How Do People Who Have Diabetes Take Care of Themselves?

The traditional course of action for people with type 1 diabetes is eating healthy, exercising, monitoring your blood glucose levels, and taking insulin.

Eating a Healthy Diet

A diabetic’s diet needs to include whole grains, fruits, and vegetables. There needs to be a limited number of sweets and animal products.

Exercising

Since physical activity lowers blood sugar, exercise is essential in managing diabetes. If you haven’t exercised for a while, start slow and build up to 30 minutes of exercise every day or almost every day.

Monitoring Glucose Levels

Glucose levels should be monitored at least four times a day. You need to remember that your levels can change in response to these things:

Food: Blood sugar levels remain elevated for the first hour or two after eating.
Drugs: Some drugs can affect the levels.
Exercise: The more activity, the lower your blood sugar levels.
Illness: When you are not well, your body will sometimes produce hormones which can alter your levels.
Alcohol: This can raise or lower your levels depending on whether you eat while drinking and how much you drink.
Stress: This can interfere with the effectiveness of insulin.
Female Hormones: These change according to your cycle and can affect your levels, especially during the week before your period. Your level can also be affected by menopause.

A new development for monitoring your levels is CGM, or Continuous Glucose Monitoring. It has a fine needle that is inserted just under the skin. It is not as accurate as other methods, so it is just an additional way to monitor your levels.

Taking Insulin

Insulin must be injected or infused with an insulin pump. An insulin pump is a small device that is connected to a catheter that is inserted under the skin in your abdomen. It is programmed to automatically dispense insulin. When you have a meal, you program into it the number of carbohydrates you are going to consume and it adjusts the dose.

What Is Diabetes

Diabetes is a very serious disease. In type 1 diabetes, your pancreas does not make enough insulin. In type 2 diabetes, either the pancreas is not making enough insulin or the body is resistant to the effects of the insulin. Insulin causes the cells to absorb and use glucose. In either case, an excess of glucose in the blood is the problem.

Some of the health problems associated with diabetes are:

Heart disease
Stroke
Nerve damage that can lead to loss of limb
Eye problems, which can lead to blindness
Kidney problems
Gum disease that can lead to tooth loss

When blood sugar levels are normal, you have energy as your body is getting just the right amount of glucose that it needs to function.

Medications and Treatments for Diabetes

Medical professionals will tell people with diabetes to take care of themselves through diet, exerise and monitoring their blood sugar levels. They may also recommend medications and treatments for diabetes including:

Pramlintide: Makes the food in your stomach move slower so levels do not spike as badly.
High blood pressure drugs: These can help keep your kidneys healthy.
Aspirin therapy: This can help prevent cardiovascular disease.
Statins: These lower your cholesterol.

New treatment methods include:

A pancreas transplant, which is not always successful and is risky
Islet cell transplantation, an experimental technique which introduces cells from a donor pancreas that would produce insulin
Stem cell transplant, which may be a good treatment one day as early results look promising.

Non-traditional Ways to Lower Blood Sugar

There are minerals, vitamins, and herbs that can lower blood sugar. Although these may not be cures, many will have no side effects whatsoever and that makes the benefits of them even better. Some of them are:

Chromium picolinate - This boosts insulin function and regulates cholesterol, burns fat, and lowers triglyceride levels.
Bitter Melon - This will promote glucose tolerance and regulates blood glucose levels like insulin does.
Vitamin B6 - This can help prevent heart attack or stroke because it helps your red blood cells become less sticky. One danger of diabetes is the way that blood sugar sticks to protein.
ALA - Alpha lipoic acid is an antioxidant that helps to protect the pancreas and liver. It will also help prevent nerve damage and increases glucose tolerance.
Cat’s Claw - This is a strong nutrient that helps diabetes, osteoarthritis, and hypertension.
Psyllium Husk - This is great for regulating cholesterol.

Other things to help regulate blood sugar are: balloon flower, Solomon’s seal, schizandra, mulberry leaf, licorice root, Chinese motherwort, Abyssinian myrrh, lyceum fruit, wild yam, jujube fruit, and chicory extract.