Managing diabetes requires more than just watching your sugar intake- many other factors like exercise, eating habits, and supplementing with nutrients like vitamin B12 are important with diabetes, as well. Here are some tips for diabetes management and reducing your risk for diabetes.
Metformin is a popular diabetes drug, but it has side effects. Over time, metformin inhibits your ability to absorb vitamin B12 from natural food sources such as meat, fish, and eggs.
You might not notice the effects of vitamin B12 deficiency until it is too late, because the earliest signs don’t occur until vitamin B12 serum levels are at a severe low.
Symptoms of vitamin B12 deficiency are sometimes mistaken for diabetic neuropathy, both of which affect the nervous system; for that reason, vitamin B12 deficiency is often overlooked in diabetics.
Symptoms of vitamin B12 deficiency include:
- Painful tingling in the extremities (hands, arms, feet, and legs)
- Temporary numbness
- “Pins and needles”
- Burning mouth sensation
- Altered sense of taste
- Eye twitches
- Difficulty walking
- Chronic fatigue
- Short-term memory loss
A blood test can diagnose vitamin B12 deficiency, but the best indicator is simply the occurrence of symptoms. Only weekly supplementation can get your vitamin B12 levels back to normal.
Other ways to manage diabetes
Every year, scientists discover new methods of preventing your chances of getting diabetes and reducing the symptoms in people diagnosed with type 1 or type 2 diabetes.
Here are more tips that doctors now recommend:
- Eat brown rice. According to the latest research, choosing brown over white reducing our risk of getting type 2 diabetes and promotes healthy weight management. The opposite is true of white rice- by making white rice a staple of your diet, you increase your odds of suffering from diabetes, obesity, and heart disease.
- Avoid statins. This cholesterol-lowering drug may reduce your risk for heart attack, but it also increases your chances of becoming diabetic.
- Drink water. By drinking at least 64 ounces of water per day, you effectively help your body regulate your blood sugar level.
- Stay active. Scientific research confirms that exercising each day not only helps you lose weight, it also keeps you from getting diabetes and suffering from a heart attack.
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