Diabetes is a serious illness. You can damage the blood vessels in your heart, eyes, kidneys and nerves. Let’s talk about it!
If you have diabetes, then your body struggles to do enough (or any) insulin, or struggle to use the insulin that has occurred correctly, and is a very serious health condition.
Worldwide, it affects about 422 million people! Let’s repeat, worldwide, around 422 million people suffer from the disease. That is an alarm statistics.
In the United Kingdom alone, it is believed that more than 4.4 million people live with diabetes and 1.2 million people could live with type 2 diabetes that have not yet been diagnosed.
Since this disease causes high blood sugar levels, approximately time, that high level of blood sugar can lead to serious health problems such as heart disease, vision problems, kidney disease and death. According to the World Health Organization, this disease is responsible for causing 2 million deaths every year.
But, it is manageable. Join us and talk about it.
Diabetes explained
Diabetes is a condition that affects the way its body turns food into energy. Normally, when you eat, your body breaks down food in a sugar called glucose, which enters your bloodstream.
Its pancreas is responsible for releasing a hormone called insulin, which helps glucose to enter its cells to be used for energy.
When your body does not make enough insulin or cannot use it as well as it should, blood glucose cannot become energy, which leads to high blood sugar levels.
And having consistently high blood glucose levels can cause serious health problems.
There are mainly three types of diabetes
Type 1, type 2 and gestational diabetes.
- Type 1 diabetes: An autoimmune condition where your body attacks the beta cells of insulin producers in their pancreas. This type of diabetes is less common and is generally diagnosed in young children and adults.
- Type 2 diabetes: This is the most common type of diabetes, and occurs when your body becomes resistant to insulin or when your pancreas cannot produce enough insulin. It is associated with obesity and an unhealthy lifestyle and tends to be diagnosed in adults (although more and more in younger people).
- Gestational diabetes: This type of diabetes can develop pregnancy and generally disappears after giving birth, but increases the risk of type 2 development diabetes later in life.
Diabetes management effectively is crucial to maintain health and prevent complications, since type 1 diabetes and type 2 are life diseases.
How to handle diabetes
Change your diet
His diet plays a very important role when it comes to controlling diabetes. It is incredible important to eat a balanced diet that contains vegetables, whole grains, lean proteins (such as chicken, eggs, turkey, salmon, tofu, eggs, lentils and beans) and healthy fats (such as oil). Avoid processed foods with high sugar and trans fats, and limit your carbohydrate intake (such as sugar, bread, sweets and pasta) to help your blood sugar levels remain stable.
When addressing the store, choose food with a low IG (glycemic index) as they are digested and absorbed more slowly, which causes a slower increase in its blood glucose levels.
Regular physical activity
Exercise is never a bad idea. It helps insulin to work better and can even help reduce your blood sugar levels. It also helps with weight loss, redescribes your cardiovascular risk and improves your general well -being.
You can combine aerobic exercises (such as walking, bicycle or swimming) and resistance training (such as weightlifting) so that your body really works.
Weight control
Maintaining a healthy weight can prevent the beginning of type 2 diabetes and is crucial in the management of type 1 and type 2 diabetes if it has developed the disease. Weight loss, only in modest quantities, can significantly improve your blood sugar control and reduce the need for medications.
Medicine
The most common are insulin, oral medications and injections not to insulin.
Insulin is essential to help handle type 1 diabetes is already necessary to manage type 2 diabetes.
Oral medications for type 2 diabetes could include medications such as metformin to help reduce glucose production in the liver and help better improve in the use of insulin it produces.
Non-insulin injections could include medications such as GLP-1 receiver agonists to help reduce their blood sugar levels. It can also help with weight loss.
Blood sugar monitoring
Since this disease affects its blood sugar levels, it is very important to regularly monitor your blood sugar levels.
When monitoring it, it helps to adjust your diet, physical activity and medicines. You can use a glucometer at home to test your blood sugar levels several times a day.
Psychological support
Living with diabetes can be challenging and stressful. Psychological support is a vital component to help you control the disease.
You may consider the advice or joint support groups that can help people deal with the emotional aspects of having this disease. When surrounding friends who understand their changes in the diet, it could not hurt either.
To round things
The management of this disease is feasible, but requests a serious commitment. You need to make changes in your lifestyle. When adopting a healthy diet, participating in regular physical activities, maintaining a healthy weight and complying with prescription medications and monitoring protocols, can live a healthy and satisfactory life.
