Typically, the first goal of any newly-diagnosed diabetic is to learn how to control their blood sugar level. Frequent testing of blood glucose with a glucometer is essential for knowing whether your glucose levels are within normal ranges or not.

Regular testing will enable you to recognize patterns of highs and lows and how they correlate with certain types of activities or foods you have eaten. This will help both you and your doctor understand how to manage the medications you may be prescribed.

Eating a healthy diet and maintaining a healthy weight is essential to controlling diabetes. Therefore managing what you eat and how much exercise you get is of crucial importance. While there is no known cure for diabetes, the disease can be effectively controlled, making it possible for diabetics to live a normal, functional life. Failure to control it however, can lead to disability and death.

So, what steps can you take to make it easier to manage your diabetes? Keep a journal of any symptom that you may encounter. For instance, when you measure your blood glucose levels, make a note in a journal. Or when you eat certain foods or participate in certain activities, make a note of the results -- how do you feel? Then on a regular basis keep track of any changes in these symptoms.

Once a diet, exercise regimen, and course of treatment has been prescribed for you, keep another journal in which you describe the results. Have the symptoms improved? Are they worse?

If you are taking medication, keep a record of what you take and when. Is it helping the symptoms? Are there any side effects? Keep track of when side effects occur and how severe they are. Having this information handy will help your doctor prescribe the treatment that best addresses your overall health.

Setting up journals like the ones described here is easy to do. You can use a paper worksheet, a computer word processing program, or even a spreadsheet program like Excel.

You owe it to yourself to take an active role in managing your own health. Diabetes has the potential to be terribly debilitating or even fatal. However with proper management, it can be controlled. You need to use every tool at your disposal to make sure you get the best health care possible.