Diabietics Need Better Self Management Education

Fri, 07 Aug 2009
Diabetics may have diabetic life insurance cover and the latest medicines to fight this disease, however, they frequently lack the most important ingredient for a long, healthy life, that is, self-management education.

Doctors cannot teach you everything with their ever busier schedules. The average amount of time a doctor spends with a patient is around 22 minutes.

Approximately 80 percent of diabetics are managed by general practitioners, not board certified endocrinologists.

In addition, a diabetic often has multiple medical problems which need close attention. You and your GP will need help in many cases.

When given a diagnosis, get a proper diagnosis. A common error that is often made is that it is assumed that an adult has type 2 diabetes and that is associated with insulin resistance . Typically, it is thopught that the type 2 diabetic has to be overweight or obese .

However, in children being overweight is not a defining trait. People with Type 1 diabetes may also be overweight. Herein self-management is going to be very different.

Hence, it is vital to obtain necessary education and skills training to understand diabetes and know how to treat it. You make the dozens of daily decisions to control diabetes, not your GP.

The GP is part of your diabetes management team, as are your family, diabetes nurse, dietitian and friends. Diabetics who attempt to manage diabetes alone can only hurt themselves in the end.

Should you be diagnosed expect a referral to a diabetes educator.

Education is vital about this disease.

Link to this page

Copy and Paste the following HTML into your page.