Managing Diabetes

Managing Type 1 Diabetes | Managing Type 2 Diabetes  | Blood Glucose Control | Food Choices | Blood Glucose Monitoring | Using Insulin | Tablets for Type 2’s | Hypoglycaemia | The HbA1c Test

Managing diabetes is an ongoing task that demands time and attention each day. It pays off in the long run though – keeping blood glucose levels close to normal for much of the time can significantly reduce the risk of developing or worsening more serious long term complications.

Don’t let diabetes get the better of you. Learn about your blood glucose levels and the factors that affect them; develop your own self-management skills and stay healthy.

Educate your family and whanau about diabetes and the potential complications of diabetes, and develop a support system that will help you to achieve your goals.

Diabetes management involves:

• Treatment – prescribed by your doctor
• Blood glucose monitoring – performed by you
• Continual adjustment – of treatment and/or daily activities in order to maintain control of blood glucose levels
• Avoiding dangerously high or low blood glucose levels
• Setting and achieving targets
• Reducing other risk factors for complications – e.g. blood pressure and levels of blood fats and cholesterol
• Detecting and treating complications early

Essential tools for diabetes management

• Diabetes knowledge
• Blood glucose monitoring
• Your health care team; make the most of the “DCIP” program

Keys to your success

• Learn as much as you can about diabetes – about the day-to-day management and the risks of long-term complications. This will help you to make informed choices about your diabetes management
• Use your blood glucose monitoring – your healthcare team will give you individual guidance on making adjustments to your treatment plan based on the results of your home blood glucose tests
• Take a look at your lifestyle – are there any simple changes that you could make to improve your general health and well-being?
• Don’t try to make major lasting changes overnight; set yourself realistic short-term and long-term goals
• Involve your family and friends. Develop a support network and consider including other people with diabetes in this – join a local group or an e-mail based one, such as Diabetes Support NZ.

Healthy Living

Much of diabetes management is based upon the concept of leading a ‘healthy lifestyle’. It’s easy to describe how we should live our lives – but it is not so easy to make changes, and putting ‘healthy living’ into practice is not always as easy as it sounds.