Health and Wellness

Diabetes

 


Diabetes Management and Prevention

Controlling Diabetes

To control diabetes the first thing required is information and it is for this reason that diabetics should take advantage of every resource they can find to educate themselves about their health condition. 

It is important that diabetics stay in close touch with their medical practitioner to ensure that the current treatment regime they are following is still the most appropriate. In addition, checks should be made regularly to assess for physical and neurological deterioration in other areas that can occur as a result of suffering from diabetes. 

It should be obvious but, for the avoidance of doubt, the best way of controlling diabetes is for patients to test their glucose levels regularly – as instructed by their doctor or diabetes clinic nurse – and to take the appropriate levels of medication.

Diet and exercise are also key factors in controlling diabetes. The diabetic will be given dietary guidelines by their medical practitioner and these should be adhered to initially. However, each individual’s physiology can and does react differently and it is best for each diabetic to do their own dietary investigations. Now, I am not suggesting for one moment that anyone should abandon any medical advice they have been given. What I am suggesting is that diabetics pay rigorous attention to their diet and self-monitoring activities to establish which foods cause the worst glucose-level peaks and troughs.

There is a lot of conflicting advice regarding carbohydrates and fats with the scientific fraternity being divided into more than two camps on the subject. With only theories and no clear cut evidence, it is difficult to know what advice to follow. By initially adhering to the dietary advice given by their medical practitioner, the diabetic has a baseline from which to experiment – with caution. This type of experimentation should always be done with the approval of a suitably qualified medical practitioner. 

There is no doubt that an element of self control is required to control diabetes, but the rewards are surely worth the price. 

Alcohol can aggravate diabetes and is best avoided or restricted to small amounts with meals. Some of the oral medications offered to control type 2 diabetes react very adversely to alcohol consumption which is another reason to avoid alcoholic beverages.

High stress levels will aggravate diabetes and by introducing relaxation methods into their everyday routine diabetics can better control their health condition. In simple terms, stress increases the level of many hormones in the body – including adrenaline. Adrenaline prepares the body for fight or flight and part of these preparations is to release glucose stores from the liver and muscles to be used as immediate energy. What the body has no way of understanding is that modern day stress levels are not usually induced by a physical threat and the release of high levels of glucose is in fact not required. High stress levels can play havoc with glucose levels and make it almost impossible to control diabetes. It is therefore essential that the diabetic learns how to relax and reduce stress in their life.

 

All of the materials on this site have been included for the purpose of providing general information, and they should not be relied on as a substitution for professional advice.

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