How to sleep
If you're not getting enough sleep, you may find you're having a harder time controlling your blood sugar levels.1 Diabetes can contribute to sleep problems, including Apnea (difficulty breathing)2, Neuropathy (damage to the nerves in your feet and legs), and nighttime low blood sugar. Fortunately,...
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Diabetes exercise and workout
Diabetes and exercise is a topic of its own, and sometimes managing blood sugars around exercise and activity turns out to be more challenging than the workout itself. On the one hand, it’s hard because your body reacts completely different depending on the time of day and how fit you are. And on...
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Diabetic diet and nutrition tips
Food plays such a huge role in the life of a family. The dinner table is where we sit down to catch up at the end of a long day and holidays would not be the same without the usual spread of delicious eats. Recipes for those dishes might be passed down from generation to generation. But when you com...
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Low blood sugar symptoms and treatment
You may recognize the feeling—feeling hungry, dizzy, sweaty or just a little bit "off." These signs of hypoglycemia, or low blood glucose, mean it's time to take action. What causes low blood sugar? For most people, low blood glucose refers to anything below 70 mg/dL, although your number may be different.1 Low blood glucose can be caused by taking too much medication, not having enough to eat or exercising. Don't be too hard on yourself, though. Just focus getting your blood sugar back in range, then consider what might have caused it to help prevent it next time. Low blood sugar...
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What can a diabetes educator do for you?
There are many people on your healthcare team—including yourself—but there's one person who can give you hands-on advice that you can start using immediately. We're talking about a diabetes educator. If you've never met with one, or if it's been a while, here's an overview of everything they can do...
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What is diabetic ketoacidosis?
No one wants to have high blood sugar—you'd rather feel your best. But there's even more to it. When your blood sugar is high, your body can't move the large amount of glucose in the blood into your cells. Instead, your body uses more fat for fuel. And when fat is burned in this way, ketones are for...
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How to explain diabetes to your children
If you're a parent who has been recently diagnosed with diabetes, you're probably wondering how your diagnosis will also affect your children. Even though you may want to spare them from any upsetting news, they need to know. Here's how to start and continue this important conversation. Start wit...
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7 diabetes hacks you can try today
The diabetes community is great at sharing—especially when they come up with an idea for making life a little easier. Consider these tried-and-true tricks and shortcuts for managing your health and gear. Show emergency info on a locked phone. You may have your ICE (in case of emergency) contact noted in your phone, but that doesn't help if emergency workers can't unlock it. For Apple devices, you can include emergency information in the health app. Some Android phones have an emergency contact feature in the phone's setting. Another great option is to type up emergency contacts and bas...
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How to sleep
If you're not getting enough sleep, you may find you're having a harder time controlling your blood sugar levels.1 Diabetes can contribute to sleep problems, including Apnea (difficulty breathing)2, Neuropathy (damage to the nerves in your feet and legs), and nighttime low blood sugar. Fortunately,...
Read More
Low blood sugar symptoms and treatment
You may recognize the feeling—feeling hungry, dizzy, sweaty or just a little bit "off." These signs of hypoglycemia, or low blood glucose, mean it's time to take action. What causes low blood sugar? For most people, low blood glucose refers to anything below 70 mg/dL, although your number may...
Read More
What is LADA or type 1.5 diabetes?
If you're active in online diabetes forums and social media, you've probably come across prominent community members with a third type of diabetes. It's known as type 1.5 diabetes or LADA (which stands for "latent autoimmune diabetes in adults"). Similar to type 1, LADA is an autoimmune response—...
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What can a diabetes educator do for you?
There are many people on your healthcare team—including yourself—but there's one person who can give you hands-on advice that you can start using immediately. We're talking about a diabetes educator. If you've never met with one, or if it's been a while, here's an overview of everything they can do for you. A diabetes educator can answer medical questions about diabetes, including helping you learn how to use your blood glucose meter or medication. They'll help you figure out how food and activity affect your blood sugar, as well as how to deal with things like stress or depression. Expe...
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Diabetes apps
A mobile app can be an extremely useful tool, helping you manage your day-to-day life with diabetes. There are a lot of apps out there, but here are some of the ones we found that had high ratings, were free or affordable, and had an easy-to-use format. For example, the mySugr logbook app call...
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Medicare coverage for diabetes
What does Medicare Part B cover for people with diabetes? Medicare Part B will cover much of your diabetes care, including doctors' services, lab tests, preventive care and supplies. If you have diabetes, it also covers your testing supplies, whether you use insulin or not.1 This includes...
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Alternate site blood sugar testing
Whether testing alternate sites or at the fingertip, try the Accu-Chek® FastClix lancing device—the only 1-click lancing device with a drum. Some blood glucose meters allow you to use a blood sample from a nonfingertip or alternate site such as your palm, forearm or upper arm.1 Because...
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What is diabetic ketoacidosis?
No one wants to have high blood sugar—you'd rather feel your best. But there's even more to it. When your blood sugar is high, your body can't move the large amount of glucose in the blood into your cells. Instead, your body uses more fat for fuel. And when fat is burned in this way, ketones are formed. Any time your blood sugar is over 240, you should immediately use a ketone test strip to check your urine.1 Ketones make the blood acidic, making you feel ill and possibly leading to diabetic ketoacidosis (or DKA). DKA is a serious medical condition that causes nausea and...
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