Living with Diabetes: How to Manage Fatigue

Diabetes is a deadly disease that affects your blood sugar and the production of insulin by the pancreas. When your pancreas doesn’t produce enough insulin, diabetes ends up causing symptoms like fatigue. Fatigue is a symptom that appears in the early stages and will affect a diabetic person during their treatment. Treating diabetes and fatigue is a challenge, but recognizing the correlation between them can help you in the long run. 

Causes of Diabetic Fatigue

Diabetes and fatigue aren’t linked to poor control over your diabetes, but the symptoms that you gain from diabetes. For instance, one symptom of diabetes is depression. Depression can affect a diabetic’s mental health, but it can also cause fatigue since a diabetic is twice as likely to get it. Depression, emotional stress, and anxiety are other common factors that correlate with diabetes and fatigue. Depression disrupts your sleep and affects your blood sugar control, increasing your risk of fatigue. Exercising and talking with a therapist can help relieve some of these symptoms as well as help manage some of the fatigue that people experience. 

Poor nutrition and obesity can also lead to feelings of fatigue in diabetics. Because a poor diet and lack of exercise is the main cause of diabetes, the glucose levels start to change. The result of that is patients feeling fatigued, which is the first main symptom of diabetes. Being overweight also causes fatigue because the overweight person requires more effort to stay mobile. Diabetics might gain sleep apnea, which affects and disrupts their sleeping patterns. Chronic fatigue can increase your risk of heart disease, so taking care of your diabetes symptoms is important. 

Managing Fatigue

There are ways to manage your fatigue, but the most recommended way is to maintain a healthy weight and perform regular exercise. This is a huge lifestyle change that might take some time and a lot of willpower, but it will be beneficial in the end. Trying out different exercises like aerobics and yoga might be a great way to keep your exercise routine fresh. Dietary changes are important too because a poor diet can cause fatigue. 

Having a strong support system is beneficial to handling your diabetes care and managing fatigue as well. Friends and family that support you while you’re on your journey to living a healthier life are important because they might help ease some of the mental and emotional stress that comes with diabetes. Spending some time with people that care about your well-being is almost as important as exercising. 

Along with your support system, taking care of your mental health is crucial. Fatigue, depression, and diabetes go hand in hand, so talking to a licensed therapist will help lower your risk of fatigue. Figuring out what antidepressants work for you or talk to your doctor about making changes to your medication that might work for you. Going through diabetes alone is hard, so know when you need help.

Diabetes and Fatigue Treatment 

Monitoring your health while living with diabetes is crucial. Fatigue doesn’t have to slow you down if you take the necessary steps to fight this disease and its symptoms. At BASS Medical Group, we have a dedicated team of doctors willing to find the right treatment for you. We can help you get on the right track to managing your diabetes. Call us at (925) 350-4044 or visit our website.