In the last nugget, we looked at what diabetes is and what happens to your body when blood sugar levels go up. Today we are going to start looking at what you, as a diabetic, can do about it. By the way, if you have other diseases such as high cholesterol, heart disease, stroke, and osteoporosis, and you live like a diabetic should, you will treat your disease too. So let’s look at what you can do to improve your health and treat your diabetes at home.

Living the WELLNESS way will help treat your diabetes. WELLNESS stands for water, exercise, live temperately, lots of fresh air, nutrition, entire trust in God, sunshine, and sufficient rest. We will look at how each of these help treat diabetes.

We begin with:

Water - you need daily 1 ounce of water for every 2 pounds that you weigh. As a diabetic, you should avoid juices, soft drinks, and caffeinated beverages and just stick with water. It has no calories, helps you feel full, cleans out toxins, keeps you regular, and helps the body in numerous other ways. The more water your drink, the less sugarrich drinks and foods you will consume, thus improving your blood sugar levels. It can also be a good replacement for snacks. In stead of snacking on some food (no matter how good you think it is for you), drink some water, and leave the food for meal times.

Exercise - exercise is of major importance to diabetics for blood sugar control. Exercise increases insulin sensitivity and glucose use, thus bringing down blood sugar levels. Just try a 10-minute walk after meals and see what that does to your blood sugars. Make sure you get 150 minutes of mode rate intensity cardiovascular exercise on a weekly basis (this means exercising at a level where you could talk but not sing while you are doing it. Examples include walking, swimming, biking, gardening, and other similar exercises). For additional reductions in your blood sugar levels, do resistance exercises with weights or resistance bands twice a week to additionally decrease glucose levels.

Remember to work closely with your physician as you make these changes so that you avoid dangerous low blood sugar events.

We will continue talking about the treatment of diabetes on the following health nuggets, so stay tuned next week for our next H.E.A.L.T.H. by the Book Nugget.

God bless you abundantly as you learn to live God’s WELLNESS way.