The risk of diabetic persons developing high blood pressure is two times higher. Left untreated, diabetes increases the right of heart diseases and stroke. When a person has diabetes and high blood pressure, the chances of heart failure increase by four times. It is therefore essential for diabetic patients find ways to control hypertension or high blood pressure.

Lowering blood pressure can be attained by opting a vegetarian diet, daily physical exercise, losing weight if over weight, quitting smoking and alcohol and practicing of yoga and meditation can help lower blood pressure.

When to take meditation for high blood pressure -

If you are diabetic and your blood pressure reaches 140/90 Hg, you will need to take active measures to lower blood pressure. Remember this is only for diabetic patients and people without diabetes are not generally advised to take medicines if their BP is below 160/100.

Being diabetic increases the risk of heart failure, nervous system damages, kidney failure, liver damages and several other complications including lack of nutrient supply to arms and legs.

Life is too short to spend diagnosing the diseases. But there are certain diseases like diabetes that cannot be ignored at any cost. Minor physical problems that do not affect your lifestyle can be easily sidelined, but when these problems totally change your whole life, then what will you do. And to combat with such physical disorders, what you need is total and right awareness about them.

Here, we are going to discuss- what is diabetes after all. Diabetes is a disease in which your body stops producing insulin which is highly necessary for your health. Insulin is a hormone that converts the sugar, starch and other food into energy that you need to live in your daily routine. Though the real cause behind diabetes is still a mystery, yet both genetics and environmental factors are held responsible for its occurrence. And these factors are obesity and lack of exercise.

In United States alone, 7% of the total population is said to have diabetes, which is really alarming. Its highly unfortunate that still millions of Americans do not even know that they have diabetes. And this is very threatening thing for the future of the country.

For people with diabetes maintaining a proper diabetic blood sugar levels is one of if not the most important thing in properly managing this life threatening disease. There are a whole list of complications and disorder that can and will occur in the diabetic with consistent high blood glucose levels. Controlling and managing these diabetic complications can be accomplished through proper diet, exercise, and medications.

Blood sugar levels fluctuate throughout the day and are affected by what you eat, insulin, and physical activities you may participate in. The problem with diabetes is your sugar levels stay high longer then they should and this is what your doctor will look for when making a diagnosis.

There are three different tests that your doctor can order that can be used to diagnose diabetes. Many times if the test ordered comes back positive your doctor will one of the other two tests to confirm the diagnosis.

The American Diabetes Association recommends the following three tests in the diagnosis of diabetes.

1. The casual plasma blood glucose level test. This is used to diagnose in conjunction with the patient exhibiting the signs and symptoms of diabetes. This test can be done at any time of the day and is not dependent on when the last meal was consumed. If the plasma glucose comes back at or above 200 mg/dL then further testing may be needed.

It's not always a good idea to give in to temptation. Digging into your favorite dessert can do some serious damage to your system, especially if you're diabetic. Americans tend to have a sweet tooth, and that is perhaps the reason why most of us, succumb to Diabetes. In fact, the amount of sugar we eat and drink every year has soared nearly 30 percent since 1983 and is most likely a major contributor to the soaring rates of obesity in this country.

Although the USDA recommends we get no more than 10 teaspoons of sugar a day, the average American downs about 34 teaspoons--more than three times as much. Uncovering all the sugar in your diet isn't easy. Sugar often hides under several pseudonyms and turns up in even the most innocuous foods (like bread, crackers, salad dressing, ketchup, and mustard). However, by observing a little caution, you can have the cake, and eat it too- literally!

Switch to Sugar free Recipes. Incorporating less or no sugar in your everyday meals will help you maintain a healthy diet and keep fit. Different assortments of food are available for everything you need for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Some select online stores carry candy, chocolates, drink mixes, protein bars, desserts and many other delectable snacks. With such a vast amount of scrumptious Sugar free Foods, you will certainly find everything you need to keep your taste buds satisfied.

Fast paced life of modern world has necessitated us to give only lower priority to nutrition. This is at a time when nutrition awareness of everyone is high. Instead of taking well cooked food items, fruits and juices, people go after carbonated drinks, fast 'junk' food, frozen and preserved food, microwave food. People also don't take the time to enjoy and appreciate the food they eat. Today most of us just need any food that fills the belly for sometime.

This food habits have given rise to a variety of health problems. Significantly important one among them is diabetes.Ayurvedic principles tell us food is one important element that keeps a person in a balanced state of body, mind and soul. Taking healthy food translates into healthy body. Ayurvedic view on diabetes is no different. There are times when diabetes can attack without any warning sign. Ayurvedic food style combined with certain herbal applications helps one effectively manage his or her condition of diabetes.

Chromium is a trace mineral essential nutrient that has been promoted for the prevention and treatment of diabetes based on the fact that chromium deficiency is associated with glucose intolerance. Ten million Americans spend $150 million a year for chromium supplements, making it the best selling mineral supplement after calcium. However the mechanism by which chromium relates to glucose is unknown. Chromium concentrations cannot be measured with accuracy in the body and the amount of normal dietary intake of chromium is uncertain since such a small amount of chromium is absorbed from food that the actual uptake from food is very difficult to measure.

One uncontrolled study showed improvement on a test that is a marker of the stages leading up to diabetes (called the glucose tolerance test) in three out of six diabetics given 1000 micrograms of chromium, with no effect on non-diabetics. Another study compared placebo to trivalent chromium at 200 microgram per day for six weeks followed by a cross over (placebo patients then took chromium). There was no effect on the glucose tolerance test. Another study randomized 76 patients with atherosclerotic disease to 250 micrograms of chromium chloride or placebo for 7-16 months. In the patients with diabetes, there were no differences between the chromium treated patients and the placebo group.

Those individuals who suffer from Type II diabetes deal with the fact that their blood sugar levels are above normal. This can be a very serious health issue, which has been known to lead to coronary heart disease, kidney disease, stroke, amputation, and blindness. In 2002, diabetes was the sixth leading cause of death in the United States.

Type II diabetes is the most common type. More than 85 percent of those who suffer from Type II diabetes are overweight, which is why it is important for those who are already overweight to loose weight and for those who do not currently have a weight issue to maintain a healthy weight.

Losing weight or maintaining a healthy weight can help lower a person's risk of developing Type II diabetes in the first place or for those who already currently suffer from the disease it can help control blood sugar levels and prevent or delay other known complications associated with the disease.

Losing weight and exercising can also help a person with Type II diabetes to lower the amount of medication that they must take to control their diabetes. For those who need to loose weight it is so important that they do so. They can do this by striking a balance between blood glucose levels and levels of carbohydrates, fats and proteins eaten in their diet.

Diabetes mellitus is a clinical syndrome characterized by hyperglycemia due to absolute or relative deficiency of insulin. In the simplest terms diabetes mellitus (commonly referred to as just "diabetes") is a blood sugar disease, in which the body either does not produce or does not properly utilize insulin.

The most commonly known symptoms indicating a Diabetes condition are:

Frequent urination
Excessive thirst
Extreme hunger
Unexplained weight loss
Sudden vision changes
Tingling or numbness in hands or feet
Poor circulation
Poor sleep
Feeling very tired much of the time
Irritability
Very dry skin
Sores that are slow to heal
More infections than usual.

Natural treatment for diabetes:

Nutrition: Diet is the most important aspect in curing diabetes; with the help of dietician this can be done. They help you follow a proper diet. For example:

Foods to be avoided
Meal planning exchange
Potassium rich food.
Dietary fibers.

From Italy comes a study suggesting that DHEA supplements might reduce some of the complications of type 2 diabetes.

Many of the chronic complications of non-insulin dependent diabetes are vascular. In diabetes, there can be so much glucose in the bloodstream that it begins to "burn," that is, it begins to oxidize, even before it reaches the cells that need it.

This auto-oxidation process generates huge quantities of the superoxide free radical, which in turn can change normally harmless LDL cholesterol into a form of LDL that clogs blood vessels. The smallest, microscopic capillaries are the first affected. Only when the effects of diabetes are greatly progressed does atherosclerosis show in major arteries.

Research physicians at the university and hospitals in Turin found that giving elderly diabetics DHEA did not lower blood sugars or cholesterol, but did lower oxidative stress in the bloodstream. The concentration of free radicals of oxygen in the blood lowered on average 53 per cent.

Interestingly, taking DHEA also elevated bloodstream concentrations of vitamin E. This is because DHEA protected vitamin E from destruction by free radicals.

When a body produces higher levels of sugar within the bloodstream it is known as the disease diabetes. When someone has this disease, the body loses its ability to breakdown excess sugars by itself. In order to breakdown extra sugar you need to add insulin at regular intervals. The body will also require a diet specially constructed for someone with diabetes. If you think you may have diabetes, or it runs in your family, get a diabetes test done. The best test is a blood workup.

When doctors first suspect that someone has diabetes, they do diabetes tests to make certain. One of these tests is a glucose test. This is one of the first steps in the actual determination of diabetes being present. Besides this diabetes test doctors will also check for standard symptoms, medical history and a physical exam.

Sometimes the tests are not conclusive. Such as in the cases of someone who is extremely ill (illnesses cause your blood sugar to rise) as well as certain medications. Some medications that you take can raise your blood sugar levels to the point where it could show as though you are diabetic.