Diabetes Net Guide

Detailed information about type1 and type2 diabetes.

Diabetes Net Guide

Detailed information about type1 and type2 diabetes.

Diabetes Net Guide

Detailed information about type1 and type2 diabetes.

Diabetes Net Guide

Detailed information about type1 and type2 diabetes.

Diabetes Net Guide

Detailed information about type1 and type2 diabetes.

What do Long-standing Diabetics have to Say Regarding Coping Successfully with Diabetes?

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A diabetic should not fear diabetes. He should treat diabetes as his/her life partner. If he cares for the demands of the disease as he does for his near and dear ones, diabetes will not trouble him. Demands of diabetes are:

(a)Proper diet
(b)Regular exercise
(c)Stress management
(d)Regular monitoring of blood sugar and other parameters affected by diabetes
(e) Proper drugs.

If the above demands of the diabetes are cared for, a diabetic can have a long successful life, as has been the experience of many persons who have been living with diabetes for many years:

  • You have to be a self-disciplined person in order to really accept the things you need to do, to control diabetes.”
  • Either you can control diabetes or it will control you. I never let it control me.”
  • If I had not developed diabetes, I would have continued to be overweight and I would have been dead by now, I credit longevity and good health to diabetes.”
  • I think it’s a good disease. You look normal, you act almost normal. I think it’s a healthy life. The diet is good. I don’t think I would have had as healthy a life as I have now, because you have to take care of yourself when you’re a diabetic. If I hadn’t had diabetes, I probably wouldn’t be here. I think I am lucky to have diabetes.”

The observation of the majority of the patients can be summarised as:

  • Good medical help was cited as an important aspect of management.
  • Education and support play key roles.
  • Normal weight and caution in diet helps.
  • The qualities that make a diabetic person successful in coping with diabetes are the same qualities that make a person successful in the other areas of life.
  • The mental attitude toward diabetes and the feeling that it can be controlled is the key to success in controlling diabetes.

When to Contact the Doctor in Addition to Routine Visits?

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Contact the doctor if;

  • Home blood glucose monitoring shows frequent fluctuations in blood glucose levels.
  • Consistently higher blood glucose levels than the target levels.
  • Change in meal or exercise plan.
  • Feeling depressed or stressed.
  • Confused about how to take medicine.
  • Development of a new problem, e.g. wound which is not healing, change in vision or development of numbness or tingling in hands or feet etc.

What are the Common Errors in Managing Diabetes?

  • Failure to make the proper diagnosis.
  • Failure to set target glucose levels.
  • Uncooperative or uninterested patients: physicians pressed for time may direct more attention to those who express the greatest concern about their therapy.
  • Failure to set time limits for therapy effectiveness: If diet and exercise are not effective oral medications should be added. If the blood glucose level is not controlled even with oral medications then insulin therapy should be started.
  • Overuse of oral hypoglycaemic agents and insulin.
  • Failure to encourage home glucose monitoring especially in type I Diabetics.
  • Failure to recommend monitoring throughout the day especially in type I diabetics: Blood glucose levels may fluctuate significantly during the day. Hyperglycaemic and hypoglycaemic episodes may not be recognised if monitoring takes place at only a few prescribed times. (Check glucose levels especially before meals, at bedtime, and periodically at 3 a.m.)
  • Failure to use proper insulin combinations: Failure to screen for complications routinely: Periodic screening for complications of diabetes; retinopathy, nephropathy, and neuropathy, leads to early recognition and treatment.

Non-compliance with diet and exercise is the most common problem in the management of diabetes.

Diabetes management and treatment – FAQ

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What Happens in Case of Type 2 Diabetes?

In some cases of type 2 diabetes, by weight loss and regular exercise, blood glucose can become normal. The patient may interpret that his diabetes is cured.

However, as gradually the body becomes unable to produce enough insulin or the body’s cells become more resistant to insulin’s effects, the patients blood glucose rise, resulting in frank diabetes again.

Therefore, if weight loss, exercise and changes in eating result in normal blood glucose, it doesn’t mean that the diabetes has been cured.

How Does Weight Reduction Helps in the Management of Diabetes?

Excess fat decreases the number of insulin receptors present in the body and may decrease the body’s sensitivity to insulin thus aggravating diabetes. Reducing weight reverses these changes and controls diabetes. Many type 2 diabetics improve with weight loss.

Can Diabetes be Treated Without Drugs?

Type 1 (insulin-dependent or juvenile onset) diabetics, must take daily insulin injections to keep blood glucose in a normal range. In type 2 (adult-onset) diabetes, many people can keep their blood glucose in a healthy range without medications if they lose weight and maintain their lowered weight, exercise regularly, and follow a proper diet schedule.

Eventually, they find that in spite of weight control, exercise and diet, their blood glucose remain high. Then they require drugs.

How Long should One Continue Anti-diabetes Treatment?

A diabetic requires life-long treatment. Remember the dictum —”Once detected a diabetic you are always a diabetic”. The exceptions to this rule are pregnancy induced diabetes or stress induced diabetes. Even these patients should remember that they are at an increased risk of developing diabetes later on in life.

Is Diabetes Curable?

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Neither type 1 (juvenile onset) diabetes nor type 2(adult-onset) diabetes is curable. We can only control the blood glucose with lifestyle changes and drugs. However, some patients, especially those who do not have any symptoms, stop treatment after some time, assuming that their diabetes is cured. These patients later present with complications of diabetes.

There is no cure for diabetes. Period.

Some People Say “I was Cured of Diabetes, But it has Occurred Again”. Please Explain.

In type 1 diabetes, patients sometimes have ‘Honeymoon Period’. During this blood glucose may remain normal for a period of a few months to a year. The patient’s insulin needs are minimal and some patients can maintain normal or near normal blood glucose with minimum or no insulin. It does not mean that diabetes is cured.

Type 1 diabetes occurs when about 90% of the body’s insulin producing cells have been destroyed. 10% of the pancreatic cells still produce some insulin. If type 1 diabetes is detected when the patient has stress or an illness, once the stressor illness subsides the body’s insulin requirement may decrease.

The insulin producing cells may produce sufficient insulin to meet the person’s insulin needs again and blood glucose may become normal.

Unfortunately, like other honeymoons, the diabetes honeymoon also doesn’t last forever. It may last for weeks, months, or occasionally for years. The process that has destroyed90 per cent of the insulin producing cells will ultimately destroy the remaining insulin-producing cells and finally the patient will develop diabetes.

Therefore, it is advised to continue monitoring blood glucose and taking low dose insulin even during the honeymoon period, as doing so will preserve the remaining insulin producing cells for a longer period.

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