How Better Diabetes Control Can Perk Up Your Sex Life!

Sexual dysfunction is a health concern for any man, but particularly if you have diabetes. Though it commonly occurs in diabetic men and women, sexual dysfunction often goes under-reported and unacknowledged by both patients and physicians, who are reluctant to discuss such personal wellness issues. However, it has been well established that diabetes plays a major role in your sexual functioning, and the good news is that taking care of your blood sugar – as you do to prevent diabetic complications to your kidneys, eyes, nerves, feet and heart – can also help you to lead a normal sex life.

 

There is a vast wealth of research to show how diabetes affects your sexual wellbeing. If you’re a man, the most likely problem you’ll experience is erectile dysfunction (ED), meaning you can’t achieve or maintain an erection. The evidence suggests that 35-75% of diabetic men are affected by ED, which is a big leap from the 26% of the general male population who are likewise afflicted. Plus, your diabetes means you’ll likely gradually develop ED 10-15 years earlier than your non-diabetic counterparts. This is because poor diabetes control causes autonomic neuropathy, which is a major cause of ED, as well as blocking up your arteries with plaque, which impedes blood flow to your penis and, as a result, an erection.

 

If your diabetes is indeed causing sexual problems – which your doctor can confirm – there are preventative measures you can take:

 

1. Improve your blood sugar control

2. Lower your blood pressure

3. Reduce your stress levels

4. Quit smoking

5. Reduce your alcohol intake

 

Your doctor can help you with these five measures, and you can also find great resources online. However, while you’re in the doctor’s office, remember to discuss medications. These can include oral agents or testosterone patches and injections, if your low testosterone levels are the primary cause behind the ED. Another viable option is mechanical therapy, which involves vacuum-assisted erection devices and penile prosthesis, but everyone should consider psychotherapy. ED can take its toll on your mental health, as well as your partner’s, so it’s really beneficial to talk it through with a professional.

Categories: Blood, Blood Sugar, Blood Sugar Control, Diabetes, Diabetes Control, diabetic, diabetic men, erectile dysfunction, sex life, sexual, sexual dysfunction

Could an Artificial Pancreas Improve Your Glucose Control?

If your wellness is affected by type 1 diabetes, a dual-hormone artificial pancreas system (also known as a closed-loop delivery system) may improve your glucose level control and reduce your risk of hypoglycaemia, This is according to a trial published in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal), which compared the closed-loop delivery system with conventional pump treatment.

 

Controlling your glucose levels is a challenge when you have type 1 diabetes, because having too low a level of glucose puts your wellbeing at risk of hypoglycaemia. Even with insulin pump treatment, which provides a continuous predetermined subcutaneous supply of insulin, hypoglycaemia still occurs. According to Ahmad Haidar, Institut de Recherches Cliniques de Montréal and McGill University, and his co-authors, ‘Hypoglycaemia is feared by most patients and remains the most common adverse effect of insulin therapy.’

 

For the study, the researchers recruited 15 adult patients who had been using an insulin pump for at least three months. During two 15-hour experiments, the patients’ glucose levels were controlled using the artificial pancreas system, and, in the other visit, using conventional pump treatment. The results of the study revealed that participants’ glucose levels were in the target zone 71% of the time when using the artificial pancreas system, and just 57% with the conventional pump treatment.

 

The authors wrote, ‘[The dual-hormone artificial pancreas] improved glucose control and reduced the risk of hypoglycaemia in our 15 participants, as compared with continuous subcutaneous insulin infusion. Rates of hypoglycaemia were reduced, with no increased risk of hyperglycaemia.’ They concluded, ‘Closed-loop delivery systems have the potential to substantially improve the management of diabetes and the safety of patients. These systems will probably be introduced gradually to clinical practice, with early generations focusing on overnight glucose control and using insulin alone.’

 

Drs. David Nathan and Steven Russell, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, commented, ‘Although [this] study is neither the first nor the longest investigation using a dual-hormone artificial pancreas, it is the first to compare such an apparatus to conventional intensive therapy in a randomized design. Treatment with the artificial pancreas increased the amount of time patients spent in the target range of blood glucose levels and decreased hypoglycemia. Thus, Haidar and colleagues show that low doses of glucagon administered under the control of a computer algorithm can act as a counter-regulatory hormone, preventing glucose levels from falling too low.’

Categories: artificial pancreas, closed loop, conventional pump, Diabetes Control, dual hormone, glucose control, glucose levels, hormone artificial, Hypoglycaemia, loop delivery, pump treatment

Why is it More Important to Control Your BP and Cholesterol?

When your wellness is affected by diabetes, you often focus on your blood sugar levels to control your condition. However, a new study from US researchers has shown that getting to grips with your blood pressure and cholesterol is more important than HbA1c for guarding your wellbeing against heart disease.

While the researchers say that you shouldn’t neglect your HbA1c checks, they also noted that their findings indicate that BP and lipid targets should be the priority for you and your doctor if you are attempting to lower the risk of cardiovascular disease in diabetes care. In the study, it was found that patients with healthy BP and cholesterol had a lower risk of hospitalisation for stroke or MI. Patients who achieved HbA1c targets but missed those for BP and cholesterol, on the other hand, had not reduced these risks at all.

There is a large body of research which connects good control of your HbA1c to a lower risk of heart disease. In spite of this, however, the relative importance of this and other risk factors had remained unclear. According to study lead author Greg Nichols PhD of the Kaiser Permanente Centre for Health Research in Portland, Oregon, ‘People with diabetes are often focused on controlling their blood sugar, but our study found that controlling BP and cholesterol is even more important in preventing heart disease.’

The records of 26,636 adults with diabetes between 2002 and 2010 were analysed for the study. During this time, about 7% of patients were hospitalised with a cardiovascular event. The researchers determined whether or not the patients achieved three clinical targets:

1. BP less than 130/80mmHg


2. LDL cholesterol under 100mg/dL


3. HbA1c of less than 53mmol/mol

The results of the study revealed that only one in eight patients (13%) met target levels for all three measures. Compared to those who met none of the targets, these patients were 2.5 times less likely to be hospitalised with MI or stroke. While patients with all three risk factors well controlled faced the lowest risk, those who met BP and cholesterol targets still saw their risk fall, and yet a similar reduction was not seen in those who had only well-controlled blood sugar levels. This means that it’s important to pay attention to all your risk factors for heart disease –not just blood sugar.

Categories: Diabetes Control, heart disease, Research

Do We Pay Enough Attention to Mental Health of Diabetics?

The International Diabetes Association recently published a 2012 listing for diabetes rates by country which read like a Who’s Who of Arabian Gulf states. The prevalence rates of Kuwait (23.9%), Saudi Arabia (23.4%), Qatar (23.3%), and Bahrain (22.4%) put them in the top ten, and the reason for this may be due to a lack of attention paid, and provision made for the psychological wellbeing of people who suffer with diabetes.

Anxiety, for one, is a common psychological disorder that affects the wellness of diabetics. According to Diabetes UK, people with diabetes are 20% more likely to experience an anxiety disorder than people without the disease, due to fears of experiencing hypoglycaemia-related complications while working or even, God forbid, while driving. Further, these complications, including seizures and a loss of consciousness, can lead to post-traumatic stress disorder, which requires early intervention to keep it from getting worse.

Often, when anxiety occurs, depression isn’t far behind. 15% of diabetics also experience a major depressive disorder, says the Canadian Diabetes Association, which is almost double the rate of otherwise healthy adults. If you were told that you have a life-altering, potentially fatal illness, wouldn’t you, like most people, be upset by the news? Add to that the fact that you now have to take extra-special care of your wellbeing on a daily basis, and it’s a wonder that the rate of diabetic depression isn’t even higher!

Not only does this mean that a person with diabetes can suffer with both the physical and mental damage of the disease, but studies have shown, time and time again, that those symptoms are not a good influence on one another. Depressed diabetics are more likely to have poorer clinical outcomes, in terms of rate of amputation and mortality. Depression exacerbates diabetes, which, in turn, makes you more depressed because things seem to be getting worse.

So what can be done about it? The bottom line is that treating depression and anxiety in people with diabetes would help them to clinically manage their disease, and improve their outcome. However, though this is a well-documented fact, physical health and psychological health specialists often don’t talk, and may not even work in the same health care facility. Yet more needs to be done to remove the stigma of psychological interventions, and doctors should also offer holistic treatment, including talk-based psychotherapies, particularly in cases involving depression.

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Do We Pay Enough Attention to Mental Health of Diabetics?

Categories: anxiety, depression, Diabetes Control