Minimizing the Negative Health Effects of Diabetes

Diabetes can present two main categories of problems, in the form of short term ill-effects and longer term harm. Minimizing both areas requires discipline.

Rapid spikes or dips in blood glucose level can result in several unpleasant effects: dizziness, disorientation, muscle weakness, nausea and others. For some diabetics, it's very difficult to prevent this from happening at some time. But there are practices that can improve the odds.

Monitoring is vital. Pricking your finger three times a day is wearisome, but worth the effort. Some new glucose monitoring devices don't require painful pricks.

Newer devices may use a tiny laser to make an opening for the blood. This causes a mild tingling feeling. Monitors are available which require no blood; they test the glucose level through your skin via an infrared beam.

The goal is to keep the glucose-insulin balance as close to normal levels as possible. Non-diabetics have a fasting glucose level under about 99 mg/dL. Even after a heavy meal, when glucose may rise to over 200 mg/dL, insulin is released which brings it back down within a couple of hours. That means that keeping the glucose level right isn't so much achieving a static number as maintaining the correct dynamic balance.

Monitoring should include routine physician visits and an A1C test four times a year. The glucose level at a particular time can be measured with various tests. However, the A1C test measures the average level over time. The test name comes the abbreviation for glycated hemoglobin-HbA1c.

Hemoglobin molecules transport oxygen to the tissues from the red blood cells. When the blood has extra glucose, hemoglobin becomes glycated. Since this a long-term effect the A1C test can obtain an average of the glucose levels over time.

The effects of diabetes accumulate over time. Once the diagnosis of diabetes meant kidney damage, blindness, nerve damage, and other ills within ten to fifteen years of the condition's onset. Fortunately, diabetics no longer must suffer these problems. It is now possible to manage diabetes, so that it has few or no ill effects.

Most diabetics can achieve a proper glucose-insulin balance with the help of diet and exercise.

This is possible because the lowering of body fat with exercise and diet helps the body maintain a better balance on its own. Body fat affects hormone production and release and it affects how the body responds to glucose levels. There is a definite correlation between body fat and the degree of diabetes, although researchers don't understand all the factors involved.

Proper weight and body fat maintenance will also help keep blood pressure at the right level. Chronic high blood pressure is one of the major elements in increasing the risk of common diabetes problems: heart attack and stroke, eye and nerve damage, and others.

With diligence a diabetic can lead a normal life, one very much like those fortunate enough not to have the condition. A little attention a few times a day can lead to not having to pay too much attention at all.

Article by: JuliaHanf | Total views: 10 | Word Count: 509

About the Author

Julia Hanf author of the book How To Play the Diabetes Diet Game and Win Through a real life crisis Julia figured out how to live diabetes free. Visit http://www.yourdiabetescure.com and learn more about your solution for diabetes.