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Managing Type 2 diabetes

18 Mar 2016

Managing diabetes is more than insulin, tablets and exercise. It’s also about what goes into your body.

Every five minutes, one person is diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes in Australia. In fact, diabetes is the fastest growing chronic disease in the world.

Type 2 diabetes, known as the lifestyle-related type, is preventable. Yet, of the 1.7 million Australians living with diabetes, 85 per cent are Type 2.

What is Type 2 diabetes?

Despite it’s strong genetic and family-related risk factors, Type 2 diabetes is often associated with lifestyle factors.

While you are generally born with Type 1 diabetes, Type 2 is a progressive condition that occurs when the body becomes resistant to the normal effects of insulin or loses the capacity to produce enough insulin. Essentially, your body is unable to covert glucose into energy, leaving too much glucose in the blood.

While tablets and/or insulin injections are used to manage the production of insulin, Type 2 diabetes can also be controlled with a healthy diet and regular exercise.

The causes and symptoms

There is definitely a genetic predisposition to Type 2 diabetes. While you inherit the predisposition, it’s usually something in your environment that triggers the onset. The risk of developing Type 2 diabetes is, of course, increased due to lifestyle factors such as high blood pressure, obesity, low amounts of physical activity, poor diet and the shape of your body.

Symptoms include, excessive thirst, feeling tired and lethargic, gradually putting on weight, headaches and dizziness among others.

Managing Type 2 diabetes

The good thing is that Type 2 diabetes is manageable and once you work out a plan with your healthcare professional, it’s very easy to keep under control. Caroline Thomas, National Program Leader, NDSS Older People with Diabetes Program says Type 2 diabetes can be managed by simple lifestyle changes. “Unfortunately we cannot do anything about some of the risk factors associated with the development of type 2 diabetes such age, family history or ethnicity but we can do something about those modifiable risk factors.”

First, keep active. Exercise helps insulin work more effectively. It also lowers your blood pressure, which is commonly associated with Type 2 diabetes and helps keep your weight in check. It doesn’t have to be long hours a day or a heavy workout, it’s all about getting active once a day for around 30 minutes. That could be a lovely walk in the fresh air, a light gym session, a workout class or even some laps in the pool. Whatever it is that works for you.

Second, make sure you’re eating right. There are certain foods that health professionals and dieticians recommend that Type 2 diabetes sufferers stay away from. Diabetes Australia also recommends eating regular meals, spread evenly through the day, but stresses the need to discuss individual diets with your doctors.

What can be difficult in this situation is when you are cooking for other people. It’s very easy to simply eat the same as everyone else. To avoid this, it’s all about effective planning.

There are services, like Hit 100, that help in situations like these. The company has teamed up with chefs and doctors to create meals that are diabetic-friendly, and delicious. Customers sign up, choose what meal plan they wish, and the meals are delivered to their door each week. Each meal has been created to ensure a healthy balance with the right energy requirements. Importantly, each meal plan is developed to cater to the individual, with users filling out a health profile via the website, including height, weight, waist circumference and activity levels so the right meals can be sent to them. Users log their food and drink intake, scoring points depending on how healthy their consumption is. The aim is to hit 100 points per day.  Importantly, however, there is no one size fits all approach. “There is no diet that works for everyone,” Thomas says. “We should aim to have individualised, tailored advice provided by multidisciplinary, healthcare teams.”