Diabetes Doesn’t Have to Drag You Down If You Learn Your ABCs

From the moment you receive a diabetes diagnosis, business as usual is no longer an option if you want to avoid some of the many serious complications of this chronic disease, which range from heart disease to nerve damage.

For the more than 38 million Americans who have diabetes, properly managing the condition should be a top priority — and we want to help get you started with this blog post.

Since November is National Diabetes Awareness Month, the team here at Neuropathy & Pain Centers of Texas wants to touch on why diabetes management is paramount and how you can fight back by minding your ABCs.

Potential complications of diabetes

Let’s kick off this discussion with a quick review of the wide net that diabetes can cast over your health, from head to toe. These complications include:

• Vision loss
• Gum disease
• Heart attack
• Stroke
• Peripheral artery disease
• Kidney disease
• Peripheral neuropathy, which affects nearly half of all diabetics

As you can see, the conditions that are linked to diabetes are very serious and even life-threatening, which makes minimizing the impact that diabetes is having on your body important.

Learn your ABCs

To sidestep the diabetes complications and side effects we outlined above, it’s a good idea to to focus on your ABCs:

1. A1C blood glucose testing

When you have diabetes, you can have dangerously elevated glucose levels in your bloodstream thanks to a lack of insulin and/or insulin resistance. (Insulin is the hormone that delivers glucose to your cells for energy.)

A1C blood glucose testing tracks the levels of blood sugar. We want yours to be below 7%, and 6% is even better. Accomplishing this often boils down to:

• Taking your insulin as directed
• Removing excess sugars and carbs from your diet
• Exercising more to burn the glucose in your system

In fact, these three recommendations will be at the heart of each of the ABCs.

2. Blood pressure

Approximately two-thirds of people with diabetes have blood pressure readings that are above 130/80 mm Hg. Combining hypertension with diabetes increases your risk for cardiovascular disease exponentially, so you want to do what you can to lower your blood pressure.

Steps like eliminating salt from your diet and exercising more are great ways to get your blood pressure numbers down.

3. Cholesterol

If we haven’t made this clear already, when you have diabetes, your cardiovascular system is in the direct line of fire. High levels of glucose can damage blood vessels; if you add cholesterol plaques to the equation, your circulation can become dangerously compromised.

Common sources of cholesterol are high-fat foods, such as fried foods, processed foods, and red meat. So, if you have diabetes, it’s important that you migrate your diet over to one that favors fresh fruits and vegetables, as well as lean proteins, over other foods.

4. Smoking

The ABCs to which we’re referring have an S at the end that stands for smoking. The damage that smoking (and vaping) can inflict on your cardiovascular system is significant. So, if you have diabetes, now is the time to quit this unhealthy habit.

By focusing on your ABCs, you can go a long way toward avoiding the serious, and often life-changing, complications of diabetes.

For a more personalized diabetes management plan you can put into action today, we invite you to call or message one of our locations in Waco, Arlington, Wichita Falls, or Fort Worth, Texas, to schedule an appointment.