How to Manage Your Blood Sugar Naturally

If you’ve recently been diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes, a comprehensive treatment plan can help you control the disease, prevent complications, and safeguard your long-term health. Effective diabetes care has two key components: medical management and beneficial lifestyle modifications. 

Medical management includes:

• Daily blood sugar monitoring 
• Taking diabetes medications 
• Blood pressure/cholesterol control
• Undergoing periodic A1C testing
• Having regular medical checkups
• Building a specialist care team 

For these measures to be fully effective, however, they must be reinforced and supported by healthy lifestyle changes. That’s right — your daily habits have the power to help you manage your blood sugar levels naturally.  

As a seasoned family medicine provider who specializes in chronic disease management at Comprehensive Care Clinic in Spring, Texas, Tyneza Mitchell, FNP, wants to empower you to take control of your diabetes through helpful, everyday actions. Here’s what that means.   

How lifestyle habits influence blood sugar levels

The amount of glucose that’s circulating in your bloodstream at any given time — also known as your blood sugar levels — is influenced by a variety of factors. Of the many bodily processes that come together to keep blood glucose within a healthy range, the most important is insulin, a hormone produced by your pancreas.  

The insulin “key” 

Insulin acts like a key to let blood sugar into your body cells for immediate use as energy. Most cases of high blood sugar (hyperglycemia) occur because of a lack of insulin (Type 1 diabetes), or because of insulin resistance (prediabetes, Type 2 diabetes). 

An autoimmune disorder

Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disorder that occurs when the pancreas doesn’t make insulin. Although healthy lifestyle habits are helpful, people with Type 1 diabetes need daily insulin injections or insulin pump therapy to stay alive.     

A lifestyle-driven disease

Type 2 diabetes develops over time when poor dietary habits, excess body weight (especially belly fat), and inactivity combine to make it harder for cells to use the “insulin key,” meaning they no longer absorb sugar from the blood normally. Left unchecked, insulin resistance leads to prediabetes and Type 2 diabetes.  

Natural blood sugar control takes the “long view”

Just as unhealthy habits can set the stage for prediabetes and Type 2 diabetes, simple lifestyle changes can improve — and in some cases, reverse — the problem. The following habits and actions have a naturally positive effect on blood sugar processing as well as insulin use:

1. Lose excess weight 

Being overweight — especially having excess visceral fat around the organs in your midsection — is a leading cause of insulin resistance and Type 2 diabetes. Excess visceral fat is associated with impaired insulin signaling; it’s also linked to ongoing, low-grade systemic inflammation that restricts insulin action.  

Simply put, excess fat makes it harder to control blood sugar levels. Reaching and maintaining a healthier weight improves insulin signaling and action naturally, working alongside your daily medication to improve blood sugar control. 

2. Watch what you eat

Adopting a diabetes-friendly diet is essential to successful blood sugar control. Make the wrong choices (i.e., too many refined carbs) and you’ll have unhealthy blood sugar level spikes. 

 Blood sugar control through diet means being “carb smart,” or sticking with nutrient-dense, high-fiber complex carbohydrates like whole grains, sweet potatoes, beans, lentils, berries, and other whole fruits. It also means implementing portion control, emphasizing dietary fiber, lean proteins, and heart-healthy fats, and eliminating sugary beverages.   

3. Get your body moving 

Exercise is an excellent way to control diabetes and improve insulin resistance naturally. Why? A sedentary lifestyle is a major contributing cause of insulin resistance and diabetes; inactivity makes insulin-releasing pancreatic cells work harder and less efficiently, and in some cases, even destroys them.  

Regular physical activity, on the other hand, boosts circulation, eases inflammation, supports pancreatic health, and improves insulin resistance. In fact, when you exercise, your muscle cells absorb sugar from your blood without having to rely on insulin. Just going for a short walk after eating can make a significant difference in post-meal blood sugar control. 

4. Manage your stressors

Stressing out doesn’t just leave you feeling “pushed to the max,” it’s also bad for three of the most important health measures — your blood pressure, cholesterol, and blood sugar levels. 

Finding ways to mitigate outside pressures, ease your anxieties, reduce your stress levels, and restore better balance to your life is more important than ever when you have Type 2 diabetes — and a helpful way to control your blood sugar levels naturally.  

Protect your health with tight blood sugar control

Are you ready to improve your diabetes management plan and protect your long-term health? Our Comprehensive Care Clinic team can help. Call or click online to schedule a visit today.