The Indian Council of Medical Research India Diabetes Study (ICMR-INDIAB study) showed that India had 62.4 million people with diabetes in 2011. These numbers are projected to increase to 101.2 million by 2030.

Diabetes is a disease that involve problems with the hormone insulin. Normally, the pancreas (an organ behind the stomach) releases insulin to help your body use and store the sugar (glucose) from the food you eat. Diabetes can occur when the pancreas produces very little or no insulin, or when the body does not respond appropriately to insulin (a condition known as insulin resistance). Though there is no cure for diabetes; one can live ling and healthy life by treatment and lifestyle changes.

There are three main types of diabetes: type 1, type 2, and gestational diabetes.

Type 1 Diabetes

Type 1 diabetes occurs because the insulin-producing cells of the pancreas (called beta cells) are destroyed by our own the immune system. People with type 1 diabetes produce no insulin and must use insulin injections to control their blood sugar.

Type 1 diabetes most commonly starts in people under the age of 20, but may occur at any age.

Type 2 Diabetes

Unlike people with type 1 diabetes, people with type 2 diabetes produce insulin. However, the insulin secreted by pancreas is either not enough or the body is resistant to the insulin. When there isn’t enough insulin or the insulin is not used as it should be, glucose can’t get into the body’s cells. This caused the blood sugar to shoot up.

Type 2 diabetes usually occurs in people over age 40 who are overweight, but can also occur in people who are not overweight. Sometimes referred as “adult-onset diabetes,” type 2 diabetes has started to appear more often in children recently because of the rise in obesity in young people.

Gestational Diabetes

Gestational diabetes is triggered by pregnancy. Hormone changes during pregnancy can affect insulin’s ability to work properly. The condition occurs in approximately 4% of all the pregnancies.

Pregnant women who have an increased risk of developing gestational diabetes are those who are over 25 years old and are above their normal body weight before pregnancy, have a family history of diabetes. It’s important to control gestational diabetes to protect the baby’s growth and development.

We, at HealthySpan‘s, believe that diabetes can be effectively managed with lifestyle changes. Our Specialists assist in lifestyle transformation using personalized regime by which one can lead a healthy life in spite of being diabetic.

High blood pressure is a common condition in which the long-term force of the blood against your artery walls is high enough that it may eventually cause health problems, such as heart disease.

Blood pressure is determined both by the amount of blood your heart pumps and the amount of resistance to blood flow in your arteries. The more blood your heart pumps and the narrower your arteries, the higher your blood pressure.

You can have high blood pressure (hypertension) for years without any symptoms. Even without symptoms, damage to blood vessels and your heart continues and can be detected. High blood pressure or hypertension increases the risk of heart disease and stroke. Hypertension risk factors include obesity, drinking too much alcohol, smoking, and family history. Usually hypertension is defined as blood pressure above 140/90, and is considered severe if the pressure is above 180/120.

High blood pressure is more likely in people with a family history of high blood pressure, heart disease, or diabetes. It’s also more common in people who are:

• Older than 55
• Overweight
• Inactive
• Heavy alcohol drinkers
• Smokers

Lifestyle changes can help you to control and prevent high blood pressure, even if you are on medication. Some of the things which you can do are – eat healthy foods, maintain healthy weight, decrease the salt in diet, increase physical activity, manage stress, don’t smoke etc. The team at HealthySpan is experienced in guiding personalized changes to manage high blood pressure.

This can lower the oxygen level in blood. The brain senses your inability to breathe and briefly rouses you from sleep so that you can reopen your airways. You might snore, choke or gasp. This pattern can repeat from 5 to 30 times an hour, impairing ability to reach the deep and restful phase of sleep.

Sleep apnea due to a signalling problem of the brain to the muscles that control breathing is known as central sleep apnea (CSA). This means you make no effort to breathe for a short period.

The person will unknowingly stop breathing repeatedly throughout sleep. Once the airway is opened or the breathing signal is received, the person may snort, take a deep breath, or awaken completely with a sensation of gasping, smothering, or choking.

Untreated sleep apnea can lead to potentially serious health complications, such as heart disease and depression. It can also leave a person feeling drowsy, increasing the risk of accidents while driving or working.

Lifestyle modifications are essential to normalizing breathing, and they are critical first steps in treatment. Our consultants at HealthySpan help you get onto a healthy lifestyle which helps managing condition in a very effective way.