What is diabetes: early signs, and lifestyle solutions 

Diabetes is a serious health problem that badly affects the way your body regulates blood sugar levels. 

It also affects the way your body uses food for energy. 

When a person gets diabetes, two things can happen:

• Your body doesn’t make enough insulin; it makes little to none
• Or can’t properly use the insulin it produces and starts resisting 

You might be thinking: what is Insulin? 

• It is a hormone that regulates how much sugar goes into your blood when you have your meal. 

It allows glucose (sugar) from the meals you eat enter your cells for energy. 

But when there is problem with the process, it can cause sugar to build up in your bloodstream. Which is very bad cause you could develop some serious health problems, if that happens. 

There are many types of diabetes, but the ones that are kind of common are:

• Type 1 diabetes ( where your body isn’t producing enough insulin)
• Then Type 2 ( Your body can’t use insulin well enough)
• Gestational diabetes ( happens during pregnancy)

 Here’s more about the first two types of diabetes:

Type 1: It is an autoimmune disease where YOUR body attacks the cells that makes  insulin.

Type 2: This tends to be caused by one’s lifestyle, and genetics, where your body doesn’t produce enough insulin, or not use it well enough.

Diabetes is a health condition that has signs and symptoms 

Early signs and symptoms 

These are things you need to look out for cause they’re the signs that start when a person gets diabetes.

• You might find yourself feeling so thirsty, and constantly parched, even after drinking more water than usual. The thirst will just keep coming back, and it is because of how high your blood sugar is, so it’ll make you feel thirsty ALL the time. 

• You’ll feel like peeing all the time, you could pee 3 times within 15 minutes. It usually goes hand in hand with increased thirst, cause your body is trying to get sugar out of your system, through pee. 

• You lose weight without even trying to.

• Hunger levels increase, so you feel hungry more than usual.

• You might notice that your vision is getting blurrier as the days go by. Or you get double vision, or even lose it temporary. 

• Things like cuts, bruises, wounds and injuries, take forever to heal. 

• You feel tired and weak.

• Your body gets infected too often, because high-blood sugar levels can make your immune system weak.

Diabetes is a serious disease, but you can still get by

Okay, let’s take a breath, from all that scary stuff you just read, because there is good news.

You can manage diabetes or even prevent it, especially Type 2.

Making lifestyle changes, can be the solution to staying alive.

Lifestyle solutions and management 

• Have a healthy diet, by having a balanced diet, and reducing sugar, salt and unhealthy fats in your meals. Then you go for fruits, veggies, lean proteins, and whole grains. This will help A LOT. 

• Start working out. Studies recommend 150 minutes of moderate exercise, but you could start with 10 minutes a day, and go from there. If you like swimming, that’s even better. Walking and cycling are also great options, what matters is that you get some exercise in. 

• Lose weight, especially if you carry excess weight. If you drop those extra pounds, you’ll be helping yourself. It can make a huge difference in your health, and improve insulin sensitivity. 

• Monitor your blood sugar levels by checking it regularly, and following what your doctor said.

• Be serious and take your meds the way your doctor said you should. You will not be helping things if you start forgetting to take your medication.

• Manage stress by doing things like meditation, walking in the evening, yoga. Or spend time in nature. 

• Go and see your doctor regularly for checkups and screenings, to know if anything changes. 

Diabetes is a serious health condition, but it can be managed, with the right steps. 

If you make change the way you live your life, it can help improve your health. 

But, detecting it early, can help you a lot more, so study your body, and go to your doctor quickly, if you feel something is off.