Living with diabetes really shouldn’t be an unfair lot in life. But the reality is that it can often time feel like that, can’t it?
Between the unreasonable spikes in glucose levels to the unfathomable munchies, each day can seem like a roller coaster.
Not to mention the never-ending injections and the constant struggle with the insurance companies.
Then, you still need to keep in mind that diabetes causes serious damage to your blood vessels, brain, heart, and eyes.
While I don’t mean to be a serious downer in this post, I do think it’s worth applauding the many diabetics that deal with these struggles, day after day. So imagine how relieved I was to find that there is indeed a way to quantitatively improve your quality of life.
Improve Quality of Life With Controlled Glucose
A new international study suggests that health-related quality of life is significantly related to glucose control.
The data comes from observing 5,887 teens, all diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. The study spanned over 20 countries, proving that the results are mostly applicable to type 1 diabetics all over the world.
Glucose control was so closely related to the quality of life that the authors of the study weren’t quite sure which came first.
Was stable glucose likely to increase the quality of life? Or were more satisfied and content diabetics more likely to control their glucose levels?
Even if they aren’t sure about this, they were sure about one thing: achieving one may influence the other.
The study also pointed out two major concerns. Female teens are more likely to report a lower quality of life. Second, family dynamics may greatly influence the quality of life, as well.
The authors also noticed three positive behaviors that helped teen achieve higher scores in the quality of life measurement:
- carbohydrate counting compared with avoiding simple sugars
- more frequent daily blood glucose monitoring
- 30 minutes or more of daily physical activity
So, in conclusion of the study, the authors made a few recommendations. First, families must be supportive of their diabetic teenagers to help them navigate the disease. Second, the three behaviors listed above should be practiced, regularly.
Though this study was specifically about teenagers, it seems that these recommendations could apply to virtually every diabetic, as well. Because who could benefit from stable blood glucose and a bit of physical activity?
[expand title=”References“]
MedScape. URL Link. Retrieved June 2, 2017.
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