Diabetic Test Strip Reviews

Can Diabetes Trigger Mood Swings?
People who suffer from diabetes have many challenges to deal with. Diabetes is disease that influences not only the sufferer but also those around him, as well as his relatives and friends

It is an autoimmune disease that spoils insulin-producing cells and can affect everyone not considering gender or age. But is there any relation between diabetes and mood swings? And how can this be controlled?

Knowing diabetes and your emotions

Diabetes is characterized by the body's inability to produce insulin. Insulin is a substance that occur naturally in the body. It regulates the absorption of sugar by the cells. If the body does not obtain sufficient supply of insulin, sugar that is exist in the system is collected in the urine and the blood. This then leads to abnormal thirst, hunger and frequent urination. The problem here is that these reactions of the body have effect on normal cellular functions.

Someone who has diabetes will frequently experience frequent and strong mood swings.They could, for instance, lose their temper, lash out, become introverted or express positive emotions in a very unusual and chaotic manner. Outbursts among people who have diabetes can also become fairly common.

The problem here is that they may not even be aware of these outbursts and may in fact even have no memory of it. When confronted, they could even react with anxiety or guilt. Occasionally, emotions can be expressed as melancholy, wherein the person suffering from diabetes shows extreme sadness. This indicate strong emotions can be very unpredictable, something that can often surprise and offend family members and close associates.

Mood swings and diabetic men

Based on research in 2006 indicated that other than diabetes-associated disorders such as impotence, men also have to contend with mood swings. This is particularly true as the man advances in age, when his levels of testosterone begin to decline. Combined with the rise and fall of blood sugar levels associated in Type 2 diabetes, it would not be uncommon for the person to experience fluctuations in moods as well.

Other than that, there is also a propensity for men and women alike to feel anxiety, anger, remorse and guilt as a effect of their condition. This is particularly true if the type of diabetes they have is adult-onset, one that could have been prevented by changes in their lifestyle.

Mood swings in people who suffer from diabetes are also influenced by other factors. Knowing that the disease is something they will have to deal with for the rest of their lives can dampen their spirits, causing them to feel apprehension and depression.

Managing mood swings associated to diabetes

It's a must for diabetics to regularly test their blood sugar levels. The results often hold the first clue as to what may be causing their mood swings. Changes in the diet, along with the proper medications must be maintained to ensure that the person's health is at its optimum and that any instability in his temperament are controlled. Getting education about the disease is also important so he or she will really understand what to anticipate and what to act.

It might be difficult to cure diabetes but mood swings linked with it don't have to be difficult to control. With the right care, control of sugar intake, diet, exercise and medication, people who suffer from diabetes can still live a normal, happy life and get success in his career.

Dealing with Adolescence with Diabetes
Adolescent is the age when your children are in position to take full control of their diabetes. A young lad with a driver's license, a pack of college applications in a folder, and all sort of tuxedo or prom dress is in charge for all diabetes problems. But your cooperation and supervision still be needed.

Adolescence is the time when one begins to learn about his limits and restrictions, that is, hand-wringing anxiety and adult composure, stubbornness, rapid wavering between maturity and childishness, tears and laughter, and outright rebellion. Although these are something natural, these years of children do have considerable effect on diabetes. And there are certain factors which diabetes more difficult to manage:

- This is the age when hormones are fully active and undergo swift and extreme changes.
- Rebellious attitude is pretty much common in this age and they often oppose the values, which have been taught to them by their parents and eventually diabetes care get affected in the process.
- Adolescents are much keen to test their social limits; they like to go to extreme boundaries for each and everything. - This is the age when they want to be like their associates and friends and don't bear any kind of change, therefore this may cause problem in diabetes care.
- Being a diabetic, it is necessary to take the meals, snacks and insulin injections right on time. But adolescents are in the habit of sleeping until noon. It is your duty to make them realize the importance of proper diabetes medication, so that their blood glucose remains under control.
- Your adolescent girl may have some menarche problem, if her diabetes is not under control properly.

Some or all of these behaviors are common and temporary; these will ease out with time, especially through parent children conversation. However, at any time you feel that you child is going towards self destruction, it is better to seek help from family therapy or psychological counseling.

In the age of adolescence your child now has enough ability to visit doctor alone. You will never know about the dealing between your child and doctor. Your child begins to take decision independently without any consultation to you.

This is the particular point where they begin to believe that they are independent people. They have their own lives in which no one has the right to interfere. This is why; they often tend to move away from you. This the age of fun and enjoyment and is therefore, there is no check on their diets. More fast food stuff, canned food, French fries or soft drinks become part of their diet, which adversely affect their diabetes and sometimes cause them severe problems.

With the growing age, you child become the manager of their insulin drug. They know when and how much insulin dose is required to keep their diabetes under control. In the early years, they will definitely work under your supervision, but with every passing year they begin to learn things themselves so that you need not to guide them for insulin dosage. However, whenever they need your help you will be there.

PH Test Strips For Baby Gender
The other day, I received an email from someone wanting more information about the PH strips that I sometimes refer to in my articles. She wanted to know whether these were used before conception or after it. Specifically, she wanted to know if there were any strips that could determine baby gender after pregnancy. I have seen strips that test the mother-to-be's blood some months after pregnancy. I have my doubts as to how accurate they are and, since they can't be used until months into pregnancy, I have no idea why someone wouldn't just get a reliable ultrasound instead.

This article will address the strips that test PH before conception (rather than those that test blood after it.) It will also focus on the regimen that can affect your baby's gender before you actually become pregnant.

Information On The Strips That You Can Use Before You Conceive To Help You Influence Your Baby's Potential Gender: What I usually talk about are strips that measure your body's PH to help you determine if you are alkaline or acidic. The reason that this is important is that an acidic reproductive tract will be more favorable to a girl conception while an alkaline environment makes a boy more likely. But, there's other ways that you can use these strips also.

If you get a reading that you want to change, then you can tweak your diet and use different douches to try and get a more desirable reading. For example, if you want a girl but are getting a ready that shows you're more likely to get a boy, you could begin a regimen that is meant to eventually bring this around. The strips continue to come into play because you will continue to regularly test to see how much progress you are making and to know when you have reach the levels to indicate that it's now safe and desirable to go ahead and conceive the gender that you want.

Other Things That Become Important: These strips are, at least in my opinion, one of the two types of tools that are optimal to use. You'll also need to know the day on which your ovulation happens (and it's optimal that you can anticipate this beforehand.) The reason that this is important is that the day on which you want to conceive is different depending on whether you want a boy or a girl.

For a female baby, you want to conceive prior to ovulation and for a male baby, you want to conceive afterward. The tool that makes this more achievable is a good ovulation predictor. Both urine and saliva are good, but saliva is a little better (in my view) at giving you more of a warning beforehand.

The final thing that can help is something that doesn't require any special tools or talents. In addition to timing and PH, the position that you use to conceive can help also. This is likely things that you're already doing or can easily change if you are not. If you want a son, use positions that allow deep deposits into the cervix. This helps to minimize the boy sperm's weakness and it's difficulty with long travels. For a daughter, you'll want to make the deposit further away from the cervix as this helps to weed more boys out before they are hopefully exposed to the acidic environment that you've set up.

I hope this article has shown you that although there are two types of strips that people discuss, only one of them is important in determining gender before conception. And, they can also help you to tweak your regimen to ensure you're happy with the result after conception.

I've put together a few websites that take a lot of the guess work out of choosing your baby's gender when getting pregnant. You'll find step by step instructions, resources for determining ovulation times, douche recipes and food PH lists, information on when to conceive, tips, support, and examples of ovulation predictors / PH testing strips.

If you want a boy baby, check out http://conceive-a-boy-baby.com/.

If you want a girl baby, check out http://conceive-a-girl-baby.com/.

Fruits for Diabetes
Fruits For Diabetes

A person suffering from diabetes should abstain from eating foods that are rich in cholesterol and fats. The food should be light, non-greasy and easy to digest with lots of fibre content.

Most fruits fit correctly in this category, and are known for their various beneficial effects on a patient suffering from diabetes. They are low on fats and highly rich in nutrients and vitamins and have a positive effect on the unusual rise in the blood glucose levels.

However, one should avoid fruit juices and fruit concentrates, because they contain lot of sugar and many fruits are required to make one glass of juice. Moreover, fruit juices do not provide a person with the dietary fibre.

Choose whole fruits more often than juices. They have more fibre.

Choose fruits and fruit juices without added sweeteners or syrups.

Eat lots of citrus fruit such as oranges, sweet lime, grapefruit, or olives.

You can choose from any of the fruits available in the market. Each one has some benefit or the other.

Although diabetics can have any fruit, but they should preferably avoid mango, custard apple, grapes, chikoo, bananas as they have a high sugar content. There are three fruits in particular that are especially beneficial for diabetic patients - apple, grapefruit and jambul (jamun).

Apple -

One the most popular fruit, apples have a high pectin content and are very beneficial to diabetic patients. Pectin is found in the rind and in the pulp, and acts as a detoxifier of the body by supplying an excessive amount of galacturonic acid. This helps remove harmful waste from the bloodstream and can lower a diabetic's insulin requirements by up to or even more than 35%. Besides being rich in pectin, apples are also rich in Vitamin B1. Vitamin B1 prevents the damage of the brain cells that can occur due to diabetic acidosis.
Grapefruit

Grapefruit a citrus fruit with a typical, refreshing flavour has several medicinal properties that helps one fight diabetes can bring down the blood glucose level within a time span of just three days. However, just a diet of grapefruit is not enough. One needs to take more of vegetables and fruits rather than a diet rich in fats.

Nutritionists recommend that anyone suffering from high blood sugar levels should be consuming at least three servings of grapefruit every day. Grapefruit can also be used as a preventative measure against high blood sugar levels, especially when used in conjunction with a low fat, low-sugar, low-starch diet. Diabetic patients should experience a change in less than three months.

Rose apple or jambul

The elements present in jambul have a strong positive effect on pancreas. It prevents the conversion of starch into bad sugar, thus controlling the blood sugar levels. The seeds of this fruit can be dried, powdered and then taken with water. Apart from controlling diabetes, it also relieves thirst and prevents excessive urination.

In addition to the fruit, the bark of the jambul tree is also used to treat diabetes. The bark itself is dried out entirely, then burned into a white-colored ash which is then taken. In Ayurveda, a diabetic patient is given about two grams of this ash in the morning on an empty stomach and two grams each in the afternoon and in the evening - an hour after meals.

The question is not whether or not you should eat fruit but rather how much and what kinds of fruit you should be eating.

People with diabetes are encouraged to eat at least five portions of fruit and vegetables every day. Spreading the fruit you eat through the day will avoid a sudden rise in blood glucose levels. Although some fruits have a lower glycemic index, the important thing is to increase the variety of different fruits that one eats. Eating more fruit and vegetables also helps to improve the overall balance of the diet. Fruit is the perfect snack.

However, one needs to be careful about the fruits chosen to eat, how often you eat them and when you eat them. It is advisable to choose fruits that rank low on the glycemic index. Fruits high on the index are bananas, mango, chikoo, custard apple, dates, pineapple.

How fast a fruit will raise your blood sugar also depends on considerations as whether you eat the fruit after a high-calorie meal or drink it as a glass of fruit juice on an empty stomach.

It is also important to pay attention to the size of the fruit you eat - choose a small or medium-sized portion over a large one (or eat only half of the large one).

For diabetes information, Diabetes Testing, diabetes treatment, diabetes causes visit www.diabetesmellitus-information.com

Diabetes Curable
Diabetes affects over 18 million people, another 15 million may not yet be diagnosed, and that is in the United States alone! Currently diabetes is the 3rd leading cause of death in America. The truth about diabetes is that the body does not produce, or properly use, the insulin necessary for the body to absorb glucose (sugar). The glucose then accumulates in the bloodstream until levels get dangerously high. This condition then leads to diabetes symptoms like: lack of energy, unusual weight gain, restless sleep, blurred vision, and tingling sensations in the affected individual.

Millions have gone to their family doctor with symptoms of diabetes, only to find they are prescribed diabetes medication, told to begin a diabetes diet, and change their lifestyle for the rest of their lives. Suddenly, controlling diabetes becomes their entire life. The great news is; diabetes management can be attained with less diabetes medicine for people diagnosed with type one diabetes and especially, type 2 diabetes. There are certain herbs for diabetes treatment that alleviate many of diabetes symptoms. These herbs are:

Banaba; well known for its ability to lower blood sugar levels and transport glucose in the bloodstream (referred to by some as "botanical insulin").

Bitter Melon; known to improve glucose tolerance and for its regulative abilities (considered the best for diabetes management by the Philippines Dept. of Health).
Cinnamon; proven to reduce the amount of insulin necessary for glucose metabolism by USDA research.

Gymnema Sylvestre; can lower blood sugar levels in both type one diabetes and diabetes type 2, as indicated in a Harvard Study.

Huckleberry; strengthens the immune system, balances digestion, and improves blood circulation in the hands and feet.

Chromium; shown to help cells respond to naturally produced insulin since the 1960's (currently it is estimated 90% of Americans are deficient in this vital nutrient).

Zinc; contributes many factors to diabetes control. Zinc is essential for the pancreas to produce insulin. When zinc levels are low, diabetes treatments are hindered due to the pancreas' inability to produce the body's own insulin and insulin receptor cells may become damaged.

Biotin; important B Vitamin for processing insulin. A study has shown that Type 1 diabetics receiving 16 mgs. of Biotin for one week, cut their fasting glucose by 50%. A type 2 diabetes study showed similar results.

Conventional diabetes treatment will only help control diabetes and simply delay the devastating affects. Without a diabetes cure, complications from diabetes can lead to blindness, heart disease, nerve damage, kidney failure, limb amputations, and even death! And let's not forget that diabetes prescriptions most often carry their own set of possible adverse side effects such as skin rash, weight gain, diarrhea, liver damage, respiratory infections, and headaches, just to name a few. To learn more about naturally and gently healing diabetes, visit GreatNewsHealth.com.

Resource Box

If you suffer from diabetes, you need to take control of your health. At GreatNewsHealth.com you can find diabetes information and diabetes health articles. Basically, it offers a diabetes treatment and cure. Just mushing together a bunch of herbs will not effectively heal diabetes. Cheap, poor quality supplements are virtually useless as they have low effectiveness and will not improve your health. Visit http://GreatNewsHealth.com and discover how diabetics can lower blood sugar levels 50 points within 30 days, guaranteed.

Stress And Pancreatitis In this short article on the topic of stress and pancreatitis we will get more info regarding what these two terms means in reality and how they are inter connected. This pancreatitis is very easy to understand. Let us first try to get the info regarding the role of pancreas gland. This is an important organ in our digestive system. Its role is to secrete certain chemicals. The first group of chemicals secreted by this pancreas gland is called as hormones. The well known insulin is one of the important hormones. This insulin controls the sugar level in blood. The second group of chemicals secreted by this pancreas gland is called as digestive enzymes. These chemicals are useful in digesting the fat content from our food in take.

In case of the normal healthy person, these digestive enzymes remain inactive when they are secreted in the pancreas gland and they become active only when they have reached the small intestine. This is what happens in case of the normal healthy person. In case of the pancreatitis patient this does not happen. In his/her case the digestive enzymes secreted in the pancreas gland become active there. This means that these digestive enzymes start reacting with the cells and tissues in pancreas gland and in the process damage and harm them. This is called as auto digestion. In this process the pancreatic gland starts dieing out part by part. In case of chronic pancreatitis the whole pancreatic gland may become dead completely. In this pancreatitis the production of much needed chemicals like hormones and the digestive enzymes goes on decreasing creating lot many complications like diabetes and digestion problems.

The cause of this pancreatitis is inflammation in pancreas gland. There are lot many reasons for the inflammation in this pancreas gland. The stress is one of the important reasons. The oxidative stress always produces lot of free radicals in the body. The free radicals are very much harmful to the body cells. The anti oxidants are the chemicals which get rid of these harmful free radicals. It is necessary to have sufficient number of anti oxidants in our blood levels to fight these free radicals produced due to the stress. In case of stress, there is lot of free radicals produced in the body. These changes the anti oxidant levels in the blood. The low anti oxidant levels in blood means there is high possibility of pancreatitis attacks.

The low level of oxidants in blood levels and pancreatitis are very closely related.
In the regions where the normal diet has high deficiency of the anti oxidants are prone to the pancreatitis. The cooking styles also destroy the anti oxidants in the diet. If there is deficiency of the free anti oxidants in the diet, then stress produced free radicals lower them further inviting this pancreatitis.

Linus Orakles

Be Naughty With Crotchless Panties And Sexy Underwear Women's underwear should be sexy. Even if you don't feel like wearing a leather thong and a bustier underneath your work clothes, a pair of underwear with a little frill, lace or detailing can be a sexy secret you wear under your clothes that makes you feel special all day, and night. You can find many styles of sweet and sexy underwear that are comfortable enough to wear for every day and still add some spice to your nighttime dress.

One popular type of sexy underwear that can be worn anytime is lacy boy-shorts. This style is much bigger than bikini underwear, and many women find them more comfortable. They offer full coverage in the front and the back in a snug short-short style that turns sexy with the addition of lace, eyelets, sexy materials and any color of your choice.

Bikini-style underwear is a sexy staple in your closet, but it can be made even sexier by choosing different styles. Instead of a solid material, plain-color bikini panty, choose one with a wide strip of lace at the top and the tiniest piece of material going from front to back that you can find. Thong underwear made this way is popular, too. A wide strip of fur, frills or lace at the top paired with the full view in the back is a sexy style. Your partner will love this type of underwear, and you'll feel extra sexy wearing it.

Whether you prefer bikini or thong underwear, choosing a sheer material is another way to go a little sexy. You can find sheer panties in barely there colors like peach, pink and tan, or choose daring colors like see-through black or red. A solid band at the top paired with a tiny, sheer strip, especially combined with a matching bra, is a great way to feel sexy and offer up a little tease.

When you feel really bold, there are many other styles to choose from to indulge your naughty side. The sky's the limit so you can go just as daring and wild as you want. If leather is a favorite, you can find leather bikinis, thongs and other styles with accents like metal studs and rings to add a little kinkiness, if you prefer. A solid leather thong in black, white, red or even pink makes a sexy statement. A leather panty with a lace-up crotch is a spicy choice for when you really feel naughty.

Peek-a-boo panties that have a tiny slit right in front can be found in sweet and lacy styles or in materials like leather. And crotchless panties, the perfect choice when you're looking for something really wild and sexy, come in all varieties, too. These are daring underwear that will make you feel naughty just putting them on, because you know you won't have to take them off. Crotchless panties come in styles from tiny lace thongs to leather panties, and are perfect paired with a revealing peek-a-boo or cupless, underwire bra.

How the Helpful Bacteria Can Work to Your Advantage
The popular notion that all bacteria are harmful is one that should be erased from people's minds. To some extent, we actually have helpful bacteria that exist on this earth and you may be shocked at how helpful they are both to the environment and to human beings as well.Below are some of the helpful bacteria that are known for their good effects.

The Rhizobia bacteria, is a group of helpful bacteria that converts nitrogen gas into other useful substances that help plants to grow well.When other organisms die and fall onto the ground, the Rhizobia bacteria decompose the dead animal and use some of the dead organism's molecules as food while letting the rest of the molecules get mixed into the soil for the plants to consume.As the plants consume the molecules, they get to grow well and other organisms such as animals feed on these plants as they keep on increasing their own body cells until they also get to die and the cycle is repeated again.

The E. coli bacteria, are also helpful bacteria that live in the intestines of living people and animals such as cows, giraffes and also goats. These bacteria help a lot in food digestion for both people and animals. In animals, the bacteria live in the animal's rumen where they can break down grass and hay into proper nutrients the animal can absorb into its flowing blood stream with much ease.This makes the presence of the E. coli bacteria in an organism's body to be very important due to the fact that, without them, proper food digestion may fail to take place hence complicating things for the organism.
For those of you who love taking yogurt, you should then know that the product gets to be produced by a type of bacteria called Lactobacillis. The bacteria is mixed with the the milk that is used to produce yogurt.The bacteria is then let to consume part of the milk and because the milk contains sugar known as lactose,the bacteria is able to release acid which makes the milk taste sour and in the process, yogurt gets to be produced.

Azotobacters are other types of helpful bacteria found on earth.These bacteria stay in the soil and are able to convert gaseous nitrogen to ammonium compounds that are later converted to different nitrates by the nitrifying bacteria. This process goes along way to help in the nitrogen fixation process in the environment as these nitrates would later be consumed by plants and be released to the environment through their leaves.

To continue to talk about the helpful bacteria, we can never forget to mention the Bacillius thuringensis bacteria. The bacteria belongs to the group of gram-positive bacteria which stain purple in the "Gram stain experiment" and usually resides in the soil. These bacteria and there subspecies are used as Lepidopteran-specific insecticides under trade names such as Dipel and Thuricide.Due to their specificity, these pesticides are said to be environmentally friendly with minimum or no effect at all on humans, pollinators and also wildlife.

Wangeci Kinyanjui is an expert on research and reporting on Health Matters for years.To get more information on helpful bacteria visit her site at HELPFUL BACTERIA

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How to Maintain Normal Blood Sugar Levels

Author: Bob Held

Diabetics are often given contrary information on what is the correct diet or even what types of food are best for the diabetic condition. Here is an article that clearly shows the reason and need for a low carbohydrate diet:

"All carbohydrates are basically sugar. Various sugar molecules - primarily glucose - hooked together chemically ["bonded"] compose the entire family of carbohydrates. Your body has digestive enzymes that break these chemical bonds and release the sugar molecules into the blood, where they stimulate insulin."

"This means that if you follow a 2,200-calorie diet that is 60 percent carbohydrates - the very one most nutritionists recommend - your body will end up having to contend with almost 2 cups of pure sugar per day." excerpted from Protein Power by Doctors Michael and Mary Eades

Based on this astounding information, the question is not whether or not a diabetic should be on a low carbohydrate diet, but just what are the foods for a low carbohydrate diet?

Without attempting to list every kind and type of food, and for simplicity, I have grouped foods into three general categories below; those that are high carbohydrate content which should be avoided, medium carbohydrate content which can be eaten only in modest or extremely small portions, and low carbohydrate content that can be eaten as much as one likes:

High Carbohydrate Content:

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All kinds of potato and potato products (including yams and sweet potatoes). Any products made from grain such as wheat, rye, oats, rice and corn. This includes any type of bread, pasta, chips or cereals. Any type of hard beans such as navy beans, pinto beans, black eyed peas, kidney beans, soy beans, lima beans, red beans, black beans, etc., as well as peas and peanuts. Most fruits and any fruit juices.

Medium Carbohydrate Content:

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All root vegetables such as beets, carrots, turnips, parsnips and rutabagas. Summer and zucchini squashes. Most kinds of nuts, avocado, onions, apricots, strawberries, peaches, plums, tangerines (not oranges), and honeydew or casaba melons.

Low Carbohydrate Content:

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Any kind of meat including beef, pork, lamb, turkey, chicken, any kind of fish, seafood or shellfish, eggs, or cheese. Vegetables such as broccoli, green beans, cabbage, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, celery, asparagus, any kind of greens such as spinach, beet greens, kale, Swiss chard, mustard greens and turnip greens. Salad materials such as any kind of lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, bell peppers, etc., and any kind of oil such as corn, olive, peanut, etc., and butter.

Follow the above guidelines, get in a low carbohydrate diet and add the vital supplements needed for a Diabetic.

By learning more about the diabetic condition, what causes it and how it can be changed, you can make informed decisions and take actions on your own, which will improve your diabetic condition.

You can use this information to decrease or eliminate your dependency on drugs, medications and insulin, while at the same time reducing your blood sugar levels.

The most important actions you can take to improve your diabetic condition are correct diet combined with effective nutritional supplements and exercise

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/diseases-and-conditions-articles/how-to-maintain-normal-blood-sugar-levels-230654.html

About the Author

Bob Held is the Founder and President of the Wellness Support Network The Wellness Support Network’s mission is to help people with health challenges such as Diabetes.
A website with recipes that lower blood sugar is available at www.diabetes-support.com?sid=baselbs

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The Pet Food Recall

Author: Dr. Andrew Jones

Since March 16, more than 5,600 pet food items have been recalled after it was discovered that the chemical melamine, found in imported wheat gluten, rice gluten and corn gluten, has been making thousands of pets sick.

4,867 pets (2,527 cats and 2,365 dogs) have been reported (by owners) as deceased, and the total number of affected pets reported has been 14,750, as of May 16, 2007.

The Pet Food Recall is a crisis of unprecedented proportions. Never in our history have so many pets died and developed illness as a result of Pet Food. The Pet Food companies have lost our trust. This scandal is producing more questions than answers, and NO ONE is standing up and telling the Truth.

Initial reports suggested that aminopterin, a rodenticide not used in the US or Canada, could be the causal agent – but this was not proven by subsequent testing, and is currently being discounted by the FDA. Melamine, a non-protein nitrogen fertilizer (used in China) and component of plastics such as formica is currently the most likely suspect compound because it has been found in the affected gluten and foods.

The specific toxin in the contaminated protein ingredients (gluten, rice protein concentrate) has not been completely identified. Overall, the 4 substances that have been identified include melamine, amiloride, amilorine and cyanuric acid. Testing in 3 laboratories has identified cyanuric acid in the contaminated food and in crystals from cat urine. In fact, analysis of melamine cyanurate crystals shows a close match to crystals obtained from cat urine - this has allowed for a tentative identification of melamine as the culprit.

Cyanuric Acid is commonly used as a chlorine stabilizer in swimming pools. The ‘CYA test’ to determine the concentration of cyanuric acid in pool water uses melamine as a reagent to form a white insoluble precipitate. The damage happens when Melamine combines with Cyanuric Acid to form melamine cyanurate crystals, resulting in kidney damage and the other associated signs.

This may explain the problem, but what can you as a pet owner do about it? How can you protect your pet from the Pet Food Recall, or treat your pet if they’ve consumed contaminated, recalled food?

If your pet has consumed contaminated food, the first thing you should be aware of is the signs of Pet Food Toxicity.

Affected individuals often vomit soon (1-12 hours) after ingesting the food. Some become anorectic and lethargic. Some salivate and have oral ulcerations. Weakness and blood in the urine has also been reported.

Some general signs to watch out for include your cat or dog drinking more water and urinating more often. Your pet may be losing weight, specifically loss of muscle mass, as the kidneys lose protein. As kidney failure advances, your pet may become weak due to anemia. He may have a decreased appetite due to a buildup of toxins in the blood stream. In advanced cases, he will be dehydrated and completely off food. In some pets, kidney disease causes elevated blood pressure, which may affect his eyesight.

Here are a few things you can do if you see any of the above signs. First of all, see your Veterinarian. If your pet is showing any of the above symptoms, have your pet’s blood and urine tested. In some cases, an ultrasound may be needed to confirm the disease.

At home, the most important thing that you can do for your pet is to maintain adequate hydration. Offer lots of fresh water. If your cat isn’t a great water drinker, then make the switch to (safe) canned food.

Another thing you can do is to lower the protein and phosphorus levels your pet receives. Newer research has shown that the most important thing to restrict in early kidney failure is phosphorus. This mineral speeds up destruction of the remaining kidney cells. Stop all dairy products as they are very high in phosphorus. Feed a specific, moderately reduced protein diet, such as a premium quality senior diet, in the early stages.

As kidney failure advances, switch to a restricted protein diet, available from your veterinarian – or use a specific home made diet that is low in protein and phosphorus.

A third treatment you can offer is to add Omega 3 fatty acids to your pet’s diet. The Omega 3 polyunsaturated fatty acids from fish oil are shown to delay the progression of kidney failure. The dose is one 250mg capsule per 10 lbs of body weight daily.

This article is an excerpt from an online seminar I held on the Pet Food Recall. If you would like a copy of the seminar, in video format, please see my bio and follow the link provided – the seminar (and website) is called the Pet Food Recall Report. I’ve included several home diets and more treatments you can offer your pet, as well as my suggestions for safe commercial foods. I also discuss feeding raw food to your pet as a safe alternative.

Best wishes…

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/pets-articles/the-pet-food-recall-153306.html

About the Author

Dr. Andrew Jones, a practicing Veterinarian, has a special interest in alternative, natural remedies for pets. Obtain your copy of the Pet Food Recall Report at: http://www.petfoodrecallreport.com.

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