Diabetes

Educational Resources.. and Courses

This page is intended only for patients of the practice living with diabetes, who have been sent a link to access the page.

Diabetes is a condition where the body’s ability to manage dietary sugars, and other carbohydrates that convert into sugars after digestion, is diminished.

The effect of too high a serum sugar (glucose) level that results in the body can lead to damage, over time.

Much of this damage is on the blood vessels, which effectively can age at a rate quicker than the rest of you.

The consequence is, that you can become more prone at an earlier age to diseases of the blood vessels, such as furring up; blood clot formation, or leakage/haemorrhage, than you would have become.

Trying to maintain as normal a blood sugar as possible; as well as managing other factors that can damage blood vessels, such as smoking; high cholesterol and high blood pressure, become increasingly important for diabetics.

It’s all about keeping your blood vessels as young as the rest of you, a bit like using moisturiser and avoiding sunburn to keep your skin from getting older quicker, and becoming wrinkly.

Getting to understand your diabetes is really important, and educating yourself about it, respecting the condition and managing it, rather than ignoring it could pay enormous dividends for you.

For Type 2 diabetes (the form that usually comes on later in life), weight management is very important. The natural insulin that your pancreas gland creates to manage your glucose levels can become absorbed by fat cells, and if you’re overweight, it will worsen your condition.

The Practice Nurse can advise you on local courses on request, or at your next review, specifically the DESMOND course for Type 2 diabetes, and the DAFNE course for Type 1.

You can find HERE a summary of available types of course from diabetes.co.uk, and if you click HERE there’s a really good website and app available to help with carbohydrate management designed by some inspirational doctors in the South of England. Carbohydrate management is the key to weight loss.