The Best Snacks to Lower Blood Sugar Revealed

My wife had a blood clot that went to her brain and is now on blood thinners. What are healthier ways to thin her blood than warfarin and would a D-Dimer test help?

Anywhere in the body, a blood clot can cause damage by depriving surrounding tissue of oxygen, and the longer it lasts, the more damage it can cause. This is especially important in the brain, where brain damage can have long-lasting and debilitating effects on everything from speech to limb control. A blood clot in the brain is called an ischemic stroke. If you have a blood clot in your brain, like my wife did, you will need to take antiplatelet drugs or anticoagulants for the rest of your life, and the traditional anticoagulant for this is warfarin.

These medications may reduce the risk of recurrent strokes/blood clots.

There are several different types of anticoagulant drugs that work in different ways. In addition to warfarin, there is a newer class of drugs called direct oral anticoagulants (DOACs).

Your wife was probably offered warfarin after an evaluation to see what treatment would be best for her.

• Types of Stroke
• Causes of Stroke
• Other accompanying health problems
• Other Drugs and Interactions
• age

That said, warfarin requires significantly more monitoring and more ongoing blood tests than DOACs, which some patients find very disruptive and difficult to manage.

When you start a DOAC, your doctor will check how well your kidneys and liver are working, and then check again three months after you start, and then once a year, which is more acceptable for most people. So you can discuss these drugs with your wife’s doctor, and they are called rivaroxaban (Xarelto), dabigatran (Pradaxa), apixaban (Eliquis), and edoxaban (Lixiana).

So this is one option for your wife, and I would recommend consulting with her specialist.

To answer your question about the D-dimer test, it is not useful for preventing clots, only for identifying clots if they do form.

Hope this helps and good luck!

Hi, what is the best morning snack to lower my blood sugar? My levels tend to spike first thing in the morning and I have a hard time lowering them. Thanks.

Interesting, but can be tricky. You didn’t say you have diabetes, but since it’s rare to have your blood sugar tested if you don’t, I’m going to assume the answer is yes for this answer!

Some people with diabetes experience what is known as the “dawn phenomenon,” which is when blood sugar levels (hyperglycemia) are high, usually between 4 a.m. and 8 a.m.

The cause is unclear. Some believe that the nighttime release of certain naturally occurring hormones increases insulin resistance, which in turn raises blood sugar. These hormones include growth hormone, cortisol, glucagon, and epinephrine, which in diabetics are already poorly produced and counteract the effects of insulin, which does not work effectively on cells.

Here are some reasons why your blood sugar is high in the morning:

• Your insulin dose the night before was too low.
• If you took your diabetes medication incorrectly the night before.
• Eat a carbohydrate snack before going to bed.

What can you do?

You can try the following to improve the situation:

• Avoid carbohydrates at bedtime.
• Change the dose of your diabetes medication or insulin.
• Switch to a different medication to treat diabetes.
• Take your medications or insulin at bedtime instead of dinner time.
• Switch to an insulin pump to give yourself extra insulin in the early morning hours.

All of these measures should be taken in consultation with your physician.

In the meantime, you can try to lower your glucose spikes by eating a breakfast of nuts, seeds and yogurt, but if it’s already gone up, it’s probably too late and the trick is to prevent spikes. There’s some good advice on ZOE.

I hope this helps.

My son was just diagnosed with Crohn’s disease. I’ve never heard of it before. What is it?

Sorry to hear this news. Crohn’s disease is an inflammatory bowel disease that can cause inflammation of the digestive tract, abdominal pain, diarrhea, fatigue, weight loss, and malabsorption. It can affect any part of the digestive tract from the mouth to the anus, but it usually affects the small intestine.

This varies from person to person and can be painful, debilitating, and sometimes lead to life-threatening complications.

Common symptoms include:

• diarrhea
• fatigue
• Fever
• There’s blood in the poop
• Abdominal pain and cramps
• Mouth ulcer
• Loss of appetite
• Weight loss
• Pain around the anus that may cause a fistula (a skin tunnel that leaks fluid)

Other signs and symptoms may include the eyes, skin, joints, liver, and kidneys being affected, anemia may occur, and in children, growth or sexual development may be delayed.

The exact cause of Crohn’s disease is unknown, but there is likely a genetic component and it can run in families. We also know that something can cause our body’s immune system to attack itself, but a trigger such as a virus has not yet been proven.

danger

• Family history. If a first-degree relative (parent, sibling, child) has the disease. One in five people with Crohn’s disease has a family member with the disease.
• Age. Most people are diagnosed before age 30, but it can occur at any age.
• Ethnicity. Any ethnic group can be affected, but white people are most at risk, especially those of Eastern European (Ashkenazi) Jewish descent.
• Smoking. The most important controllable risk factor for developing Crohn’s disease. Smoking increases the risk of developing more severe disease and requiring surgery.

Complications

Crohn’s disease has many complications, and the better you control it, the more likely you are to avoid them. These can include:

• ulcer
• tear duct
• ileus
• Anal fissure
• malnutrition
• Colon cancer
• Skin disease
• Blood clot

therapy

Unfortunately, there is no cure for Crohn’s disease, but there are ways to manage symptoms and minimize flare-ups.

• Corticosteroids – may be effective in reducing inflammation in some patients for a short period of time.
• Immune system suppressants such as azathioprine and methotrexate.
• Biological agents – e.g. infliximab
• Antibiotics for infection and antibiotics to help heal fistulas
• Anti-diarrheal medication
• Pain relief

· Take vitamins and supplements if you have malabsorption. A good probiotic and Symprove may help. There was a clinical trial at Kings College/UCH where Symprove was administered and there was some benefit and no downsides, so I always recommend it to my patients.

The overall message is that the situation for people with Crohn’s disease has improved significantly with the development of biologic agents and immunosuppressive agents, and that if you work carefully with your doctor, your son can live a good life without being overly hampered by his disease.