How To Get Your Diabetes Under Control Now

Do you ever feel like your life could be the subject of a country western song? The rents overdue, you hate your job, the truck broke down and now my doctor says I've got diabetes. Yee-Haw! No wonder the bars are full every night.

Just to clarify, your body communicates with itself using chemical messengers called hormones. Several organs in the brain and body produce hormones that flow to other organs through the blood where these messages are received and the corresponding organ responds by producing another hormone that fixes a problem detected by sensors in your nervous system that alerted the brain in the first place.

Insulin is a hormone. It chemically dissolves sugar molecules in the blood so that they can be converted into the energy that powers the heart, organs and muscles.

There are two types of diabetes. Type one is usually hereditary. The autoimmune system in your body goes haywire and attacks the cells in your pancreas that produce a hormone called insulin. Without the sugars being broken down you won't have much energy.

Type two diabetes is caused by the pancreas not producing enough insulin hormone even though the brain keeps signaling it to. If you have a faulty pancreas you are at a higher risk of type two diabetes and need to take steps so as not to aggravate the situation by not eating right and living a sedentary lifestyle.

Your normal fasting blood sugar level ranges from 60-95 mg/dl. (milligrams per deciliter) Levels higher than 126 mg/dl can bring about the usual symptoms of thirst, hunger, and frequent urination. Feeling weak or fatigued can also coincide with open sores and dry itchy skin. Nice.

5 Complications of Diabetes:

1. Diabetes is the leading cause of blindness for adult's age 20 - 74 years old.

2. Causes heart and blood vessel disease: people with diabetes have heart death rates 2 - 4 times higher than people without diabetes.

3. Nerve damage: Symptoms include erectile dysfunction, slowed digestion, and decreased sensation or pain in the feet.

4. Increases Gum Disease: People who don't control their diabetes are 3 times more likely to have gum disease.

5. Limb amputation: 60 % of people with amputations are performed on diabetics.

So don't be one of the 800,000 new cases diagnosed in the US each year. That's nearly 2200 people every day. The more you exercise the less dependent your muscles are on insulin so even if your pancreas isn't producing much, that's ok, it doesn't need to. Exercising keeps it all in balance. Exercise is a must. I've never had a patient tell me they enjoy their blindness or amputation.

So keep your mind on the bright side of things and don't become the subject of a sad country and western tune. You can live a full and active life after all. Yee haw!

New Diabetes Workout!

Yoga Improves New Year's Resolution Success

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Yoga Chi for Energy, which is an ancient system consisting of both physical exercises,  postures and meditation can be a real motivator. In fact, it can help you keep your New Year’s Resolutions this year. Yoga Improves Weight Loss On of the most common New Year’s Resolutions is the resolution to lose weight. This is often a difficult resolution for people to keep, but yoga chi for energy practice can help. Yoga, poses (called asanas) and meditation reduce stress that may lead to overeating or other bad habits. The relaxed, focused state that comes from this ancient discipline tends to fall right in line with better choices such as eating healthier foods and exercising more.   In addition to this are the practical fat burning and muscle building qualities of yoga practice. Yoga asanas can be quite muscularly demanding and are thus similar to many fat burning regimens that give muscles relatively short periods of intensive work. This is well known to be one of the fastest ways to burn fat.   Even gentle Yoga Chi for Energy postures also stimulate and massage organs in the body and in so doing improve things like digestive function, kidney and liver health, and circulation, all of which help to purify the system and burn unwanted fact. Meditation and Motivation Meditation is well known to create a sense of relaxation as well as focus. As such, it can help greatly with motivation and will power. In the meditative state, things tend to become clearer and less jumbled and confused. The meditator can see more clearly what the issues with motivation are and act on them more consciously. All of this can be a great advantage when trying to keep a New Year’s Resolution, or any other resolution or goal for that matter. Whether it is a weight loss resolution, a resolution to find an exciting new career, or to find romance, meditation focuses an individual’s attention and creates the relaxed confidence that is beneficial for pursuing goals. Statistical Support These are not merely glittering generalities. There is direct statistical evidence to support the role of yoga in increasing focus and motivation. A study conducted by the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) set out to show that yoga is more than just exercise. Traci A. Statler and Ami Wheeler, both PhDs tested the motivation, concentration, and anxiety levels of students Cal State San Bernadino during the course of 10 week Hatha Yoga class. They gave the students standard assessments 2 weeks into the course and again at 9 weeks. They discovered marked increases in motivation and concentration on the part of students, and a clear decrease in students’ anxiety. New Year’s Resolution Success New Year’s Resolution Success can thus be a natural, even spontaneous, result of practicing yoga. The ability for an individual to manifest what he or she wants is a natural part of yoga. The practice exercises and tones the physical body while at the same time creating a sense of purified and relaxed focus that tends to make sticking to resolutions much easier. So it is in the interests of almost anyone trying to keep a new year’s resolution to at least consider taking up yoga.

 

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Kick and Scream Your Way to a Younger Body

So you're older now and here's what you can expect.

It's harder to work off that spare tire.   You're hair thins and then falls out, muscles weaken from disuse, vision becomes blurred, hearing is diminished, balance is off center, bones thin, joints become arthritic and your skin gets wrinkles. Whew! I think I'll just go back to bed.

Now not so fast. All is not lost, at least not yet. There is nothing we can do about getting older, but there is plenty you can do about aging. Getting older doesn't mean we can't age without kicking and screaming the whole way.

Here's what I propose you get yourself used to. Exercise, some kind of exercise, every day. Now if you're thinking, "But I've never exercised a day in my life, why start now?"  Go look in the mirror. Compare that image to the old photo of you at the beach 20 years ago. Yeah, I know. This only happens to other people. Sorry, it's happened to you.  But exercise is not just about looks, it's about staying healthy and functionally fit.  

Exercise and proper care of your skin can significantly reduce and slow down the aging process inside and out. Let's take a look under the microscope & see what's going on inside you and every human being that's getting older.

You've got chromosomes with genes in them. On the ends of these gene strands are what's called telomeres (DNA). These little telomeres act just like those plastic wraps, or caps, around the ends of your shoelaces. As we age the telomeres deteriorate and the shoelaces (chromosomes) begins to fray and come apart as they continually replicate themselves.

During cell division, enzymes that duplicate the chromosome and its DNA cannot continue their duplication all the way to the end of the chromosome. If cells divided without telomeres, they would lose the ends of their chromosomes, and the necessary information they contain. The telomeres are disposable buffers blocking the ends of the chromosomes and are consumed during cell division and replenished by an enzyme called telomerase. When this happens some of the DNA is lost and genes deteriorate which promotes the symptoms of aging.

There is no known way to reverse this process but there are many ways to fight it. Five small meals a day instead of three big ones. If you're not a construction worker, don't eat like one. Keep it light and low cal. Perform weight bearing exercises, start light and work your way up to heavier loads. No matter what your age is your muscles will respond to lifting weights, period. Exercising helps to maintain hormonal balance. All the hormones flowing through your blood increase and help your organs operate to their best ability. It's like putting high test gas in your bloodstream; you'll run like a top.

Thirty minutes a day of exercise is enough to get your hormones pumping. It's also very important to stretch after exercise of any type. Keeping the range of motion in your arms and legs are what help you keep doing the things you love most. Applying skin care products to your face and body will keep your skin smooth and clear. This is good advice for men too.

All this sounds like a bunch of extra work but the payoff at the end of the day is you'll sleep like a baby. Say goodbye to insomnia and any other sleep disorders you may have. Want to know why? Because you're going to be pooped! But you'll wake up with more energy, a younger body and a sharper mind. That's something that no pill on earth can offer.

Copyright © 2011 Functional Fitness starring Suzanne Andrews

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Back From The Brink

[caption id="attachment_62" align="aligncenter" width="250" caption="The Power of Meditation"][/caption]

My journey to a new body and a new life began with a difficult pregnancy and an emergency cesarean section birth. By the time I gave birth, I was a size 18 and 61 pounds overweight.

[caption id="attachment_63" align="aligncenter" width="142" caption="60 Pounds Heavier"][/caption]

 At 5’2”, I was putting a tremendous strain on my knees and hips. The simple act of walking was an arduous task. Walking places a force of 3 times your body weight on the critical joints of your body. At my height and size, I was burdening my body with 528 pounds of pressure. Every step was excruciating. I developed bursitis in my hips creating an inflammation so severe that I couldn’t walk without flinching. I suffered through two miscarriages and eventual gall bladder surgery. My condition had gotten so severe that I couldn’t even play with my newborn without becoming winded. Exercise was out of the question. I could barely see my toes—being able to touch them was a fantasy.

My wake-up call came two years later, at my son’s birthday party. When I saw the videotape of the celebration, I didn’t even recognize myself. It was time to make a change. I was starting to understand why I had no energy. Staring me in the face, right there on the screen was the reason my hips and back ached so terribly. Every day was another dose of my harsh reality. Commuting to work on the bus was a humiliating experience, as I had to endure the cruel snickers when I couldn’t fit into the seat. I had enough. It was time for a change.

While I was working at CBS on the Geraldo show, a guest panelist and psychologist told me about how meditation could benefit me. I was skeptical, but desperate to try anything that would make me feel whole again. I needed to be there for my son. I decided to give it a try. At first I didn’t understand how a sedentary activity like meditation could help me to lose weight. It was not long before I discovered the secret---during meditation your mind is the CEO and your body the dutiful employee. You tell your body what it needs to do and it follows suit.

The ritual of meditation was the spark that jumpstarted my weight loss plan. I felt energized to exercise daily, choose healthier options and control my portion sizes. The meditation motivated me in ways I never thought imaginable, helping me lose the excuses and get on the track to better health. I started with gentle yoga combined with low impact exercises.

[caption id="attachment_65" align="aligncenter" width="240" caption="Beginners Dynamic Yoga for Stress Release and Weight Loss"][/caption]

This not only helped me to start shedding pounds, but also made my day-to-day tasks more manageable.  I incorporated other techniques which are now  on my PBS TV series, Functional Fitness.   I’ve included the low-impact fat burning technique with high intensity workouts for optimal success. I’ve also included instruction on how people can give themselves a non-surgical butt lift using only paper plates with the Fat Burning workout.

Preview Fat Burning Workout

With my series soon syndicated to 90 million viewers, my show encourages everyone to take charge of their health, regardless of fitness level. I also encourage viewers to participate actively in their health care plan by using preventative, cost-effective approaches to managing their health.

Meditation saved my life, and prevented my son from becoming an orphan at 10 years old. I credit my success to the incorporation of mind, body and spirit that meditation encourages. The same breathing techniques that I used to control my appetite and regulate stress also helped to develop my lungs and give them power. It was those same healthy, powerful lungs that delivered me from the brink of death, when a medical miscalculation caused my heart to stop on an operating table. As doctors frantically fought to revive my lifeless body with CPR, my body started to shut down, turning my lips, hands and feet a chilling blue. Near death, I was transported by ambulance to the intensive care unit. My body was on the verge of giving up. My kidneys shut down and my veins constricted so tightly that doctors could not administer a lifesaving intravenous line. My body and my spirit were determined to live. I would not die. I would live. I would see my son again. I started to meditate. After five minutes of willing myself to survive and using my meditation skills, my body started its journey back from the edge. My kidneys started functioning again. My pulse strengthened and my veins opened up. Later, my cardiologist would proclaim in amazement, “I’m an Indian doctor and my patient is teaching me how great meditation is!”

After that day, I had a renewed sense of purpose. I had to motivate others and help other people struggling with weight find their purpose. My weight could have been a death sentence, but meditation and determination was my pardon. My life has been changed since that day. Doors have opened for me. I went from being introverted and soft spoken to a confident, capable and dynamic woman ready to embrace life. I have made it my mission to help others on their journey to finding the healthy and slim person within. You are the CEO of your health.  Exercise and be healthwise. Take care of your body and your body will take care of you. 

Get Fitter, stronger and healthier in the comfort of your own home email your local Public Television station now and request Functional Fitness starring Suzanne Andrews broadcast on your local station.  To find your station go to

http://www.pbs.org/stationfinder/index.html

The Best Recipes for Weight Loss has Three Main Ingredients

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As someone who loves food and cooking, I prefer to think about weight loss like a recipe. There's no shortage of weight loss recipes being promoted these days. Just take a look down the "diet" aisle of your bookstore and you'll see hundreds of books all promising to solve your weight loss woes, many of them with conflicting approaches. It's totally overwhelming.

After several decades of diet experimentation, I've discovered that with weight  loss, as with most things in life, it's best to keep it simple.  Isn't life complicated enough? How many rules and restrictions can we tolerate before we throw up our hands and give up? Then I realized that the best recipes for losing weight have just three main ingredients - food, fitness, and feeling good.

Food and eating is an important main ingredient in any weight loss plan since the kinds and amounts of food you eat, as well as how you eat, are directly related to weight. It's necessary to eat the foods that energize you in a nourishing way most of the time and make room for indulging in the foods that you love so you never feel deprived. Exactly what, when, how much and how often you eat is a matter of personal choice and experimentation to determine what works best for you.

Fitness is the second important main ingredient in a successful weight loss plan. Your body loves to move, even if your mind thinks otherwise. It was designed to move, so again, the key is to find ways to move that feel good to you. Keep it energizing and fun. Experiment until you find what leaves you feeling great. For me that means lots of brisk walks with my golden retriever and healthy doses of all kinds of yoga from gentle to vigorous. For you it may mean working out with an inspiring DVD, bicycling, swimming or turning up the music and dancing around the
house. 

The third important ingredient - feeling good- might just be the most important one for successful lasting weight loss. And it's the one most often ignored in traditional weight loss plans. It's the magical missing ingredient and once you discover its power your life and weight loss efforts will be so much easier and more enjoyable.

When you begin to focus on feeling good, having fun and adding pleasure to your life instead of dieting, deprivation, restrictions, food charts and working out, your mind and body begin to shift almost immediately.  Try it right now. Say to yourself, "I need to lose weight" and notice how you feel. (If you're like me you may feel stressed, depressed, frustrated, tired, sad, and/or overwhelmed - hardly the right emotions for trying to lose weight.) Now say, "I need to find a way to feel good and have some fun." Notice anything different? (When I say this, I feel like smiling as I sense warmth, happiness, excitement and interest. These are much better emotions
for making something positive - like weight loss - happen.)

When you think about it, it makes so much sense. Shifting your focus from losing weight to feeling good sets you up for success because you are in a happier, less stressful, calm, relaxed state, where weight loss can begin to happen in a way that seems almost effortless. When you feel good, you are much more likely to engage in behaviors that make you feel better - like eating better, getting enough sleep and moving your body in ways that feel good - that will all support your desire for weight  loss.

So, the next time you decide to lose weight, I hope you'll remember that the best recipes have just three ingredients - food, fitness and feeling good - and by focusing on ways to feel good about yourself, your body, your life, your career, and/or your relationships - you will be setting yourself up for success.

[caption id="attachment_49" align="alignleft" width="181" caption="Martha Mckinnon"][/caption]

 Martha McKinnon is a weight loss coach and yoga teacher who believes that eating great and losing weight can be simple and delicious when you take a body-mind-soul
approach. To learn more please visit her website,
"http://www.simple-nourished-living.com   

Simple Nourished Living.  While you are there you can pick up a FREE copy of her first e-cookbooklet of healthy homemade granola bar recipes.

Scientists Reveal Exercise Protects Brain Cells

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Carl W. Cotman and Nicole C. Berchtold of The University of California, Irvine are among numerous researchers who found evidence that exercise helps you protect the brain cells you have, and it even spurs the growth of new ones. In their 2007 study, Exercise: A Behavioral Intervention to Enhance Brain Health and Plasticity, they report that using your muscles kicks off a remarkable process that allows your body to make more of a chemical called Brain-derived neurotrophic factor. This is a substance that actually makes more gray matter.  So what exactly does that have to do with exercise habits, and our mind? It means that when we exercise, we can improve memory, concentration, and thinking skills. Moderate exercise helps our body make the special kind of brain cells that store memory and then get information back when you need it. These cells are found in the hippocampus, a part of the brain that was discovered to be larger in people who exercise regularly. The hippocampus keeps you oriented. It helps you find what you're looking for--everything from your car keys to the roadmap to that highway exit that got by you the first time around.  If you've ever felt more alert during or after some aerobic exercise, it was most likely because your brain got another benefit.

Rehab professional and producer of Functional Fitness Brain Power DVD, Suzanne Andrews states, " we need to approach people living with dimentia differently and focus on helping people achieve to the best of their ability instead of focusing on their disability.   Although it's also best practice to start an anti dementia program as early as age 40,it's never too late to begin."

Suzanne Andrews, host of Functional Fitness on PBS TV and producer of Brain Power DVD  



instructs you with specially formulated cognition enhancing movements  designed to enhance the right side and left side of your brain and get your blood circulating quickly. The faster your heart pumps it, the faster it gets to your brain. That means both oxygen and glucose arrive right when you need them. Your brain is fueled up, so you get a little jolt.   Brain Power is, in fact, so effective in improving mental focus that it is often part of a treatment plan for people who have attention deficit disorder, dementia, memory loss and alzheimer's.  Brain Power DVD is most valuable to mental function because of its effect upon the frontal and pre-frontal lobes. These areas of the brain help you to solve problems, prioritize tasks, and react to situations quickly. By doing this 25 minute session, you can even protect your pre-frontal cells from threats like environmental toxins or injury. These findings are especially promising for elderly people striving to maintain their independent living skills, and to those affected by dementia.

What are your thoughts, concerns on memory loss?   Email us your question or comment in the box below.