Glucose, Diet and Important Rules to Manage Diabetes Mellitus.
- Diabetes mellitus can be managed through Diet.
- Type1 and Type 2 diabetes both can be managed with diet.
- Monitoring Carbohydrates is the key because carbs strongly affect your blood sugar.
- A balanced diet includes :
- A variety of vegetables.
- Fruits.
- Whole grains,and beans.
- Fish.
- Lean meats.
- Nonfat dairy.
- When you live with diabetes, it may be a good idea to follow a schedule for meals and snacks.
Preventing High Blood Sugar After Meals
- To prevent your blood sugar from soaring after meals, follow your meal plan and be aware of your diet, particularly how many carbs you eat and portion sizes.
- Make sure you exercise.
- Take your medicine at regular time.
- Test your blood sugar regularly.
- The best is to check fasting blood sugar level.
- Then check in the evening before taking the meal and the medicine.
The Good Exercise Effect
- Regular, moderate exercise can positively affect blood sugar, especially with type 2 diabetes.
- Exercise improves your body’s sensitivity to insulin and stimulates your muscles to use glucose.
- Studies consistently find improvement in blood sugars after strength training, which usually involves lifting weights to build muscle, jogging and brisk walk for 20 to 30 minutes.
Exercise Risks
- While regular exercise can help control blood sugar.
- In some people it can cause a drop.
- To help keep your levels in check, it is recommend to test your blood sugar before and after exercise.
- If exercise makes your blood sugar dip, don’t avoid it. Instead, take some fruit with you or adjust your medications.
- If your sugar dips, eat a snack and wait 15 minutes. Make sure it’s above 100 before starting again.
Avoiding Low Blood Sugar or Hypoglycemia
- Juices, fruit, candy, or glucose tablets are all sources of quick sugar that can help and bring your glucose level to normal.
- In case of low blood sugar you may feel tired, weakness, or perspiration or sinking of heart.
- When your blood sugar drops, immediately without any delay take sugar at least 15-20 grams of sugar or carbs.
- After 15 to 20 minutes test sugar again.
- If it’s still low, eat another snack. Avoid foods with sugar in combination with fat.
Stress and Smoking Can Affect Diabetes
- Stress level and unhealthy habits like smoking can affect your diabetes.
- Stress can increase your blood sugar level.
- Try yoga or meditation or find time to de-stress with a relaxing hobby.
- Smoking increases your chances of developing diabetes-related complications like foot problems, nerve damage, and eye, heart, vascular, and kidney disease
Other Factors That Affect Blood Sugar
- Alcohol will affect your glucose level.
- When sick, test your blood sugar more often, stay hydrated, and try to eat regularly.
- Travel and changes in time zones can also affect your diabetes .Test your sugars before and after meals.
Follow Your Treatment Plan
- It’s essential to follow your treatment plan, including exercise and diet, and take your medication as directed.
- Type 1 diabetes is treated with insulin or an insulin pump.
- Type 2 is often treated with oral and/or injectable medications like insulin or drugs that help insulin work.
Treating Diabetes With Insulin
- In some patient particularly in diabetes Type 1 insulin is prescribed.
- In case of insulin injections, check your blood sugar frequently or even daily.
Other medicines With Insulin
- You may need other medications to improve your blood sugar along with insulin.
- Oral medications for type 2 diabetes can increase insulin in the body.
- The oral medicines improve blood sugar through various actions such as slowing glucose absorption after you eat and by decreasing appetite.
Tips for Injecting Insulin
- When you start taking insulin, a medical professional will teach you how to inject yourself.
- When doing shots, rotate where you inject to avoid building up scar tissue.
- For example, give yourself your shot on one side of your abdomen at breakfast, the other side at lunch, and in your outer thigh at dinner.
- Avoid injecting near your joints, groin, navel, middle abdomen, or scars.
Types of Insulin
- Rapid-acting.
- Short-acting.
- Premixed insulin are timed to meals.
- Long-acting.
- Intermediate-acting.
- The glucose-lowering effects of these insulins can last up to 24 hours.
Timing for meal when injecting Insulin
- Injecting the insulin timing is important in relation to taking the meals.
- Rapid-acting insulin is taken 5-15 minutes before or immediately after meals.
- Short-acting insulin is taken 30 to 60 minutes prior to meals.
- Premixed insulin is typically taken 15 minutes before meals.
When taken more Insulin than needed by the body
- If you have more insulin and have not eaten food.Then you may go into hypoglycemia.
- If you feel hypoglycemic symptoms like feeling tired, weak, or shaky.
- That is emergency situation to treat hypoglycemia by eating or drinking something with sugar, such as juice, or taking glucose tablets.
- You may need to adjust the dose of insulin.
Control of diabetes Mellitus
- Check glucose regularly.
- Check your HbA1c .You will get information with this test for the control D.M in the last 2 to 3 months.
- The average goal is around 7 %.
- Experts recommend HbA1c test twice a year.
(Source,modified from webMD)