Female Speaker: Daily diabetes management is the key to help patients feel their best and doing that requires the attention of patients all day, everyday.
Dr. John Buse: It's a disease that's 24/7 and that's probably the hardest thing about diabetes that you know you don't get to have a break, you don't get a weekend off.
Female Speaker: Tony Vickers is the 41-year-old corrections guard from Miami, Florida. Some of his unhealthy lifestyle choices put him at an increased risk for type II diabetes.
Tony Vickers: A lot of times I thought myself eating fast food, lot of fatty foods, burgers and pizza, fries and milkshake and things like that.
Female Speaker: In order to manage diabetes properly, doctor's say patients need to learn all they can about the disease.
Dr. John Buse: Type II diabetes is caused both by genes that lead to insulin not working well in our environment whether it's too much food and too little activity. The cells in the body that use sugar, predominantly muscle cells, can't use it effectively.
Female Speaker: Education is a key to properly managing and living with diabetes and it begins with one of the first lessons that we are taught as children A, B, C.
Dr. John Buse: The A, B, Cs of diabetes is the crux of the matter. A stands for A1C, which is a test that measures that average blood sugar over a period of about two to three months. A normal value would be less than six. An acceptable value would be between six and seven. B stands for blood pressure. Blood pressure is equally important in determining the risk or complications in diabetes as the blood sugar control. The goal in diabetes is less than 130 for the top number systolic blood pressure, and less then 80 for the bottom number. Then C stands for cholesterol and is arguably even more important than A and B for heart attacks and strokes, which eventually kill most people with diabetes. So, the LDR cholesterol we would like to have less than a 100.
Male Speaker: Okay. I'm going to check your sensation with this vibrating tuning fork here.
Female Speaker: Managing diabetes goes beyond the ABCs. Additionally, they are taking any medication that's prescribed. Then testing blood sugar throughout the day helps patients to identify the types and amounts of foods they should or should not be eating. And, of course good diabetes management includes a daily physical activity program.
Tony Vickers: I do Tai Chi exercise also on the weekend for about two hours and I just and I'm doing the Tai Chi exercise is focused more of my breathing and movement and just body positioning.
Steven Edelman: Many patients I always say should treat ourselves like our car put ourselves in the diabetes warranty program. Or you do certain things every year cholesterol check, blood pressure check, A1C check, glucose check, and if you stay on a regular maintenance schedule, our bodies will run better and last longer.
Tony Vickers: I've lost 10 pounds, since changing my eating habits in the last month. I've incorporated an exercise and it's my daily routine now, and I just feel really good. What a nice day.
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