is it fear? Is it misunderstanding? Or is it something more simplistic, like patients not being able to afford the medications?

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Image: iStock.com

Diabetes Capital of United States

Blankenship’s a family of 10 in Logan County, West Virginia have all been diagnosed with type 2 or adult onset- diabetes, they also lost their mother due to complications caused by diabetes.

West Virginia as well as the entire United States has seen an increase of type 2 diabetes over the past 30 years. A study carried out in in 1975 found, that 10 million people in the United States had diabetes in an update of the study it was found that there are now 23 million people with the disease.

Within most of the Blankenship family, life has become a daily regimen of injecting themselves with artificial insulin, and keeping a constant watch on blood sugar levels. With most cases patients with diabetes have to test their blood sugar levels 3 times a day.

When someone has diabetes their pancreas is unable to produce enough insulin, the hormone that cells need to convert sugar into energy. If this hormone or insulin is absent, blood sugar levels, which normally measure at 80-120 will skyrocket causing blackouts, comas and in some cases death.

Diabetes is at an epidemic level in the United States, but epidemiologists are saying that diabetes is now more like a pandemic. Diabetes is the leading cause of kidney failure, as well as non-traumatic amputation, blindness, nerve damage to your fingers and toes. Diabetes is a far more serious disease than most people think, education on this deadly disease needs to be made more available to everyone.

One of the Blankenship sisters died and another has to be transported by ambulance to a hospital for dialysis treatments three times a week.

Diabetes is not a painful disease if it were people would take it more seriously, without pain or discomfort we tend to go on with our daily routines, without changing our diets and getting the exercise that we should. People that have diabetes need to understand that having a high blood sugar level is wreaking havoc all throughout their body.

To learn more about the Blankenship family click here: ABC News

Healthy Life In Seven Steps

Instead of waiting for the first of the year why not start building a healthier life as of today.

I received a wakeup call when my health care provider sent me for a cholesterol test and it showed I was on the high end.

At that point I went in search of a way to turn my life around; I found there is no limit to articles on healthy lifestyles. You can find everything from healthy recipes to daily exercise suggestions.

With obesity being so prevalent in today’s society causing heart disease and diabetes we should all take a good look not only at our life, but the lifestyle of our family as whole.

To help you on your way to a healthier life you will need to:

• Limit saturated and Trans fats in your daily diet, which causes high cholesterol and coronary artery disease.
• High protein low fat foods will aid in making your diet healthy. Foods such as lean poultry and fish, using egg whites or egg substitutes instead of the whole egg. Eliminate butter and whole milk use skim milk and yogurt instead.
• Add fiber, minerals and vitamins to your families’ diet by including fruits and vegetables. It is much easier today to get your family to eat these foods with all of the recipes you find on line.
• Select whole grain cereal, breads and snacks for breakfast and pack them in a healthy lunch. Whole grain foods are filled with fiber, nutrients, vitamins and minerals for your families’ healthy heart.
• When adding salt to your diet you are adding the risk of high blood pressure, which can cause cardiovascular disease. It is in your best interest to eliminate salt as much as possible.
• Cutting back on the amount of food you put on your plate and not going back for seconds is a tremendous help in watching you weight and gaining a healthy body.
• Planning your meals ahead of time will allow you to add fiber and eliminate foods high in fat and cholesterol.        

To find more information click here: Heart healthy diet