Health Expert David Mendosa shares health management news and commentary at HealthCentral.com. HealthCentral.com is one of the top health destinations on the Web, with more than 35 condition-specific, wellness and general health Web properties. http://www.healthcentral.com/profiles/c/17/index http://www.healthcentral.com/profiles/c/17/rss self application/xml en-us 15 120 19 http://www.healthcentral.com/images/hc_logo_sm.gif http://www.healthcentral.com/profiles/c/17/index http://www.healthcentral.com/diabetes/c/17/160881/treating-diabetic-neuropathy Wed, 15 May 2013 17:35:15 -0400 David Mendosa Being able to walk is something that all of us who have diabetes take for granted, at least until something makes it hard to do or even impossible. That something is often neuropathy, probably the most common complication of diabetes. But new treatments can prevent serious problems. About 12 percent of us have neuropathy when we learn that we have diabetes, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention at The Prevention and... http://www.healthcentral.com/diabetes/c/17/160881/treating-diabetic-neuropathy http://www.healthcentral.com/diabetes/c/17/160746/intermittent-fasting-diabetes Mon, 06 May 2013 16:47:48 -0400 David Mendosa Intermittent fasting is older than civilization. Our paleolithic ancestors certainly practised it in times of scarcity whether they wanted to or not. And for centuries many people have fasted for cosmetic or religious reasons. But only now is intermittent fasting getting the respect that its health benefits for people with diabetes warrant. Case in point: The current issue of The British Journal of Diabetes and Vascular Disease, a bimonthly... http://www.healthcentral.com/diabetes/c/17/160746/intermittent-fasting-diabetes http://www.healthcentral.com/diabetes/c/17/160683/exercise-diabetes-management Thu, 02 May 2013 14:23:52 -0400 David Mendosa One of the wisest researchers who I know writes that exercise won’t help us to lose weight. But in my experience it does, and weight loss is crucial for almost all of us who have diabetes, because our weight is a big factor in high blood sugar levels. “Appetite and thus calories consumed will increase to compensate for physical activity,” writes Gary Taubes in Good Calories, Bad Calories. When I read the first edition of... http://www.healthcentral.com/diabetes/c/17/160683/exercise-diabetes-management http://www.healthcentral.com/diabetes/c/17/160478/attentively-manage-diabetes Tue, 23 Apr 2013 15:08:50 -0400 David Mendosa Carefully counting calories can help those of us who have diabetes lose weight. But the discipline and effort involved in monitoring our calorie intake over a period of months or years is a lot of work, and few of us can keep it up for long. For this reason the average amount of weight that people lose typically slows down after a few months. A huge proportion of people with diabetes need to lose weight. The percentage is far higher than that... http://www.healthcentral.com/diabetes/c/17/160478/attentively-manage-diabetes http://www.healthcentral.com/diabetes/c/17/160325/reducing-mental-diabetes Mon, 15 Apr 2013 15:27:18 -0400 David Mendosa Having diabetes can be stressful both physically and mentally. We focus most of our attention on reducing our physical stress through medication, diet, and exercise. We often ignore the tools at our disposal for reducing the mental stress that physical stress usually carries in its wake. The good news is that working with the tools at hand for dealing with mental stress are even easier to apply than those we have for dealing with physical... http://www.healthcentral.com/diabetes/c/17/160325/reducing-mental-diabetes http://www.healthcentral.com/diabetes/c/17/160227/walking-running-heart-diabetes Tue, 09 Apr 2013 15:37:31 -0400 David Mendosa Even the experts were surprised by the comparison between walking and running just reported in the American Heart Association journal Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis and Vascular Biology. Since I am a reformed jogger and am now a dedicated walker, the results delighted me and I think that they will make a lot of other people who have diabetes happy and healthy. The difference with the new study is that it compared the number of miles we cover,... http://www.healthcentral.com/diabetes/c/17/160227/walking-running-heart-diabetes http://www.healthcentral.com/diabetes/c/17/160112/kimchi-makes-people-diabetes Tue, 02 Apr 2013 17:12:42 -0400 David Mendosa In America when we want to get people to smile for our photos, we say “cheese.” But in Korea they say “kimchi.” When I visited South Korea about three years ago, my hosts taught me about that, and it worked for my photos. Kimchi makes people in Korea smile. It can make you smile too. Kimchi tastes great and is healthful, the two essentials of truly happy foods. Most people who enjoy spicy foods will love the taste... http://www.healthcentral.com/diabetes/c/17/160112/kimchi-makes-people-diabetes http://www.healthcentral.com/diabetes/c/17/159997/mono-tasking-diabetes-control Tue, 26 Mar 2013 17:41:50 -0400 David Mendosa Multitasking comes easy to busy people. But it comes at too big a price. The trouble with multitasking is that we can’t give our full attention to any of the tasks that we do simultaneously. The big trouble comes when we think of eating and drinking as a task to get finished as soon as we can. When we think that way, we eat and drink when we work at the computer, read the newspaper, or chat with our family. We think about our... http://www.healthcentral.com/diabetes/c/17/159997/mono-tasking-diabetes-control http://www.healthcentral.com/diabetes/c/17/159908/omega-3-vegetarians-diabetes Thu, 21 Mar 2013 22:04:01 -0400 David Mendosa Many of us want to manage our diabetes by following a vegetarian diet. Most vegetarians object to eating meat because of ethical motivations stemming from respect for sentient life or for environmental concerns. These are worthy motivations. Others are vegetarians because they believe that avoiding meat is healthier. Until now, however, a vegetarian diet is clearly less healthy in at least one crucial respect. Getting enough heart-healthy... http://www.healthcentral.com/diabetes/c/17/159908/omega-3-vegetarians-diabetes http://www.healthcentral.com/diabetes/c/17/159866/find-diabetes-meters Tue, 19 Mar 2013 20:33:21 -0400 David Mendosa Finding the best blood glucose meter has just become a little easier for some people who have diabetes.If you live in the United States, you now have an extensive website that will make the quest easier. The site is part of FindTheBest where you can “Compare Blood Glucose Meters.” FindTheBest provides “unbiased, data-driven comparisons” of everything from smart phones to dog breeds with blood glucose meters somewhere in... http://www.healthcentral.com/diabetes/c/17/159866/find-diabetes-meters