Are You Making Mistakes With Your Diabetes?
Your daily routine to manage your health might include things like taking medication and eating healthy foods. Sometimes, you might slip up and make a mistake, like forgetting to take your medication. If you have diabetes, this kind of misstep could be harmful to your health. This slideshow will go over some potential mistakes to help keep you on the right track and manage your diabetes well.
You're Not Taking Your Meds as Directed
If you have type 2 diabetes, many medications, either oral and injectable, can help regulate your blood glucose levels. It’s important to take your medication as your doctor has prescribed it. If you don’t, and you take the wrong dose, for example, it can cause serious illness, long-term disability, or death.
One study found that patients with type 2 diabetes who didn’t take their medication as prescribed had elevated blood sugar levels.
Your Foods and Drinks Aren't Diabetes-Friendly
Certain foods and drinks that are high in carbohydrates, like candy and soda, can raise your blood glucose level, so you may need to limit how much of them you consume. With drinks, it’s a good idea to stick to drinks that have no calories or low calories, like water, seltzer, sparkling water, and unsweetened or iced tea. Try to avoid soda, sports drinks, and energy drinks.
You May Be Misunderstanding Carbs
Your body breaks down carbohydrates into sugar, which raises your blood sugar levels. If you have diabetes, over time, high blood sugar can cause serious health problems throughout your body, like damaging your blood vessels.
The more carbs you eat, the higher your blood glucose level will be. So you might want to limit carbs and sugary foods, and focus on eating carbs that are high in nutrients such as fiber, like broccoli and whole wheat bread.
You're Not Getting Enough Exercise
Exercise is good for your overall health, and it can help you manage your diabetes by lowering your blood glucose, blood pressure, and cholesterol, improving your heart health, and helping you maintain a healthy weight.
Exercise can also improve your balance, sleep, mood, and memory. Talk to your doctor about your exercise routine. They may recommend a mix of aerobic exercise, strength training, balance exercises, and stretching.
You're Skipping Your Checkups
It’s important to have checkups two to four times per year so your health care provider can check for any complications related to diabetes, examine your feet, and track changes in your blood sugar levels.
You should also get a yearly physical and eye exam. It can be helpful to communicate regularly with your health care provider about how you’re feeling and to ask any questions you have about your treatment or if something feels off.
You're Not Focusing on Good Sleep
Type 2 diabetes and sleep problems often go hand in hand, but poor sleep can be bad for your health, quality of life, and mood. Getting enough high-quality sleep can help manage your diabetes, in part because your sleep affects your body’s ability to control your metabolism.
Having a bedtime routine and relaxing before bed can help to improve your sleep, and so can getting some exercise during the day.
You're Not Testing Your Blood Sugar Enough
How often you should test your blood sugar depends on your condition and situation, but testing is important to help manage your diabetes from day to day.
If you don’t test enough or test improperly, your blood sugar levels could get too high, which can cause symptoms like headache and blurred vision — or too low, which can cause dizziness and weakness. Checking your blood sugar can help you and your health care provider tell how well your treatment is working.