Receiving and accepting the diagnosis of diabetes may be a difficult and lonely time for patients.  The best help a diabetic can get, aside from the medications and diabetes supplies prescribed and recommended by the medical team, is the support of family and friends. In fact, studies indicate that one of the best predicators of how well patients will take care of their health and manage their diabetes is the amount of support offered by those immediately around them.

A good first step to support the newly diagnosed friend or family member is to ask what help they need.  Each patient is likely to have different anxieties and needs.  While one person may love help to find recipes and be supervised when selecting menus or receive invitations to join in exercise, another may feel overwhelmed by too ardent attention!  Both patients and those with whom they share their lives will find confidence from learning about diabetes, the principal causes and symptoms, how it affects their loved one, the way products such as meters and diabetes monitoring systems are used to control the risks of peaks in blood glucose levels, and the immense role that healthy habits play in a quality lifestyle.  Informed discussion about lifestyle changes will certainly help, but the most immediate needs are best expressed by the patients themselves. A friend or family member ready to listen can help the diabetic relieve stress or gain motivation to learn new habits. At the same time, encouragement to follow through with lifestyle changes is likely to be welcome.

One large lifestyle change for the diabetic is diet.  Eating out poses greater challenges, so learning about healthy choices allows family members to help diabetic relative or friend find suitable options on any menu.  There are many dietary alternatives such as the Low Carb Diet – try “The Four Hour Body” by Tim Ferris- (also insert links to both TF and our previous article no 12 on this topic) that can have amazing benefits from all those at the table. The important goal is to make mealtimes fun and friendly and stress free.

In addition to healthy eating, people with diabetes need to learn to manage their weight, often well below that recent history, through healthy activity and regular exercise. Finding ways to get a diabetic relative moving may be an excellent and obviously rewarding form of loving support.  Walking, biking, hiking and swimming together are some great options; spending active time with youngsters and pets gets blood flowing and burns calories of all involved. Those recently diagnosed who have never visited a gym, enjoyed any form of group aerobic exercise, are known couch potatoes and simply hate walking will find companionship leadership the first few times just the help they need. A friend or family member who steps up and to show some fun ways to enjoy exercise is a true friend indeed.

Changes to diet, getting moving, self-monitoring and other testing practices with diabetic supplies may all take the recently diagnosed patient time and effort to become a routine. What a blessing a helping hand from those near and dear to the diabetic can be. Just the right ingredient to lead to a sustained practice of healthy habits and the reward of a healthy lifestyle.