Diabetes Management
If you have diabetes, you may know that controlling blood sugar levels through meal planning, physical activity and prescription medication is key to staying healthy and avoiding diabetes complications. Through our nationally recognized diabetes self-management program, our diabetes care team is here to help in your efforts.
If you have diabetes, enroll in our nationally recognized Diabetes Self-Management Program. Call the LifeFit Wellness Center at 843-522-5635 or have your primary care provider fill out a referral form.
Diabetes Management at Beaufort Memorial
Since 2000, the Beaufort Memorial LifeFit Nutrition Services Diabetes Self-Management Program has held the prestigious American Diabetes Association Education Recognition Certificate. This ensures that the program meets rigorous national standards to provide people with diabetes the tools necessary for controlling blood sugar levels and reducing the risk of complications. A certified diabetes educator can play a pivotal role in determining what works for each individual patient in controlling all types of diabetes.
Type 1 Diabetes Management
Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disorder in which the body cannot produce enough insulin to meet its needs because the immune system has mistakenly destroyed insulin-producing cells in the pancreas.
People with Type 1 diabetes can control the resulting high blood sugar levels through commitment to blood sugar monitoring, insulin injections, meal planning and physical activity.
Managing Type 2 Diabetes
The most common form of diabetes is Type 2 diabetes, in which the body does not properly process insulin, leading to increased blood sugar levels.
Some people with Type 2 diabetes can control the condition through a combination of eating a balanced, healthy diet and exercising. Other people require medications, such as insulin, as well as meal planning and physical activity to control Type 2 diabetes. Weight loss also contributes to controlling blood sugar levels in people with Type 2 diabetes.
Gestational Diabetes Management
When a woman develops diabetes during pregnancy, it is called gestational diabetes. Gestational diabetes usually develops about halfway through the pregnancy. Women typically receive a test for the condition between weeks 24 and 28 of their pregnancies.
As is the case with other types of diabetes, meal planning and physical activity are important elements in controlling blood sugar levels in women with gestational diabetes. Some women may need regular doses of insulin, as well. Daily monitoring of blood sugar levels is required.
It is essential that gestational diabetes be controlled in order to prevent a number of complications for both mother and baby, including high birth weight, which can lead to injury for infants during birth, and preeclampsia, a dangerous form of high blood pressure, in women.