Diabetes can come with a slew of uncomfortable symptoms that can significantly affect your quality of life. The disease greatly increases your risk of cardiovascular and kidney problems. It can lead to painful complications in your lower extremities and sometimes blindness.
While we can’t cure diabetes, you can decrease your symptoms with the right tools. Some can even achieve diabetes remission. Managing diabetes “gets easier with time,” says Dr. Jason Baker, who is both a type 1 diabetic and an attending endocrinologist at Cornell Medical College in New York. “Diabetes is a marathon, not a race.”
We break down what you should know about mitigating diabetes symptoms and living a healthier, happier life.
Is there a cure for diabetes?
Today, there is no cure for type 1 or type 2 diabetes. That said, you can minimize your symptoms with careful guidance from your doctor, coupled with healthy lifestyle changes.
People with type 2 diabetes can work toward achieving remission. In remission, people with type 2 diabetes can get their blood sugar below the diabetic range without needing diabetes medication. Type 1 diabetics can strive for normalcy through regular insulin injections and careful health management.
If you are prediabetic, which means your blood sugar levels are high but not high enough to be type 2 diabetes, there’s good news: You can avoid developing full-blown diabetes by implementing better lifestyle habits. People almost always develop prediabetes before developing Type 2, and more than 80 percent of people with prediabetes don’t know they have it.
If you develop gestational diabetes during pregnancy, you’re at a higher risk of developing type 2 diabetes at a later date. Therefore, people with gestational diabetes could also benefit from lifestyle changes that can help prediabetics.
How can I improve my diabetes symptoms?
While diabetes can be difficult to get under control, many experts agree that a healthy diet and moderate exercise are your keys to success.
“Significant and sustained weight loss is the most important factor” toward reversing the physical impact of type 2 diabetes, says Dr. William Cefalu, director at the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases in Bethesda, Maryland.
A BMI, or body mass index, between 25 and 30 is considered overweight, while over 30 is considered obese. One study found that being moderately overweight could increase your chance of diabetes complications.
While weight can play a role, it’s not always directly related; you can also be overweight, healthy and never develop diabetes.
It’s important to note that the BMI calculator is both rudimentary and controversial as a measurement, and that it doesn’t account for factors like muscle mass. One study found that people with lower BMIs but higher waist circumferences were more likely to be at risk of diabetes than their more muscular counterparts.
Eating the right foods for balancing diabetic blood sugar levels can be “easier than most people think,” says Mary Ellen Phipps. She’s a diabetes dietitian who was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at age 5 and has written two cookbooks on easy recipes for diabetics. “Focus on what to add to your diet to achieve blood sugar balance,” she says, such as fat, fiber and protein, rather than eliminating sugar and carbohydrates altogether.
What’s a healthy baseline for living with diabetes?
If you have type 1 diabetes, you’ll give yourself insulin shots or wear an insulin pump every day to manage your blood sugar levels, since your body can’t manufacture its own insulin. You’ll also monitor your blood sugar every so often and check in with your healthcare team on a regular basis to make sure you’re staying within a healthy range.
If you have type 2 diabetes, are prediabetic or have gestational diabetes, you may or may not need medication, depending on the severity of your symptoms. Either way, you can improve your quality of life by incorporating healthier lifestyle habits and diet guidance from an experienced medical provider. Add in some time to heal and you may be able to recover to the point of remission — and keeping the condition there forever.