Diabetes is a condition that is needs to be taken very seriously. High blood sugars that result from uncontrolled diabetes are dangerous to your health. Your diabetes team members (including healthcare providers, such as your M.D., or nurse practitioner, or physician's assistant, diabetes educator, and others) will educate you about how to care for your diabetes and the "tools of management" that will help you to manage your diabetes well.

The most important member of your diabetes team is you, as 95% of diabetes management is done by the person with diabetes. For this reason, it is important that people in your life - family members, friends, school personnel, co-workers, and others – also understand how important it is to have an understanding of what diabetes is so that they can support you.

The goal of your diabetes healthcare team is for you to be healthy with diabetes and to enjoy a good quality of life. Since we know that uncontrolled blood sugars can cause damage to every part of the body, our goal for your blood sugars is for them to be as close to the normal range as we can get them, and as long as that doesn’t cause you to have accidents which could result from blood sugars that run too low.

Good control of blood sugar is achieved by using several components of diabetes management: making healthy food choices, being physically active, taking diabetes medication, if needed, testing blood sugar and having regular visits with your healthcare team to review your progress and guide you in making modifications to diabetes management components, if needed. Other self-care recommendations include:

• Caring for your feet
• Having an annual eye exam
• Getting a dental cleaning and exams every 6 months
• Having lab tests as recommended by your healthcare provider
• Tobacco avoidance or cessation
• Controlling blood pressure and blood cholesterol