Type Free Blog

Cnn.com reports a therapy to reduce painful "phantom limb pain" using a mirror system.

Read more:Pain Relief For Amputees

Often diabetics who have a limb amputated are tormented by a pain sensed as coming from the missing limbs. It is believed that around 95% amputees suffer different levels of "phantom limb pain". The length of time suffered also varies.

Phantom limb pain is not well understood and is believed caused by the following:

Recently, I saw a very interesting video made by CBS and 60 Minutes. The video covered the potential connection between the loss of deep sleep and Type 2 Diabetes. The sample size of the research is small. Therefore, continued research will have to be done with testing more people.

The researcher identifies leptin as the direct cause of weight gain and poor sugar processing by the body.

Americans use cheese as a flavoring agent in foods. This is an unhealthy idea.

Most cheeses contain high levels of saturated fats and cholesterol. This leads to blocked arteries and heart disease.

Recently, my wife and I cooked a meal for friends visiting us. One of the dishes was broccoli with ginger. After tasting the broccoli one of our friends said, "Wow, you don't even have to put cheese on the broccoli." That's when I realized how often Americans added cheese to their dishes to improve the flavor.

Today, I read an eye-opening article by Andrew Curry in "Diabetes Forecast" magazine. He wrote, "...90 million American adults have trouble reading; 110 million have trouble with basic math. The estimated 21 million diabetics and 54 million pre-diabetics have a compounded problem.

Research indicates caffeine found in coffee, tea, caffein containing soda pops, and chocolate reduces diabetics' control of their blood sugar/glucose).

Caffeine appears to:
Prevent some cells from using insulin. This prevents glucose from entering those cells and building up in the blood;

Dehydrates the body. Dehydration causes many problems with the blood -- like causing the body to secrete chemicals that prevent some cells from getting enough water. This leads to cell stress and cell death.

I hear many concerned family members struggle with their parent or sibling that is "not taking care of their diabetes". The next question is "how do I make them do better?" Since we can't make any one do anything what does help?

What makes holidays so hard? Share your tips of what you do when invited to the never-ending group events surrounding food.

The New York Times article dated October 16, 2007 gives a lengthy and provocative look at potential causes of diabetes looking more closely at the signals our body cells send and recieve. Intriguing is the possible involvement of bone hormones in the handling of glucose by the body, especially important in type 2 diabetes. Wow, first we learned about the pancreas, then the liver and muscle and until recently fat tissue directing body function and glucose management. Now bone. The closer we think we are getting to a cure the more complicated the picture gets. Righly so.

For people who have been diagnosed with diabetes for more than 8 years, add a urologist or urogynecologist to your medical team. Bladder dysfunction resulting from nerve damage (autonomic neuropathy) effects 40% to 80% of the diabetic population. You may not even know your bladder is not operating properly.

If you do not control your glucose levels, the sugar may damage your urinary system which includes:

Economics appears to be a significant barrier to preventing Type 2 diabetes. Chronic diseases by definition last a lifetime and cost a lot of money to manage. Many industries profit from causing, and treating Type 2 diabetes mellitus. Using direct cost estimates and indirect cost estimates, the annual overall cost of diabetes is estimated to range between $90 billion and $137 billion. The questions that beg to be answered are, what is the cost of prevention? And, why don't we focus on prevention?