CBD for Diabetes: About Diabetes
Diabetes is closely associated with the hormone insulin. Your body, especially your brain, relies on glucose (sugar) to function. You get most of your glucose from the carbohydrates you eat or drink.
Insulin ensures that the glucose travels effectively from your bloodstream to your cells so they can have the energy they need to keep working.
Your pancreas is responsible for producing insulin. If your pancreas can no longer make insulin or if your body has difficulty absorbing or using the insulin that your pancreas produces, then you have diabetes.
When your body cannot effectively produce or use insulin, then it is unable to effectively use glucose.
This causes your glucose or sugar levels to rise. When glucose levels rise in your body, it leads to a condition called hyperglycemia. Raised glucose levels can cause damage to your body’s organs over time.
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What is Type 1 Diabetes?
If you have type 1 diabetes, your body makes little or no insulin. The reason for this is your body’s immune system attacks the islet cells in your pancreas that produce insulin.
Like many other autoimmune reactions, the specific causes of type 1 diabetes is not fully understood. However, the condition is linked with certain factors involving genetics, viruses, and the environment.
Type 1 diabetes is often called juvenile diabetes because it mostly affects children and young adults. Even so, older people can develop type 1 diabetes.
Symptoms include:
- Fatigue
- Extreme thirst or dry mouth
- Feeling extremely hungry (especially after eating)
- Urinating often (kids may even start wetting the bed when they didn’t do so previously)
- Sores that don’t heal or heal slowly
- Numbness or tingling in your feet
- Blurred vision
- Dry itchy skin
- Unintended weight loss
- Irritability or mood changes
- Upset stomach or vomiting
- Frequent infections of your skin, vagina or urinary tract
Management of Type 1 Diabetes
If you have type 1 diabetes you need daily insulin injections to stay alive. You also need to maintain a healthy lifestyle and carefully monitor your blood-glucose level.
There are different types of insulin treatments, including rapid-acting, short-acting, intermediate-acting and long-acting.
These vary depending on when their effectiveness peaks, how quickly they work and how long their effect lasts.
Insulin may be administered to your body by means of a syringe, an insulin pen or an insulin pump.
What Should You Eat When You Have Type 1 Diabetes?
Being overweight is a risk factor for type 1 diabetes. This means it is very important that you eat nutritious foods.
As so many foods contain glucose and added sugars, it is important to know what to eat and when to eat.
Added sugars should be avoided if you have type 1 diabetes. Eat a lot of high-fiber foods so that your body slowly breaks down the food and causes fewer glucose spikes.
Fruits, vegetables and whole grains are high in dietary fiber. A healthy diet also consists of some healthy fatty foods that are high in unsaturated fat and good cholesterol (HDL).
These include olive oil, nuts, fish, beans and avocado. Foods high in saturated fats and bad cholesterol (LDL) like cream, cheese and butter should be limited or avoided completely.
Besides nourishing your body with healthy food, it is important to avoid substances that may be harmful to your body, such as tobacco and alcohol.
What Physical Activity Is Advised for Type 1 Diabetes?
If you have type 1 diabetes you should avoid staying inactive for long periods.
Regular aerobic exercise (e.g. running, swimming, jogging, cycling, skipping) and resistance training can go a far way in helping you keep your blood glucose level under control.
Can You Prevent Type 1 Diabetes?
Research is being done to find out if there is any way to prevent type 1 diabetes. At the moment, there is no confirmed way to prevent the disease.
Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease, which means your body attacks itself by mistake.
However, you can manage your symptoms and reduce short-term and long-term complications associated with type 1 diabetes by living a healthy lifestyle, taking insulin daily and monitoring your blood glucose level.
What is Type 2 Diabetes?
Type 2 diabetes is about nine times more common than type 1 diabetes. It is a preventable form of diabetes that occurs when your body resists insulin and does not fully respond to it.
When insulin cannot carry out its work properly, your blood glucose levels keep rising; this causes your body to produce more insulin to manage the glucose, and eventually leads to your pancreas becoming overworked.
Over time, your exhausted pancreas produces less insulin, which causes your blood sugar levels to go up even higher. As you can see, it is a vicious and destructive cycle.
Type 1 diabetes is more common in children than type 2 diabetes. However, type 2 diabetes is on the rise among children because they are becoming increasingly more obese. They have poorer diets than in previous decades and they are not very physically active.
Type 2 diabetes may develop slowly and show no symptoms at first. Symptoms of Type 2 diabetes are similar to Type 1 symptoms and may include:
- Fatigue
- Extreme thirst or dry mouth
- Feeling extremely hungry (especially after eating)
- Urinating often
- Sores that don’t heal or heal slowly
- Numbness or tingling in your feet
- Blurred vision
- Dry itchy skin
- Unintended weight loss
- Irritability or mood changes
- Itching around your genitals
- Dark skin patches, especially on your neck and under your armpits
- frequent infections of your skin, vagina or urinary tract
Management of Type 2 Diabetes
The key to managing type 2 diabetes is a healthy lifestyle fueled by a nutritious diet, a healthy body weight, and regular and sufficient physical activity.
Diabetes treatment may also require one or more types of oral medications or insulin injections. Oral diabetes medications include Metformin and Sulfonylureas.
Are You At Risk?
Risk factors for type 2 Diabetes include:
- Being overweight
- Getting older
- Ethnicity
- Unhealthy diet
- Inactive sedentary lifestyle
- High blood pressure (hypertension)
- Family history of diabetes
- History of gestational diabetes
- Poor nutrition during pregnancy
- polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS)
- Low HDL (good) cholesterol
- Pre-diabetes
- Smoking
- Stress
- Too little or too much sleep
How Can You Prevent Type 2 Diabetes
Type 2 diabetes is highly preventable. A healthy lifestyle is key. Avoid foods high in unsaturated fat and added sugars. Avoid smoking and abusing alcohol. Stay active.
Make regular exercise a part of your life and avoid staying inactive for long periods. The recommended amount of exercise for adults is 30 minutes of vigorous physical activity daily.
Be aware of your weight and try to lose excess fat if you are over the recommended weight for your height and age.
Type 2 diabetes is highly preventable. A healthy lifestyle is key. Avoid foods high in unsaturated fat and added sugars. Avoid smoking and abusing alcohol. Stay active.
Make regular exercise a part of your life and avoid staying inactive for long periods. The recommended amount of exercise for adults is 30 minutes of vigorous physical activity daily.
Be aware of your weight and try to lose excess fat if you are over the recommended weight for your height and age.
Diabetes Complications
Several serious health complications are associated with diabetes. Having consistently high blood glucose levels may damage the heart and blood vessels.
It can also affect the nerves, kidneys, teeth and eyes. Perhaps the most well-known complication associated with diabetes is glaucoma—a group of eye conditions that cause damage to the optic nerve.
Glaucoma is among the leading causes of blindness for people over 60.
Due to their weakened immune systems and their slow-healing wounds, individuals with diabetes have a higher risk of developing infections than other people.
In many first world countries, diabetes is a leading cause of lower limb amputations, kidney failure, heart disease and blindness.
Fortunately, the risk of most complications associated with diabetes can be reduced through healthy lifestyle choices, a strict regimen of medication and careful blood glucose monitoring.
CBD for Diabetes - Can CBD Help With Diabetes?
CBD is a therapeutic option that is gaining traction in the world of diabetes treatment. Studies have shown that CBD may reduce insulin resistance and hormone regulation in diabetic patients.
It may also help to alleviate certain symptoms of diabetes. CBD also has properties that may prevent people who are at risk of diabetes from developing it.
Recent research indicates that CBD may reduce inflammation in the body, damage to the eyes and damage to the heart cells.
This research is only in the preliminary stages but CBD holds high promise as a natural solution for diabetic treatment.
Though the effects of CBD have not been fully proven, many people have experienced good results from implementing a daily CBD regimen for diabetes.
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What Studies Exist to Support the Use of CBD for Diabetes?
Research on the use of CBD for diabetes is still in the infant stages. However, the studies that have been done present some promising findings about the future of diabetes treatment.
- A 2013 study involving 4,657 adults with diabetes showed that cannabis use resulted in smaller waist circumferences and 16% lower fasting insulin levels.
- A 2011 review shows that nonpsychotic cannabis products like CBD can slow down the damage done to beta cells in type 1 diabetes.
- A 2010 review and a study done in 2008 both show that CBD can reduce inflammation and nerve damage. This slows down damage to the retina and the optic nerve.
- In 2010, a study was conducted which showed that CBD could help slow or prevent the death of heart cells in cases of diabetes-related heart disease.
- In a study conducted on mice in 2006, it was concluded that CBD could lower the risk of developing diabetes.
Which CBD Products Help With Diabetes?
There are a range of CBD products out there. Do thorough research to ensure that the CBD you take is pure.
Check with your doctor to see if it may interact with other medications you are taking. Talk to your doctor before starting a CBD regimen. Like other drugs, it may take some time to find the CBD product that is right for you.
When using CBD in the treatment of diabetes, a daily regimen of CBD tinctures or gel capsules is recommended.
Ensure that the CBD product you choose combines CBD with a high-quality Medium-chain triglyceride (MCT) oil.
MCTs aid in the body’s absorption of CBD, ensuring the best possible results from any CBD product. It is advised that you vaporize CBD oil for fast-acting relief during acute flare-ups. This may provide total-body relief in as few as 10 minutes.
How Much CBD is Safe to Take for Diabetes?
CBD has been shown to be most effective when taken regularly for diabetes. Start with a low dosage; 10mg per day is recommended.
For better results, try increasing the dosage by 5-10mg, as needed. Using CBD tinctures makes such incremental dosages a lot easier to test and manage.
On the other hand, gel capsules are pre-packaged and many people consider them to be more convenient.
Remember that the effects of ingestible CBD can take up to 90 minutes to produce maximum effect.
The right dosage differs from person to person due to differences in body-type and severity of symptoms. Take your time to find the amount of CBD that works for you. If you are using CBD vape, you can most effectively measure the dosage by the number of puffs you inhale.
How Does CBD Interact with Other Drugs?
The World Health Organization (WHO) and other leading organizations repeatedly comment on the safety of CBD. They state that CBD holds no risks for public health.
However, you should talk to your doctor before you start a CBD regimen, especially if you have a long-term health condition or take other daily medications.
CBD may interact with other chemicals, including other medications in the body.
Many researchers have also put a grapefruit warning on CBD as it may interact negatively with this fruit. Remember to consult a medical doctor and do research to see if CBD is right for you.
