If your world is all concrete and steel, could be more likely to suffer from depression and anxiety, as well as other health problems. Dutch researchers studied more than 300,000 Dutch adults and children, and discovered that those living close to more green spaces had slightly lower rates of different health conditions like asthma, heart disease, migraine, diabetes, and chronic neck and back pain.

The strongest health association was between lack of green spaces and people suffering from depression and anxiety. Researchers found that people living in areas with less green space were more likely to suffer from depression, suggesting that green space is very important in urban life. The research findings have been published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.

If you live in a big city, how often do you seek out green spaces?

(Image via stock.xchng)

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Green Spaces May Improve Health

If you develop a cut or blister on your foot, your body usually responds by helping it heal – the blood delivers the protein and nutrients the tissues need to rebuild. But if you have diabetes and your circulation is not good in your feet, the blood supply won’t be providing the injured tissue all it needs to begin to heal properly. This is why you may hear horror stories of people with diabetes having severe foot problems, sometimes resulting in drastic surgery.

Another problem that people with diabetes often have is they don’t feel their foot injuries. It’s not unusual for someone with diabetes to develop a problem called diabetic neuropathy, which results in  you feeling pins and needles – nerve pain, but also may prevent you from feeling what you should, particularly in your feet and lower legs. This means, if you develop a cut or blister on your foot, you may not notice it until it has developed into something serious.

Medline Plus has a good slide presentation for people to learn more about diabetic foot care. To watch the presentation, just click on the TV screen below:

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Image: iStock.com

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Video Tuesday: Diabetes and Foot Care

Researchers studied almost 14,000 seniors with diabetes who were prescribed antipsychotic medications to help manage their dementia symptoms. The patients were followed by the researchers for two years and the study results were published in the most recent issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine .

What the researchers found was that 11% of the group ended up in the hospital because of high blood sugar levels, many of whom were already being treated for diabetes, with either insulin or oral medications.

One of the big concerns of such findings is that the senior population is growing and so is the incidence of both diabetes and dementia. Therefore, doctors will need to be aware of this increased diabetes/antipsychotic risk.

A good article that explains this is Diabetic seniors taking antipsychotics face risks .

Another thing to keep in mind

Many seniors have different doctors for different health issues. It’s vital that each doctor be aware of all medications that their patients are taking. For this reason, carrying a medication journal would be a good idea. If the journal is kept up to date, then it can be presented to each doctor at each visit. This would allow them to see the patient as a whole, rather than as just the problem he or she is there for.

Another issue is different pharmacists. Just as patients may see different doctors, they may have their prescriptions filled at different places. This is a dangerous practice for anyone because pharmacists are the medication specialists. They are the ones who can identify if there are contraindications (rules against) some medications, they can warn people what to watch out for, and so on. If you must use different pharmacies, be sure that each pharmacy is also up to date on all the medications.

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Image: Newscom.com

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Diabetic Seniors and Antipsychotic Meds

According to this USA Today article, Tattoos being used for medical alerts , tattoos alerting people of their medical condition is becoming an option for some people. And it’s more common that we probably realize. There’s a Wikipedia entry for medical tattoos , and there are discussions about them on various blogs and sites, like Diabetes Advocacy and The Diabetic Lifestyle Journal.

What do you think? Is it a good solution or – in your opinion – a drastic one? I have to admit, I’d not thought about it before, but I can see why someone may want to do it.

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Image: Stock.xchng

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Tattoo Your Medical Alert?

According to Cyril Kendall, Ph.D., of the University of Toronto, “This is the largest study done to date looking at the effect of tree nuts and peanuts on Type 2 diabetes.”

According to Maureen Ternus, M.S., R.D., Executive Director of the International Tree Nut Council Nutrition Research & Education Foundation, “While we’ve known for years that eating 1.5 ounces of nuts per day can help reduce the risk for heart disease, these new findings show that consuming nuts may now be helpful in controlling Type 2 diabetes as well.”

(photo credit: Newscom)

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Tree Nuts and Diabetes

Included are recipes for summer pork roast with vegetables, Cajun Creole smothered steaks, garlicky Greek yogurt dip, and chicken rotini salad with rosemary.

The offer is available only for shipment to US addresses.

(photo courtesy of the American Heart Association)

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Free Diabetic Heart Healthy Cookbook

Diabetes is hard on anyone, but the elderly have an especially difficult time because of the maintenance required to keep the disease in check. Now, a new study suggests that elderly diabetics also have a “higher level of residual renal function when they start dialysis,” which means more are starting dialysis than ever before. In addition, they generally need to start it earlier than non-diabetic patients.

Also, the “proportion of deaths from infection was significantly increased in diabetics (12.8% vs. 9.8% of deaths).” These scary numbers mean that diabetics have to be that much more diligent about caring for themselves, and in talking with their doctor about options before complete kidney failure takes over the body.

Image: MorgueFile.

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Elderly Diabetics and Kidney Failure

This could be one reason why certain people do not get Type 2 Diabetes, despite being overweight and out of shape.

One insecticide in particular, chlordane, was used to fight termite infestations in “approximately 30 million homes from the 1950s until it was banned in 1988.” The vapors of this chemical get into homes ” through opening around pipes and cracks in concrete floors.” Chlordane compounds then ” accumulate in the fat tissues” and aid in the condition known as insulin resistance. Even more frightening was this statistic: ” Chlordane levels in the air of homes are known to remain high 30-plus years after application.”

For more information on how chlordane could affect you, please visit Diabetes Health Magazine.

Image: Morguefile.

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Termites: Cause of Diabetes?

It’s a complicated disease. It can be managed fairly well, but it takes thought and preparation most of the time. It’s not a disease that you can forget about.

One of the first things you learn is how to test your own blood sugar levels. At first, it seems like it’s so often, that your fingers are like pin cushions. This does get better. Your fingers may not get entirely used to it, but most often, the frequency of testing goes down as you become more controlled and aware of your body.

What are those numbers?

Your blood sugar levels can range wildly from below 2.0 mmol/L in a severe hypoglycemic crisis to above 24, heading towards a serious hyperglycemic crisis.

The idea blood sugar levels are between 4.0 and 7.0 mmol/L before meals or after you’ve been fasting and between 5.0 and 10.0 mmol/L about two hours after eating.

Symptoms

If your blood sugar is too low (hypoglycemia), you may experience mood swings, blurry vision, sweating, severe hunger, shakiness, headache, extreme fatigue and dizziness. If your blood sugar is too high (hyperglycemia), you may experience thirst (dry mouth), blurry vision, frequent urge to urinate, and fatigue.

A trick that I used to give patients uses a few words. Unfortunately, I couldn’t come up with words that made sense when using them with diabetes, but they do do the trick for some.

For signs of hyperglycemia, think THEFT .

• TH – thirsty and dry mouth
• E – Eyes are blurry
• F – Frequent urge to urinate
• T – Tired, extreme fatigue, exhausted

For hypoglycemia, think of two words: SHED and MESH.

• S – Shakiness
• H – Headache
• E – Extreme fatigue
• D – Dizziness

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• M – Mood swings
• E – Eyes blurry
• S – Sweating
• H – Hunger

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Image: Morguefile.com

Illustrations: Marijke Vroomen-Durning

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Important numbers in diabetes management

Don’t worry, I’ll still be providing diabetes news and updates here. And the “Putting a Face on Diabetes” interview series remains alive and well! (A little “health” humor there! Tee hee).

This is an exciting time for diabetics everywhere, as each day we know more about the disease and get closer to a cure.

Remember if you’re a Type 1 or Type 2 diabetic who is interested in being interviewed, please send me an email at: cherieburbach@yahoo.com. I look forward to meeting each and every one of you as we learn about and tackle this disease.

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Diabetes Notes Has a New Home