Living with diabetes can be difficult for some. When people are first diagnosed with diabetes, they often become scared and are not sure how it will affect their life. With enough time, understanding, and knowledge, living with diabetes can be much easier. If you are living with diabetes and want it to be less difficult, then follow the tips in this article.
Drinking water is important for everyone, but is especially so for diabetics. There is a reason that most diabetics drink like a fish before they are diagnosed and begin treatment! Keep your water intake high to help you keep your weight down and your hydration up, especially if you exercise.
Quit smoking. Try again if you’ve tried before. Nicotine constricts your blood vessels. Diabetes already have a problem with circulation to the extremeties; that’s what leads to vision problems and the need for amputations. Smoking increases these risks, as well as being bad for your health overall. Ask your doctor for some resources to help you quit.
Check your blood sugar before you go to bed, and if it’s low, bring it up with a quick snack. This allows you to ensure that your levels are steady throughout the night. Otherwise, your levels might drop in the middle of the night, causing you to wake up with sweats and disorientation.
Buckwheat is an excellent choice to include in a Diabetic diet. It can lower your blood glucose levels after a meal, keeping you from having a spike. You can eat buckwheat instead of rice, or enjoy soba noodles with your dinner. It’s available at almost any grocery store and is sometimes known as kasha.
Changing your diet can be a great way to help lower your risk factor of contracting diabetes, and switching out fats and sugars with fiber is a great place to start. Choose whole wheat and whole grain foods over their processed counterparts, like white bread, which have a dangerously high glycemic index. It has been widely reported that consuming foods with whole grains can lower your chance of becoming a diabetic.
Make sure to regularly check your blood sugar and write it in a log if you are diabetic. It is important that you do this because your blood sugar may be fine and a few hours later it could be dangerously high. Blood sugar that is consistently high raises your risk of heart disease and stroke.
Get familiar with the glycemic index rating of foods to help gain better control of your diabetes. It is important to learn to recognize high glycemic foods like breads, fruit juices, cereals, pasta and rice. Eating more vegetables, lean proteins and other low glycemic index foods keeps your blood sugar from spiking after meals.
Try to avoid soda and other sugary drinks of you have diabetes. There are no health benefits from drinking these drinks and can in fact, cause your sugar levels to go higher. If you are going to drink juice, try to stick to ones that have no sugar in them.
Join a support group for those with diabetes. It’s not because you don’t fit in anywhere else, it’s because talking to others with your condition will help you to feel that you aren’t quite alone in the world. Other people are going through what you are going through and a support group can help.
To sate your sweet tooth without putting your health at risk, cut any unnecessary carbohydrates from your diet. Reducing your carbohydrate intake can be enough to make a small cookie or a slice of pie okay. Talk to your doctor about your diet and see how many carbohydrates you’d have to cut in order to enjoy your favorite sweets.
There are many signs and symptoms of diabetes, so it’s possible to only have some of them, or even none at all, and be diabetic. Some common symptoms encountered are tingling feet, high blood pressure, extreme lethargy, and an unquenchable thirst. Getting your blood-glucose levels checked once a year at your physical is absolutely imperative to a long, healthy life.
If you’ve slipped up and consumed too much alcohol, be sure to avoid carbohydrates. One of the biggest reasons alcohol poses a risk to diabetes sufferers is that it is full of quickly absorbed carbohydrates. Staying away from carbohydrates will keep your blood sugar levels from spiking any further, and will help prevent your alcohol consumption from causing any additional problems.
Cut down on simple carbohydrates. These foods, such as pasta and bread, cause your blood sugar levels to spike which may cause hyperglycemia and a need for more insulin; that may result in a hypoglycemic episode. Stick to complex carbohydrates such as whole grains in order to keep your blood sugar stable.
If you are a diabetic who has never smoked, or who has not smoked in 6 months, you may want to talk with your doctor about using an inhaled insulin treatment. Recent medical studies have shown that inhaled insulin may be more effective in treating diabetes than pills or injections.
Insulin is being developed that can be inhaled. This will prove to be a great alternative to injections that many diabetics are forced to endure. Meanwhile this product is still undergoing clinical trials, it is said to be available within the United States and Europe within as little as a few years. Consider this in the near future for a positive alternative to insulin injections.
If you are a diabetic considering running as an exercise alternative to walking make sure that you consult your doctor first. It is important to ensure that running won’t make you develop orthopedic or cardiovascular problems. Your doctor will be able to help point you in the right direction to guarantee safe running with your diabetes.
As stated before, for some, living with diabetes can be difficult. Sometimes people become scared, wondering how having the condition will affect their life. After time passes, those who have diabetes have an easier time living with it. If you use the tips from this article, you can have an easier time living with diabetes.