Diabetes Education Classes Can Be Extremely Helpful

Helpful Tips I Learned in Diabetes Class

I went into the Diabetes classes offered at my local Health Department thinking it would be a joke. I wouldn't learn anything. I consider myself to be pretty smart. I enjoy doing research on the internet. So, what could these people tell me that I didn't already know? Well, they taught me many things. I was surprised at what I learned in these classes. And, I found a support network of people who had the same disease and similar issues in their life. I was very grateful for the opportunity to attend these classes. Because I know how terrifying it is to go through being diagnosed with and then learning to live with diabetes, I want to share some of what I have learned.

The biggest question I had going in was how many carbohydrates am I supposed to eat in a day. The answer was not a simple one. The Diabetes Educator told us we needed to eat 3 meals a day of approximately 60 carbohydrates and 2 snacks a day of approximately 15. I was very glad to hear this because my doctor had not given me any clue about this and I was eating 20 carbohydrates per meal or less and no snacks. I was losing weight and keeping my blood glucose down, but I couldn't keep that up for long. Now, using these numbers I am successfully managing my glucose level.

I also learned that people with diabetes have a better chance of having high blood pressure than people without the disease have. It was explained to me that blood that has a high glucose level is like maple syrup. It just makes sense that it would be harder for the heart to push it through the veins. This may be a bit simplified, but it gets the point across. So, this is one of many reasons to do your best to get control of your blood glucose levels.