A full, dilated eye exam helps your healthcare provider find and treat eye problems early—before much vision loss can occur. Adults with type 1 diabetes get a dilated eye exam within five years of being diagnosed, and then every year after that. For adults with type 2 diabetes, they should have an eye exam soon after diagnosis and a dilated eye exam every year after. Nerve damage caused by diabetes is called diabetic neuropathy. High blood sugar damages your nerves, and these nerves may stop sending messages to different parts of your body.
Nerve damage can cause problems ranging from mild numbness to pain. Half of all people with diabetes have nerve damage. There are several types of neuropathy:. People with diabetes should be looking out for symptoms of nerve damage by recognizing new symptoms related to pain, numbness, or new problems with continence or bowel control. Like with other complications, keeping your blood sugar as close to your target range as possible is the best way to help prevent or delay nerve damage.
People with diabetes could also get diabetic kidney disease. About one out of three adults with diabetes has kidney disease. High blood glucose can damage the blood vessels in your kidneys. Many people with diabetes also develop high blood pressure, which can also damage the kidneys. Diabetes doesn't only lead to high blood sugar levels. People with diabetes also have sugars in saliva, which come in contact with the mouth. Their teeth and gums are therefore exposed to more sugars, which helps germs and plaque grow, irritating the gums and causing gum disease.
In addition to gum disease, your jaw and tongue, and other mouth tissue can be affected. The most common gum disease and other mouth problems that people with diabetes have include:. Some of the first signs of gum disease are swollen, tender, or bleeding gums. Sometimes you may not have any signs of gum disease. You may not know you have it until you have serious damage. Your best defense is to see your dentist twice a year for a cleaning and checkup.
While diabetes complications are severe, there are ways to manage blood sugar to lower your A1C levels and prevent them. With the help of medical professionals, a treatment plan, which includes medication and lifestyle changes, will help lower your levels and avoid complications.
Your diet has a huge impact on the way your body produces and uses blood sugar. In order to maintain a healthy blood sugar level and therefore lower A1C, healthy eating and meal tracking help. Meal tracking helps you plan ahead for healthy options as well as look back on what might have spiked your blood sugar. A few healthy snacks to lower your A1C include:.
Managing stress is crucial to staying healthy in general, and can particularly help people with diabetes. Studies have shown that acute stress can increase glucose production and interfere with glucose utilization. This means better control of stress can have a positive impact on blood sugar levels.
Some stress relief techniques include:. Exercise helps people with diabetes for a variety of reasons, including weight loss and stress relief, but it also directly affects blood sugar levels. When you exercise, your muscles need and use sugar, which lowers the levels in the blood. Research has shown that long-term regular physical activity training had positive effects on glycemic control and body composition among patients with type 2 diabetes.
It also promoted cardiovascular fitness among these patients. The more exercise, the greater A1C reduction. Aim for at least 10 minutes of activity each day. Two people can have the same A1C, one with steady blood sugar levels and the other with high and low swings. Keep track and share the results with your healthcare provider so you can make changes to your treatment plan and medications if needed. The A1C blood test is just one of many tools to check and monitor blood sugar.
A1C is an average of your blood sugar level over 90 days, so healthcare providers will likely recommend checking levels of blood sugar between A1C tests if blood sugar isn't managed. Keeping track of your blood sugar regularly can help you identify things that affect your blood sugar level and tweak your management plan. Managing diabetes is your best defense against the various complications that this condition can cause.
Discuss concerns and new symptoms with your healthcare provider to make sure your treatment plan addresses your needs. We know healthy eating is key to help manage diabetes, but that doesn't make it easy. Our free nutrition guide is here to help.
Sign up and receive your free copy! It's a three-month average because that's typically how long a red blood cell lives. If your HbA1c levels are high, it may be a sign of diabetes , a chronic condition that can cause serious health problems , including heart disease , kidney disease , and nerve damage.
An HbA1c test may be used to check for diabetes or prediabetes in adults. Prediabetes means your blood sugar levels show you are at risk for getting diabetes. The Centers for Disease Control CDC recommends that adults over the age of 45 get tested to screen for diabetes and prediabetes. If your results are normal, you should repeat the test every 3 years. If your results show you have prediabetes, you should get tested every years. You should also talk to your health care provider about taking steps to reduce your risk of developing diabetes.
Testing should be done every 3 years, and more frequently if your results show you have prediabetes. A health care professional will take a blood sample from a vein in your arm, using a small needle. After the needle is inserted, a small amount of blood will be collected into a test tube or vial. You may feel a little sting when the needle goes in or out.
This usually takes less than five minutes. There is very little risk to having a blood test. You may have slight pain or bruising at the spot where the needle was put in, but most symptoms go away quickly. Your results may mean something different.
If you have questions about your results, talk to your health care provider. Your health care provider may have other recommendations for you, depending on your overall health, age, weight, and other factors. When our bodies are stressed or anxious, our stress hormone - cortisol - takes over. Cortisol prepares us for fight or flight by giving us an energy boost, which in fact is a blood sugar level spike.
While it is difficult to eliminate stress from your life, we recommend setting time aside everyday for a relaxing activity like:. Spending time doing these activities will give your cortisol levels time to drop and reset. If you make a habit of relaxing everyday, you will eventually prime your hormones for lower levels of stress and anxiety.
It is not advisable to use TV to relax because most programming purposefully uses tension and fast-paced action to keep your attention, but a side effect of this is that your body stays in a high-alert, high-cortisone state while you are viewing.
But did you know that participating in activities you enjoy may also help support healthy aging? Insulin is an important hormone in our body that helps us to regulate our blood sugar. Unfortunately, if our blood sugar and insulin levels get out of whack, we can begin to develop changes that increase our risk for both weight gain and type two diabetes.
Vitamin D is a necessary vitamin to keep your bones healthy, however, it's also important for many other functions and may help to prevent COVID Now accepting Telehealth appointments.
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