In a few days, it will be the United Nations Diabetes Day (November 14), a holiday for diabetics around the world. Thinking of the seriousness of diabetes in China, the majority of diabetic patients are still suffering from the complications of diabetes, the heart is very uneasy, I would like to present a personal experience, hoping to bring you enlightenment and help, and hope that you can better manage yourself. It is a well-known fact that diabetes is highly prevalent and harmful in Wuhan Union Hospital Endocrinology Department. Although the diabetes departments of major hospitals are overcrowded every day, statistics still show that more than half of the diabetic patients in China do not receive effective and standardized treatment, and only one third of the patients have basic glycemic control. Throughout the treatment of diabetes, many misconceptions can be found. I. Blind optimism, refusing to use medication Misconception 1: Ms. Wang, 48 years old, went to the hospital because of thirst, excessive drinking and wasting, and found abnormal blood sugar and was diagnosed with diabetes. The doctor recommended diet, exercise and medication, but Ms. Wang thought that diabetes was a disease that came out of eating, and as long as she controlled her diet, she could lower her blood sugar, so she refused to take medication. Six months later, instead of reducing her symptoms, Ms. Wang became even thinner. Expert advice: to deal with diabetes should take a comprehensive treatment, diet control is the basis of lowering sugar, and need to be maintained for a long time. However, even for patients with milder conditions, diet control alone cannot effectively lower blood glucose in the long run, and appropriate exercise intervention and targeted glucose-lowering drugs are needed to keep blood glucose in the ideal range. The results of the UK Prospective Study of Diabetes (UKPDS) tell us that lifestyle interventions alone do not curb the progression of diabetes. Myth 2: Mr. Chen is 51 years old and has been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes for 5 years, when his doctor recommended medication to control his blood sugar. However, he heard that he had to take glucose-lowering drugs for life and felt very inconvenienced, and also worried about the side effects of the drugs; so he thought that if he did not start using drugs to lower his sugar, he would not become “dependent” on them, so he refused to take them. It was not until this year that Mr. Chen was examined and found to be suffering from complications such as diabetic nephropathy that he began to use medication, and by then his condition was quite serious. Expert advice: Diabetes is a chronic progressive disease, its main pathogenesis is insulin secretion disorder and/or insulin action disorder, if diabetic patients do not have standardized treatment, the body is responsible for the production of insulin pancreatic beta cells will be slowly destroyed until complete failure, just like the battery itself is broken, its storage capacity will gradually reduce. Therefore, the need for lifelong medication to lower blood sugar in diabetes is due to its own pathogenesis, and there is no such problem as “drug dependence”. On the contrary, many drugs can improve the function of pancreatic β-cells, such as pioglitazone, GLP-1 analogues, DPP-4 inhibitors, etc. Studies have proved that these drugs can slow down the progression of type 2 diabetes and the development of complications, and effectively improve the quality of life of patients. Therefore, patients should use medication in a timely manner to avoid the consequences. Second, blind pessimism, a stumble misconception 3: Ms. Liu is 56 years old, a year ago she began to show symptoms such as polydipsia, weight loss and weakness, and was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. When she heard that she had diabetes, she was very nervous and anxious. She felt that diabetes was like a terminal illness that could not be cured, that she would have to struggle with the disease for the rest of her life, and that she could not eat as much food as she wanted. Although she listened to her doctor’s advice to take medication, the effect of lowering sugar was not satisfactory at first, which made her feel more like she was in a desperate situation, and she worried all day long, and her blood sugar effect was sometimes good and sometimes bad. Expert advice: Although diabetes is a chronic lifelong disease and cannot be completely cured according to available scientific means, it is controllable and unlike some terminal diseases, there is no suitable treatment. As long as the blood sugar is well controlled, the ultimate life expectancy of diabetics is no different from that of healthy people. So don’t be overly pessimistic when you have diabetes. On the contrary, maintaining a good state of mind is conducive to controlling blood sugar, so that a virtuous circle is formed and patients are no longer full of fear about diabetes. Third, blindly take medicine, regardless of blood sugar misconception 4: Mr. Lan, 45 years old, suffered from type 2 diabetes for more than ten years. Due to the busy work schedule of running a company and the fact that he is usually in good health, he has been to the hospital several times off and on for ten years. Each time, he only sought medical attention when he felt his health was bad, and he rarely checked his blood sugar in general. He thought that as long as he took glucose-lowering drugs, it was equivalent to controlling his diabetes. Until a sudden onset of angina at work late at night, he was sent to the hospital and found to have coronary heart disease, and the heart vessels needed to be stented. Expert advice: Because diabetes is often unlike many other diseases that cause patients to have more serious symptoms, some patients do not treat diabetes as a serious disease. In fact, one of the dangers of diabetes is the insidious nature of its course. If blood glucose control is not up to standard, high glucose toxicity will slowly destroy the tissues and organs of patients. Patients with type 2 diabetes with poor blood glucose control may develop chronic complications of diabetes, such as cardiovascular disease, diabetic nephropathy, diabetic retinopathy, diabetic peripheral neuropathy, etc., within 5 to 10 years after the disease. These diseases do not occur suddenly, but slowly and insidiously develop under high blood sugar conditions, and by the time patients develop clinical symptoms, the best time to stop the progression of the disease is often missed. Therefore, diabetic patients should remember not to neglect regular blood sugar checks and complications, so as not to cause serious consequences. Fourth, blind faith in advertising, indiscriminate use of drugs misconception 5: Ms. Zhang has suffered from type 2 diabetes for 5 years. Because she has been worried about the side effects of western medicine to lower her blood sugar and “treat the symptoms but not the root cause”, she has never regularly used the prescription hypoglycemic drugs from the regular hospital for many years, but listened to the “Chinese health care medicine” in small advertisements, in order to achieve blood sugar control and eventually “The doctor told her that the bleeding was the result of poor long-term blood sugar control. Expert advice: Since the incidence of diabetes is increasing year by year in China, individual businesses, in order to make profits, disregard the safety of patients, under the banner of traditional Chinese medicine, health care drugs and prescription drugs, confuse the public and make patients believe that diabetes can be cured at this stage, so they abandon the regular drugs and turn to use the advertised “special drugs” for treatment. In fact, the regular hypoglycemic drugs are approved by the State Food and Drug Administration after a large number of trials before being listed, and their efficacy is guaranteed. The advertised “special drugs”, often with unknown ingredients and ambiguous manufacturers, can not even guarantee the safety of such drugs, not to mention lowering blood sugar. Therefore, diabetic patients must go to a qualified hospital to receive regular glucose-lowering treatment, in order to effectively reduce sugar. Five, blind food restriction, malnutrition misconception 6: Mr. Guo suffered from type 2 diabetes for more than seven years, seven years he has been using hypoglycemic drugs to treat, blood sugar control is still possible. Six months ago he heard that a diabetic patient suffered from diabetic foot and finally amputation because of poor blood sugar control, Mr. Guo was extremely shocked. So he began to attach great importance to glucose-lowering treatment, while strictly limiting his diet, three meals of staple food are mixed grains, meat, eggs and poultry are rarely eaten. Six months down, Mr. Guo weight loss of 15 pounds, the original thin he became fatigue and weakness. Recently, he was extremely susceptible to colds and was recently hospitalized for pneumonia. Expert advice: dietary intervention is the basis for the treatment of diabetes, but excessive restriction of diet may not only occur hypoglycemia and other adverse reactions, which is not conducive to the smooth reduction of sugar, but may make the body malnutrition, resistance to decline, etc., seriously endanger the health of patients. Therefore, diabetic patients should not only restrict their diet appropriately, but also ensure adequate daily nutritional intake. You can eat less and more meals, each meal eat 70 to 80% full, between meals with low-sugar fruits and vegetables or other low-sugar food, to ensure that the daily intake of appropriate amounts of protein and a certain amount of vegetables, especially green vegetables. As long as patients pay more attention, they can not only reduce sugar, but also ensure the diet. Sixth, busy with work, do not know the disease misconception 7: 22-year-old Ms. Yan is 34 weeks pregnant, a few days ago due to cold cough and other cold symptoms. She heard that she could not take medicine casually during pregnancy, plus she felt that the cold was not serious, so she did not treat it. One day ago she suddenly felt abdominal pain and gradually worsened, and developed nausea and vomiting, and was then sent to the hospital by her family. At the time of admission, Ms. Zhang was already confused, but her fetal heart could still be heard. Doctors treated her urgently and found that not only her blood glucose was 27 mmol/L, but also her urine was strongly positive for ketones and she was diagnosed with diabetic ketoacidosis. So she was treated urgently with glucose-lowering fluids and other treatments, and after her condition stabilized a bit, she checked the obstetrical ultrasound, but Ms. Zhang’s baby was found to have died in the abdomen, which caused her and her family a lot of pain. Expert advice: Many people mistakenly believe that the symptoms of diabetes are “three more and one less”, so if there are no “three more and one less” symptoms, you are not suffering from diabetes. In fact, the onset of diabetes is varied, and some people even develop diabetic ketoacidosis without warning, especially those with type 1 diabetes. The above-mentioned Ms. Yan could be diagnosed with gestational diabetes, but due to the lack of typical symptoms, she did not know she had the disease until she developed acute complications of diabetes, which led to a tragedy. Therefore, we should pay attention to medical checkups to detect and diagnose diabetes in a timely manner in order to control blood sugar in a timely manner. Seven, blindly resist, never injections misconception 8: Mr. Cai is 60 years old, suffering from diabetes for 3 years. 3 years have been using oral hypoglycemic drugs for treatment, blood sugar control is poor. Recently, his blood sugar continued to deteriorate, and his doctor suggested that he switch to insulin treatment. When Mr. Cai heard that he had to take injections, he firmly refused. He thought that insulin was a treatment for the end stage of the disease, and once he started using it, he could not stop using it, and his condition would get worse and worse, which was like giving himself a death sentence. Stubbornly, his blood sugar never dropped to the ideal range. Expert advice: the normal body will produce the right amount of insulin daily to control blood sugar, and diabetic patients need exogenous supplemental insulin to lower sugar due to the amount of their own insulin in the body or its role is insufficient, and this kind of glucose-lowering treatment is the most direct. Although insulin also has certain side effects, but its side effects are small, patients do not need to be full of fear of insulin, as long as the reasonable use of insulin under the advice of doctors, while avoiding hypoglycemia, you can safely apply insulin therapy to achieve the effect of good control of blood sugar. Eight, blindly lowering sugar, the pursuit of speed misconception 9: Ma Dad is 78 years old, suffering from diabetes for more than 10 years. His son and daughter were anxious and hoped that the doctor would lower his blood sugar as soon as possible and bring it to the normal range within one day. Expert advice: diabetic patients, especially the elderly, may induce hypoglycemia, cardiovascular and cerebrovascular disease and other dangers if their blood sugar is lowered too quickly. Therefore, patients should not blindly pursue rapid sugar reduction, especially elderly patients with poor balance ability. In the non-acute state, blood sugar should be steadily adjusted to the normal range, so that the body can gradually adapt to the changes in blood sugar, while avoiding the occurrence of hypoglycemia. When you have diabetes, your condition can be mild or severe, and the key is how you treat the disease. Only by understanding the misunderstandings of diabetes treatment can we better control our blood sugar and have a better quality of life. We hope that everyone can treat and cure the disease with ease, and enjoy life and life with ease.