What is diabetes?

Diabetes is a disease that affects how your body produces and uses insulin. Made in your pancreas, insulin is the hormone that helps transport blood sugar into your cells so it can be used for energy. When this process doesn’t work correctly, you develop elevated blood sugar levels that can cause severe complications.

There are several types of diabetes. Type 1 diabetes occurs when your pancreas doesn’t produce insulin. This type usually emerges during childhood, and it requires taking insulin to manage your blood sugar. Type 2 diabetes typically develops later when your body doesn’t use the insulin you do have correctly. Prediabetes/glucose intolerance is a condition that is a precursor to developing Type 2 diabetes. We treat this quite aggressively as it is a reversible condition.

Some women develop gestational diabetes during the second trimester of pregnancy. While gestational diabetes usually goes away when the baby is born, it increases the mother’s risk of developing Type 2 diabetes later in life. 

What is hypertension?

Hypertension is the clinical term for high blood pressure. Your blood pressure is the force exerted by your blood on the insides of your blood vessels. 

Healthy blood pressure is 120/80 mm/Hg or lower. The top number represents the pressure exerted when your heart beats, and the bottom number is the force when your heart rests. A blood pressure reading of 130/80 or higher is considered hypertension and increases your risk of heart attack and stroke.

How are diabetes and hypertension treated?

San Mateo Primary Care offers careful, aggressive management of both diabetes and hypertension. They focus on lifestyle changes as a first-line treatment to improve your health and control your disease, aiming to prevent or reduce the use of medications when possible.

While diabetes and hypertension have genetic risk factors, your lifestyle plays heavily in your risk for both diseases. For example, the standard American diet, which is rich in sugar, salt, and fat, can increase your chances of developing both conditions. 

Additionally, a sedentary lifestyle is also detrimental to your health. Physical activity helps your body use blood sugar and also provides many cardiovascular benefits. If lifestyle adjustments don’t sufficiently improve your condition, the team at San Mateo Primary Care can prescribe medication to help manage your diseases. For example, if you have Type 2 diabetes and diet and exercise alone aren’t able to control it, you may need to take medication. If you have hypertension, you might need to take diuretics, ACE inhibitors, or calcium-channel blockers to control your blood pressure.

The providers at San Mateo Primary Care focus on preventive medicine. They aim to identify the early warning signs of conditions like diabetes and hypertension and provide treatment to improve your health before these diseases disrupt your life. 

Call San Mateo Primary Care or make an appointment online today for exceptional, patient-focused care.