Got questions about life with diabetes? So do we! That's why we offer our weekly diabetes advice column, Ask D'Mine, hosted by our friend Wil Dubois, who's not only a longtime type 1 himself but also a respected diabetes author and former clinical educator in New Mexico.

This week, Wil's looking at the word "lower" and what that means when it comes to any and all things diabetes and overall health.

{Got your own questions? Email us at AskDMine@diabetesmine.com}

Joventina, type 2 from Texas, asks: How can I lower my diabetes?

Wil@Ask D’Mine answers: You can “lower” your diabetes by lowering all the various numbers associated with it, which has the added benefit of raising the quality of your life. For example, did you know that lower blood sugar readings and lower A1C scores -- a measure of your average blood sugar day and night -- increases your energy and knocks down depression? It’s true. Lower sugar also cuts down the risk of diabetes complications -- all those bad things that high diabetes can cause over time, like damage to the eyes, kidneys, and nerves.

And it’s not just blood sugar. Lowering your blood pressure and cholesterol numbers will reduce your risk of heart attack and stroke, increasing the number of years you will live, and making those years healthier, so that you’ll enjoy them fully.

In fact, lowering these first three sets of numbers—A1C, blood pressure, and cholesterol—are so important to keeping the effects of diabetes low that they have been coined the “ABCs of Diabetes” by a joint American Diabetes Association and American College of Cardiology public awareness program.

If you did nothing else but lower those ABCs, you’d be heaps better off. But there are two other things you can lower in diabetes to raise your health even higher as well. First, lower your weight. Excess weight increases your insulin resistance, making it harder to control your blood sugar. Excess weight makes it harder to exercise. Excess weight is hard on your joints, especially your knees and ankles. And secondly, lower your stress. Stress really is the killer.

Lower all those things, and you’ve lowered your diabetes.

So how on earth do you do all of that? Let's talk about that...

Lowering BGs and A1C

You can’t fix what you can’t see, so the number one thing you need to do to lower your blood sugar is to test it and see where the Sam Heck it is. Test often, and test at different times of day. Don’t let the numbers scare you, even if you think they are bad. I always say that "bad numbers" are good news; because if you find high readings you’ve found problems you can fix.

Of course, to fix bad numbers you need to work with your doctor, but in a nutshell, your options are: Make changes in how you eat; changes in your activity; or take medication. Most people with diabetes need a mix of all three.

For instance, eating fewer foods with high levels of carbohydrates -- like breads, potatoes, corn, and pasta -- is a good place to start, as foods high in carbs turn to sugar quickly in your body. Oh, and of course you should generally avoid consuming sugar itself, especially in liquid form, so ditch that regular soda and switch to diet or water.

Increasing your activity helps the body mop up excess sugar. You don’t need to join a gym, although that probably won’t hurt, but just doing simple things like taking stairs instead of elevators and parking farther from stores to increase how much you walk can work miracles for your health. If you happen to be in really bad shape now, you can start by just getting up and walking around your house during TV commercials.

Each and every commercial break!

Of course, many of us still need to take medication to help our bodies "lower our diabetes." Diabetes medications come in both pill form and various shots, and often more than one kind of medication is needed. Over time how much and how many medications you need can change, sometimes increasing and sometimes decreasing, but generally the less you move and the higher carb you eat, the more medication you will need.

If you work with your doctor to create a mix of eating, movement, and medications that you feel comfortable with, you’ve taken a big step toward lowering your diabetes.

Lowering Blood Pressure

The two best ways to lower blood pressure are also two of the ways to lower blood sugar, so you can kill two birds with one stone: Increase your activity and lose a few pounds. Making some changes in your diet can also help with blood pressure, especially reducing salt and limiting alcohol.

When it comes to salt, I’m not just talking about the salt shaker on your dining room table. You’ll need to get good at reading those nutrition labels on food containers, because salt, officially called “sodium,” is crazy-high in many processed foods. The Mayo Clinic says to shoot for less than 2,300 milligrams of salt per day unless you are African American, in which case you should shoot for less than 1,500 milligrams. Apparently our black friends and neighbors have a gene that makes them more sensitive to salt than the rest of us.

Ironically, in modest quantities, alcohol actually helps to lower blood pressure, but higher amounts have the opposite effect. Plus, high levels of alcohol can also get in the way of of blood pressure medications, if you need to take them. Just like with sugar, you may need a medication to get your blood pressure low enough.

Lowering Cholesterol

Drinking small amounts of alcohol, taking fish oil, and cutting back on fatty foods are your best bets, but if your cholesterol is high it’s probably your mom and dad’s fault. High cholesterol is often inherited, and if you received that questionable inheritance, you’ll need to take a medication called a statin for if. It should be taken at bedtime.

Lowering Weight

The great thing about losing weight is that a little goes a long way. You don’t need to get in bikini-modeling shape to improve your health. Literally every pound lost counts. Despite what you may read elsewhere (and why on earth are you reading elsewhere, anyway?) there are only two ways to lose weight: Eat fewer calories and/or burn more calories off. All diets are just different ways of accomplishing those two simple things. 

Personally, I think the easiest way to lose weight is to start by just eating two bites less of everything put in front of you. Is that wasting food?

No. 

The only wasted food is food you eat that your body doesn’t need.

Lowering Stress

Now, stress is a sneaky bastard. It seeps into our lives from all sides like a poison gas. It can raise all those things we’re working so hard to lower. So what can we do to lower stress? It’s easier said than done, but my advice is to fix what you can fix and don’t sweat the rest.

Anything that stresses you out, that you can take actionable steps to fix, you should fix. Mouse droppings in the kitchen? Set a trap. Dripping faucet driving you crazy? Call the plumber. Traffic noise keeping you awake at night? Move your bedroom to the back of your house. But don’t dwell on things you can’t control. Your ex is a total jerk? Well, you can’t change that. Don’t let it get under your skin.

Next, try to decompress daily. Have a time and place that is yours and yours alone -- a time and place where stress is banned. I sit on my porch (or in a comfy corner in bad weather) and read for at least half an hour a day to escape. 

Needless to say, I don’t read the news at this time. That would just increase my stress!

Lastly, get a good night’s sleep. Don’t check email before bed. Get all the electronic gadgets out of the bedroom. Go to bed early enough that you can get a solid 7-8 hours.

Lowering Diabetes...

And that’s how you lower your diabetes.

To recap: Lower your sugar. Lower your pressure. Lower your cholesterol. Lower your weight. Lower your stress.

This is not a medical advice column. We are PWDs freely and openly sharing the wisdom of our collected experiences — our been-there-done-that knowledge from the trenches. But we are not MDs, RNs, NPs, PAs, CDEs, or partridges in pear trees. Bottom line: we are only a small part of your total prescription. You still need the professional advice, treatment, and care of a licensed medical professional.