Diabetes - How Does It Affect Lifestyle?

Hi,

I am Dr. Rajesh Kesari, Endocrinologist. Today I will talk about diabetes. What is diabetes and what we can do even if we have it? Diabetes is a chronic lifestyle disease. It always is there with you for your whole life. Why do we need to treat diabetes? What can we do in diabetes even without doctor's help? It is caused because of insulin resistance or lack of insulin. Insulin is a hormone produced by your pancreas. It decreases the amount of sugar from your blood. Whenever you eat anything, especially carbs, it contains glucose and then the level of glucose rises in your blood after having food. And with the help of insulin, his level of glucose is normalized. What happens in diabetes that insulin is not produced in sufficient quantity so, the sugar level is always high in the blood. So, what happens that a high level of sugar causes a lot of complications that is why diabetes is called a silent killer.

Diabetes crawls like a snake and suddenly bites. The worst complications are a heart attack, stroke, kidney disease, kidney failure, diabetic retinopathy, diabetic neuropathy, infections in the feet. If the sugar is not controlled they are bound to happen. But, you can prevent them from happening. Diabetes cannot be treated by taking pills, medicines, or injections. There is a lot you can do yourself, to help and to treat diabetes. Now, I will tell you what can you do? First, modify your lifestyle. Start with your diet. Eat a lot of greens. You can have it as much as you want. Eat more fresh and uncooked vegetables. It a lot of grains. Food which has a lot of fiber in it which delays the rise of glucose. Eat fruits which is very important. And another important thing is an active lifestyle. The walk is very important. Climb stairs, exercise, so try to find an opportunity where you can walk, exercise.

Increase physical activity in your life. Changing diet and exercises can do a lot and helps in bringing down your sugar levels and prevents the complications of diabetes. There are some myths about diabetes. If a Dr has prescribed your medications, you must take it. If you have any problem with medications, you must consult a Dr and ask for the change. Now, diabetes patients need constant monitoring. Don't do the mistake of taking the same medicines continuously for a long period of time without consulting a Dr. Because it can happen that medicines will stop acting on your body. So, consult a Dr and you need to go for regular testing. You must do some basic tests like HbA1c, urine test, at least once in 3 months to know that your sugar levels are under control. At least once a year you go for lipid profile, kidney and liver test. And you should also monitor yourself with a glucometer from time to time.

People are very afraid of taking insulin. If your Dr prescribes that insulin is required, then you must take it. Insulin is a diabetics best friend. The whole problem in diabetes is that you do not have sufficient insulin. Take care of weight. Just by decreasing weight, a lot of medicines can be stopped. Diabetes can be controlled, blood pressure can be controlled, cholesterol can be controlled. So, these are small things if you are incorporating in your life, if you change some of your habits, control diet, physically active, take your medicines regularly, you can have a very happy and healthy life. And if you have any problem despite all these, we Drs are here, I am here to help you.

Thank You!