Over the past several years, we have gained a much better grasp of the relationship between blood sugar and diabetic complications. Two research trials in the 1990’s though showed that blood sugar control can prevent diabetes-related health issues such as eye disease, kidney problems, nerve damage and heart disease. This research has helped health care providers to set healthy ranges of blood sugar levels for diabetics to use as targets to avoid complications. [...]
Studies have found that buckwheat may help lower blood glucose for people with diabetes. Extracts of the buckwheat seed were fed to diabetic rats, whose blood glucose levels were lowered 12 to 19 percent. These results may prove to be very helpful in helping people to manage diabetes. Buckwheat is [...]
Whether you have type 1 or type 2 diabetes, what you eat, when you eat it and how much you eat all affect your blood glucose. Glucose is the main sugar found in the blood and is the body's major source of fuel. If you have diabetes and eat too much or do not take the right dose of diabetes medicine, your blood glucose can spike too high. When this happens, you can get sick. [...]
Several recent studies have shown that people taking only pills to manage their diabetes do not get much benefit from checking their blood glucose levels at home. Their A1C levels are about the same as people who do not monitor very often or at all. That may seem surprising, but it makes sense. After all, you would not expect people who weigh themselves every day to lose more weight than people who did not weigh themselves if they did not use what they learned to make changes in their eating or exercise habits. Knowing how much you weigh doesn’t change the results. [...]
Checking your blood glucose can be frustrating—if your numbers are too low, too high, or you are not sure what the numbers mean, your meter can start to feel like your worst enemy. HIGH BLOOD GLUCOSE How high is too high? Generally a blood glucose reading above 250 mg/dL is too high, especially [...]
Are you tired of all the fuss involved in taking insulin when you are away from home? Do you find it a hassle to carry syringes and bottles of insulin? Do you worry about keeping your bottles of insulin at the right temperature? If your answer is “yes” to any of these questions, then an insulin pen may be a solution for you. [...]
If you take insulin and struggle to manage high and low blood glucose numbers, one reason may be the timing of your injections. Coordinating when you take your insulin with the timing of your meals, your physical activity, and other parts of your diabetes care plan can help. Here are some tips to help you time your insulin just right. [...]
For many people with type 2 diabetes, deciding to start insulin is a hard choice to make. Even when your pancreas can’t keep up and your blood glucose levels are increasing, it is easy to put it off. But once you make the decision, the next question is how to get started. Here are some tips that may help you start and stay with insulin. [...]
Checking blood glucose daily is important. But don’t forget to check your A1Cs regularly, as well. The A1C test is a blood test that shows your average blood glucose results over the previous two to three months. It gives you the big picture of your blood glucose levels, including all of the ups and downs. [...]
Checking Your Blood Glucose Allows You to check the pattern of your blood glucose levels so you can make changes in your diet and exercise program or insulin dose. [...]
Checking your blood glucose gives you the information you need to understand how your diabetes treatment plan is working. Check your blood glucose several times per day at specific times, such as before a meal and two hours after. Look at the results from a period of several days or a week. You can see patterns in the times your blood glucose is up or down. You’ll see how your food, a regular walk, a stressful day or the addition of a new medication affects your blood glucose. [...]
If you think your blood pressure is OK because you’ve never heard the words, “You have high blood pressure,” think again. Pre-hypertension is a category for blood pressure that is higher than normal, but not high enough to be called high blood pressure. Blood pressure that is even a little bit higher than normal can put you at risk for heart attack, stroke and kidney disease. This is important to know because high blood pressure is very common among people with diabetes—2 out of 3 adults with diabetes also have high blood pressure. [...]
