Kill Two Birds with One Stone

Correct Two Diseases with One Therapeutic Step: Lifestyle Modification

Are you an individual with hypertension (high blood pressure)? Have you got yourself tested for diabetes? If not, please do it immediately. This is because, hypertension and diabetes are like best friends who often travel together and treating them simultaneously is advantageous for the patient:

·         Keeping BP under control in diabetic patients reduces the chances of heart attack, stroke or heart disease by almost fifty percent.

·         Controlling blood sugar levels in people with high blood pressure reduces the chances of losing vision, losing a limb, numbness in the fingers or feet or kidney damage.

How to Confirm Diabetes?

Fasting blood sugar test is usually suggested by the physician to confirm diabetes. If your result denotes a number greater than 126 milligrams per deciliter (mg/dL) which is again confirmed by repeating the test after a couple of days, the individual is confirmed to have diabetes. Some physicians also test for diabetes by testing blood sugar levels two hours after you drink some sugary beverage or with HbA1c test. Increased blood sugar levels can damage nerves, trigger heart attacks and strokes, harm the kidneys and lead to vision loss. Keeping blood sugar levels under control can prevent these complications. Learn about diabetes, the role of insulin, symptoms and corrective actions for the same at the website www.firsteatright.com. 

Controlling the Disease

Although diabetes and high blood pressure are two different diseases, the same lifestyle modifications can help correct these diseases.

·         Practice regular physical exercise

·         Lose weight or maintain a healthy weight

·         Quit smoking

·         Follow a healthy diet

Try to maintain balanced blood pressure and blood sugar levels with physical activity and healthy diet changes. When these alone don’t work, medications such as statins are usually prescribed to control both the diseases irrespective of cholesterol levels.