Do you ever feel alone as you deal with your diabetes? How can family members, friends, and a Type 1 Diabetes community help you? Seeking support from others will help you manage your diabetes!
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Did you know that a woman’s insulin sensitivity changes throughout her monthly cycle? This post will focus on the correlation between monthly fluctuation in hormones and insulin sensitivity so Type 1 diabetic women can better navigate blood sugar management every month. First, let’s walk through the menstrual cycle and its four phases to begin to see why blood sugars may be affected.
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As we all know, living with Type 1 Diabetes isn't easy. From having to make diet changes to monitoring your blood sugar levels often, the proper treatment and lifestyle choices are essential in controlling the symptoms. Just like most diseases out there, one of the best things Type 1 Diabetes patients can do for themselves is exercise. Curious to know just how much exercising can help in managing Type 1 Diabetes? Keep reading as we discuss and recommend some workouts to try out.
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If you’re eating a sweet treat, you probably wouldn’t be surprised to see a high amount of added sugar, however when eating common foods like granola bars, trail mix, tomato/pasta sauce, or salad dressings, you start to see how food companies have been quietly sneaking sugar into their products.
While we won’t be able to avoid sugar completely and we definitely won’t have time to read every single label, this information can help us figure out which product contains less sugar and is healthier for us.
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Usually, hypoglycemia can be detected by its symptoms that start to appear when glucose levels are 70 mg/dl or lower. And they include:
Hunger: especially a very strong cravings for sugars and carbs.
Sweating: this type of sweating is different from the regular sweat experienced normally after exercising or embarrassing situations. This one is cold sweats that usually feels like the energy you have left is being expelled from the body with these small droplets.
Sleepiness: this symptom freaks us all out when we experience hypoglycemia during sleep, so you start to wonder if you're really sleepy or if you are experiencing a hypoglycemia.
Fast and Irregular heartbeat: as your body is trying to compensate the insufficient amount of fuel.
Fatigue: overall feeling of tiredness or exhaustion.
Unusual behavior, slurred speech or clumsiness: you feel like being drunk (and this leaves some funny memories). This happens mainly due to insufficient supply of glucose to the brain cells.
Hyperglycemia is the term describing “too” much glucose in your blood exceeding the normal levels during fasting greater than 7.0 mmol/L (126 mg/dl) or when it is greater than 11.0 mmol/L (200 mg/dl) 2 hours after having your meal.
What can we do to prevent it from occurring?
An essential key for diabetes management is the regular checking of blood glucose levels and try always to record them to always have quick access and recall.
Stick to the recommended doses of glucose-lowering drugs and insulin.
Exercise as a lifestyle is really important in helping keep your sugar levels under control.
Avoid consuming food that has a high glycemic index and substitute it with low glycemic index food.
Stress controlling.
DKA is associated with an insulin deficiency (a person is either all or mostly deficient in insulin) and a severely elevated blood glucose level, typically greater than 300 mg/dL, per medical documentation. Individuals can experience DKA even if they have a low/normal blood glucose level, which can occur in the beginning of an illness if a person reduces their insulin in fear of hypoglycemia. The slow progression of DKA can result in a slow increase to the higher blood glucose levels usually seen by the time a person goes to the doctor. DKA is from a severe LACK of insulin, not from the high level of blood glucose.
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Fats and protein can delay carbohydrate digestion and absorption - digestion is a break down of carbs into simple sugars, while absorption is the process where these simple sugars leave the gut and are absorbed directly into the bloodstream. The time frame becomes important especially when it relates to our insulin peak time.
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Living with type 1 diabetes takes a pretty hefty toolbox to tackle effectively. From insulin vials to CGM’s to BG meters, it takes a lot of different devices and medications to control your blood glucose levels. Has anyone ever told you that moving your body can be one of the most effective tools for caring for your type 1 diabetes?
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“What is your blood sugar?” “200.” “Do you have any active insulin?” “No.” “Then please give yourself a correction.”Would your caregiver be able to have this conversation with your Type 1 child? While technology advances have made it possible for you to track your child’s CGM even when you are not there, it is not a substitute for a well-trained caregiver. While it may seem a daunting task to find someone who you trust leaving your T1 child with, it is possible! Here are 5 steps to help you have a great experience with your caregiver.
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Having good bacteria in our gut microbiome helps appetite, digestion, bowel movements, can aid with weight loss efforts and help us better control our blood sugars. For example in our gut microbiome, bacteria break down different food products that we wouldn’t normally be able to digest. While the bacteria are afforded a nice warm SAFE place to live. Therefore we both benefit. This may gross you out, but in fact is essential to human life and without it we would not be able to function.
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Keto is short for Ketosis, a metabolic state where the body is burning fat as a method to run on alternate “fuel.” See normally the body runs, and prefers to run, on glucose but in times of famine or other shortage of food, the body has the ability to switch gears and metabolize fat to ensure survival. For diabetes, weight loss typically results in an increase in insulin sensitivity and better blood sugar control.
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The Paleo Diet has been nicknamed the “Caveman Diet” because you are supposed to only eat foods that cavemen ate, but this really is a simplistic summarization of the diet. It includes meats, specifically animal proteins, healthy fats and oils, fruits, and veggies while you are to avoid processed grains, carbs, and sugar. And this isn’t just limiting carbs like the Atkins diet, this is avoiding carbs, grains, processed wheat and sugar at all costs.
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The low carb, “diabetic,” or Atkins diet all fall under the same umbrella—limit carbs and supplement with high fat and protein food sources. The truth is, there is no true diabetic diet—I’m sure you’ve heard so many stories about different diets that have “cured” diabetes. While that isn’t exactly true, that doesn’t mean that different diets don’t work for different people because they certainly do—our technology just isn’t there yet to customize diet plans based on people’s genetics. In general we are trending away from using the term “diabetic diet” because we want people to have healthy balanced meals rather than extremely restrictive diets.
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We’ve heard those outrageous studies that say Americans eat over 7,000 calories on Christmas and gain anywhere between 1-5 pounds between Thanksgiving (end of November) through New Years Day. While I don’t doubt the validity of these numbers, that's a TON. And what’s worse is as diabetics, there’s no information on time in range and how they vary during these months. Although my expectation is that they differ largely from the remaining months of the year.
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