Category Archives: Diabetes

A Diabetic Diet Is Not Just for Diabetics

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Diabetes can lead to very serious complications such as heart attacks, seizures, kidney and liver failure, clogged arteries and veins, amputations, and even death. Though the effects can be devastating, it does not necessarily mean that the expenses required for its treatment or prevention are also very high. In fact, taking drugs or other expensive medication is not even required. A diabetic diet can be enough to keep the condition under control and live a normal life despite the illness. It is a guide towards eating healthy.

One diet usually contains plans for each meal of each day for one whole week. It distributes an individual’s recommended dietary allowance among the meals keeping in mind the need to maintain stability of blood glucose levels. A good diabetes diet menu should not only take the individual’s health into consideration but also his lifestyle and preferences. It should be able to fit nicely into his schedule and include meals as inviting to the person as possible.

A diabetic diet is just a more formal and stricter from of healthy eating. This means that it can be recommended even to people who are not suffering from diabetes since eating healthy never hurts anyone. One can also follow a diabetes meal plan to help ensure that he will not develop the condition in the future. This is a good plan of action especially to people who have a family history of diabetes.

One can also switch to the said diet as a form of support to a family member or close friend or relative that is suffering from the illness and is finding a hard time sticking to his new menu. Eating the same food as he does will greatly ease his burdens by letting him know that he is not alone in his battle to conquer his condition. This will help prevent him from feeling alienated and it will remind him that there are people who support him.

Any burden becomes lighter when it is being shared. Carry a piece of the load your loved one with diabetes is carrying by also following a diabetic diet. Not only will you help him with his ordeal. It will also help you eat healthy and safeguard you from developing the condition. Your diabetic loved one’s condition can also serve as a good motivation so that you can stick to the new eating plan and lifestyle.

Diabetes: 5 Ways Hypnosis Can Help

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Diabetes is now classified as a worldwide epidemic. Blindness, kidney disease, impotence and many other illnesses are often the direct result of out-of-control or undiagnosed diabetes.

Fortunately, there are several ways hypnosis can help. See which one of the following statements applies to you or someone you know. (1) As a person with diabetes, do you ever feel stressed? (2) Are you the parent of a child with diabetes? (3) Do you wish that you, your child or spouse were more motivated to exercise? (4) Wouldn’t it be great if it were easier to make better food choices? (5) Is your diabetes causing embarrassing, personal problems?

Now, since a hypnotist is by definition, a stress management consultant and a motivational coach, all of the above challenges can be powerfully addressed by using hypnosis but please note the following: a hypnotist is only part of your diabetes support team. Always be sure to have your doctor’s approval before beginning any hypnosis program that can have any influence on your medical condition.

The primary method by which hypnosis helps a person with diabetes is by reducing harmful stress. There are two fundamental ways in which stress negatively affects a person with diabetes: (1) Stress robs a person of necessary personal power that is crucial in giving a person the emotional ability to make choices that benefit their health and well being. (2) As a diabetic’s stress levels increase, so does their blood sugar. This is due to the ‘fight-or-flight’ response that people experience as a result of negative stress. When a person enters this state of mind, their body releases chemicals known as ‘insulin-antagonists’. These chemicals temporarily block the action of insulin while simultaneously causing the release of stored sugar in the liver and muscles.

With the above understanding about the two ways that stress affects a person with diabetes, let’s see how that information, specifically point one (as point two is self-explanatory), then applies to the five problems listed in the second paragraph.

Regarding statement one it is obvious to anyone with diabetes that having that disease is very stressful. This harmful state of emotional affairs then makes it more difficult for a diabetic to follow their doctor’s recommendations. Also, when a person is in emotional pain, they usually reach for whatever makes them immediately feel better. This can be any addiction, though it is usually food and typically too much and not the kind that is good for a person with diabetes.

Looking at statement two, it can be noted that stress packs a powerful double punch for parents of children with diabetes. This is because first, the parent is stressed out caring for an ill child and second, the child has overwhelming stress because they are not as equipped as an adult to deal with the enormous responsibility of successfully managing their disease. The parent must also then have to deal with their child’s stress. This double-whammy makes it very difficult to achieve the kind of precise care that is needed for good child diabetes management.

In statement three, the fundamental issue is exercise. Since 95% of all persons with diabetes have Type 2 and since 90% of all those persons are obese, the implications for enhanced exercise motivation are all too clear. For example, it is well documented that many Type 2 diabetics have had complete symptom remission after achieving a significant reduction in weight typically due to exercise and diet improvement. Additionally, exercise greatly contributes to one’s sense of well being and this therefore becomes a positive motivational cycle.

Statement four addresses a concern that many people have, not just those with diabetes. “I wish I could just eat better!” is a familiar refrain. Again, as a hypnotist helps a person to reduce their feelings of stress, they can then help that person to strengthen their inner commitment to making better food choices. Please note that even a small reduction in a diabetic’s long term blood sugar tremendously reduces their chances of having serious complications later on.

Statement five refers to conditions that are difficult for most people to talk about. For brevity’s sake this discussion is limited to one very common embarrassing problem: impotence. Nearly 60% of all males with diabetes experience impotence. There are two concerns here: (1) There is a good chance that these people and their partners are feeling a great deal of unnecessary and harmful stress. (2) A male diabetic may choose to take a medication for impotence when that medication is inappropriate and quite possibly harmful. This concern is also relevant to those millions of men with undiagnosed diabetes.

In conclusion, a hypnotist can be an important part of a diabetic’s health care team because a person can be responsibly coached by a properly trained hypnotist to more effectively deal with the above mentioned issues.

“Speak gently to yourself because your deep mind is always listening.”

C. Devin Hastings