Essential Skills for Diabetes Care

Diabetes is a progressive, chronic disease that can greatly affect your psychological health as well as your physical health. Finding out that you have diabetes can be both shocking and a little bit frightening, but through proper self-management and important lifestyle changes in your diet, daily physical activity, faithfully taking medication and monitoring blood glucose levels, you can actively reduce your health risks and resolve any problems that arise. Family members and friends, as well as other people you meet, may be affected by you having diabetes so keep a positive outlook for their sakes as well as your own.

Lifestyle Changes

Change your diet to meals low in saturated fat, excess sodium, and the right amount and type of carbohydrates, eating at regular timings. Choose the foods you eat from proteins, carbohydrates and fats in quantities that help you keep a healthy body weight. Be informed of the nutrient content of the foods you eat, read package labels carefully, choose suitable foods in restaurants, and steer clear of extra saturated fat and sodium.

Regular strength, flexibility and aerobic training can help manage your blood glucose levels in Type 2 diabetes and increase your cardiovascular health and contribute to weight loss .To be the most effective, you need to be aware of which exercises are best for you to do and how often and how forcefully you should do them. Watch out for hypoglycaemia and hyperglycaemia as potential side effects of your exercising while having diabetes.

Recommended Tests

If you have Type 1 diabetes, you will have to continue to take insulin as the beta cells in your pancreas no longer can produce insulin your body needs. Oral medications and lifestyle changes may be sufficient for controlling your Type 2 diabetes initially. As your diabetes progresses, though, you may have to start insulin treatments too. It's important to keep your health care provider informed about your self-checked blood sugar levels so your treatment can be monitored in case any changes may be needed.

Keeping tabs on overall health through annual lab tests for microalbumin levels, tests for cholesterol and lipid levels, blood pressure levels, and eye, foot and dental exams among other recommended tests will help you in your self-management of your treatment and better prepare you to solve any problems that arise concerning your treatment and condition.