What small, seemingly insignificant choices/habits can cause diabetes over years or a lifetime? And what chloices/habits can help prevent it? I didnt mean generally speaking, i meant specific choices.

processed foods, any food that is white is bad for you generally , exercise helps keeping your weight down also , but a lot of folks are predisposed .

Source(s): the whiter the bread the quicker your dead a doctor told my wife that 7 years ago

Genetics are partially linked to diabetes, but a sedentary lifestyle mixed with a high fat diet both factor into the development of the disease. If you're worried about getting diabetes, you'd be wise to start exercising regularly while revamping your diet. You'd be surprised how effective those two methods are. Exercise alone has been shown to be twice as effective as medication in controlling blood glucose levels (mainly because the body can use at least 95% of the glucose it produces).

I'm assuming you're talking about Type 2 diabetes (Type 1 is auto-immune). No specific cause but a number of factors can contribute to it...like sedentary lifestyle, overweight, high sugar/fat diet..a FAMILY HISTORY of DM. also other diseases like hypertension...
risk also increases with age (45, 50 ++) and certain ethnic groups have a higher predisposition...

In my own experience with my hubby, I noticed he drinks a lot of water and urinates often, he lost 10kg in 1 month w/o dieting, he suddenly has the sore in his toe nail(under the nail, he feels sleepy most of the time, as it runs in his blood(family history) i suspected that he has high blood sugar, and yes its positive........hope the above helps you...I also find this blog very helpful for diabetes treatment:

Why Worry About Your Diabetes?
Diabetes Mellitus is an inherited disease which occurs when the Islands of Langerhans on the pancreas are unable to produce enough protein and insulin to process the carbohydrates (sugars and starches) we eat. The sugar stays in the blood until it spills over into the kidneys and then is output in the urine. Symptoms of the disease include extreme thirst, excessive urination, constant hunger, loss of weight, itching around the groin, marked fatigue, changes in vision, and slow healing of cuts and scratches.

People who are over weight and lead sedentary life styles are at a higher risk for developing type 2 diabetes. But not all heavy people have diabetes. The exact cause is not known. Type 1 is an autoimmune disorder.

sorry not any life style or habits are predisposing factors but the genetic factors auto immune disease factors and infection of the islets of langerhans (insulin producing cells )are the celebrated reasons

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Diagnosed as having DIABETES TYPE2 in December 2008. Since en I have had several BLOOD TESTS my doctor was pleased with my DIABETES result as it had dropped to 6.8 (whatever that means) due to me losing a stone and seven pounds and changing my diet considerably. My doctor was not pleased with my HBP and has put me on a second HBP pill ( amlodipine 5 mg once a day) I am on Perindripol 4MG one a day. Why would my doctor put me on a second HBP pill ? . When he said he was giving me another HBP pill I thought he was taking me off my Perindripol.

Seriously you need to go back to your GP and ask him to explain to you what living with diabetes means and what markers he and yourself can use to monitor your condition. Guidelines have been written about the best way to treat diabetes, and the most important factor was patient awareness of their condition.
The "6.8" is probably your HbA1c result, this is a marker in your blood that tells you how good your sugar control has been over the long term. You can also get short term markers called "BM" measurements, you may have had your finger pricked a few times for this.
In diabetics like yourself a HbA1c of 6.8% is very good (above 8.0% is when problems start to occur), well done for losing the weight, it's one of the most effective ways to treat diabetes.
Your doctor initially started you on Perindopril - this is an ACE inhibitor and is often a first line treatment for hypertension. In hypertension that is not controlled with one drug another different class of drug can be added to create a synergistic effect. Your doctor added another type of drug called amlodopine - this is a calcium channel blocker, it works in a different way but brings about the same effect.
It's very common for people to be on more than one drug for hypertensive control. Especially an ace inhibitor and CCB, as you have been put on. Given together they have been proven to have very good results in many studies.
Just wondering if you smoke? Because you really shouldnt.

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hii..i was on thyroxine medication for the almost 4 years but recently stopped taking my medicines as adviced,but recently i took three thyroxine tablets at a go!!please advice..thanks

You have to take some medicine but not thyroxin.
First off all if you are in the UK, 99% of doctors do not know how to treat thyroid disease. They only know about Thyroxin which is a synthetic CHEMICAL and should not be in your body. It has many side affects, many don’t feel well on thyroxin as you may well find in a couple of months...weight gain, extreme fatigue, frequent bowel movements, puffy eyes and dry skin, and many others.
People with under active thyroid glands who take Synthyroid (thyroxine) should be warned that this drug stimulates osteoclast activity, accelerating bone resorption, and leading to osteoporosis. Natural thyroid medication is available in most countries and is far superior.
Thyroid disease has become epidemic, due to our stressful lives and ill-conceived diets. Soy, in particular, which is used so widely now, suppresses thyroid function and should be banned in all its forms.
In the long term it leads to osteoporosis. In time you will experience these side affects, so please keep the information that I am about to tell you as you WILL need it. You can treat your thyroid by natural medication with NO side affects. The medication is called Armour Thyroid and is derived from pig’s glands that have a great success rate. They actually used to prescribe it in this country for people with thyroid disease. Yet most doctors don’t even know that, in fact most doctors will not have heard of it and advice you against it while not being able to give you scientific evidence why you shouldn’t! That’s because it’s all about money not health. Their problem with natural products is that nobody can patent them, so the government cannot have exclusive ownership. But they can by making up synthetic chemicals.
What you need to know is that about 85% of people are unable to transfer T4 into T3 when they use Thyroxin. T3 is essential to the function of the main organs of your body. Armour thyroid naturally has T4, T3 and T2 and T1 and it make you feel well with no side affects. Tyrosine does not have T2 & T1. Once you research it at the site below you can order it from the recommended site -http://www.internationalpharmacy.com/en/...
I was on Thyroxin for two years and did not feel well on it I had absolutely no energy and my weight ballooned up to 19 and a half stone. I started my Armour in April this year and I am now 15 and a half stone with loads of energy. Armour Thyroid helps increase your metabolism where thyroxin slows it down. As you don’t know me, don’t take my word for your health go to http://www.tpa-uk.org.uk/ Sheila Turner (expert on thyroid disease) runs this thyroid patient advocacy site which will inform and educate you on your disease. There are over six hundred other people on that forum who are taking Armour Thyroid and can give you advice. Pretty soon you will see that doctors know absolutely nothing about treating the thyroid. The are ignorant about it.
In the early 1960s, desiccated thyroid hormones (thyroid extract) began to be replaced by synthetic levothyroxine (T4), or by combinations of synthetic T4 and T3. Replacement occurred faster in the United Kingdom than in North America, but by the 1980s more patients were being prescribed synthetic levothyroxine or T4/T3 combinations than desiccated thyroid extract.

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My son has diabetes, and when I do investigations online, I find that American websites talk about blood sugar levels in the hundreds, while my son is encouraged to keep his levels between 5 and 8 mmol/l. Can anyone tell me how the two scales compare, so that I can interpret the info from sites both sides of the Atlantic?!

mmol/l is the unit in the UK, whereas the US use mg/dl.
The unit mmol/l stands for milli-moles per litre. (or liter in the US, I believe). milli means a thousandth, so what is a mole (other than a small rodent-like animal)? A mole is that quantity of a substance whose mass in grams is the same as its formula weight (atomic weight). Each molecule of glucose has 6 Carbon atoms, 12 Hydrogen atoms and 6 Oxygen atoms. A carbon atom weighs 12 units, a hydrogen atom weighs 1 unit and an oxygen atom weighs 16 units. These units are called relative atomic mass units (don't need to go into why). So the atomic weight of glucose is (6x12) + (12x1) + (6x16) = 180. Therefore one mole of glucose weighs 180g. So now we are in a position to look at mmol/l. 1 mmol of glucose is 0.18g. So 1 mmol/l is 0.18g in 1 litre of water.
So now you can see the relationship to mg/dl. A decilitre is a tenth of a litre or 100ml. A miligram is a 1000th of a gram. Therefore 0.18g is the same as 180mg. We are only dealing with a 10th of the amount of water (100ml or 1dl) so therefore can divide this number by 10 giving 18mg/dl. Thus 1 mol/l = 18 mg/dl.

To convert from the American system to the British system, divide by 18, thus:
144 mgl/L divided by18 (conversion factor) = 8 mmol/l
To convert from the British system to the American system, multiply by 18, thus:
8 mmol/l x 18 (conversion factor) = 144 mgl/L

Miz Lamb answered your question very well indeed. Yes, the conversion is 18 as a rule of thumb. So, if your son's reading is 8 mmol/l, to convert this into mgl/L, simply multiply 8 x 18 to get a 144 reading. So, if my reading in mgl/L is 250 my equivalent mmol/l would be (250/18) 13.88. Simply divide 250 by 18 to arrive at 13.88. It is really that simple. Good luck to you and God bless you.

here in America we measure in mg/dL and you do the mmol/L measures. The conversion number is 18. So if you divide my numbers by 18 you will come up with approximate mmol/L. I multiply your numbers by 18 and come up with what I am familiar with

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I dont have Medical insurance at this time, so going to the Doctor isnt an option.
I could buy Thyroid medication online, but I dont know if I have Hypo or Hyperthyroidism.
So my question is: How do you tell the significance between the two?

 

THYROID AND PARATHYROID GLANDS:
Under-working leads to rickets, convulsions, teeth problems, twisting of muscles, fatness and dullness.
Overworking leads to over-growth, bulging of the eyes. Adam’s apple, stone[s] in kidneys etc.
Mistaken diagnosis may lead to confused symptoms due to wrong medication.
The best way is to go in for acupressure techniques to regulate the functioning of thyroid glands. Herbal remedies and tissue salt remedies have time tested formulae.
With best compliments from www.saioam.com

See a doctor first. You have no way of knowing how much, if any, medication you need, or what type (t3, t4, or a combination of the two). What if you take too much and end up hyper instead of hypo? you have not helped yourself and may actually have caused lasting damage.
Many people with thyroid problems do not have the weight changes or other symptoms. I have met OVERweight HYPERthyroid patients, that would seem to be impossible based on the general public's limited knowledge of thyroid function. The thyroid does many other things in the body than regulate weight. Some thyroid patients' most significant symptom may be mood swings, for example.
Buying medication online is also very risky, especially unused meds from people (which might be expired due to improper handling) and foreign suppliers (where the medication may be tainted or outright counterfeit).

You know, trying to diagnose yourself is very dangerous. One of the cardinal features of hyperthyroidism manifests itself through weight loss, anxiety, irratibility, hyperness and I believe tachycardia(fast heart rate). On the other hand, hypothyroidism will cause weight gain, bradycardia (slow heart rate) and thinning of the hair and nails.
My advice: Go and see a doctor. You can't put a price on the life of a human being.

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