Dr. Pascual De Santis, Endocrinologist with Baptist Health South Florida and Cathy Clark-Reyes, Registered Dietitian with Baptist Health Primary Care agree exercise is one of the best things for decreasing blood sugar.
They explain it is better if exercise routine is combined with a healthy eating plan. Brian Betancourt, Exercise Physiologist with Baptist Health South Florida, explains when people do exercises their weight may not decrease because they’re putting on lean mass.
Cathy Clark-Reyes, Registered Dietitian with Baptist Health Primary Care, explains muscles are more effective at burning calories.
Eating correctly It’s not just about eating less calories; It’s about where those calories are coming from, she explains. Exercise and diet complement each other. According to Cathy Clark-Reyes, Registered Dietitian with Baptist Health Primary Care, 70% is about eating and 30% about exercise.
Brian Betancourt, Exercise Physiologist with Baptist Health South Florida, also considers the quality of the food, because the big determining factor for losing weight is diet. Brian Betancourt, Exercise Physiologist with Baptist Health South Florida and Cathy Clark-Reyes, Registered Dietitian with Baptist Health Primary Care agree that being fit and being in shape are both one and the same.
But she considers the most important thing is to be healthy even if the person is thin.
She affirms it is essential to focus on what people are eating in order to achieve that health. Parents model their children behavior. Kids need to learn how to eat and they need to see at home being served healthy food on their plates, affirms Cathy Clark-Reyes, Registered Dietitian with Baptist Health Primary Care.
Brian Betancourt, Exercise Physiologist with Baptist Health South Florida, considers the small steps is important when someone considers to start a healthy lifestyle. Diabetes can cause retinopathy and when sugar levels are high, people can have difficulty for nearside vision. This can be prevented or resolved when the glucose is low, says Dr. Pascual De Santis, Endocrinologist at Baptist Health South Florida.
One of the things that scares diabetics is the fact that they cannot see or cannot drive, adds Cathy Clark-Reyes, Registered Dietitian with Baptist Health Primary Care. “If you do not want to lose your vision, we have to move with prevention,” she says.
Changing your lifestyle (eating healthier and exercising more) is the first step to treating diabetes. The easiest thing to do, when people think about starting an exercise plan, is to start off with something that people realistically achieve and continue to do such as walking.
Brian Betancourt, Exercise Physiologist with Baptist Health South Florida, considers that any exercise routine has to be progressive.
Start bringing down the amount of sugar that people consume is the main thing to do when someone decides to start a healthy diet, advises Cathy Clark-Reyes, Registered Dietitian with Baptist Health Primary Care.
She also recommends watching the snack consumption and bringing those things down and replacing them with fruits and vegetables. Unquenchable thirst, frequent urination, weight loss without trying, weakness and fatigue, tingling or numbness in hands, legs of feet and cut and bruises that take a long time to heal are the most common symptoms of both diabetes, says Dr. Pascual De Santis, Endocrinologist with Baptist Health South Florida.
Cathy Clark-Reyes, Registered Dietitian with Baptist Health Primary Care, affirms diabetes could be a tricky illness because it is silent and the patient doesn’t feel anything about it. Diabetes is slightly more common in men than in women in across most of ethnic groups, according to the last CDC report, says Dr. Pascual De Santis, Endocrinologist with Baptist Health South Florida, but the difference is very small.
Cathy Clark-Reyes, Registered Dietitian with Baptist Health Primary Care, explains women tend to get on the bandwagon and join the diabetes program and get educated. In these programs, patients receive one-on-one attention and a personalized program.
The implementation of such programs improves outcomes and reduces costs in diabetes management. When someone starts exercise program at home, he should do those moves that he does every day. Brian Betancourt, Exercise Physiologist with Baptist Health South Florida, considers it is the very easy way to start it.
He recommends exercises such as squats, push-ups, planks, hollow holds, yoga and jumping jack, among others. No equipment is required because the body is essentially a gym, he affirms.
Cathy Clark-Reyes, Registered Dietitian with Baptist Health Primary Care, thinks the biggest challenge for people who are exercising at home is having that motivation. She recommends seeing video routines and involving any family member. Clean, separate, cook and chill are some of the most common tips for food safety. Cathy Clark-Reyes, Registered Dietitian with Baptist Health Primary Care, recommends calibrating the meat thermometer for an appropriate cooking process. Desserts are one of the main choices in holiday time. Cathy Clark-Reyes, Registered Dietitian with Baptist Health Primary Care, explains fresh fruits are always the best options. Another way is to budget calories and focus on the one dessert. Although most of our gatherings are involved with food, there are other things that can be done to enjoy the holidays in a healthier way. Cathy Clark-Reyes, Registered Dietitian with Baptist Health Primary Care advises planning holiday meals, adding more vegetables especially at nights, walking, dancing and drinking beverages as simple as possible. Getting people to take home the leftovers is the best way for everybody to take home a piece of the party. Cathy Clark-Reyes, Registered Dietitian with Baptist Health Primary Care, advises making that food at the right temperature as much as possible and, also, recommends trying to maintain the same weight during the holidays. Prioritization is the best choice when someone sees a holiday buffet. Cathy Clark-Reyes, Registered Dietitian with Baptist Health Primary Care, says sugar and salt make food taste good, but it’s important to be careful with sodium and glucose, because they can affect health a lot. She also prefers fresh foods instead of processed ones. Cathy Clark-Reyes, Registered Dietitian with Baptist Health Primary Care explains how she prepares fish parchment at home.
She puts the piece of fish, garnished with onions, tomatoes and peppers and a branch of rosemary. She wraps and bakes it for seven minutes.
The specialist says in this way the fish is cooked in its own juice. During the holidays it’s important to do a healthy routine. Cathy Clark-Reyes, Registered Dietitian with Baptist Health Primary Care, recommends moving as much as possible, not skipping meals, drinking a lot of water instead of a lot of calories and sharing quality time with family and friends. It takes approximately 20 minutes, from the stomach to the brain to get the message that someone is full, so it’s important to eat slowly: chewing the food and not just swallowing. Cathy Clark-Reyes, Registered Dietitian with Baptist Health Primary Care, affirms if people eat too quickly, they’re still hungry. The specialist also explains how the Hunger Fullness scale works. Natacha Borrajo, Registered Dietitian with Baptist Health Primary Care, advises avoiding wanting to go more than five hours without eating because that leads to hunger and hangry.
Cathy Clark-Reyes, Registered Dietitian with Baptist Health Primary Care, also says when people get hangry, their food decisions start to deteriorate and people can feel guilty afterwards.
Borrajo explains when people are eating they are burning calories. When patients skip meals for long periods, their metabolism has slowed down. The most important thing in snacks is balance, affirms Cathy Clark-Reyes, Registered Dietitian with Baptist Health Primary Care. She advises selecting something that’s going to keep someone satisfied.
She advises choosing something that’s got a little bit of fiber and healthy fat, because this helps keep patient full longer.
The specialist says it’s good to use cucumbers, radishes, cherry tomatoes, sugar free nut bars and sugar free chocolate. As a result of very fast-paced life, people’s eating habits suffer. People tend to skip meals and tend to forget snacks, affirms Cathy Clark-Reyes, Registered Dietitian with Baptist Health Primary Care.
Natacha Borrajo, Registered Dietitian with Baptist Health Primary Care, adds her biggest thing when she tries to eat healthy is to go to grocery shops. She considers everybody needs to make food choices throughout the day.
She also says planning to go to the grocery store is a healthy habit. Every day is important for people to eat fruits, vegetables, whole grains and protein in their meals for a balance diet, explains Cathy Clark-Reyes, Registered Dietitian with Baptist Health Primary Care.
The specialist explains with a graphic what “My Plate” is. She says it means what someone can get in one meal.
Protein or cereal bar is useful as snacks when people cannot make a meal, because it is recommended not skipping any daily food, says Natacha Borrajo, Registered Dietitian with Baptist Health Primary Care. If someone does not make healthy choices, it’s better to eat at home, affirms Cathy Clark-Reyes, Registered Dietitian with Baptist Health Primary Care.
The expert says it’s important when someone goes out to eat, they should consider what they would eat if they were eating at home and then try to choose something accordingly.
Natacha Borrajo, Registered Dietitian with Baptist Health Primary Care, advises always having healthy meal delivery service on hand. Dr. Pascual De Santis, Endocrinologist with Baptist Health South Florida, mentions the guidelines of American Diabetes Association to diagnose diabetes.
“It’s basically a fasting sugar or glucose, blood glucose, of 126 and above, hemoglobin a1c of 6.5 and above (the percentage of the hemoglobin that has a sugar attached to it and is representative of the average of blood sugars in the last three months), a two-hour glucose tolerance test is performed after a glucose challenge platoon of two hundred and above or a random blood glucose with symptoms of 200 or above so those are the main diagnostic criteria,” he says.
The specialist affirms the treatment will depend on the severity of diabetes. There are two major categories of diabetes: Type 1 and Type 2. Juvenile diabetes is referred to type 1. Roughly around only 5% of people have it. 95% of people in North America onset have type 2 diabetes, explains Dr. Pascual De Santis, Endocrinologist with Baptist Health South Florida.
The specialist says in type 1 diabetes, the body can no longer produce insulin. In case of type 2 diabetes, the body just produces insulin, but not enough.
Healthy lifestyle and insulin injections are the most common treatment for both types of diabetes. There are several ways in which diabetes can affect male health. Apnea, low testosterone levels and erectile dysfunction are the main effects, explains Dr. Pascual De Santis, Endocrinologist with Baptist Health South Florida.
The autonomic neuropathy, one of the complications of diabetes, can be manifested in many ways, like tachycardia, orthostatic hypotension and erectile dysfunction, he says.
