Precautions to take as a prediabetic
Prediabetes is a condition where an individual’s blood glucose or blood sugar levels are higher than the normal value. While individuals with prediabetes are more likely to contract type 2 diabetes in the future, it is good to know that this condition is controllable. Being a prediabetic requires you to place meticulous restrictions on various aspects of life to avoid more serious complications in the future. If you’ve been diagnosed, here are a few precautions to take as a prediabetic.
1. Talk to your your doctor
Visiting your doctor to have an honest and open conversation with them about your condition and its severity is always helpful. Knowing your diabetic status, the best methods for you as an individual to prevent type 2 diabetes and the type of diet and exercise that suits your constitution the best, is identifiable by your diabetologist.
While they will prescribe medication, a strong emphasis will be made on certain lifestyle changes that you cannot ignore. In case of prediabetes, the medicines that are prescribed to counter its effects aren’t nearly as effective as control over lifestyle.
Expressing a willingness to educate oneself will give you all the answers you desire and reduce the stress with which you approach being a prediabetic. That being said, some lifestyle changes must be put into place as they are deemed necessary after medical consideration.
2. Diet control
A decrease in ‘Sugar’ is a major dietary compromise that individuals with prediabetes must take. Elevated blood sugar levels lead to prediabetic status. When the body fails to produce insulin to counter the effects of these sugars, the individual is deemed a diabetic. Therefore, a gross decrease in the consumption of sweets and foods high in fat content is a must.
Protein intake must include vegetables, fruits and pulses or lean meats such as chicken or fish, with a strict avoidance on red meat. Low-fat and preferable non-dairy products must be consumed if there is an affinity to consume them daily. Avoid refined foods, wheat and refined flour, minimize fried and processed foods and restrict yourself to at the most one teaspoon of sugar a day to begin with the harrowing tread to avoid diabetes.
Consulting a dietician and diabetologist will give you the right insights into the kind of diet you need to follow.
3. Exercise
Maintaining a diet isn’t quite enough. The body requires about 30 - 60 minutes of intense to moderate physical exercise every day in order to control your sugar levels.
In case you are obese or overweight and are more susceptible to being diagnosed with diabetes, visit your diabetologist or dietician for an appropriate plan of action regarding exercise.
The exercises that you do everyday must be easy on your body, yet enough to help you lose excess weight. Excess weight is a harbinger of type 2 diabetes, and coupled with a poor diet, it becomes even harder to get rid of a prediabetic condition. In the beginning, losing about 7% of your starting weight is good enough to help delay or even prevent the onset of type 2 diabetes.
Ensuring the exercises are intense enough for your body to feel content and mind to be at peace is more than enough to begin with. Putting an emphasis on personal health first is key, and getting rid of high blood sugar is secondary, since it comes naturally. Approach your doctor and get their opinion on the exercises they determine effective for your personal health.
4. Take it easy, Step by Step.
It is understandable that a sense of panic and anxiety may take over you after your diagnosis. However, you can take solace in knowing that a condition such as this is very controllable and even reversible in many cases. The key is to adopt a healthy lifestyle. But doing so in a haste or with a jarring transition may leave you feeling exhausted if you don’t see quick results. This in turn can add to the stress and anxiety that comes with regularly keeping all your body parameters in check.
Taking each and every day in your stride, step by step, with a gradual change in lifestyle is a key factor to avoiding long term diabetes, and adopting a healthy lifestyle for good. While it seems like a sacrifice you may have to make initially, think of it as more of a compromise.
Changing your way of life after a diagnosis such as this may lead you to experiencing a few setbacks. But that shouldn’t deter you from adopting a lifestyle that will provide a healthy outcome. Keep on keeping on, move forward with the aim to improve your health and see the results for yourself. It’s easy to let setbacks derail you but establishing a support system helps a lot too. Find people or support groups through your doctors or hospital’s online forums and build a sense of community to help you get through what is seemingly a tumultuous time.