Diabetes Care Community Learn, connect and care

While scanning the discussion forum of Diabetes Care Community, I came across a post: “My dad is 74 with type 2. His doctor says he should be exercising. Well probably he should but he’s never really been a sporty or physically active kind of person. How can you make someone change at that age?”

Glucose monitoring helps people with diabetes manage their condition by providing information about the level of glucose in the blood. Traditionally such monitoring has involved the use of a blood glucose meter to measure the level in a blood drop on a test strip.

Since type 2 diabetes is thought to involve both the pancreas not making enough insulin and the cells in the body being unable to use insulin effectively, medications are developed to correct various steps involved in both these deficiencies.

While it may be too late for our family members and friends with diabetes, many of us as caregivers are in a position to take advantage of the growing knowledge about diabetes prevention.

Today, I want to talk about what is new in research in type 2 diabetes and heart disease. For the last several years, we have been learning about whether or not controlling blood glucose levels to very specific targets can prevent the progression of heart disease

Some individuals have lived for a while with known risk factors for type 2 diabetes. In these cases, shock may not be the over-riding emotion at the time of diagnosis.

As described in our article about the New activity and non-activity guidelines for kids, the Canadian Physical Activity Guidelines (CPAG) recommend that children over five should get at least 60 minutes of moderate- to vigorous-intensity exercise each day. But many parents are unsure whether these guidelines can be safely applied for youth with type 1 diabetes.