Easy ways to control Blood Sugar
Diabetes is metabolic problem that affects your body’s ability
to make or respond to insulin, a hormone. Insulin regulates the delivery of
blood glucose to your body’s organs and tissues, where it’s used for energy.
Type 1, or insulin dependent, diabetes, is an inherited disease that affects
the pancreas, destroying that organ’s ability to make insulin. Type 1 diabetes
usually occurs during childhood or adolescence.
Smart Self-Care
Women doctors say that if you have been diagnosed with diabetes
of either type, you should be under medical supervision usually a GP, and often
a registered dietitian, a nurse and an eye specialist, all working as a team.
Change in diet, exercise and other self-care strategies that follow are
important, but should be checked with your doctor or other health care
professionals, particularly if you plan to have children. With proper blood
sugar management, women with diabetes can get pregnant and deliver healthy
children. Make sure that your blood sugar is meticulously controlled before you
get pregnant. Women can do to control diabetes, lose fat, lose weight and four
out of five women with type II diabetes are overweight, and they may even
control their diabetes or reduce their medication if they lose weight.
Calorically, fat is denser than protein or carbohydrates, so if you reduce the
grams of fat that you eat, you automatically reduce calories. To lose weight,
aim for a diet with fat grams comprising 20 to 30% of your total calories. Foods
high in fibre may help people with diabetes control their blood sugar, fibre
slows the absorption of carbohydrates that you ingest. And after eating a high
fibre meal, you feel full. This can also help with weight loss.
Eating a big bowl of high fibre cereal for breakfast and a big
bowl of chili for lunch, could help keep your blood sugar levels stable.
According to one study, People with Type II diabetes who ate meals with 20
grams of fibre had significantly lower post meal blood sugar than others who
ate meals with only 10 grams of fibre.
We use uncooked corn flour from the supermarket in people being
treated for diabetes who experience episodes of hypoglycaemia, or low blood
sugar. Uncooked corn flour is a very slow release type of sugar it takes up to
6 hours for your body to break it down and absorb it. Stir one or two teaspoons
of uncooked corn flour into a glass of milk or sprinkle it into a pudding
suggest consuming corn flour with an evening snack to prevent low blood sugar
during the night, or before exercise, which affects blood sugar levels.
Consider a chromium supplement, tests show that people with
diabetes may have lower blood levels of chromium than people without diabetes.
Chromium may help people with Type II diabetes, because the body needs chromium
to be able to respond to insulin. It is sometimes difficult to get beneficial
amounts of chromium from food, so look for a multivitamin that supplies the
recommended amounts for chromium 50 to 200 micrograms daily.
In the past, people with diabetes were told that they could not
eat certain foods namely, refined carbohydrates like biscuits or sweets. But
research shows that all carbohydrates will elevate blood sugar the same way; a
biscuit is equal to a piece of bread, which is equal to a piece of fruit. If
there’s food that you really like, make sure to include it in your diet. If
your favorite snack food is biscuits but you never eat them, it’s easy to feel deprived
and frustrated, and that can lead to bingeing. Have one bickie and enjoy it.
The key here is to treat yourself in moderation don’t eat the entire packet.
Walk, swim, cycle, dance, and do some exercises burns fat and
calories and can help you lose excess pounds. For women with diabetes, exercise
offers added bonuses; Exercised muscles are more sensitive to insulin, improving
the way our body metabolizes sugars. Plus, regular exercise lowers the risk of
heart disease, a special concern for people with diabetes. The current
recommendation is to exercise at least three times a week for about 30 to 40
minutes. Start out slowly. According to the American Diabetes Association,
nearly 8.4 million women in the US have diabetes, but only half know it. See
your doctor if you have any of the following symptoms for than a week and then
work your way up. Walk swim, cycle, dance do whatever you enjoy. This should be
done under a doctor’s supervision, she adds as your medication and diet may
need adjustment to accommodate your increased activity.
1. Increased thirst, urination or
appetite
2. Dry Mouth
3. Vomiting
4. Diarrhoea
5. Blurred Vision
6. Rapid or irregular heartbeat
7. Dizziness
8. Unintentional weight loss
9. Recurrent yeast or urinary
tract infections.
See your doctor if you have
diabetes ad you is pregnant or thinking of starting a family. Women with poorly
controlled diabetes have higher risk of complicated pregnancies that could
affect mother and baby.
Women with diabetes are also prone to problems with circulation
or loss of feeling in their feet. So inspect your feet for red, dry, cracked
skin; infections calluses or blisters. And see your doctor if you see signs of
infection. Untreated even minor cuts or infections can lead to serious medical
problems.
