I have diabetes, and am interested in additional information on treatment and side effects of medication. Also risk factors for Type 2 diabetes. Would like to know what is the proper sugar level rating (what is too high and too low).

You’ve asked some important questions about type 2 diabetes. First, risk factors in developing type 2 diabetes are your family history (genetics) fueled by environment such as lack of exercise and eating more calories than we burn. How can someone with the genetic set-up for diabetes decrease their risk? Exercise, build muscle and stay lean.

Once you have type 2 diabetes, the same is true. The best treatment for insulin resistance is exercise and eating healthy amounts of all foods. It isn’t about avoiding foods, it’s about the amount we eat. Adding medicine to this is the usual course and is expected as time goes on.

It’s not about what a person does wrong but about the journey of diabetes. Slowly the pancreas’ ability to make insulin “poops out” and the blood sugar will rise over time. Several new medicines have become available over the last few years that treat different parts of the diabetes problem. Over time, you may be on several medicines for diabetes, each helping with different aspects of the disease.

Learning how to manage your disease day to day is the most important part you can play. By testing your blood sugar before and after meals at various times, you will learn what affect different foods have on your blood sugar. This can be different person to person so it is important to learn about you. Recommended blood sugar goals before meals are 80-120 mg/dl and less than 180 mg/dl one hour after eating. Since this is not a perfect science, blood sugars will not be perfect. Blood sugar goals are ranges of blood sugars that you try to stay close to. I hope you have a diabetes educator to work with and support your self management education. If not, you can ask your doctor, or call 1-800-TEAM�UP�4 to find someone in your area.

KS