How to control diabetes

Just as with any condition, it is important to know how to control diabetes. Indeed, knowing how to control diabetes can save your life! After many years, diabetes can lead to serious problems in your eyes, kidneys, nerves, gums and teeth; but the most dangerous problem caused by diabetes is heart disease. Statistics have shown that if you have diabetes, your risk of a heart attack is almost the same as someone who has already suffered one. You can reduce the risk by controlling your blood pressure and blood fat levels. A blood test to check your glucose levels will show if you have pre-diabetes or diabetes itself.

To know how to control diabetes, depends very much upon how well controlled your blood sugar levels are. Initially being aware of how to control diabetes may involve dietary changes. Your doctor should refer you to a local dietician to offer expert advise about how to control diabetes through changes to your current diet. If on review, diet alone has been unsuccessful then your doctor may consider medication as an alternate method of how to control diabetes. Typically, this is either metformin or gliclazide tablets, and act in different ways: they either help the pancreas to produce more insulin; help the body use the insulin more effectively; or slow down the rate at which glucose is absorbed by the bowel after eating.

For some sufferers of Type 2 diabetes treatment with dietary changes and tablets is not entirely effective as ways of how to control diabetes, and they may then need insulin injections or enhancers. Two of these alternative options of how to control diabetes are Prandin and Starlix. The former, was approved by the US FDA in December 1997. This agent is a very short acting stimulant of insulin release, and works by enhancing insulin secretion from the beta cells of the pancreas. The drug has minimal renal excretion, thus may be useful in patients with impaired renal function. The effect of this drug is very short, but it is another good way of how to control diabetes. It is designed to be taken with each meal in order to stimulate insulin release and allow handling of the carbohydrate load from that meal. If a meal is skipped, then so should Prandin. If an extra meal is eaten, extra Prandin may be appropriate. Starlix, (nateglinide) was released for use in the USA in early 2001 as another method in how to control diabetes. It appears to enhance insulin release more quickly than Prandin, and has a lower risk of hypoglycemia, and has been approved for use by itself, or in combination with Glucophage.