Why is educating patients an important part of diabetes management?

Educating patients is an important part of diabetes management, since nutrition and exercise has a direct impact; organization is also crucial to managing the disease. Watch endocrinologist Reza Yavari, MD, discuss why diabetes education is vital.

Transcript

00:00

You don't want to invent the week every week. Let's put in place time slots for shopping, for exercise,

00:09

for rest, for stress reduction, and stick with it. [UPBEAT MUSIC]

00:20

Educating patients is important for all chronic conditions. However, diabetes is very unique in that depending

00:28

on what a person eats or what kind of exercise they do or do not do and how good a sleep they get,

00:35

their blood sugars varies. When you have other chronic conditions, food does not affect you as much as it does with diabetes.

00:43

So education about nutrition is very important. But in addition to that, time-management skills,

00:50

organizational skills, being proactive, and learning how to solve problems

00:57

is also very important. And certified diabetes educators and your physician

01:03

can help you develop techniques so that you enhance your organizational skills

01:11

and be proactive. Let me give you an example of time management. For example, you don't want to invent the week every week.

01:20

Let's put in place time slots for shopping, for exercise, for rest, for stress reduction, and stick with it.

01:30

For example, if you get a personal trainer and you sign up for a certain number of sessions,

01:36

that forces you to show up, which enhances your grip on the week.

01:43

If you add to that certain time slots to go shopping and for relaxation, then all of a sudden,

01:50

your week is all laid out for you and you don't need to reinvent it every week. [AUDIO LOGO]