Month: July 2019

Subtle Signs That You May Be Developing Diabetes

by Jessica Migala 5 hrs ago

a man is using his cell phone: Full-blown diabetes is easy to spot—virtually unquenchable thirst, numbness in your hands and feet—but the symptoms leading up to the disease are easier to ignore.

© Maskot Full-blown diabetes is easy to spot—virtually unquenchable thirst, numbness in your hands and feet—but the symptoms leading up to the disease are easier to ignore.

Paying attention to pre-diabetes warning signs could save you from an A&E visit – and prevent you from ever developing full-blown diabetes. Here are the top silent alarms.

1. You know what the bathroom looks like at night.

Because you visit often. As blood sugar levels go up, diabetes symptoms like frequent urination worsen.

“If 4 months ago you were getting up once in the middle of the night to pee and now you’re getting up three times, that’s a clue you need to get checked out,” says Andrew Bremer, M.D., Ph.D., program director at the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases.

This may also be a symptom of prostate issues (such as an enlarged prostate). Either way, it’s best to bring the issue up with your doctor so he can rule out potential causes.

2. Your skin looks dirty.

You notice dark patches of skin on the back of your neck, but no matter how hard you rub, they won’t come off.

How come? Insulin resistance can cause a condition called acanthosis nigricans, which may appear during pre-diabetes.

The dark, velvety patches can ring your neck and also appear on your elbows and knees. Once you get your glucose under control, the patches will likely fade away.

3. You’re having trouble reading.

Having high blood sugar levels in the long term damages the tiny blood vessels in your retina, blurring your vision in one or both eyes. The medical term is diabetic retinopathy.

While a decade ago doctors thought only those with type 2 diabetes could develop the condition, they now know it can happen sooner.

In fact, nearly 8 percent of pre-diabetic people have diabetic retinopathy. Along with keeping your blood sugar under control to prevent progression of the disease, see an optometrist or ophthalmologist at least once a year for a dilated eye exam, suggests the American Diabetes Association.

4. Your pants are getting loose.

Normally it would be pretty awesome to shed a few pounds and still enjoy a diet of pizza and beer, but unexplained weight loss can signal diabetes.

“I’d be concerned if you’re eating more and losing weight,” says Dr. Bremer.

It’s a sign that your body isn’t utilising calories effectively and you’re simply peeing out those nutrients.

5. Your blood pressure is creeping up.

The last time you had your BP checked, it was 140/90mmHG or above. That’s considered high blood pressure, and it puts you at a higher risk for developing diabetes. Left unchecked, the dynamic duo can damage your kidneys over time.

DON’T GET DIABETES

These symptoms alone won’t diagnose you with pre-diabetes. The only way to know is to go to your doctor and have your blood glucose levels measured, says Dr. Bremer.

If your doc delivers the bad news, do something about it. If you don’t? Well, 15 to 30 per cent of people with pre-diabetes develop the real thing within 5 years, according to the CDC.

Related: 8 Ways to Control Your Blood Sugar

Your first step: Lose weight via lifestyle changes like improving your diet and ramping up your activity levels. Pre-diabetics who lost at least 10 percent of their body weight over 6 months reduced their risk of developing diabetes by 85 percent, shows a study in the Journal of General Internal Medicine.

A Fable

by Mark Twain

An illustration for the story A Fable by the author Mark Twain
Thomas Landseer etching, Three Cats

Once upon a time an artist who had painted a small and very beautiful picture placed it so that he could see it in the mirror. He said, “This doubles the distance and softens it, and it is twice as lovely as it was before.”

The animals out in the woods heard of this through the housecat, who was greatly admired by them because he was so learned, and so refined and civilized, and so polite and high-bred, and could tell them so much which they didn’t know before, and were not certain about afterward. They were much excited about this new piece of gossip, and they asked questions, so as to get at a full understanding of it. They asked what a picture was, and the cat explained.

“It is a flat thing,” he said; “wonderfully flat, marvelously flat, enchantingly flat and elegant. And, oh, so beautiful!”

That excited them almost to a frenzy, and they said they would give the world to see it. Then the bear asked:

“What is it that makes it so beautiful?”

“It is the looks of it,” said the cat.

This filled them with admiration and uncertainty, and they were more excited than ever. Then the cow asked:

“What is a mirror?”

“It is a hole in the wall,” said the cat. “You look in it, and there you see the picture, and it is so dainty and charming and ethereal and inspiring in its unimaginable beauty that your head turns round and round, and you almost swoon with ecstasy.”

The ass had not said anything as yet; he now began to throw doubts. He said there had never been anything as beautiful as this before, and probably wasn’t now. He said that when it took a whole basketful of sesquipedalian adjectives to whoop up a thing of beauty, it was time for suspicion.

It was easy to see that these doubts were having an effect upon the animals, so the cat went off offended. The subject was dropped for a couple of days, but in the meantime curiosity was taking a fresh start, aid there was a revival of interest perceptible. Then the animals assailed the ass for spoiling what could possibly have been a pleasure to them, on a mere suspicion that the picture was not beautiful, without any evidence that such was the case. The ass was not, troubled; he was calm, and said there was one way to find out who was in the right, himself or the cat: he would go and look in that hole, and come back and tell what he found there. The animals felt relieved and grateful, and asked him to go at once–which he did.

But he did not know where he ought to stand; and so, through error, he stood between the picture and the mirror. The result was that the picture had no chance, and didn’t show up. He returned home and said:

“The cat lied. There was nothing in that hole but an ass. There wasn’t a sign of a flat thing visible. It was a handsome ass, and friendly, but just an ass, and nothing more.”

The elephant asked:

“Did you see it good and clear? Were you close to it?”

“I saw it good and clear, O Hathi, King of Beasts. I was so close that I touched noses with it.”

“This is very strange,” said the elephant; “the cat was always truthful before–as far as we could make out. Let another witness try. Go, Baloo, look in the hole, and come and report.”

So the bear went. When he came back, he said:

“Both the cat and the ass have lied; there was nothing in the hole but a bear.”

Great was the surprise and puzzlement of the animals. Each was now anxious to make the test himself and get at the straight truth. The elephant sent them one at a time.

First, the cow. She found nothing in the hole but a cow.

The tiger found nothing in it but a tiger.

The lion found nothing in it but a lion.

The leopard found nothing in it but a leopard.

The camel found a camel, and nothing more.

Then Hathi was wroth, and said he would have the truth, if he had to go and fetch it himself. When he returned, he abused his whole subjectry for liars, and was in an unappeasable fury with the moral and mental blindness of the cat. He said that anybody but a near-sighted fool could see that there was nothing in the hole but an elephant.

MORAL, BY THE CAT

You can find in a text whatever you bring, if you will stand between it and the mirror of your imagination. You may not see your ears, but they will be there.

A Fable was featured as The Short Story of the Day on Fri, Sep 14, 2018

Upcycle Idea

Shutter Sofa Table
Shutters are key design elements in cottage style. Many people repurpose them as wall art or headboards. Layla used a shutter as the top surface of a sofa table to bring in soft lines common in cottage design.
https://www.hgtv.com/design/decorating/clean-and-organize/25-ways-to-upcycle-your-old-stuff-pictures

Weird Animal

See the source image

The aye-aye (Daubentonia madagascariensis) is a long-fingered lemur, a strepsirrhine primate native to Madagascar that combines rodent-like teeth that perpetually grow[4] and a special thin middle finger.

It is the world’s largest nocturnal[5] primate. It is characterized by its unusual method of finding food: it taps on trees to find grubs, then gnaws holes in the wood using its forward-slanting incisors to create a small hole in which it inserts its narrow middle finger to pull the grubs out. This foraging method is called percussive foraging, and takes up 5–41% of foraging time.[6][7] The only other animal species known to find food in this way is the striped possum.[8] From an ecological point of view, the aye-aye fills the niche of a woodpecker, as it is capable of penetrating wood to extract the invertebrates within.[9][10]

The aye-aye is the only extant member of the genus Daubentonia and family Daubentoniidae. It is currently classified as Endangered by the IUCN; and a second species, Daubentonia robusta, appears to have become extinct at some point within the last 1000 years.[11]

DIY~Face Masks

https://sublimedaily.com/diy-face-masks-for-busy-moms/

Word Of The Week

dégringolade

noun

dé·​grin·​go·​lade | ˌdā-ˌgraⁿ(ŋ)-gə-ˈläd

How to pronounce dégringolade (audio)

Definition of dégringolade

: a rapid decline or deterioration (as in strength, position, or condition) : downfall

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Synonyms & Antonyms for dégringolade

Synonyms

decadence, declension, declination, decline, degeneracy, degeneration, degradation, descent, deterioration, devolution, downfall, downgrade, ebb, eclipse, fall

Antonyms

ascent, rise, upswing

Did You Know?

If dégringolade looks French to you, you have a good eye. We lifted this noun directly from French, and even in English it is usually styled with an acute accent over the first “e,” as in French. The French noun in turn comes from the verb dégringoler (“to tumble down”), which itself derives from the Middle French desgringueler (from des-, meaning “down,” and gringueler, meaning “to tumble”). Although dégringolade retains the sense of a sudden tumble in English, it tends to be applied to more metaphorical situations – a rapid fall from a higher position in society, for example. These days, dégringolade is fairly rare in American English. We rely far more heavily on its familiar synonym downfall.

Examples of dégringolade in a Sentence

the sad dégringolade of the holiday from a solemn day of remembrance to just another excuse to go shopping a sad dégringolade for a theater company that once premiered important American plays

First Known Use of dégringolade

History and Etymology for dégringolade

French, from dégringoler to tumble down, from Middle French desgringueler, from des- de- + gringueler to tumble, from Middle Dutch crinkelen to make curl, from crinc, cring ring, circle

Poem

Will Kill You Early by MwsR

“It will kill you early”, they say

What do they know, they can’t feel my pain

I am in this alone,

I must bury it before it buries me, it’s really grown.

Went from being a secret situation

Now it has taken on a new kind of commotion.

It will take me a while. I believe,

You know, to get real relief.,

To work my way to where I once was whole.

Regardless of what advice I have been told.

I don’t need to concern myself with others

They are not worth all of that, to have to smother

My need to be me, to be my true self

Enough already, enough to be disheveled.

Got to jump back up, dive right in

Find that person I was, before then.