Simple Health Cures

   If you are diabetic you need to be extra careful about what you eat. The kind of food you eat has a direct bearing on the blood sugar levels in your body. Since your body is unable to digest the glucose in the blood and use it to produce energy, the body begins to use the proteins and fats stored in the body to create energy for its functional needs.

   So what you eat can either solve the problem by eating the right foods or cause a bigger one for yourself by eating the wrong kind of food. Here are some nutrition facts to keep your diet on the right course. Your diet must consist of 40-60% carbohydrates, 20% proteins and 30% fat. You Cannot cut out on any one of the three, the body needs all three of them to function well.

   Yes you need to cut down on the sugar intake as well but that does not mean that you can’t eat any kind of sugar. The porcessed white sugar should be avoided, but natural sugars present in the fresh fruits and vegetables are totally acceptable. In fact a small treat of dessert once in a while is also acceptable as long as you don’t make it a habit.

   You also need to balance your intake of simple and complex carbohydrates. The simple ones get digested fast and will make you hungry faster, while the complex ones will keep you full longer. This is why it is better to eat more of unfined cereals than instant oatmeal. It is all a matter of making healthier choices for nutrition to control your diabetes.

   There is a lot of focus on eating a balanced diet when you are suffering from diabetes. This is to ensure that your body gets all the nutrition that it needs and does not suffer from unnecessary deficiencies. The deficiency of a single vitamin or mineral can cause exaggerated symptoms in a person with diabetes. That is why it is essential to look after your diet to ensure that you get the recommended daily allowance or RDA of all the minerals and vitamins.

   The diet that you eat may sometimes not be enough to provide all the vitamins that you need, at least not in the quantity of the RDA that you need. After all how much vegetables and fruits can you eat in a single day? So a number of people take vitamin supplements. These could be in the form of tablets or juices or even monthly injections. It is an alternative to the natural vitamins found in food and supplements to the food that you consume.

   However the man made vitamins that you get are not as easily absorbed by the human body. They are artificial compounds and take a long while to be digested. Some of them may not be fully absorbed by the body and become toxic. That is why it is always preferable to get your vitamins and minerals the natural way by eating a lot of fresh fruits and vegetables.

   Naturopathy is an alternative form of medicine which is based on the principle of gently supporting the body’s own ability to heal itself. The human body can regenerate the health it needs but with too many toxins this ability gets clogged. When you undergo a naturopathic treatment you are basically focusing on three lifestyle causes. These are diet management, weight control and stress relief. Each of which has a direct bearing on diabetes.

   Thus by using a naturopathic form of treatment to cleanse and rejuvenate the body, you will also control the elements which influence diabetes. The selection of foods to eat by the naturopathy practitioner will help reduce the blood sugar levels in your body. That way your body will not have to deal with digesting large amounts of sugar, so it will not need to take too many drugs to keep it under control. Regular exercise is also known to keep diabetes under check.

   With Naturopathy there are some physical exercise that the practitioner will teach you and expect them to be done daily. This regular exercise will again help the body keep a check on the blood sugar levels and will even boost the metabolic rate of the body. Stress is also relieved by the massage therapy that is part of Naturopathy. This touch therapy aside there are also special relaxation techniques that are taught to help improve sleep and help distress a person. There are many benefits to the diabetic person and so they should give naturopathy a try.

   Chromotherapy is also called color therapy, colorology or cromatherapy. it  is essentially an alternative healing technique with which a person’s energy levels are balanced using color or light. This helps to restore the person to a more balanced state whereby the effects of whatever is troubling the person gets negated. It is said to work on ailments of the physical body, problems related to emotional or mental state. It is even used as a form of help to enhance your spiritually should you so desire.

   Each of the seven main energy chakras in the body is correlated to a specific color and to a specific organ systems. So the theory is that when you fall ill, the energy of the chakra associated with illness is imbalanced. If the energy chakra is balanced then you can overcome the illness. To help balance the energy there are a number of tools that a practitioner of Chromotherapy can use.

   These tolls may include Gemstones of different colors for each chakra different colored light bulbs to flood the person in a particular color light, crystal or glass prisms to enhance the effect of a particular color on the enrgy chakra and so on. Each practitioner has his or her own set of preferred tools and will choose to use one or all of them depending on the person being treated.

   So now the question is does this method of treatment really work? Scientists have been able to establish that individuals do react emotionally to different colors. Some colors may soothe you while others may energize you. Unfortunately even the same color can bring about different reactions from two different individuals so it is very difficult to have a standardized study. Yet the people who have undergone treatment with a Chromotherapy practitioner do say that they feel more energized and heal faster.

   There is not much information available regarding the efficacy of Alternative Medicine in improving or curing diabetes. This is because the doctors who practice western medication are just waking up to the healing possibilities of such alternative therapies. Not enough research is available to support the fact that alternative medicine can be very useful in trying to control blood sugar and sometimes even heal diabetes to a prominent extent.

   From techniques as ancient as the Ayurvedic Medicine which have been practiced for centuries in India to energy balancing techniques like Reiki from Japan which are barely a couple of centuries old there are many alternative healing techniques available. The lack of organized research in the field of alternative medicines makes it difficult to have any true statistical data about the efficany of one particular type of treatment over any other.

   Also a number of people may try out more than one type of alternative medicine at the same time. This makes it difficult to accredit a single system of medicine with the health benefits that the person may feel. But the fact that so many people suffering from diabetes go in for alternative medicine treatments does reiterate the fact that they must help. To what extent the alternative medicine can help you cure or control your diabetes depends on a number of factors.

   These can range from how severe the condition of your diabetes is, to how long you have suffering from it. Some associated symptoms of the disease can get cured by many of these alternative treatments. Even if they can not cured the disease altogether but manage to control some painful symptoms it is worth considering such alternative medicine.

   “Tai Chi Chuan” is Chinese for “Supreme Ultimate Fist”. This is martial art form from China which has gained great popularity in the west. It is commonly referred to as Tai Chi. These are set of slow moving exercises which can help keep people fit and also control blood sugar levels. According to the research at the University of Pittsburgh. “For  most people with diabetes, being active is a very important part of diabetes management. Exercise helps the body use sugar more effectively, and it lowers blood sugar levels”.

   To make Tai Chi Chuan more accesible and beneficial for diabetic person there is a combination of both the Yuan and Sun Styles of Tai Chi which are used in an exercise program. The basic form of Tai Chi for diabetes has 11 movements and an advanced form has 19 movements. A regular 12 week course of Tai Chi was seen to be very beneficial in the treatment of people suffering from type 2 diabetes in a recent study undertaken on 30 pairs of patients.

   As the practitioners of western medicine wake up to the possibilities of supplementing regular healing techniques with exercise such as Tai Chi Chuan more research results are proving that it is highly beneficial to the patients that participate. The key to result is to learn the techniques from a good teacher. A qualified instructor can make the difference between you finding great and drastic changes to finding no effect at all after practicing Tai Chi Chuan for diabetes.

   Fish oil has been taken as a natural  supplement for a number of years. The capsule form of the supplement has made it easier to swallow otherwise strong smelling and testing product. It has the omega 3 fatty acids which make it healthy for you. There is also Vitamin D present in fish oil and is again one of the vitamins that the body must get Children are regularly  given fish oil supplements.

   Now there is evidence to suggest that diabetics may also benefit from this supplement. One of the symptoms associated with type 2 diabetes is high levels of triglycerides in the blood which makes the person more prone to heart diseases. While the benfits of using fish oil in your diet is also associated with lowering the levels of triglycerides in the blood.

   So it would follow that having fish oil supplements would be good for those suffering from diabetes. So what is the amount of fish oil that you must consume in a day to maximize the heart health? The benefits to the cardic system need a person to consume 250 milligrams of fish oil each day.

   Doesn’t sound like very much but it will make a difference to eat that much fish oil daily. This is easy to do with a single three ounce serving of a fatty fish. this means you can eat a three ounce fillet of salmon or mackerel and your fish oil needs for the day are met. Again while it is easier to pop the pill it would be better if you can eat fresh fish and get the fish oil from it directly.

   Can I breastfeed my baby? There is little else that may occupy the mind of a pregnant women who is suffering from diabetes. Whether you are already suffering from diabetes type 2 or have developed gestation diabetes during pregnancy, rest your worries. There is no reason why your child should not be able to breastfeed your child.

   Naturally due to the diabetic condition you have to take some extra precautions during pregnancy. However breastfeeding your child is a must as it is beneficial both to the baby and you. The colostrums of a diabetic mom will help protect the child from diabetes. The risk of the baby developing hypoglycemia is also diminished thanks to breast feeding by the diabetic mother.

   The Pediatricians say that the mother should breastfeed the child for at least one year. In fact most diabetics mothers who breastfeed report that the physical changes after the delivery help manage the diabetes even better than before. The metabolic rate of the lactating mother is higher than that of an average person, this helps make the diabetes manageable.

   There is even the benefit of not needing as much insulin as before. Many mothers who were under regular medication find that they need lesser dosages than before. This is why you must monitor the blood sugar regularly all through the period that you are lactating. If you are using any alternative medication techniques you will need to monitor your insulin and blood sugar levels very carefully. But do not worry about not being able to breastfeed your child.

   Here are some basic Asanas or Yoga poses for diabetes:

   Yoga Postures or Asanas as they are called are different types of stretches and exercises that you can perform. These help the body alignment to soothe the organs and distress the muscles. The muscles are also toned and strengthened when you do these yoga poses on a regular basis.

   While there are a set of exercises for toning up the full body, there are also a few yoga asanas which are more benefical to diabetic person. While Yoga cannot treat or cure diabetes it can help you control your blood sugar levels.

   Here are a few that will help improve your metabolism and rejuvenate your stamina. They will also improve blood circulation in your body to the extremities.

   1. Surya Namaskar or Sun Salutation- It is a good warm up for the full body before you do any of the yoga poses. It is set of 12 simple yoga positions performed one after the other in a continues exercise.

   2. Kapal Bharati- A cleansing breathing technique. It is good for clearing the mucus that is stuck sometimes.

   3. Anulom Vilom- the althernative Nostril Breathing Technique is a power breathing technique used to cleanse the mind and focus it on the next activity.

   4. Matsya asana or Fish Pose- is great for stiff neck and shoulder muscles. It helps make a person more flexible in the spinal region.

   5. Tadasana or Tree Pose- great for toning up muscles of thighs, calves, ankles and back. Also good for hip and groin region, not to mention improving your balance and concertration.

   6. Ardha Matsyendra asana or Half Spinal Twist- used to stretch the spine this yoga pose is good for liver, kidney, adrenal glands, and must be performed under supervision.

   7. Shavasana or Corpse Pose- the relaxation yoga pose is done in between other strenuous asanas. Also at the end of the yoga session.

   What is stem cell research all about? Scientists have been conducting experiments on the stem cells that are extracted from a new born baby’s placenta. This is the cord tissue which connects the mother to the baby and is used by the baby to get nutrition.

   The stem cells that are extracted from the placenta are not programmed to became a particular type of cell. For instances a cell in the liver will undergo cell division to produce only liver cells, but the stem cells can be injected with external DNA genes and be made to convert into any kind of cells for the body.

   This system has been used to make stem cells produce bone marrow cells. The new stem cell based bone marrow cells are then injected into a patient with bone marrow cancer. The new cells replace the ones with cancer which were killed by chemotherapy.

   Some measure of success has been recorded with the use of stem cells, but it is still a science in its infancy. A lot more studies have to be done before the technology will became more reliable and get approval from the government. There been protests by some groups over stem cell research as well.

   So while the potential of stem cell research could mean that one day you might be able to cure diabetes with it, today it is not yet possible. Much more ongiong research is required for that to come to pass. Yet for a diabetic person who needs to inject themself with insulin each day, it does offer a ray of hope in the not so distant future.