Life With Diabetes

To be diagnosed with diabetes can be startling and can take some time to adjust to. However, it’s not the end of the world. By adopting a few measures listed below, you can lead a normal life. They will help you lead a healthy, active and full life.

What To Do Immediately After Diabetes Diagnosis:

Once you are diagnosed with diabetes, you will be put on to a diabetes care team, who will explain how you should manage your condition. They will teach you how to monitor your glucose levels and to understand how these levels are affected by exercise and food. To stabilize your blood glucose levels, you would probably have been given medicines or insulin injections and taught how to self-inject.

Learning to manage your condition takes not just time, but effort and patience. Perhaps, it has made you short-tempered, confused or angry, but with a little time, you’ll be able to overcome these niggling problems.

Live A Healthy Life With Diabetes:

In order to live healthy, You need to reduce the risk Dealing With Diabetes, do the following:

Lifestyle Changes:

• Take your insulin shots and medicines regularly.
• If you are overweight, lose the extra weight so that your blood glucose level, cholesterol and blood pressure are under control.
• Switch to eating a nutritious and balanced diet that’s low in sugar and fat.
• Quit smoking as it increases your chances of heart disease and brain stroke.
• Exercise or play a sport for about 30 minutes every day, five times a week. You can also do a spot of gardening, play with your kids or pets or go boating or cycling.
• Examine your feet every day as any nerve damage affects the feet first.
• Seek medical advice, no matter how small the problem may be.

Eat A Balanced And Nutritious Diet:

• Find out from your doctor or dietician what you should eat. Typically, your diet should include the following:
• Eat whole grains, starchy veggies, beans and noodles. Limit bread and cereals and avoid white flour.
• Eat three servings of fruit and vegetables per day. Do not exceed two or three servings per day of meat, milk and yogurt.
• Limit your intake of sweets, alcohol, fats and sodium.
• Be prepared for changes in your diet as you hear from your doctor.
• Avoid drinking sugary drinks.
• Begin reading food labels.
• Drink about seven glasses of liquids per day. This included coffee, tea, diet drinks, low calorie drinks, etc. Avoid drinking flavored milk and water, fruit juice, sweetened soda drinks, sports drinks, etc.

How Diabetes Affects Your Life & Medical Health Safeguards:

• Maintain a food diary. The more information it contains, the better your doctor can advise you on managing diabetes.
• Be watchful for diabetic complications. If you can catch them early, treating them is that much faster and better for you. Some complications that could arise after diabetes diagnosis are:

• Heart Disease And Brain Stroke:

  Once you’re diagnosed with diabetes, you should be careful about cardiac and brain stroke since diabetes comes with an increased risk for these disease and any complications relating to poor blood circulation.

• Kidney Disease:

  Diabetes can cause kidney damage and failure and lead them to lose the power of filtering out waste products.

• Depression:

  It’s normal to feel depressed sometimes, but often people live with their sadness for too long. They feel a hopelessness in life. If you too feel this way for more than two weeks, it is a sign of depression which needs treatment.

• Eye Problems:

  Also called Diabetic Retinopathy, diabetes can lead to eye problems and possible blindness. If you suffer from diabetes, you have a higher risk for blindness than non-diabetics. By detecting eye problems early and treating them, you can save your vision.

• Oral Health:

  It helps to visit your dentist periodically to avoid gum disease due to diabetes.

• Diabetic Neuropathy And Nerve Damage:

  Damage to the nerves of the body that connect the spinal cord with the skin, muscles, blood vessels and organs is called neuropathy. This is one of the commonest diabetic complications that can be avoided if you act in time.

• Foot Problems:

  If you suffer from diabetes, it’s highly likely that you will suffer from a variety of foot problems. These problems occur when your feet are nerve-damaged or when blood circulation is poor.

• Skin Complications: About a third of diabetes patients have a skin disorder due to diabetes which can be treated or prevented if caught in time.

• Gastroparesis And Diabetes:

  Whether You Suffer From Type 1 or Type 2 Diabetes, You Will Be Affected By

Do you think it’s difficult to do any of the tips offered above? Certainly not. If you want to lead as normal a life as possible, try and follow as many of these tips as you can and you’ll find that life isn’t all that difficult to lead.