How often should I see my doctor if I have diabetes?

How often should I see my doctor if I have diabetes?

Anne Peters, MD, FACP, CDE (Professor and Director of Clinical Diabetes Programs, USC Keck School of Medicine) gives expert video advice on: What are the symptoms of type 2 diabetes?; When should I get emergency care if I have diabetes?; Why should I should I have my urine checked if I have diabetes? and more...

When people have diabetes, they need not only to go to their healthcare provider more frequently, they actually need to really take charge of their healthcare because the beauty about diabetes is it's numeric. So we tell you what your blood sugars needs to be and we also tell you what your average blood sugar over three months should be and there's a test called the Hemoglobin A1c that tells us what your blood sugar is. It tells you what your blood sugar is. You also need to manage your cholesterol levels, your good and bad cholesterol levels and your blood pressure. Most people worldwide don't get close to the kind of medical care they should for their diabetes and it's in part because diabetes doesn't hurt. So you go to your doctor because your back hurts and your doctor has ten minutes to spend with you. At the end of that, they are not going to have talked about your blood pressure and your blood sugar and all these other things you need to do to live long and healthy with diabetes. So what is recommended is that routinely people go every three months to have their diabetes checked out. And this really needs to be a visit that is not an acute visit for something else. This needs to be, you know, "Hey, how's my blood sugar? How's my blood pressure?" And I really recommend that people keep track of it because there are such clear targets and guidelines. You really need to know what was your blood pressure last month? What is it three months from now? And if it's not normal, you need to ask, "How can I get it better"? Because people who take a proactive approach to their diabetes do beautifully.