What Else You Can Do

If you've recently been diagnosed with diabetes, you need to take an active role in safeguarding and preserving your health. Here's how:

• Get informed about diabetes by reading books, taking classes and contacting support organizations (see list on next page).
• Eat a healthy diet to reduce or do away with your need for diabetes medications.
• Exercise regularly, even if it's as little as 20 minutes of walking three to five times a week.
• Learn how to use a blood glucose meter to monitor your blood sugar. Notice how body signals such as thirst and tiredness often accompany a rise or fall in your blood glucose levels.
• Know the signs of too-low blood sugar—sweating, headache, confusion—and the treatment: eating or drinking something sweet immediately.
• Wear a Medic Alert bracelet that tells people you have diabetes.
• Get help to quit smoking; along with diabetes, this deadly habit can increase your risk for heart disease and stroke.
• Reduce or don't drink alcohol, which impacts your blood sugar level.
• Take your diabetes medicine according to your doctor's advice.
• See your doctor frequently, including a regular eye exam, blood and urine tests and a foot exam to check for sores that can reveal blood flow problems.
• Promptly report any other illnesses in order to safely coordinate medicines.