Mens Health Blog. Medical Blog » Diabetes http://ifaks.com Information on Erectile Dysfuncton Tue, 26 Jul 2011 14:16:41 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 LIVING WITH DIABETES: SELF-MONITORING GLUCOSE LEVELS http://ifaks.com/2011/06/living-with-diabetes-self-monitoring-glucose-levels http://ifaks.com/2011/06/living-with-diabetes-self-monitoring-glucose-levels#comments Mon, 06 Jun 2011 15:36:32 +0000 admin http://ifaks.com/?p=189
People with diabetes routinely test their blood sugar level to monitor how well their condition is being controlled. Checking on the amount of sugar in the blood several times a day helps give a better idea of how much insulin is needed. Keeping blood sugar levels under control can help to prevent or even reverse some long-term complications of diabetes.
In the past, urine tests were commonly used for monitoring diabetes. But this is not the best way to measure glucose levels. If there is glucose in the urine, you don’t know when it spilled over. A urine test might be negative when blood glucose levels are actually dangerously high. Urine tests don’t tell you how high the blood sugar was, either, and they can’t tell you when blood sugar levels are too low.
Fortunately, technology has provided an affordable way to measure blood sugar levels by using devices called blood glucose monitors. You can find out exactly what your blood sugar level is in just a few moments. This makes it possible to adjust food and insulin more appropriately than ever before. Using a monitor regularly can also give a timely warning when an insulin reaction is developing, because the blood test shows when there is too little glucose present.
To test blood sugar, you just prick your finger or earlobe and place a drop of blood onto a chemically sensitive strip. In some systems the strip is compared to a color-coded chart, or it is simply placed into a small portable machine that provides a digital readout of blood sugar levels.
Wearing Medical Identification
Wearing a medical identification bracelet or necklace and/or carrying an identification card can also help in case of an emergency. Information on your illness and what to do in case of insulin reaction or ketoacidosis, as well as your name and the name and number of someone to contact, may mean the difference between life and death if you are found unconscious.
A nonprofit organization, Medic-Alert Foundation, can provide you with an identification card or tag, and maintains a central file containing vital information on every case registered with it. This information can be obtained twenty-four hours a day by a collect telephone call.
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]]> http://ifaks.com/2011/06/living-with-diabetes-self-monitoring-glucose-levels/feed 0 HOW SCIENTISTS MEASURE THE G.I. FACTOR http://ifaks.com/2009/05/how-scientists-measure-the-gi-factor http://ifaks.com/2009/05/how-scientists-measure-the-gi-factor#comments Fri, 08 May 2009 12:45:30 +0000 admin http://ifaks.com/2009/05/how-scientists-measure-the-gi-factor 1. An amount of food containing 50 grams of carbohydrate is given to a volunteer to eat. For example, to test boiled spaghetti, the volunteer would be given 200 grams of spaghetti which supplies 50 grams of carbohydrate (we work this out from food composition tables)—50 grams of carbohydrate is equivalent to 3 tablespoons of pure glucose powder.

2. Over the next two hours (or three hours if the volunteer has diabetes), we take a sample of their blood every 15 minutes during the first hour and thereafter every 30 minutes. The blood sugar level of these blood samples is measured in the laboratory and recorded.

3. The blood sugar level is plotted on a graph and the area under the curve is calculated using a computer program.

4. The volunteer’s response to spaghetti (or whatever food is being tested) is compared with his or her blood sugar response to 50 grams of pure glucose (the reference food).

5. The reference food is tested on two or three separate occasions and an average value is calculated. This is done to reduce the effect of day-to-day variation in blood sugar responses.

6. The average G.I. found in 8 to 10 people is the G.I. of that food.

In total, eight to ten people need to be tested and the G.I. factor of the food is the average value of the group. We know this average figure is reproducible and that a different group of volunteers will produce a similar result. Results obtained in a group of people with diabetes are comparable to those without diabetes.

The important point to note is that all foods are tested in equivalent carbohydrate amounts. For example, 100 grams of bread (about 3K slices of sandwich bread) is tested because this contains 50 grams of carbohydrate. Likewise, 60 grams of jelly beans (containing 50 grams of carbohydrate) is compared with the reference food. We know how much carbohydrate is in a food by consulting food composition tables, the manufacturer’s data or measuring it ourselves in the laboratory.

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