🍎 National Diabetes Month 🍎

Diabetes is one of the leading causes of disability and death in the United States. It can cause blindness, nerve damage, kidney disease, and other health problems if it’s not controlled.

One in 10 Americans have diabetes — that’s more than 30 million people. And another 84 million adults in the United States are at high risk of developing type 2 diabetes.

The good news? People who are at high risk for type 2 diabetes can lower their risk by more than half if they make healthy changes. These changes include: eating healthy, getting more physical activity, and losing weight.

How can American Diabetes Month make a difference?

We can use this month to raise awareness about diabetes risk factors and encourage people to make healthy changes.

Here are just a few ideas:

• Encourage people to make small changes, like taking the stairs instead of the elevator.
• Talk to people in your community about getting regular checkups. They can get their blood pressure and cholesterol checked, and ask the doctor about their diabetes risk.
• Ask doctors and nurses to be leaders in their communities by speaking about the importance of healthy eating and physical activity.

How can I help spread the word?

We’ve made it easier for you to make a difference. This toolkit is full of ideas to help you take action today. For example:

• Add information about preventing type 2 diabetes to your newsletter.
• Tweet about American Diabetes Month.
• Host a community event where families can be active while learning about local health resources.
• Add this Web badge to your website.

Get Involved

Take action to increase awareness about diabetes and healthy lifestyles.

1. Partner with your local gym or YMCA to host a Diabetes Prevention Party focused on healthy eating and physical activity. Give away gym passes, fitness class certificates, or workout gear. Ask gym staff to do demonstrations or teach a free class.
2. Find out which local churches have a health ministry. Offer to give a presentation on how to prevent type 2 diabetes at their next event.
3. Host a cooking demonstration featuring diabetes-friendly recipes. Get local nutritionists involved.
4. Include healthy Thanksgiving recipes in your next newsletter or company email along with quick tips on how to prevent type 2 diabetes.
5. Post tips on type 2 diabetes prevention on your employee bulletin board.
6. Encourage your members or employees to get active. Organize lunchtime walks or invite local gyms to showcase their fitness classes and programs.

Take care of your type 2 diabetes every day to help keep your blood glucose (sugar) levels within your target range. Even small changes—whicheventually become part of your normal day—may help you control your blood sugar levels.

Top Foods to Treat Diabetes. If you want to reverse type II diabetes or prevent diabetes, I suggest you add the following foods into your diet. High fiber foods help slow down glucose absorption. Aim for at least 30g of fiber per day from vegetables, avocados, berries, nuts, and seeds.

Be smart about sweets

• Reduce your cravings for sweets by slowly reduce the sugar in your diet a little at a time to give your taste buds time to adjust.
• Hold the bread (or rice or pasta) if you want dessert. ...
• Add some healthy fat to your dessert. ...
• Eat sweets with a meal, rather than as a stand-alone snack.

 

 

 

Hold the bread (or rice or pasta) if you want dessert. Eating sweets at a meal adds extra carbohydrates so cut back on the other carb-heavy foods at the same meal. Add some healthy fat to your dessert. Fat slows down the digestive process, meaning blood sugar levels don't spike as quickly.

In the long run, not controlling diabetes can also damage the vessels that supply blood to important organs, like the heart, kidneys, eyes, and nerves. This means that heart disease and stroke, kidney disease, vision problems, and nerve problems can happen to people with diabetes.

According to the 2017 National Diabetes Statistics Report, over 30 million people living in the United States have diabetes. That’s almost 10 percent of the U.S. population. And diabetes is the seventh leading cause of death in the United States, causing, at least in part, over 250,000 deaths in 2015. That’s why it’s so important to take steps to reverse diabetes and the diabetes epidemic in America.

Type 2 diabetes is a dangerous disease that can lead to many other health conditions when it’s not managed properly, including kidney disease, blindness, leg and food amputations, nerve damage, and even death. (1)

Type 2 diabetes is a completely preventable and reversible condition, and with diet and lifestyle changes, you can greatly reduce your chances of getting the disease or reverse the condition if you’ve already been diagnosed. If you are one of the millions of Americans struggling with diabetes symptoms, begin the steps to reverse diabetes naturally today. With my diabetic diet plan, suggested supplements and increased physical activity, you can quickly regain your health and reverse diabetes the natural way.

The Cause of Diabetes

Diabetes is an illness related to elevated blood sugar levels. When you stop releasing and responding to normal amounts of insulin after eating foods with carbohydrates, sugar and fats, you have diabetes. Insulin, a hormone that’s broken down and transported to cells to be used as energy, is released by the pancreas to help with the storage of sugar and fats. But people with diabetes don’t respond to insulin properly, which causes high blood sugar levels and diabetes symptoms.

It’s important to note that there’s a difference between type 1 and type 2 diabetes. Here’s an explanation of the two types of diabetes and what causes these conditions:

Type 1 Diabetes

Type 1 diabetes is commonly called “juvenile diabetes” because it tends to develop at a younger age, typically before a person turns 20 years old. Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease where the immune system attacks the insulin-producing beta cells in the pancreas. The damage to the pancreatic cells leads to a reduced ability or complete inability to create insulin. Some of the common causes that trigger this autoimmune response may include a virus, genetically modified organisms, heavy metals, vaccines, or foods like wheat, cow’s milk and soy. (4)

The reason foods like wheat and cow’s milk have been linked to diabetes is because they contain the proteins gluten and A1 casein. These proteins can cause leaky gut, which in turn causes systemic inflammation throughout the body and over time can lead to autoimmune disease.

Type 1 diabetes is rarely reversed, but with the right dietary changes major improvements in blood sugar levels can be seen and a person can often reduce his or her dependence on insulin and medications.

Type 2 Diabetes

Type 2 diabetes is the most common form of diabetes, and unlike type 1 diabetes, it usually occurs in people over the age of 40, especially those who are overweight. Type 2 diabetes is caused by insulin resistance, which means that the hormone insulin is being released, but a person doesn’t respond to it appropriately. Type 2 diabetes is a metabolic disorder that’s caused by high blood sugar. The body can keep up for a period of time by producing more insulin, but over time the insulin receptor sites burn out. Eventually, diabetes can affect nearly every system in the body, impacting your energy, digestion, weight, sleep, vision and more. (5)

There are many underlying causes of type 2 diabetes, and the disease usually develops because of a combination of factors, including: (6)

• having a poor diet
• being overweight
• having high levels of inflammation
• living a sedentary lifestyle
• experiencing high amounts of stress
• having a family history of diabetes (especially a parent or sibling)
• having high blood pressure or a history of heart disease
• having a hormonal condition (like hyperthyroidism, polycystic ovary syndrome or Cushing’s syndrome)
• being exposed to toxins, viruses or harmful chemicals
• taking certain medications (like those that disrupt insulin production)

Thankfully, there are ways to reverse diabetes naturally.

 

Blogger: Egypt A. Assanti {aka} Big Sister Southern Heat- ESD Baroness

~November is Lung Cancer Awareness Month~

As with other Cancers, lung cancer is heartbreaking, deadly and attacks like a army. Before telling useful information and facts about lung cancer, I would like to share my story...

My mother smoked cigarettes for many, many years and all attempts to stop smoking just wasn't successful. In 1997 I remember it so very clearly, I was at work and my mother was at the doctor getting results from test that I had no idea she had taken. While it wasn't the best idea for my middle sister to contact me at work, she did and the words that escaped her mouth I would never forget the feeling I got in the pit of my stomach.... Through tears she said... "Mommy has cancer." The phone dropped without me even realizing it and my heart sank and all I heard her said wasn't those words but to me it conveyed into, "Mommy is dying." I started crying so hard that my supervisor had to take me to her office and let me get it out there. That day began the journey of my mother's cancer fight and has scared as I was, I was determined to help her get through this fight.

We watched as she endured lung surgery to removed half of her lung, chemotherapy that made her extremely sick and took all of her hair, radiation which made it hard for her to breathe and made her chest area hard and discolored. This was not easy to watch but my mother.... My mother is my hero because through it all, she prayed, she smiled she kept a constant smiled and glow to her. You would never believe this woman was enduring so much.

4 years later, they said the cancer had gone however, due to all of this trauma, she had heart trouble, diabetes, thyroid surgery, asthma but the cancer itself had become what I say dormant but what the doctors said... gone....

A year later I would never forget, two days after our birthday (we share the same birthday), in November it was 70 degrees out, we had celebrated our birthday by going to times square and having a ball. Two days later she ended up in the hospital, blood sugar spiked, the admitted her and two days later she was in ICU with the doctors telling us she would not make it, her lungs had filled with blood and the cancer they said was gone had woken up with a vengeance! But my mother wasn't done. God knew the family wasn't ready to lose her. After two days of not waking up, she awaken, bright eyed, smiles and said it was time to come back.

We had my mother for two months and as I write this it's ironic everything was happening in twos. On January 31, 2002, my mother lost that fight to Lung Cancer, and while God gained a angel the world lost a amazing soul....

I told my story to wake people up especially smokers.

Smoking is the leading cause of lung cancer.

Exposure to radon is the second leading cause of lung cancer, and the leading cause in people who have never smoked. For more information about radon and testing your home, please visit EPA.gov/radon.

Other risk factors include:
  - lung scarring from tuberculosis
  - occupational or environmental exposure to:
     • secondhand smoke
     • radiation
     • asbestos
     • air pollution
     • arsenic
     • some organic chemicals

Genetic predisposition may also play a role in lung cancer development.

People who have never smoked account for between 20,000 and 30,000 lung cancer diagnoses every year.

As more people quit smoking, the percentage of cancers diagnosed in people who used to smoke will continue to increase.

For certain people at high risk, screening for lung cancer using low-dose CT scans is proven to save lives. New guidelines will help you understand if CT screening is appropriate for you.

Get screened if you are 55 to 80, you are currently smoking or quit within the past 15 years, you have a smoking history of at least 30 packs. 

1 pack/day X 30 years = 30 pack years

1.5 packs a day X 20 years = 30 pack years

Get screened, get tested, STOP SMOKING!

Signing off

Destiny Santiago

Big Sister On Point

👻 🎃 HAPPY HALLOWEEN 🎃 👻

🍬 Halloween happens to be one of my favorite holidays. The costumes, the movies, candy, parties, ghost stories, and trick-or-treaters seems to add something exciting to this creepiest day of all days.  Of course this is not the true meaning of Halloween, but it has been taken out of the old traditional style, and pumped up to be more fun for all that love this day, and wish to share excitement with family and friends. Today, I want to share with you the true meaning of Halloween, and some of our Sisters that enjoy having sl fun with it also.

 

🍬HISTORY OF HALLOWEEN

 

🍬Halloween is an annual holiday, celebrated each year on October 31, that has roots in age-old European traditions. It originated with the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain, when people would light bonfires and wear costumes to ward off ghosts. In the eighth century, Pope Gregory III designated November 1 as a time to honor all saints; soon, All Saints Day incorporated some of the traditions of Samhain. The evening before was known as All Hallows Eve, and later Halloween. Over time, Halloween evolved into a day of activities like trick-or-treating and carving jack-o-lanterns. Around the world, as days grow shorter and nights get colder, people continue to usher in the season with gatherings, costumes and sweet treats.

 

🍬This day marked the end of summer and the harvest and the beginning of the dark, cold winter, a time of year that was often associated with human death. Celts believed that on the night before the new year, the boundary between the worlds of the living and the dead became blurred. On the night of October 31 they celebrated Samhain, when it was believed that the ghosts of the dead returned to earth.

🍬In addition to causing trouble and damaging crops, Celts thought that the presence of the otherworldly spirits made it easier for the Druids, or Celtic priests, to make predictions about the future. For a people entirely dependent on the volatile natural world, these prophecies were an important source of comfort and direction during the long, dark winter.

 🍬To commemorate the event, Druids built huge sacred bonfires, where the people gathered to burn crops and animals as sacrifices to the Celtic deities. During the celebration, the Celts wore costumes, typically consisting of animal heads and skins, and attempted to tell each other’s fortunes.

 

🍬When the celebration was over, they re-lit their hearth fires, which they had extinguished earlier that evening, from the sacred bonfire to help protect them during the coming winter.

🍬Eta Sigma Delta SL Sorority Is Here To Wish Everyone A Happy And Safe Halloween ~~~~~~~     Have Fun 🎃
 

                                     SnowAngel Mindhaze

 

Destiny C Santiago

 

                                                        Egypt A. Assanti

 

Uqqn H. Kennedy Martian

 

 

Micvonjo Kenyon

 

                                                       Enjoy Yourselves!!!!!

 

Blogger:  Egypt A. Assanti   {aka} Big Sister Southern Heat- ESD Baroness

 

🌕 National Frankenstein Friday 🌕

Frankenstein's monster, sometimes referred to as Frankenstein, is a fictional character who first appeared in Mary Shelley's 1818 novel Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus. Shelley's title thus compares the monster's creator, Victor Frankenstein, to the mythological character Prometheus, who fashioned humans out of clay and gave them fire.

In Shelley's Gothic story, Victor Frankenstein builds the creature in his laboratory through an ambiguous method consisting of chemistryand alchemy. Shelley describes the monster as 8-foot-tall (2.4 m), hideously ugly, but sensitive and emotional. The monster attempts to fit into human society but is shunned, which leads him to seek revenge against Frankenstein. According to the scholar Joseph Carroll, the monster occupies "a border territory between the characteristics that typically define protagonists and antagonists".

 Mary Shelley's original novel never ascribes an actual name to the monster; although when speaking to his creator, Victor Frankenstein, the monster does say "I ought to be thy Adam" (in reference to the first man created in the Bible). Victor refers to his creation as "creature", "fiend", "spectre", "the demon", "wretch", "devil", "thing", "being", and "ogre".

It has become common to refer to the creature by the name "Frankenstein" or "The Monster" but neither of these names are apparent in the book.

 As told by Mary Shelley, Victor Frankenstein builds the creature in his laboratory through an ambiguously described scientific method. Frankenstein is disgusted by his creation, however, and flees from it in horror. Frightened, and unaware of his own identity, the monster wanders through the wilderness.

 He finds brief solace beside a remote cottage inhabited by a family of peasants. Eavesdropping, the creature familiarizes himself with their lives and learns to speak, whereby he becomes eloquent, educated, and well-mannered. The creature eventually introduces himself to the family's blind father, who treats him with kindness. When the rest of the family returns, however, they are frightened of him and drive him away. Hopeful but bewildered, the creature rescues a peasant girl from a river but is shot in the shoulder by a man who claims her. He finds Frankenstein's journal in the pocket of the jacket he found in the laboratory, and swears revenge on his creator for leaving him alone in a world that hates him.

Shelley described Frankenstein's monster as an 8-foot-tall (2.4 m), hideously ugly creation, with translucent yellowish skin pulled so taut over the body that it "barely disguised the workings of the arteries and muscles underneath"; watery, glowing eyes, flowing black hair, black lips, and prominent white teeth. The monster attempts to integrate himself into human society, but is shunned by all who see him. This compels him to seek revenge against his creator.

 The monster kills Victor's younger brother William upon learning of the boy's relation to his hated creator. When Frankenstein retreats to the mountains, the monster approaches him at the summit and asks his creator to build him a female mate. In return, he promises to disappear with his mate and never trouble humankind again; the monster then threatens to destroy everything Frankenstein holds dear should he fail. Frankenstein agrees and builds a female creature, but, aghast at the possibility of creating a race of monsters, destroys his experiment. In response, the monster kills Frankenstein's best friend Henry Clerval, and later kills Frankenstein's bride Elizabeth Lavenza on their wedding night; whereupon Frankenstein's father dies of grief. Frankenstein dedicates himself to destroying his creation. Searching for the monster in the Arctic Circle, Frankenstein falls into the freezing water, contracting severe pneumonia. A ship exploring the region encounters the dying Frankenstein, who relates his story to the ship's captain, Robert Walton. Later, the monster boards the ship; but, upon finding Frankenstein dead, is overcome by grief and pledges to incinerate himself at "the Northernmost extremity of the globe". He then departs, never to be seen again.

HOW CAN YOU CELEBRATE FRANKENSTEIN FRIDAY?
 

 1.) BINGE ON FRANKENSTEIN MOVIES.

2.) THROW A FRANKENSTEIN-THEMED COSTUME PARTY

3.) ACT OUT SCENES FROM THE BOOK WITH FRIENDS

Enjoy your Frankenstein Friday celebrating one of the greatest horror characters created in history!
 

                                           

Blogger: Egypt A. Assanti { aka } Big Sister Southern Heat - ESD Baroness     🎃