The Effects of Diabetes: Guest Blog

Coping with diabetes is a daily journey for millions of individuals and their families. If you have a family member or friend with type 1 diabetes, you may be familiar with the allergic reactions, irritation and rash that insulin injections can cause.

People with type 2 diabetes face different challenges, as doctors often prescribe them medications to help their cells use insulin more efficiently. Unfortunately, these patients and their families may be forced to deal with some serious side effects from these medications.

The Most Dangerous Diabetes Drug

Actos is the most popular drug prescribed to treat diabetes — and among the most dangerous.

Actos carries a black-box warning from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) because it can cause heart attacks. In 2011, Actos was shown to increase the risk of bladder cancer by 40 percent if a patient takes it for longer than a year.

Some other dangerous Actos side effects include macular edema, which is an eye disorder that causes blindness, and an increased risk of broken bones and liver failure. 

Patients have sued the maker of Actos, after suffering complications from taking the drug, creating thousands of Actos Lawsuits.

The Dangers of Metformin

Metformin is usually one of the first drugs doctors give to people with type 2 diabetes because it lowers blood-sugar levels quickly. Sadly, it also can have some serious side effects.

Metformin can cause heart or liver failure, or chronic metabolic acidosis — which occurs when extra amounts of acid fill the body. 

Safer Ways to Treat Diabetes

Diabetes is hard enough for patients and their families. No one needs a diabetes drug that can bring even more visits to the doctor or, in the worst-case scenario, a  terminal illness.

The good news for families and diabetes patients is that there are safer alternatives. Doctors can decide whether any of the following might be a good option:  non-sulfonylurea secretagogues, alpha-glucosidase inhibitors or sulfonylureas. These medications can lower blood sugar and carry less risk.

William Richards is a writer for Drugwatch.com. He uses his journalism background to investigate dangerous drugs and promote consumer awareness to better the community.

RNIB's help transformed Trevor's life

Trevor Franklin went blind at the age of 60 and this hit him especially hard, so much so that he reached a point of wanting to kill himself. Then a friend persuaded him to get in touch with the RNIB. This good news story is reported here in the Telegraph.

Two good ways to reduce the risk of going blind are giving up smoking and cutting down on salt and salty food. These will improve your health in countless other ways too.

Some Blind People Could Possibly Be Cured By Stem Cells Grown On Contact Lenses

See Telegraph article about improving the sight of patients with damage to the cornea.

A charity has warned that 700,000 people with diabetes are at risk of losing their sight because they are not being screened.

Diabetics at risk of blindness because NHS is not testing them: charity
article in the Telegraph

Extract:

"The latest figures published by the Department of Health show that more than a quarter of people with diabetes aged 12 and over were not screened in the year up to October 2008.

Almost two thirds (98 out of 152) of primary care trusts are still failing to meet the target of screening 80 per cent of people with diabetes, Diabetes UK has warned, even though the target should have been reached over a year ago.

Retinal screening is used to spot signs of retinopathy, a condition that occurs when blood vessels in the retina of the eye become blocked, leaky or grow haphazardly. If left untreated can damage vision and ultimately cause blindness."

You can lower your risk of developing type 2 diabetes by eating less salt and salty food.

Lose weight, reduce your risk of most cancers, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, heart attack, vascular dementia, stroke, osteopenia, osteoporosis, hypercholesterolaemia, depression, liver and kidney problems, and improve your health in many other ways without drugs, hunger or expense by eating less salt! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

And see Sodium in foods and

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/story.html - my 'political' page

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/socio.html - social and economic considerations

amitriptyline

prescribed steroids and HRT

See advice for pregnant mothers

Children and Obesity

Associated health conditions

and FAT RETENTION

I can be contacted via my website if you need my further help. My help is free.

Millions of Britons are risking their sight by not having regular eye tests, experts have warned.

Millions putting sight at risk by not having regular eye tests
Article in the Telegraph

Extract:

"An eye test is the only way to diagnose glaucoma, the leading cause of blindness in Britain.

Around 500,000 people in this country currently suffer from the condition, in which the eyes optic nerve becomes damaged over time.

Sufferers can lose up to half of their peripheral vision before they realise something is wrong.

Experts at the Moorfields Eye Hospital, in London, the International Glaucoma Association, the Eye Health Alliance, the Royal National Institute for Blind people, warn that early detection of the disease is crucial to preventing sight loss."

I watched The Truth About Food last evening on BBC2. It included food suggestions re. macular degeneration.

This is the website link for the programme I saw: http://www.bbc.co.uk/sn/humanbody/truthaboutfood/young/

In brief, the clearest, most definite things I learned from the programme:

Most detox diets are not worth bothering with. The expert explained that nutrition is far more complicated than is realised by the people who keep recommending detox diets.

Eating spinach helps to prevent "age-related macular degeneration", a major cause of poor eyesight and sometimes blindness. It can even repair some damage to the macula that has already occurred! - The nutrient involved is lutein. This nutrient is also contained in kiwifruits, leeks, peas, eggs, broccoli, etc. You can find them easily by using a search engine.

Eating tomatoes helps to protect your skin from UV damage by the sun. The nutrient involved in this protection is lycopene.


Lose weight by eating less salt! Go on! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!
How to Lose weight!

See my website http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/.html
(The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.)

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

See Sodium in foods and Associated health conditions

I can be contacted via my website if you need my further help. My help is free...

Diet rich in omega-3 fatty acids may help prevent blindness

Fish oil may help prevent blindness - Telegraph

Extract:

"In the study, published in the journal Nature Medicine, mice were fed diets rich in either omega-3 fatty acids (comparable to a Japanese diet) or omega-6 fatty acids (comparable to a Western diet).

Mice on the omega-3 diet, rich in DHA had less blood vessel loss in the retina than the omega-6-fed mice. The blood vessel loss was also cut by up to a half."

You can reduce your risk of developing cataracts and also lose weight and benefit your health in countless other ways by eating less salt! - Go on! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!
See my website http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/
Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection
(The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.)

NHS 'must improve services for the blind' Tom Pey, the director of policy for the Guide Dogs for the Blind Association (GDBA) has said.

NHS 'must improve services for the blind'

Extract:

"Speaking on BBC Radio 4's In Touch programme, he said: "We have carried out our own research this time and oddly enough we have gone to blind and partially sighted people to find out what is wrong.

"To give some of the figures: 20 per cent of blind people do not go out on their own because they have not received training to do it; even though 80 per cent of people have received an assessment, only 40 per cent have received the service as a result of it.

"Furthermore, the trauma that one goes through when finding out one is going to go blind is never treated by the NHS."



Remember many cases of blindness are caused by diabetes. - You can lower your risk of developing diabetes by reducing the amount of salt/sodium you eat. - This would also help to prevent or to lessen obesity and many other health problems. - See http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/conditions.html

Obesity is not caused by eating too much. - It is caused/initiated by fluid retention. - Dieting is potentially harmful. Fluid retention can be reduced by cutting down on salt/sodium.
Lose weight by eating less salt! - Go on! - Try it! - See my website http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/ (The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.)