Diabetes care

There is virtually no cure for diabetes. You have to modify your lifestyle according to the disease. But it is not so tough to cope up with it. Watchful diabetes care will reduce the risk of serious life threatening complications. Go through the following guidelines and reform your way of life.

The patient needs utmost commitment to manage his diabetes. All the associates of your diabetes care team will help you to guide through the right approach. But it is totally up to you what to choose and what not to. Nobody can prevent you from taking a big pastry with lots of icing if you are not motivated enough. You must gather some knowledge about diabetes and its complications. Your diet should be full of nutrition yet the calorie requirement should be fixed. You have to maintain an optimum weight by doing some exercise regularly. You have to check your blood sugar level periodically. You have to inject Insulin on your own if you are prescribed. All these need strong motivation and without it, you can not prevent the serious complications.

You must consult a diabetologist periodically; say once in six months or once in three months if your blood sugar level remains high. During this visit, he will examine you for any kind of complications which include kidney diseases, heart problems skin problems and neurological complications. You should also consult an ophthalmologist once in a year to make sure no diabetes related complication like visual problems, cataract and retinal damage has affected you.

Diabetic patients tend to have dental and gum problems. You must brush your teeth twice a day after taking meal and floss your teeth once daily. Do check your gums for any symptom of soreness. Consult the dental surgeon immediately if you find any bleeding gums.

Care of the skin especially the foot is mandatory. Avoid any kind of injury. Diabetic wound is notorious to heal as the infection is hard to control owing to lack of immunity. Diabetic patients are prone to foot ulcers, you must protect you foot accordingly. You should wash your feet twice a day with lukewarm water ant pat dry it. Apply good quality moisturizing cream. Consult your doctor once you find any cuts, soreness or swelling over the leg.

All the required vaccination should be taken. Diabetes lowers the immunity and a trivial infection can cause havoc. So you must take the Pnemococcal vaccine (to prevent lung infection – common in a diabetic after the age of 65), Influenza vaccine (prevents flu during the changing weather conditions), tetanus and hepatitis (both A &B) vaccines.

Check your blood sugar and cholesterol level periodically. The best way is to check the blood sugar level daily, but it can be checked twice in a week during the initial phase of treatment, then once in a week and after that fortnightly. Cholesterol level is to be checked once in three months. Get your blood pressure checked when you visit your doctor. Diabetes and high blood pressure go hand in hand. So, extra precaution is necessary to maintain the blood pressure under control.

Consult your doctor and ask for a daily dose of aspirin. This will maintain your blood liquidities and prevent formation any plaque (thrombus) inside the blood vessel. Thrombus can block the vessel and lead to heart attack and stroke.

Check your alcohol intake and avoid smoking. Alcohol gives you dry calorie which is detrimental to your body.

Get adequate sleep and avoid stress.

These are some simple but very affective diabetes care. You must try to stick to the guidelines provided by your doctor.