The life expectancy of a person with type 2 diabetes is practically the same as that of the general population.Living with this chronic disease does not have to be synonym for a poor quality of life.
Enrique Valdeón and María Rasal are an example.They were diagnosed over a decade
Enrique Valdeón Gómez
Age: 66 years
Residence City: Salamanca
Years living with diabetes: 13
Treatment: pills
When Enrique was diagnosed with diabetes in a routine analysis his doctor asked him: Diet or pills?And he, without further ado, replied: pills.He started taking one, a five years later needed three and five years later four.When he retired, with 60 years, it is when he empathized with the disease and was aware of what involved.“There are many people who don't know them.If you don't take care of yourself, eat you slowly. ”He met the Salamanca Diabetics Association and participated in the Active Patients of the Junta de Castilla y León.“They gave us a one -week course and then teaching other patients.Then I was aware that my future depended, above all, on how I took care of me. ”
Enrique exercised as a physical education professor, but almost all his life dedicated himself to management work.Little exercise and scarce control in meals, many of them away from home, led him to the disease.He did not present sequelae, but stress, overweight and lack of schedules undermined their health: sweat, tiredness, sleep problems ... with teacher precision qualifies their health before diagnosis with a four, and 16 years later ensures that “the note would beAn eight because I even disappeared the leaks I had before 50 years. ”
Enrique's experience, like that of many others, is not a miracle, but the consequence of the changes in the life habits he introduced.A 6,000 square meters farm in Salamanca has helped him practice regular physical exercise and make him having fun."Tomato cultivation and I have 56 species of trees, from secayas to apple trees, plums or quinces, and the best birds in the area, which give a good account on the part of the harvest"
Physical exercise."I have the car in the garage and it is well parked," Enrique confesses.The five -kilometer route he did with him from his home to his farm, now he is walking.Walk between 10 and 15 kilometers a day.Moving takes him to Rajatabla, although he has temporarily postponed swimming due to lack of time. ”
Physical exercise.Doctors insist that physical activity should adapt to the patient.It is important that he chooses something that motivates him, so he will fulfill the plans to schedule.Enrique is hooked to a garden where he spends hours and hours.For him it has a sedative effect, something fundamental because stress alters the control of diabetes.
Therapeutic Actidities.Making the way was decisive for Enrique, made him acquire physical exercise how habit since for half a year he had to train to be prepared.Already on the route he checked the strict control that many of his classmates carried from the disease: "I learned a lot, I lived with very disciplined, exemplary people."
Eating habitsEach day of Enrique Hiking, in addition to the food, prepares a snack.The tour begins with his first -hour roadmates and at 11 without foul they rest for lunch.The disease marks that pattern."It is essential that you know your body, how it reacts and when you need to feed," says Enrique.
Periodic controls.Maintaining the weight at bay is key for diabetes to evolve well.Enrique SeGo to the scale once a month.It continues in 70 kilos and with a body mass index (BMI) ideal for a patient: 22. Above 25 is considered overweight.The BMI is measured by dividing the weight by height in meters squared.
Environment support.Maria, Enrique's wife, has part of the merit in the control of diabetes.It is the voice that returns to reality and reminds him of the guidelines to follow when he is distracted in some meals.The team they form has an effect: “Self -esteem is very high.When you look good, you try you are better. ”
A couple of times a month also practices hiking with a group of friends.Those ascents above 2,000 meters with eight hours ahead have helped him lose the ten kilos of weight he had as debuting as a diabetic.When the top is rewarded with a sweet "because the wear of the ascension is intense and the effort must be rewarded."Yes, from time to time he eats sweets, he takes some wine and also Paella.It is not an excess, your doctor endorses it.Of course, he does it in moderation."I can eat everything, but not all the amount I would like," he says.
In Enrique's family there were precedents of diabetes.They worked in the countryside and retiring fattened and developed the disease.That genetic factor plans on his future health, but is optimistic.First, because the life habits that affect diabetes keep it at bay, and secondly, because it is confident that therapeutic advances will also help it better.Within 15 years, when it meets 30 of living with diabetes, it is guessed almost as good as now."I will not be able to climb to the Picos de Europa or the weather vane, but I will lead an active life physically and mentally."Perhaps the book on the cloister of the monastery of the owners of Salamanca who are going to publish others.The path is clear and the goal for him and for any patient too: “You have to add years to life and that this is of quality.Thus the day to day will be better and we can enjoy it with family and friends. ”
María Rasal Gracia
Age: 41 years
Residence City: Zaragoza
Years living with diabetes: 13
Treatment: insulin and pills
María Rasal is familiar with the endocrinologist.He started visiting him periodically at age 13 to lose weight.Over time, glucose levels appeared altered until the diagnosis of type 2 diabetes arrived. Unlike her grandmother, who also suffered from her, she was diagnosed with 28 years.It is not usual, but the increase in obesity among young people has made more and more cases are detected at an early age.
Maria's was an early diagnosis, something very important to start treating the disease and avoid her physical and psychological sequelae that she can cause.“I immediately assumed that diabetes was my travel partner.I don't live for and for her, but I can't lose sight of her, ”says Maria.The first thing he did was know who was going to live with and was clear that he would do his best because that cohabitation was good.Thirteen years later it is.His body does not record any sequel to the disease: “Upside down, my health has improved, I am more agile.Since I have diabetes I have a more controlled life both in meals and at times. ”The formula for logging is as simple as it is difficult for many people, and its effectiveness is scientifically contrasted.It consists of doing physical exercise, fulfilling the treatment, having regular medical monitoring and following a balanced diet.
The type of any day of Mary can be enlightened salad, loin fillets with mushrooms and an apple.The same food that anyone else could take.You can also eat pasta, rice and even and sweets occasionally."The only thing that changes areThe amounts.In a meal I can take 20 or 30 grams of macaroni, ”he says.The diabetes approach now has nothing to do with that of three or four decades ago "when the only perspective for a patient was to eat boiled and fish and there was only one type of insulin."
Physical exercise.In Zaragoza the bicycle is part of the urban landscape.Maria uses her almost every day to go to work or return home and sometimes also the weekend.It runs an average of five kilometers.The objective is to spend between 250 and 450 calories per session.In an hour of bicycle consumes 460 calories.
Physical exercise.How to do sports having a work schedule and working far from home?"The solution, place an elliptical on the terrace," Maria thought.Moving is essential in diabetes because the muscles become more receptive to insulin and this translates into a lower need for pharmacological treatments.
Therapeutic Actidities.There is almost no activity, however hard, that someone with diabetes cannot be carried out.It all depends on personal conditions and something very important: adequate training.Maria has made the Camino de Santiago twice.The English, between Tui and Santiago, and the Frenchman, from Sarria to the Galician capital.
Eating habitsEating can also be a pleasure for a person with diabetes and get a hobby in the kitchen.Maria cultivates her.One of its specialties are the stuffed eggplants for diabetics: with natural tomato, light cheese and without bechamel.It is easy to prepare, healthy, tasty, nutritious and with a low glycemic index.
Periodic controls.Maria maintains a battle against the scale with a very good result, although it is not yet in her ideal weight.It measures 1.60 and weighs 80 kilos.The balance reached 110 kilos.That is, a body mass index (BMI) of 42, considered great obesity.Now he has managed to stabilize it in 31.
Environment support."There must be people who happen to me," Maria thought after diagnosis.He met the Zaragoza Diabetes Association and there he found psychological training and support: "I did all the workshops to learn to take the disease and to meet myself because each body is different."
The incorporation of new technologies have also made it easier to control the disease.A sensor placed on the arm measures during the 24 hours the sugar in the interstitial fluid and by means of an algorithm establishes the level of blood glucose.The data appear on your mobile phone.Other devices help you check the physical activity you perform.Above all, go and go by bicycle.Against the myths that survive on the limitations of living with this chronic disease, Maria insists: "People with diabetes do everything."He learned it at the Zaragoza Diabetes Association, where he has been working for eight years.The thousand doubts that assaulted him upon receiving the diagnosis were resolved by other patients."It was a great help because I raised the same concerns that they had already had and knew very well how to solve them."
The contact with the association dissipated in Mary the psychological impact that sometimes involves living a chronic disease at an early age."I have always been positive and faced the challenges very actively," he recalls.The way to face diabetes brings to mind the attitude they adopted when they proposed in a large -sized store where he bought to make a model.“I measure 1.60 and I'm chubby.Model me? ”He said.However, he took the glove and chose Miss Elegance 2013. "The experience was very positive, especially because those activities help to tear down their own and others' myths about beauty canons," Maria recalls.HeChallenge that involves living with diabetes throws, 13 years after diagnosis, an equally satisfactory result.