Diabetes can present two main categories of problems, in the form of short term ill-effects and longer term harm. Minimizing both areas requires discipline.

Rapid spikes or dips in blood glucose level can result in several unpleasant effects: dizziness, disorientation, muscle weakness, nausea and others. For some diabetics, it’s very difficult to prevent this from happening at some time. But there are practices that can improve the odds.

Regular and careful monitoring is a must. It’s no picnic to endure a finger prick three times a day. For those who simply can’t muster the will, it is worthwhile to look into some of the newer glucose monitoring devices that don’t require it.

Newer devices may use a tiny laser to make an opening for the blood. This causes a mild tingling feeling. Monitors are available which require no blood; they test the glucose level through your skin via an infrared beam.

The goal is to keep the glucose-insulin balance as close to normal levels as possible. Non-diabetics have a fasting glucose level under about 99 mg/dL. Even after a heavy meal, when glucose may rise to over 200 mg/dL, insulin is released which brings it back down within a couple of hours. That means that keeping the glucose level right isn’t so much achieving a static number as maintaining the correct dynamic balance.

Monitoring should include routine physician visits and an A1C test four times a year. The glucose level at a particular time can be measured with various tests. However, the A1C test measures the average level over time. The test name comes the abbreviation for glycated hemoglobin-HbA1c.

Hemoglobin molecules transport oxygen to the tissues from the red blood cells. When the blood has extra glucose, hemoglobin becomes glycated. Since this a long-term effect the A1C test can obtain an average of the glucose levels over time.

The effects of diabetes accumulate over time. Once the diagnosis of diabetes meant kidney damage, blindness, nerve damage, and other ills within ten to fifteen years of the condition’s onset. Fortunately, diabetics no longer must suffer these problems. It is now possible to manage diabetes, so that it has few or no ill effects.

Exercise and diet are two key elements for the overwhelming majority of diabetes sufferers to help achieve the right glucose-insulin balance.

Because diet and exercise help keep body fat low, the effects of diabetes are minimized. Body fat plays a role in hormone production and release and it also interferes with the body’s reaction to glucose levels. Several studies show a definite correlation between the degree of diabetes and the degree of body fat, but the mechanisms for this are unclear.

Lowering body fat also has the positive effect of lowering the blood pressure. Long-term high blood pressure contributes to many of the ills experienced by diabetics: eye and nerve damage, heart attacks and strokes.

With a well-disciplined self-management routine, a diabetic can achieve a practically normal life. The pain of monitoring the disease is minor compared to the enormous benefits that result from doing so.