Editor's note: Starting today, Christine McKinney delivers expert tips on how to live better with diabetes.
If you're reading this, you likely have diabetes or know someone who does. You probably already understand that successful self-management is essential to reducing your risks of developing diabetes complications. My job as a certified diabetes educator at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center is just that: teaching people how to manage their diabetes.
Yes, managing diabetes can be a full-time job. One of my learning experiences as a diabetes care professional was a week-long training session at the International Diabetes Center.
During that week I was a person with diabetes. Each day, I measured and gave myself four injections (of saline, not insulin), tested my blood glucose four times, tried to do some exercise (wearing a pedometer to measure it) and followed a carbohydrate-controlled meal plan - while, of course, keeping a log of all of this.
This is what almost all health care professionals will ask you to do, and it's tough work! I could barely keep up with it for a week. My heartfelt praise and admiration go out to those of you who do it every day.
There's a flood of information about diabetes coming your way every day, especially now that it appears our nation is finally waking up to the diabetes epidemic. Some of it is helpful, some is confusing, some is downright wrong or misleading.
I hope my blog will help you sort through what's important and question how it all applies to your personal situation. Here's a tip: think of all of this information using the five keys to diabetes management: diet, exercise, medications, monitoring blood glucose levels, and education.
I'll cover all of these topics in my blog entries, with a little more emphasis on food and meal planning. It's not just because I'm also a registered dietitian; almost all the newly diagnosed patients who walk into my office say, "What can I eat?"
How we eat is one of the few things we can control in our lives, so it's understandably hard to give up that control when you get diabetes.
Even though I don't have diabetes, I go through its challenges with the patients I see regularly. I try to help them through the ups and downs in their lives, and I've learned from them how frustrating diabetes can be to manage. My hope that you'll learn at least one thing that makes your life with diabetes easier to manage.
Join me on the road to better management of your diabetes. I appreciate your comments, so please write in and let me know your thoughts and experiences. What do you find to be the hardest things to manage with your diabetes?
