For more than 10 years, millions of readers have trusted the bestselling Everything series for expert advice and important information on health topics ranging from pregnancy and postpartum care to heart health, anxiety, and diabetes. Packed with the most recent, up-to-date data, Everything health guides help you get the right diagnosis, choose the best doctor, and find the treatment options that work for you.
The Everything® Healthy Living Series books are concise guides, focusing on only the essential information you need. Whether you’re looking for an overview of traditional and alternative migraine treatments, advice on starting a heart-healthy lifestyle, or suggestions for finding the right medical team, there’s an Everything Healthy Living Book for you.
If you’ve picked up this book, chances are that diabetes has touched your life or the life of someone close to you. Whatever the diagnosis — pre-diabetes, type 1, type 2, or gestational — diabetes can be a frightening and personally devastating diagnosis. Fortunately, learning all you can about diabetes and seeking support are probably the two most important components to staying on top of this disease.
A key phrase in the lexicon of diabetes care is good control. For those new to diabetes, good control means keeping your blood glucose, or blood sugar, in a range at or close to normal through diet, exercise, and/or medication (which can include pills, insulin, and/or other injectable drugs). Control is the answer to managing diabetes physically as well as emotionally. Always remember that the power is in your hands to determine how diabetes affects your life.
Managing diabetes requires knowledge, dedication, and a certain doggedness of character. Most importantly, it requires a commitment to being a leader, not a follower, in your own health care. Surrounding yourself with good people — endocrinologists and diabetologists, certified diabetes educators, registered dietitians, and more — is an excellent start. But it takes more than a crack medical team to control diabetes. Playing an active role in your own health care — as coach of your health care team — is essential for staying both healthy and happy. So is surrounding yourself with people who care about you and are willing to support you in your pursuit of wellness.
High blood glucose levels can affect every system of the body over time if not managed properly. Heart disease, stroke, vision loss, kidney disease, and nerve damage are just a few of the complications that uncontrolled diabetes leaves in its wake. This is why educating yourself about good diabetes management — through diet, exercise, medication, lifestyle, and more — is so very essential.
Medical breakthroughs like continuous glucose monitoring technologies, new oral and injectable medications and insulin formulations, insulin pumps, and others have drastically improved the quality of life for all people with diabetes, but there is still no cure for the disease. Until there is, staying current on developments in diabetes management, communicating with your health care team, and staying on top of self-care through healthy lifestyle choices are absolutely essential to wellness.
If you’d like to learn more about diabetes, check out The Everything® Health Guide to Diabetes, 2nd Edition, available in print (978-1-59869-785-8) and eBook (978-1-60550-788-0) formats.