Welcome to Diabetic Daily Life

To maintain a website which helps other diabetics live with diabetes in their diabetic daily life.

There are basic and general facts about diabetes everywhere on this site. If you see anything that is not correct or true contact me and I will remove it immediately. It is not my intent to misinform people; it is to help educate diabetics on how to live with diabetes in their diabetic daily life. I am not a doctor or any type of medical person by trade. I am just a type 2 diabetic who woke up one day and found out I had diabetes. More information on myself is available on the About me page.

I have a diabetic daily life blog now to help people that want to ask diabetic questions, but might not know who to ask, perhaps because they think it is a foolish question. I know I had a lot of those. Anybody can ask me any question about diabetes they have by placing a comment on the blog. It doesn’t even have to do with the diabetic topic of the blog. I will still respond to it. Or maybe they would like a different way of accomplishing something, such as you don’t like the diabetic diet the doctor gave you. Well, there is no actual diabetic diet. I know when the doctor gave me my diabetic diet, I was ready to look for another doctor. Hopefully, myself or another diabetic might be able to answer your questions or at least guide you in the right direction for answers. The diabetic daily life blog is also for other people or my self who wish to share anything about diabetes.

Diabetes is a terrible illness, but being a diabetic does not mean the end of your life. It just means you might have to change a thing or two. Or for those of you who are maybe a little like I was, maybe a little more than two.

Charles Sands - Diabetic Daily Life

If you are a diabetic or if someone you know has diabetes, take a look around. This site could offer some type of information about diabetes you have been looking for. Dieting tips, exercise tips, general info about diabetes and a blog for anyone who wishes to share ideas about being a diabetic or how to make living with diabetes more comfortable in their diabetic daily life.

Pre Diabetes is serious and can lead to type 2 diabetes, if not discovered and treated. Pre diabetes is mainly due to obesity. One sign is an increase in your average urination and intake of liquids.

Type 1 diabetes used to be known as childhood diabetes. This is because it used to be the opinion that Type 1 diabetes was acquired only in childhood. But this has since been proven wrong, since it can acquired at any age. About 10 percent of all diabetic cases in America are of diabetes type 1. In type 1 diabetes, the pancreas stops producing insulin. This happens because type 1 diabetics immune system cells attack the beta cells in the pancreas and destroy them. These beta cells are the ones that should be producing the insulin. This is why type 1 diabetics require insulin injections to control their blood glucose levels.

Type 2 diabetes, which used to be known as adult diabetes, is the most common type. A diabetic diet should be used in conjunction with a healthy diabetic daily life in order to keep their blood sugar levels and weight under control. This diabetic diet along with regular exercise, is a very important part of controlling your diabetes. Type 2 diabetes occurs mainly in overweight adults after age 40, but people of any age can acquire type 2 diabetes. Personally, I think it would be a good idea if every healthy adult got screened for diabetes or at least pre diabetes every 3 years or so starting at the age of about 35. This would possibly help to prevent newly diagnosed diabetics from going through what I went through. I, like many others (about 40% of all people diagnosed with type 2) are completely unaware that we even had anything wrong with us. This is one aspect that makes type 2 diabetes so dangerous. New medications have become available lately to treat type 2 diabetes. But that does not mean you should abandon your diabetic diet and not exercise. Also, as more children become overweight, due to the lifestyle in America today type 2 diabetes is becoming more common. I have published one article on this very subject.

Gestational diabetes occurs in between 3 and 6% of all pregnancies and can cause pregnancy complications. This is about 1 in every 30 pregnancies. Gestational diabetes can cause serious problems for both the mother and the baby. Gestational diabetes happens because the hormones which are produced by the placenta change the way the insulin in your body works. Gestational diabetes stops when you have your baby, but it can change into diabetes type 2. Lifestyle changes such as a proper diabetic diet and exercise may help prevent type 2 diabetes after gestational diabetes. Also if your gestational diabetes seems to turn into type 2 diabetes right after your child is born it is possible that you were a diabetic before you were pregnant and it was just discovered during your pregnancy.

The diabetic A1C test is popping up a lot lately. I am seeing it on the television and in the newspaper and magazines. A little further down I will give my personal example of why the diabetic A1C test is such an important test, but first I will explain a little basics on the purpose of the test itself.

Once you find out that you have diabetes, you and your doctor will work to keep your sugar readings at proper levels. Main advantages of keeping your blood sugar under control are that you will feel better overall and you may prevent or at least delay as long as possible the start of diabetic complications.

The best way to personally keep track of your blood sugar is to check your sugar level yourself with blood glucose testing meters. This test will tell you what your blood glucose level is at the time you are checking it. The only thing bad about this is that diabetics have a sugar level which goes up and down all the time. Especially after you eat. This is where the diabetic A1C test comes in.
The diabetic A1C test takes a daily average over the past 3 months. This way you and your doctor get a better overall picture of how your diabetic plan is going.

A perfect example of how important this test is just happened to me recently. I have been a diabetic for about 11 years now, I am off insulin now, however I take Actos to smooth out the amount of insulin that my pancreas does still produce. I do cardio exercise for a minimum of 90 minutes per day and I eat a diabetic low fat and high protein diet of 2000 calories per day or less. I was checking my sugar 3 times a day right before I ate (to make sure my sugar was not to high to eat something). My sugar level every time I checked it for 11 years was always in an acceptable range(75-135). My A1C test always came back with flying colors. I had this test 4 times per year. Then all of a sudden my diabetic A1C test came back very high. My doctor said "how are your finger sticks going?" I said fine. She said well your blood sugar level is averaging about 300 per day. I said "not when I am checking it". She said "well, maybe your sugar is starting to spike after you eat more than usual." So I checked it after I ate and sure enough it was 279.

So, for now anyway I am taking Byetta, which softens the sugar spike after you eat. It also has a tendency to suppress your appetite. Which means with some people with diabetes, they might lose weight. In my case it does suppress my apetite. As long as I have been on it my sugar readings after I eat go no higher than 127 which keeps down my A1C test average. I check my sugar before and after I eat now and my diabetic A1c test is back to normal. And so far it does seem to suppress my appetite.

But that just goes to show the importance of the diabetic A1C test within the scope of your diabetic daily life.