Healthy Living and Fitness

Illness Care: Diabetes Type II

Treatment

The goal of treatment is to lower your blood sugar and improve your body’s use of insulin with:

• Meal planning
• Exercise
• Weight loss
  

Weight Loss, Diet, and Exercise

The first steps in the treatment of Type II Diabetes are weight loss, if needed, and an appropriate diet. Weight loss can reduce the need for medication as well as the risk of developing complications. Planning a diet that will provide healthy amounts of carbohydrates, protein, fats, and cholesterol and help control body weight often requires close attention from a doctor and possibly a nutritionist. A doctor can also suggest an appropriate exercise regimen.

Meal planning

When you eat, your body changes food into blood sugar. Your blood sugar goes up. A good meal plan slows this rise. The meal plan for a person with diabetes is the same as anyone else.

• Low in fat
• Has moderate amounts of protein
• Contains starches, like those in beans, vegetables and grains (such as breads, cereals, noodles and rice).

You and your dietician will work out a meal plan just for you.

Exercise.
Being active helps your cells take in blood sugar. So exercise plays a major role in your treatment plan.

Tell your doctor about the kinds of exercise you do now. Your health care provider will help you fit them to your new lifestyle. If you don’t exercise, you may want to become more active. It would be great if you could be active on most days of the week for a total of 30 minutes, which can be broken down into short sessions. If you're not used to exercising start slow. Even a 5-minute walk can get you moving.

Weight loss
Losing weight is another big part of your diabetes treatment. It will help your body use insulin better. The best way to lose weight is to exercise and follow a healthy meal plan. With a healthy meal plan, you eat less calories because you fill up on low fat foods, not fatty foods. Decide with your health care provider how much you should lose. Sometimes, just 10 or 20 pounds is enough to bring diabetes under control.

Then decide how much you want to lose per week. One pound per week should be the maximum. Slow weight loss is healthier and easier.

Glucose Monitoring at Home
Effective control of diabetes depends on patients' regularly checking (monitoring) their blood glucose levels at home. This usually involves pricking a finger with a needle, putting a drop of blood on a test strip, and inserting the strip into a machine (blood glucose monitor) that gives the glucose level within a few minutes. Regular monitoring of blood glucose levels helps patients with diabetes keep a record of how well their blood glucose is controlled.

Your health care provider will tell you how often to test your blood. Write down each result, along with the time and date. You will soon learn how well your treatment plan is working, and you will learn how exercise and food affects you.

Sometimes, healthful habits like eating well, losing weight and exercising are not enough. In that case, your doctor may have you take:

• Diabetes pills, or
• Insulin shots

 

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