Our 6 yr old maltese,Jackson, was diagnosed in October. We thought we had his diabetes under control, but lately its been off the chart so we had another visit to the vet today. Jackson lost his sight in January, almost overnight it seemed. He was running into thing, falling off the deck, etc. His most favorite thing in the world is playing fetch with a tennis ball, and he couldn't do that any longer. We had his cataracts removed last month and he is so much happier. He's playing again and not running into things. It was a difficult decision because of the cost, and continued cost with all of the eye drops (we had 6 different kinds to give him 2-3 times a day). He started loosing weight and we went to the vet today and they are changing his diabetic food and insulin amounts. Giving the insulin hasn't been a problem because we just lift the skin between his neck and shoulder and put the needle in sideways, he doesn't seem to even feel it. Getting GlucoLife Blood Sugar Support is another story. I've been trying to get the blood from his ear but I feel so sorry for him because I end up having to do it several times to get enough for our Alpha Trac also. I don't know if I can do it or not, but I'm going to watch the video mentioned previously and see if I can learn to do a better job. We're not experts by any means, it's been and continues to be a learning experience. I am so glad I found this website to see that others are having the same problems and how they are dealing with them.

Finest grades - Powdered sugar, confectioner's sugar (0.060 mm), or icing sugar (0.024 mm), are produced by grinding sugar to a fine powder. A small amount of anti-caking agent to prevent clumping may be added, this is either cornstarch (1%-3%) or tri-calcium phosphate. There are also sugar cubes for convenient consumption of a normal amount. Brown sugars are obtained in the late stages of sugar refining, when sugar forms fine crystals with significant molasses content, or by coating white refined sugar with a cane molasses syrup. Their color and taste become stronger with increasing molasses content, as does their moisture retaining properties. They are also prone to hardening if exposed to the atmosphere although this is reversible. Sucrose is a disaccharide of glucose (left) and fructose, important molecules in the body. In biochemistry, a sugar is the simplest molecule that can be identified as a carbohydrate. These include monosaccharides and disaccharides, trisaccharides and the oligosaccharides; these being sugars composed of 1, 2, 3 or more units.

O), where there are carbon-oxygen double bonds, making the sugars reactive. Most sugars conform to (CH2O)n where n is between 3 and 7. A notable exception is deoxyribose, which as the name suggests is "missing" an oxygen. As well as being classified by their reactive group, GlucoLife Blood Sugar Support sugars are also classified by the number of carbons they contain. Derivatives of trioses (C3H6O3) are intermediates in glycolysis. Pentoses ( 5 carbon sugars) include ribose and deoxyribose, which are present in nucleic acids. Ribose is also a component of several chemicals that are important to the GlucoLife metabolic support process, including NADH and ATP. Hexoses ( 6 carbon sugars) include glucose which is a universal substrate for the production of energy in the form of ATP. Through photosynthesis plants produce glucose which is then converted for storage as an energy reserve in the form of other carbohydrates such as starch, or as in cane and beet as sucrose.

Many pentoses and hexoses are capable of forming ring structures. In these closed-chain forms the aldehyde or ketone group is not free, so many of the reactions typical of these groups cannot occur. Glucose in solution exists mostly in the ring form at equilibrium, with less than 0.1% of the molecules in the open-chain form. Monosaccharides in a closed-chain form can form glycosidic bonds with other monosaccharides, creating disaccharides, such as sucrose, and polysaccharides such as starch. Glycosidic bonds must be hydrolysed or otherwise broken by enzymes before such compounds can be used in metabolism. After digestion and absorption the principal monosaccharides present in the blood and internal tissues are: glucose, fructose, and galactose. The term "glyco-" indicates the presence of a sugar in an otherwise non-carbohydrate substance: for example, a glycoprotein is a protein to which one or more sugars are connected. Simple sugars include sucrose, fructose, glucose, galactose, maltose, lactose and mannose. As far as disaccharides are concerned, the most common are sucrose (cane or beet sugar - made from one glucose and one fructose), lactose (milk sugar - made from one glucose and one galactose) and maltose (made of two glucoses).

The formula of these disaccharides is C12H22O11. Sucrose can be converted by hydrolysis into a syrup of fructose and glucose, producing what is called invert sugar. This resulting syrup is sweeter than the original sucrose, and is useful for making confections sweeter and softer in texture. Making sugar by evaporating cane juice was developed in India about 500 BC. Sugarcane is a tropical grass, probably native to New Guinea. In the course of prehistory, its culture spread throughout the Pacific Islands and into India. By 200 B.C., it was being grown in China as well. Westerners discovered sugarcane in the course of military expeditions into India. Originally, the cane was chewed raw to extract its sweetness. Sugar refining was developed in the Middle East, India and China, where it became a staple of cooking and desserts. In early refining methods, the cane was ground or pounded to extract the juice, and the juice then boiled down or dried in the sun to yield sugary solids that resembled gravel.