You play a major role in treating your type 2 diabetes. Be sure to:

• Follow your diet.
• Exercise regularly.
• Maintain blood sugar control.
• Take an aspirin if recommended.
• Control blood pressure and cholesterol.

Follow your diet

Carbohydrate affects your blood sugar more than other nutrients. When you know how much carbohydrate is in your food, you can spread the amount throughout the day, which helps prevent high blood sugar after meals. Use one of the following methods for keeping track of carbohydrate in your daily diet:

Carbohydrate counting (preferred)

Food guide for diabetes

Plate format

Exercise regularly

Exercise helps control your blood sugar, because you use glucose for energy during and after activity. It also helps you stay at a healthy weight; lower high cholesterol; raise HDL, or "good," cholesterol; and lower high blood pressure. These benefits help prevent cardiovascular disease, the main cause of death in people who have diabetes.

Try to do activities that raise your heart rate. Exercise for at least 30 minutes on most, preferably all, days of the week. It may help to keep track of your exercise on an activity log(What is a PDF document?). The American Diabetes Association suggests that you include resistance exercises in your program.² Resistance exercises can include activities like weight lifting or even yard work. See the topic Fitness for ideas on to how add daily activity to your life.

Walking, running, bike riding, and swimming are good activities for people with diabetes. But some activities can make complications more likely. For instance, weight lifting can increase the risk of retinal bleeding if you have eye disease (diabetic retinopathy). If you have diabetic neuropathy, running may lead to foot problems. Check with your health professional before you begin an exercise program to find out what activities are best for you. Work with your health professional to develop a safe exercise program.

Maintain blood sugar control

Monitor your blood sugar as often as prescribed by your doctor.

Prevent high blood sugar levels.

Deal with low blood sugar levels, if you take insulin or certain oral diabetes medicines.

Take an aspirin daily

If you are 30 or older, talk to your health professional about taking a low-dose aspirin daily to help prevent heart attack, stroke, or other large blood vessel disease (macrovascular disease). People with diabetes are 2 to 4 times more likely than people who don't have diabetes to die from heart and blood vessel diseases.¹

Control blood pressure and cholesterol

It's important to keep your blood pressure and cholesterol at recommended levels to reduce your risk of heart and large blood vessel disease. Exercise can help keep your blood pressure at the recommended level of less than 130/80 millimeters of mercury (mm Hg). In some cases, one or more medicines may be needed. For more information, see the Treatment Overview section of this topic.

A low-fat diet, exercise, and weight loss can lower your cholesterol. The body needs insulin to process fats, as it does with carbohydrate. If your diabetes is poorly controlled, the fats in your blood (particularly triglycerides) can rise significantly. You should strive for a goal of less than 100 milligrams per deciliter (mg/dL) for low-density lipoprotein (LDL), or "bad," cholesterol. Triglycerides should be less than 150 mg/dL. Adults with diabetes need to keep their HDL cholesterol level more than 40 mg/dL for men and more than 50 mg/dL for women. Your health professional may recommend cholesterol-lowering medicines called statins to cut your risk of heart disease even if you do not have high LDL levels or existing heart disease.