Dr. Nguyen Quang Bay, Head of the Department of Endocrinology - Diabetes, Bach Mai Hospital shared: Diabetes is a chronic disease but can be completely controlled well if patients adhere to treatment, periodically monitor their health and understand the disease correctly.
A common reality is that many patients go for diabetes check-ups but are diagnosed with a series of other diseases such as kidney failure, heart failure, coronary artery disease or peripheral nerve damage. However, most of them are complications due to poor blood sugar control in the long term.
No symptoms can still face the risk of complications
Many people believe that as long as there is no fatigue, no thirst or frequent urination, the disease is still stable. However, this is a misconception.
Bach Mai Hospital has just received a patient with diabetes for 10 years, who has lost nearly 10kg since Tet but is still subjective because he feels healthy. When coming to the hospital for examination, the patient's blood sugar reached 31 mmol/L, with a risk of coma and had to be hospitalized for emergency treatment," Dr. Nguyen Quang Bay said.
Blood sugar above 7 mmol/L is considered diabetes mellitus. In the range of 7-11 mmol/L, patients often do not have obvious symptoms, so they are easily subjective, while this blood sugar level is still enough to silently cause damage to many organs.
Many cases of hospitalization due to arbitrary drug changes
At the Inpatient Treatment Department, about 15% of patients are hospitalized due to severe hypoglycemia, including cases falling into a coma.
The main reason stems from patients arbitrarily changing treatment regimens such as combining insulin injections to reduce inconvenience, reusing old drugs when they run out of drugs, or not monitoring blood sugar after a doctor changed the prescription.
According to Dr. Nguyen Quang Bay, all changes related to diabetes medication need to be prescribed and monitored by a doctor to avoid dangerous complications.
There is a blood glucose meter but it's not used
A fairly common situation is that many patients have been equipped with personal blood glucose meters but rarely or never use them because they are afraid of blood injection or fear pain.
According to Dr. Nguyen Quang Bay, not monitoring blood sugar is like walking on a dark road without lights. Patients will not know their blood sugar level to adjust their diet, exercise or appropriate medication.
A blood glucose meter is not a storage device but an important tool to help patients protect their health and prevent complications.
Injecting insulin at the wrong time increases the risk of blood sugar disorders
Many patients have a habit of eating first and then injecting insulin because they feel hungry. However, this can reduce the effectiveness of blood sugar control.
Subcutaneous insulin injections need time to be absorbed before taking effect, so they are usually prescribed to be injected 10-30 minutes before meals depending on the type. If you eat before injection, blood sugar may rise after eating and more dangerously, hypoglycemia may appear in the time away from meals when insulin reaches its peak effect.
Not every feeling of hunger is hypoglycemic
Another habit of many inpatients is that whenever they feel hungry, they immediately eat more because they think they are hypoglycemic.
Dr. Nguyen Quang Bay said that when feeling hungry, patients should report to medical staff to have their blood sugar checked. If blood sugar is really low below 3.9 mmol/L, patients will be appropriately treated and medication adjusted to avoid recurrence.
In many cases, the feeling of hunger simply stems from not eating enough or is a phenomenon of "hypoglycemia". This occurs when the body has become accustomed to very high blood sugar levels for a long time. When treated to bring blood sugar back to near normal levels, the brain can send an alarm signal even though the actual blood sugar is still not low.
