Nothing is better than preventing the disease well before its occurrence. But if you have diabetes, you should know how to manage this illness in a short time. We can’t say you can cure diabetes within a few days, but a little effort will surely pay you in the long term.
Undoubtedly, diabetes is a long-term commitment, but taking some time daily for minor changes spares you from many lifestyle changes. Diabetes cure and control is all about management, and you can’t deny this truth. Right?
Diabetes management is not as complex as it seems; it sometimes requires specific small and even unnoticeable changes and adaptations. Otherwise, diabetes may move towards severity, and the consequences would be worse later on.
Here we will discuss how you can assure diabetes management in 10 minutes or less—diabetes management made easy for you!
Diabetes Management: Made It Easier
Diabetes management requires your keen attention, and little steps during daily chores can make a lot of difference. Here are a few tips which help in lowering and improving blood sugar in minutes.
1- Regularly Check The Blood Sugar Levels
If you have diabetes, the first thing to do in the morning is to check your blood sugar. One cant manage sugar level if they don’t know what it is. Moreover, you can’t assess your glucose level if you have zero knowledge about before and after-meal glucose parameters.
According to research, a fasting blood sugar below 100 mg/dl is perfectly normal, and fasting blood sugar between 100-125 mg/dl predicts prediabetes. But if the fasting blood sugar is above 126mg/dl on two completely individual tests, it’s a sign of diabetes.
Recommended daily routine for diabetics should begin with the glucose test, as it’s essential to improve the type 2 diabetes condition. Modern glucose meters just require a few seconds to calculate the blood sugar level, so you just need hardly 2-3 minutes for this testing.
2- Wear Diabetic Tag and Carry Ketone Strips
What if your blood sugar gets low in public, and no one knows the cause? Obviously, you don’t want to suffer from this condition. Diabetes could be unpredictable sometimes and surprise you with sudden extreme low blood sugar.
Wearing a diabetic tag assists the people around you in immediate required diabetic treatments in any emergencies. Anyone can identify your condition if you are wearing a diabetic tag. In the case of hypoglycemia, only 20gm of sugar given orally can save a person’s life.
If you are feeling low or high blood sugar, check your blood ketone levels instantly if you have ketone strips. It helps in the early identification of the prevailing condition, which may lead to commas otherwise. Diabetes management comprises this little step, but it matters a lot in case of emergency.
3- Stay Hydrated
You may have suffered dry skin and increased thirst with diabetes, right? Dehydration usually accompanies diabetes, as kidneys excrete excess glucose by making more urine, ending up excreting out body fluids.
When there is not enough fluid in the body, our system draws vital fluids like tears, saliva, and from inside of cells. What’s a remedy for diabetic dehydration? Drink enough water and increase intake of non-sugary healthy fluid to maintain the body’s hydration status.
If you have diabetes and not drinking enough water, there is a chance of kidney failure due to prolonged dehydration. Staying hydrated and managing the body fluid is mandatory for avoiding diabetes complications.
4- Plan your Exercise and Portion it
Exercise and regular physical activity are crucial for diabetes management, whether moderate physical activity or strengthening exercises. It improves blood glucose control and lowers the risk factors complicating diabetes.
Don’t exhaust yourself if you don’t have a habit of exercise. Just start with a bit of effort, like start walking today. Exercises and physical activity for diabetes management include dancing, walking, jogging, cycling, swimming, yoga, jumping rope, and strength training exercises.
Brisk walking, jogging, muscle building all of these are the best options for diabetes. Recommended performing a 30-minute physical activity daily for about 5-6 days per week. However, if you are finding it hard initially, try to split the exercises into two daily portions as per your ease.
5- Maintain Your First Aid Kit
Maintaining a first aid kit is a need of time for a diabetic person, as you can’t even know when and where you need it. Besides imbalance in blood sugar, diabetes wounds could get worse due to delayed healing.
The first aid kit should have all the appropriate things for improving the blood sugar and cleaning and bandaging the wound if any. Here are a few essential things that are a must for a diabetic first aid kit:
- Blood glucose meter. Must have extra strips. Also, carry extra batteries for the glucose meter.
- For hypoglycemia, carry fast-acting glucose and spare insulin vials but store them in refrigerators.
- Glucagon kit
- Ketone strips for ketone testing
- Spare injection needles
- Medical identification tag
- List of emergency contacts
- List of current prescriptions
For wound healing, carry these essentials:
- Hydrogen peroxide for cleaning the wound
- Antibiotic creams
- Sterile gauzes
- Plasters
- Adhesive bandages
- Scissor
- Alcohol swabs
- Painkillers
- Plastic gloves
Carry the following essentials for your foot care:
- Sterile gauze
- Antiseptic solutions
- Moisturizer, to prevent dryness of the foot
- Antifungal cream, for athlete foot infection
At home, keep this first aid kit away from heat and humidity. Store them correctly and at an easily reachable place whenever needed. Always review the kit thoroughly twice a year, and replace the unnecessary and expired medications or even close to expiry ones.
6- Carry Emergency Snacks and Sugar Candies
Uncertainties may happen anywhere and anytime, so as a diabetes patient, you must have preparations for it. If you feel extremely low blood sugar suddenly, there is a need to have some oral sugar. Sugar candies could be the best choice for such scenarios.
Hypoglycemia, low blood sugar mainly occurs when you skip a meal, take too many diabetic medicines, or are exhausted from over-exercising. How to diagnose hypoglycemic attack? When sugar level drops below 70mg/dl, you feel hungry, dizzy, and shaky.
Always carry some hard candies and glucose tablets when going outside or at home to avoid any emergency. You require fast sugar food, which adds up glucose in the bloodstream immediately. Following are some of the best choices, according to research:
- Glucose tablet
- Glucose gel
- Table sugar
- Honey
- Jellybean
- Fat-free milk
- Hard candy
- Gumdrops
7- Insulin Administration Management
Diabetes management mostly requires insulin doses, but it should cooperate with your lifestyle. If you are taking insulin and doing vigorous exercises simultaneously, you may suffer a hypoglycemic attack.
Never change your insulin dosage or start any new exercise without a doctor’s advice. Consult your doctor and check your diabetes score. Your doctor should be aware of your lifestyle, daily routine, dietary habits for correct insulin management.
If you are administering insulin, always take some snacks before exercise to avoid sudden low blood glucose. When insulin is administered for replacement therapy, 50% of the total insulin dose should be administered as a bolus and the other 50% as basal, divided up before breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
8- Dietary Management
In the era of easiness, everyone wants finished packed food to save their time. But for people with diabetes, processed foods are a slow poison and a big hurdle in diabetes management. As those foods are far away in added sugar and calories count.
Diet is important for diabetes, as it goes directly into your body and ultimately into the bloodstream. Choose those foods having a low glycemic index, thus fewer chances of hyperglycemia. Diet should be rich in healthy nutrients and less in fats and calories.
Add up healthy carbohydrates, fish, foods rich in fibre and good fats. Following are some best choices that can fit perfectly for diabetes managed diet:
- Whole grains
- Fruits
- Vegetables
- Milk, cheese, and other low-fat dairy products
- Nuts
- Legumes like peas and beans
- Fishes such as Salmon, Sardines, etc
- Omega 3 fatty acids
- Avocados
- Peanut, canola, and olive oil.
9- Enjoy a 10 Minutes Mental Vacation
Stress and diabetes could be the worst combination sometimes, so avoid having stress. Stress induces hormonal changes in the body and releases cortisol, which naturally raises blood sugar.
How can I avoid stress, either mental, physical, or emotional? Spare some time for yourself, enjoy thinking about good memories, and divert your attention from the thoughts that induce stress.
Just spend 10 minutes daily, relaxing, coping with the work pressure, and, if possible, perform yoga exercises for some time. Or simply close your eyes and fill up your mind with the memories and goals that bring happiness. Also, participation in certain healthy activities or any kind of sport assists in managing and upgrading mental health.
10- Spare Some Time for your Feet
Diabetes management is possible, but only till complications occur. Foot problems are one of the severe diabetes complications that develop unnoticed sometimes. The body can’t heal any wound, scratch, or blister, and ultimately they become an open wound later on and could get infected.
Sparing some time daily for the foot helps you to recognize any wound earlier and initiate treatment timely. Otherwise, due to insensitivity, wounds or ulcers can worsen without being noticed.
Generally, diabetes damages the blood vessels supplying blood to feet and results in peripheral neuropathy, making them insensitive. But the question is, how can we treat diabetes neuropathy? There is no proper treatment for it, and you just have to manage the condition and avoid further complications.
11- Update your Journal
How would you know which change brings positive and which one has a negative impact on diabetes? Of course, we can’t remember everything in our minds, so we need to maintain a record journal.
It takes hardly 4-5 minutes daily to write a report about changes you feel after a particular lifestyle change. Like if you have changed your diet and lost some weight, then write it in the journal. It would not only motivate you in the future but also help you recognize which food is beneficial.
You can note down your blood sugar with minor changes to analyze their effects; it will help record-keeping and diabetes management.
12- Take Mini Walks
Lazy lifestyles due to hectic schedules are the best partner of diabetes; both are risks for your good health. You just need to keep moving to stay active, healthy, and essential to managing your diabetes.
If you can’t find enough time to go for a good walk or jogging, prefer mini walks. What are mini walks? Any little movements come under mini walks; it could be using stairs instead of the lift, prefer walking to markets, or walking while talking to someone on the phone.
We recommend taking a little 15-minute walking nap after each meal, which will ultimately improve your blood sugar. Just walk whenever you find some time, especially the morning walk with pets.
FAQs: Diabetes Management in 10 Minutes or Less
1- Can blood sugar change in 5 minutes?
Usually, the blood sugar increases about 10-15 minutes after a meal and reaches its peak after an hour. Also, exercising and workouts lower the blood sugar in minutes.
2- What is the best management of diabetes?
There is a long list of diabetes management, however important, including weight loss, physical activity, staying hydrated, proper medications, etc.
3- What should I eat if my sugar is high?
Eat those foods having low calorie and low sugar content. Foods that lower blood sugar includes green vegetables, whole grains, proteins, little fats, berries, etc.
4- Can drinking a lot of water lower your blood sugar?
Yes, drinking a lot of water keeps the body rehydrated and lowers blood sugar as it induces more urine production and more glucose loss.
5- Can we control diabetes without medicine?
Yes, specific medications aids in controlling diabetes, although you may need medication sometimes. Lifestyle changes like weight loss, physical activity matters a lot in controlling diabetes.
6- Is 200 blood sugar normal after eating?
No, regardless of when you eat your last meal, a 200mg/dl or above sugar level suggests abnormality and diabetes, especially if you are facing diabetes symptoms too like increased thirst and increased urination, etc.
7- What is the safest diabetic medication?
Metformin is still considered an effective and safest medicine for diabetes.
Conclusion
Diabetes management is difficult yet possible. Spending a little time daily to manage your diabetes can save you from complications and other economical treatments later on.
Just keep in mind the above-mentioned few tips and follow them for better management of your condition. Better to get your genetic testing done for the exact diagnosis of the disease and better treatment protocols.
