How Diabetes Affects Your Feet Can Prevent an Amputation

Shouldn't every diabetic know the details so that amputations could be prevented?

With each and every new patient with diabetes, they either fully comprehend the risks of diabetes to their feet (very rare) or they have no clue (very common). With every one of these folks I feel that the one goal is to get them to understand that diabetic foot problems are optional.

Diabetes can be a tough disease to deal with. Your doctor starts telling you what to eat, telling you to exercise, lecturing about heart attacks. Then you are at home learning about blood sugar monitoring, taking medicine, pricking your finger every day. People will say, "Now I gotta think about my feet too? Seems like such a hassle."

And it is.

But the good news in all of this is that everything bad that can happen to you because of diabetes is preventable. Everything. All it takes is a little learning, a little lifestyle change, and little daily effort. The goal is to get you to understand the basics of how diabetes can affect your feet...so you can do something about it.

When you have diabetes you have three main problems, all working together and conspiring against you, that can lead to a diabetic foot amputation. It involves your nerves, blood flow and immune system.

When your blood sugar is high, there is a chemical reaction that directly damages the ends of the longest nerves in your body. The longest ones start in your back (where they exit the spine) and head all the way down to the toes in one long piece. Because the ends get damaged first, any nerve damage starts in the toes and gradually creeps up the foot toward the ankles.

It is always damaged at the same level in both feet. For example, if you have nerve damage (neuropathy) at the ball of the foot, the nerve damage is only in the toes. In this case the arches and heels might be fine.

Neuropathy makes it hard for you to tell if you are getting a blister or an open sore, and puts you at risk for problems. It is deceptive because you might be able to feel other things like the position of your feet, shoes and socks squeezing, but not a blister, cut or sore.

The second problem is the circulation or blood flow in the feet and legs. The arteries get clogged faster when you have diabetes. If you take two people who are identical, except one is diabetic, the one who is diabetic is four times more likely to have a heart attack. That is because of the increased rate of clogging up those arteries through the process called atherosclerosis. But this process happens everywhere, not just the heart. The blood vessels to the legs get plugged up too. Then, when you get a sore it takes longer to heal. It is also harder for your infection fighting white blood cells to get down there.

The last problem is your immune system. When your blood sugar is high, the white blood cells (called macrophages) have a hard to time fighting off those nasty bacteria. The white macrophages find bacteria through a process called chemotaxis. It is like following a trail of chemicals to its source. This is not very effective when the blood sugar is elevated. In effect, the macrophages are lost in the dark, simply bumping around, hoping stumble into some bacteria to kill. Very inefficient and not very effective.

Once they do find the bacteria they have a bigger problem. The high blood sugar prevents them from eating the bacteria. The process where the white blood cells engulf the bacteria (called phagocytosis) is essentially disabled. So they bump up against they bacteria, but can't do anything. Imagine a great white shark with his mouth wired shut trying to eat a smaller fish for dinner. Because of all of this, the immune system is ineffective, the bacteria continue to grow and the infection quickly gets out of hand.

So a diabetic amputation goes something like this. You get a little nerve damage, can't feel a blister starting when you are walking at the mall, and it pops. Just like that, you have an open sore. Your blood flow is a little sluggish and it takes a long time to heal. Then it gets infected while it is trying to heal. If your blood sugar is high, all of those sharks are wandering around in the dark, mouths wired shut, and the infection spreads.

If it spreads enough, one of the foot bones gets infected. And a bone infection is the kiss of death for the diabetic foot. The only reliable way to heal a bone infection in an adult diabetic is to remove the infected bone. And that is where the amputation begins.

The moral of the story is watch your blood sugar, and your nerve damage will never get any worse. If you walk 30 minutes a day, fives days a week, your blood flow will never get any worse. If you have any nerve damage, you need close monitoring by a diabetic foot expert. If you ever get any open sore, blister or ingrown toenail it is an emergency...no joke. Get that foot checked out or it might get chopped off!

Cocaine Treatment

Cocaine is a powerfully seductive drug that has robbed many people of parts of their life. Although some people can still function at a high level even under its influence, this usually is a mask disguising other underlying issues. It can impact your work life, relationships, family, and even your interest in new things or life in general. For this reason, many people enter a cocaine treatment program to get the help they need. Here, we take a look at how this may help you and what you can expect to find:

1. Learn To Live Without Cocaine.

One of the things all drug treatment programs have in common is they teach the person that they can live without the drug. Initially, patients go through a detox program where the body is helped by being purified of the bad toxins. This allows the person to physically be free of the control of cocaine. Then, the patient enters a standard treatment program where they focus on the person's mind. Here, the patient is taught that they can live without the drug and is also taught how to avoid the situations that have brought on drug abuse in the past.

2. Address The Underlying Issues Of The Addiction.

For many people, cocaine abuse hides other problems of the person. These can take on the form of emotional, behavioral, or psychological issues. The key for lasting recovery is to help uncover these issues and start creating and following a plan to help address them. This can be very therapeutic in allowing the person to address his/her issues rather than using drugs to mask them.

3. Focus Day By Day For Long Term Recovery.

One thing all patients learn is that one will always be an addict. They will discover that they will have to deal with the addiction on a daily basis. However, managing these addictions is possible through quality counseling and help. In addition, by taking a day by day focus, many people are able to discover they can be very successful in finding long term relief.

Although the journey to recovery may not be an easy one, for those who are able to get any kind of relief, they have found it is more than worthwhile. A quality cocaine treatment program helps give them back the one thing they value most: their life.

For more information on Drug Rehab Program, try visiting http://www.alcoholanddrugrehabinfo.com to get some solid tips and information on drug rehab treatment centers and programs

Keys To Acheiving Fitness And The Body And Life You Want

Acheiving fitness and the body you want and eventually through that, acheiving the life that you want is an art in itself. The following article should really help in being successful in achieving this and, also in acheiving and reaching other life changing goals. Have fun.

The following traits are written out in order. Anotherwords, you need to work on the first one before the second one. But you can work on them around the same time.

Self value

Maintaining self value is hard for some especially moms and dads. Because our society where, once we are parents we, somehow are not suppose to put ourselves first. We are supposed to be selfless often to the point were we have to prove our worth to our friends and peers.

The only thing I can say about that is, that when the plane is going down, mom or dad needs to put the oxygen mask on themselves before their kids, in order to save their kids. We are only as good as our weakest player. And when WE are the weakest player, everyone in the family suffers, especailly kids. It is a heavy burden for kids to be the only reason for your existance.

To live for your kids is great but not through your kids. There is nothing noble about sacrificing their mommys health, spirit, and well being. I for one want to inspire by example and show my daughter especailly, that you can do, be and get what you intend to in life. I want to walk my talk and I want them to also.

So, I would say to value yourself and take care of yourself first. Feel good at most costs because that energy really does rub off. There is nothing more depressing for a child than a depressed mom who has lost all her will and drive.

Focus

Someone once told me and I will never forget this, that we are not really in need of more time nowadays... We are in need of more focus. And that the trick and key to success in a shorter period of time, is not that we get distracted, but that we don't re-engage our focus fast enough when we do get distracted.

I would say that to do this takes practice. You need to meditate on re-engaging your focus and expediting your time. All of this takes patients and practice and there is nothing wrong with meditating and visualization to practice focus. So, as far as meditating on focus, there are exercises that help develop focus and it does take practice.

Meditation done right, does not just happen and most people don't put enough importance on this subject when in regard to physical pursuits. Personally I would say that this is a must. You can actually find meditations and visualization exercises on exercise and focus if you google Gina Cools articles. That would be me.

Discipline

Being disciplined takes focus and self value. If you have those two things you are ahead of the game. Once you can re-engage in your goals and focus in, you have more of a chance to create discipline because you won't forget what your goals are as easily. You can refocus and you know it.

One thing that you can do now is consciously put yourself in a position where you have to deny yourself and follow thru with it. For instance, make a cake and don't lick the spoon with your kids if that is what you usually do. Or, don't eat off your kids leftovers, which is really a common thing overweight people do because they don't want something to go to waste. Rather than wrapping it up and putting it in the refridgerator.

So, try little exercises like that, that make sense to you. They are pretty easy to come up with and don't take a lot of time. Most importantly, they give you more confidence in the area of discipline.

Persistence.

As far as persistence...something that works for me is, saying things like, "I am more fit and weigh less today than yesterday." This really helps me to keep it going when times get tough or just long and drawn out.

When I am afraid of failure and can't get across my impatience I just remember that to just wait it out after the work is fine and a trick to this is to know when you wait and know that your work is finished and now that is just a matter of time before you will see results.

Then create a list of items that need to be done to get to the next goal. Set your objectives down and it will go that much faster. And again visualize your successes. This helps you maintain your mindset.

Taking Ownership

Be the owner of your results and your goals not somebody elses. The minute you take ownership of someone elses results is when you lose control of your own. You simply cannot concentrate your efforts in both directions. One will eventually cancel the other one out. You need to focus your energy inward and visualize your own success and be the boss of you. Once you really do is when you can then be empowered to engage in more powerful situations.

Never ever listen to other peoples goals, or worry about their results or feel that they are taking away from you because of thier goals or results.

Results

Again, you need to know when you achieved your outcome and not beat a dead horse or waste time reinventing the wheel.

For instance, when you lose the weight you want to lose, you need to focus on the next thing, rather than spending time on more diets or new and improved calorie counters.

You lost the weight. Be happy and move on to the next thing.

This goes for your other personal and professional goals as well.

Focus on People

When I was a kid, people constantly told me that I was a people person. I thought that that was a worthless trait and didn't really do or mean anything. I was wrong.

It turns out, that trait is one of the things if not the most important thing that got me results in my biggest and most complicated goals. It is also now a fun trait to have and to work on.

Every successful person understands they need a team and that her success comes with and through other people.

A successful person will recognize these individuals and appreciate them for their talents and let them do their jobs. A successful person will hire the right trainer or dieticain and recognize their abilities. They will also do their homework and listen. He will also assume complete responsibility for things not working, and not blame the other person. Rather, he will know that the person was good enough to do their job, and it was he who did not follow thru.

These traits if worked on a daily basis by reminding yourself of them, and reading this article for awhile once a day. And then by meditating and visualizing yourself aquiring these traits will come. And with them, a whole new world will open up for you. Take one day at a time, and continue the fun but hard work.

Antioxidants & Free Radicals

Antioxidants are much involved in preventing cellular damage that is responsible for aging, cancer, and a host of other diseases.

Free radicals are actually atoms or groups of atoms having an odd (or unpaired) number of electrons and are formed on the interaction of oxygen with certain molecules. Once formed, they begin a chain reaction and being highly reactive, react with important cellular components such as the cell membrane or DNA and can cause immense damage. This may cause the cells to function poorly or die. To prevent the damage caused by free radicals there is a defence system of antioxidants in the body.

Antioxidants are also molecules that safely react with free radicals and terminate the chain reaction before vital cellular components are damaged. Vitamin E, vitamin C and beta-carotene are the principle micronutrients that restrict the free radicals from reacting and causing damage.

Selenium, a trace metal required for the functioning of one the antioxidant enzyme systems body is sometimes also included in this category. These micronutrients have to be supplied to the body through the diet as it is not manufactured by the body.

Vitamin E: This is a fat soluble vitamin and is present in seeds, nuts, fish oils, vegetables, whole grains (especially wheat), apricots and fortified cereals. The current recommended daily allowance or RDA is 12 IU per day for women and 15 IU per day for men.

Vitamin C: Vitamin C or Ascorbic acid is a vitamin that is water soluble and is present in juices and citrus fruits, cabbage, spinach, green peppers, broccoli, cantaloupe, kale, kiwi and strawberries. 60 mg is the RDA per day. Intake of more than 2000 mg of this vitamin may have adverse side effects.

Beta-carotene is vitamin A's precursor (retinol) and is present in egg yolk, liver, butter, milk, carrots, spinach, broccoli, squash, yams, peaches, tomato, cantaloupe, and grains. On account of it being converted to vitamin A there is no specific requirement in the body. The RDA is expressed as retinol equivalents (RE). Vitamin A does not have any antioxidant properties and can be toxic if taken in excess.

Preventing heart disease and cancer - how do antioxidants help?

Epidemiologic observations demonstrate lower rates of cancer in people having diets that are rich in vegetables and fruits. Because of this fact, a theory developed stating that these foods contained certain substances that acted against the development of cancer, but there is no scientific evidence to prove this fact.

Thus some studies and research reveal that dietary supplements along with increased level of antioxidants reduce the risk of developing cancer. Antioxidants may have a role top plat in slowing process of aging and preventing strokes, and heart disease but this is still not conclusive.

Exercise and oxidative damage

Exercise increases oxygen utilization 10 to 20 times more than in the resting state. This increases the generation of free radicals greatly which then prompts concerns about damage to tissues and muscles. The question that now arises is that how effectively can athletes defend their bodies against the increased free radicals that result from exercise? Do they require taking extra antioxidants?

Since it is not possible to measure the amount of free radicals in the body physically; this can be done by measuring the by-products resulting from free radical reactions. If the free radicals exceed the antioxidant defense mechanisms of the body then there would be more by-products. Athletes are seen to perform these measurements to enable derive at the free radical amount.

These experimental studies have revealed certain facts that regular physical exercise enhances the antioxidant defense system of the body and protects it against intense exercise induced free radical damage. This is a vital finding because it illustrates the smartness of the body in adapting to the exercise demands.

On the contrary, intense exercise patterns among untrained individuals induce damage to antioxidant defenses resulting in enhanced free radical damage.

Tips For Healthy Eyes

It is actually the world for us. Unfortunately, we don’t thank it enough. We have cosmetics for the face, shampoos for the scalp and gyms for the physique… but we usually don’t give eyecare a second glance.
Maybe it’s time for a change of view by following the peeper-caring steps below. With some habit alterations and a bit of self care, our eyes will feel like they’ve gone through a spring bath.

Bonus: It doesn’t cost a dime in salon treatments or cucumber slices.

Water the optics.
Like our organs our eyes too need all the water it can get. Not for the tears, but just to keep its ducts moist and hydrated. So drink plentiful of H2O for well hydrated eyes. This is more true for today’s air conditioned offices.

Grab some shuteye.
Our eyes remain open for the waking hours. Reinvigorate the vision orbs by grabbing a good night’s sleep.

The Modern Day Vision Buster – The Computer
Our forefathers roamed the wilds with there eyes set on the hunt. We spend our days sitting fixed in place infront of our computers. At the end of the day we don’t have a carcass, but something else to show for our efforts – Computer fatigue.
The result for many: computer fatigue syndrome. It causes not only eyestrain but also wooziness, headaches, weariness, and neck, back, and shoulder pain.

Always blink first.
If it’s a staring contest with the computer, let the machine win. Long hours spent in front of the screen make for tired eyes. Stare away after every 10 minutes or so and focus on some distant object. The color green, they say soothes the eye. Give your body and eyes a break by walking away from the desk every 20 minutes. And to help keep your eyes moist - blink often.

Check the ambient light.
Direct light on your computer screen gets reflected back and increases the harshness of the glare. Mimic natural light by moving the light source to a point where the light does not fall directly on the screen.

The 3 R’s of computer vision.
Remember the three rules to fight computer fatigue – RESET (your screen refresh rates to 70 GHz or more), REFOCUS (your eyes, every few minutes) and REMOVE (your body from the desk, now and then)

Palm the eyes
An exercise you can do sitting at your desk. Rub the palms together and place them against your eyes. The warmth from the palm soothes your eyes and helps them to relax. Cup your eyes for 60 seconds and repeat the technique 3 to 4 times. Relaxing those tired eyes somehow has a way of relaxing our mind too.

The ‘not so secret’ diet
Get those vitamins (A, C, and E) onto your lunch plate. Citrus fruits, carrots, green leafy veggies, spinach, poultry, egg and milk make for a wholesome eye-care diet.

The secret to healthy eyes is not in expensive creams and lotions but more in simple habit make ups. Beauty may lie in the eye of the beholder, but we have to watch over it first.