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Webcast Transcript
And, if they have a low blood sugar, what do you do about it and what's the most appropriate action to take? So, learning to problem-solve is important, and one aspect of problem-solving is the ability to recognize: What are the signs and symptoms of low blood sugar? Once you have that, because some people say they don't really feel when their blood sugars are getting low until it's too late, but once they have the ability to problem-solve and identify a low blood sugar, then how do you properly treat it? And we tell patients to properly treat it by taking 15 grams of a carbohydrate source and checking their blood sugar before and after that.
6. Reducing Risks
The
greatest risk is if a person who has diabetes also smokes, because smoking
is another risk factor for cardiovascular disease. It's
particularly significant for people with diabetes. So the very first risk
reduction, if a person smokes, a goal for that patient is to try to either
stop their smoking or reduce it as much as possible.
Risk reduction involves not only the one obvious behavior of stopping smoking, but also having constant and scheduled contact with your healthcare provider is very important. Diabetes does not sit still; it's a progressive disease. And changes occur as you age and also affect the diabetes. Therefore, it's important to make sure that you have vision checked, dental checks, your feet checked every single time you see a physician, getting the appropriate labs that you need. Following the guidelines for appropriate care for people with diabetes is a shared responsibility between the patient and the healthcare provider.
7. Healthy Coping
People with diabetes, they
have a greater incidence of depression. And it's unclear if the
depression precedes the diabetes diagnosis or occurs afterward, but it is
a safe bet that many people will face a bout of depression during their
course of a lifetime with diabetes.
And it's important to recognize that this is normal, that this does occur. It's often because of the daily regimen that people have to do and it can wear on them.
So healthy coping is the ability to make sure that you feel comfortable enough to discuss it with your healthcare provider, that it isn't a stigma, it's part of life with the disease. There's help for depression. And healthy coping is a team approach. We all need to be able to recognize it and bring it to a patient's attention and help them go through these rough times.
ANNOUNCER: Successful self-care behaviors can help people with diabetes lead healthy, active lives. But professional diabetes educators caution: Just because they've listed seven steps, people with diabetes shouldn't feel they need to do them all right away, or do them all perfectly. Instead, take those steps you know you can be successful at, and build from there.
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