Pan fried bitter melon

Slice one bitter melon.
Slice one yellow squash.
Slice 1/2 onion.
Saute in oil.
Add garlic powder and hot sauce to taste.
Right before it's finished cooking add 1/2 cup chopped bok choy.

Exercise

You need some kind of exercise every day. Even if it's just walking around in the yard picking up trash. Anything. Get up, move around.

The best time to get some exercise is after a meal, maybe between one to three hours after eating. Exercise has immediate blood sugar effects in addition to long term health benefits and a couple of hours after eating is typically when you'll be at a blood sugar maximum, most in need of immediate exercise.

Diabetic Hamburger Steak

Large slice of onion, finely chopped.
Large turnip slice, boiled, then chopped.
1/4-1/2 tspn tumeric
1 hamburger patty, ex-lean.

Mix it all together by folding over and over, form into a patty and fry in a pan.

Fruit bowl for diabetics

Slice a pear into a bowl, add a splash of lemon juice, sprinkle with cinammon, microwave for a minute or two to soften up the pear (time depending on how green the pear is).

Add strawberry (frozen or fresh). Top with shavings of bakers chocolate (100% cacao).

Microwave to melt the chocolate.

Pears and strawberries aren't bad fruits for diabetics. Cinnamon and cacao seem to have medicinal properties for diabetics.

More diabetic cooking -- Boiled turnip

Boil 1 large turnip and 1 small red potatoe.

Put in a bowl and chop them up.

Add a pat of butter, black pepper to taste, a dash of balsamic vinegar (I used a raspberry infused one), and a dollop of low-fat sour cream.

Mashed Bitter Melon

Boil 1 Bitter Melon, 1 small red potatoe, 1 green pear and mash together (spoon our the pear core before mashing). Just use a regular potatoe masher or a large fork.

Add about 1/4-1/2 tsp tumeric as you mix it.

You could also add 1 turnip to the mix.

That's all there is to it. You could add a little butter and black pepper if you like.

A Bitter Melon recipe

Bitter Melon and tumeric are both good for reducing blool sugar levels.

Boil 1 bitter melon and 1 green pear
Coarsely chop 1 red onion.
Saute onion in a little oil.
Add one large sliced jalapeno.
1 tsp. tumeric and 1/2 tsp. dried red pepper
Keep stirring.
Chop the boiled bitter melon and pear and add to the pan.
At the last minute add 1/2 cup chopped bok choy greens.

If you weren't diabetic you could serve over rice.

This might be a little hot for you, reduce the red pepper, tumeric and jalapeno to taste.

Also, it can't hurt your blood sugar to reserve the stock used to boil the bitter melon anad green pear and use it as a base to make some tea.

Yoga and Diabetes

Stress is not healthy. Yoga is a formal system for managing stress. The use of Yoga as a part of the management of diabetes

has resulted in reduction in the dosage of hypogliycemic agents and insulin, control over weight, increased glucose tolerance, and reduction in hyperglycemia.*

From, B. Manyam, "Diabetes Mellitus, Ayurveda, and Yoga, Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine

But you don't need a formal program of Yoga as much as you just need to calm down. Managing diabetes is about not overeating, getting exeercise, and avoiding stress. Just those three simple things will take you a long ways.

Calories and carbs

Until recently most of my focus on the Nutrition Facts label during my food shopping had been on the carbs. But I've been looking at calories more closely.

Yesterday I looked at a tub of sour cream at the grocery store. A 2 tablespoon serving had 2 grams of carbs. It was the same for regular sour cream and low-fat sour cream. No difference in carb count. But the regular sour cream was 60 calories per serving, the low-fat 15 calories.

No wonder I was having weight problems. That paying attention stuff really is important.

Herbals treatments for diabetes

Diabetes is a disease that might be more ameanable to herbal treatments than others because of the nature of it's symptoms. Although not well understood, diabetes has been known for thousands of years. Doctors and witches have been treating diabetes with the means at hand for at least 3,500 years. For most of those years pretty much the only medicines at hand were herbs and tree barks. Some of them probably worked.

Diabetes is an ancient disease. Its symptoms, which include excessive drinking of water and frequent urination (to wash away the excess sugar in the blood), were noted on a scrap of Egyptian papyrus more than 3,500 years ago. The ancient Roman doctor Aretaeus of Cappadocia also gave a vivid description of diabetes, describing it as "a melting down of the flesh and limbs into urine."

Since then, many physicians have remarked on the sweet taste of diabetics' urine. Indeed, the technical term for this disease, diabetes mellitus, means "sweet flow" or "syphon." Because of this hallmark of diabetes, the disease was thought to be a disorder of the kidneys and bladder for more than two thousand years.

Although the future of a control or cure for diabetes lies in modern medicine, not overlook alternative herbal remdies while we're waiting.

Tumeric for Diabetics

Tumeric (also spelled Turmeric) is a curry type spice made from a powdered from of the root of an Indian herb. It's related to ginger and saffron. You can use it in cooking with at least a partial substituion in pretty much any recipe that calls for curry powder, ginger, or saffron.

It appears to lower both blood sugar and cholesterol levels in diabetics.

Here's a recipe for Cauliflower With Turmeric.

3 Things To Do If You Soak Your Feet

The feet of diabetics are at high risk of infection and circulation related problems. Soaking your feet sure can feel good, and common sense would seem to tell you that it's a good thing to do. But it's often not as good an idea as it might seem.

Prolonged soaking opens small cracks in your skin where germs can get in. That's how infections get started. Soaking also removes your natural skin oils. Repeatedly wetting and drying your feet can worsen dry skin problems

1. Don't soak your feet for an extended period of time. It's probably enough to keep your feet in a container of water while you wash them.

2. Don't use hot water. The hotter the water, the more it will dry your feet.

3. Use a foot lotion after drying. You need to replenish any oils that the soaking removed.

Diabetes and Teeth

Here's what the Departement of Veterans Affairs says about dental care and diabetes

If you have diabetes, taking care of your mouth is very important. You are at risk for periodontal disease and other infections. Periodontal disease can damage the gum and bone that support your teeth. It may lead to bleeding gums, chewing problems and tooth loss. Periodontal disease may also make it hard to control blood glucose (sugar).

But they don't typically offer dental care to vets with diabetes as a result of exposure to Agent Orange.

I guess it's just too much trouble.

Fenugreek and Diabetes

Fenugreek is an herb that grows in the Mediterranean areas and parts of Asia.

The seeds have been found to stimulate insulin production in Type 2 Diabetics and to lower cholesterol.

But it has a side effect that's problematic for diabetics. It stimulates appetite. That's not something very many diabetics have much of a need for. Because of that I don't really recommend it.

Bitter Melon

Bitter Melon is a tropical squash type vegetable. It appears to have the effect of lowering blood sugar levels in diabetics. (Saxena and Vikram, "Role of selected Indian plants in Management of Type 2 Diabetes", Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, 2004, pp 369-378. That would be a good thing.

The research has mostly been done on rats, with some human research. Bitter Melon juice has been used in most of the research.

It's widely available in capsule forms from health food distributors but I have my doubts about the usefullness of that form.

Just a small glass of juice daily seems to do the trick. To much can cause diarrhea. There are no known drug interactions.

It's available on Amazon in tea form, either in Bitter Melon Tea Bags or in bulk form

You can grow your own with Bittermelon Seeds It's a tropical plant and needs lots of heat and lots of water. The seeds won't germinate if nighttime tempuratures fall below 70 degrees.

Controlling blood sugar with supplements

I'm never real sure about alternative treatments but with diabetes nutrition does matter.

Vitamins and Herbs Effect on Diabetes
Vitamin C (ascorbic acid)
With vitamin E, helps get sugar out of the blood stream and into the cells.5 Keeps diabetics’ blood vessels and kidneys healthy.6,7

Vitamin E (mixed tocopherols)
With the B vitamins, vitamin E helps keeps the pancreas healthy and helps prevent nerve damage.8,9 Helps prevent kidney damage, blindness, and heart attacks.10,11 With vitamin C, helps keep blood vessels healthy.12,13

Vitamin B6 (pyridoxine HCL)
With folic acid and B12, B6, helps prevents heart attacks and nerve damage.14,15 Helps prevent diabetic blindness, vision loss.16

Folic Acid
Along with B12, folic acid helps prevents strokes and loss of limbs due to diabetic complications.17 Vitamin B12 (cyanocobalamin) Helps relieve neuropathic pain.18 Also works with folic acid and B6 (see above).

Biotin
With chromium’s help, biotin (one of the B vitamins) helps insulin work better, keeps the pancreas working well, and lowers blood sugar levels.19 Magnesium (Krebs cycle chelate) Relieves neuropathic pain and helps insulin work more effectively.20,21

Zinc (picolinate)
Helps blood sugar get into the cells and insulin work better.22

Selenium (aspartate)
Called an "insulin mimic", selenium helps take blood sugar into the cells. Selenium also protects against blood vessel and nerve damage from elevated blood sugars.23,24

Copper (picolinate)
Copper helps protect the cells in the pancreas that make insulin healthy, helps prevent diabetes-related damage to blood vessels and nerves, and lowers blood sugar levels.25

Manganese (Krebs cycle chelate)
Helps prevent damage to blood vessels and nerves.26,27

Chromium (picolinate)
With biotin’s help, chromium helps insulin work better, keeps the pancreas working well, and lowers blood sugar levels.19
Gymnema sylvestre leaf extract
Helps balance blood sugars and may protect us from gaining weight.28,29

Bitter melon whole fruit extract
Helps pathways in the diabetic liver work more efficiently; lowers blood sugar levels.30

Fenugreek seed extract
Helps lower blood sugars and helps our liver and kidneys metabolize blood sugars more efficiently.31

Bilberry berry extract
Helps prevent and reduce the severity of diabetic cataracts.32

Mixed bioflavonoids (citrus)
Helps protect vitamins C and E from diabetic damage. Like bilberry, bioflavonoids help keep diabetics’ vision clear and sharp.33 Vanadyl sulfate Helps cells of both the liver and muscles use insulin more effectively.34

ACCORD

I hadn't heard of ACCORD until I ran across a reference to it on another blog.

ACCORD is some kind of NIH study of diabetes

The overall goal of the Action to Control Cardiovascular Risk in Diabetes (ACCORD) trial is to address this challenge by testing three complementary medical treatment strategies for type 2 diabetes to enhance the options for reducing the still very high rate of major CVD morbidity and mortality in this disease.

So much of this kind of stuff is controled by pharacutical interests that I'm not ever sure what to think about it. I'll have to do some reading.

Dental Implants

For the first couple of years after I developed diabetes I went undiagnosed. I know that now because I was having some symptoms such as a tingling on the bottom of my feet at night. I just didn't know then that they were symptoms of diabets.

One of the things that was happening was that I was getting some gum infections that wouldn't heal and had some teeth start falling out. I was homeless or near homeless through much of that period and the dental care I was able to get was a free clinic that would do extractions. The way the clinic worked was that you went in to see a dental assistint of some kind who'd look at your teeth and go tell the dentist, "Yep, looks bad". The dentists would then schedule you for extraction.

You never actually got to talk to the dentist and the dentist didn't actually see you. I didn't like the idea of having my teeth pulled without at least talking to someone about replacement options. So after that first visit I just never went back, I just let teeth fall out. Which they did over the next couple of years.

When I finially got diagnosed and treated for the diabetes the gum infections stopped and the teeth stopped falling out. But the damage was done. I'm just another toothless redneck these days.

One of my other health problems is depression (hence that homelessness I (mentioned). While depressed I didn't really care about my teeth or appearance because that's kind of how I felt about myself anyway. I finially ran across a competent shrink (finding a competent shrink is a whole 'nother story) who was able to figure out a workable medication schedule for me. So I'm feeling a lot better about myself, actually getting some work done, and I'm going to get my teeth fixed.

But after a couple of decades of being too depressed to work much I'm kind of broke. I think I'd like dental implants. I do have one implant that I got 40 years ago, when I was 19 and a tooth got knocked out in a car wreck. I've been happy with it. But I know I can't afford that, I need way too many of them (I don't even know how many teeth are missing, but a lot).

So I've been checking into Mexican dentists online. My mother lives in Corpus Christi, TX and has a friend who had a dental partial plate made in Mexico and is happy with both price and product. A lot of the border town dentists have web sites with price lists.

Although I might be able to afford dental implants in Mexico, I decided against it. I'm going to go with some combination of partial plate and bridges (I think I need an upper partial plate and a lower bridge, maybe two lower bridges). Looking at the Mexican prices I can afford that with no problem.

The reason I decided against dental implants is that installing implants is kind of a major surgical procedure. I mean, drilling into bone and stuff just seems kind of major. And a lot of the Mexican dentists talk about how they lower the risk of infection by using new plastic gloves with every patient and using water distilled North of the Rio Grande.

New plastic gloves with every patient? That's something they have to point out that they do? It's part of their special care to control the risk of infection.

I'm diabetic. I have a high risk of infection, and a high risk of big problems if I get an intection. I'm going to pass on having bone drilled into at a place that thinks state of the art infection control means fresh rubber gloves with every patient.

But I am going to Mexico for plate/bridge work.

You can't believe the news

DLife tells us that major news outlets, NYT and NBC among them, sometimes seriously miss-report the results of medical research.

You'd expect them to be able to actually hire journalists with enough general competence to get it right. But, they can't be depended on to do that. Don't take action based on information you get from standard news sources. You just have to check it our yourself, as difficult as that might be.