To prevent diabetes, you have to control your blood sugar level. Here I list 8 effective ways to prevent diabetes for you.

1. Buy Glucose Monitor

Simply prick your finger 2 hours after a meal. The number shouldn’t be above 139 mg/dl, and it shouldn’t be below 100 or your fasting number — whichever is lower. It’ll allow you to find out how specific meals, foods, and beverages affect your blood sugar. If you fall out of that range, you need an oral glucose-tolerance test.

2. Eat Every 2 to 3 Hours

Eating this often helps prevent drops in blood sugar, which can lead to sugar binges.

3. Skip the Sugary Sports Drinks

Exercising improved insulin sensitivity by 40 percent when a 500-calorie deficit was created, but produced no improvement when the burned energy was immediately replaced with mostly carbohydrates.

4. Exercise Everyday

That means at least 20 to 30 minutes a day. It takes a only a few days of missed workouts and poor eating to worsen a person’s insulin resistance. To make sure you stick with it, choose the exercise that you enjoy the most not that the exercise you hate the most.

5. Check Your Pills

If you’re taking a thiazide diuretic for hypertension, ask your doctor about switching to an ACE inhibitor. A 2006 Hypertension review of 59 drug trials found a “strong relationship” between low potassium levels caused by diuretics and increased blood glucose.

6. If You Already Have High Blood Glucose, Take Alpha Lipoic Acid

This supplement is unexcelled as a blood-sugar nutrient and is a prescription item in Europe . Take 300 milligrams twice a day.

7. Snack on Pumpkin Seeds or Sunflower Seeds

A small handful won’t impact blood sugar, and they’re rich in magnesium, a mineral that fights insulin resistance.

8. Sprinkle Cinnamon ON Everything

Studies show it can improve insulin sensitivity. This means your body needs less of the hormone insulin to keep your blood-sugar levels in check.

Do you got any other diabetes prevention way, drop a comment.

Health & Disease Blood Sugar Level, Diabetes, Health

All smokers are aware that smoking is injurious to health. Yet, many continue to smoke even when they know that this habit actually kills. Is that not enough a reason to quit smoking? Of course, there are many, many other reasons – but this one is the most critical, i.e. your life. Smoking is such an irony – you pay money to buy yourself a slow and extremely painful (not to mention expensive) death.

Some Tips How To Quit Smoking –

1. Publicise your decision to quit smoking

Let your friends and family know your decision to quit smoking. Get practical support, delegating to a person close to you the difficult task of reminding you of your target and benefits in your health whenever you feel a strong desire for a cigarette. Also, very important, ask from friends and family not to smoke in front of you and not to leave cigarettes around you.

2. Set a target date

Set a target date over a period of 2-3 weeks from the time you have taken the decision, which you will begin, the effort to quit smoking. Make sure that this period does not coincide with difficulties and stressful conditions as in this case will be easier for you to be carried away. Try to gradually reduce the quantity of cigarettes you smoke in the coming weeks until the target date.

3. Create a schedule

Set a specific timetable, which will not be very tight or too short in duration. Allow for possible “errors”, estimate the likelihood of serious desire for smoking and do not be disappointed if you do not accomplish it in the first three days. Keep trying. Few are those who succeed with their first try.

4. Start Easy

Record under what conditions you more often smoke (boredom, anxiety, companionship, loneliness, television, cards, coffee, etc.)

Rate your desire from 0 to 5, with “mechanical smoking” to the “absolutely necessary”.

Locate phases during which you smoke mechanically, without particularly want to, and make an effort to begin to gradually quit smoking into those relatively indifferent phases. This way you will make a good start and also increase your confidence to continue till you mange to quit smoking completely.

5. Avoid your smoking habits and drinks

Avoid the top reasons causing your desire for smoking such as coffee, alcohol, night outs, arguing etc. Try to consume a lot dairy products, fruits and vegetables, as the taste has been shown in surveys that reduce both the desire to smoke and also it affects in a negative way the taste of a cigarette if you cannot fight the temptation.

Also avoid habits that in you mind are combined with smoking such as television, reading magazines or surfing the internet.

6. Keep you self busy

Especially in the early days try to keep your self busy with things you like, try not to leave time to yourself to think how much would you like to smoke. Also, try to divert your irritation in intense activity, for example by making some sports, walking or cycling.

7. Sleep more

Try to sleep more than you usually do. Your body and spirit becomes more exhausted from the effort to stop smoking and needs more rest. Moreover, the hours you sleep are hours that you are not thinking about how you would like a cigarette.

8. Drink more water

Try to drink more water. Water helps in eliminating toxins that have accumulated in your body from smoking more quickly, while reducing your desire to smoke.

9. Visit no-smoking places

Try to spend as many hours of the day in places where smoking is not allowed, such as libraries and museums. If you take a break for coffee sit with your friends in the non-smoking section.

10. Keep your hands busy

Keep your hands busy. It is proven that one of the reasons that people keep smoking is because they have associated smoking with a habit they do with their hands. Keep in your hand everything else than a cigarette; hold a pen, a piece of paper, anything that can trick your self, which is used to make the mechanical movements of smoking.

11. Avoid the smoking ‘after food temptation’

Most people tend to smoke immediately after food. Stand up immediately from the table you just eat go brush your teeth or go for a walk, try not to get into the temptation of smoking.

12. Don’t fall into the “one cigarette trap”

Try to resist the temptation to “one” cigarette. It is for sure that once you smoke one cigarette you will ruin your attempts to quit smoking, as other cigarettes will follow.

Even if you do fall in the trap, do not be very strict yourself. Try not to make the same mistake again and always have in your mind that this was a temporary misstep in your attempt to quit smoking for good.

13. Try using nicotine substitutes

If you feel that your lack of nicotine creates irritation, or if in the first few days you did not managed to stop smoking, despite your efforts, try using nicotine substitutes, such as stickers or chewing nicotine gum. This will help you to get rid of the habit of looking for cigarettes and will eventually help you to quit smoking.

14. Try acupuncture

Acupuncture is a natural method of nicotine dependency treatment, painless and safe. With one to five visits it reduces the intensity of symptoms such as psychological pressure, anxiety, depression, tension and the feelings of emptiness caused by the use of a long-term drug like nicotine. Surveys also have shown that acupuncture increases the need for affirmative action, creates vitality and fertility and helps the mind to think clearly and to check its desires.

15. Reward you self for you hard efforts

Reward yourself for each day without a cigarette. A good idea in this direction is to use the money savings from not smoking to buy something or make a trip.

16. Watch you diet

Consider consulting a dietician and follow a nutrition program for the first few months since the majority of smokers gain some extra pounds because they tend to eat more as a replacement action for not smoking.

17. Think positive

Do not you think quitting smoking as a sacrifice in which you lose a pleasure for the general and vague “good health”, but as a short exchange of joy with others, much bigger.

18. Accept your weakness

Reconcile with your weaknesses and do not to dispose yourself because you feel dependent on tobacco. If smoking had nothing positive, no one would smoke. The issue is to gradually be able to put on the scale the negatives of smoking and to let the scale turn in favour of quitting smoking.

19. Smoke consciously

Smoke consciously, that is, as any other activity you do, when you smoke say: “now I will smoke a cigarette.” In this way it will help you slowly disconnect the cigarette from other parallel activities, such as driving, surfing the net or speaking on the telephone. Conscious smoking in the long run helps address the issues with “mechanical smoking.”

20. Quit Smoking – Starting from now

You’ve read the ways to quit smoking and you also have the will to do it, why not start your efforts from now. Set your target date and follow the steps above. Quitting smoking can only do good for you and your health. It’s you choice…

Self Improvement Health, How To Quit Smoking, Quit Smoking, Tips

One of the simplest and most effective ways to bring down  blood glucose levels, cut the risk of cardiovascular disease, and improve overall health and well-being is physical fitness and exercise. Yet, in our increasingly sedentary world, where almost every essential task can be performed online, from the driver’s seat, or with a phone call, exercising and being physically fit can be tough case to sell.

Reality

In reality, everyone should exercise, yet survey shows that only 30% of the United States adult population gets the recommended thirty minutes of daily physical activity, and 25% are not active at all.

Inactivity is thought to be one of the key reasons for the surge of type 2 diabetes in America, because inactivity and obesity promote insulin resistance and other factors that trigger other kinds of diseases.

Good News

The good news is that it is never too late to get moving, and exercise is one of the easiest ways to start controlling the onset of any kinds of diseases. For people who are already candidates for some serious diseases like diabetes and heart failure, exercise and physical fitness can improve the condition of some parts of the body like insulin sensitivity, lower the risk of heart disease, and promote weight loss.

In 2003, the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism had published an issue regarding the result of their study and found out that lack of exercise and physical fitness were the key factors behind obesity and other serious diseases like diabetes.

Hence, it is extremely important for a person to stay healthy and be physically fit in order to avoid such illnesses.

Getting Started

The first order of business with any exercise plan, especially if you are a “dyed-in-the-wool” couch potato, is to consult with your health care provider.

If you have cardiac factors, your doctor may want to perform a stress test to establish a safe level of exercise for you.

Exercise Type

Certain complications of some diseases will also dictate what type of exercise program you can take on. Activities like weightlifting, jogging, or high-impact aerobics can possibly pose a risk for people with diabetic retinopathy due to the risk for further blood vessel damage and possible “retinal detachment.”

Health experts also contend that patients with sever peripheral neuropathy or PN should avoid foot-intensive weight-bearing exercises such as long-distance walking, jogging, or step aerobics and opt instead for low-impact activities like swimming, biking, and rowing.

If you have conditions that make exercise and physical fitness a challenge, your provider may refer you to an exercise physiologist who can design a fitness program for your specific needs.

If you are already active in sports or work out regularly, it will still benefit you to discuss your regular routine with your doctor.

Bottom Line

The bottom line is that physical fitness and exercise should not have to be a rigid activity and should not come off strong. Your exercise routine can be as simple as a brisk nightly neighborhood walk, walking the dog, or simply taking the stairs instead of the elevator. The important thing is that you keep on moving. Every little bit really helps a lot.

In the end, you will realize that the many things that good food can bring you are equally the same as what physical fitness can do for you.

Fitness Fitness, Physical Exercise, Physical Fitness

The perfect diet, which can provide the right kind of nutrition, is composed of a diet with rite combination of carbohydrates, proteins, minerals, and vitamins. Among all these components protein has a different and very essential role to play to keep the body in shape and make it strong. The main function of protein is reviving the dead tissues and enabling the growth of cells. Another essential function performed by proteins in body is making of hormones in the body and other serums required by the body. Proteins from plants are as nutritious as animal proteins. The total calorie intake should comprise of 20 percent of it. Proteins are made of essential and non-essential amino acids.

Protein Intake

A normal diet should contain 15-20% of protein. The intake of protein shouldn’t be more than 20% as suggested by the new researches. Protein contributes 4 calories of every gram consumed by the body. The right combination of essential amino acids as per the Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA) 1989 is: Isoleucine (10 mg), Lysine (12mg), Leucine (14 mg), Phenylalanine (14 mg), Methionine (13 mg), Threonine (7mg), Valine (10 mg) and Tryptophan (3.5 mg). These are those amino acids, which the body needs but cannot make them and are thus only made available to the body from food intakes comprising of these amino acids. And the protein needed by an infant is Histidine (28 mg). These amounts of proteins are taken in accordance with the body weight, per kilogram of it per day, by the body.

Protein Requirement

Requirement of protein depends on different factors like weight of the body, sex, age and the physical condition of the body. A normal human need for protein varies from that of the needs of an athlete or a body builder, or a person who is sick and lacks essentials required for a fit body. The body intakes essential amino acids that further help in making other non-essential amino acids required by the body to replenish the complete protein requirement of the body. The protein requirement of a body-builder is different from that of a normal workingman; the protein required by them is whey protein. Proteins from plants and from animals are the only outer sources of protein; milk has all the 8 different amino acids that the body requires for building muscles, hardening of bones and repairing cells. Eggs also provide complete protein, especially the white part of the egg.

An individual should take proper amount of protein, because any lesser than that or more than that can affect the body functioning adversely, which may result in body discrepancies. The amount of proteins suggested by physicians all over the world and by Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA) has been agreed universally as the right intake of proteins for individuals with normal physical needs. The right combination of protein should be the proper combination of proteins from vegetarian food and non-vegetarian food. Vegetarian people are advised to take some dairy foods along with vegetables to keep the protein level in body at par. Dairy foods have high and good quality of proteins in them.

Healthy Foods Diet, Healthy Food, Nutrition, Protein