More than 70 percent of all people who have had diabetes for more than 15 years have some form of nerve damage. Young people do not usually have neuropathy, but may develop it later. Type 2 diabetics, who are diagnosed with diabetes later in life, may have nerve damage soon after diagnosis.

nerves in various parts of the body may be affected by diabetes. The autonomic nerves help to regulate the speed of your heartbeat, your blood pressure, and your perspiration. They also help with the control of your bladder, your digestive system, and your sex organs. In the diabetic, damage to the autonomic nerves may result in diarrhea or constipation. It may make it difficult to pass all the urine stored in the bladder, which may result in urinary infection. Autonomic neuropathy can lead to postural hypotension, which simply means that the blood pressure drops when you stand up quickly, making you feel dizzy or giddy.

Neuropathy may also affect the motor nerves, which carry signals to the muscles telling them to move. In a person with diabetes, the most likely muscles to be affected are those which control eye movements. However, motor neuropathy may also cause a person to have difficulty in walking.

Of all the kinds of nerve damage which a diabetic may experience, the most common is called peripheral neuropathy, which affects the nerves in the arms and legs.

This nerve damage cause numbness and loss of feeling, especially in the feet, so the person no longer feels pain or other sensations such as hot and cold. Injuries may occur without the person’s knowledge. Then, with the poorer blood circulation which diabetics often have, serious infections and even gangrene can easily occur.

Peripheral neuropathy causes at least half of all foot and leg amputations in the USA and many other countries.

The kidneys are the policemen on round the clock duty, ready to remove any harmful wastes and chemicals from the blood vessels that act as filters. They produce urine, which is made of the body’s extra water and all of the wastes.

The kidneys should function as good filters throughout a person’s lifetime. However, high blood sugar levels, high blood pressure and infections can all damage the capillaries so that they unable to filter as well as they should. Because diabetics are likely to develop blood vessel damage, they are 18 times more likely to have serious kidney damage than nondiabetics are. Put more simply, one diabetic in every 10 will likely develop kidney disease.

The urine of a person with healthy kidneys does not usually contain protein except during an infection or a urinary tract infection. Once in a while, a healthy person may have a very small amount of protein in the urine called albuminuria, but this should usually clear up after some time.

However, when the capillaries of the kidneys become damaged, they begin to leak and let protein spill out into the urine. So, if a person has protein in his urine for quite some time but has not infection to blame, the doctor may consider the possibility of diabetes.

As more and more of the filtering capillaries are damaged, those which remain have to work harder to keep up. As they work more, they too will become less and less efficient, until at last the person has kidney failure. Kidney failure can cause death, so it is extremely important to try to prevent it.

In retinopathy the tiny blood carrying capillaries in the eyes become damaged. Because the capillary walls are weak, they bulge, they leak, and sometimes they even burst and bleed. This fluid may collect and cause swelling in the retina. This alone does not usually interfere with a person’s vision.

In some people, however, the condition becomes much worse, as they get what is called proliferative retinopathy. As some capillaries become blocked, new capillaries begin to form in and around the retina. In proliferative retinopathy, the capillaries proliferate, or push in to the vitreous, the fluid filled center of the eye. There they may break and cause bleeding which result in blindness.

Fortunately, only about 5 percent of diabetics will have such as advanced case of retinopathy that they will actually have any real loss of vision. Even so, retinopathy is the greatest cause of new cases of blindness among adults between the ages of 20 and 74.

Often diabetes is first diagnosed when a person goes to see a physician for eye troubles and finds that he already has retinopathy. By the time a doctor can see evidence of retinopathy, however, the person has likely had diabetes for several years already.

There are many alternatives for us to drink. Water is free, healthful, and freely allowed for the diabetic. If you want more flavor, some of the drinks which may be considered for the diabetic include unsweetened Chinese tea, unsweetened lime or lemon juice, mineral water, unsweetened barley water, or clear soups.

Fruit and vegetable juices are also good drinks, but because of the calories they contain, they will have to be considered as part of the day’s calories and carbohydrate allowance.

In some parts of the world, however, eating a high-fiber diet has become somewhat of a fad. Breakfast cereal companies produce corn bran, oat bran, and other bran cereals. Advertising proclaims the great benefits of bran. did you know that some foods even contain sawdust (wood fiber) to give a higher fiber content.

That is not what is meant by a good high fiber diet. Natural foods, just as they were created, contain the proper kinds and amounts of fiber for good health. Therefore, the more natural our diet, the better it is for us.

Vegetables and fruits all have a good supply of fiber. Don’t peel apples and other fruit with edible skins, you will lose the valuable fiber and other vitamins and minerals which are in or just under the peels. Neither should you strain or sieve cooked fruits or vegetables, first of all, you will lose the fiber; secondly your foods will be overcooked before they are soft enough to put through the sieve.

Whole, unrefined grains such as wheat, corn and oats also have a good amount of fiber. In many countries, white bread has become a sign of prosperity. Unfortunately, however, the refining process removes not only fiber but also valuable vitamins and minerals. Whole wheat flour or whole grain bread is much more healthful and nutritious than white flour or white bread.

beans, lentils, split peas, and the other legumes are excellent sources of fiber, while they are low in fat. On the other hand, meats and other animal proteins are very high-fat foods with very little fiber.

There is one more benefit to eating foods which have a large amount of fiber, they make you feel full more quickly with fewer calories. For this reason, they are useful both to the diabetic who needs to lode weight and to the insulin-dependent diabetic who must restrict his calories.

Margarine and vegetable shortening are not made from animal products, yet they appear to affec the body in much the same way as saturated fats. To become solid at room temperature, they have undergone a process called hydrogenation which makes them closely resemble the saturated fats.

The unsaturated fats include corn oil, sesame oil, olive oil, soybean oil, sunflower oil and peanut oil. They are the preferred fats to use because they do not have the same cholesterol producing effect. Even these should be used in very small amounts, however, because of the large number of calories they contain.

Logically the best solution to the problem is to reduce the body’s need for insulin. And in very simplified terms, there are three main ways to reduce the insulin requirement:

1. Eat fewer calories each day so that less insulin will be needed
2. Eat a more natural diet, lower in fat and higher in fiber, which will increase the quantity and sensitivity of the cell receptors.
3. Get more exercise in a regular basis

Although many doctors and diabetes educators recommend that 25-30 percent of the daily calories be from fat, there is strong disagreement in this area. some world-renowned nutritionists working with diabetics recommend a very low fat diet that is high in natural food fiber. This advice is not really so new. It was around in the 1930s, and it reappeared in the 1950s when medical researchers again experimented with lo fat diets for their diabetic patients.

Both type 1 and type 2 diabetics need to eat fewer simple sugars and more of the complex carbohydrates. Both need to eat low-cholesterol diets with less of the saturated fats. And both should take more of the high-fiber, unrefined foods.

For the diabetic as well as for anyone else, pure fresh water is the best possible drink because it contains no sugar, no hidden fats, and nothing else which might be harmful to the body.

Minerals have various important functions in the body. Calcium, magnesium and phosphorous give strength to the bones and teeth. Calcium also helps the blood to clot and the muscles to relax. Iron is important to the oxygen-carrying hemoglobin of the blood. Other minerals are necessary for the digestive juices and other body fluids.