Question

A 55-year-old female patient comes into the clinic who was recently who was recently diagnosed with type 2 diabetes after her visit to a health fair. As the nurse, you initiate patient education on basic diabetic care and the woman asks questions about diet and exercise and how these relate to blood glucose levels.  Find an appropriate piece of education material for this patient from the list of resources and explain to the patient why these are important.

Answer 1

diabetes mellitus:

health education on diet:

• eat small and frequent meals
• eat veggies and salads
• cut off sugar and carbonated drinks
• limit the use of alcohol
• eat food less in fat
• drink more water
• eat high fibre foods
• eat high protein diet
• include whole grains in your diet

health education on exercise:

• walking, jogging,swimming,riding a bicycleplaying tennis, basketball and brisk walking best
• perform house hold chores such as watering the plants, gardening and cleaning the house and car
• use stairs instead of elevators
• leg lifts, arm strtches, swivels, side lunges, twisting the torso are bets options

during exercises, glycoge is used to provide energy, once it is depleted muscles use circulating blood glucose and free fatty acids to balance the energy requirement. measures must be taken to prevent hypoglycemia due to physical activity within next 24 hours.

diet rich in fibre helps to maintain and slow down absorption of glucose into the blood thereby maintain a balance in the levels.