Smoking With Diabetes

Smoking is harmful and damaging to everyone’s health, but the nicotine in cigarettes may be even more deadly for people who have diabetes.

Researchers have discovered that nicotine raises blood sugar levels, and the more nicotine that is present, the higher the blood sugar levels are. Even nicotine patches or gum can cause harm. Using them for a short period of time is fine, but if you are addicted to nicotine and are using these products long term, it will do harm.

For researchers to test whether or not nicotine increased blood sugar level, they added glucose to samples of human red blood cells. They also added different levels of nicotine to each sample of red blood cells for either one or two days.

They then tested the hemoglobin A1C levels of each sample. Hemoglobin A1C is a measure of what percentage of red blood cells have glucose molecules attached to them. When diabetics are given this test, they strive for a level of 7 percent of less.

Researches found that just this small dose in such a short amount of time actually increased hemoglobin A1C levels to 8.8 percent. Other samples with the highest doses increased blood sugar levels to 34.5 percent.

So whether or not nicotine is the specific reason for raised blood sugar levels, everybody should stop smoking. Also people with diabetes already have a much higher risk of cardiovascular disease, smoking just adds to that.

Proper Oral Hygiene

Maintaining good oral hygiene is one of the most important things you can do for your teeth and gums. Healthy teeth not only enable you to look and feel good, they make it possible to eat and speak properly. Good oral health is important to your overall well-being.

Daily preventive care, including proper brushing and flossing, will help stop problems before they develop and are much less painful, expensive, or worrisome than treating conditions that have been allowed to progress.

Oral health begins with clean teeth. Consider these brushing basics from the American Dental Association:

  • Brush your teeth at least twice a day. When you brush, don’t rush. Take enough time to do a thorough job.
  • Use the proper equipment. Use a fluoride toothpaste and a soft-bristled toothbrush. Consider using an electric or battery-operated toothbrush, especially if you have arthritis or other problems that make it difficult to brush effectively.
  • Practice good technique. Hold your toothbrush at a slight angle against your teeth and brush with short back-and-forth motions. Remember to brush the inside and chewing surfaces of your teeth, as well as your tongue. Avoid vigorous or harsh scrubbing, which can irritate your gums.
  • Know when to replace your toothbrush. Invest in a new toothbrush or a replacement head for your electric toothbrush every three to four months — or sooner if the bristles become frayed.

You can’t reach the tight spaces between your teeth or under your gumline with a toothbrush. That’s why daily flossing is important. When you floss:

  • Don’t skimp. Break off about 18 inches of dental floss. Wind most of the floss around the middle finger on one hand, and the rest around the middle finger on the other hand — leaving about 1 inch to floss your first tooth.
  • Take it one tooth at a time. Use your thumbs and forefingers to gently pull the floss from the gumline to the top of the tooth to scrape off plaque. Rub the floss against all sides of the tooth. Unwind to fresh floss as you progress to the next tooth.
  • Keep it up. If you have trouble getting floss through your teeth, try the waxed variety. If it’s hard to manipulate the floss, use a floss holder or an interdental cleaner — such as a dental pick or stick designed to clean between the teeth.

In addition to daily brushing and flossing, you might use an antiseptic mouth rinse to help reduce plaque between your teeth. Early detection and treatment of oral health problems can ensure a lifetime of good oral health.

Obese Americans

America is one of the richest and most progressive countries in the world. Why isn’t it one of the healthiest too? It’s the sad truth, but Americans are some of the most unhealthy people in the world. Even though we are living in a country with great economic power and advanced technology, we are also living in a country with the smallest fund of nutritional knowledge. Our land is plagued with obesity.

According to the CDC (Center for Disease Control and Prevention), obesity in adults has increased by 60% within the past twenty years and obesity in children has tripled in the past thirty years. A staggering 33% of American adults are obese and obesity-related deaths have climbed to more than 300,000 a year, second only to tobacco-related deaths.

So the question is, why is America so different from the rest of the world? If you examine the average American’s lifestyle, we live life on the go. We consume a mountain of fast-food and microwave dinners. Instead of eating a diet of wholesome foods coming directly from the land, Americans eat a diet of packaged, processed, and refined foods.

Through technological advancement we have found ways to produce food in mass quantities, make it last longer and taste better. Unfortunately, during this processing somewhere along the line, we seem to have lost the food. The highly processed and refined products that pack our supermarket shelves are loaded with sugar, hydrogenated oils, and ingredients that we can’t even pronounce.

Fast-food restaurant chains have popped up all across the country. America takes advantage of their cheap prices, quick service, and tasty meals. Convenient as they are, these meals contain no nutrients. Some of these places can fill an adults daily fat and calories quota in one meal.

Out of necessity, many obese people suffering from various complications and diseases have learned to change their diet. Those people, with determination and a will to survive have succeeded in becoming healthy once again. They have learned that cutting out meat products, processed foods, fast-foods, high sugar and high sodium foods, while incorporating whole grains, vegetables, fruits and legumes into the diet is the only way to return back to health. It is not easy to go against the strong current of an unhealthy society but it is a necessity.