Home / Anne Arundel County Diabetic Management

Anne Arundel County Diabetic Management

Diabetes is a chronic disease that involves metabolic disorders which result in an abnormally high concentration of glucose (a type of blood sugar) in the blood if left untreated. Blood glucose is the main source of energy in your body and it comes from the food you eat. Insulin, a hormone produced by the pancreas, helps glucose from food turn into energy in your body.

Having Type 1 diabetes means that your body does not produce insulin. So, you need to take insulin every day to live. If you have Type 2 diabetes, your body does not make or use insulin well, so you may need to take insulin to control your diabetes.

Some women also develop Gestational diabetes when they are pregnant and that goes away when the baby is born (most of the time).

Having too much glucose in your blood can lead to different health problems such as kidney disease, heart disease, and stroke, diabetic neuropathy, eye disease, and other health issues.

While there is no cure for diabetes, you can take steps to manage diabetes and improve your health. Diabetes management involves your awareness of the factors that make your blood sugar level rise and fall and to know how to control these factors.

Learn More about Diabetes

An important part of diabetes management is to learn more about living with this chronic disease. Talk to your health provider, take classes to learn more about diabetes, or search online. You can also join a support group to share experiences and get support in coping with diabetes.

Manage Your Diet

A healthy diet is vital to healthy living in general. However, if you have diabetes, you need to know how certain types of food affect your blood sugar levels. Food diabetic management involves learning how to count carbohydrates in your food as carbohydrates have the biggest impact on blood sugar levels. Learn what portion size is appropriate for each type of food and measure your portions to ensure an accurate carbohydrate count. Also, make your meals well-balanced and pay attention to the types of carbohydrates you take. Coordinate the proportions of your food and diabetes medication to avoid hypoglycemia (dangerously low blood sugar).

Exercise

Your diabetes management plan should include exercise because regular physical activity helps your muscles to use glucose for energy and your body to use insulin more efficiently. However, discuss an exercise plan with your GP and keep an exercise schedule. Make sure to stay hydrated during exercise as dehydration can affect your blood sugar levels.

Manage Stress

Stress can increase your blood sugar levels, so learn how to manage tension. Strategies such as mindfulness meditation, deep breathing, working on your hobby, reading, gardening, and spending time in nature may be useful in strengthening healthy stress responses and managing anxiety.

Home / Crofton Congestive Heart Failure Management

Crofton Congestive Heart Failure Management

Congestive heart failure (CHF) is a chronic disease that causes a person’s heart muscles to pump inefficiently. The reason for this is fluid that builds up around the heart and affects the pumping power of the muscles. Congestive heart failure occurs when the ventricles of the heart (that normally pump blood to your body’s organs and tissues) cannot pump enough blood into your body.

The most common type of CHF is left-sided congestive heart failure which occurs when the left ventricle doesn’t properly pump blood in the body’s organs and tissues. As a result, blood and other body fluids accumulate in your lungs, liver, abdomen, and lower extremities.

As the disease progresses, built up fluids in your lungs make breathing hard and may even lead to death.

If you suffer from right-sided congestive heart failure, the right ventricle doesn’t properly pump blood into your body, which may lead to fluid retention in your abdomen and lower body. You may also have both-sided congestive heart failure.

Stages of Congestive Heart Failure

At the early stage of congestive heart failure, you may not experience any symptoms during regular physical activity and at rest. At this stage, you can manage your condition through monitoring, medications, and lifestyle changes.

As the disease progresses, you begin to experience shortness of breath and fatigue during physical activity. You should talk to your doctor if your condition limits normal physical activity.

Severe congestive heart failure usually means that you cannot perform any form of physical activity, with symptoms of CHF present even at rest. While there is no cure for congestive heart failure at this stage, you can still manage your disease to improve the quality of life.

Congestive Heart Failure Symptoms

Early signs of CHF usually involve fatigue, swelling in your feet, ankles, and legs, increased need to urinate, and weight gain. However, in the early stages of congestive heart failure, you probably won’t notice any changes in your health.

As your illness progresses, you may experience cough (that comes from congested lungs), irregular heartbeat, shortness of breath, and wheezing.

Symptoms that indicate severe HCF usually include rapid breathing, chest pain that spreads through the upper body, lack of oxygen in your lungs that causes your skin to turn blue, and fatigue.

Congestive Heart Failure Causes

CHF may occur as a consequence of other health conditions that affect the cardiovascular system, such as hypertension (high blood pressure), coronary artery disease, diabetes, or thyroid disease.

Congestive Heart Failure Treatment

CHF treatment depends on the stage and severity of your condition as well as on your overall health. It is normally treated with medications such as ACE inhibitors, Beta-blockers, antihypertensive medications, antiarrhythmic medications, antipsychotics, and diuretics.

However, if medications are not effective, more invasive treatments may be required. These normally involve angioplasty and surgery.

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