"Staying Positive With Type 2 Diabetes"

Type 2
1

Hello!
Sharing a nice resource brought to light by a community member. Many people have enjoyed connecting with “Diabetes What to Know” as resource for living with Type 2 Diabetes. Feel free to leave your thoughts and comments! The link is referenced at the bottom of the page.
Have a wonderful day!
Cynthia

Tips for good self-care with diabetes
Robin (who’s had type 2 diabetes since 2002) shares some tips for managing your body, managing your mind and learning how to be a self-caregiver

July 7th, 2016
A Guide for Staying Positive With Diabetes
Type 2 Diabetes
A Three-Part Series by Robin Fein

What does it mean to stay positive while managing a chronic illness like diabetes? This three-part series of articles will cover this topic in depth—looking at how we can examine our attitudes and our actions and see where we can shift towards being kind to ourselves and focusing on the positive– both in how we manage our bodies AND our minds.

This can be difficult as diabetes requires constant vigilance– we have to monitor what we eat and how it affects our bodies, our energy and our mood. Also, type 2 diabetes is an illness with a lot of stigma. Many people regard it as an illness created by lifestyle. So we feel guilty and to blame– “if only I had better control over myself, this would never have happened…” is a common feeling. There is shame and judgment from ourselves and others.

The truth is that diabetes is not your fault (as you can hear from this healthcare professional), but we do have to learn to take better care of ourselves because we had a genetic propensity to develop this illness. Now that we have the disease, we have to create a “caregiver self” that takes charge in the face of the demands of the illness and the fear of what diabetes can do to our bodies over time.

How do we develop this caregiver self? It can be challenging because many people (especially women) have a hard time taking care of themselves—often it’s easier to take care of others first while neglecting our own needs. Maybe diabetes just seems too complicated and we would rather be in denial. That brings us to the purpose of this guide: to help you create a basic plan so diabetes feels less overwhelming.

How to Stay Positive With Diabetes

I’ve based the suggestions in this series on what I have learned about diabetes since my diagnosis about 14 years ago, as a co-leader of a monthly support group sponsored by the national organization called Diabetes Sisters and my professional experience as a psychotherapist.

Manage your body:

Learn what is healthy for your body. Get educated about diabetes and explore what kinds of food choices and exercise make you feel better. Use how you feel and the numbers on your meter as great information that can guide your choices.

The foundation of good self-care with diabetes is working with your healthcare professional, taking your medications as prescribed and monitoring your blood glucose on a daily basis.
Become your own health advocate by continuing to learn about diabetes and your medications, and being an active participant in your healthcare. Think about what your health goal is for the upcoming year. Compile a list of questions for your doctor before each visit—what do you want to know? What are you curious about? Knowing that you are ultimately in control of your health decisions can make a big difference in how you feel about diabetes.

Manage your mind:

Our minds are powerful and we can choose where we want to focus. Direct your thoughts towards gratitude for life in its abundance. Let positive thoughts connect you to what is present all around waiting to be observed.

Develop compassion for yourself.

We will never be perfect in how we manage this disease. There will be times when we eat the cake at the party or the bread that we’re trying to avoid. But remember… in every moment, there is a chance to make a different choice and it’s not productive to beat yourself up for choices you’ve made in the past. Accept that you’ll make mistakes and that’s OK—tomorrow is a new day and you’ll have fresh opportunities to make different choices.

Ask yourself some questions.

Does your state of mind (feeling depressed, anxious or stressed) interfere with your ability to take care of yourself? Do your relationships? Understanding how the different aspects of your life are impacting your heatlh is a great place to start when you’re formulating your self-care plan…
If you are feeling emotional pain, can you do something about it? What’s one small action you could take that might address the difficulty? Would it help to talk to someone else about what your feeling? Can you identify what thoughts are going through your head that are making you feel bad?
And be sure to make time for pleasure. Do things you like to do. It helps to create balance in our lives which can contribute to a sense of well-being.
Stay tuned for Part 2 of this series that will cover how to take action and become a self care giver!

Here are just a few questions and comments that people left after reading the article…

Natalie
08/21/2016 at 8:06 PM
How can ones blood count be good at night and high in the morning?

Hi Natalie,

A great question and something that we know a lot of people with diabetes experience… that’s called the “dawn phenomenon” and we’ve written about it here: https://diabeteswhattoknow.com/type-2-diabetes/dawn-phenomenon/

Talk to your doctor about what’s happening with your blood sugar and get his/her suggestions on how you can adjust your medication / eating plan to address those high blood sugars in the morning.

Hope this is helpful–

Warm regards,
Ansley

Reply ↓
Judy
08/22/2016 at 8:24 AM
I always curious for if I enjoy one social party of food in a meal with starch heavy food without moderation and ice cream as dessert, what does that do to my body? Is it ok to eat like this once a month? Thanks!

Reply ↓
Ansley
08/31/2016 at 10:48 AM

Hey Judy,

Thanks so much for the question– it’s a very good one. This is definitely something that you should talk to your nutritionist or diabetes educator about, but in general, an occasional “Cheat Day” isn’t a bad thing and in some cases, can help you stick to your overall healthy eating plan. Here are some suggestions for how to cheat in a healthy way: https://diabeteswhattoknow.com/type-2-diabetes/9-tips-enjoying-treats-diabetes/

But again, please talk to your HCP before making any changes to your diet. Hope this is helpful!

Best,
Ansley

You can read the full article and connect at https://diabeteswhattoknow.com/type-2-diabetes/guide-staying-positive-diabetes/

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Hello I am new to the forum and was looking to talk about complications in general. I hear that diabetes is a progressive disease and can lead to comlications but is that still true if your BG is under good control? Sorry if this is the wrong place to ask this question…

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If you keep your BG in range, low triglycerides and high HDL then you run a similar or better risk as the rest of the population.

you are better reducing your sugars and starches and replacing that energy with a bit more protein and more fats. google LCHF

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We now have very strong evidence from studies like the 1992 DCCT that normalizing your blood sugar can dramatically reduce your risks of complications. It doesn’t necessarily work for everyone, you can still get complications but your risk will be significantly reduced. As to the progression of diabetes, that again varies. One thing I strongly believe is that high blood sugars themselves cause progression, probably because high blood sugars poison your beta cells (there is even a name for this - glucotoxicity). Unfortunately Type 2 diabetes is a very heterogeneous condition and simply normalizing your blood sugars may not be enough to halt progression. That being said I know a fair number of people who have had great long-term success normalizing their blood sugars and halting the progression of their diabetes. For instance David Mendosa.

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Thanks for replying. I will check out the article and thanks for the information

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Thanks for the information Brian. I will check out David Mendosa’s site as well.

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Thanks man. Also i found that some herbs can benefit diabetics and overall health. Diabetics needs a lot of antioxidant to avoid any cardio vascular disease. so eating parsley, fruit, and high ORAC value foods can help any diabetics to avoid any bad complications.

http://newsofdiabetes.blogspot.com/2016/07/reduce-or-treat-diabetes-with-this-herb.html

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Eating (a lot of fruit) means increasing your daily carb intake, which is not something that “can help any diabetics to avoid any bad complications.”

And I wouldn’t consider your link (newsofdiabetes.blogspot.com) to be a reputable source, either. Anything posted on the internet that makes claims that herbs can effectively “treat” or (worse yet) “prevent” diabetes are sources to avoid.

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i don’t mean eating a lot of fruits. only 1 fruit can give you good amount of antioxidant… i don’t care much about the authority if it gives me the info. do you think diabetes type 2 can be treated in early stages ??

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Type 2 diabetes can be treated regardless of stage. It cannot be “prevented” or “cured”, however, especially not by herbs.

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@mirenova_fofafeten what is your connection to diabetes? Do you have diabetes?

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my father have diabetes

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Where did you get all these ideas about how to manage diabetes? Does your father use these? Would you recommend that your father use these treatments? Did it help your father?

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my father is not in early stages of diabetes. And not everyone with diabetes have the same level. what i think is in early stages you can use herbs/omega3 to reduce blood sugar and prevent further Deterioration. And if you mean should my father eat some fruits and antioxidant?! Then off-course yes!

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So your father wasn’t helped by this fruits antioxidant herbal stuff, but he should eat it anyway? But do you really still want him to do this stuff? Maybe he should try a low carb high fat diet. Or is it because he is not in the early stage? Why do you think it helps anyone? Are there some studies? Do you know anyone that has been helped by fruits antioxidant herbal stuff?

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i was a little kid / wasent born in his early stages. And like i told you in early stages this info could helps diabetics… If you think it useless i can delete it now

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I just have no idea where you got this. I’m sorry, there is lots of information out there. Crazy people tell those of us with diabetes to what to do to cure or prevent our diabetes. If there is scientific evidence that stuff works I will do a total happy dance, but generally ends up being just a bunch of malarkey. And sadly, it is those of us with diabetes that suffer from the bad information. Don’t take it personally, I have seen very prominent diabetes educators spew total misinformation and not even realize how much they have harmed society.

Sadly, there isn’t evidence that fruit or antioxidants or herbs do anything to manage, let alone cure or prevent diabetes.

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Yes i understand that there is no cure of diabetes. But sometimes people call Prevention of the diabetes deterioration a cure/treatment…

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You are quite right, but we would both have to admit that saying the delaying progression is far from a cure or prevention. And I have not seen any evidence that fruit or anitoxidants or herbs have been able to play a role in delaying the progression of diabetes. This is why I react strongly. Perhaps you could provide some citations in pubmed. I can provide you some citations that suggest that a low carb high fat diet can delay and halt diabetes progression. Would that be helpful?

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fruit wont prevent diabetes. i said that taking few of it a day is good because of the antioxidant. but some herbs and vegetables and omega 3 can delay the progression of diabetes in early stages

http://care.diabetesjournals.org/content/26/12/3215
http://www.webmd.com/diabetes/cinnamon-and-benefits-for-diabetes