What is the best diabetic advice? I have been seeing Diabetes patients for over 12 years. I will mention some of the points I advise to my patients. (Please consult your Doctor before following any of the advice, as every patient is different and needs personalised care, medicines, diet and exercise recommendations) 1. Follow up with your Doctor regularly. Many patients, once they see the glucose levels have improved for a while, stop following up even for months to years and continue taking same medicines. This is wrong, as medicines need adjustments based on glucose, hypoglycaemia symptoms, diet and exercise being followed and also on results. 2. Type 2 Diabetes (the commonest type of Diabetes) is a lifestyle disease. Diet and exercise (lifestyle) are the mainstay of the treatment. Medicines (tablets) are required and also sometimes Insulin, but if lifestyle changes are not followed, medicines alone may not work for long term. Do consult a good Dietitian and walk/ exercise daily. Waking is a very underrated exercise. Recommended is 30–40 mins of brisk walk daily for 5–6 days a week. Yoga also has been shown to have good benefit in most of our patients. 3. Keep your weight under check. This is a very important factor for most of our Type 2 Diabetes patients. Of course, lifestyle (appropriate diet and exercise) will be the mainstay for maintaining optimal weight for a patient. 4. Regular blood tests, urine tests, annual eye and foot check up, blood pressure, cholesterol checks are very important. The medicines are decided based on all the tests. Do these as advised by your Dr. 5. The aim of holistic diabetes management, apart from glucose control, is overall risk reduction and avoidance of complications. Hence Doctors target Glucose control, blood pressure, cholesterol levels, weight all together and also monitor kidney and other parameters regularly. 6. Adequate sleep and stress management is also important. Special care should be given to our elderly patients and those staying alone.
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