Things you should do as a diabetic

As a diabetes patient there are things you should do regularly to stay healthy says a consultant endocrinologist at the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital, Prof Chinenye Sonny. Sonny who was the immediate past president of the Diabetes Association of Nigeria (DAN), said these are: – Monitor your sugar level. -Educate yourself about diabetes, […]

As a diabetes patient there are things you should do regularly to stay healthy says a consultant endocrinologist at the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital, Prof Chinenye Sonny.
Sonny who was the immediate past president of the Diabetes Association of Nigeria (DAN), said these are:
– Monitor your sugar level.
-Educate yourself about diabetes, that is know more about the disease so that you can live.
-Diet. Work with your dietician on your diet.
-Exercise. It is important to do exercises such as walking, swinging and riding a bicycle, among others, he said.
Some diabetics only restrict themselves to a certain class of food. Prof Chinenye Sonny said it is not acceptable to eat beans and plantain alone anymore as the diabetic patient needs a balanced diet.
 Dr. Emeka Momah head, Family and Specialty Medicine, Nisa Premier Hospital, Jabi Abuja, said the proper diet for people living with diabetes is called the rainbow diet.
“That means food that is filled with many colours. Our local diets are usually not more than two colours  like eating pounded yam or rice  which is white, and then the soup which is often yellow and some vegetables.
 “What we recommend is that you have rainbow colours, that is a small portion of carbohydrate which is often white then balance it with a lot vegetables and proteins, like fish, fruits, meat or chicken. So the more colorful your food pattern is, the more healthy it is. More proteins and vegetables versus carbohydrates definitely help,” he said.
He said in the past, the recommendation was that diabetics should stay away completely from carbohydrates but the body still needs energy to move around so the right thing is to reduce the portion of carbohydrate to the barest minimum so that you can have energy.
“So nowadays the recommendation is that you don’t abstain 100 percent from carbohydrate but to reduce the portion you take,” he said.
He said it was important for diabetics to have a relationship with a care giver because diabetes comes with many signs and symptoms.
According to him, the easiest part of diabetes is to take your drugs but the hardest part is the awareness to know that the drugs are actually working.
 “The fact that it is a chronic continuous disease means you should have a relationship with your doctor or healthcare giver, so that you can have a one on one conversation with him or her as your symptoms change,” Dr Momah said.