If you or your child has just been diagnosed with diabetes, lifetime management of this chronic condition may seem overwhelming. With the help of your doctor, diabetes educator and registered dietitian, however, you'll find that diabetes treatment can become just another part of your routine. With proper management, diabetics can live healthy, active lives. Learn some of the ways you and your doctor can manage your diabetes.
Along with a registered dietician, you can plan healthy, tasty and varied meals. You'll be eating lots of fresh produce and whole grains, while limiting sweets and cutting back on some unhealthy animal products. Your dietician will show you how to balance carbohydrates, fats and proteins in each meal to manage your diabetes and keep blood sugar levels steady.
As you manage your diabetes, you'll have to commit to regular blood sugar monitoring. Type 1 diabetics may have to test blood sugar levels more than five times a day. Type 2 diabetics often have to test anywhere from once a day to a few times a week. Your blood sugar levels can be affected by:
Over time, testing will become easy and routine as you learn to manage your diabetes. You'll become familiar with the way your body reacts to the various factors that affect blood sugar levels, so that you can compensate and maintain healthy blood sugar levels.
Exercise is a fun and important part of managing diabetes. Physical exercise for diabetes lowers your blood sugar--a regular exercise routine may mean that you need fewer medications for diabetes. About 30 minutes of aerobic exercise, five days a week is a great way manage your diabetes. You'll stay healthy and this may help keep blood sugar levels under control. Try these types of exercise for diabetes management:
Since exercise can lower blood sugar for a significant time after your workout, test blood sugar levels more frequently than usual, until you know just how exercise for diabetes affects you.
All type 1 diabetics and some people with type 2 diabetes need insulin to survive. This diabetes treatment may be given in two ways:
An inhaled insulin option used to be available in the U.S., however, it wasn't widely used and was eventually taken off the market. This diabetes treatment method was also linked to lung cancers in those with a history of smoking. Currently, a number of manufacturers are working on newer and better versions of inhaled insulin, and these may be available in the near future.
Whether you are a type 1 and type 2 diabetic, you may need medication to manage your diabetes. Here are a few commonly-prescribed medications for diabetes:
Researchers are working to develop new diabetes treatment methods, bringing hope to type 1 diabetics that they may one day live without insulin. Some of these latest diabetes treatment options include an islet cell transplant, pancreas transplant or stem cell transplant.
Diabetes Network Staff. (n.d.). Alternative insulin delivery methods. Retrieved March 30, 2010, from the Diabetes Mall website: http://www.diabetesnet.com/diabetes_treatments/insulin_inhaled.php.
Mayo Clinic Staff. (2009). Type 1 diabetes: Treatment and drugs. Retrieved March 30, 2010, from the Mayo Clinic website: http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/type-1-diabetes/DS00329/DSECTION=treatments-and-drugs.
Mayo Clinic Staff. (2009). Type 2 diabetes: Treatment and drugs. Retrieved March 30, 2010, from the Mayo Clinic website: http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/type-2-diabetes/DS00585/DSECTION=treatments-and-drugs.
Thomson Reuters Staff. (2010). MannKind expects FDA to approve inhaled insulin. Retrieved March 30, 2010, from the Reuters website: http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN1221038220100113.
Tree.com provides information on health-related topics, not medical advice, diagnosis or treatment recommendations. Please consult your physician if you have questions or concerns.