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According to the American Diabetes Association, there are 25.8 million people in the United States with diabetes. 8 out of every 100 Americans are affected by this disease today, but the incidents of diabetes are on the rise in every age group and every race across all economic classes. We realized that in order to provide helpful, effective tools for people with diabetes, HealtheHuman needed to give people the means to track all areas of their health and wellness that could be affected by this broad reaching disease.
HealtheHuman provides an extensive set of tracking tools for individuals managing type 1, type 2, and gestational diabetes with both non-insulin and insulin dependent needs. While managing your blood glucose level is crucial to monitoring your diabetes, keeping track of other related areas of your health that can be impacted can provide valuable insights, help identify significant changes, and provide detailed records to help your physicians monitor your progress. Does stress affect your blood sugar? Can too much exercise or dehydration impact your diabetes? Has your use of insulin increased over the last few months?
One of the biggest challenges to effectively managing your diabetes is understanding how it is influenced by other areas of your health or lifestyle. HealtheHuman is the only tracking software that provides one integrated tool for this complex need.
Key Health Information to Track for Diabetes Management
Blood glucose level is the primary piece of health information used to monitor diabetes. It is important to monitor changes in blood sugar readings based on when the reading was taken, such as morning or evening readings, fasting or after meal readings, and whether the reading is before or after exercise. Blood glucose levels can be impacted by a variety of sources, including foods, medications, exercise, stress, sleep, and more. HealtheHuman provides a powerful set of tracking, analysis, and reporting tools for monitoring your blood glucose levels.
Insulin is a hormone released by the pancreas to help the body use and store the glucose extracted from the foods we eat. For people with type 1 diabetes, the pancreas does not produce any insulin, requiring them to take injections of insulin in order to process the glucose from their meals. For people with type 2 diabetes, their pancreas makes insulin, but their body does not respond properly to it, causing them to need diabetes pills or insulin injections to process the glucose in their food. It is important for any insulin-dependent diabetic to keep track of their insulin usage, the type of insulin used, amount, when administered, and its impact on their blood glucose levels. HealtheHuman provides insulin usage tracking features as well as a medication tracker to log the use of pills or other medications needed to manage insulin levels.
One of the most important influencers on your blood sugar level is your diet. In addition to needing to watch your intake of carbohydrates and sugar, it is also important to eat a well-balanced diet while monitoring total calories, fat, and sodium. Especially for Type 2 diabetes, healthy eating is one of the most important ways to manage your diabetes. Part of HealtheHuman’s set of tools for people with diabetes is an easy-to-use diet tracker with an extensive library of foods for recording your daily nutrition. With the diet tracking tool, you can monitor your nutritional intake throughout the day, including your total calories, carbohydrates, fat, sugar, and more. There are a variety of built in analytic tools to help you review and analyze your diet by meal and across days.
While being overweight is one of the known risk factors for type 2 diabetes, it is also a risk for people diagnosed with any form of diabetes. It is important for people with diabetes to maintain a healthy weight and keep off the extra pounds. Being overweight or obese with diabetes can increase your risk for complications. HealtheHuman provides a number of tools to help track your weight, body mass index, and body composition. We also provide a number of tracking tools to help people log their exercise and track their weight loss.
Regular exercise is important for a healthy body, but it is even more important in the prevention and management of diabetes. Lack of exercise is a known risk factor and can cause complications for people trying to manage their diabetes. With the exercise tracking feature in HealtheHuman, you can log all of your workouts, exercises, and physical activities while tracking the total calories and fat burned throughout the day. The Blood Glucose Tracker makes it easy to mark glucose readings before and after exercise, as well as create reports showing the impact of your workout on your blood sugar.
Ketones are produced by the body when it breaks down fats for energy (glucose). Normally the body gets glucose from carbohydrates, so when ketones are present in the blood or urine it can be an indication of the body not receiving enough glucose. The presence of ketones can be an indication of a dangerous condition called Diabetic Ketoacidosis (DKA), which requires immediate medical attention. Checking and tracking ketones readings can provide valuable information for the effectiveness of medications, the impact of dietary changes, and the overall effectiveness of the body to process glucose. HealtheHuman provides tools to track both blood and urine ketone levels, as well as numerous charts and reports to share these readings with your health advisors.
Both diabetes and high blood pressure can damage your blood vessels. It is important if you have diabetes to keep your blood pressure under control to reduce your chances of heart attack, stroke, or other life-threatening conditions. HealtheHuman provides a tracker to make it easy to keep track of all your blood pressure readings.
Like high blood pressure, high cholesterol levels can also cause damage to blood vessels, which can increase your risk for complications from diabetes. It is important to monitor your cholesterol levels, both through regular testing of your cholesterol level as well as by monitoring the amount of cholesterol in your diet. You can keep track of all your cholesterol readings as well as your daily intake of cholesterol from your diet using the tracking tools in HealtheHuman.
Stress can have a significant impact on your health, especially when you have diabetes. The hormones your body might produce from prolonged exposure to stress can interfere with the effectiveness of insulin, therefore affecting your blood sugar. High levels of stress can also impact other areas of your health—such as your sleep patterns or moods--that might also interfere with the routines that keep your diabetes under control. HealtheHuman includes a Stress Tracker to help you track changes in your stress levels throughout the day so you can analyze the impact on your diabetes or other aspects of your health.
Managing diabetes often involves working with a number of different doctors, specialists, and advisors from your family doctor to an endocrinologist to a dietitian. As you manage your diabetes over the years, you might see numerous doctors and advisors, so it is important to maintain accurate records for all the people who have been a part of your treatment. Providing details on the people involved in your treatment, both past and present, can be very important to a new physician or specialist. The Advisor History feature in HealtheHuman helps you keep track of all your health advisors, including maintaining information of their contact details, prescription history, appointments, and related expenses.
It is important to keep track of the medications and prescriptions you are taking, especially when discussing your diabetes management plan with your physicians and health advisors. Providing detailed records of all your medications, vitamins and supplements will be an important part of their treatment plan and recommendations. HealtheHuman provides daily trackers to log all of your medication and supplement usage, as well as a medication history feature to keep accurate records of all your past prescriptions.
Keeping your doctors informed on your medical history is an important part of your care, and could have an impact on their course of treatment. Make sure to provide your physicians and other health advisors with as much detail on your past medical procedures and surgeries. For people with diabetes, procedures related to your feet, skin, eyes, blood vessels, or other areas of your health might be symptomatic of important changes in your condition. The Procedure History and Surgery History features of HealtheHuman can help you build and share your comprehensive health history with all your diabetes health advisors.
Sometimes preventative measures are not enough to stop a significant diabetic health event from occurring. When these unforeseen events occur, it can be very useful to build a detailed chronology of the foods, exercises, glucose readings, medications, and other relevant data leading up to and after the event. One of the advantages of using HealtheHuman to track your health is that all of this information is contained in one place. Using the Event Tracker, you can create timelines containing all of the details logged in HealtheHuman on or around that time, producing detailed reports of all your health data related to the health event to share with your doctor.
Sleep is one of the most important parts of your health and well-being. Without regular, quality sleep the body is much more susceptible to a number of conditions and ailments. Interruptions in sleep can also be an important indication of your diabetes management. Anytime your blood sugar is high, the kidneys respond and try to flush it out of your system by producing more urine. If you are getting up frequently throughout the night to urinate, it could be an indication of high blood sugar levels. There is also evidence supporting diabetes interfering with sleep, as well as studies showing that poor sleep patterns increase your risk of developing diabetes. Studies have also shown that lack of sleep can lead to cravings and poor eating habits, including an increase in carbohydrate intake that could impact your blood sugar and insulin levels. The Sleep Tracker in HealtheHuman provides a powerful set of tools to log the duration, quality, and other important factors in your sleep patterns.
In addition to adding a strain on your body, diabetes can also be a financial burden. HealtheHuman provides a comprehensive Health Expense Tracking tool that makes it easy to record all of the expenses linked to your diabetes management. A set of charts and reports makes it quick and easy to produce monthly and annual expense reports.
One of the reactions of the body to high blood sugar is an increase in urine production. This can lead to a sweet smell when urinating, as well as an increase in frequency and urgency. The Bladder & Bowel Tracker helps you monitor and track changes in your urination and bowel movements, which could provide insights into your health for your doctors and advisors.
One of the most important things you can do to manage your diabetes is to see your doctors and health advisors regularly and be actively involved in your care. A key part of having a successful interaction with your advisors is to be prepared with the information and questions to make your time with them as effective as possible. The extensive set of charting and reporting features found throughout the various tools in HealtheHuman help you provide the insight, detail, and history needed to keep information flowing between you and your advisors.
Diabetes can have a number of related symptoms, pains, and aches. One of the most versatile features of HealtheHuman is the Symptom Tracker, which makes it easy to keep detailed daily logs of any symptoms related to your diabetes or treatments.
Other Things You Can Do to Help Manage Your Diabetes
While it is important to track key health information related to your diabetes, the primary purpose of logging this information is to create more effective and meaningful visits with your doctors, specialists, and other health advisors. Maintaining regular appointments with your treating physicians and specialists is vital to your long-term success managing diabetes. During your visits, the doctor will check you for physical symptoms of any diabetes-related conditions, such as kidney damage, nerve damage, and heart disease. It is important to keep your appointments with your doctor and to provide as much detail as possible to make their treatments, recommendations, and prescriptions effective.
Monitoring your eye health is an important part of your diabetes management. See your eye care specialist on a regular basis to have them check for signs of retinal damage, cataracts, and glaucoma.
One of the impacts of high blood sugar on the body is a weakened immune system. Getting sick can cause serious complication with your diabetes, so it is important to stay current with vaccines. Some of the important vaccines to discuss with your doctor are the flu, pneumonia, tetanus, and hepatitis B vaccines. Your doctor might recommend other vaccines, as well, so it is important part of your diabetes management discussion.
People with diabetes are at a higher risk of gum infections. Take care of your teeth and gums by brushing your teeth at least twice a day, floss your teeth once a day, and see your dentist at least every six months. If you notice any changes in your gum health, such as swelling or bleeding, make sure to see a dentist right away.
Diabetes causes damage to arteries, affects blood flow and can cause nerve damage. These effects are frequently seen in the feet, which can lead to numbness, nerve damage, and other ailments on the feet. The poor blood flow can also leave the feet more vulnerable to inflections from untreated cuts and blisters. Healthy feet are an important indication of successful diabetes management.
Consuming alcohol can cause low blood sugar depending on how much you are drinking, and whether or not you are drinking on an empty stomach. To prevent potentially dangerous drops in your blood sugar, only drink in moderation and only with a meal. It is also important to keep track of the extra calories introduced by alcohol. One of the dangers of drinking with diabetes is its impact on decision making. If you drink, do so responsibly.
Smoking increases your risk of numerous diabetes-related complications including heart attack, stroke, kidney disease, and nerve damage. According to the American Diabetes Association, people with diabetes who smoke are 3 times more likely to die from cardiovascular diseases than non-smokers with diabetes. Talk to your doctor about ways to stop smoking and any other use of tobacco products.
Other Resources
U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH), Diabetes
Medical Disclaimer: All information on this site is of a general nature and is furnished for your knowledge and understanding only. This information is not to be taken as medical or other health advice pertaining to your specific health and medical condition.
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