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 a normal or near-normal 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 health professional 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, and vegetables. 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:

Carbohydrate counting for people with diabetes who do not use insulin (preferred)

Carbohydrate counting for people who use insulin (preferred)

Food guide for diabetes

Plate format

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:

Dealing with feelings about the diabetes diet

Take an aspirin daily

If you are age 30 or older, talk to your health professional 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. 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 exercise program.² Resistance exercises can include activities like weight lifting or even yard work. See the topic Fitness for ideas on how to add daily activity to your life. Work with your health professional to develop a safe exercise program.

Maintain blood sugar control

Monitor your blood sugar.

Prevent high blood sugar levels.

Lower high blood pressure and high cholesterol