Paula Ford-martin - The Everything Guide to Managing Type 2 Diabetes: From Diagnosis to Diet, All You Need to Live a Healthy, Active Life With Type 2 Diabetes - Find Out What Type 2 Diabetes Is, Recognize the Signs and

GUIDE TO
MANAGING TYPE 2
DIABETES

From diagnosis to diet, all you need to live a healthy, active life with type 2 diabetes

Paula Ford-Martin and Jason Baker

For all my editorial homegirls. Zen, Monica, Kerri, Lynn, Kate, Erin, and Juliayour hearts, smarts, and kindness will always inspire me.

GUIDE TO MANAGING
TYPE 2 DIABETES

Dear Reader,

Diabetes can be a scary and confusing disease. This is especially true at diagnosis, when all you may know about the condition is that (a) there is no cure and (b) there are needles and daily blood tests involved.

It isnt just the diabetes that frightens usits also the host of long-term complications, emotional baggage, and lifestyle challenges that are packaged with the disease. There are many unknowns with diabetes.

Whether youre newly diagnosed with diabetes or are a diabetes veteran, gaining knowledge of the disease is your best tool for achieving a healthier and happier life. And thats where The EverythingGuide to Managing Type 2 Diabetes comes in.

This book is also a guide for the millions of caregiversspouses, parents, adult children, and otherswho live with or care for someone who has diabetes. The support you give your loved one is crucial to his or her long-term wellness.

Balancing blood sugars day in and day out is a difficult and sometimes frustrating experience. The good news is that with information and good care, such a balance is achievable. The EverythingGuide to Managing Type 2 Diabetes teaches you how to control your diabetes, and not to let it control you.

These handy, accessible books give you all you need to tackle a difficult project, gain a new hobby, comprehend a fascinating topic, prepare for an exam, or even brush up on something you learned back in school but have since forgotten.

You can choose to read an Everything book from cover to cover or just pick out the information you want from our four useful boxes: e-questions, e-facts, e-alerts, and e-ssentials. We give you everything you need to know on the subject, but throw in a lot of fun stuff along the way, too.

We now have more than 400 Everything books in print, spanning such wide-ranging categories as weddings, pregnancy, cooking, music instruction, foreign language, crafts, pets, New Age, and so much more. When youre done reading them all, you can finally say you know Everything!

PUBLISHER Karen Cooper

MANAGING EDITOR, EVERYTHING SERIES Lisa Laing

COPY CHIEF Casey Ebert

ASSOCIATE PRODUCTION EDITOR Mary Beth Dolan

ACQUISITIONS EDITOR Brett Palana-Shanahan

SENIOR DEVELOPMENT EDITOR Brett Palana-Shanahan

EVERYTHING SERIES COVER DESIGNER Erin Alexander

Visit the entire Everything series at www.everything.com

I would not have been able to finish this book, in record time, without the support and encouragement of my wonderful husband, Tim. Id also like to thank my kidsCassie, Kate, Chris, and Johnfor the silence, self- sufficiency, and occasional hows it goin? so I could keep my head down all the way to the finish line. Thanks to Barb Doyen, my agent, for crossing ts and dotting is in her usual expedient and helpful manner; to Dr. Jason Baker for his thoughtful clinical review; and to Brett Shanahan, my editor, for getting this project approved and moving it forward.

IF YOUVE PICKED UP this book, chances are that type 2 diabetes has touched your life or the life of someone close to you. Diabetes can be a frightening and personally devastating diagnosis. Fortunately, learning all you can about diabetes and seeking support are probably the two most important components to staying on top of this disease.

A key phrase in the lexicon of diabetes care is good control. For those of you who are new to diabetes, good control means keeping your blood glucose, or blood sugar, in a range at or close to normal through diet, exercise, and/or medication (which can include pills, insulin, and/or other injectable drugs). Control is the answer to the physical and emotional management of diabetes. Always remember that the power is in your hands to determine how diabetes affects your life.

Unfortunately, many people feel out of control of their diabetes. Some ignore it completely in a fog of denial. Others follow medical instructions to the letter, yet never ask questions of their doctors nor provide any feedback to them. The latter group may get a handle on their blood sugar levels, but are so miserable it hardly matters.

Managing diabetes requires knowledge, dedication, and a certain doggedness of character. Most importantly, it requires a commitment to being a leader, not a follower, in terms of your own health care. Surrounding yourself with good peopleendocrinologists and diabetologists, certified diabetes educators, registered dietitians, and othersis an excellent start to effectively managing diabetes. But it takes more than a crack medical team to control diabetes. Playing an active role in your own health careas coach of your health care teamis essential for staying both healthy and happy. So is surrounding yourself with people who care about you and are willing to support you in your pursuit of wellness.

High blood sugar levels can affect every system of the body over time if not managed properly. Heart disease, stroke, vision loss, kidney disease, and nerve damage are just a few of the complications that uncontrolled diabetes leaves in its wake. This is why educating yourself about good diabetes managementthrough diet, exercise, medication, lifestyle, and moreis so very essential.

Medical breakthroughs, such as continuous glucose monitoring technologies, new oral and injectable medications and insulin formulations, insulin pumps, and others have drastically improved the quality of life for all people with diabetes. But until there is a cure for this disease, staying current on developments in diabetes management, communicating with your health care team, and staying on top of self care through healthy lifestyle choices are absolutely essential to wellness. The EverythingGuide to Managing Type 2 Diabetes was designed to be your reference partner in staying healthy with diabetes.

Diabetes mellitus comes in many varietiestype 1, type 2, gestational, and variations such as maturity-onset diabetes of the young (MODY) and latent autoimmune diabetes in adults (LADA). Regardless of the name, people with diabetes share a common trait: Their bodies have an inherent inability to self-regulate the levels of blood glucoseor cellular fuel. In particular, type 2 diabetes accounts for 90 to 95 percent of U.S. diabetes cases and is one of the most serious and fastest growing health threats to Americans.