Diabetes can be a life-altering disease and hence requires one to make lifestyle and diet changes. As such, there are many things a diabetic must keep in mind to ensure their blood sugar levels are always under control.
If you have just been diagnosed with type-2 diabetes, here’s some help from Ridhima Batra, certified diabetic educator, sports nutritionist, and founder of Nutrition Defined. “Recognise that type 2 diabetes is a progressive disease and managing it soon after diagnosis (or before) will pay off now and in the long term. It is a serious disease that demands your attention. Ignoring it may not seem to have significant short-term consequences (chronic high blood glucose levels are not painful), but over time, elevated glucose levels can damage your nervous system, blood vessels, eyes, heart, and kidneys,” she said.
Which is why, managing your blood glucose levels now, along with other health risk factors (e.g., cholesterol, blood pressure, weight), is necessary for preventing these complications. “Losing even a small amount of weight and keeping it off can improve glucose control as well as have other clinical benefits. Better diabetes management will also benefit you in the here and now – your mood and energy levels are adversely affected when your glucose levels are high,” the expert added.