Diabetes Self-Care. Dr. Norman Swan

by | Dementia, Diabetes

diabetes self care
Type 2 diabetes is the most common form of the illness in Australia. It can sometimes initially be managed through lifestyle modification including a healthy diet, regular exercise and monitoring your blood glucose levels.

Type two diabetes is becoming commoner and commoner in Australia. For the initial treatment you have to work with your GP, not take my advice but consult your doctor.

The initial treatment for diabetes is changing your diet. By going on a much healthier diet with less red meat, less carbs, more plant-based foods. Practice portion control with your meals, do a lot of exercise and get your weight down.

Getting your weight down has been shown to make an enormous difference to type two diabetes. Therefore it is best to get in early when you may have a fat tummy, high blood pressure, or maybe high cholesterol and your blood sugar is creeping up. It is much better to get in early.

Strength training, muscle training, building up your muscles can make a big difference to type two diabetes. However, there are some people who, for genetical or other reasons, are just not able to control their diet as well as they should, and even if they do, it still doesn’t work. People in these situations need to go on medications. There are some very simple medications that are really good for type two diabetes.

These medications help you lose weight, the evidence is that they may even prevent things like heart disease and dementia. So there’s some very good medications for people with diabetes. Medications which have very few side effects on the market.

Dr Norman Swan, Physician and Journalist