Diabetes: Reduce Health Risks with Better Blood Sugar Control

Diabetes is a chronic condition that affects how your body turns food into energy. Normally, your body breaks down most of the food you eat into sugar (glucose), which enters your bloodstream. When your blood sugar rises, your pancreas releases insulin—a hormone that helps glucose enter your cells to be used for energy.

With diabetes, this process doesn’t work properly. Either your body doesn’t make enough insulin, doesn’t make any at all, or doesn’t use insulin effectively. As a result, too much sugar stays in your bloodstream, which over time can lead to serious health problems like heart disease, kidney damage, nerve issues, and vision loss.1

There are several types of diabetes:

• Type 1 diabetes: An autoimmune condition where the body attacks insulin-producing cells. People with this type need insulin every day.
• Type 2 diabetes: The most common form, where the body doesn’t use insulin well. It often develops over time and is linked to lifestyle and genetics.
• Gestational diabetes: Occurs during pregnancy and usually goes away after birth, but increases the risk of developing type 2 diabetes later.2

Diabetes Diagnosis

If you’ve been diagnosed with diabetes, your doctor will likely recommend changes to your diet and exercise routine. Following this advice is key. You might be surprised how quickly you start to enjoy a healthier lifestyle, and a healthier you.

Starting treatment early and keeping your blood sugar under control can greatly improve your long-term health.

Potential Complications of Diabetes

If you do not control your diabetes carefully you may develop some complications over the coming years. These may include damage to the small blood vessels in your body that will result in:

• reduced vision
• kidney damage
• slower wound healing
• nerve damage especially in the feet or toes 
• increased chance of heart attack or stroke
• the possibility of and amputation of a foot or a leg

How to Have the Best Possible Outcomes

The key to remaining healthy with diabetes is to keep you blood sugar as ‘normal’ as possible. Once the blood sugar gets too high it will start to damage the small blood vessels in the eyes, kidneys and feet.

Depending on your particular diabetes, your doctor may prescribe medicines or insulin for you. By sticking to diet and taking medicine or insulin, will allow you to be able to keep your blood sugar under control.

Two important points are:

1. You need to keep blood sugar levels under control all the time. Once the blood sugar levels get to high, damage is being done, and this damage cannot be reversed.
2. The progressive nature of type two diabetes means that medication will need to be adjusted over time to ensure you keep within safe blood sugar levels and prevent the complications associated with having diabetes.

Insulin Helps You Stay in Control

Insulin can help you manage your blood sugar more effectively and fine-tune your treatment to keep you as healthy as possible.

If you’ve recently started insulin, your dose should be reviewed within 3 to 6 months to ensure it’s working well for you. According to international data, 30–80% of people starting insulin may not receive enough to meet their treatment goals.3

If you have diabetes and your medications haven’t been reviewed in the past year, ask your doctor:

• “Am I meeting my blood sugar targets?”
• “Do I need a dose adjustment or a medication review?”

Regular reviews are key to staying on track and avoiding long-term complications.

Types of Insulin

There are several different sorts of insulins. You may be on one or more different insulins. Make sure you understand your insulin and how to use it. Your pharmacist will be able to answer questions like:

• Do you need to agitate your insulin before use?
• Do you have a different insulin to be used at mealtimes?
• How quickly does your insulin start working, how long does it work for?
• Is it long acting or short acting or pre-mix of both long and short?