Five Things Newly Diagnosed Type 2 Diabetics Need to Do

When someone is newly diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, major changes need to take place in that persons life to ensure that they are leading the most health lifestyle possible. There are so many changes that will need to take place that usually people become overwhelmed.

Most times, even though newly diagnosed diabetics are bombarded with information on the lifestyle changes they need to make they are left with the question: "What do I do now?"

Acceptance of your disease is going to be one of the most important pieces to you living a long and healthy life. Diabetes has one of the highest denial rates for any disease in our day and age for one simple reason: type 2 diabetics don't always feel sick.

It is normal to be scared and overwhelmed when finding out that you have type 2 diabetes, but the sooner you accept your diagnosis and make the necessary changes in your life, the better off you will be in the long run. Putting off the inevitable is only going to hurt your long term health.

Educate Yourself

The more you know about a subject, the more confidence you will have in your ability to deal with it. With diabetes as the topic you will find a never ending supply of books on the subject.

Your best bet to weeding through your choices is to go to the American Diabetes Association website. They make reading recommendations for diabetes patients. For newly diagnosed diabetics, the American Diabetes Association suggests a book called Diabetes A to Z. You can tell by the title will give you a complete overview of diabetes.

So you don't want to actually purchase a book on this subject? No problem. The internet is a great place for researching diabetes. Places like, American Diabetes Association or WebMD are going to be your best bet for getting accurate and complete diabetes information.

Diabetes Friendly Diet

When I use the word diet, I'm not talking a sort of fad diet where you change your eating habits for a period of time, get the desired effect, and then go back to your old ways. I'm talking diet like your food intake changing for the better for the rest of your life.

My first suggestion would be to go see a nutritionist who specializes in diabetes. People's caloric intakes needs can vary greatly depending on certain factors. Notice I don't go in detail about those factors...why is that? Because I'm not a nutritionist, and neither are you.

Utilizing the help of a nutritionist will ensure that you are eating exactly what your body needs to be as healthy as possible. But what you can expect is for some major changes to take place in the amount of carbs that you intake.

Testing...1,2,3

Your main gage into your blood glucose level is going to be obtained by testing your blood. This is done by taking a small sample of blood, usually from the fingertip, putting it on a test strip and inserting that test strip into a blood glucose meter.

Unfortunately, blood testing is going to be imperative to treating your diabetes. It's not fun...but you get used to it. The more you test, the better idea you will get at where you are at in your diabetes treatment.

Not only should you be testing your blood glucose level, you should be recording the results. This will give you and your doctor a good idea of what changes, if any, need to be made in your treatment.

Get Moving!

You are going to find that for type 2 diabetes, exercise is the best medicine. It is one of your best defenses against higher blood sugar levels.

It is suggested that diabetics get 30 minutes of exercise per day. But this 30 minutes does not have to be completed all at once. You can split it up to 10 minute walks after each meal or a 20 minute walk after lunch followed by a 10 minute evening walk.

The benefits that exercise will provide to a diabetic are: lowering of your blood sugar, blood pressure and cholesterol, it uses extra glucose in your body and helps your insulin work better, and it's also a great way to deal with stress.

Take Care Of Your Mental Health

Taking care of your mental health is going to be just as important as your physical health. Diabetes raises a persons risk for clinical depression. This isn't really that surprising when you think about the impact that diabetes has on someone's life.

Do you need to run out and get a therapist? No. What you do need to do is make sure you have a good support system in place. Diabetics are going to need to have someone they can talk to that understands the toll that this disease takes on them.

What you can be glad about is the fact that in this day and age, there are support groups for everything! It won't be hard to find the type of support that you will need to live a happy and healthy diabetic lifestyle.