Facts About Diabetes

Standards of Care

Diabetes Mellitus is a disease that requires continual monitoring and management. Every person with Type 1 Diabetes, Type 2 diabetes, and Gestational Diabetics must use their knowledge of the disease to make daily efforts to manage their Diabetes. For some, constantly having to monitor and treat their condition is taxing. For others, caring for their condition becomes a standard way of life.

Education

The diabetes standard of care first involves education and action. In order to treat the disease, it is important to understand how everyday actions can impact the body, such as eating, exercising, and doing simple chores.  As you will see, the basic difference between a diabetic and a person without the disease is that diabetics must closely monitor the sugar levels in their bodies in order to ensure that they stay normal. Diabetics are at risk of having a dangerously high or low blood sugar level based simply on the foods that they eat and the steps they take to control blood sugar.

    Nutrition

Diabetics need to maintain healthy nutrition by:

• Limiting their sugar in-take
• Avoiding saturated fats (most animal fats except fish)
• Eating high fiber foods
• Eating more mono and poly unsaturated fats (from fish and plants)

This calls for monitoring the foods that diabetics eat. Diabetics will speak with their doctor or a nutritionist to get on a diet plan that works for them. Therefore, education plays a huge role in diabetic staying healthy by making good food choices.

Physical Activity

Exercise is one of the best ways to keep adiabetic’s blood sugar levels low. Exercise can also help to prevent obesity. Click here to learn more about exercise and how you can incorporate it into your daily life. Exercising just 30 minutes a day can help to prevent many of the common complications associated with diabetes.

Medication

A final standard of care for the majority of Diabetics involves the regular use of medication . Different medications are used to treat different types of diabetes. For example, insulin is used to treat Type 1 diabetes while oral medications are generally used to treat Type 2 diabetes. Depending on the severity and type of diabetes that you have, your doctor will prescribe a specific type of insulin or oral medication.

If you or someone you know has recently been diagnosed with diabetes, keep in mind that education is the first step in helping to avoid complications and other side effects of the disease. Yet, education alone is not effective without taking action in order to regain control.

Your metabolism includes the chemical and physiological processes that helps your body grow and function. These processes help your body break down and convert food to energy and cell building material. The metabolism of our food is what causes us to gain, maintain, or lose weight.