When you’ve been diagnosed with diabetes, it can become really frightening, yet if you inform yourself properly you can manage your diabetes and live a healthy life. Read on to find out how a few simple life choices can dramatically improve your health and reduce the effects of diabetes.
If your child has been diagnosed with diabetes, it can seem devastating, but the two of you can get through it! Since diabetes is such a common disease, there are many available treatments to help your child enjoy a normal lifespan. The oldest living diabetic is 90, and he was born before many of the treatments we have now.
Simplify your life by developing your own daily diabetes routine. Keep your insulin close to you and store it in the same spot every night. Make sure you routinely do everything you’re supposed to when testing.
Instead of cutting all sugar out of your diet, learn to control yourself and moderate your intake of sweets so that you can keep your diabetes under control while still enjoying life. It’s probably not necessary to remove sweets altogether from your diet. You can eat dessert every so often if you’re blood sugar is controlled. It may be wise to anticipate an after-meal treat by eliminating a certain amount of carbs from your main course.
Sleep Apnea
If you have been diagnosed with diabetes, it is important that you get some sort of sleep apnea test done as soon as you can. In order to remain healthy, obtain treatment for your sleep apnea as soon as you are diagnosed.
Think twice about getting a pedicure if you’re diabetic. Diabetics are more prone to getting infections on their feet, and should take extra care to prevent puncture wounds or cuts.
Many grocery store items contain this ingredient, so become label conscious. If you find HFCS on the label, pick something else. The label in Canada is “glucose/fructose”.
Changing your diet can be a great way to help lower your risk factor of contracting diabetes, and switching out fats and sugars with fiber is a great place to start. White breads and processed food items usually are high-glycemic and up your chances of diabetes, but if you make a habit of choosing anything with whole grains, you are unlikely to eat them. Studies have shown that whole grains foods are very efficient in preventing diabetes.
Know which foods are low on the glycemic index and will help your body release glucose slowly. Food that are high in glycemic indexes are pasta, cereal, desserts, juices and breads. Eating processed food will do your blood sugar no favors. Eat foods such as fresh veggies and fruit, fish, and lean meats.
People who snack a lot, including diabetics, have a hard time saying “No” when vending machines beckon. Try to stay away from these bad snacks and eat some fruits and veggies that have complex carbohydrates instead.
Don’t worry if your blood glucose levels spike right after treating a hypoglycemic episode. This means could mean that you are eating and drinking more than you should to fix your low level or that your body is releasing hormones to make up for the low level. When it next happens, reduce the amount you would eat or drink by half and then recheck your levels 30 minutes later.
You should only feel threatened about diabetes if you don’t know how to properly manage it. If you apply the tips from this article to your life, you will see that knowledge is a great tool that you can use to improve your health.