Diabetes

Diabetes is a chronic and life-altering condition that’s affecting rapidly increasing numbers of people in the United States. Even if you have no symptoms, you could be in the early stages of diabetes, but a simple blood test at Brookhaven Diabetes & Primary Care Clinic in Brookhaven, Mississippi, is all it takes to know for sure. Amy Case, FNP, ADM, CDCES, is an experienced nurse practitioner who specializes in providing family health care services, including diabetes testing and comprehensive management. They accept cash and cards but prefer cash payments. Call Brookhaven Diabetes & Primary Care Clinic or request an appointment online today. 

What is diabetes?

Diabetes is a condition that involves your endocrine system, which produces hormones. One of the hormones your body makes is insulin, which you need to regulate your blood sugar. 

Without the right levels of insulin, your blood sugar could go too low or too high, causing a range of unpleasant and sometimes life-threatening health problems.

There are several problems that can affect your body’s ability to use insulin. You might have an immune system disorder, which means your body destroys the cells in your pancreas that make insulin. This is known as Type 1 diabetes, and there’s nothing you can do to prevent your child from developing it.

You could also have some insulin in your system, but not enough to adequately regulate blood sugar levels, or the insulin your body’s making isn’t being used properly. This is known as Type 2 diabetes. In most cases, Type 2 diabetes develops because of lifestyle issues and is preventable.

What causes Type 2 diabetes?

Type 2 diabetes is almost always due to making poor choices in your everyday life that adversely affect your health. This includes:

• Being overweight or obese
• High sugar diet
• High-fat diet
• Lack of exercise
• Excessive alcohol consumption

Being overweight is one of the primary triggers for diabetes, but you don’t have to be overweight to be affected by the condition. 

Brookhaven Diabetes & Primary Care Clinic provides screening tests for diabetes that show, from a routine blood test, whether your blood sugar is too high. 

The test can detect early signs of diabetes long before it starts causing noticeable symptoms, at a stage called prediabetes. If you take action when you have prediabetes, it’s possible to fully reverse the process.

What treatments are there for diabetes?

If you have Type 1 diabetes, you need to take insulin long-term. Type 1 diabetes isn’t curable, but Amy at Brookhaven Diabetes & Primary Care Clinic can help you manage your condition and lead a long, full life.

If you have Type 2 diabetes, the critical action you need to take is making lifestyle changes to get your blood sugar under control. It’s possible to manage blood sugar effectively and improve your overall health by losing weight, eating healthily, getting regular exercise, and avoiding unhealthy habits like smoking and drinking.

Amy can provide support to help you with challenges like preparing healthy meals, smoking cessation, and safe forms of exercise. Brookhaven Diabetes & Primary Care Clinic also offers tailored weight loss consultations that could be invaluable if you’re finding it hard to shed the pounds.

Find out more about managing diabetes or arrange a screening test by calling Brookhaven Diabetes & Primary Care Clinic or booking an appointment online today.