What is the best diabetes treatment to keep the condition in check?For the millions of people suffering from this condition, fortunately there is diabetes treatment available. Diabetes is a disease caused by the body not being able to control the amount of sugar, or glucose, in the blood. This blood sugar gives you energy, and it’s produced by the liver from the food you eat. Healthy people don’t have an issue with regulating their glucose levels, as certain hormones take care of this process, namely insulin. The pancreas produces this essential hormone and it helps glucose move from the bloodstream to the liver, muscle, tissues and adipose (fat) cells. If you have diabetes your body either has a problem producing enough insulin (type 1 diabetes) or cannot use insulin effectively (type 2 diabetes) or both. Proper diabetes care involves lifestyle, diet and exercise considerations. A healthy diet helps manage blood sugar levels and obesity is a major obstacle to controlling glucose levels. Being overweight with diabetes is a serious issue and if you can’t shed the extra pounds on your own you should seek advice from your doctor. As a part of your diabetes treatment he or she may recommend you to a dietitian, who will analyze what you are now eating and provide you with a new diet to follow. That diet, a major component of your diabetes care, will be well-balanced, high in fiber and low in saturated fats and concentrated sweet foods. Incorporating regular exercise is another staple of a diabetes treatment program. Of course the more exercise you do, the better, but even walking 20 minutes a day only three times a week has been shown to make a significant difference. Alcohol intake should be lowered to no more than one or two drinks per day, at most. If you smoke and have diabetes you are increasing the risk for just about every complication related to diabetes, so try to quit as soon as possible, regardless of the severity of your condition. You can monitor your blood glucose levels yourself and record them in a log, which forms another component of your diabetes treatment program. Your log should include the time at which you took insulin, what you ate and when, how long you exercised and when. Medicare now pays for diabetic testing supplies so there is no reason not to self-monitor. Diabetes care may include medications as well as diet and lifestyle changes. They may also include natural and herbal supplements that can be helpful in normalizing glucose levels and facilitating insulin utilization. Common medications are sulfonylureas, which stimulate the pancreas to make more insulin; biguanides, which decrease the amount of glucose produced by the liver, and a range of other drugs designed for specific interventions, including insulin.
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