Diabetes Blog

Diabetes and Skin Care

Posted by john in Diabetes Care

Because diabetes can cause changes in the tiny blood vessels that supply your skin with nutrients, proper skin care is especially important in preventing bacterial and fungal infections, impaired nerve sensations, dry, itchy skin, and other skin disorders. Your health care team will suggest daily guidelines for your personal hygiene. These may include the following.

• After bathing, keep your skin dry, particularly in the skin folds in the armpits, the groin, and under the breasts. Use talcum powder to help yourself stay dry.
• When bathing, avoid excessively hot water and use a super fatted soap to lubricate your skin. Try avoid harsh and highly perfumed soaps.
• Use a humidifier at home to moisten the air during the, cold winter months. Use a lubricating skin oil to moisturize your skin when the humidity is low.
• Take care of any injuries to hands or feet right away. People with impaired nerve sensations tend to be more susceptible to infections, particularly. in the legs and feet. Seek professional assistance for changes such as pressure injuries from shoes or changes in color of your skin and proper management of open wounds, should they occur. Check your feet frequently, since you may not feel an injury to your feet as readily with diabetes nerve changes that create decreased sensation.
• Avoid excessive exposure to the sun, as these burns can be serious to a diabetic because of infection, dehydration, and altered diabetic control.

Tagged under:diabetes Diabetes Care diabetic control dry itchy skin fungal infections health care team open wounds personal hygiene proper skin care sensations skin folds skin oil talcum powder

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Controlling Your Diabetes: Change Your Eating Habits

Posted by john in Diabetes Care

Losing weight may be enough to stabilize your diabetes. It can work, if you do it carefully and thoughtfully, under your physician’s supervision. In an effort to lose weight, many people conduct a never­ending search for the “perfect” diet, the one that really works. They regain the weight between diets because they are really never quitting their old eating habits. In the past few years a multitude of new diets have been developed. If any of these new fad diets were so effective in reducing weight, why would so many more continue to appear? Most medical authorities agree that the best diet for weight loss in a person who has diabetes is a properly calculated and distributed one.

You must be aware of your nutritional intake. You can save your health dollar and select your sources of diet information wisely. To reduce your weight and keep it down you need more than a miracle diet. You need an understanding of the basics of nutrition. And if you ask yourself why you eat, you may find some revelations. Do you eat when you have problems? Do you eat when you’re angry, happy, lonely, or as a reward? Why do you overeat? There have been many health fads in which claims were made that diet alone can be used to treat diabetes without insulin injections. While it is true that there are conditions in which calorie control and high fiber are highly beneficial to the person with. diabetes, such a diet must be followed only under the supervision of a diabetes-oriented health care team.

Dieting Tips

Losing weight can be easy: take in fewer calories. On paper,anyway, this seems simple. Many people’s habits are very deeplyingrained; they may seem impossible to change. But you can change your eating habits, especially when doing so means con trolling your disease. Eat regular meals and avoid deviating from your planned eating schedule. Do not leave food out where you can see it between meals. If you do, you’ll be more than likely to eat it. Don’t watch TV while you eat. Try to keep eating and social activities separate. When you shop for food, keep several things in mind. Never shop when you’re hungry. Instead, shop from a prepared shop­ ping list and try to stick to it. Read labels. The fact that a label says a product is “dietetic” does not mean you can eat unlimited quantities of it. Learn to spot sugar on labels. It may be listed several times under several names. Buy unprocessed foods that you can prepare at home. You have more control over what goes into your meals this way.

Tagged under:controlling diabetes Diabetes Care diabetes diet eating habits lose weight losing weight meals

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Living with Diabetes

Posted by john in Diabetes Care

Diabetes is a disease in which your personal role in your treatment has an important effect on the quality of your life. Your health care team will give you guidelines to follow for personal routines that can help you enjoy a more normal life. As a diabetic you will want to devote a little more attention to some of your personal care than you may have done before. Your health care team will provide you with specific hints concerning care of your skin, feet, and teeth. Maintaining good skin cleaning habits can help your skin remain healthy and protect your body effectively. Promptly treating minor injuries such as burns, cuts. and bruises helps your skin heal properly and avoid problems.

Your health care team will explain that, because decreased circulation in many diabetics is often noticed first in the legs and feet, attention to foot care can help you maintain good function. Avoiding poor diabetic control can help you avoid other problems such as vascular system difficulties, kidney disease, and eye difficulties. Your health care team will also instruct you about general hygiene, what to do when you are ill, what to do when traveling and eating out, what to do about social drinking (if you are permitted to do so at all by your physician), as well as sexual concerns. If you are elderly, your health care team will tell you about special arrangements for your home health care.

Your family’s emotional adjustment to your diabetes will also important concern. which your health care team will discuss between you and members of your family. Your family’s health education should begin right away. Family members. will quickly learn that diabetes Isn’t contagIous and Isn’t transmitted by any kind of physical contact. As you and your family learn to live the diabetes, you will all become familiar with common acute and chronic complications and their possible prevention, how to recognize circumstances warranting a call to your health care team, skills such as blood and or urine testing, and, if necessary, injection techniques. Your health care team will assist you in living comfortably with your disease by providing continuing education during each visit.

Tagged under:bruises diabetes Diabetes Care diabetic control diabetics foot care health care team health education home health care legs and feet

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