Professional Diabetes Management - knowledge for better control

When you are diagnosed with a diabetes, your life will never be the same again. There is a package of diet menu, exercise plan, and medication to apply on your daily life. The main point of this package is to control your blood sugar, but they miss one thing, not only the blood sugar control is crucial in diabetes management, but also 'self control'. Advanced diabetes management includes the management of blood sugar rate and stress.

In applying the diabetes treatment package to your daily life, you may find out your blood sugar rate can sometimes go up and down (not stable). Unstable blood sugar rate is not good in diabetes management, because the main point is to keep your blood sugar under control, means stable. Advanced diabetes management can prevent the disease of getting worse and help you live longer.

Advanced diabetes management includes seven areas of management :

1. Food
In this case you must manage what, how much and when you eat.
- In what you eat, you must know how much calories you need daily. Eat variety food with carbohydrate, protein, fat, and fiber. Give extra caution on carbohydrate intake because it is easily transformed into blood sugar. Too much carbohydrate will increase your blood sugar level (hyperglycemia), and less carbohydrate paired with insulin injection will cause low blood sugar level (hypoglycemia).
- How much you eat determines your blood sugar level. Usually it increases one or two hours after a meal, and then gradually decreases afterward. Maintain the same amount for each meal certainly keeps a stable blood sugar.
- 'When you eat' also affects your blood sugar rate. Always have meals at the same hour daily is important to keep your blood sugar stable.

2. Exercise
In doing daily activities even the simplest ones, our body needs energy, and the blood sugar is the source of energy beside fat. Doing exercise will burn more fat for weight loss, and also glucose for keeping the blood-sugar rate stable. However, you should consult your exercise plan with doctor, so you know how to adjust it with the insulin injection. These are some important guidelines in doing exercise :
- it must be done regularly
- check the blood glucose rate before, during and after the exercise
- drink plenty of water
- stop doing the exercise if you feel any pain or too exhausted.

3. Medication
The usual medication given to a diabetic patient is insulin injection and drugs. Medication is aimed to lower your blood sugar rate. If you are taking other drugs for hypertension or cholesterol, better consult the usage with the doctor, because some drugs may increase the blood sugar rate.
You must properly store your insulin. Damaged or expired insulin will not be effective in lowering your sugar rate. It is also crucial to follow the proper dosage and injection timing of insulin, or you will suffer from hypoglycemia (low blood sugar rate).

4. Hormone
Especially for female diabetic patients, their hormones are fluctuating in both menstrual and menopause period. The fluctuating hormones can increase the blood sugar rate. In this case, you should study the pattern of your period and also consult the doctor for food and exercise adjustment to maintain the blood sugar level.

5. Sickness
When you are sick, the body produces hormones to fight the disease for healing. These hormones can increase the blood sugar level. Therefore, you should consult your sickness with the doctor for meal, exercise and insulin adjustment.

6. Alcohol Intake
The heart is also functioning as glucose storage. If your blood sugar level is very low, your heart will release its glucose to balance the blood sugar level in bloodstream. But when you drink too much alcohol, the heart will be busy processing the alcohol and cannot supply any glucose need for the body. Therefore, watch your alcohol dosage and consult it with the doctor.

7. Distressful Mind
Stress will cause you out of track, for example : eat whatever you like, stop exercising, and left your whole diabetes management away. Finally, the blood sugar level increases and the disease get worse.

How is diet used in the management of type 2 diabetes ?

Type 2 diabetes is the condition in which the patient's body has already shown insulin resistant. Insulin resistant means that the body cannot produce anymore insulin for the pancreas is damaged.
The diet used in the management of type 2 diabetes is mostly less carbohydrate and high fiber food, because carbohydrate is easily turned into blood glucose, while fiber slows down the blood in absorbing all the glucose at once and makes you feel full for a longer period.
To have the best diet used in the management of type 2 diabetes, please consult your situation with the doctor s or experts or dietitians.