June 7, 2008
Okay, we've covered the three lifestyle behaviors that affect the normal blood glucose levels. Let's review them before proceeding to the others. They are: reducing the consumption of sweetened drinks, managing hypoglycemia well, and matching the insulin injection with the meal schedules. Now let's go to two more.
The lifestyle behavior that is associated with normal blood sugar levels is consistency in eating meals and snacks. And this means eating at regular times a day. That is not all that is related to this behavior for making sure the amount of carbohydrates one eats daily is consistent as well is crucial.
One way of accomplishing the above is through carb counting. This entails counting the number of grams of carbohydrates that is consumed a day. Or the number of servings of carbohydrates can be counted because each serving of carbohydrates is equals to 15 grams.
It should be pointed out here that carbohydrate counting
is different from counting the number of calories and the number of fat grams one consumes. Why? Because for the calories and fat, you keep count of the total consumed for the day whereas for the former it is keeping track of the number consumed at each meal.
Why is this such a big deal? Because carbohydrates effect on the blood sugar peak from one and a half hours to two hours after a meal. That is why one has to eat the same amount of carbohydrates for each meal to ensure the blood sugar level stays stable, that is, not too high nor too low.
If one's consumption of carbohydrates varies a lot, then expect the blood sugar level to be unpredictable. In this case one has to learn how to adjust the insulin dose to match the carbohydrate intake. Have no fear, for your health care team is here. All you have to do is ask them and they will put you on the right track.
Phew! That is one mouthful just for carbohydrate consumption alone. And we still have to cover one more lifestyle behavior that will help keep the blood sugar level normal. I am running out of space but I'd hate to wait till next week to cover the last lifestyle behavior so fasten the seatbelt and don't click me away now. I will make it short and sweet, I promise!
The last lifestyle behavior is learning the effect of food intake, insulin injection and exercise to the different blood glucose levels uncovered from the self-monitoring. Write down each reading and the corresponding food and activity that led to that blood glucose level.
Once this is done a few times, a pattern will emerge and one will master the cause and effect relationship among those three activities. This will help one learn how to adjust the insulin dose to the carbohydrate consumption and the activity level engaged. Pretty soon you will be such a pro, you will be invited as resource person to help the other diabetics. Won't that be grand!
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