By Toby Dushieney
When people are diagnosed as type II diabetic, there can be a natural tendency to panic and a feeling that one's life has fundamentally changed.
Well in a sense it is. Certain things have to be done. In the first instance, your diabetes may be controlled by diet alone.
Given that most diabetics are obese, it follows that many will have a taste for sweet, sugary foods. These types of foods can be difficult to give up, making a change of diet difficult, but preferable to the alternative of oral medication or insulin by injection.
In my case, the prospect of having to give up eating chocolate was quite depressing thought. However, I have found that willpower, combined with a thorough knowledge of the rather nasty potential long-term complications of type II diabetes, was in itself sufficient for me to adopt a more healthy diet.
It has also been found that stress increases blood sugar levels. Making oneself worry about what might never happen only serves to make the condition worse. Yes, the long term potential consequences of diabetes are foot amputations, blindness and renal failure, which are pretty horrendous to contemplate, but these are all entirely avoidable if one monitors one's blood glucose levels regularly and takes the medicine as prescribed.
In fact, and this may sound rather perverse, what I did was to treat my diabetes as an opportunity. This may sound a little strange but I simply regard it as an opportunity to eat more healthily and get more healthily generally.
At first I thought he was joking. How could I improve my health when I'd just been diagnosed with a chronic disease that has no cure?
But then I understood, and it's some of the best advice I've ever been given.
What you eat is important both before and after contracting diabetes. This is because type II diabetes is usually found in people who are overweight, which demonstrates that eating foods that are bad for you can play a major part in contracting this disease, and eating foods that are healthy play an equally major part in keeping this disease under control after diagnosis.
However, there is more to controlling one's diabetes than diet. It is also important that one takes a moderate but regular amount of exercise, as well as monitoring one's blood sugar levels to maintain control.
At the end of the day, adopting a healthy lifestyle using a combination of the methods above, will help you maintain control over your diabetes as well as giving all the benefits that a non-diabetic derives in the form of feeling generally fitter and providing you with a more positive self image.
It is an irony that diabetes can actually make you healthier than you have ever been, as long as you maintain a tight control over your blood glucose levels.
Well in a sense it is. Certain things have to be done. In the first instance, your diabetes may be controlled by diet alone.
Given that most diabetics are obese, it follows that many will have a taste for sweet, sugary foods. These types of foods can be difficult to give up, making a change of diet difficult, but preferable to the alternative of oral medication or insulin by injection.
In my case, the prospect of having to give up eating chocolate was quite depressing thought. However, I have found that willpower, combined with a thorough knowledge of the rather nasty potential long-term complications of type II diabetes, was in itself sufficient for me to adopt a more healthy diet.
It has also been found that stress increases blood sugar levels. Making oneself worry about what might never happen only serves to make the condition worse. Yes, the long term potential consequences of diabetes are foot amputations, blindness and renal failure, which are pretty horrendous to contemplate, but these are all entirely avoidable if one monitors one's blood glucose levels regularly and takes the medicine as prescribed.
In fact, and this may sound rather perverse, what I did was to treat my diabetes as an opportunity. This may sound a little strange but I simply regard it as an opportunity to eat more healthily and get more healthily generally.
At first I thought he was joking. How could I improve my health when I'd just been diagnosed with a chronic disease that has no cure?
But then I understood, and it's some of the best advice I've ever been given.
What you eat is important both before and after contracting diabetes. This is because type II diabetes is usually found in people who are overweight, which demonstrates that eating foods that are bad for you can play a major part in contracting this disease, and eating foods that are healthy play an equally major part in keeping this disease under control after diagnosis.
However, there is more to controlling one's diabetes than diet. It is also important that one takes a moderate but regular amount of exercise, as well as monitoring one's blood sugar levels to maintain control.
At the end of the day, adopting a healthy lifestyle using a combination of the methods above, will help you maintain control over your diabetes as well as giving all the benefits that a non-diabetic derives in the form of feeling generally fitter and providing you with a more positive self image.
It is an irony that diabetes can actually make you healthier than you have ever been, as long as you maintain a tight control over your blood glucose levels.
About the Author:
Toby's diabetes often leads to panic attacks at night, for which he has breathing equipment. He employs a Ryobi 18 batteryto run the pump and always has a spare Ryobi 18 batterycharged for emergencies.
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