Managing Your Diabetes at Work: Tips for Employees

Up to five hundred and thirty-seven million adults aged 20-79 are living with some form of diabetes, a chronic condition affecting how the body turns food into energy. In a study in the UK, one in eight new cases of Type 2 diabetes occur in individuals aged 18-40. While in the US, one in four young adults aged 19-34 live with prediabetes and could be at risk of developing Type 2 diabetes.

This Pacific Prime CXA article will discuss diabetes and how employees can manage their symptoms at work.

Overview: What is Diabetes?

Diabetes is a condition that happens when the blood sugar (glucose) levels are too high. The condition develops when the pancreas doesn’t produce enough insulin, if at all, or when the body isn’t properly responding to the effects of insulin.

Factors contributing to varying degrees of insulin resistance include obesity, lack of physical activity, diet, or genetics.

Glucose mainly comes from carbohydrates, found in food and drinks, which is the body’s go-to energy source. The body then carries out glucose to all the body’s cells to give them energy. When glucose enters the bloodstream, this is where insulin comes in to help glucose enter the body’s cells to give them energy. If the pancreas doesn’t produce enough insulin or the body isn’t utilizing it properly, glucose accumulates in the bloodstream and causes high blood sugar levels.

Having consistently high blood sugar levels over time can lead to health issues such as eye issues, nerve damage, and heart disease. You can prevent diabetes by maintaining a healthy diet, aiming for at least 30 minutes of physical activity for at least five days per week, managing your stress, getting sufficient sleep, maintaining a healthy weight, and refraining from alcohol consumption and smoking.

Common Types of Diabetes

Common forms of diabetes include prediabetes, types 1 and 2 diabetes, and gestational diabetes. Below are descriptions for each main type of diabetes.

Prediabetes: Prediabetes is a warning sign of Type 2 diabetes, showing that the blood sugar levels are elevated, though not enough to be considered Type 2 diabetes.

Type 1 Diabetes: Type 1 diabetes is a chronic autoimmune disease preventing the pancreas from producing insulin, requiring insulin injections and blood sugar monitoring.

Type 2 Diabetes: Type 2 diabetes occurs when the body can’t properly use insulin. Untreated cases can cause health complications such as heart disease, kidney disease, and stroke.

Gestational Diabetes: Gestational diabetes occurs during pregnancy. Untreated cases can, in fact, cause health complications for the mother and the fetus.

Symptoms of Diabetes

You may have heard of some common symptoms of diabetes such as increased hunger and thirst or slow healing. Below are the common symptoms of diabetes.

Increased hunger and thirst
Fatigue
Slow-healing wounds
Frequent urination due to increased thirst
Unexplained weight loss
Blurred vision

Diabetes in Employees

Up to an alarming five hundred and thirty-seven million adults aged 20-79 are affected with some form of diabetes. According to a 2019 study in the UK, one in eight new cases occur in individuals aged 18-40, which was an increase from the one in ten statistics recorded back in 2000. Meanwhile, in the US, one in four young adults aged 19-34 live with prediabetes and are at an increased risk of developing Type 2 if left untreated.

Tips for Employees: Managing Your Diabetes

If you’re working in an office and you happen to have diabetes, you can start by letting your managers know so that they can possibly help work out a solution. The next thing you should do is to take care of yourself by maintaining a healthy diet and doing your best to squeeze in some physical activity every once in a while.

Below are what you can do to manage your diabetes at work.

Letting Your Managers Know

Discussing with your manager can help pave the way for you to negotiate a more flexible work arrangement if you feel unwell. Being open about your case of diabetes to your manager can also foster connections between you and your manager, allowing you to count on them in times of need for future cases whether it’s health and wellbeing or other matters.

Maintain a Healthy Diet

While healthy foods aren’t always available at the office, you can craft yourself a healthy diet plan by pre-packing your own lunch. If you don’t have time to do so in the morning, it’s strongly recommended that you do it at least the night before so you’re ready to go the following morning.

Refrain from sugar-sweetened drinks and trans fats in favor of clean meals with emphasis on proteins and vitamins or minerals from lean meats and salad, for example. Do your best to limit your carbohydrate intake as they can raise blood sugar levels. Try to also limit your intake of sweets to keep your blood sugar levels in check.

Destress

When you’re stressed, the body goes into fight-or-flight mode, which causes the insulin levels to fall in favor of glucagon and adrenaline levels to rise, and more glucose gets released from the liver, which then culminates in a spike in blood sugar levels. While non-diabetics can regulate sugar level spikes, diabetics could fall into a state of hyperglycemia, causing blurred vision and fatigue.

You can destress by personalizing your desk with pictures and mementos that can bring you joy and look at it when you feel overwhelmed. Recalling positive memories can result in lowering cortisol levels (which rise when stressed), enhancing your mood, and reducing the negative effects of stress.

Switch out the grabbing of sugary snacks for breathing exercises for a full minute every couple of hours whenever you feel agitated. Slower, deep breathing allows more air to enter your body, slows down your heart rate, and signals your nervous system to calm down.

Physical Activity

While most jobs only involve you sitting at your desk and typing away for hours, you can squeeze in some form of physical activity every once in a while. Exercising helps improve sleep and immunity, as well as lower stress and maintain blood sugar levels.

Going back to stress, which we mentioned earlier, you can squeeze in some physical activity during the day if you feel stressed out at work by taking a few minutes off to go for a short walk before resuming work. This will help you destress so that you can resume work once more with a fresh mind. Alternatively, you can also stretch every few hours while at your desk.

Conclusion

Even though diabetes can be a serious condition, symptoms can be managed. By having a little word with your managers and practicing self-care methods such as maintaining a healthy diet, exercising every once in a while, and doing your best to destress throughout the day, keeping your diabetes at bay during work is something anyone can do.

While diabetes can be dangerous, employees can always craft a safety net for themselves and their families with a health insurance plan. Having the right health insurance plan can help alleviate the financial stress that stems from potentially overwhelming medical bills in the event of unexpected illnesses or injuries.

For employers, employee benefits are key to talent retention. Whether it’s as simple as lending an ear to employees’ health concerns or incorporating something more, the wellbeing and satisfaction of employees cannot be stressed enough.

While finding the ideal health insurance plan, considering the various options available from different insurers at varying price points, and coming up with efficient employee benefits programs may be daunting, it doesn’t always have to be a headache, and that’s where we come in.

As an experienced health insurance broker and employee benefits specialist, Pacific Prime CXA can not only help you with finding the right health insurance plan such as business or property & casualty insurance and more, but also effective employee benefits solutions to ensure your employees feel as equally valued as they are protected from overwhelming medical bills in the event of unforeseen illnesses or injuries.

Whether you’re an expat or local citizen seeking health insurance in Singapore or a company looking for effective employee benefits solutions to ensure your employees’ voices are heard, we will be more than happy to help you out.

What’s more, we can also help you with completely impartial advice at no additional cost. And if you have any further questions, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with us. Or, if you would like to compare plans, feel free to get a free quote with us.

Wish Sutthatothon (Nickname: Guy) is currently a content writer at Pacific Prime Thailand, an insurance broker that connects individuals and businesses with insurance providers worldwide. He creates and edits blog articles, guides, reports, webpages, and other types of digital content.

He graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Communication Arts, Media & Communication major (concentration: Creative Content) from Mahidol University International College (MUIC). During the compulsory major elective period in the summer of 2021 and voluntarily during the summer of 2022, he also interned as a video and photo editor at Mbrella Films.

He has experience working as an English Content Writer at a real estate buying/renting/selling platform in Thonglor. There, he crafted company blog posts on a multitude of topics. Topics include market trends, legal issues and disputes in property businesses, financial guides, expat guides, home insurance, home decoration and maintenance, and weekly real estate news quick-recaps. Occasionally, as part of the blog-writing process, he would also translate existing Thai blogs to English.

In his free time, Guy enjoys doing scriptwriting and storytelling for comic strips, watching movies, and listening to music (particularly film scores).

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