Here’s How You Can Live Healthy Life With Diabetes

On the verge of becoming the country with highest number of diabetic patients is India where there were more than 72 lakh diabetic patients in the year 2017, as per the International Diabetes Federation. It has been predicted by the World Health Organisation that by 2030, diabetes will be the seventh leading cause for death.

Living a healthy life with diabetes seems impossible as it is caused due to critical dysfunction in the pancreas where either its insulin production is affected or the body isn’t able to utilise the produced insulin. Let’s first understand diabetes by knowing its types:

Types of Diabetes

1. Type 1 Diabetes – This kind of diabetes results from insufficient production of insulin which plays a crucial role in providing glucose from the bloodstream to the body’s cells. Know What causes Type 1 Diabetes.
2. Type 2 Diabetes – In case of type 2 diabetes, the body is unable to utilise the produced insulin. Due to this insulin resistance, the pancreas produces more insulin to make up for it but still it remains insufficient to keep glucose levels normal.
3. Prediabetes – It has been researched that people having type 2 diabetes already have prediabetes, which is why their glucose levels are relatively higher than normal levels. In this stage, heart and the circulatory system suffer some level of damage too.
4. Gestational Diabetes – This kind of diabetes is developed during pregnancy and disappears after child birth.

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People suffering diabetes usually have symptoms like weight gain, frequent urination, excessive thirsty feeling, unusual weight loss, increased fatigue, excessive hunger, blurred vision, gum disease, tingling sensation in hands and feet, poor healing of wounds, irritability, skin and yeast infections among others.

It has been found by various medical studies that adults suffering diabetes have lower life span and are more susceptible to suffer from strokes, heart attacks, kidney failure and nerve damage in feet. Leading healthy life with diabetes seems lot difficult as being on constant medication only won’t give results. You need to bring a significant change in your lifestyle and understand how you can live healthy life with diabetes:

1. Understand What Diabetes Is

Firstly get knowledge about what diabetes is, its types, symptoms and consequences. Understand your body and how it functions with and without diabetes. Speak to your doctor and put forth all your queries and ask for suggestions to attain fitness despite having diabetes.

Learning about diabetes will make you more aware of what your body is going through. This will motivate you to take good care of yourself. Taking care of yourself will help lower the effect of the diabetes symptoms leaving you more energetic and fit.

2. Have In-depth Knowledge Of Your Diabetes

Ask your health care provider to help you manage diabetes ABC (A1C, Blood Pressure and Cholesterol), which help in lowering the risk of suffering from heart ailments, stroke and kidney disorders. The A1C test is basically a blood sugar test different from the regular checks that measures the average blood sugar level for over 3 months. This test is crucial to keep a strict check on the level of sugar in the blood.

Checking blood pressure of a diabetic person is vital as an increase in blood pressure can improve the risk of stroke and heart attack. It is also important to get cholesterol levels checked as the body requires HDL or good cholesterol that eliminates bad or LDL cholesterol from the blood vessels, which gets blocked and leads to serious heart ailments. You must consult your health care advisor about the basic numbers of these ABCs and how you can manage them to keep diabetes under control.

3. Bring Healthy Changes

People suffering from diabetes should definitely understand the importance of staying healthy but sticking to health plan strictly becomes difficult. Serious lifestyle changes must be made which should include breathing exercises, meditation, walking, proper medication at right time, associating with people who understand you, checking your feet for red spots or swelling, maintaining proper oral hygiene and quitting smoking.

Apart from this, critical changes in diet are essential and for this you need to firmly follow your diabetes dietician. Consume foods rich in fibre and low in calories, salt, sugar, transfats and saturated fats. Eat fresh vegetables, fruits, skimmed milk and milk products and drink plenty of water. Adopt an active lifestyle, have healthy meals and maintain proper weight for keeping diabetes in check.  

4. Seriously Follow Routine Care

Visit your doctor as per schedule and get your weight, blood sugar, blood pressure and foot checked. Also ask your doctor to review your self-care health plan while ensuring that you undergo dental check up, cholesterol check, eye check up, urine and blood test for assessing kidney health.

Small and simple changes in your routine can help in keeping diabetes in check and if you don’t have diabetes, ensure that you make healthier food choices, take adequate rest, workout regularly and have positive mental attitude to prevent getting diabetes.

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