Diabetes is one of the top ten leading causes of death in our world today. According to the International Diabetes Federation (IDF 2019) figures, approximately 463 million people in our world today are living with diabetes. This number is expected to climb to a whopping 700 million by 2045.
Because of the nature of this disease and its ability to affect almost every organ in our body, it becomes crucial that persons with diabetes are equipped with the skills they need to understand this disease and make the daily and momentarily decisions necessary to keep the blood sugar at target level at least most of the time.
The challenge, however, is that a lot of persons with diabetes have challenges achieving this target even though they may be taking medication prescribed by the doctor religiously. The question then remains, what is the reason for this? Why aren’t these medications “not working”? Here are the 4 reasons why your blood sugar remains high: And how to manage it.
Your meals contradict the effort of the medication
A lot of people take their medication and go on eating the same way they ate before diabetes. Remember these were the same foods that contributed to you having diabetes in the first place so there will be a need to address what you eat and how much of what you eat.
Other persons may make changes but still do not understand that some of the things they still eat do contain carbohydrates and will contribute to a spike in blood sugar. Not because it isn’t sweet it doesn’t add sugar to your body.
Taking it as prescribed does not always mean that you are taking it correctly
In order to benefit from your medication, you need to understand how it works. The medication is taken to work on carbohydrates in the food you eat, therefore, you need to understand how it works so that you can have your meals when the medication is working at its best. The medication will not be effective if your meals do not fall at the time it is working at its best. The actions of both medications and meals must coincide with each other if there is to be any success at managing.
Not enough exercise
Most persons with diabetes get very little or no exercise or physical activity. Physical activity and exercise cause your muscles to move which helps insulin to do its work of breaking down the amount of sugar in your blood. Aiming for a target of at least 30 minutes of exercise for 5 days a week will go a long way in helping to keep that blood sugar at the target range.
Stressful environment
Stress is known to be a significant contributor to spikes in blood sugar. While we may not be able to get rid of stress, learning to cope with stress is a skill that will also help in achieving and maintaining your goals for diabetes.
What you need to do
Diabetes is a condition that you have to be dealing with every moment of your life, therefore, it is crucial that you know what decisions to make at the time you need to make them in order to avoid the complications that are associated with diabetes. It’s fair enough as you have known the 4 reasons why your blood sugar remain high, but how can you better manage it?
While you may trust your doctor to give you the guidance you need to do this, it may not be realistic as the time spent with your doctor is just not enough to address all of these issues.
That’s where the diabetes educator comes in. We are trained to equip you with these skills you need so that you are more confident in the management of your diabetes and with that are able to realistically achieve the target numbers you expect.
Learn more about our Diabetes Counseling and Support Program that will be geared towards increasing your chances of living a happy and healthy life.
8 Responses
This sounds very interesting but I need to know how to control the blood sugar level. I have type 2 diabetes. It is sometimes under control but not always. My mother is also typing 2. She has a heart condition and CKD. Her blood sugar used to be under control but it’s in the 200 now. It reaches 325 actually. She was taken off metformin because of the CKD and she was getting constant diarrhoea. She is on 6 units of insulin 15 mins before breakfast and 4 units before lunch. The diarrhoea came back. The doctor told me to skip two days and observe the diarrhoea stops. She is 86 years old
Thank you for your response and your interest in allowing us to help you to achieve better management of diabetes. Please complete our free diabetes assessment and one of our diabetes consultants will make contact with you as soon as possible.
Thank you for your interesting post. I think the adage,”Old habbits die hard” can be applied to this situation. The culture one grows up in determines what they eat. In the African American community for example fat high sugar diets are common, those of us from the carribbean like our curry puri, salara, and bake (Fried dough), and salt fish. People are used to these foods and to resort to them whenever they can. Diabetic Educators have to present suitable alternatives. The use half of a puri and whole wheat baked bakes and low fat margine instead of “fat-back, half of a banana, which is very high in sugar instead of a whole one. Good cereal options like Quaker oats-Quick one minute”, Cheerios -100% , whole grain oats, and Honey bunches of oats; they all low in sugar and contain less than 30gms per serving. They can be mixed with 2% milk.
Socioeconomic conditions adversely impacts good sugar control.Some persons have to struggle to “make ends meet” and just eat what they can. The inner cites in America are littered with fast foods stores, dishing out cheap unhealthy meals. People should be encouraged to make their own sandwiches at home. This is healthier and cheaper. Binge eating is also a big problem. Ones does not have to eat until they feel full. The sensation of fullness kicks in about 30 minutes after they are full. They should stop eating at the point when they feel they could take just a little more. A glass of water and a fruit with your meal is a good choice. If one accidentally overeats, a little walk or some exercise will burn off those extra calories. and as you stated, exercise! exercise!
exercise! This is very important in maintaining good sugar levels.
Controlling blood sugar does not happen overnight. It is hard work and takes times.
Pesrons with diabetes should hook up with a clinic. (The salvation army offers free clinics. ) and work with their health care providers to set goals. Plan a good strategy and stick to it. Take baby steps towards the set goals.
Diabetes is not a death sentence. Persons with diabetes can enjoy healthy delicious meals and have a great life! They can also reward themselves with a treat! I use Healthy choice fudge bars. They are tasty and only contain 18gms carbs per serving!
Keep up the good work sir.
Stay healthy and
God bless!
Thank you very much for your comment. I totally agree with you. That is why diabetes management should be individualized based on the needs of the person with diabetes and not generalized based on some preset standard. Kindly subscribe to our newsletter to keep getting updates on blogs like this!
Thanks for sharing this article. I find it to be very informative and practical. This information will be useful to me as I teach/educate patients. We sometimes try to hold back information because we believe we are coming across too strong but it’s all about choices and trying to enhance the quality of life we have.
Thank you very much for your comment. I totally agree with you.
Do keep in the know for more updates on diabetes and healthy lifestyle tips!
Interesting article. I believe diabetics need to be reminded of food combination. Lots of diet examples will be appreciated.
Continue to send more information. Thank you.
Thank you very much for your Pamela comment. I totally agree with you.
Do keep in the know for more updates on diabetes and healthy lifestyle tips! Subscribe to our Newsletter if haven’t. Stay tuned!