Diabetes Treatment Tips for Type 2 Diabetics

The key to good management of your type 2 diabetes is not just how much you eat or how often you exercise, or even which medicines you take. The first key to good diabetes management is knowing what you feel like when your blood glucose levels are high and low. And the only way you can know this is through blood glucose monitoring and testing.

Why is testing so important?

The testing and recording of your blood glucose levels is essential to determining how your treatments are structured, and even what treatments you should be using.

For example, if you are controlling your diabetes with diet and exercise, knowing when your natural highs and lows occur helps you to know what and when you should eat, and when the best times to exercise are. Your body runs on its own natural cycle, and even though you have higher than normal blood glucose levels, it's important to know what your individual cycle is.

Also, if your are using oral medications such as actos or glyburide, the time at which you take these medications will determine how effective they are at working to control your blood glucose levels.

When Should You Test?

The main times for blood glucose testing are first thing in the morning, before meals and at bedtime. The other crucial times to test are before and after exercise sessions because physical activity can lower glucose levels in a short period of time.

Tags: type 2 diabetes, diabetes management, blood glucose levels, blood glucose monitoring, blood glucose testing

Exercise is the number one non-medicinal way to manage, control, and even prevent type 2 diabetes. According to a study published Science Now Magazine in 2006, researchers found that individuals who walked for 30 minutes a day, 5 days a week and followed a low calorie diet were 58% less likely to even develop type 2 diabetes.

Another study published around the same time went even farther in its praise of exercise, saying that any exercise is better than no exercise in terms of extending your life. While that study wasn't specific to type 2 diabetics its implications are clear, especially for those who already have complications from cardiovascular disease that prevents them from undertaking strenuous, structured exercise programs. It shows than any exercise is better than none, even if it's just washing dishes or walking your dog.

You can always start slowly (under your doctor's supervision, of course) and work your way up to the American Heart Association's recommended 30 minutes a day.

Photo Credit: Scott Liddell

Tags: type 2 diabetes, exercise, diabetes treatments

In addition to exercise, the other first step to take in the management of your type 2 diabetes is changing your eating habits. People used to call this going on a diabetes diet, but to me using that "d" word implies that it's a temporary thing, and this is one eating plan you'll need to stay on for life.

The most important thing your new eating habits should do for you is to help get your blood sugar levels under control. And yeah, losing weight helps too, but keeping those pesky glucose levels steady is much more important at first.

One of the easiest eating changes you can make is to cut as much simple carbohydrates and sugars out of your diet as you possibly can. Recent studies have shown that using the glycemic index to control carb intake works, and is an effective way to predict post-meal blood sugar levels.

Other researchers have found that switching to a vegan diet may also result in better control of glucose levels. It's not something I personally would consider doing, but if it works for you then it's a definitely a healthy alternative.

And that's the good thing about today's diabetic diet. There are definitely choices available that will suit a variety of tastes and lifestyles. As long as you use some common sense in your food choices, then changing your eating habits doesn't have to be a negative experience.

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eating habits, diabetes, diabetic diet, glycemic index