Self Management of Diabetes

There are more than 75% of diabetes patients thought that they themselves were doing well in term of diabetes management. In fact only less than 40% had achieved their target.

From 2009 to 2013, the diabetes education and prevention have been the theme for Diabetes Day. November 14 was selected to mark the Frederick Banting and Charles Best for first conceiving the ideas that lead to the findings of extracting insulin in 1922 to treat diabetes. Insulin is a hormone produced by our body to control blood sugar levels.

One third of people gave themselves an "A" grade on specific daily health activities, like exercise, eating healthy and stress management. Whereas, less than 50% actually knew their current cholesterol levels. Many car owner knew when to change the oil in their car than their current cholesterol value.

It might help to have a role models, whereby, normally patients may prefer to hear from another patient instead of a health care provider. One role model, was a young man who had type 1 diabetes since age 11, and was not content to just lead a "normal" life with insulin injections. He went on to climbed Mount Kinabalu twice and finished a 3-days 100km hiking.

Another one, is an inspiring retiree who was very determined to reverse her diabetes. At the age of 75, she cycles two times a week, play table tennis and practices Taiji.

These champion examples have common believe in self management of diabetes. They learn to be responsible for their own medications, read nutritional labels and carbohydrates counting. They also incorporated exercises and healthy living into their daily regimes.