Live Better
Live Better and Longer with Testing
People with diabetes have abnormally high glucose or blood sugar levels. Glucose is the energy source of the brain and the body. We get glucose from eating carbohydrates. After which, glucose is also stored in the liver.
Normal blood sugar levels are below 100 mg/dL. After eating, our glucose levels will normally rise and will stabilize during digestion.
Diabetics have blood sugar levels of 126 mg/dL when not eating. It can go above 200 mg/dL for those who have just eaten.
It is said that having diabetes is like a life sentence. It is a chronic condition where no cure has been found yet. However, it does not mean that diabetics will not lead a normal life anymore after the diagnosis has been laid out. Diabetics can still live among happy, non-diabetic people without carrying a sign with them announcing their syndrome.
Yes! Diabetics can live better if they simply know how to check up on their glucose levels.
High blood sugar levels are caused by three things only-
1. The body “does not produce insulin”. (Type 1 diabetes)
2. The body produces insulin, but it does not function properly. (Type 2 diabetes)
3. The body produces insulin. It functions as planned, but the body’s cells do not respond to it properly. (Type 2 diabetes)
Basically, diabetics just need to regulate the amount of insulin they have in their body. These can be immediately achieved by regular insulin injections (for Type 1 diabetes) and regular exercise and proper diet (for both Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes).
Glucose comes from carbohydrates. Our body breaks down the carbs into glucose. Our pancreas senses the glucose into our blood stream and secretes insulin to counteract the rise of glucose. Glycogen is glucose stored in our liver once it goes out of our blood stream.
In a normal situation, our body knows how to regulate the blood sugar levels by itself. When our glucose levels rise, our pancreas release insulin into our blood, after which our blood sugar levels stabilize.
When our glucose levels fall, our pancreases releases glucagon into our blood which tells the liver to break down glycogen into glucose; after which our blood sugar levels stabilize once again.
But with diabetics, all of this is not followed according to plan. Thus, with smart glucose testing, a person with diabetes can know the state of his or her body and direct the right action to their body.
Remember, diabetes is not a hopeless situation. Diabetics can still go on with their lives and perform normally. It is simply a matter of testing and checking the amount of glucose levels in their body and countering the situation as “prescribed by the doctor”.
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The Diabetic Number 1 Secret
Filed under General
Diabetes is an incurable condition. But you may be surprised to know that many diabetics go on with their lives until they are old. These people succeed in the things they put their heart into. They are able to pursue their dreams even with the onset of diabetes in their life.
Take for example seasoned performer, musical artist, and the Philippines’ first UNICEF ambassador Gary Valenciano or more popularly known as Gary V.
People know him as being the ultimate singer-dancer on stage. He could strum a tune and give life to it at the same time with his Michael Jackson-like movements.
But way before, only few know him as having been diagnosed as a Type 1 diabetic. Then, it was probably surreal to imagine the Gary V. as having diabetes.
One of the symptoms of diabetes is the frequent feeling of sluggishness of the body. If the blood sugar level is too high, energy is lost. The same if the blood sugar level is too low. Basically, fluctuating blood sugar can cause fatigue. And because diabetes has other associated risks like high blood pressure, fatigue can rise from there too.
So one can just imagine how an energetic performer like Gary V. is able to cope with a condition that will be with him for a lifetime. We all wonder how he does it.
To bring the connection nearer, so to speak, a family friend has been diagnosed as a Type 2 diabetic after many years of eating cake and juice for breakfast everyday at a local bakeshop. But I myself was surprised to find out that her condition was such. To me, she is a successful single mother to twin boys, buys herself expensive watches, and tries on the latest trends, just going on with her young life happily.
What is their secret? How can they seem to just go on with their daily routine?
You see, diabetes in the first place should not be a hindrance to whatever one has been doing before being diagnosed. Diabetes may be a life sentence, but it is a life sentence that can be overpowered.
It is important for diabetics to realize that they still have control over their life. Diabetes may be incurable but it is something that does not eat up one’s life.
With discipline and perseverance, a diabetic can live life to the fullest and return to leading a normal life.
Being control over one’s life is the key and secret to successfully managing diabetes.
Control over one’s food intake. Control over negative lifestyles like physical inactivity, inadequate rest, and harmful addictions like smoking and the like.
Because life does not stop with diabetes. And so shouldn’t you.
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