November is a big month to remember in terms of diabetes awareness, since the whole month has been designated as National Diabetes Month, and November 14th is World Diabetes Day. The focus in November should be on recognizing just what a huge problem this disease is, and how many lives worldwide have been affected by it.
According to the CDC, almost 30 million Americans have diabetes, although eight million of those people are unaware they have it. By the same token, one out of every three American adults has prediabetes, but 90% of them are unaware of that fact.
As you can see, roughly 10% of the American population has diabetes, and many of them have no idea that they have it. Given the fact that the disease is so prevalent, all seniors should take the time to make themselves aware of some important facts about the disease.
Why seniors need to educate themselves
Diabetes is a kind of collection of diseases characterized by high levels of glucose in the blood, and this occurs as a result of the body’s inability to produce or use insulin.
Anyone who has diabetes will be troubled by something caused by the disease, but seniors face a number of challenges that younger people may not. This being the case, it’s important for seniors to recognize some of the impacts diabetes can have on their bodies, so they can detect issues at the earliest possible time and seek remedies for them. Some of the things seniors should be on the lookout for are described below.
Bones and joints
As people age, joints can definitely suffer significant wear-and-tear, while bones may become more brittle. Senior citizens with arthritis can experience an even greater impact if diabetes is present along with arthritis, and they may experience higher levels of pain as well.
Older people afflicted with diabetes also have a higher incidence of neuropathy, which is that pins-and-needles sensation many people feel in their extremities.
By self-managing diabetes, senior citizens can minimize the damage done to nerves, joints, and bones.
Vision issues
Senior persons with diabetes are at risk of having more vision problems than their younger counterparts. Anyone who has diabetes has a possibility of constricted blood vessels which can damage the eyes. Seniors who have both high blood pressure and diabetes are doubly at risk of vision problems, because of the likelihood of vessel damage that may occur around the eyes.
Annual eye checkups are important as a means of monitoring any deterioration of your vision.
Hearing problems
Hearing capabilities are likely to decrease in seniors as they age anyway, but the damage can be even worse if you’re afflicted by diabetes.
A senior person with diabetes is more than twice as likely to undergo significant hearing loss than a younger person is. In order to protect your hearing as much as possible, you should report any perceived loss of hearing ability right when it occurs, so that any further damage can be minimized, or so steps can be taken to restore your hearing.
Brain function
There’s no question that as we all age, we can experience degradation of brain function. Someone bothered with diabetes can have an increased rate of cognitive decline, and this will show up in any number of ways. When this happens, the brain won’t function as well, and cognitive decline is likely to begin in the diabetes patient.
It’s hard enough to manage diabetes, but it’s even harder when you have impaired brain function. This being the case, it’s likely that diabetes patients who are older will require assistance from caregivers, whether they be family members or professional caregivers.
Diabetes self-management
It’s important for seniors to be aware of diabetes self-management, which involves managing the symptoms of what could be a devastating disease. Self-management includes a number of tasks that should be executed daily, in order to minimize the damage caused by this disease.
First of all, it will be necessary to track the level of your blood sugar almost every day, by using a smartphone app or a home glucose meter. Another skill you’ll need to acquire is reading food labels carefully, so you can make the best food choices for someone with diabetes.
This will help you to avoid many of the things that worsen your condition, and it will help you to make better choices about foods that are healthy for you.
Self-management also involves getting regular exercise, since this can have a very positive impact on insulin levels and blood sugar levels. Before starting up some kind of exercise program, consult with your physician, so that you can stay within your personal limits and not cause yourself harm.
One last component of self-management is scheduling annual checkups so that you can be sure your kidneys, eyes, and other bodily functions are still operating normally.
At your annual physical, your cholesterol will be checked as well as your blood sugar level, and if anything needs adjustment there, you’ll have to work on it.
At the same time, it’s a good idea to get vaccinated against the flu and pneumonia, so that they don’t combine with diabetes to make your health condition more serious.