Diabetes Diary

2 Being diagnosed with diabetes can be overwhelming particularly when thinking about lifestyle changes and how diabetes may affect your future. Understanding your diabetes and the steps you need to take to have control over it, is paramount. Knowledge is power. Having control over diabetes involves implementing healthy eating, regular exercise, regular monitoring of your blood sugar levels and perhaps taking medication either in tablet form or as insulin injections. What is Diabetes The hormone insulin allows cells in your body to take up and use blood glucose (sugar) as an energy source. In non-diabetics, the right amount of insulin is released in proportion to the amount of glucose that comes from the food that they eat. Type 1 Diabetes occurs when the cells in the pancreas that normally produce insulin are damaged, causing little or no insulin to be produced. This type of diabetes is usually diagnosed at a very young age, although it can occur at any time and it can develop very quickly. Type 1 diabetes is controlled with insulin injections, which are used to balance the amount of sugar in the blood. Type 2 Diabetes occurs either when the pancreas does not produce enough insulin or when the cells in the body have become resistant to insulin, or a combination of both. It develops slowly over a long period of time. Control over Diabetes Managing your diabetes can prevent or slow the progress of many complications of diabetes, giving you extra years of a healthy, active life. The four steps you need to adopt are: 1. Measure your blood glucose levels regularly through self- testing.