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Diabetes

Signs & Symptoms Of Diabetes Types 1 & 2

People with type 1 diabetes may have noticeable early symptoms that often come on suddenly. Symptoms of type 1 diabetes may include:

• Increased thirst
• Increased urination
• Constant hunger
• Weight loss
• Blurred vision
• Fatigue, or a feeling of being tired

Type 2 Diabetes


Type 2 diabetes may occur without any symptoms, or symptoms may develop gradually. Type 2 diabetes symptoms may include:

• Frequent yeast infections
• Very slow healing of wounds or sores
• Nausea
• Fatigue, or a feeling of being tired
• Increased urination
• Increased thirst
• Weight loss
• Blurred vision

If you have these symptoms of diabetes, please see your doctor for testing.

If you are living with diabetes, lifestyle is an important element of your care. It is extremely important that you eat a good balance of foods every day and exercise regularly. Managing your disease also means taking medicine, if necessary, and testing your blood sugar levels each day.

Diet:

Diabetes does not require special foods. A healthy, balanced diet can come from everyday foods. If you have diabetes, you should:

• Choose foods that are low in fat and salt.
• Choose foods that are high in fiber (such as beans, vegetables and fruit).
• Remember to eat foods from all food groups: milk and milk products; lean meat, chicken, turkey, fish, beans, cheese, and eggs; bread, cereal, rice, noodles, and potatoes; and fruits and vegetables.
• Lose weight by reducing the amount of food you eat. If you have type 2 diabetes, weight loss will make your diabetes easier to control.

Your doctor can refer you to a dietitian who can help you plan meals that include the right foods, and recipes that taste great and are good for you.

Alcohol:

If your diabetes is under control and you do not have high blood pressure or nerve damage, your doctor may allow you to drink alcohol in moderation. Keep in mind that if you drink alcohol while taking insulin or other diabetes medication, you risk low blood sugar. The liver slows its release of glucose until it first clears the alcohol.

If you drink alcohol, limit yourself to one drink a day if you are a woman and two drinks a day if you are a man. Never drink alcohol on an empty stomach.

Smoking:

Smoking greatly increases your risk of heart disease and blood vessel disease — two of the major complications of diabetes. Stopping smoking is the single best thing you can do to decrease your chances of developing heart or blood vessel disease.

Exercise and Activity:

Always see a doctor before starting an exercise program. Your doctor may have good ideas about types of exercise that would be best for you. Exercise is important for people with diabetes because it does the following:

• Helps insulin work better to lower blood sugar
• Helps keep weight down, which also improves the condition
• Is good for the heart, blood vessels, and lungs
• Gives you more energy

Be aware that exercise affects your body's need for sugar. When you exercise, be sure to do the following:

• Have a snack with you in case you get low blood sugar
• Wear a tag or carry a card that says you have diabetes
• Eat a snack, such as milk or an apple, if it has been more than an hour since you have eaten
• Avoid exercising if your blood sugar is over 300 mg/dL. 
• Do not take insulin to lower your blood sugar before exercising. This may result in severe low blood sugar.

If you have heart disease or risk factors for heart disease, such as advanced age, high cholesterol, increased protein in your urine, high blood pressure, or poor diabetes control, check with your doctor about whether or not you need a stress test before beginning an exercise regimen.

If you have nerve damage to your feet, be careful to wear well-fitting shoes and socks to avoid blisters. You should discuss your exercise regimen with your physician and/or podiatrist.

Medications and Monitoring:

Taking your medicines and monitoring your blood sugar are also part of managing your diabetes.

If you need to take medicine, be sure to take it as directed. Do not change your dosage or how often you take your medication unless you have been instructed to do so by your physician. Take it as prescribed and on time every day. Be careful not to skip doses of insulin or other medications.

Test your blood for sugar as directed by your doctor. Some people only test once a day. Those who take insulin or multiple medications may need to test four or more times a day. Talk to your doctor about how often you should test your blood sugar.

To test your blood, you will need test strips and a lancet to pierce your finger or forearm for a blood drop. You will simply prick your finger or forearm, get a drop of blood, and place it on the end of the strip. After a short time, place the strip in your glucose meter and get an exact number for your blood sugar.

People with type 1 diabetes may also want to buy urine or blood test strips to detect ketones—substances your body forms when you do not have enough insulin and your blood glucose levels are high. This usually happens when you are sick. You may need to test for ketones when you have a blood sugar reading of more than 240 mg/dl before you eat.

If you have a positive ketone test when you take a blood or urine test, call your doctor immediately. This may indicate a developing condition called diabetic ketoacidosis, a serious condition that can cause death if left untreated.

Finally, you should see your doctor for a hemoglobin A1c test every three to six months. This blood test gives your doctor a picture of your blood sugar levels over the past three months. Ask your doctor if you have questions about your A1c test results. You should have a normal result if most of your blood sugar levels are near 100 mg/dl.

Managing your diabetes may take some planning. Ask your doctor how to best prepare for the following situations, which may require extra insulin or even changes to your regular dose of medication:

• When you are sick
• If you are planning a pregnancy or become pregnant
• When you are traveling
• When you are at school or at work
• When you are exercising

Associated Conditions

People with diabetes of both types commonly develop high blood pressure, or hypertension, and high cholesterol levels. These conditions may also require specific medications to achieve normal blood pressure and cholesterol levels.

When these levels are not controlled, they increase the risk for large blood vessel disease, which can cause heart attacks and strokes and lead to amputations. It is critical to control these conditions, as well as the diabetes.

Many of the lifestyle changes you may make to control your diabetes, such as diet and exercise, will also help control your blood pressure and cholesterol. Other changes may also be needed as well, such as lowering the salt and fats in your diet.

If you are diagnosed with diabetes, the first thing you will want to do is to find a physician, specifically an endocrinologist, to help you manage your condition. Find a doctor who will listen to you and answer your questions. Make a commitment to yourself to get educated and to make the lifestyle changes needed to maintain good health despite the challenges of diabetes. A great doctor, the right medication, a good diet, and exercise will go a long way in ensuring your well-being for many years to come.

Alzheimer

Alzheimer's and dementia basics

• Alzheimer's is the most common form of dementia, a general term for memory loss and other intellectual abilities serious enough to interfere with daily life. Alzheimer's disease accounts for 50 to 80 percent of dementia cases.
  Learn more: What We Know Today and Related Dementias.

	Alzheimer's is not the only cause of memory loss. Many people have trouble with memory — this does NOT mean they have Alzheimer's. There are many different causes of memory loss. If you or a loved one is experiencing symptoms of dementia, it is best to visit a doctor so the cause can be determined. Learn more: Visiting Your Doctor

• Alzheimer's is not a normal part of aging, although the greatest known risk factor is increasing age, and the majority of people with Alzheimer's are 65 and older. But Alzheimer's is not just a disease of old age. Up to 5 percent of people with the disease have early-onset Alzheimer's (also known as younger-onset), which often appears when someone is in their 40s or 50s.
  Learn more: Risk Factors
• Alzheimer's worsens over time. Alzheimer's is a progressive disease, where dementia symptoms gradually worsen over a number of years. In its early stages, memory loss is mild, but with late-stage Alzheimer's, individuals lose the ability to carry on a conversation and respond to their environment. Alzheimer's is the sixth leading cause of death in the United States. Those with Alzheimer's live an average of eight years after their symptoms become noticeable to others, but survival can range from four to 20 years, depending on age and other health conditions.
  Learn more: 10 Warning Signs and Stages of Alzheimer's Disease.
• Alzheimer's has no current cure, but treatments for symptoms are available and research continues. Although current Alzheimer's treatments cannot stop Alzheimer's from progressing, they can temporarily slow the worsening of dementia symptoms and improve quality of life for those with Alzheimer's and their caregivers. Today, there is a worldwide effort under way to find better ways to treat the disease, delay its onset, and prevent it from developing

Cognitive reserve in brain function (Dr René De Lamar)

Aging Influence of cognitive reserve in brain function (I)
"An evening with more light"
It is common in day to day consultation that memory problems or other alterations in brain function in the context of the aging process do not correspond with the results of neuropsychological studies and when we refer to the term and the influence of cognitive reserve it has on brain function in both healthy and pathological aging generate many questions that can appeal to a broad segment of the population so that motivate today's article. The term cognitive reserve or brain reserve is also known as power from repeated observations when there was no direct relationship between the degree of impairment to perform a given cognitive task and the severity of brain damage or simply by the clinical status of the person concerned. There have been numerous investigations both in normal aging and in people with Alzheimer's disease from the observation that healthy people who were at death and study their brains are anatomically detected lesions consistent with a diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease, so Usually these people had larger brain than the rest of the subjects studied and the researchers concluded that most brains protected them from creating "brain reserve" that delay the onset of clinical symptoms even when the disease was advanced .. With respect to cognitive reserve or brain reserve have defined a set of variables that appear to have a clear effect on the manifestation of clinical symptoms and the state of brain functioning, including personal and educational variables. To the extent that we are making major neuroanatomical changes are taking place such as: Loss of brain volume and weight * Increased the rows and thinning of the brain circunvuluciones * Cerebral atrophy that primarily affects mainly the gray matter in the frontal Decreased cerebral blood flow by approximately 20% Loss of brain connectivity The above processes are the result of continued deterioration to be produced throughout life and especially the decline is accentuated in recent years. Usually decline with age, the basic mechanisms of information processing such as executive functions, working memory and encoding of new information, plays an important role in attention and speed of information processing aspects that are ofimportant in explaining changes in memory and executive functions described during aging. The vocabulary, the recognition of previously learned information and tasks that are actively practiced over the years do not usually decline in advanced stages of life and the preservation of these skills can be very useful for developing strategies and offset deficits in other areas to ensure healthy aging.

Envejecimiento

Influencia de la reserva cognitiva en el  funcionamiento cerebral (I)

“Un atardecer con más luz”

Resulta frecuente en el día a día en la consulta que los problemas de memoria u otras alteraciones en el funcionamiento cerebral  en el contexto del proceso de envejecimiento no se corresponden con los resultados de los estudios neuropsicológicos y cuando hacemos referencia al  término reserva cognitiva y la influencia que tiene en la funcionalidad cerebral tanto en el envejecimiento sano como patológico generan numerosas interrogantes que pueden interesar a un amplio segmento de la población por lo que motivan el artículo de hoy.

El término reserva cognitiva o también denominado reserva cerebral se potenció a partir de observaciones repetidas cuando no existía una relación directa entre el grado de afectación  al realizar una determinada tarea cognitiva y la severidad del daño cerebral o simplemente por el estado clínico de la persona afectada.

Se han realizado numerosas investigaciones tanto en el envejecimiento normal como en personas que padecen enfermedad de Alzheimer a partir de la observación de que existían personas sanas que al fallecer y estudiar sus cerebros anatómicamente se detectaban lesiones compatibles con el diagnostico de enfermedad de Alzheimer, por lo general estas personas tenían mayor tamaño cerebral que el resto de los sujetos estudiados y los investigadores concluyeron que la mayor masa encefálica les protegía creando “reserva cerebral” que retrasaba la aparición de los síntomas clínicos incluso cuando la enfermedad estuviera avanzada.. Con respecto a la reserva cognitiva o reserva cerebral se han definido un conjunto de variables que parecen tener un claro efecto sobre la manifestación de síntomas clínicos y sobre el estado del funcionamiento del cerebro que incluye variables personales y educativas.

En la medida que vamos haciéndonos mayores se van produciendo cambios neuroanatómicos como pueden ser:

*Pérdida de volumen y peso cerebral

*Aumento de los surcos y adelgazamiento de las circunvuluciones cerebrales

*Atrofia cerebral que afecta fundamentalmente a la sustancia gris principalmente en la zona frontal

*Disminución del flujo cerebral en aproximadamente un 20 %

*Pérdida de conectividad cerebral

Los procesos anteriormente mencionados son el resultado del deterioro constante que se va produciendo a lo largo de la vida y sobre todo el declive que se acentúa durante los últimos años.

Suelen declinar con la edad los mecanismos básicos de proceso de la información como pueden ser las funciones ejecutivas, la memoria de trabajo y la codificación de la nueva información,  juega un papel importante la atención y la velocidad de procesamiento de la información aspectos que se revisten gran importancia al explicar alteraciones de memoria y de funciones ejecutivas que se describen durante el envejecimiento.

El vocabulario, el reconocimiento de información previamente aprendida y aquellas tareas que se han practicado activamente a lo largo de los años no suelen declinar en etapas avanzadas de la vida y la preservación de estas habilidades puede ser muy útil para desarrollar estrategias y compensar déficits de otras áreas que garanticen un envejecimiento saludable.

Willy flamenco

España y su economía a nivel internacional

La factura de la peor crisis que ha sufrido España en el último medio siglo ha relegado al país tres puestos en la clasificación de potencias mundiales. Según el informe de primavera del Fondo Monetario Internacional, España cerró 2010 como la dudécima economía del mundo tras ser adelantada por Canadá, India y Rusia, una situación que ya adelantaba el organismo en su informe de previsiones de octubre, pero que se confirma tras el cierre del ejercicio. Además, y esto es nuevo, no volverá al grupo de los 10 más grande en un futuro previsible tras soñar con entrar en el grupo de los siete países más industrializados del mundo gracias a década y media de fuerte crecimiento.