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Options for Managing Diabetes
Baptist Health La Grange: Options for Managing Diabetes
Internist KATHERINE H. JETT, MD discusses diabetes treatment and explains how she helps patients manage the disease and develop a plan for a healthier lifestyle.
Options for Managing Diabetes Health Talks Transcript
Type 2 diabetes is caused by dysfunction in the pancreas. The pancreas produces insulin; however, it’s not used properly. In type 2 diabetes, the body requires a higher level of insulin to do the same job that it would in someone without diabetes.
If you’ve been diagnosed with diabetes, there are many treatment options. First and foremost, you should work on your diet and try to increase the amount of exercise that you’re getting. If this isn’t enough to get your sugars down, then you should talk to your physician about the next step, which would be medications. The diagnosis of diabetes can be very overwhelming. Thankfully, we have a diabetic educator who can sit with patients and help figure out what realistic changes you can make to improve your diet and lifestyle.
I do what’s called conversational mapping, and basically it’s a very colorful map that we lay down on a table. We talk about feelings that people have when they are first diagnosed with diabetes. We talk about the signs and symptoms of hypo- and hyperglycemia. It has pictures of some nutritional information, and it basically is just a road map of all the information that patients will need to know with their disease. Basically what they do is talk amongst themselves, create questions for themselves, and a lot of times they even answer their own questions. I’m there to facilitate and to answer questions that they can’t, and just to guide them down that road to a healthier lifestyle.
