Having diabetes, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol are three diseases that increase your chances of getting heart disease. By having all three of these, you will be at very high risk of strokes and heart attacks. I know a lot of people that have all three and they are young people. These diseases have no mercy on anyone. I know a young child that has high cholesterol, and the doctor is saying it’s because of the fast foods that she is eating. All three disease’s run on my side of the family. Eating healthy and exercising will lower your chances of getting any of these. It has been proven that 85% of the people that have type 2 diabetes are overweight or have some kind of weight problem. Weight gain that goes up and down is not good for the body. We should try and keep our weight at a stable number if possible.
It is very important to watch your health closely especially if you know you have diabetes. Through diet and exercise you can actually come off all medication, this is if you keep your blood sugar levels down and the doctor says it is all right to do this. Always keep a check about every three months with your primary physician to see if you are still doing fine without medication. This is a struggle but it can be done. The more years you have diabetes the more trouble you will have in your older years. My mom is having this problem now. Her legs and feet are beginning to hurt her. Diabetes cause’s nerve damage and is very painful. Even though she has kept it under control, she has had it for many years.
Diabetes also causes damage to the eyes and causes blindness. Blurred vision or other eye problems is a sign of this disease. My mom has had her eyes operated on already and still is having problems. The things I have mentioned are just a few of the things diabetes can do. You can see why it is so important to take control of this disease before it takes control of you.
With early detection of diabetes, you will be more knowledgeable on what all it does to the body and how to treat it.
We are responsible for our own health. No one can take care of it better than us. We are what we eat and our lifespan will prove that to be true. Be sure and talk with your doctor and between the two of you will decide what kind of treatment is best for the type of diabetes you have. Your doctor can only do so much for you. There comes a time when you have to do your part also. Healthy eating habits and exercising will help you manage diabetes and the other two diseases I mentioned also. Walking has been proven to bring sugar levels down wonderfully.
Every 3 months have a blood test done to show what your blood levels have been over the last 3 months. This test will show the doctor how you have been eating. I have this test done every 3 months myself. This important test will let the doctor know your score level. The higher it is, the more dangerous your diabetes is. My doctor likes mine to be 6 or lower. It was a 9 when he first found out that I had diabetes. I had no clue I even had it until he checked my urine and it was full of sugar. This is one thing that is bad about diabetes. It can be a silent killer. You have it before you have any signs. Diabetes cause internal damage without us knowing anything about it until it is too late. Being real thirsty, urinating a lot, some people will lose a lot of weight faster than usual, cuts will not heal as fast, or if your breath starts to smell fruity, check with your doctor. These are some of the signs of diabetes.
You should go to diabetes classes and learn as much as possible on diabetes. They will teach in these classes how to use your blood glucose monitor and the strips. I didn’t have a clue how to use it until they showed me. I’ve gotten menus from them that showed what we should be eating and what we shouldn’t be eating. They even cooked us lunch all three days I was there. My husband got to go to the classes with me. They like for someone to come with you to these classes so you will have support after you leave. These classes will teach you what your blood sugar should be to stay healthy, good eating habits, how important it is to exercise, and will also show you films on people who didn’t take diabetes as serious as they should and what happened to them. If your physician does not recommend these classes to you, ask him to send you to them. My insurance paid for 3 full days of classes.
Monitor yourself daily. People who have diabetes know all about blood glucose monitors and the strips. My insurance paid for the monitor but not the strips. These strips can get very expensive. If you have low income and can’t afford insurance, your local health department can help you with your monitor and strips. They have helped out people that I know that needed to take insulin shots. Once you learn how to read the blood glucose monitor and what the number means, try and stay at the number your doctor told you to be at or below. This is very important on managing diabetes.
Of course we all know to stay away from sweets and lots of carbohydrates. Both of these are very unhealthy for us. Natural sugars from fruits are fine but in moderation. There are some carbohydrates that are very good for us to eat but the others turn into sugar and spikes up your sugar levels.
Be sure and drink a lot of water every day. This hydrates our skin and makes our skin smooth and soft. If we would drink water like we should, we probably would never need to lotion our skin at all. Drink water whenever possible avoiding other drinks that aren’t as healthy. Try your best and make this a habit.
