Good Lifestyle

It is estimated that 30.3 million Americans living with diabetes, according to disease control and prevention centers (CDC)National Diabetes Report for 2017. And yet, the average person knows very little about the realities of life with this chronic disease, which is not easy (or cheap) to manage, by any means whatsoever.

Diabetes requires constant attention and efforts, including awakening in the middle of the beggar night for more glucose or insulin. "My illness requires a lot of attention - how I eat, how do I feel, ensuring that I still have emergency sugar in case", explainsAnne Tetenman, a mother of two people diagnosed with type 1 diabetes in the early 90s at only 26 years old.

Instead of making assumptions about a disease that folds nearly 10% of the American population, read the realities of what it is like living with diabetes, according to those who have it and the doctors who treat it.

Many patients living with diabetes simply can not afford to follow increasing insulin costs. WhenResearchers from Yale University Studied a clinic in New Haven, Connecticut, in 2018, they found that about a quarter of all the diabetic patients treated there reducing insulin because they could not afford the appropriate doses.

"Prices are terrible," says Tetenman. "My health insurance covers a lot of what I have, but when I see what the actual pocket cost is, even for things so necessary that insulin, it's just obscene."

If you continue to give yourself insulin shots in the same place on your body, you will find yourself with lipohypertrophy or morbidity under the skin caused by grease accumulation. Unfortunately, these pieces leave scars visible and often, people living with diabetes do not know the risks of kicking fire at the same place before it's too late.

Having diabetes is not for the low heart. The majority of people with the disease monitor their blood sugar via finger tests - and as you could imagine, collaborate with a needle is not exactly something that is easy to do several times a day.

"All types of diabetes are not equal," says Tetenman. "You hear about type 1 and type 2 and gestational and all these different things, and I almost wish to have different names for all because they are really very different."

Although there are several factors that make the two different diseases, the biggest difference may be that while type 1 diabetes is a typically inherited disease, type 2 diabetes is a disorder. metabolic caused by elements such as obesity, genetics and inactivity.

"People were used to tell me that I had a thin-reaching younger diabetes because I was 26 when I was diagnosed, but you can be any age and get diabetes type 1 ", Tethman said. TheAmerican Association of Diabetes Confirms that type 1 diabetes occurs at each age, in people of each race, all shapes and sizes ".

Because type 2 diabetes is so closely linked to obesity, people often assume that type 1 diabetes should also be related to a person's weight, but this is not the case. For people with type 1 diabetes, no quantity ofweightloss Or the weight gain will have an effect on the severity of the disease.

People who are familiar with little diabetes tend to suppose mistakenly that the disease is directly associated with sugar and sugar only. However, anyone living with diabetes can tell you that it's not just pure sugar but alsocarbohydrates which have a significant impact on blood glucose.

"When I was diagnosed for the first time, people would tell me:" Oh, I had cookies without sugar because you are diabetic and you can not have sugar "but carbohydrates are carbohydrates" , Tethman said. "If I have a piece of cake without sugar, it's going to be almost the same as if I had a bagel or pasta or something like that, no matter."

It's not just typicalheavy foodLike bread and bagels you need to be careful when you have diabetes. A mean banana, for example, has a gram of amazing carbohydrates and requires a heavy dose of insulin. And mango? Only one cup of cut fruit has 28 grams of carbohydrates. But these are not things you think too often until you live with diabetes and you need to monitor your entries.

When you live with diabetes, you are transporting a backup rescue hiding is a necessity. Do you have to experiencehypoglycemiaor the low blood glucose, you will have to follow the rule of 15-15 and eat 15 grams of carbohydrates every 15 minutes until your blood glucose is at least 70 mg / dl, which requires everything that requires a large quantity Heavy food. .

This small machine that you see on a diabetic hip is a portable insulin pump, used to automatically administer insulin as needed, and people with type 1 diabetes can not go anywhere without that, or they will risk go indiabetic acidocetosis.

Although all type 1 diabetics require additional insulin to survive, all type 2 diabetes cases call for this type of treatment. AsMostwell Health Emphasies, most people with type 2 diabetes will start trying to try aBalanced diet And if it did not help, insulin therapy may be necessary on the line.

YesYou are a food Who has just been diagnosed with diabetes, do not worry: As long as you know how to handle your blood sugar levels, your eating habits do not have to change dramatically. "I can eat what I want as long as I handle insulin appropriately," Tetenman says. "Just know what things require more insulin."

Although common symptoms of diabetes include frequent uure, uncomfortable thirsty feelings andExtreme Fatigue, theAmerican Association of Diabetes Reports that some people with diabetes have so subtle symptoms than those who live they do not record them as symptoms at all. (That's another reason not to skip this annualDoctor's visit!)

A 2016 study published in theJournal of Medicine and Life showed that people living with diabetes are significantly moresubject to depression than those without the disease. And this can be because of frustrations that come with the disease.

"It's totally correct to become frustrated and crazy sometimes because of diabetes," wrote the patientAmber Ruthin a blog post forMedtronic. "Have a good cry. Say diabetes to go where the sun does not shine. We are human. Do not let people make you feel bad because you are upset by diabetes. When this sadness and frustration are the theme Dominant in your diabetes care is when these feelings become unhealthy. "

The food you eat is not the only thing that affects your blood glucose. And although exercise is good for the maintenance of diabetes, diabetics often find that their blood glucose is high at the end of a workout as well asThe muscles need more glucose (and therefore, more insulin) after long activity shoulders.

According toDiabetes teaching center At the University of California, San Francisco, the hormones that your body freesWhen you are stressedBecause the body simultaneously frees glucose and become less sensitive to insulin, which makes your blood sugar high and harder to control for an anxiety period.

"Some people, like me, have to deal with what is called hypoglycemia, which means that we do not always feel it when our blood glucose is low"Rachel Kerstter, who lives with type 1 diabetes, saysPrevention. "The others get the symptoms of the manual - shaking, perspiration, confusion, irritability - but not me. I will not feel symptoms of a low and I will not even know I'm not low if I did not check My numbers. Often when I 'L bassy, ​​I know in my head what I have to do, but sometimes I have trouble getting made. "

One of the symptoms of hypoglycemia is a foggy thought. Many diabetics report sudden vertigo and confusion, a combo that can be dangerous or even deadly in certain circumstances.

According toCDC, diabetes poses only one risk during pregnancy if it is poorly managed or neglected. As long as you efficiently manage your blood glucose during pregnancy, you and your baby will be perfectly happy and healthy.

"The most difficult part, for me, will have to rely on drugs to stay alive," the patient of type 1 diabetesKaren Bryant RecountPrevention. "I remember standing at the response from the pharmacy one day, while I waited for my ordinances and I thought myself depends on this pharmacist to be able to give me the medications I need. It was a very thoughtful thought. "

Between checking your blood glucose and keep track of all your medications and supplies, living with diabetes forces you to become more organized. You are also much more in tune with your body, seeing that you have to think about what you do and eat and how it will affect your blood glucose at any time.

When you have diabetes, you must keep a stable blood glucose all the time, the midnight included. Your blood sugar levels goes everywhere when you sleep when you sleep, so there will be nights when you are waking suddenly by low low or high ups that require immediate attention.

Once you have diagnosed diabetes, do not expect you to take more last minute vacation (unless you have only two or three days of insulin and test bands of blood glucose on you). Of course, you risk missing these spontaneous adventures, but being healthy at home beats a trip to the hospital in a location away from afar.

The problem is not that diabetics can not digest alcohol. Instead, the problem lies in the fact that, if you are intoxicated, you may forget to monitor your blood sugar level and you could find yourself at the hospital with complications. And for many diabetics, alcohol can influence blood sugar levels, which means you play a dangerous game if you are on-soak.

According toAmerican Association of DiabetesDiabetes increases your risk of skin disorders, eye problems, nervous damage, renal diseases, high blood pressure, etc.

"You will always have people who will tell you:" Oh, I know someone who healed their diabetes with an extra cinnamon in their diet, "or" they had had it in their diet, "said Tetenman." He There is nothing that can change [my diagnosis] until they take a curative treatment for autoimmune diseases. "

Although Tetenman has lived with type 1 diabetes for most of her life, she says her diagnosis has never stopped once to do something she stared at her heart.

"I thought at the beginning that I would not be able to do certain things because of this" handicap "and the only thing I can think about where I have never been told that I can not do something Is scuba diving, because I could not be able to say if my blood glucose falls, "she said. In the end, Tetenman said she will not feel held back by her diabetes. "I could make a competition of less pie if I wanted," she added.