As with the diagnosis of any major illness, most people’s attention is diverted to the question of “How long am I going to live for?”
People who are diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, and who have heard all of the issues around managing your type 2 diabetes well, will automatically become concerned. One of the main things about being diagnosed with type 2 diabetes is that it shouldn’t have much of an impact on your actual lifestyle at all. You will need to change your foods to a diabetes food diet, and undertake a lot more regular exercise, however all said and done, the ideal diabetes diet plan, and the diabetic foods you will need to eat for the rest of your life are in essence the core ingredients that would be suggested to anybody looking for a healthy eating regime.
Depending on when you were diagnosed as having type 2 diabetes, you may be either food controlled, tablet controlled, or insulin controlled. What these three control mechanisms are about is to keep your blood sugars under control in an effort to keep your blood sugar range normal, as much as possible. In the early stage of diabetes it is possible to control your own blood sugars without medication by focussing on a quality diet of fruit and vegetables, and lean meats. This stage can last for a number of years, and depending on the individual and their overall attention to exercise, and other factors, may be all that is ever required, however for the majority of type 2 diabetics, regular taking of blood sugar controlling medication such as metformin is either something they are prescribed in the early days of diagnosis, or is what ‘food controlled’ diabetics eventually progress to. If your original diagnosis revealed significant blood sugar readings, then there is every chance insulin will be your only option. Most type 2 diabetics do eventually progress to the stage of requiring insulin injections.
Managing type 2 diabetes doesn’t necessarily mean that your life expectancy will be shortened, provided you take the disease seriously and ensure you do whatever it takes to keep your blood sugar levels as stable as possible. Besides looking out for the food intake, and following a diabetes diet plan, what else should you do? Exercise is the second most important ingredient in keeping your blood sugars stable. By exercise we mean something that is regular and will help raise your heart rate. This could be anything from a simple power walk, a run, cycling, or swimming lengths of a pool. An additional form of exercise which has reportedly achieved some excellent results with type 2 diabetics is weight training. The regular activity of lifting weights has been shown to add to muscle mass, and also reduce fat, the ideal combination in order to have a positive impact on blood sugar readings.
The other thing that would be suggested for type 2 diabetics is the taking of health supplements. Supplements containing chromium have been shown to have a blood sugar controlling action. Resveratrol is another great natural supplement which has exceptional results in relation to normalizing blood pressure and cholesterol (an unfortunate usual side effect of having type 2 diabetes)
So, provided you take very good control of your blood sugars and ensure you keep your body fit and active, reducing any excess weight you have in the process, there is no reason why you cant live to a ripe old age.
