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Managing Diabetes Complications

As you may already know, controlling your blood sugar is important for avoiding hypoglycemia and hyperglycemia—blood sugar lows and highs.

By keeping your blood sugar in your target range, you may delay or prevent long-term complications. High blood sugar can damage many parts of your body, including your eyes, heart and toes. The good news is that you, along with your healthcare professional, may be able to lessen or even prevent the impact of diabetes complications on your life.

These pages list some of the more common diabetes-related complications, their symptoms and treatments, and some steps your healthcare professional may recommend to help reduce your risk.

 

Heart Disease

Diabetes increases the risk of heart disease and stroke. Heart or blood-vessel disease accounts for about 75% of all deaths for people with diabetes.1

High blood sugar levels can damage blood vessels, leading to cardiovascular complications, such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol and hardening of the arteries. In addition to risk factors you cannot control—such as heredity, age and gender—you can be at greater risk of heart problems from the following:1

  • High levels of blood fats, such as cholesterol and triglycerides
  • High blood pressure
  • Lack of physical activity
  • Being overweight
  • Stress
  • Too much alcohol
  • Smoking

Heart Disease Symptoms

Any one of the following symptoms could be a sign of heart disease, stroke or other heart problems. If you experience any of these symptoms, talk to your healthcare professional:

  • Chest pain or discomfort
  • Dizzy spells
  • Jaw, back, arm, neck or stomach pain
  • Slow-healing cuts and sores
  • Numbness or weakness on one side of the body
  • Leg pain, which may go away with rest
  • Shortness of breath
  • Sweating or light-headedness

Taking Care of Your Heart

The American Diabetes Association recommends seeing your healthcare professional 2 to 4 times each year to monitor your diabetes and any other problems you may have.2

In addition, there are ways you can help protect your heart:

  • Keep your blood sugar levels in the range recommended by your healthcare professional
  • Keep your blood pressure within a healthy range
  • Control cholesterol and triglycerides through a healthy meal plan
  • Stop smoking
  • Get physical activity every day
  • Lose weight, if you are above a recommended range
  • Drink alcohol in moderation only
  • Ask your healthcare professional if you are a good candidate for daily aspirin therapy

If lifestyle changes are not enough, your healthcare team may recommend medication or surgery. The most common form of treatment is aspirin therapy, which helps reduce your risk of blood clots. Other options include:

  • Beta-blockers to decrease heart rate and blood pressure
  • ACE inhibitors to enlarge blood vessels
  • Statins to help reduce cholesterol levels

1 American Heart Association. Risk factors and coronary heart disease. Available at: http://www.americanheart.org/presenter.jhtml?identifier=4726. Accessed October 16, 2008.
2 American Diabetes Association. Future visits. Available at: http://www.diabetes.org/whos-who-on-your-health-care-team/future-visits.jsp. Accessed October 16, 2008.

 

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My active meal planner and My active recipe box

To achieve better blood glucose results, one of the things you need to do is plan your meals accordingly. Click here to find out how My active meal planner and My active recipe box can help you. To use the tools, please be prepared to enter your Accu-Chek Active serial number.

Accu-Chek ClubAccu-Chek Club

Join the Accu-Chek Club to receive news and updates on Accu-Chek products, diabetes management and events.

VegetablesFasting

During fasting people with diabetes need to take special precautions to manage blood glucose levels and aim at avoiding hypoglycemia during the day and hyperglycemia at night. Find useful information with regards to this topic in the fasting section.

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