Managing your weight gain during pregnancy.

Most women should gain somewhere between 25 and 35 pounds during pregnancy. Most women will gain 2 - 4 pounds during the first trimester, and 1 pound a week for the rest of the pregnancy. Through the entire pregnancy:

Overweight women need to gain less (15 - 20 pounds or less, depending on their pre-pregnancy weight).

Underweight women will need to gain more (28 - 40 pounds).

You should gain more weight if you are having more than one baby. Women having twins need to gain 37 - 54 pounds.

A balanced ,nutrient-rich diet, along with exercise, is the basis for a healthy pregnancy. For most pregnant women, the right amount of calories is:

1,800 calories per day in the first trimester

2,200 calories per day in the second trimester

2,400 calories per day in the third trimester

What's Causing the Weight Gain?

Much of the weight that you gain during pregnancy is not fat, but is related to the baby. Here is a breakdown of how 35 pounds add up:

Baby: 8 pounds

Placenta: 2 - 3 pounds

Amniotic fluid: 2 - 3 pounds

Breast tissue: 2 - 3 pounds

Blood supply: 4 pounds

Fat stores: 5 - 9 pounds

Uterus growth: 2 - 5 pounds

Managing Weight During Pregnancy

Some women are already overweight when they get pregnant. Other women gain weight too quickly during their pregnancy. Either way, a pregnant woman should not go on a diet or try to lose weight during pregnancy.

It is better to focus on eating the right foods and staying active. If you do not gain enough weight during pregnancy, you and your baby may have problems.

Still, you can make changes in your diet to get the nutrients you need without gaining too much weight. Talk to your doctor of midwife to get help with planning a healthy diet.

Below are some healthy eating tips should help you get started.

Healthy choices:

Fresh fruits and vegetables make good snacks. They are full of vitamins and low in calories and fat.

Eat breads, crackers, and cereals made with whole grains.

Choose reduced-fat dairy products. You need at least four servings of milk products every day. However, using skim, 1%, or 2% milk will greatly reduce the amount of calories and fat you eat. Also choose low-fat or fat-free cheese or yogurt.

Foods to avoid:

Naturally sweetened is better than foods and drinks with added sugar or artificial sweeteners.

Food and drinks that list sugar or corn syrup as one of the first ingredients are not good choices.

Many sweetened drinks are high in calories. Read the label and watch out for drinks that are high in sugar. Substitute water for sodas and fruit drinks.

Avoid junk-food snacks, such as chips, candy, cake, cookies, and ice cream. The best way to keep from eating junk food or other unhealthy snacks is to not have these foods in your house.

Do not add salt to foods when cooking. Salt causes your body to retain water.

Go light on fats. Fats include cooking oils, margarine, butter, gravy, sauces, mayonnaise, regular salad dressings, sauces, lard, sour cream, and cream cheese. Try the lower fat versions of these foods.

Eating out:

Knowing the amount of calories, fat, and salt in your food can help you eat healthier.

Most restaurants have menus and nutrition facts on their websites. Use these to plan ahead.

In general, eat at places that offer salads, soups, and vegetables.

Avoid fast food.

Cooking at home:

Prepare meals using low-fat cooking methods.

Frying foods in oil or butter will increase the calories and fat of that meal.

Baking, broiling, grilling, or boiling are healthier, lower-fat methods of cooking.

Exercise:·

Moderate exercise, as recommended by your health care provider, can help burn extra calories.

Walking or swimming are generally safe, effective exercises for pregnant women.

Be sure to talk to your health care provider before starting an exercise program.

Body Image During Pregnancy

If you've struggled with your weight in the past, it may be hard to accept that it's okay to gain weight now. It's normal to feel anxious as the numbers on the scale edge up.

Keep in mind that weight gain is needed for a healthy pregnancy. The extra pounds will come off after you've had the baby. On the other hand, if you gain a lot more weight than is recommended, your baby will also be bigger, which can sometimes lead to problems with delivery. A healthy diet and regular exercise are your best ways to ensure a healthy pregnancy and baby.

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/patientinstructions/000603.htm

Diabetes Will Create 'Public Health Disaster'

The UK is heading for a "public health disaster" as the NHS is facing a "huge strain" with not enough being done to prevent Type 2 diabetes, a charity has claimed.

According to Diabetes UK, the number of people with the condition is expected to hit five million by 2025 - up from 3.8 million today, because people do not take it seriously enough or make the right lifestyle changes.

It said less than a third of people realise that Type 2 diabetes can lead to serious health complications such as amputation, heart attack, blindness and stroke.

Type 2 diabetes patients either do not produce enough insulin or the insulin they produce does not work properly. Roughly 85% of diabetes sufferers have Type 2, but it can be treated with exercise and an improved diet.

Type 1 cannot produce any insulin, is not caused by obesity and cannot be cured.

Diabetes UK has launched a national awareness campaign to have the risk of Type 2 diabetes assessed.

Chief executive Barbara Young said: "You only have to spend five minutes talking to someone who has lost their sight or has lost a leg as a result of Type 2 diabetes to realise the devastating impact the condition can have.

"But this survey makes it clear that most people do not understand the potential consequences of developing it, and I worry that until we finally lay to rest the myth that Type 2 diabetes is a mild condition, it will continue to be seen as something that is not worth being concerned about.

"This is a misconception that is wrecking lives and is the reason that as a country we are sleepwalking towards a public health disaster of an almost unimaginable scale."

Losing weight, eating more fruit and vegetables, and exercising can significantly reduce the risk of developing Type 2 diabetes.

A Department of Health spokesman said: "The number of people with diabetes is steadily growing, with often devastating consequences for their health.

"We are helping people make healthier choices to help prevent obesity which can lead to Type 2 diabetes.

"By working with industry we have helped to reduce fat, sugar and salt in foods, and thanks to the Change4Life campaign we are targeting more and more children and families with information on how to eat well, move more and live longer."

http://news.sky.com/story/1145189/diabetes-will-create-public-health-disaster

Diabetes - Simple Steps to Preventing Diabetes

Introduction

If type 2 diabetes was an infectious disease, passed from one person to another, public health officials would say we’re in the midst of an epidemic. This difficult disease, once called adult-onset diabetes, is striking an ever-growing number of adults. Even more alarming, it’s now beginning to show up in teenagers and children.

More than 24 million Americans have diabetes; of those, about 6 million don’t know they have the disease. In 2007, diabetes cost the U.S. an estimated $116 billion in excess medical spending, and an additional $58 billion in reduced productivity. If the spread of type 2 diabetes continues at its present rate, the number of people diagnosed with diabetes in the United States will increase from about 16 million in 2005 to 48 million in 2050. Worldwide, the number of adults with diabetes will rise from 285 million in 2010 to 439 million in the year 2030.

The problems behind the numbers are even more alarming. Diabetes is the leading cause of blindness and kidney failure among adults. It causes mild to severe nerve damage that, coupled with diabetes-related circulation problems, often leads to the loss of a leg or foot. Diabetes significantly increases the risk of heart disease. And it’s the seventh leading cause of death in the U.S., directly causing almost 70,000 deaths each year and contributing to thousands more.

The good news is that type 2 diabetes is largely preventable. About 9 cases in 10 could be avoided by taking several simple steps: keeping weight under control, exercising more, eating a healthy diet, and not smoking.

What Is Type 2 Diabetes?

Our cells depend on a single simple sugar, glucose, for most of their energy needs. That’s why the body has intricate mechanisms in place to make sure glucose levels in the bloodstream don’t go too low or soar too high.

When you eat, most digestible carbohydrates are converted into glucose and rapidly absorbed into the bloodstream. Any rise in blood sugar signals the pancreas to make and release insulin. This hormone instructs cells to sponge up glucose. Without it, glucose floats around the bloodstream, unable to slip inside the cells that need it.

Diabetes occurs when the body can’t make enough insulin or can’t properly use the insulin it makes.

One form of diabetes occurs when the immune system attacks and permanently disables the insulin-making cells in the pancreas. This is type 1 diabetes, once called juvenile-onset, or insulin-dependent, diabetes. Roughly 5 to 10 per cent of diagnosed diabetes cases are type 1 diabetes.

The other form of diabetes tends to creep up on people, taking years to develop into full-blown diabetes. It begins when muscle and other cells stop responding to insulin’s open-up-for-glucose signal. The body responds by making more and more insulin, essentially trying to ram blood sugar into cells. Eventually, the insulin-making cells get exhausted and begin to fail. This is type 2 diabetes.

Type 2 diabetes used to be called adult-onset diabetes, since it was almost unheard of in children. But with the rising rates of childhood obesity, it has become more common in youth, especially among certain ethnic groups.

In the U.S., the SEARCH for Diabetes in Youth Study found that type 2 diabetes accounted for only 6 per cent of new diabetes cases in non-Hispanic white children ages 10 to 19, but anywhere from 22 to 76 per cent of new cases in other ethnic groups. The highest rates were found in Asia-Pacific Islander and Native American youth.

In addition to the millions of adults with diabetes, another 57 million adults have “pre-diabetes.”  This early warning sign is characterized by high blood sugar levels on a glucose tolerance test or a fasting glucose test. Whether pre-diabetes expands into full-blown type 2 diabetes is largely up to the individual. Making changes in weight, exercise, and diet can not only prevent pre-diabetes from becoming diabetes, but can also return blood glucose levels to the normal range.

Type 2 Diabetes Can Be Prevented

Although the genes you inherit may influence the development of type 2 diabetes, they take a back seat to behavioural and lifestyle factors. Data from the Nurses’ Health Study suggest that 90 per cent of type 2 diabetes in women can be attributed to five such factors: excess weight, lack of exercise, a less-than-healthy diet, smoking, and abstaining from alcohol.

Among 85,000 married female nurses, 3,300 developed type 2 diabetes over a 16-year period. Women in the low-risk group were 90 per cent less likely to have developed diabetes than the rest of the women. Low-risk meant a healthy weight (body mass index less than 25), a healthy diet, 30 minutes or more of exercise daily, no smoking, and having about three alcoholic drinks per week.

Similar factors are at work in men. Data from the Health Professionals Follow-up Study indicate that a “Western” diet, combined with lack of physical activity and excess weight, dramatically increases the risk of type 2 diabetes in men.

Information from several clinical trials strongly supports the idea that type 2 diabetes is preventable. The Diabetes Prevention Program examined the effect of weight loss and increased exercise on the development of type 2 diabetes among men and women with high blood sugar readings that had not yet crossed the line to diabetes. In the group assigned to weight loss and exercise, there were 58 per cent fewer cases of diabetes after almost three years than in the group assigned to usual care. Even after the program to promote lifestyle changes ended, the benefits persisted: The risk of diabetes was reduced, albeit to a lesser degree, over 10 years.  Similar results were seen in a Finnish study of weight loss, exercise, and dietary change, and in a Chinese study of exercise and dietary change.

Simple Steps to Lower Your Risk

Making a few lifestyle changes can dramatically lower the chances of developing type 2 diabetes. The same changes can also lower the chances of developing heart disease and some cancers.

Control Your Weight

Excess weight is the single most important cause of type 2 diabetes. Being overweight increases the chances of developing type 2 diabetes seven fold. Being obese makes you 20 to 40 times more likely to develop diabetes than someone with a healthy weight.

Losing weight can help if your weight is above the healthy-weight range. Losing 7 to 10 per cent of your current weight can cut your chances of developing type 2 diabetes in half.

Get Moving—and Turn Off the Television

Inactivity promotes type 2 diabetes.  Working your muscles more often and making them work harder improves their ability to use insulin and absorb glucose. This puts less stress on your insulin-making cells.

Long bouts of hot, sweaty exercise aren’t necessary to reap this benefit. Findings from the Nurses’ Health Study and Health Professionals Follow-up Study suggest that walking briskly for a half hour every day reduces the risk of developing type 2 diabetes by 30 per cent.  More recently, The Black Women’s Health Study reported similar diabetes-prevention benefits for brisk walking of more than 5 hours per week.  This amount of exercise has a variety of other benefits as well. And even greater cardiovascular and other advantages can be attained by more, and more intense, exercise.

Television-watching appears to be an especially-detrimental form of inactivity: Every two hours you spend watching TV instead of pursuing something more active increases the chances of developing diabetes by 20 per cent; it also increases the risk of heart disease (15 per cent) and early death (13 per cent).  The more television people watch, the more likely they are to be overweight or obese, and this seems to explain part of the TV viewing-diabetes link. The unhealthy diet patterns associated with TV watching may also explain some of this relationship.

Tune Up Your Diet

Four dietary changes can have a big impact on the risk of type 2 diabetes.

1. Choose whole grains and whole grain products over highly processed carbohydrates.

There is convincing evidence that diets rich in whole grains protect against diabetes, whereas diets rich in refined carbohydrates lead to increased risk. In the Nurses’ Health Studies I and II, for example, researchers looked at the whole grain consumption of more than 160,000 women whose health and dietary habits were followed for up to 18 years. Women who averaged two to three servings of whole grains a day were 30 per cent less likely to have developed type 2 diabetes than those who rarely ate whole grains. When the researchers combined these results with those of several other large studies, they found that eating an extra 2 servings of whole grains a day decreased the risk of type 2 diabetes by 21 per cent.

Whole grains don’t contain a magical nutrient that fights diabetes and improves health. It’s the entire package—elements intact and working together—that’s important. The bran and fibre in whole grains make it more difficult for digestive enzymes to break down the starches into glucose. This leads to lower, slower increases in blood sugar and insulin, and a lower glycaemic index. As a result, they stress the body’s insulin-making machinery less, and so may help prevent type 2 diabetes. Whole grains are also rich in essential vitamins, minerals, and phytochemicals that may help reduce the risk of diabetes.

In contrast, white bread, white rice, mashed potatoes, donuts, bagels, and many breakfast cereals have what’s called a high glycaemic index and glycaemic load. That means they cause sustained spikes in blood sugar and insulin levels, which in turn may lead to increased diabetes risk.  In China, for example, where white rice is a staple, the Shanghai Women’s Health Study found that women whose diets had the highest glycaemic index had a 21 per cent higher risk of developing type 2 diabetes, compared to women whose diets had the lowest glycaemic index.  Similar findings were reported in the Black Women’s Health Study.

More recent findings from the Nurses Health Studies I and II and the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study suggest that swapping whole grains for white rice could help lower diabetes risk: Researchers found that women and men who ate the most white rice—five or more servings a week—had a 17 per cent higher risk of diabetes than those who ate white rice less than one time a month. People who ate the most brown rice—two or more servings a week—had an 11 per cent lower risk of diabetes than those who rarely ate brown rice. Researchers estimate that swapping whole grains in place of even some white rice could lower diabetes risk by 36 per cent.

2. Skip the sugary drinks, and choose water, coffee, or tea instead.

Like refined grains, sugary beverages have a high glycaemic load, and drinking more of this sugary stuff is associated with increased risk of diabetes. In the Nurses’ Health Study II, women who drank one or more sugar-sweetened beverages per day had an 83 per cent higher risk of type 2 diabetes, compared to women who drank less than one sugar-sweetened beverage per month.

Combining the Nurses’ Health Study results with those from seven other studies found a similar link between sugary beverage consumption and type 2 diabetes: For every additional 12-ounce serving of sugary beverage that people drank each day, their risk of type 2 diabetes rose 25 per cent.  Studies also suggest that fruit drinks— Kool Aid, fortified fruit drinks, or juices—are not the healthy choice that food advertisements often portray them to be: Women in the Black Women’s Health study who drank two or more servings of fruit drinks a day had a 31 per cent higher risk of type 2 diabetes, compared to women who drank less than one serving a month.

How do sugary drinks lead to this increased risk? Weight gain may explain the link: In both the Nurses’ Health Study II and the Black Women’s Health Study, women who increased their consumption of sugary drinks gained more weight than women who cut back on sugary drinks. Several studies show that children and adults who drink soda or other sugar-sweetened beverages are more likely to gain weight than those who don’t, and that switching from these to water or unsweetened beverages can reduce weight.  Even so, however, weight gain caused by sugary drinks may not completely explain the increased diabetes risk.  There is mounting evidence that sugary drinks contribute to chronic inflammation, high triglycerides, decreased “good” (HDL) cholesterol, and increased insulin resistance, all of which are risk factors for diabetes.

What to drink in place of the sugary stuff? Water is an excellent choice. Coffee and tea are also good calorie-free substitutes for sugared beverages (as long as you don’t load them up with sugar and cream). And there’s convincing evidence that coffee may help protect against diabetes; emerging research suggests that tea may hold diabetes-prevention benefits as well, but more research is needed.

There’s been some controversy over whether artificially sweetened beverages are beneficial for weight control and, by extension, diabetes prevention.  Some studies have found that people who regularly drink diet beverages have a higher risk of diabetes than people who rarely drink such beverages, but there could be another explanation for those findings: People often start drinking diet beverages because they have a weight problem or have a family history of diabetes; studies that don’t adequately account for these other factors may make it wrongly appear as though the diet soda led to the increased diabetes risk. A recent long-term analysis on data from 40,000 men in the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study finds that drinking one 12-ounce serving of diet soda a day does not appear to increase diabetes risk. So in moderation, diet beverages can be a good sugary-drink alternative.

3. Choose good fats instead of bad fats.

The types of fats in your diet can also affect the development of diabetes. Good fats, such as the polyunsaturated fats found in liquid vegetable oils, nuts, and seeds can help ward off type 2 diabetes. Trans fats do just the opposite.  These bad fats are found in many margarines, packaged baked goods, fried foods in most fast-food restaurants, and any product that lists “partially hydrogenated vegetable oil” on the label. Eating polyunsaturated fats from fish—also known as “long chain omega 3” or “marine omega 3” fats—does not protect against diabetes, even though there is much evidence that these marine omega 3 fats help prevent heart disease. If you already have diabetes, eating fish can help protect you against a heart attack or dying from heart disease.

4.  Limit red meat and avoid processed meat; choose nuts, whole grains, poultry, or fish instead.

The evidence is growing stronger that eating red meat (beef, pork, lamb) and processed red meat (bacon, hot dogs, deli meats) increases the risk of diabetes, even among people who consume only small amounts. The latest support comes from a “meta analysis,” or statistical summary, that combined findings from the long-running Nurses’ Health Study I and II and the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study with those of six other long-term studies. The researchers looked at data from roughly 440,000 people, about 28,000 of whom developed diabetes during the course of the study.  They found that eating just one daily 3-ounce serving of red meat—say, a steak that’s about the size of a deck of cards—increased the risk of type 2 diabetes by 20 per cent. Eating even smaller amounts of processed red meat each day—just two slices of bacon, one hot dog, or the like—increased diabetes risk by 51 per cent.

The good news from this study: Swapping out red meat or processed red meat for a healthier protein source, such as nuts, low-fat dairy, poultry, or fish, or for whole grains lowered diabetes risk by up to 35 per cent. Not surprisingly, the greatest reductions in risk came from ditching processed red meat.

Why do red meat and processed red meat appear to boost diabetes risk? It may be that the high iron content of red meat diminishes insulin’s effectiveness or damages the cells that produce insulin; the high levels of sodium and nitrites (preservatives) in processed red meats may also be to blame. Red and processed meats are a hallmark of the unhealthy “Western” dietary pattern, which seems to trigger diabetes in people who are already at genetic risk.

If You Smoke, Try to Quit

Add type 2 diabetes to the long list of health problems linked with smoking. Smokers are roughly 50 per cent more likely to develop diabetes than non-smokers, and heavy smokers have an even higher risk.

Alcohol Now and Then May Help

A growing body of evidence links moderate alcohol consumption with reduced risk of heart disease. The same may be true for type 2 diabetes. Moderate amounts of alcohol—up to a drink a day for women, up to two drinks a day for men—increases the efficiency of insulin at getting glucose inside cells. And some studies indicate that moderate alcohol consumption decreases the risk of type 2 diabetes. If you already drink alcohol, the key is to keep your consumption in the moderate range, as higher amounts of alcohol could increase diabetes risk.  If you don’t drink alcohol, there’s no need to start—you can get the same benefits by losing weight, exercising more, and changing your eating patterns.

The Bottom Line: Preventing Type 2 Diabetes

They key to preventing type 2 diabetes can be boiled down to five words: Stay lean and stay active.

http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/preventing-diabetes-full-story/

Diabetis - Mobile app to manage diabetes and athletic performance

A new personal health monitoring system promises improved management of diabetes, a condition affecting 1 in 10 adults in the UK.

Real-time blood sugar measurements are recorded via a sensor and mobile phone app using "cloud" internet technology.

The system is being trialled by diabetic athletes, cycling 2100 km over a fortnight across Europe.

Instant blood sugar monitoring could also stop marathon runners and long-distance cyclists "hitting the wall".

Diabetes is on the rise in the UK. One in 10 people in hospital have diabetes, with a similar proportion of deaths attributable to the disease. It is a chronic disease with no cure, but it can be managed.

Currently about 10% of the NHS budget is spent on direct treatment of diabetes, with a further large chunk taken up tackling serious complications that may include kidney failure, nerve damage, blindness and amputations.

Diabetes control typically exploits post-hoc data. Patients might get their blood sugar levels assessed every six-months, for example, with reports on how well they have been controlled in the previous months.

Researchers from the Universities of Newcastle and Northumbria have announced a new approach to diabetes management, based around a state of the art personal health monitoring system that uses medical sensors, mobile phones, and cloud computing.

The technology is being trialled in a sporting event across Europe this week. A small discrete personal blood sugar sensor is worn by each participant, linked wirelessly to the wearer's mobile phone.

Continuous monitoring

Around a hundred cyclists trialling the technology are currently taking part in a stage race from Brussels to Barcelona, cross the Alps and Pyrenees on the way, and will complete a 2,100 km course with a cumulative climb of 22,000m.

All the cyclists are wearing a blood sugar monitor that works as a small wire, picking up chemical changes to record glucose in the body fluid when stuck just under the wearer's skin. It costs around £40 and can be worn for up to ten days, sending data wirelessly to their mobile phone.

Most of the cyclists taking part have diabetes. Over the 13 days of the event they will wear continuous glucose monitors. The data collected via their mobile phones is being downloaded to a "cloud" data repository and can be analysed in real time by the scientific team back at Newcastle and Northumbria universities.

People with Type 1 diabetes often avoid strenuous exercise for fear of experiencing very low blood sugar and black outs. The technology described offers a route to avoiding such hypoglycemic episodes with real-time warnings.

Professor Mike Trenell at Newcastle University, who is leading the trial, said: "It is really about demonstrating how much things most of us carry in our everyday lives, mobile phones, hold the potential to help living with diabetes.

"We can enable patients to make real-time context-based decisions to improve their diabetes control. If we can get people to walk 45 minutes extra every day we get an equivalent cost saving of £800 per year." When multiplied by the huge number of patients currently on diabetes-related medication this amounts to massive saving for the NHS.

For more typical patients, it is anticipated that this type of continuous real-time monitoring could, in future, provide relatively cheap route for diabetes patients to monitor their blood sugar levels and manage their health.

Used by members of the general population, or those at risk of developing type 2 diabetes, the monitoring system could offer an early warning health check, and might be used to help demonstrate the health benefits of modifying life style, providing instant positive feedback.

For the road-cycling athletes the data are being combined with heart rates, cycling cadence, speed and climb rates in a linked dataset. During the current cycling event, participants' data can even be accessed via the web.

These sorts of personal performance datasets are becoming increasingly popular among cyclists, runners and other recreational athletes, with a wide range of web-based applications available for recording one's achievements (or otherwise).

For more serious professional endurance athletes it is easy to see how monitoring blood sugar levels during activities such as marathons or events such as the Tour de France could be useful. 

"Hitting the wall" in running, or the equivalent "bonking" in cycling occurs when sugar reserves are depleted and blood sugar drops. By personal monitoring, participants would be able to maximise their performance by avoiding such sugar catastrophes.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-24051748

Diabetes - Causes and risk factors

Type 1 diabetes

Type 1 diabetes is when no insulin is produced at all because the insulin-producing cells in the pancreas have been destroyed. Nobody knows for sure why these cells have been damaged but the most likely cause is the body having an abnormal reaction to the cells. There is nothing that you can do to prevent Type 1 diabetes. This type of diabetes is always treated with insulin injections.

Type 2 diabetes

Type 2 diabetes is when the body either does not produce enough insulin, or the insulin it produces does not work as well as it should (insulin resistance). This type of diabetes is treated with lifestyle changes, following a healthy balanced diet, increasing physical activity, and losing weight if you need to. Some people may need medications and/or insulin injections to achieve normal blood glucose levels.

Some of the risks factors associated with Type 2 diabetes are out of your control while others, such as being overweight, you can act on to reduce the risk of developing diabetes. You should ask your GP for a test for diabetes, if you:

are white and over 40 years old

are black, Asian or from a minority ethnic group and over 25 years old

have one or more of the following risk factors.

The risk factors

A close member of your family has Type 2 diabetes (parent or brother or sister).

You're overweight or if your waist is 31.5 inches or over for women; 35 inches or over for Asian men and 37 inches or over for white and black men.

You have high blood pressure or you've had a heart attack or a stroke.

You're a woman with polycystic ovary syndrome and you are overweight.

You've been told you have impaired glucose tolerance or impaired fasting glycaemia.

If you're a woman and you've had gestational diabetes.

You have severe mental health problems.

The more risk factors that apply to you, the greater your risk of having diabetes.

Some things that do not cause diabetes

Eating sweets and sugar does not cause diabetes,but eating a lot of sugary and fatty foods can lead to being overweight.

You cannot catch diabetes, like a cold.

Stress does not cause diabetes, although it may make the symptoms worse in people who already have the condition.

An accident or an illness will not cause diabetes but may reveal diabetes if it is already there.

http://www.diabetes.org.uk/Guide-to-diabetes/Introduction-to-diabetes/Causes_and_Risk_Factors/

Health benefits of taking probiotics

Bacteria have a reputation for causing disease, so the idea of tossing down a few billion a day for your health might seem — literally and figuratively — hard to swallow. But a growing body of scientific evidence suggests that you can treat and even prevent some illnesses with foods and supplements containing certain kinds of live bacteria. Northern Europeans consume a lot of these beneficial microorganisms, called probiotics (from pro and biota, meaning “for life”), because of their tradition of eating foods fermented with bacteria, such as yogurt. Probiotic-laced beverages are also big business in Japan.

Enthusiasm for such foods has lagged in the United States, but interest in probiotic supplements is on the rise. Some digestive disease specialists are recommending them for disorders that frustrate conventional medicine, such as irritable bowel syndrome. Since the mid-1990s, clinical studies have established that probiotic therapy can help treat several gastrointestinal ills, delay the development of allergies in children, and treat and prevent vaginal and urinary infections in women.

Self-dosing with bacteria isn’t as outlandish as it might seem. An estimated 100 trillion microorganisms representing more than 500 different species inhabit every normal, healthy bowel. These microorganisms (or microflora) generally don’t make us sick; most are helpful. Gut-dwelling bacteria keep pathogens (harmful microorganisms) in check, aid digestion and nutrient absorption, and contribute to immune function.

The best case for probiotic therapy has been in the treatment of diarrhea. Controlled trials have shown that Lactobacillus GG can shorten the course of infectious diarrhea in infants and children (but not adults). Although studies are limited and data are inconsistent, two large reviews, taken together, suggest that probiotics reduce antibiotic-associated diarrhoea by 60%, when compared with a placebo.

Probiotic therapy may also help people with Crohn’s disease and irritable bowel syndrome. Clinical trial results are mixed, but several small studies suggest that certain probiotics may help maintain remission of ulcerative colitis and prevent relapse of Crohn’s disease and the recurrence of pouchitis (a complication of surgery to treat ulcerative colitis). Because these disorders are so frustrating to treat, many people are giving probiotics a try before all the evidence is in for the particular strains they’re using. More research is needed to find out which strains work best for what conditions.

Probiotics may also be of use in maintaining urogenital health. Like the intestinal tract, the vagina is a finely balanced ecosystem. The dominant Lactobacilli strains normally make it too acidic for harmful microorganisms to survive. But the system can be thrown out of balance by a number of factors, including antibiotics, spermicides, and birth control pills. Probiotic treatment that restores the balance of micro flora may be helpful for such common female urogenital problems as bacterial vaginosis, yeast infection, and urinary tract infection.

Many women eat yogurt or insert it into the vagina to treat recurring yeast infections, a “folk” remedy for which medical science offers limited support. Oral and vaginal administration of Lactobacilli may help in the treatment of bacterial vaginosis, although there isn’t enough evidence yet to recommend it over conventional approaches. (Vaginosis must be treated because it creates a risk for pregnancy-related complications and pelvic inflammatory disease.) Probiotic treatment of urinary tract infections is under study.

Probiotics are generally considered safe — they’re already present in a normal digestive system — although there’s a theoretical risk for people with impaired immune function. Be sure the ingredients are clearly marked on the label and familiar to you or your health provider. There’s no way to judge the safety of unidentified mixtures.

In the United States, most probiotics are sold as dietary supplements, which do not undergo the testing and approval process that drugs do. Manufacturers are responsible for making sure they’re safe before they’re marketed and that any claims made on the label are true. But there’s no guarantee that the types of bacteria listed on a label are effective for the condition you’re taking them for. Health benefits are strain-specific, and not all strains are necessarily useful, so you may want to consult a practitioner familiar with probiotics to discuss your options. As always, let your primary care provider know what you’re doing.

http://www.health.harvard.edu/fhg/updates/update0905c.shtml

6 HEALING BENEFITS OF PROBIOTICS

For most people, the mention of probiotics conjures up images of yogurt. But don’t dismiss the microbes as a marketing gimmick or food fad. The latest probiotic research suggests that live-active cultures of these friendly bacteria can help to prevent and treat a wide variety of ailments.

"There is an increasing interest in probiotic interventions," wrote the authors of one of the most recent studies, a meta-analysis of previous research in a recent issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association. Those researchers found that probiotics were particularly useful against a common gastrointestinal problem: antibiotic-associated diarrhoea (AAD). But studies show that probiotics can help with a great deal more -- warding off infection and boosting immune systems, as well as helping to improve women’s health and perhaps even fighting obesity.

The word "probiotic" is a compound of two Greek words: "pro," to signify promotion of and "biotic," which means life. Their very definition is something that affirms life and health. That's true even by modern standards: the World Health Organization defines a probiotic as any living microorganism that has a health benefit when ingested. Similarly, the USDA defines a probiotic as "any viable microbial dietary supplement that beneficially affects the host."

That doesn't mean that all probiotics or probiotic-containing foods are created equal. So what should you look for? "There is a lot of 'noise' in this space as more and more 'food products' are coming out with Probiotics," Dr. Shekhar K. Challa, a gastroenterologist and the author of Probiotics for Dummies tells The Huffington Post. "Unfortunately it is impossible to quantitate the CFU's of probiotics in most food products."

CFUs -- or colony-forming units -- are a microbiological term that describes the density of viable bacteria in a product. In other words, the CFU tells you how rich in probiotics a food actually is -- and how much will be available to your body.

Dr. Challa recommends the following unpasteurized probiotic rich foods:

Plain unflavoured yogurt

Kefir

Sauerkraut

Miso

Pickles

Tempeh

Kimchi and

Kombucha tea.

So what can probiotics help you with?

Digestive Health

Each of us has more than 1,000 different types of bacteria that live in our digestive tracts, helping us to break down food and absorb nutrients. But when we take antibiotics -- medicine that is designed to kill destructive, illness-causing bacteria -- the drugs can also kill the healthy intestinal flora that helps us digest. About 30 per cent of the patients who take antibiotics report suffering from diarrhoea or some other form of gastrointestinal distress, according to the recent JAMA study on probiotics and antibiotic-associated diarrhoea. As a result, doctors commonly prescribe taking probiotics to "repopulate" the digestive tract with healthful bacteria. The study found that it was a viable solution for many.

But probiotics can also help with other types of digestive issues. Research has shown that probiotics can be helpful for people with irritable bowel syndrome, or IBS -- a hard-to-treat condition that can have a range of intestinal symptoms, such as abdominal pain, cramps, bloating, diarrhoea and constipation. In one study, female IBS patients experienced some alleviation of symptoms like abdominal pain and irregularity when they were given a supplement of the bacterial strain, Bifid bacterium infantis.

Even for those without an urgent problem, probiotics can help with overall digestive management. Challa argues in his book, Probiotics for Dummies, that good bacteria help "crowd out" bad bacteria. That's because the intestine is lined with adherence sites where bacteria latches on. If the sites are populated with good-for-you microbes, there's no place for a harmful bacterium to latch on.

Urinary Health

Probiotics make a nice compliment to antibiotics among people who suffer from urinary tract infections, according to the research.

What's more, there's emerging evidence that regular probiotics can help prevent bad bacteria from invading the urinary tract by maintaining a population of healthy bacteria on the tract's adherence sites.

Infections of the urinary tract are extremely common, especially in women. Most infections disappear with antibiotics, but about 30 to 40 per cent might return, according to literature from the University of Maryland Medical Centre.

Allergies

Allergy research is still preliminary, but at least one large, high quality study found a relationship between women taking probiotics during pregnancy and a 30 per cent reduction in the instance of childhood eczema (an early sign of allergies) in their infants.

Researchers selected women who had a history of seasonal allergies -- or whose partners had histories of allergies. The infants who received probiotics in-vitro also had 50 per cent higher levels of tissue inflammation, which is thought to trigger the immune system and reduce allergy incidence.

Women's Health

Just like the digestive tract, the vagina relies on a precarious balance of good and bad bacteria. When that balance is off, it can result in one of two very common, though thoroughly uncomfortable infections: bacterial vaginosis and yeast infections. In fact, bacterial vaginosis can actually lead to a yeast infection.

Some small studies have found that L. acidophilus can help prevent infection, manage an already active one or support antibiotics as a treatment, though it's worth noting that the probiotics were taken as vaginal suppositories, rather than orally in food.

Probiotics may also have a special role in maternal health, as pregnant women are particularly susceptible to vaginal infections. And bacterial vaginosis has been indicated as a contributing factor to pre-term labour, making probiotics a potential boon for foetal health.

Immunity

Surprisingly, one of the main functions of healthful bacteria is to stimulate immune response.

By eating probiotic-rich foods and maintaining good intestinal flora, a person can also help to maintain a healthy immune system. And that has real world effects: for example, in one small study of students, those who were given a fermented dairy drink (instead of milk) displayed increased production from lymphocytes -- a marker of immune response.

Obesity

In 2006, Stanford University researchers found that obese people had different gut bacteria than normal-weighted people -- a first indication that gut flora plays a role in overall weight.

Some preliminary research shows that probiotics can help obese people who have received weight loss surgery to maintain weight loss. And in a study of post-partum women who were trying to lose abdominal fat, the addition of lactobacillus and bifid bacterium capsules helped reduce waist circumference.

It's still unclear how probiotics play a role in weight loss -- and there is some controversy about how significant the probiotics-associated weight loss is.

But as long as the probiotics source is low-calorie and healthful, itself, it is an innocuous method to attempt.

http://foodmatters.tv/articles-1/6-healing-benefits-of-probiotics