WHAT IS A GOOD DIET FOR DIABETES ?

Diet is very important in diabetic treatment.This not only will help to control your blood sugar but also
will control your weight and lower ther risk of heart desease.

* Eat regular meals.
* Eat high fibre starchy foods like whole grain bread or brown rice.(par boiled rice)
* Cut down the facts partcularly animal fats.Change to low fat milk (semi skimmed or skimmed milk)
Use less butter or margerine. Grill,Steam or oven bake than fry. Use oils like Sunflower or Soya
oil if necessary.Eat fewer pastries & cakes.

* Eat plenty of fruit & vegetables.Spread these through out the day.
* Avoid sugar and sugar drinks. Try using artificial sweetners instead if really necessary.
* Use less sal.
* Use alcohol only in moderation ( 2-3 units/day) - A unit of alcohol is either 1/2 pint of beer or 1
small glass of wine.
* Reduce weight if you are over weight.

Diabetes is a life long disease.Hence the dietry changes should also be life long.! It may be necessary to see a dietician to get specific advice depending on your dietry habits.

HOW IS DIABETES TREATED ?

Good management of diabetes needs a definite long term change to your life style.Management includes dietry control, exercise, maintaining an ideal weight, anti diabetic tablets or insulin or both.
Overall management strategy should also include measures to minimize the heart and circulation risk factors.Hence following additional measures are strongly recommended.
a) Stopping smoking
b) Controlling blood cholesterol levels.Most above 40 years will need a 'statin' anti-cholesterol drug.
c) Strict control of blood pressure (target<130/80>)
d) Aspirin for all above the age of 40 yrs.
( you are advised to meet your family doctor as regards b,c,d.)

What all this means is tha once you are diagnosed a diabetic, you will need a range of measures and
drugs for ideal management.
There are few exciting developments in the field of diabetes which may change the way it is managed in the future and may even be curative.These developments are likely to take many years or even decades to become a reality.

HOW TO KNOW IF THE CONTROL IS GOOD ?

Improvement in above mentioned symptoms itself indicates reasonable control.But it is important to have more accurate assessment regularly.

URINE TESTING - A strip test on your urine indicates presence of sugar in urine.This is generally
satisfactory if you do not have advanced kidney disease.This is the easiest and cheapest way to monitor at home on a regular basis.

BLOOD SUGAR TESTING;-Fasting, random blood or post-prandial (after meals) blood sugar tests via a lab will indicate your control at that time,(refer to normal values given) Now there are Meters for
home and easy use.See. the picture on to your right side......You could buy Glucometers to tast your blood sugar level instantly at home by pricking your finger and using the stripes and Glocometer to
check your own blood sugar values.

Kidney Damage (called nephropathy) A very common cause of kidney failure eventually need
kidney transplant to preserve life.Protein in the urine is an early indication of progressive kidney damage.A process called dialysis tratment. (artificial kidney) is needed till a kidney transplant is done once you reach late stages of kidney failure. Both dialysis and kidney transplant are difficult
to organise and are very expensive but absolutely essential to preserve life.

Hardening of blood vessels-Due to this diabetics are more prone to have strokes, heart attacks
and leg pain due to poor blood circulation.If you have associated high blood pressure, high
cholesterol and if you are a smoker these risks are multiplied.

Gut-Rarely-bloating of the stomach, and changing bowel habits could occur.

Impotence-There could be many other causes of this condition.

COMMON TYPES OF COMPLICATIONS ARE;-

EYE PROBLEMS:- ( Called retinopathy) - This is due to damage to blood vessels inside the eye.
This is a common cause of blindness in diabetics.This could take several years to develop and this
needs to be monitored by eye doctors who can treat this with laser beams.(photocoagulation).
Cataracts are also common in diabetics.

NERVE DAMAGE;- (called neuropathy) could lead to `pins and needles','burning feet' or loss of
feeling in the legs.One of the main problems of this is you may injure your foot (stepping on a pin) etc,
without your knowledge due to loss of feeling. As the wound healing in diabetics is poor, a simple
injury like this could eventually lead to amputation. If you have lost of sensations, do not wear tight
shoes or walk bare foot. and take even trivial foot injuries seriously.Hence make it a habit to check
your feet before going to bed. Sometimes special insoles are needed in the shoe to protect
vulnerable areas in the sole of the foot.

WHY SHOULD YOU NEED TO CONTROLL DIABETES ?

In the short term if you controll your diabetes you could overcome under mentioned symptoms.
As above, as some do not get symptoms will mean that you could have uncontrolled diabetes for
a long time,if you do not check your blood sugar status. Once diagnosed, it is very important to check yourdiabetic control even if you do not have any symptoms.

If it remains uncontrolled, the adverse effects on various organ systems in the body buid up slowly.
Eg;- Hardening and blockage of blood vessels.

Hence it is very vital to prevent long term serious complications which are disabling and life
threating.These complications can only be controlled or prevented by good diabetic control in the
long term.The earlier you develop diabetes;you are more prone to develop severe complications.
Many of these complications take several years or decades to develop but once developed,they
are usually permanent and difficult to treat.

Pre-Diabetes

This is a state when a persons blood glucose levels are higher than normal but not high enough for a
specific diagnosis of type 2 diabetes ( refer to normal values given)
If you areover 45 years and overweight, If you have high blood pressure, cholesterol abnormalities or
a strong family history,then you should get yourself investigated.
What are the symptonms of uncontrolled Diabetes ?
1. Some adults may not have obvious symptoms but may be diagnosed on routine testing of
blood and urine.There are a lot of diabetics who do not know that they are diabetics due to
this fact!
2.Pass water(urine) more frequently as sugar overflows from the kidneys.
3.Due to this,they may develop increased thirst and also may wake up at night to pass urine.
4.High sugar levels may cause blurring of vision.May have difficulty in reading and seeing
far away things.
5.Label to get more infections.May produce a fungal infection called 'thrush', seen as white
spots involving the skin,mouth,penis or vagina causing itching and soreness.
6.Cramps and tiredness. Also lose weight despite having a good appetite.May particularly crave for sweets.
7. Slowly healing wounds.
8.In type 1 -lack of insulin could lead to serve dehydration, becomes very ill and even becomes unconscious.