Health
Tips on How to Self-Manage Diabetes
Diabetics almost always are given a detailed self-management plan by their doctors. Nevertheless, it’s easy to fall into bad habits along the way and lose sight of a few simple yet important rules.
For obvious reasons, the single most important thing a diabetic can do is follow their doctors’ instructions. From insulin injections to regularly taking medications like Metformin and so on, all such instructions must be followed to the letter.
But in terms of what else can be done to help manage diabetes a little better, the following tips and guidelines come highly recommended:
- Watch what you eat. It’s always advisable for diabetics to make healthy dietary choices on a daily basis. After all, it’s up to you to determine what you eat, when you eat it and how much of it you eat. Healthy dietary choices represent an important part of every diabetes management plan.
- Stay active. Given that physical activity is known to help keep the body’s blood sugar levels under control, it is important to stay physically active. Once again, this is something that you and you alone have total control over.
- Take your medications. As already touched upon, you need to ensure that you follow your doctor’s instructions to the letter when it comes to medication. The same also goes for any supplements or additional OTC medications recommended by your doctor.
- Keep a journal. Or more accurately, a log book detailing how well you are managing things like blood sugar, cholesterol, blood pressure, weight and so on. This kind of information can be extremely valuable when brought to consultations and appointments.
- Acknowledge changes. Only you know what represents ‘normal’ when it comes to your everyday health and wellbeing. Should you note anything that is even remotely out of the norm, you need to ensure it is brought to the attention of the professionals immediately.
- Be open and honest. Never forget that your healthcare providers are there to offer support and guidance on anything of importance to you. Be as honest and open and you can at all times, particularly if you find yourself struggling to cope.
- Ask questions. Likewise, always ask as many questions as necessary if there is anything you are unsure about. Diabetes is not the kind of condition you want to risk making worse by making things up as you go along.
- Seek support. Don’t underestimate the value of seeking support from others dealing with exactly the same issues as you yourself. From online forums to support groups to group counselling sessions and so on, there’s much to be said for strength in numbers.
- Do your homework. The more you understand diabetes in general, the better the position you will be in to manage it proactively and effectively. The worst thing you can do is bury your head in the sand and hope things will take care of themselves.
- Stress management. Last but not least, you have every right to feel stress and anxiety about the condition you live with. Nevertheless, you also owe it to yourself to take a proactive approach to stress and anxiety management. Once again, if ever you feel struggling to cope, remember that there is a world of help and support out there to explore.