Diabetes is a metabolic disease. Diabetes occurs when your blood glucose level rises too high. Glucose comes from foods and from the human body.
Diabetes can be managed with Lifestyle changes that can prevent the onset of Type 2 diabetes. It is also important to note that
Types of Diabetic conditions
There are 2 most common types of diabetes. Type 1 diabetes and Type 2 diabetes.
Type 1 Diabetes
Type 1 diabetes is caused by the body not producing insulin. This type of diabetes is common in children and youth. This condition will require the person to be on insulin daily.
Type 2 Diabetes
This is a very common type of diabetes. It is caused by the shortage of insulin in your body as the pancreas is not producing enough of insulin.
Individuals who are susceptible to Type 2 diabetes are normal in the overweight and obese category or have a genetic pre-disposition to the condition due to family history of diabetes.
If you are aware of a family history of diabetes, please manage your weight and exercise routinely.
Other forms of Diabetes
- Gestational Diabetes
There are other less common forms of diabetes like gestational diabetes. It is common for this to be a Type 2 diabetes and often resolves once the baby is born.
- Prediabetes
The indicator of this is a higher-than-normal levels of blood sugar. Again, this can be managed with diet, low levels of food intake that are high in sugar and exercise.
- Monogenic Diabetes
This is caused by a genetic change or damage to the pancreas.
Symptoms of Diabetes
Type 1 diabetes can manifest itself more quickly than type 2 diabetes.
Some of the symptoms of diabetes include exhaustion, feeling thirsty and hungry more frequently than normal, vision changes, open soars that have difficulty healing and weight changes (loss).
See your primary care physician if you have these symptoms. They will recommend tests that we at SmarTest Labs can conduct for you.
How to control your diabetes
Diabetes can be controlled, avoided and improved with lifestyle changes.
- Reduce your weight – There are studies that show that a reduction of 7% of your body fat can reduce diabetes by 60%. The American Diabetes Association recommends that this will help mitigate the disease from getting worse.
- Exercise – Most of us a caught up in daily routines and get busy with other priorities that we skip an exercise routine. Time for exercise is crucial to help in weight reduction, reduce blood sugar and increase insulin.
Exercise that are highly recommended are aerobic activity, impact resistant exercises like yoga, weights, walking and more.
If you have a desk job in front of a computer, moving around after a few hours is help in blood sugar reduction.
- Diet – Eat a healthy diet like leafy vegetables, fruits, tomatoes, peppers, beans, salmon, sardines, tuna, lentils and whole grain products.
- Oats, whole grain rice and quinoa
- Chickpeas, spinach, broccoli, cauliflower
- Fats – non-saturated fats like Oliver oil, canola oil, nuts, flaxseed etc.
High fiber diet slows down the body’s absorption of sugar and reduces the blood sugar level. High fiber diets also fill you up quicker and keeps you full for a longer time. Keep the portions of your intake at a reasonable size.
- Get you A1C test measured, keep your blood pressure below 140/90, reduce cholesterol and alcohol, eliminate smoking.
Impacts of Diabetes on your health outcomes
Diabetes that is neglected can cause many complications leading to death.
Common complications are Heart Disease, Kidney Disease, vision loss, Damage to nerves, open wounds that do not heal quickly and getting infected.
Heart Disease includes strokes, heart attacks etc. This happens when the arteries get blocked due to plaque buildup which in turn reduces blood flow to the heart causing heart attacks. High blood sugar levels contribute to the damage of the heart causing these symptoms.
Call SmarTest labs to get your tests completed. Your physician will be able to provide you with the appropriate tests and we can conduct the tests and provide your physician the results.
Call us at: 301-686-8566.
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