Diabetes Health Center

6 Ways to Wreck Your Blood Sugar Level

3. Going it Alone

There are a lot of resources out there to help you manage your disease. Don’t ignore the fact that one of the most helpful might be right there at home. Spouses, partners, friends, and family members can all make excellent exercise buddies.

“One error that people make when it comes to exercise is that they try to do it on their own without help from other people,” Ahmann says.

There are other advantages to the buddy system. Enlist your spouse or significant other in your efforts to stick your medication schedule and to maintain a healthy diet.

“Eating alone can be a problem,” Ahmann says.

4. Neglecting Other Problems

In her practice, Srikanthan sees a lot of patients who are dealing with more than just their diabetes. Depression and stress are common among people with the disease, and both can have a negative impact on blood sugar levels.

Constant stress, for example, may produce hormones that hamper the ability of insulin to do its job. “Stress should be considered as a significant contributor to glycemic variation by both patients and physicians,” Srikanthan says.

Ahmann agrees.

“Anything to reduce stress will improve your blood sugar,” he says.

Exercise helps relieve stress and there’s evidence that meditation and massage will have benefits on blood sugar levels, says Ahmann.

People with diabetes are twice as likely to be depressed, and an estimated one of every three people with diabetes have symptoms of depression. The lethargy common to depression can be so discouraging that you might give up your efforts to take care of your diabetes. Not only will that make your diabetes worse, it may also intensify your depression, creating a vicious cycle.

There’s good news, though. According to a new study, treating depression in patients with type 2 diabetes improved their mental and physical health.

“You need to recognize depression and work with it,” Srikanthan says.

5. Misunderstanding and Misusing Medications

Ahmann says that many of his patients share a common misconception when it comes to the drugs used to control their disease.

“They think that medications are more powerful than diet and exercise,” he says.

That’s not necessarily true. In many cases, type 2 diabetes can be controlled by a combination of a healthy diet and regular exercise without the need for medication.

Among patients who do require medications, Ahmann says, one mistake stands out.

“It’s surprising how many people miss doses,” he says.

That’s a quick way to wreck your blood sugar level, so it’s a problem that needs to be recognized and addressed.

“You need to be honest with your [health care] provider that this is an issue,” says Ahmann, who points out that often the solution is for your doctor to change your dosing schedule to one that better suits you. “There are options.”