Diabetes

If you have been diagnosed with diabetes, then sadly you aren’t even close to being alone anymore. In the United States, the disease became an epidemic a while ago and it is only continuing to grow. Just this year, the CDC announced that the number of people with the affliction in the US has grown to more than 29 million. That number is up by about 3 million since 2012 and it has increased by more than 12.3 percent in adults.

Most frighteningly, there are another 86 million adults, or basically one third of the country’s population that is at risk for the disease. The biggest problem these days, is it seems as though there are more ways in which people can get diabetes, especially type 2 diabetes, than ever before.

The medical community has actually started adding behavior patterns that most people would never think of as possible triggers for the illness. Sleep Apnea is just the latest factor added to the list of things that could cause you to develop the disease.

When it comes to type 2 diabetes, there are some things you can do in order to treat and keep the affliction under control.

Monitor Your Blood Sugar

When it comes to diabetes, this is really a no brainer. You need to be checking your glucose levels on a regular basis in order to make sure you aren’t entering a danger zone from one minute to the next.

The good news is this has become easier and less painful than it was in the past. A blood sugar monitor can give you a quick and easy readout and the minimized interruption to your day makes it more likely you will continue the task throughout the week.

Find a Way To Relax

It might seem to be a bit counter intuitive to be told that you need to relax while trying to treat a disease like diabetes considering all the negative ways the affliction can affect you.

It is important for you to find a way to relax from time to time because stress can make diabetes flair up. Get yourself a hobby that doesn’t require a great deal of tension, take up meditation or simply sit down with a good book and let yourself take a minute from the daily grind.

Lose Weight

Much like monitoring your blood sugar, losing weight when you’ve been diagnosed with this disease might seem like a no brainer. It’s still something you need to go out of your way to achieve. With type 2 diabetes, there’s even a chance you can all but make the disease go away as long as you are working out and maintaining a healthy weight.

Even if you don’t have a lot of hope of getting rid of it altogether, you will be able to manage diabetes better if you are keeping yourself at a healthy weight.

Quit Smoking

Obviously, this particular little tip isn’t going to make much sense if you haven’t been smoking before. If you do light up, you need to quit and you need to quit as soon as possible. The longer you’re smoking, the worse your disease is going to make you feel. At this point, it shouldn’t really come as a surprise that you need to change some lifestyle choices.

It can be a pain when you start thinking about all the different things you are going to need to change in order to live a mostly normal life with diabetes. Once you feel yourself getting upset about cutting out sugary snacks and fourth meals and then even giving up cigarettes or cigars, remind yourself the alternative to not making these changes is that much worse due to the diabetes.