How Can Television Help You to Manage Your Diabetes?

The TV you have now is barely recognisable from the one your grandparents, or even your parents had. Over the past 50 years, televisions have become thinner, taller and wider, whilst making leaps and bounds in colour, sound and clarity. These days your TV has new problems to deal with; competing for attention with any new favourite mobile device. However, that’s all about to change with a new wellness discovery that an iPhone can’t beat.

In Australia, if your wellbeing is affected by diabetes, you will now be able to access potentially life-saving information all from the comfort of your living room. The new SeeCare IPTV platform has the ability to deliver video content to your television, making health literacy classes accessible through your television’s broadband connection. This has created a new innovative development in healthcare education.

Diabetes Australia is responsible for the information which makes up this health-related video content, and the organisation will utilize SeeCare’s Web 2.0 platform in order to connect those who have been affected by diabetes with the technologies that are available on the market. Diabetes Australia aims to achieve this goal by delivering the latest diabetes healthcare information over a broadband network using Ericsson’s IPTV system.

According to Ken Clarke, who is a senior researcher from the Institute for a Broadband Enabled Society at the University of Melbourne, ‘As we enter the Networked Society, we can expect to see virtually every device connected. So aside from smart phones, PC’s, and tablets, we will interact with many more devices, such as televisions for information, education, and healthcare.’

SeeCare, a provider of healthcare search and development of advanced social networking technology, developed the project in order to create a support-management group at home within the community it has created. When you have diabetes, this is especially important as the disease consistently requires daily self-management. Therefore, if you have a higher level of health literacy, you will have all the tools you need to properly manage your health. And since we live in an era submerged in having instant access to anything on a computer or mobile device, and now the television, surely it makes sense for healthcare providers and organisations to bring health literacy into the 21^st century.

How Can Television Help You to Manage Your Diabetes?

Categories: Diabetes, diabetes australia, Diabetes Management, health, Health Literacy, healthcare, Information, mobile device, Television, video content

Can Mango Help You to Prevent or Manage Your Diabetes?

If mango is not on your shopping list, your wellbeing may be suffering as a result. This is according to a number of new and previous studies which suggest that including mango in your diet or in supplement form can have a significant beneficial impact on your wellness, including fighting the good fight against type 2 diabetes and cancer.

Some of the latest information on the health benefits of mangos was presented at the recent Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB) gathering, with researchers noting one study in which obese animals consumed 10 grams of freeze-dried mango every day for 12 weeks. The results of this experiment revealed that the blood sugar levels in the animals declined, which could make mango a helpful tool in your management of type 2 diabetes.

Edralin Lucas, PhD, who led the study, commented, ‘Although the mechanism by which mango exerts its effects warrants further investigation, we do know that mangos contain a complex mixture of polyphenolic compounds.’ Polyphenolic compounds, or polyphenols, are a natural chemical found in plants. There are over 4,000 different polyphenols, which work towards your wellness because they are antioxidants, meaning they fight the disease-causing, cell-damaging free radicals in your body.

However, this study is not the first to find that mango can help to fight diabetes. In 2011, researchers conducted a study in which the explored how freeze-dried mango might lower lipids and tackle diabetes in mice that had been fed a high-fat (HF) diet. Compared to drugs, the researchers found that mango ‘improved glucose tolerance and lipid profile and reduced adiposity [fat] associated with a HF diet.’

If you have, or are at risk of, type 2 diabetes, one thing your doctor might advise you to do is to lose weight – but can mango help with this? Based on studies that indicate African mango extract (Irvingia gabonensis) is effective in reducing body weight and improving metabolic factors in people who are overweight, some experts believe it can. A recent study in the Journal of Dietary Supplements reported on the results of three randomized controlled trials, noting that the studies suggested significant reductions in weight and waist circumference when compared with placebo.

Can Mango Help You to Prevent or Manage Your Diabetes?

Categories: Diabetes, Diabetes Management, diet, dried mango, freeze dried, hf diet, Mango, polyphenolic compounds, study, type, Weight Loss

What Does Your Diabetic Child Need from You?

As a parent of children with diabetes, there’s a lot you need to learn and deal with in order to take care of their wellbeing. Start by educating yourself, as you will feel more comfortable and confident with handling the disease if you know exactly how it’s going to affect your child’s wellness.

Plus, the more you know about diabetes, the more you can teach your child and help them to understand their condition. You need to communicate with your child as much as possible about diabetes, as he or she is going to need to manage the disease throughout life. Make sure your child at least knows the basics about diabetes, which include blood glucose testing, healthy meals and injections.

When it comes to insulin injections, you need to know as much as possible about insulin and how it works. For example, you should be aware that when insulin is broken down by your child’s digestive system, it is rendered ineffective. Your child can take two injections, one before breakfast and one before dinner. However, your diabetic child can also use an insulin pump instead of taking injections.

Blood sugar monitoring is fundamental to your child’s diabetes care. You have to regularly monitor your child’s blood sugar levels, as blood glucose data is the cornerstone for all diabetes management. This data will help you to adjust your child’s diabetes management as needed, and will alert your child’s doctor to any potential complications. Remember, the readings of your child’s blood glucose aren’t “good” or “bad” – they’re just numbers, but they can make a real difference in your child’s life.

With meal planning, it’s important to account for morning and afternoon snacks, as well as planning your child’s main meals. Crackers with peanut butter are a good snack option, as diabetes snacks need to be rich in protein and carbohydrates. It may be helpful in the long-run to not only give your child healthy meals, but teach them about healthy eating along the way. Have the whole family make the same lifestyle changes so that the child with diabetes doesn’t feel excluded or different, and everyone’s health will also benefit!

What Does Your Diabetic Child Need from You?

Categories: Blood, Blood glucose, Blood Sugar, Child, Child Diabetes, Diabetes, Diabetes Management, diabetic child, Education, healthy meals, injections, Insulin