A Question-and-Answer Session with Dr. Rana Malek.
For many people living with diabetes, managing their condition involves monitoring blood sugar, sticking to medication schedules and making smart dietary choices. Without proper management, diabetes can lead to severe complications. However, the right strategies and support can help people with diabetes maintain long-term health and reduce hospital visits. Here’s how.
Q. What causes blood sugar levels to fluctuate, and why is it important to keep them stable?
A. Blood sugars are impacted by more than the food you eat. Other factors that cause blood sugars to fluctuate include stress, pain, how well you sleep, other medications (for example, steroids), exercise, and, of course, food.
Keeping blood sugars in a healthy range helps prevent complications of diabetes, such as eye disease, kidney disease, and nerve damage.
Q. What are the best ways to keep blood sugar stable throughout the day?
A. Get a good night’s sleep. Eat well-balanced meals that include healthy proteins, fats, vegetables and whole grains. Take any diabetes medications prescribed consistently. Aim to exercise for a total of 150 minutes/week (which is about 20 minutes a day). Check your blood sugars regularly.
Q. How often should someone with diabetes test their blood sugar?
A. If you take insulin, you should check your blood sugars at least 3 times a day (fasting, before lunch, and before dinner). Most insurance companies will cover a continuous glucose monitor for individuals on insulin, which allows you to monitor your sugars all day long.
If you are taking non-insulin medications, you should check at least once daily while fasting.
Q. Recognizing early warning signs of complications can help prevent emergency visits for people with diabetes. What are the symptoms to look out for?
A. For eye disease: blurry vision, floaters, sudden loss of vision in either eye
For nerve disease: pain, numbness, tingling in hands and feet
For heart disease: chest pain, feeling short of breath with your usual level of physical activity
For kidney disease: It can be harder to detect early symptoms, but you may notice swelling in your legs, needing less medicine to control your blood sugars.
Most importantly, there are tests to screen for these early signs. Your doctor can do a urine and blood test to see if there are early signs of kidney disease. An eye doctor can look in your eyes to make sure there are no signs of eye disease from diabetes. And your doctor can examine your feet and look for signs of nerve damage.
Q. Nutrition plays a key role in diabetes management. What foods do you recommend to help keep blood sugar stable?
A. The key is to first avoid foods that can really spike blood sugars—like sugary drinks (juice and soda), ultra-processed foods, and concentrated sweets.
To keep blood sugars stable, we recommend eating meals that are a combination of protein, healthy fats, whole grains, and lots of colorful vegetables.
An easy trick is the “plate method”: Divide your plate in half. Fill that half with non-starchy vegetables (corn and potatoes are starchy vegetables). Take the other half, cut that into half (now quarters of the original plate) and put the protein in one quarter and your carbohydrate portion in the other quarter.
Q. What are some of the most common mistakes people with diabetes make, and how can they avoid those?
A. Thinking that food is the only thing that can increase their blood sugar, so if they do not eat, they often hold their diabetes medication, which is not always the right thing to do.
Not realizing what foods turn into sugar in the body (like corn, potatoes, bread, rice, pasta).
Not checking their blood sugars.
Not keeping up with their regular doctor appointments, so they miss important screening tests for complications.
More to Read
- Low-Sugar Drinks You Can Enjoy if You Have Diabetes
- Tips for Managing Type 2 Diabetes the Healthy Way
- What’s the Best Kind of Exercise for Type 2 Diabetes?
- Breakfast with Diabetes: What’s Best for You To Eat
- Medical Nutrition Therapy for Diabetes Management
FREE DIABETES SCREENING
The Community Health Education Center (CHEC), located on the lower level of the UMMC Midtown Campus Outpatient Tower, offers free diabetes screenings Monday–Friday, 8 am- 4:30 pm.
The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommends all adults 35 and older get screened for prediabetes and Type 2 diabetes. Talk to your doctor about getting screened earlier if you have other risk factors, such as:
- Being overweight
- Having a parent or sibling with Type 2 diabetes
- Exercising fewer than three times per week
- Being African American, Hispanic or Latino, American Indian or Alaska Native
For more information about the Healthier2Gether diabetes prevention program, call 410-328-4024 or visit ummidtown.org/healthier2gether.