Wellness

Diabetes is a severe and chronic disease that doesn’t have a cure, but having diabetes or being diagnosed with diabetes shouldn’t and can’t be the end of a person’s life. However, diabetes can affect our daily lifestyle as it requires a complete change or a slight adjustment to a new lifestyle.

Since diabetes can’t be cured but managed with a health kit blood glucose or some lifestyle changes are required to ensure longevity, even with diabetes.

This article discusses some tips for living a healthy life with diabetes.

6 Tips on How to Live with Diabetes

Though diabetes can indeed make daily life difficult, it’s important to remember that it’s not fatal. The following are suggestions for maintaining a healthy lifestyle while dealing with diabetes.

1. Monitor Blood Sugar

To ensure a healthy life when living with diabetes, you must constantly monitor your blood sugar. You can watch your glucose level using a glucometer or a diabetes kit.

Monitoring your sugar level will help you get early warning signs to avoid further complications in the future. You can also monitor blood sugar or keep it in check by avoiding added sugar, try usingsweeteners  instead.

2. Create A Meal Plan

Managing diabetes and maintaining a healthy lifestyle can be challenging. Still, you can work with a health expert to create a meal plan consisting of three balanced diets and three snacks; that’s six meals per day recommended for someone with diabetes.

If you have type 1 diabetes and are overweight, finding a way to lose that weight is essential.

What better way to do that than a meal plan and dieting? Eating healthy and working towards losing excess weight is good as it helps to reduce blood glucose.

Create a meal plan with less salt, healthier carbohydrates, and fats.

3. Get Active

Regular exercise is highly recommended for people with diabetes, although not all activity works for every type of diabetes. For instance, exercise for type 1 diabetes may not work or be suitable for type 2 diabetes.

Always do exercises targeted at the recommended areas that need it for your type of diabetes. Being active helps to regulate blood sugar, increase the body’s sensitivity to insulin (the hormone that enables your body to use sugar for energy), and keep the cardiovascular system in great shape. Some of the activities you can try are aerobics, stretching, muscle strengthening, and balancing exercises.

4. Manage Stress

When it comes to diabetes and managing it, making sure stress is at a minimum level is essential. If you are stressed or find yourself in a situation that stresses you mentally, you can do some yoga meditation or even go for a walk to unwind or hang out with a friend.

Also, avoid anything and everything that may lead to stress as much as possible because, as a diabetic patient, stress management is very vital.

Hormones from stress can lead to increased blood pressure, the rate of your heartbeat, and also increase your blood sugar.

5. Take Prescribed Medicines

Many diabetic patients do not take their medications as regularly as they should. This is not a good decision for your health at all. The prescribed medications are essential to keep you stable and in good shape as you navigate life with diabetes.

People with type 2 diabetes are prone to complications like damage to their nerves and eyes, cardiac arrest, and even strokes when they do not take their prescribed medications when they need to be taken.

6. Frequent Check-Ups

Going for regular check-ups is recommended if you have diabetes. Check-ups will help your doctor and the medical team in charge of ensuring you are in good health monitor their treatment progress and also help them detect early where there might be complications that will lead to severe consequences or emergencies in the long run.

Regular check-ups help you keep track of your blood pressure, cholesterol, glucose level, and weight, as all these aspects need to be at a certain level to avoid unexpected issues and complications.

Without regular check-ups, diabetes could lead to complications and issues affecting your entire body, like kidneys, eyes, and nervous system.

As challenging as living with diabetes can be, maintaining a healthy lifestyle is still possible.

Diabetes can lead to weight gain, poor work performance, and sometimes trouble sleeping.

Managing diabetes can prove difficult as some factors prevent you from doing so. However, a healthy lifestyle while living with diabetes is non-negotiable.