Rehab Select Blog

The kidneys are remarkable multi-function organs that play a critical role in regulating blood glucose levels. However, when glucose levels are too high, the kidneys can sustain damage, reducing their ability to filter glucose out of the blood stream. The relationship between diabetes and your kidneys can either be really good, or really bad... resulting in a love-hate kind of connection.

Diabetes is a metabolic disorder that affects how the body produces and uses insulin – a hormone produced by the pancreas – which is vital to normal absorption of glucose (sugar) into the body's cells to be used as energy. If you have been diagnosed with diabetes, your body may be producing too little insulin, may not be able to use insulin efficiently, or may be affected by some combination of both issues, which lead to abnormally high levels of glucose in the bloodstream.

If you have been diagnosed with pre-diabetes, you are at very high risk of developing Type 2 diabetes. It's time to get very serious about diabetes prevention – and yes, it can still be prevented, or at the very least, delayed. Your doctor will have plenty of suggestions on lowering your risk of diabetes, but in the meantime, here are some lifestyle changes that can help.

Type 2 diabetes is a serious and very common metabolic disease that has far-ranging effects on the body, increasing a person's risk of many other serious health conditions, including heart disease, stroke, kidney disease and blindness.

Diabetes is a difficult disease to live with, but it is also one that an increasing number of people have to deal with. In 2010 about 25.8 million people in the United States had diabetes, but in 2012 that figure went up to 29.1 million.

Diabetes management is extremely important for those who have this ailment, since it can be very devastating if it is not treated the way it needs to be. With the proper care and attention paid to diabetes, it is possible to greatly minimize the effects that it has on your life. Here are some of the best strategies to keep your diabetes under control.

Almost 24 million people in the United States – that's 8% of the population – have diabetes. We all think we know what diabetes is and how you manage it, but do we really?

The real truth about diabetes: Debunking the myths

• Myth number one: All diabetes is the same.
  Fact: There are three different types of diabetes: Type I, type II, and gestational.

Patients who have been diagnosed with type II diabetes require serious intervention to help them control their blood sugar. While medication can certainly help, lifestyle changes – specifically, diet and exercise – are essential to good blood sugar control.

Unfortunately, by the time many patients are diagnosed with type II diabetes, they have already developed medical conditions that can make exercise difficult. They may be obese, have begun to develop or have already developed full-blown diabetic neuropathy, or have developed metabolic syndrome, for example. Because of that, it may be neither safe nor effective to expect patients to begin to undertake exercise on their own. This is where physical therapy can help with diabetes management.

Have you just been diagnosed with diabetes? Or, have you had diabetes for a while now–either diagnosed or undiagnosed–so that now it must be managed?

Diabetes management doesn't have to be hard – but it does have to be done

If you have ended up in the hospital as a result of diabetic complications and need to go to a skilled nursing facility once you are stable enough for discharge but not well enough to go home, don't be discouraged. This is called "post-acute" care, and your doctor may decide that it is necessary. It is also an opportunity for you to learn how to manage your disease well, with your family's help.

Approximately 26 million Americans have diabetes today. More people are diagnosed with this disease every year, and approximately one in three Americans is expected to have diabetes by the year 2050. Of those with diabetes today, only 19 million actually know they have the diagnosis. Seven million unknowingly have the disease. What does this mean for diabetes management, for the healthcare industry today, and in the coming years?