Some Useful tips for Diabetes
According to data provided by the World Health Organization, the number of people living with diabetes increased from 108 million in 1980 to 422 million in 2014. Premature mortality from diabetes increased by 5% between 2000 and 2016. Diabetes is a leading cause of heart attack, heart failure, kidney failure, blindness, limb amputation, stroke, and other complications. It is important to keep your blood sugar levels within your target range as much as possible to help prevent the onset of such fatal health problems.
Taking medications and visiting the doctor regularly, making appropriate lifestyle changes and a personalized diet and exercise plan can help control diabetes and help you lead a complication-free life.
Regular exercise
Choose the exercise plan that suits you best in consultation with your doctor. Walking, cycling, weight training, dancing, swimming are all good forms of exercise.
Remember to take a break at least once every thirty minutes when you do activities that involve long hours of reading, working on the computer, etc.
Exercise improves the way your body’s cells respond to insulin. It helps people at risk of developing diabetes in several ways; This can help prevent/postpone the onset of diabetes.
Exercise also helps with weight loss, lowering blood sugar levels, boosting immunity and improving insulin sensitivity.
Healthy diabetes diet
With the help of your doctor and a qualified dietitian, devise a meal plan that suits your needs. Choose from a variety of foods rich in fiber. Fiber or roughage is the part of food that is not absorbed. Fiber slows down the absorption of sugar and lowers blood sugar levels.
It also inhibits the absorption of fat and cholesterol, helps with weight loss and prevents constipation: vegetables, fruits, whole grams, non-starchy vegetables.
Avoid carbohydrate-rich food like white bread, pastries, fruit juices, cookies, chocolate. A carbohydrate-rich diet can have a direct effect on blood sugar management. Try to consume foods with a low glycemic index as much as possible.
Read food labels and serving sizes, especially if you are buying packaged and processed food. Chew your food, eat slowly, and always watch your portion or serving size.
Eat only healthy fats. Fatty foods are high in calories and can spike blood sugar. Choose healthy fats, also called unsaturated fats, both monounsaturated and polyunsaturated. These are commonly present in olive oil, sunflower oil, flaxseed, pumpkin seeds, salmon, mackerel and cod fish.
Avoid saturated fats that are commonly present in red meat and dairy products.
Lifestyle modification
Too much stress can adversely affect your blood sugar control. Control your stress with the help of yoga, relaxation, meditation, exercise.
Patients with diabetes should regularly monitor their blood sugar and inform their health care provider.
Stay active and plan a proper weight loss program with the help of your doctor. Weight loss helps in controlling diabetes and can help in reducing the dosage of medicines.
Stay hydrated by taking the maximum amount of water and ensuring proper rest, which is good in both quantity and quality.
About seven to eight hours of good quality sleep is essential to stay healthy. Improper sleep can impair diabetes control. Quit smoking and alcohol consumption. Visit your doctor regularly and get tested as advised. Get yourself tested for any complications so that they can be detected early and can prevent end-organ damage and organ failure.
Eat your meals on regular schedule and don’t skip meals. Have an HbA1c test done as per your doctor’s advice to check your average blood sugar level over the past three months.
People who are overweight and have a family history of other risk factors should consult a healthcare provider and be screened for diabetes and pre-diabetes at regular intervals.
This article is authored by [samacharnama.com]. But the headlines have been changed
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