Obesity is one of the key variable risk factors connected to the type 2 diabetes. Additionally, numerous patients diagnosed with diabetes are often overweight. We should consider the body mass as a feature that plays one of the key roles in the deterrence and treatment of type 2 diabetes. Current evidence verifies that lifestyle intervention in individuals with reduced glucose acceptance ends up in a remarkable decrease in the transition to explicit diabetes (Nguyen, Nguyen, Lane, & Wang, 2010). The nurse should approach diabetes 2 with specific medications (such as acarbose or metformin). The deterrence of diabetes has been stated to be connected to the extent to which the patients had lost their weight.
When we assess the patients with type 2 diabetes, weight mass decrease is always trailed by an advancement in terms of metabolic regulation and related risk aspects. As a nurse, I would recommend overweight patients with type 2 diabetes stick to a nutritionally adjusted, discreetly hypocaloric diet (Nguyen et al., 2010). The patients should also limit the consumption of saturated fat and intensively make the most out of the physical movement. In the case of the failure of this approach, additional strategies (such as weight-lowering drugs and bariatric surgery) should be considered. There is an extensive evidence confirming that such treatment can be very effective in diabetic patients as it recovers metabolic disorders (Nguyen et al., 2010).
However, there are numerous complications, too. It is rather important that the treatment is personalized to the necessities and requirements of every patient. The latter should be done in order to prevent issues connected to the long-term outcomes. There is an increasing awareness regarding the low success rate of conservative treatment methods and the evident advantage of weight-loss techniques (Garber, 2011). Overall, it may be concluded that nurses should not be scared to implement aggressive methods of dealing with type 2 diabetes when obesity is also involved.
Another grave condition that recurrently has an adverse impact on patients with type 2 diabetes is hypertension. There is no explicit evidence concerning the explanation of the noteworthy correlation between the two illnesses (Reaven, 2011). Regardless of that, it is generally supposed that obesity, idleness, and a high-fat diet have become the leading factors contributing to the increase in both conditions. The complication, in the case of hypertension, lies in the fact that it is mostly seen by the medical workers as a silent assassin (Reaven, 2011). The nurse should always be aware that hypertension has no apparent symptoms and the majority of the patients do not even realize that they have it.
It has also been recently found that not more than 40 percent of the patients discussed their core health assessment, together with blood pressure, with their doctors or nurses (Reaven, 2011). What is even more important, the better part of those patients was at risk for heart disease or type 2 diabetes. The nurse should let the patient know that consistent presence of high blood pressure would drain the heart muscle and enlarge it. Recently, the number of adults (20 years and older) with self-testified diabetes and blood pressure rates of more than 140/90 has dramatically increased (Reaven, 2011). As a nurse, I would recommend people with diabetes to be more watchful than before and check their blood pressure more frequently (at least six times a year). In addition to that, I would also recommend promoting self-care at home, storing the assessment results, and sharing these results with medical workers.
References
Garber, A. J. (2011). Obesity and type 2 diabetes: Which patients are at risk? Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism, 14(5), 399-408. Web.
Nguyen, N. T., Nguyen, X. T., Lane, J., & Wang, P. (2010). Relationship between obesity and diabetes in a US adult population: Findings from the national health and nutrition examination survey, 1999–2006. Obesity Surgery, 21(3), 351-355. Web.
Reaven, G. M. (2011). Relationships among insulin resistance, type 2 diabetes, essential hypertension, and cardiovascular disease: Similarities and differences. The Journal of Clinical Hypertension, 13(4), 238-243. Web.