Treatment Options for Diabetes Care
The good thing about diabetes is that it is treatable. With the proper treatment plan, you can reduce or even prevent the complications related to diabetes, and you can live a full, healthy life.
What's Right For You?
First, you need to work closely with your doctor to determine what treatment plan is right for you. As diabetes research moves forward, new treatments are becoming available all the time. So it's a good idea to stay abreast of new developments and to ask your doctor about treatments for diabetes that may become available in the near future.
However, you don't have to wait for the "right" treatment to come on the market. Several excellent options are available right now.
Insulin Treatment
Insulin is a natural hormone made in your pancreas. It helps keep your blood sugar in a "normal" range by moving glucose from your blood into your cells.
Types of Insulin Delivery
Currently, three types of Insulin delivery are available: shots, insulin pens, and insulin pumps.
Shots, or injections, are the most common way people with diabetes deliver insulin to their bodies. It involves drawing insulin from a bottle into a syringe and injecting it into the body.
Insulin pens are fairly new. They look like writing pens-hence the name-and are prefilled with insulin. The user dials a dose of insulin from a cartridge in the pen.
The insulin pump is a small, beeper-sized pump that is worn by the user and delivers insulin to the body 24 hours a day.
Diabetes Pill Treatment
New drugs offer more options for the treatment of type 2 diabetes. Each of them work well for some people and in some situations. Because these classes of drugs work in different ways, some can be added together to get better results. Important: Be sure to check your blood sugar at the right times to know if your diabetes medicine is working.
Diet And Exercise Treatment
Diet and exercise are important elements of treatment for every person with diabetes, whether it is type 1 or type 2. Some people with type 2 diabetes can control their diabetes with diet and exercise alone.
The Right Diet
Adhering to a low-fat, low-cholesterol diet will help you control your diabetes. General guidelines include the following, although your diet should be tailored (with the help of a Registered Dietitian) to meet your lifestyle and health needs.
Exercise as "Treatment"
Diet alone won't do it. You need the combination of diet and exercise to effectively manage diabetes, especially type 2 diabetes. Exercise is necessary for many reasons. It helps with weight control and decreases the risk of heart disease. It also helps balance blood sugar levels, increases self-esteem and improves quality of life. When coupled with a planned diet, exercise can also lead to weight loss. If exercise is new to you, start slowly and gradually build up to longer, more intense, and more frequent periods of exercise. Aerobic exercise is best, such as walking, bike riding, or dancing.
Striking a Balance
Food makes blood sugar go up, and exercise makes it go down. So it's critical to strike a balance. By testing your blood sugar before, after, and even sometimes during exercise, you can see how exercise affects blood sugar. It will take time to understand how you respond to exercise and how to manage your diabetes while you exercise. Careful tracking and planning can help you find the balance that works for you. In general, exercising 1-3 hours after eating is recommended, but again, you must determine what regimen works for your specific situation.