Stabilizing blood glucose levels with diabetes medications is no easy task.
It’s hard to be unaffected when faced with the temptation of a treat, such as a large-size pizza. It’s hard to say no to a delicious pizza, but consuming it can undoubtedly cause a sudden rise in blood sugar, and diabetes medications can’t control the stress from carbohydrates at all. And if treated with insulin, the dose must be specially calculated.
There’s also the issue of weight gain: the weight gain from too many calories can make blood sugar more difficult to control.
Glucose control and diabetes treatment must be taken seriously. If left unattended, it can induce a variety of complications. Prolonged high blood glucose levels in the blood can have serious consequences for the body’s organs and nervous system. The only way to prevent serious complications of diabetes is to keep blood sugar at the desired level.
Medications must be paired with a healthy lifestyle
New medications and various types of insulin that have emerged in recent years have been helpful in managing diabetes and have greatly facilitated the control of blood glucose. Some diabetes medications can also reduce weight and lower blood cholesterol levels. However, according to diabetes experts, these medications need to be complemented by other aspects to achieve the desired effect.
Lifestyle changes are key, according to David Nathan, MD, director of the Diabetes Center at Massachusetts General Hospital and professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School. Maintain a healthy diet, exercise regularly, and lose weight so that your diabetes medications can work to their full potential.
“If you have type 2 diabetes, your pancreas can still produce insulin,” David said, “but if there’s a sudden rise in blood sugar, the insulin can’t keep up with what’s needed. Even with diabetes medication, the situation doesn’t improve. If the blood sugar doesn’t rise suddenly, the medication can work properly.”
Recommendations for controlling blood sugar
- You must watch your diet.
- Exercise regularly and maintain a normal weight.
- Follow your doctor’s advice and test your blood sugar frequently.
- Take your diabetes medication as prescribed by your doctor.
- Take your diabetes medicine as prescribed.
- If you want to live a long and healthy life, these precautions should not be ignored.
Adhere to a balanced diet to avoid sudden blood sugar spikes
There are many factors that can affect postprandial blood glucose levels, with carbohydrates having the greatest impact, so food choices are important, and it’s important to choose foods that don’t cause a sudden spike in blood glucose.
Dietitian Roberta Anding, a diabetes health educator at Children’s Hospital in Houston, Texas, says, “Patients can develop a diet plan through a dietitian or diabetes educator.” In her other capacity, she is an advocate for the American Dietetic Association.
Fine foods tend to trigger blood sugar spikes
But not all carbohydrates do the same thing for the body. “There’s a difference between a spoonful of white rice and a spoonful of brown rice,” Roberta describes, “They may contain the same amount of calories, but they don’t do the same thing when it comes to digestion.”
Processed “white foods” such as white flour, white rice, cakes and cookies (made with white flour) are quickly absorbed by the body after eating them, triggering a rapid rise in blood sugar. This is even true of apples, which are rich in various nutrients and fiber before processing, but the situation is different after processing. When apples are processed into applesauce or apple juice, the fiber content is lost.
“You can clearly see the difference in blood sugar levels before and after processing,” according to David, “the more finely processed the fruit, the faster the glucose in the blood rises after eating it. Eating high-fiber carbohydrate foods slows the rate of absorption and benefits the pancreas in responding to the body’s insulin needs.”
What are high-fiber carbohydrate foods? Quite simply, they include vegetables, fruits, whole-grain breads, and cereals. All colored fruits and vegetables in the fruit and vegetable store, such as broccoli, spinach, red bell peppers, and a variety of fruits and berries are great sources of fiber, as is oatmeal!
Glucose-lowering drugs may cause weight gain
Weight gain can cause many problems for people with diabetes. Losing weight has never been easy, and many older glucose-lowering medications can lead to weight gain, which can adversely affect blood sugar control.
“The heavier you are, the harder it is to control your blood sugar,” Dr. David noted, “and if a patient gains weight, the diabetes medication becomes less effective, requiring a higher dose, which in turn can cause further weight gain.”
Some medications are easy to control weight, such as exenatide, metformin, and liraglutide. These drugs stimulate the body’s natural ability to produce insulin and also reduce appetite, so they can reduce weight.
Diabetes specialists often prescribe these drugs and recommend their use along with older glucose-lowering medications in order to control blood sugar. This makes dietary control less difficult …… Patients can limit caloric intake and exercise more, which can have a positive effect on weight loss,” said Anne Peters, M.D., director of the University of Southern California Clinical Diabetes Program and author of “Conquering Diabetes. ”
Losing weight and reducing diabetes medication use
Lifestyle has an important role to play in weight loss, and controlling diabetes is a long-term effort. It’s really hard to control weight, but there’s no other way to do it, and patients have to deal with it,” Roberta said. It’s not that you have to become skinny and bony, but you must lose some weight.”
Research shows that in fact, losing just 10% to 15% of body weight can significantly improve diabetes control. If you weigh 200 pounds, you should lose 20 to 30 pounds.
These lifestyle changes help protect the body’s insulin-producing function, explains Hermes Florez, MD, PhD, head of the diabetes prevention program at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine: “With weight under control, patients can become less dependent on insulin, and in some cases can even get off insulin altogether. ”
A clinical study funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), known as the Diabetes Prevention Program, demonstrated the positive effects of a shift toward healthy living. A significant number of patients in the study were successful in reducing their risk of diabetes through a healthy diet and regular exercise such as brisk walking (about 150 minutes per week).
In the early stages of diabetes, weight loss can help reduce the amount of medication, Anne noted, “I can’t guarantee that weight loss will get patients off medication completely, but it will at least reduce the amount of medication. It depends largely on the course of the disease, because diabetes is progressively worse over time.”
Better control of mealtime insulin
Adherence to a diabetic diet can make mealtime insulin easier to calculate. With the help of new insulin devices (such as insulin pens that inject insulin), the body can absorb insulin extremely easily. Even when out with friends, it is difficult for them to know that the patient is on insulin therapy.
Quick-acting insulin can be used during or after a meal. Always eat within 10 minutes of insulin administration,” David explained. These insulins work quickly and if you don’t eat in time, you can have a hypoglycemic reaction.”
Insulin pens are completely different from the old needles and vials in terms of appearance. The insulin pen is small, like a tap pen with an ink cartridge, making it easy and quick to use to control blood sugar.
The insulin pump is another new device that continuously and evenly drips insulin into the body’s bloodstream. At mealtime, additional insulin doses can be planned based on the amount of carbohydrates that will be consumed.
“In total, patients with an insulin pump can take less insulin,” Anne said, “and it allows for fine tuning of insulin dosage, so it’s usually more flexible and works better. It is important to note that patients should consult a dietitian or diabetes educator before using it and should not make their own decisions.”
Adjusting insulin dosage to exercise
Be sure to tell your doctor if you’ve already started a diet and exercise program. “The doctor will adjust the insulin dosage based on exercise,” says Anne, “for example, if the patient is injecting insulin before breakfast and starting exercise after breakfast. At that point I would advise the patient to use only half the amount before breakfast to avoid having low blood sugar during exercise.”
Advice from a diabetes expert
- Eat healthy: Eat plenty of vegetables, fruits, whole grains, lean proteins, and low-fat dairy products.
- Fiber-rich foods: Eat “real food,” not processed food. Make spinach, broccoli, and some other colorful vegetables a major part of your diet. Eat more berries, as they are extremely nutritious, contain a lot of fiber, and do not affect blood sugar despite their sweet taste. Brown rice, whole wheat pastry, whole wheat bread, and oatmeal can also be consumed. When buying canned fruits or vegetables, read the label to know if sodium or sugar is added.
- Control sweets: For people with diabetes, ice cream, cookies, candy and cakes are foods that should only be eaten occasionally. They contain too much fat, sugar and calories. If you indulge occasionally, be sure to be clear about the total amount of carbohydrates you consume.
- Watch your portions: It’s important to stick to your meal plan when eating. Excess calories will only cause a sudden rise in blood sugar and weight gain. So, don’t overeat!
- Exercise: Have your doctor check your feet before starting an exercise program to make sure there are no signs of injury or infection. People with diabetes can easily develop problems with their feet due to nerve damage, sometimes very serious. If there are no abnormalities you can exercise, and brisk walking provides the most benefit for people with diabetes, 20 to 40 minutes a day.
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