Diabetes

If a plate of salty buffalo wings makes your feet swell up like balloons, you might be experiencing edema — fluid trapped in the body's tissues, most often in the feet, ankles and legs. Fluid retention can be an annoyance, but it can also indicate a more serious condition. What is edema? Edema is sometimes caused by damage to or pressure within veins that causes them to leak fluid — blood plasma that is mostly water — into nearby tissue. (At other times, edema is caused by heart,...

Sunday, May 12 Loss of Spouse Grief support group For people who have lost their spouse within the last two years. 2-4 p.m., McCoart Administration Building, 1 County Complex Ct., Woodbridge. Free. 703-396-6198. Al-Anon Family Group Newcomers and regular meetings, 8 p.m., Haymarket Baptist Church, parish hall, 14800 Washington St., Haymarket. 703-969-2726. Monday, May 13 Al-Anon Family Group 7 p.m., St. Paul United Methodist Church, 1400 G St., Woodbridge.

I didn't start to suspect anything was wrong until late 2005, early 2006. First came a succession of urinary tract infections alternating with yeast infections, after years of no infections. I also started to get inflamed cuticles. The index finger of my writing hand got so swollen, I needed a course of antibiotics to clear it up. Then, fatigue was a constant in my life. I felt unwell. Blood work revealed I had Type 2 diabetes. Once I got over the surprise, I dealt with it. I began a regimen of medication.

The four young hurdlers took their places at the starting block, all business, eyes trained ahead. Set in motion by a pop of the starting gun, the girls turned into a blur of arms and legs pumping furiously — and came back into focus for only a few milliseconds at a time as they sailed over a white rail. They were among more than 600 children from across the region who gathered Saturday at Spingarn High School in Northeast to compete in the fifth annual Tommie Smith Youth Track Meet, sponsored by the 100...

When President Obama announced his nominee for the Supreme Court last week, he trumpeted her childhood diagnosis of diabetes as one of the challenges she'd overcome. Sonia Sotomayor's success is a testament to how extraordinary life with diabetes can be. Yes, this is a serious disease, without a cure, but it is also very treatable. Most cases -- 90 to 95 percent -- are the kind I have, Type 2, which usually develops in adulthood. Sotomayor has the less common Type 1, in which the pancreas is no longer able to make insulin, the hormone that the...

diabetes Working out with weights may help ward off diabetes THE QUESTION Being physically active has been shown to help prevent Type 2 diabetes. Might that include doing weight training? THIS STUDY analyzed data on 32,002 men who were free of diabetes, heart conditions and cancer at the start of the study. Over an 18-year span, 2,278 of them received diagnoses of Type 2 diabetes. The more weight training they did, the less likely they were to develop diabetes, with risk dropping by 13 percent for every 60...

MONDAY, June 16 (HealthDay News) -- Hearing impairment may be a common, under-recognized complication of diabetes, suggests a U.S. study. "We found that hearing loss was much more common in people with diabetes than people without the disease. The hearing loss we detected did not seem to be caused by other factors such as exposure to loud noises, certain medicines, and smoking," lead researcher Kathleen E. Bainbridge said in a prepared statement. She and her colleagues analyzed data from 5,140 people, ages 20 to 69, who...

THURSDAY, Nov. 6 (HealthDay News) -- Too many American adults are unaware of "pre-diabetes" and not enough take action to reduce their risk, according to a U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study released Thursday. People with pre-diabetes -- a condition in which blood glucose levels are higher than normal but not high enough to be classified as diabetes -- are at increased risk for developing type 2 diabetes, heart disease and stroke. But lifestyle changes such as diet and exercise can prevent or delay development of...

People were more knowledgeable about blood pressure and cholesterol than blood sugar, according to a survey of 1,000 adults conducted by the Consumer Reports National Research Center in April. That's worrisome, because high blood sugar may be an indicator of diabetes, and it rivals the other two factors in contributing to heart attacks and strokes. High blood sugar can also lead to kidney damage, blindness and other serious health complications. According to the CR survey, women were more likely than men to say they had talked with a doctor...

TUESDAY, Nov. 18 (HealthDay News) -- Gleevec, a wonder drug that effectively treats leukemia and other cancers, may also reverse type 1 diabetes, University of California San Francisco, researchers report. In experiments with mice, they found that Gleevec and a similar cancer drug, Sutent, could prevent the onset of type 1 diabetes. Type 1 diabetes is usually diagnosed in children and young adults, and is caused by the inability of the body to make insulin. "Although targeted to the Bcr-Abl kinase, Gleevec has been shown to affect...

Aphasia group For those who have had a stroke or brain injury. Practice speech, reading and writing with a speech pathologist and trained volunteers. Wednesdays and Fridays, 10:30-11:30 a.m. Civista Medical Center, 5 Garrett Ave., La Plata. $15 per visit. 301-609-4000. Heart failure self-management class Meets second Mondays, noon-2:30 p.m. Calvert Memorial Hospital, 100 Hospital Rd., Prince Frederick. Free. 410-535-8233. Diabetes workshop Offered by St. Mary's Hospital.

Dear Dr. Fox: Our beagle and basset mix has had a persistent itching, scratching and biting problem for the last two years. We have tried many medications. They all bring temporary relief, but none cures the itching. We have tried many types of food, from grain-free to all-natural to homemade. Again, there is no consistent relief. We have spent a lot of money at different veterinarians, trying to pinpoint the problem, to no avail. Before the itching, which started in August 2010, our dog had been on the same...

Al-Anon/Alateen groups For people whose lives have been affected by drinking. 703-534-4357. www.alanonva.com . Take Off Pounds Sensibly Weight-loss support group with weekly weigh-ins. 703-430-3764. www.tops.org . $28 to join. Overeaters Anonymous Thursdays, 7 a.m. St. Benedict Monastery, 9535 Linton Hall Rd., Bristow. 703-361-0106. 703-754-9237. www.oanova.org . Thyroid health talk A presentation by nurse Sharon Clark on common and not-so-common symptoms.

(HealthDay News) -- Diabetes can make it more difficult to fight off gum disease, and in some cases, can make gum disease worse. The American Diabetes Association says you should see if your dentist if you have any of these warning signs of gum disease. Gums that bleed when you floss or brush.Soreness, swelling or redness of the gums, or persistent bad breath.Gums that have receded from the teeth.Pus forming between the teeth and gums.Teeth that seem loose or like you are able to move them.Any change in your bite, or the way that...

WEDNESDAY, June 4 (HealthDay News) -- A combination of two drugs used to combat some of the damaging effects of type 2 diabetes may also reduce the risk of diabetic kidney failure, a new Danish study has found. But the researchers warn that testing the combination of losartan (Cozaar) and aliskiren (Tekturna) to block the activity of a molecule that damages renal arteries is still in the early stages. Losartan is often prescribed for high blood pressure in diabetes. Aliskiren blocks the pathways that allow the vessel-damaging...