Managing Life With Diabetes

This is the second post on diabetes on this blog. I was inspired to write about this topic because I’m aware that it runs in my family. In fact, it was one of the reasons for me cleaning my life up and losing all that weight – because I have seen family members lost, in part, to it. But anyways, I hope this article can help some of you.

We all know that diabetes is a dreaded disease that is really very difficult to control. Did you know that diabetes is the third biggest giant killer among the deadly diseases in the United States of America? The global statistics is also mind-boggling! Before we get into that, there’s something we must touch on first.

The first question we should address is this: how does a person become diabetic? When your body is unable to produce insulin that is necessary for its normal functioning, it becomes unable to absorb glucose (sugar). When the levels of glucose take a course to the blood stream, you become a diabetic patient. Do note that there are two types of diabetes, but this article relates specifically to type-two, aight?

Once you become diabetic, you have a problem for life. You live hour by hour, during the day. Medication becomes part of your life, which is likely to demand a good portion of your pension! Your lifestyle will be changed. You will suddenly become a thinking person now—thinking about diabetes. You might find yourself pronouncing the term diabetes, diabetes, and diabetes hundreds of times a day, at least initially.

When diabetes finally dominates you, it is not only diabetes alone that you have to worry about! Many other dreaded diseases live in waiting to take hold of you. Some of them include kidney failure, heart diseases, nervous breakdown, blindness, blurred vision, limb amputation and the ultimate for the human body—death! So yes, never underestimate it.

To make matters worse, prescriptive medicines are also not the best. Many toxic side effects are reported- skin rashes, weight gain and respiratory ailments, are few to quote. Notwithstanding the claims of many over-the-counter drugs that promise cure, the one thing that can really help you is your diet control and perfect discipline as regards to time management.

One thing you can do to manage diabetes is – and this is no surprise as this is a fitness blog, exercise! Morning walks do great service to tame the progression of diabetics. You also need to clean up your diet. These two factors alone have brought many down the path of complete recovery! Of course, and in all honesty, nothing is ever guaranteed. But do make these changes for a start.

The main thing you want to do is to control your blood glucose levels, otherwise known as blood sugar. It’s not easy, but it can be done. It takes hard work. But it can save your life. Tight control of blood glucose can reduce the risk of heart attacks and strokes – the number one killer of people with diabetes-by more than half.

So apart from eating well and exercising, the next thing you need to do is be educated about the disease itself. You need to get familiar with numbers, even if you are not a ‘math person’. Some of these include measures of A1C, blood pressure and cholesterol. You need to know what these are to be able to track your progress with regards to how you are managing them.

There are currently many resources that can give you the information that you need to control diabetes. I know that if you already have it, life is harder and inconvenient anyway. However, you can’t change the past but you can use this to strengthen your resolve and lead a fulfilling life. The worst thing you can do is underestimate what this condition can do to you. And if you have contacts who seem to be doing that, intervene immediately! Do it from a place of love. All the best.

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Also published on Medium.