Diabetes and Menopause

Whether you have Type 1 diabetes or Type 2 diabetes, menopause can affect your diabetes management:

•      Hormone levels can make blood glucose levels erratic
•     Weight gain can mean an increase in the medicine you take
•      Hot flushes and night sweats can affect your sleep and indirectly affect your diabetes management.

Talk to your diabetologist
 You can help yourself by…

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Having a healthy balanced diet. 

• Keeping active. 
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• Checking blood glucose levels regularly and seeing if it is affected by any changes  you have made in medication to deal with highs and lows.
• Hormonal changes during menopause increases the chances of developing Cardio vascular disease in women. Lower oestrogen increases the risk of osteoporosis.To reduce  the risk…
•  Keep active with weight bearing exercise such as walking and dancing.
• Increase calcium rich foods- leafy greens, dried fruit, tofu and yogurt.
•     Vitamin D is also important for healthy bones – eggs, milk, oily fish and sunshine.

Watch the waist line.   

It usually starts to expand between 40 -50 years for men and women because of less activity, more alcohol, hormonal changes, busy life style and generally expands without your noticing it.

For men, testosterone starts to drop during middle age and can result in reduced muscle mass, lack of energy,or  depression. Men with low testosterone levels are more likely to be resistant to insulin. A lot of men with Type 2 diabetes have low testosterone levels.

People who learn more about diabetes usually have better control of their condition.

Tips for Smart Living

 It’s hard to shop at the super market!

  A trip to the supermarket can be a challenge with eye catching displays and tempting offers especially if one has to keep an eye on one’s weight! We end up buying things we don’t need.Have you noticed that early in the journey through the supermarket you see the shining fresh choices such as fruit, meat, fish while the essentials such as bread, milk, eggs are at the rear and so you have to walk through the whole shop to get them. On the way are the Buy One Get One Free (BOGOF) offers. Also what about those special offers of reduced rates and small items displayed around the cash counter to encourage impulse buying?Are these offers really worth it? They may either end up in the bin or as fat around your waist.
 
 So before you go shopping, plan out what you really need and make a shopping list to help you buy well. Also, do not go shopping when you are hungry.
  
Eat Smart - Manage weight and blood glucose better:

• •     Use smaller plates and bowls to make your portions look large.
  •     Weigh food if you cannot gauge the size of portions.
  •      Be mindful of what you are eating.
  •      It takes 20 minutes for the brain to register what you are eating. So eat slowly.

 A quick guide to portion sizes:

 Half a cooked jacket potato    looks like a computer mouse

Cooked rice                           looks like 2 heaped table spoons

Hard cheese                           looks like Small match box

Cooked lean meat                  looks like a deck of playing cards

Salmon fillet                           looks like a  large smart phone

Butter                                    looks like a  small dice

Erectile Dysfunction in Men with Diabetes

It’s an indicator of underlying damage. Report this to your diabetologist.

Erectile Dysfunction (ED) occurs quite commonly among men with Type 1 diabetes and Type 2 diabetes but most people shy away from reporting it. That is a pity because ED can be treated . However, more important is the fact that it can indicate the possible  risk of other complications. So, if you have diabetes and problems with reproductive organs, not reporting this condition to the diabetologist is putting yourself at a disadvantage.
 

Hyperglycemia can damage the blood vessels  and  the nervous system resulting in poor  blood flow an d loss of sensation in the sex organs. Once blood vessels start to fail, it affects the related nerves  and they also tend to malfunction. Over time,  diabetes, especially if it is  poorly controlled,  damages the nerves, smooth muscles, fibrous tissues and arteries – all of which usually work together in normal reproductive functions. Poor blood glucose control, excess weight and high cholesterol levels also increase the risk of developing some form of nerve damage.

It is estimated that  60 -70 % of people with diabetes have neuropathy. Age and extent of diabetes increase the risk of ED. Apart from this, obesity, smoking, and hypertension are risk factors for ED. Men with diabetes have a three- fold increased risk of developing ED than those who do not have diabetes.

There are three lines of treatment- oral drug therapy, injections and surgery.

What can ED imply?

It is the beginning of further health complications – both physical and psychological. It is one of the earliest signs of other diabetic conditions involving damage to the blood vessels and nerves. Nerve damage can also occur in the digestive tract and circulatory system . The problem is that unlike the hands and feet where nerve damage can be felt through signs such as numbness, internal organs have no way of showing this.

It left untreated, ED can severely damage sexual organs and create psychological issues such as anxiety, frustration, depression, low self- esteem , loss of intimacy and strained marital relationships.

So, take it seriously as a sign pointing to more severe diabetes related complications and talk to your diabetologist about it.