Diabetes Care

When you are diagnosed with diabetes, you will quickly find that you have a diabetes care network of people who will work with you to help you understand and combat the disease. You are the most important part of your diabetes care team, as you are responsible for making dietary and lifestyle changes and following all of the instructions given to you, but your team is comprised of many professionals who can help you live a much healthier life after you are diagnosed with diabetes.

Your primary doctor will likely be the head of your diabetes care team. Your doctor is familiar with your medical history and can provide information needed by other team members. Your doctor can also coordinate a treatment plan that all team members can work with to ensure that you get the best care.

An endocrinologist is a diabetes specialist. You will likely see your endocrinologist frequently to monitor your condition and help to ensure that your diabetes care plan is working. He or she will be well trained in diabetes and can help ensure that you get the best care possible.

A diabetes educator will likely be part of your team as well. These people are designed to help you learn more about caring for your body on a daily basis. He or she will help you learn exercises, symptom management, and even how to set up a routine that allows you to care for yourself without interrupting your daily life.

Your dietician is a crucial part of your diabetes care team. He or she is specially trained to help you learn what foods to eat and what foods to avoid. These professionals can help you find a wide range of foods that you enjoy to ensure that your meals are still a pleasant time and do not become a chore. Your diet is the most important factor in treating diabetes, but changing your diet does not have to be unpleasant. Continue Reading

Diabetes is the result of the inability of the body’s cells to absorb the glucose, or sugar, so it stays in the blood making the blood stickier and harder to flow. The domino effect is that the body is deprived of oxygen and nutrients. Because of these factors someone who has been diagnosed with diabetes may reason that they should eat less often.

Eating less often or staying hungry does not help in the care and management of diabetes. What is eaten is definitely important, but diabetics should make it a practice to eat at regular intervals and not allow more than 5 waking hours to pass without eating.

1. The importance of eating regularly: Controlling diabetes includes avoiding blood sugar highs brought on by a surge of glucose when you eat after long periods, and lows brought on by skipping meals or eating your meals late. Keeping your appetite under control is another benefit as you will not be tempted to overeat because you’ve become extremely hungry.

Have breakfast everyday. Studies have found that obesity and metabolic problems including resistance to insulin were 35 to 50% lower in people who ate breakfast.

Take a sensible snack with you if you are traveling and are likely to miss a meal. Your goal is to keep your blood sugar at a level rate and avoid getting too hungry.

2. The importance of eating a well balanced meal: The key to healthy eating habits is balance and portion control. Many diabetics get caught up in the cycle of counting calories, fats and proteins. All are essential to eating healthy, but applying balance to ensure that you get the right amount of carbohydrates, protein, fruit and vegetables to keep your blood sugar at a steady level is important. In addition, cutting back on portions of everything other than vegetables will greatly contribute to keeping your sugar levels steady, but a side benefit is that you will likely find that you are able to shed pounds.

In practicing health eating habits, it is recommended that the bulk of every meal be vegetables, which are generally good sources of complex carbohydrates,low in fat and many are high in fiber. Some contain small amounts of protein and are rich in vitamins, minerals and other nutrients. Fruits should be included in your diet, but in moderation. Because many fruits are high in natural sugars some health providers recommend that fruits should best be eaten at breakfast and for dessert. Continue Reading

The Bayer Ascensia diabetes care systems are self testing products which will help those suffering from diabetes to more effectively manage their condition whilst at home or away. All of the monitors in the Ascensia range make it not only much easier for a person to carry out the tests themselves but it is also a lot less painful. Today many of these systems will allow the user to test in alternate areas of the body rather than just on the fingers and also they only require a very small blood sample to carry out the analysis.

Plus as well as the monitors a person can now get other tools which they can use in conjunction with this equipment and these are as follows:-

1. Software which allows the user to download the data from the monitor and then analyze it further.

2. A new finger lancing device.

3. An alternate site lancing device.

4. Plus the company provides support to those people suffering from diabetes through their website Ascensia.com.

The main products that can be found in the Ascensia range include the following.

1. Elite

This model uses automatic Sip-In Sampling (withdraws the required amount of blood only). There are no buttons you need to fumble with and the test with is accurate is provided in 30 seconds.

2. Elite XL

This is the same as the above model but has additional data management features included within it. It allows you to scroll through 120 test results which are stored within it, plus it also allows you to download all these results on to your home PC.

3. BreezeTM

This model comes with the Autodisc cartridge which contains 10 test strips and also includes a memory capable of holding 100 test results at any one time. Again as with the Elite XL you can download the results stored on the BreezeTM on to your home PC.

4. ConfirmTM

Instead of having the Autodisc system this one contains the 10 test strip Glucodisc system instead. So very similar in the way the BreezeTM works.

5. ContourTM

Today this is the only single strip system that Bayer offers in the Ascensia diabetes care system range but still does not need the use to recalibrate the machine each time a new test strip is inserted in to the machine.

Although there are many other monitors available in the Bayer Ascensia diabetes care system range certainly the one more commonly being used to day is the Ascensia Breeze model.