Family support, a force to be reckoned with in diabetes management

Diabetes is a common and frequently-occurring disease. According to the latest survey data, the prevalence rate of diabetes in China has reached 12.75%, which seriously threatens the national health of our country. In order to raise global awareness and awareness about diabetes, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the International Diabetes Federation (IDF) jointly launched the United Nations Diabetes Day in 1991. World Diabetes Day will be celebrated on 14 November each year, and this year's theme is "Prevent diabetes and Protect Your family". It aims to focus on the important role of the family in diabetes prevention, management and care.

Disease is a threat to us, not just the individual with the disease, but the whole family. At the same time, the family is also an important platform for disease prevention, detection and management. As a diabetic patient, in addition to the professional medical management of the medical team, more care and attention from the family is needed. Home is a small free kingdom, it is warm, quiet, comfortable and casual, there is no place like the real life at home. At home, we are children and parents, and the power of the family will give us more help, so that we can manage diabetes more effectively.

Family and diabetes

As a chronic disease, diabetes not only affects the patient's own life and work, but also brings a huge impact on the family.

1. Economic pressure. The most direct impact of diabetes on families is the financial impact. Diabetes is a chronic disease, the need for lifelong control and treatment, and with the development of the disease will appear different degrees of complications, expensive treatment costs to the family economic pressure can be imagined.

(2) Psychological pressure. Genetic factors play an important role in the development of diabetes. After getting diabetes, people often worry about whether diabetes will affect fertility; Whether it will be passed on to future generations; How can children prevent diabetes? Such worries will put patients and their families under great psychological pressure. Therefore, the care of family members is very important for people with diabetes.

(3) Diet and exercise. In the treatment of diabetes, diet and exercise are the basis, which requires family members to give more care to patients, need to prepare meals for them individually, more companionship, exercise and so on. Patients may also suffer from hypoglycemia and ketoacidosis during treatment. This requires the patient's family members to be able to detect and treat in time to save the patient's life.

(4) Treatment and nursing knowledge. In fact, the family may mean more to people with diabetes, and it plays a very important role in diabetes management, care, prevention and education. In order to reduce the impact of diabetes on the patient's family and control diabetes, family members also need to understand diabetes, master the relevant treatment and nursing knowledge of diabetes, help patients overcome diabetes, so that diabetes will no longer become a heavy burden on the family.

Diabetes family management

Diabetes management involves diet therapy, exercise therapy, medication, regular monitoring, healthy lifestyle and continuous disease learning. Family support is crucial. Family support in diabetes management has been shown to have a significant role in improving health outcomes for people with diabetes. Through the supervision and cooperation of the family, the diet, physical activity and drug treatment of diabetic patients can be improved, and the blood sugar level can be better controlled. Psychological support is also available to reduce the emotional impact of the illness and improve quality of life. What skills do family members need to learn?

01 Learn about diabetes

Management of diabetes requires five chariots, namely diet control, exercise therapy, drug treatment, blood sugar monitoring and diabetes education, through the learning of diabetes knowledge, so that you understand the correct knowledge of diabetes management, but only less than half of diabetes patients and less than 1/4 of diabetes patients' family members receive diabetes knowledge education. As a family member of diabetes mellitus, we should learn diabetes knowledge together with patients and treat diabetes correctly.

02 Psychological Help

Many people with diabetes are nervous, depressed, pessimistic, and even give up after learning that they have the disease. As a family member, we should give them full understanding and tolerance, patiently enlighten patients, help them establish the courage and confidence to fight against the disease for a long time, and stable emotions are conducive to disease control.

03 Urge the formation of good living habits

Regardless of whether the patient adopts drug treatment, a good lifestyle is very important, and the family should supervise and promote the patient to limit alcohol and quit smoking, keep the mouth shut, step on the leg, and reshape the healthy lifestyle. In terms of diet control, it is best for family members to accompany patients to change bad eating habits, maintain a healthy diet, reduce food at home that is not conducive to diabetes control, and reduce patients' sense of isolation in life.

We need to have 10 tips:

1. Control daily intake of total calories from all foods to achieve or maintain an ideal body weight;

2. Eat a balanced diet, choosing diverse and nutrient-rich foods;

3. Under the premise of limiting the total amount of fat, you can eat a moderate amount of monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats, such as walnuts, almonds, peanut oil, etc. Limit your intake of saturated fatty acids and avoid foods high in saturated fat such as butter and lard.

4. Appropriately relax the restrictions on staple foods, reduce or condone monosaccharides and disaccharides;

5. Eat a high-fiber diet and choose foods with a low glycemic index. In the diet can be appropriate selection of coarse grains (such as buckwheat noodles, oatmeal, corn, etc.) and whole grains, eat more vegetables and so on;

6. Reduce salt intake, salt intake is less than 6 grams per day;

7. A small number of meals, meal timing and quantitative;

8. Drink more water, limit tobacco and alcohol, quit smoking;

9. Use steaming, boiling, stewing or cold mixing to process food, and avoid frying, frying, fumigation or shaper processing food.

10. It is recommended that we reduce the number of dining out and try to eat at home, on the one hand to increase emotional communication, but also to consume a variety of food.

On the other hand, exercise properly. Exercise is the best way to control blood sugar and lose weight. In order to develop consistent exercise habits, the whole family can act together and encourage each other to keep their exercise motivation and regularity. You can do half an hour of moderate-intensity aerobic exercise one hour after your first meal every day, and accumulate more than 150 minutes of exercise per week.

04 Master first aid knowledge

Family members should understand the relevant knowledge of acute complications such as hypoglycemia, and can immediately identify and properly treat patients once they have a hypoglycemic reaction.

05 Early detection, early treatment

Early diagnosis and treatment are key to preventing complications of diabetes and achieving health in a life where all family members can be affected by diabetes. We should pay attention to the health of our family members, have regular physical examinations, and pay attention to and intervene if there are abnormal metabolic indicators such as blood lipids and uric acid, because these will affect blood sugar metabolism. In addition, family members' awareness of the signs, symptoms and risk factors of various types of diabetes also plays a crucial role in early detection of diabetes.