Consistent high blood sugar in your body can cause type 2 diabetes. The way you live can be the cause of high blood sugar. If not identified and managed soon enough, one can be a victim of type 2 diabetes. That can silently impact the crucial organs like the heart, kidney, eyes, and nerves of your body, leading to multiple chronic diseases. On the other hand, with good diabetes-friendly lifestyle practices, you can live a better and overall healthier life. The importance of lifestyle in type 2 diabetes empowers high-spirited diabetic living.
The absolute key is your blood sugar management. The wise choices that you make neither raise your blood glucose level too high nor too low, happen suddenly. Connected to the blood glucose mediation, Here are the factors responsible.
While each of these factors is an independent influencer, combined, they can have massive power to lead a happier and healthier life as a well-managed type 2 diabetic.
Highlights
-
- Knowledge| Communication is power: Build. Update and practice your living for the betterment of diabetes. Communication among fellow diabetic sufferers for life betterment helps your everyday living. Connect virtually with forums like Reddit, face group groups, and other diabetes forums and discussions. Post and answer questions
- Blood Sugar and Nutrition: Do You need personalized nutrition? Are you on a Keto or vegan diet? Are you pure or partially vegetarian? Where you stand, run by your dietician and medical team to get advice
- Make regular exercise part of your DNA: While walking is the most common, there are other routines to add to or replace walking benefiting your health. Get an evaluation from experts before you change to the new routine.
-
Make Sure of Hydration-Easy to forget in a busy workday schedule.
- Vitamin D -Know your level vs. where you should be at. Get easily supplemented if you are deficient.
- Stay informed of your Diabetic health: Follow up with your diabetes medical team and get your lab tests done as prescribed by your Diabetes practitioner.
- Use the blood sugar measurement technology available for real-time monitoring or occasional, situational checking of the blood sugar.
-
Sleep well.
It may be easy to say but difficult for many at this time. Have you tried the military sleep technique that makes you sleep in 2 minutes?
-
Stay Consistent with your routine.
Looks easy. Right! No. Not at all. You may get bored, attracted to sweet, fast food, and maybe still smoke. Get the routine, stay on it, and practice.
Let’s dip in
- Knowledge| Communication is power: Living and building an active diabetes type 2 network with educated and knowledgeable people. Tying up with people, community, and educational forums on diabetes is vital. That increases your awareness and never lets you forget that you are diabetic. It is like calling for or checking on how you are doing.
- Blood Sugar and Nutrition Dietetics may need personalized nutrition to manage their blood sugar. Stay connected with your diabetic expert practitioner, dietician, and team. There are many emerging diets like keto and vegan.
- Get your diet from your dietician and keep it up in your meals and snacks.
- I have my personalized diet as a primarily vegetarian diet.
- Remember your portions. Overeating can be very easy, adding weight over time. That increases diabetes risk.
- Make regular exercise part of your DNA.
- Which exercises?
- How many steps? Which steps can you add to your step count?
- Be mindful of the exercises you do. Know How much is too much exercise? It can harm your body.
- Can you substitute walking for Yoga, Pilates, and pranayam? These exercises can be done quickly inside your home in winter when you may not want to go outside.
- Enjoy the exercises you do to relieve your stress and circulate your blood around the body. That enhances the supply of oxygen in your body. It helps your joints stay moving.
- Exercise improves your heart health and helps a better working kidney, which helps remove excess glucose from the blood and manage the blood sugar.
- With that comes adequate hydration.
-
Water. Water. Water.
It is easy to forget, but does work hard not to forget water from your daily routine during your busy workday. A large number of people don’t like the taste of water. There are alternatives and substitutes to make it tastier for you. Get it checked daily, or clock them in to remind you of your water.
-
Vitamin D
Low or no vitamin D has a significant bearing on your diabetes status. On top of that, the Institute of Medicine has upped the required Vitamin D level. Keep the table handy to assess your level.
| nmol/L* | ng/mL* | Health status |
| <30 | <12 | Associated with vitamin D deficiency, which can lead to rickets in infants and children and osteomalacia in adults |
| 30 to <50 | 12 to <20 | Generally considered inadequate for bone and overall health in healthy individuals |
| ≥50 | ≥20 | Generally considered adequate for bone and overall health in healthy individuals |
| >125 | >50 | Linked to potential adverse effects, particularly at >150 nmol/L (>60 ng/mL) |
*Serum concentrations of 25(OH)D are reported in both nanomoles per liter (nmol/L) and nanograms per milliliter (ng/mL). One nmol/L = 0.4 ng/mL, and 1 ng/mL = 2.5 nmol/L.
-
Stay informed of your Diabetic health- Diabetes is a silent killer
Follow up with your doctor’s appointment. Get your lab tests done and let a professional analyze them.
- Use the technology available- Continuous Glucose Monitor
- Owning Blood measurement equipment to follow your diabetes situation.
- Get your continuous glucose monitor (cgm) to monitor your blood glucose in real-time.
- Seeing what food raises or keeps your blood sugar steady is convenient. So you can choose your food to help with diabetes.
- Check your status to see if you can get a cgm free or compensation.
- Owning blood test equipment using strips can help to check your blood sugar before you eat after you eat, and morning or night time. I got a free one from my doctor’s office. However, you spend some money to buy strips. I am not sure if your insurance covers those expenses.
-
Sleep well
A good night’s sleep ensures a better and more energetic next day. You feel fresh and encouraged to move on with the day forward.
Good sleep may not be due to blood sugar variation throughout the night. There can be multiple reasons not to sleep well at night. You may be deprived of a well-rested night if you have chronic diseases, are stressed, slept a few hours in the daytime, or have late-day caffeine intake.
Here is a way one can always sleep well. The military method used by army pilots seems to work well. How to Fall Asleep in 2 Minutes (Military Technique). Here is how..
Drop your shoulders and hands.
Relax your neck and traps; feel yourself sinking into the chair or bed. Then start at the top of your right arm, and slowly relax your biceps, forearms, and hands. Repeat on the other side. And don’t forget to keep breathing slowly and deeply.
-
Stay Consistent with all the above routines.
Sounds easy, right? I find it the most challenging task to do the daily diabetes routine. However, practicing every day makes you a daily habit. It is like everything else in life. Posting your routine in a few places inside your home area that you use the most helps significantly.
Summary
The positive impact of lifestyle on the management of type 2 diabetes can help other diabetics to adapt to helpful routines. While it may not be easy to be strictly disciplined every single day, it will keep you motivated.
If you want to know why one gets high blood sugar, here is your reason, as science says. Higher blood sugar in your blood on a long-term basis leads to type 2 diabetes.
In a non-diabetic person, digestion of the food generates sugar that goes into your bloodstream. Sugar enters the cell, and the hormone insulin converts sugar into energy.
In diabetes patients, there is less or no availability of insulin than sugar needs use. One may be insulin resistant.
The absence of insulin leaves sugar in the blood, making you diabetic.
Let us know how your practices and what helped and did not help you.
Disclaimer: Take the advice of your physician, diabetes team, or dietician before changing your routines. This article is based on scientific research and personal experience.
