Making the Right Choices to Manage Your Diabetes

Continuous glucose monitoring lets you know the changes you need to make to manage your diabetes effectively.

Diabetes Care|Jan. 21, 2022

When you are prone to fluctuating glucose level conditions, such as hyper and hypoglycaemia, it can be a constant source of concern and stress. While there are many ways to monitor your glucose levels today, it is essential to know the changes you can make in your lifestyle that can help you manage your levels better.

These changes could also help improve your critical health parameters such as weight, blood pressure and cholesterol (albeit indirectly).

To know what changes to make, you must first understand what makes your glucose level rise and fall — here are some important factors that affect glucose levels:

Your Diet
Everything you eat affects your glucose levels, so healthy eating is a cornerstone of glucose management. The type of food you eat, how much you eat, and the combination of food types you consume plays an essential part in glucose management. Counting carbs, eating healthy fats and balanced meals go a long way in glucose management. Talk to your doctor, nurse or dietitian about the best food choices and the appropriate balance of food types.

The other way to keep a check is to adopt a continuous glucose monitoring approach to glucose management. A revolutionary product that helps millions of people around the world regularly manage their glucose levels is FreeStyle Libre from Abbott. With FreeStyle Libre, you get real-time trends about glucose levels and can make the right choice of which food item to eat. So, you can actually figure out basis factual data what suits you better- pasta or poha? Jawar roti or wheat phulka? Milk or yoghurt?

Getting Active
An active lifestyle helps you control and manage your glucose levels better. When you exercise, your muscles use glucose for energy. Regular physical activity also helps your body use insulin more efficiently, and these factors work together to lower your glucose level. Even 30 minutes of being active can do wonders for managing your glucose. If you don’t wish to join a gym, even light activities — such as housework, gardening or being on your feet for extended periods — can improve your glucose management. So, make time for exercise because it’s the small things that can make a big difference.

Here again, FreeStyle Libre can liberate you from confusing choices about exercise. With glucose trends, you can now decide which activity suits you better – HIIT or Yoga? Running or Swimming? Strength Training or Cardio?

Falling Sick
When you're ill, your body produces stress-related hormones that help your body fight the illness; these hormones can also raise your glucose levels. Changes in your appetite and regular activity may complicate glucose management, so watching your glucose levels when you are under the weather is essential. An excellent way to keep a check on glucose is to adopt continuous glucose monitoring. With FreeStyle Libre, you can track the highs and lows anywhere, anytime. You get details about glucose such as time spent in range during the day, last 8 hours of glucose data, helpful arrows that tell you which direction your glucose is heading (high/low).

All these features help you to manage glucose levels better when you are sick.

Stress Management
If you're stressed, the hormones your body produces in response to prolonged stress may cause a rise in your glucose level. Additionally, it can make you forget to take your medication or eat on time. Make activities and relaxation techniques like deep breathing and yoga part of your daily routine to keep stress at bay. Opt for using a simple yet highly effective continuous glucose monitoring to monitor how your stress levels can impact glucose levels.

The Importance of Proper Glucose Monitoring
Now that you know about all the various factors that may affect your glucose levels, it is time to think about how often you monitor glucose levels.

Regular monitoring is the most important thing you can do to manage glucose levels. With the correct information, you can work with your doctor to make more informed decisions about your best glucose care plan and see how smart lifestyle changes can reflect your glucose level numbers.

You may be familiar with the painful pricks and the bulky traditional glucose monitoring equipment that requires daily calibrations when it comes to monitoring. Monitoring glucose with a traditional glucometer only gives you a reading of a single point in time – not the complete picture.

Today, we can bid goodbye to painful pricks as we now have access to new technology to better help patients understand and monitor their glucose levels, such as FreeStyle Libre. This device does not require finger pricks or calibration and uses a wearable sensor that allows the user to seamlessly monitor their glucose levels throughout the day.

Tracking your glucose levels with FreeStyle Libre means you have the freedom to choose what works for you – be it in terms of your everyday diet, exercise choices and even when you have a little room to eat a cheat meal. All you have to do is keep an eye on your glucose levels and make the necessary lifestyle changes.

Disclaimer: This content is meant for awareness and educational purposes and does not constitute or imply an endorsement, sponsorship or recommendation of any products. Please consult your doctor or healthcare practitioner before starting any diet, medication or exercise.