Managing Diabetes – TED* for Diabetes (*The Empowerment Dynamic)

A groundbreaking new book, TED* for Diabetes: A Health Empowerment Story, co-authored by leadership and behavior change expert David Emerald and Scott Conard, MD, offers an innovative method that helps those diagnosed with diabetes to shift their perspective from victim to empowerment. “People with diabetes can improve their health using the principles in this book,”...

The Right Steps Toward Disease Prevention

The first step in the right direction is to get a pedometer. A pedometer is a great little device that measures how many steps a person takes in a day. They cost just a few dollars and easily clip to a person’s belt or waistband. At our practice, we ask our patients to wear a pedometer from the time they get up in the morning until they go to bed. They then write down their...

Critical Risk Factors For Heart Disease

NUMBERS CRITICAL TO HEART DISEASE Okay, so how do we get a feel for what your heart disease risk factor is?  The answer is, go and get a lipid panel test done. Lipid is simply another name for fat. Your fat numbers can be determined through a simple blood test at your doctor’s office, a health fair, or the blood bank where you give blood. Not only will they provide you with...

A Simple Home Blood Test For Diabetes

THE GLUCOSE TOLERANCE TEST To test your body’s ability to handle sugar, your doctor will probably have you drink a bottle of glucose water that contains 75 grams of glucose. He will then check your blood sugar two hours later. This is called the glucose tolerance test. It gives you an idea of how well your pancreas can deal with a sugar load. If it is producing the right...

2 Essentials For Diabetes Management

1. Reduce your sugar intake  Indeed, times have changed since 1900, when Americans ate an average of 5 pounds of sugar per year. In 2000, the amount of sugar consumed rose to 163 pounds! Although our bodies have not evolved or changed, our diet sure has. It is truly amazing, maybe even miraculous, that our bodies have been able to cope with and manage this thirty-fold...

Don’t Wait for High Blood Pressure Symptoms

    “The sobering fact about high blood pressure is that it is often without symptoms until it is too late. That is, until an “end organ,” such as our brain, kidneys or heart, becomes damaged, we rarely feel it. Occasionally, some individuals with high blood pressure get headaches or blurry vision. But usually they ascribe these symptoms to stress or...