SNPG917 Report: Lifestyle Changes for Managing Diabetes Mellitus

This report examines the crucial lifestyle modifications necessary for effective diabetes management. It emphasizes the importance of healthy eating, highlighting the need to monitor carbohydrate and fat intake while differentiating between healthy and unhealthy fats. The report also stresses the role of regular exercise, recommending at least thirty minutes of activity that elevates heart rate and breathing, alongside precautions for individuals on medication. Weight management is presented as another critical factor, as being overweight exacerbates insulin resistance and makes blood sugar control more challenging. The report further addresses stress management techniques, advocating for a positive attitude, self-acceptance, and seeking support to mitigate stress's adverse effects on diabetes. Abstaining from smoking and controlling alcohol consumption are also discussed as essential components of a comprehensive approach to managing diabetes, underscoring the need for combining various methods for optimal results. The report concludes that while diabetes has no permanent cure, adopting these lifestyle changes can significantly improve the quality of life for those affected.

Running head: DIABETIS MELLITUS 1
Lifestyle Changes By People Living With Diabetes
Students Name:
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DIABETIS MELLITUS 2
Diabetes mellitus is a metabolic disorder characterized by prolonged high sugar
concentration levels. The signs and symptoms of the disease include; increased frequency in
urination, increased hunger, and thirst. Suppose the condition is left unattended, it can be
difficult to manage or even cause death. This disease calls for immediate action in terms of
preventive and control measures. Several strategies exist in controlling the intensity of Diabetes
Mellitus. This paper is entirely set to discuss the lifestyle changes that should be adopted by
people living with diabetes to reduce its prevalence.
Eating healthy foods is one of the primary strategies that should be emphasized in people
living with diabetes (Tierney et al., 2015). This is because what you consume daily always affect
your sugar levels in your body. Some of the foods that can have an intense effect in promoting
the level of diabetes are foods with a high concentration of sugar and those that have high
contents of fats. What you should remember in this context is that carbohydrates turn later into
sugar; hence, that's why you should watch your carbohydrates intake. Besides, suffering from
diabetes mellitus doesn't mean you should shun from all sugary food altogether. This means that
one can still enjoy a portion of your favorite sweet foods. However, should be taken with great
caution because these sweet foods should not be taken alone. If they are taken alone, then they
will cause the blood sugar level to spike when the sweet foods are taken along with other healthy
foods, your blood sugar level will not rise as rapidly. When it comes to consuming fats, as a
patient, you should be smart enough to differentiate healthy and unhealthy fats (Pujia et al.
2016). With regards to unhealthy fat, the most damaging fats are artificial trans fats which make
vegetable oil being unlikely to spoil. This means one should avoid commercially baked foods,
packed snack foods, fried foods, and any partially hydrogenated oil. Healthy fats, on the other
hand, are the unsaturated fats which mostly come from fish, plants sources that include

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Avocados, nuts, and oil Olives. It is also important to note that Omega 3 fatty acids fight
inflammation and support brain and healthy heart and the rich sources include flaxseeds, tuna,
and salmon. To sum up, it is clear that keeping a food diary which will help in identifying the
areas with problems and increases awareness of what you are eating hence cutting mindless
consumption of food.
Exercising is another controlling measure of bringing the level of diabetes disease
intensity to a manageable level (Colberg et al., 2016). Just as simples as it sounds, it can help you
lower the blood sugar level down and reduce the chances of one getting heart diseases.
Moreover, it can help you release great pounds of stress. Exercise doesn't always mean that you
should join a gym or even do cross –training. Though it is also relevant, taking a walk, riding a
bicycle, or even playing an active video game will do as much as the other former ones will do.
Your target should be at least thirty minutes of an activity that will make you sweat and
breathing harder. There are some exercise precautions which people with diabetes must take
when done well as recommended; exercise is an indispensable aid to optimal health. These
precautions are put in place to help people with diabetes avoid problems, which can result from
unwise exercise choices (Colberg et al., 2016). Precaution on people on insulin or oral diabetes
medication can take many forms. If the blood sugar level is less than 5.5 mmol/l (100 mg/dl)
before the exercise, it is advisable to take some carbohydrates snacks before beginning the
exercise (Colberg et al., 2016). If your exercise otherwise is to take a long duration of time, it is
advisable to consume the snacks containing carbohydrates during the activity. This snack should
be fast –acting carbohydrate such as glucose tablets when doing the activity in case the blood
sugar level falls too low (Sabouhi et al., 2015).

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In conclusion, most of the exercises that are done, people more often do them while
standing. It is entirely important to ensure that your feet are well covered with footwear. This is
because foot problems may be evident during the exercise or even after. This may be brought
about by the shoe fitting poorly, socks being unabsorbent and friction or pressure points
developing on the feet. This should be countered by daily inspection of your feet, buying shoes
that fit you properly and buying absorbent cotton socks which will help in absorbent the sweat
from the foot.
Weight management is another critical issue that should be considered by patients living
with diabetes disease (Lean, et al., 2018) — being overweight increases the inability to manage
diabetes. Overweight in people with diabetes makes blood sugar levels very hard manage. This
can be explained by the following illustration. People with diabetes have a condition of insulin
resistance (Tangvarasittichai et al., 2015). They can produce insulin, but unfortunately, their
bodies cannot utilize it by moving the glucose into the blood cells. This causes the amount of
glucose in the blood to rise tremendously. The pancreas continues to produce more insulin to
overcome the problem. Finally, the pancreas wears out from the overwork. The only remedy for
the problem then remains to combine weight management techniques to lose some weight to a
manageable level. Losing some weight, in this case, makes your body efficient in being insulin
sensitive, which is good in diabetes management (Radziuk, 2017).
Stress is always part of individuals’ lifestyle. Though many people do not view it as a
disastrous condition in life. Stress adversely affects the wellbeing of the patient living with
diabetes. It is almost impossible to eliminate stress from your life, but there are more advisable
approaches in life that can reduce the level of stress (Martin et al.,2015). Always having a
positive attitude towards every situation in life can help manage your stress level. This means

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finding something good in every circumstance of life. Also, being nice to oneself is a way of
managing your stress level (Hilliard et al.,2016). This will involve accepting who you are,
knowing your abilities and talents. Knowing who you are and your abilities will help you to
strain for what you can't achieve.
Moreover, accepting what you cannot change can be a tool to fight the disastrous stress
level. Every human being operates under the law of nature. Some of the things that do happen to
our lives cannot be changed. It is good for people with diabetes disorder to understand this fact
and accept what has happened. Lastly, finding someone to talk about your stressful situation will
always relieve stress. This involves finding a close-trusted person who will listen to you and
advise you accordingly like a psychiatric. Stress makes people never to care about themselves,
they may also forget to check their glucose level or even follow their dietary diary. Stress can
also affect the glucose level in the blood directly, thus causing a higher sugar level, which
constitutes the prevalence of the diabetic condition. This hence explains why management of
stress in people living with diabetes is so important. These patients will not be careless in any
way, and at least they will best understand the context of the situation that they are facing. They
will try as much as possible to act rationally to the best interest of their health status (Tsang et
al., 2015).
In addition to the discussed lifestyle changes that can be adopted for better management
of diabetes, abstaining from smoking is a habit that should be practiced. If a patient has recently
been diagnosed with diabetes, it is advisable to stop smoking because this will abort all the
efforts to bring the level of diabetes to a manageable status. This is because smoking makes
diabetes hard to control. Cigarette smoking comes along with many complications to the patients
of diabetes. Some of the evident complications include macrovascular and microvascular

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complication (Chawla, Chawla & Jaggi, 2016). Increased altered lipid profile in smokers with
diabetes could encourage the development of insulin resistance and setting of higher infection of
heart diseases. Cessation from smoking is not as simple as it sounds. It always involves great
sacrifice, especially if the diabetes patient was addicted to cigarette smoking. This will call for
the patient to be enrolled in smoking cessation programs (Semwal, Taylor & Car, 2017).
A great deal of medications is always there to clinical officers’ discretion in advising
diabetes patients. One of the best alternative way of helping those addicted to cigarette smoking
can involve the substitution of some nicotine. Since nicotine is the agent responsible for
addiction, the clinician can advise the patient on the substitutes of nicotine. Teaching behavioral
modification technique by grouping smokers according to the stage of smoking can help in
achieving the objective of the smoking cessation program. The patients also have a personal
initiative of understanding their environment and controlling it. This will involve the smokers
getting rid of any smoking materials in their homes or even workplaces. Doing this will reduce
the chances and temptations of being involved in smoking. The above techniques are not
efficient on their own. This means they work best when they are combined. Concerning the
cessation of smoking as a way of managing diabetes, it is important also the patients under the
cessation program to manage the syndromes of cessation. They should counter this s\syndromes
of cessation by use of cognitive strategies. This strategy will help them to review their previous
smoking moments, destructing themselves from the craving urge to smoke, and using
visualization (Lancaster & Stead, 2017).
The last but not the least is the controlling of your alcohol drinking rates. Alcohol
consumption has some effects on the blood sugar levels, although, with clearly defined
precautions and careful management, people living with diabetes can still enjoy a drink (Howard,

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Arnsten & Gourevitch, 2004). This means that the patient will not have to entirely give up
alcohol consumption due to diabetes. There are also alcohol substitutes that one can use in place
of alcohol. Some of the things that a diabetic patient should take into consideration are that they
should avoid drinking on empty stomachs. This is because it causes a direct increase in the
amount of alcohol in the bloodstream. In a nutshell, drinking can be allowed depending on the
level and severity of diabetes. Drinking moderately with respect to the prescribed measures by
the clinical officer is not detrimental to your health. Drinking too large quantities of alcohol also
increases the level of blood pressure (ACCORD Study Group, 2010).
Having discussed the key lifestyle changes that should be adopted by the patients living with
diabetes, it is very clear that there is no technique that is efficient by itself. This means that for a
patient to achieve a meaningful result, then it is advisable to combine different methods. This
means that you should not take up the initiative of doing daily exercise and forget to monitor
your diet. It will be a waste of time, and the strategy to achieve the desired results is bound to
fail. It is also clear that stress is hard to act upon it when managing the severity of diabetes. Since
it is subjective, it is the responsibility of the patient to change the perception of all the situations.
In any case, every aspect of the livelihood of the patients suffering from type 2 diabetes should
be aligned with practices that promote sustainable healthy. This is because diabetes is a disease
that has no permanent cure but using the available lifestyle changes, it is possible. Therefore,
diabetes can be managed efficiently using very simple life tools which are readily available and
cheap.

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