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Type 2 Diabetes: Living With the Disease - Treatment Overview

Your treatment for type 2 diabetes will change over time to meet your individual needs. But the focus of your treatment will always be to keep your blood sugar levels within your target range to prevent complications from diabetes, such as eye, kidney, heart, blood vessel, and nerve disease. You play an important role in managing your condition. By learning about diabetes and working with your doctor to create a plan for treatment, you can improve your health and quality of life.

How can you manage your diabetes?

Follow your diet

It is important to follow a healthy, balanced diet that includes whole grains, lean meat, fish, vegetables, fruits, and low-fat milk products. To help control your blood sugar and reduce your risk for complications from diabetes, limit alcohol. And reduce calories if you need to lose weight.

Of the three major nutrients (carbohydrate, protein, and fat), carbohydrate has the greatest effect on blood sugar. Because you have diabetes, it's important that you include the proper amount of carbohydrate in your daily diet and that you space carbohydrate evenly throughout the day. You can use one of the following approaches:

Diabetes: Counting carbs if you don't use insulin
Diabetes: Counting carbs if you use insulin
Diabetes: Using a food guide
Diabetes: Using a plate format for eating

Planning meals to manage diabetes often means looking at food in a new way. Some people may have trouble accepting the changes they need to make in their lifestyle. You may find it helpful to read about how emotions influence what we eat, when we eat, and how much we eat:

Diabetes: Coping with your feelings about your diet

Take an aspirin daily

If you are age 40 or older, talk to your doctor about taking a low-dose aspirin daily to help prevent heart attack, stroke, and 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

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 high-density lipoprotein (HDL), or "good," cholesterol; and lower high blood pressure. These benefits help prevent cardiovascular disease.

Do activities that raise your heart rate. Try to do moderate activity at least 2½ hours a week.2 One way to do this is to be active 30 minutes a day, at least 5 days a week. Also try to include resistance exercises in your program at least twice a week.2, 3 These activities can include things like weight lifting or yard work. See the topic Fitness for more ideas.

1 | 2 | 3

WebMD Medical Reference from Healthwise

Last Updated: August 18, 2009
This information is not intended to replace the advice of a doctor. Healthwise disclaims any liability for the decisions you make based on this information.
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