Magnesium and Diabetes: Delicious Treatment

Recently an article was posted on WorldHealth.net on preventing Type II Diabetes with increased magnesium intake.  You can read the short article here.  Four medical journal articles on the subject have been published in Diabetes Care (a medical journal funded by the American Diabetes Association) on the subject, including a Meta-Analysis (a study made up of […]

What is Sugar? by PharmD Candidate V. Chyan

Overview          Carbohydrates, or sugars, are made up of molecules that are known as monosaccharides (mono=one, saccharide= sugar compound). These monosaccharides are simple sugars and consist of glucose, fructose, and galactose. The 3 molecules are the building blocks of carbohydrates. Glucose can be found in a variety of food and fruits and is primarily used in […]

Does My Liver Make Me Look Fat: Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease

I’m just going to point out that, just because you’re a healthcare professional doesn’t mean that you’re an expert at everything and you aren’t beyond being surprised when medical conditions show up in your friends and family.  Recently I’ve had a couple friends that have presented with cases of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD).  I […]

Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome: Fighting for a diagnosis

Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS) is a disease affecting many women that, I believe, is misdiagnosed or goes undiagnosed.  Much of this can stem from embarrassment or from the fear of “complaining” about “woman problems.”  So lets do something that doesn’t happen often.  Let’s talk about it. PCOS is an endocrine (hormone) dysfunction that can present […]

Work It ‘Cause You’re Worth It!

Summer is on it’s way!  How can I tell?  Is it that the days are longer?  Is it that it is getting hot?  Is it that I’m getting fewer and fewer prescriptions for antibiotics?  Nope!  It’s that the bloody Sensa and Hydroxycut commercials seem to be playing back to back.  I completely understand that fitting […]

Fructose vs. Sucrose: Is there a difference between “Corn Sugar” and “Real Sugar”?

So we’ve all seen those commercials where someone is panicking about death and dying because their loved one is trying to feed them a popsicle laced with… high fructose corn syrup *dun dun dun.*  Their loved one then begins to tell them how corn sugar is the same as any other sugar blah, blah, blah. […]

Ideas for Management, Questions to Ask Your Doctor & Pharmacist, and Diabetes Resources

Ideas For Management: Food Journals:  Write down what you ate, when it was, when you took your insulin, how much you took and your blood sugars.  If you do not use insulin a food journal will still be helpful for your doctor and diabetic educator. Use measuring devices:  Humans are HORRIBLE at estimating quantity.  Scales […]

Diabetes: Complications, Risk Factors, and Prevention

So a couple weeks ago we talked about the difference between Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes.  We talked about what puts us a risk for getting the different types of diabetes.  But what about your risk factors if you already have diabetes?  What about ways to prevent or even cure your diabetes?  Nothing like […]