Type 2 diabetes mellitus can be challenging
Thousands of individuals are diagnosed with type 2 diabetes mellitus every day. Many know of diabetes and but have never faced it directly.
Undeniably, diabetes can be very intimidating and challenging.
I’d like to limit my today’s discussion to patients who have type 2 diabetes.
Type 2 diabetes mellitus is the most common form of this disease in our society. It usually happens because of what I like to call “lazy metabolism”.
In general, the body’s metabolism slows down and the insulin production and/or absorption into the body tissues declines.
Insulin is needed for the absorption of the sugar into the cells. Without insulin, the sugar remains in the blood and will accumulate until we are sick and end up in the hospital.
Here are some important tips that you as a diabetic patient should know. These recommendations can also be a useful guide for patients with other medical conditions such as high cholesterol, hypertension or high blood pressure, heart disease and …
1) Know as much about diabetes mellitus as possible
To manage any disease including diabetes mellitus, it’s very important to know as much as possible about the disease.
You should know the risk factors for getting the disease. This information will help you to manage the risk factors and consequently, the condition itself.
There are two groups of risk factors: modifiable and non-modifiable risk factors.
Modifiable risk factors are those that you can influence and improve such as your diet and the amount of daily exercise.
Non-modifiable risk factors are those that you can’t change, such as our age or genes.
Clearly, knowing all the risk factors are helpful but understanding the modifiable ones are particularly important.
2) Know your medications
Medications are there to help you in managing a disease. Using medications should never be the first line of treatment in any medical condition including diabetes mellitus.
But if your doctor has decided to put you on a medication then you should know as much as possible about the medication.
Taking a medication can be like driving a car, it can be a helpful tool to make your life easier or if it’s not done right it could also harm you.
You should always take your blood sugar lowering medications at specific time of the day. It’s also essential to know which of your medications requires food for better absorption.
This information is essential because you could maximize the effect of the medications with following the the suggested advice. Otherwise, it could result in unnecessary increase in dosage of the medication or the addition of other medications to the regimen.
3) Check your blood sugar on regular basis
Diabetic patients should check their blood sugar at least once daily, except as instructed differently by their physician.
Checking the sugar level on a regular basis is very important because it gives you an idea about how well your diabetes management is going. If the glucose level is high then something in the management needs to change.
It’s possible that you may need to optimize your diet or adjust your exercise plan. You might also require a medication adjustment by your doctor. By checking the blood sugar level on daily basis, you can monitor the success of the management.
4) Don’t Stay Hungry
Staying hungry can bother your body especially if you’ve diabetes mellitus and you’re on sugar lowering medications. It’s important that you eat on a regular basis.
Some diabetic patients might believe that staying hungry will keep the blood sugar low and consequently improve their diabetes management.
Other individuals may forget to eat because of their overwhelming work load or high level of stress.
Both of these practices can be very harmful. If you take your blood sugar medication and don’t eat at all or eat too little then your blood sugar level can definitely go down.
Any sudden fall of blood sugar can result in unwanted complications such as weakness and in severe cases, confusion.
You need to know that you can successfully manage type 2 diabetes mellitus as long as you take it seriously and don’t stop learning about it.
If you’ve any other suggestions that could help with better diabetes control, please go to my Google plus page and leave a comment.
