Creating your Diabetes Blueprint

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Creating Your Diabetes “Blueprint”

Diabetes is unlike other diseases, such as high cholesterol and hypertension, where medication alone can sometimes successfully treat it. There are a lot of other components to diabetes—nutrition, monitoring, exercise and medication. It can be a tricky disease to manage, but the good news is there are a lot of tools available to help you manage it well. Diabetes is one disease you can really control with your actions-- what you eat, physical activity, how you handle stress, whether you take your medication and monitor your blood sugar levels. Working with your doctor and other members of your health care team, you can create your personal diabetes blueprint—a detailed plan that can guide you in your daily self management and give you the power to control your diabetes. Make a plan with your health care team and stick to it.

The American Association of Diabetes Educators has identified 7 key behaviors that can help you with your daily diabetes care plan. You may have learned about these strategies from your doctor or diabetes educator or they may be brand new to you. Either way, these 7 key behaviors will help you live well with diabetes.

The seven self-care behaviors identified by the American Association

of Diabetes Educators, called the AADE7™, are:

HEALTHY EATING Unlike a diet, nutritional management of diabetes usually involves dietary changes that balance moderation, carbohydrate control, and healthy eating choices. A registered dietician or certified diabetes educator can help you find a meal plan that works for you.
BEING ACTIVE Exercise is perhaps the most underutilized way to help control diabetes. Losing just 5%-10% of your weight can make a big difference. Exercise lowers your blood sugar, blood pressure and cholesterol. Do something active for about 30 minutes every day. You don’t have to go to the gym—taking a walk, cleaning your house or working on your garden count too!
MONITORING Testing enables people with diabetes to see how certain foods, activities, and situations may impact their blood glucose levels. Talk with your health care team about what your blood glucose level should be. Check with your doctor to see what your goals should be.
TAKING MEDICATION Medication therapy is oftentimes needed to achieve glucose control. Did you know that approximately 50% of people do not take prescriptions correctly? If medication is part of your treatment plan, it is important to follow the prescription instructions. If you have trouble remembering to take your medicine keep a journal or set an alarm on your watch. If you don’t like the way your medicine makes you feel, talk to your doctor.
PROBLEM SOLVING Problem solving skills help you prepare for the unexpected. Your doctor, diabetes educator or other members of your team can help you develop these problem solving skills. Some of the more important skills you can master involve learning how to recognize and react to high or low blood sugar levels and learning how to manage sick days. Click here to learn more about steps to problem solving. Click here to learn more about diabetes and problem solving from dLide.com.
REDUCING RISKS There is a lot you can do to reduce risks—daily foot checks, regular visits with your health care team, annual dilated eye exams, regular dental visit (2 times a year), stopping smoking, and seeing a diabetes educator. Remember no one knows your body better than you, so you need to play an active role in reducing your risk. Make an effort to learn about complications and consistently track your overall health.
HEALTHY COPING Stress can affect your blood pressure and cholesterol levels. And for people with diabetes, this can directly impact your blood sugar levels causing them to spike or decrease rapidly.

Work with your doctor, diabetes educator, or other members of your health care team to help you fit these seven self-care behaviors into your life. Don’t forget to include your family and friends! They can be your partners in care and offer support and guidance.

Team Approach

No one can effectively manage diabetes alone, whether you have the disease or you're a physician caring for someone with it. Your health care team may include a primary care doctor, specialized doctors such as an endocrinologist or a cardiologist, an eye doctor, a registered dietician, nurse practitioner, pharmacist, certified diabetes educator, social worker, foot doctor, dentist or even an exercise specialist. Together you can develop and fine tune an action plan for you!

Remember, you are the most important member of the team. You help set goals—and members of your team provide the education and support necessary for you to achieve them.

Set your goal and create your action plan—click here.

Download the AADE7™ Self-Care Behaviors Handouts . Each one includes some facts, tips, advice and activities that will get you started on your self-care and reinforce some of the lessons you learn in your diabetes education sessions.

Diabetes Treatment

People with diabetes can lower the occurrence diabetes complications by controlling blood glucose, blood pressure, and blood lipids. Many people with type 2 diabetes can control their blood glucose by following a healthy meal plan and exercise program, losing excess weight, and taking oral medication. Some people with type 2 diabetes may also need insulin to control their blood glucose.To survive, people with type 1 diabetes must have insulin delivered by injection or a pump. Among adults with diagnosed diabetes (type 1 or type 2), 14% take insulin only, 13% take both insulin and oral medication, 57% take oral medication only, and 16% do not take either insulin or oral medication. Medications for each individual with diabetes will often change during the course of the disease. Many people with diabetes also need to take medications to control their cholesterol and blood pressure.
Self-management education or training is a key step in improving health outcomes and quality of life. It focuses on self-care behaviors, such as healthy eating, being active, and monitoring blood sugar. It is a collaborative process in which diabetes educators help people with or at risk for diabetes gain the knowledge and problem-solving and coping skills needed to successfully self-manage the disease and its related conditions.

More information that can help you with your diabetes blueprint on the web:

Find a Diabetes Educator The American Association of Diabetes Educators can help you locate a Diabetes Educator near you.

How You can Help Your Loved One with Diabetes Offers advice for friends, family and caregivers.

Tips for Helping a Person with Diabetes from the National Diabetes Education Program.

4 Steps to Control Your Diabetes. For Life., Know Your Blood Sugar Numbers and A Guide to Changing Habits” (also available in Spanish) from the National Diabetes Education Program, a partnership of the National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and more than 200 public and private organizations.

Food & Fitness Explore topics on food and fitness from the American Diabetes Association. Including Recipes , What Can I Eat , Planning Meals , MyFoodAdvisor , Getting Motivated , Ideas for Exercise , Fitness Management, and Weight Loss . Also visit the Diabetes and Smoking web page.

Links for weight control and Diabetes and Me: Be Active from the CDC’s Diabetes & Me site.

Weight Loss and Control from the NIH’s National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases web site.

What I Need to Know About Physical Activity and Diabetes, a publication from the National Diabetes Information Clearinghouse.

Self-Management Tools Tools and resources from the American Diabetes Association you can use to learn more about your current condition and what you can do to improve your health.

Glucose Control Learn more about glucose control from the American Diabetes Association.

Medication Learn more about diabetes medication from the American Diabetes Association.

Joslin's Library--Managing Your Diabetes Explore a variety of topics on managing your diabetes from the Joslin Diabetes Center (affiliated with Harvard Medical School). Comprehensive Diabetes Checklist.

Illness and Injury and Dealing with High and Low Blood Sugar from the dLife.com.

www.YourDiabetesInfo.org, part of the National Diabetes Education Program, jointly sponsored by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institutes of Health.

Diabetes Resource Guide and Directory of Services:

My Health Counts! TAKE ACTION! Living well with diabetes - A guide for living with and managing your diabetes. For the Diabetes Resource Guide - Click Here!

Directory of Services – full listing and description of diabetes services in:

*** All 8 Counties of Western New York - CLICK HERE!

*** Allegany County - CLICK HERE!

*** Cattaraugus County - CLICK HERE!

*** Chautauqua County - CLICK HERE!

*** Erie County - CLICK HERE!

*** Genesee County - CLICK HERE!

*** Niagara County - CLICK HERE!

*** Orleans County - CLICK HERE!

*** Wyoming County - CLICK HERE!

Snapshots of Services:

*** All 8 Counties of Western New York - CLICK HERE!

*** Allegany & Cattaraugus Counties - CLICK HERE!

*** Chautauqua County - CLICK HERE!

*** Erie County - CLICK HERE!

*** Genesee, Orleans & Wyoming Counties - CLICK HERE!

*** Niagara County - CLICK HERE!

Helpful tools

Keep a Blood Glucose Journal (click here to print a copy for yourself)
My Test Goals and Numbers (click here to print a copy for yourself)
My Health Record (click here to print a copy for yourself) Discuss these guidelines for diabetes care with your doctor and use this record for your results.

Disclaimer: Information provided on the My Health Counts! pages of ThinkBright.org is for informational purposes only and should not be treated as medical, psychiatric, psychological or behavioral health care advice. Nothing contained on these pages is intended to be used for medical diagnosis or treatment or as a substitute for consultation with a qualified health care professional.