Getting

blood glucose levels
under control takes work and, as a teen, it seems to be even harder. Only 1 in 7 teenagers manage to get their long term blood sugar control within the target range (ie an HbA1c value below 7.5%).

Generally speaking, the more in control of your diabetes you are, the more in control of life you’ll feel.

How can I get better control?

The further we get into our teenage years, the more we want to push diabetes under the carpet. We don’t want diabetes control our lives and that can mean we spend less time looking after our levels.

On one hand, we don’t want diabetes to take over our lives but, and it’s quite a big but, we don’t want to be going through each week feeling tired and zombie-like because our levels can’t seem to behave themselves.

So what can we do?

Get the basics right

Take a step back and ask yourself how you’re doing?

• Are you testing before each meal and before bed?
• Do you spend a few minutes every 2 or 3 days looking through your recent test numbers?
• Are you having your
  
  background insulin
  at the same time each day – even on weekends?
• Are you relying on comfort foods too often?

Diabetes control plan

If you’re not doing one or more of the above, spend a week trying to correct one of these things.

It may take a couple of weeks but stick to it. Set aside a bit of time each week, on a day or evening that best suits you, to give yourself a quick progress report.

• What’s going well?
• What could be a bit better?
• What steps can I realistically take to help improve one or two aspects of my diabetes control?

Get into a routine

Getting into a routine is a really important part of getting those stubborn sugar levels under control. If every day is totally different it’s hard to make sense of the numbers.

There are a lot of things that affect our levels, the time between meals and

injections, whether we exercised, the type or size of meals we eat.

Getting into a more fixed routine can help to simplify things and allow us to make sense of the numbers.

The following things can help:

• Try to have meals at the same time of day wherever possible
• Don’t miss out on meals
• Take your background insulin at the same each day (even on weekends)

It can also help to set yourself a carbohydrate target for different meals of the day so you have a set amount of carbs each day for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Whilst it might take away some flexibility, it’ll make it easier to spot trends in your numbers.

If say you notice your before bed numbers are always on the low side, you’ll be able to take this into account in your

insulin doses
It’ll also help your diabetes team out and they’ll be able to help you with making dose adjustments.

Do you need to be flexible?

If flexibility is important to you but leaves you struggling to get good control, you may wish to request to go onto an

insulin pump

Availability to insulin pumps on the

NHS
may involve being put onto a waiting list but a lot of teenagers feel the wait is well worth it. Pumpers (people who use insulin pumps) often get very attached to their pumps (bad pun – sorry) and have a habit of naming their insulin pumps, which goes to show how appreciated the pumps are. By comparison, we’ve yet to hear of anyone that has named their injection pen!

Slowing down the blood sugar roller coaster

Many of us are told to base meals around starchy

carbohydrates
As a result we need to take quite high doses of insulin.

What this means is that blood sugar often goes up very quickly for the first hour or so after eating and then comes down very quickly.

The other side of taking a high dose is that it means that it leaves less room for error in the

insulin
we take.

If we inject 20 units of insulin for a meal but are out by 10%, this means we get it wrong by 2 units of insulin, which can mean ending up with either a high blood sugar or a very low blood sugar.

If we have a meal instead that requires half the amount of insulin, any errors we make in our insulin dose should on average be halved as well, meaning our sugar levels get close to what the should be. All of a sudde, the diabetes rollercoaster isn’t quite so severe.

Eating to feel happy

When you think about eating to feel happy it probably involves foods like fish and chips, crisps and cakes. The trouble is that these foods are rubbish for our levels, which makes us feel uncomfortable and can mess up our ability to think straight to some extent.

Comfort foods may make us feel better for a few minutes but it’s followed by a few hours of feeling rubbish.

One of the hardest things is if the wrong foods always seem to be around you. Out of sight helps to keep things out of mind. You may need to ask your family, and perhaps your friends too, to give you a hand by not tempting you with things that are going to hit your levels badly.

Diabetes presents us with an extra challenge in addition to keeping up with lessons, homework and generally keeping cool.

Keeping your sugar levels in good shape will certainly help with most of these.

Read our guide below on how to manage your sugar levels through term time.

Blood glucose testing

It’s important that you have access to your testing kit at school. This should be possible in most cases.

Good times to

check your blood sugar levels

are if you feel symptoms of high or low sugar levels and at break times.

If you feel tired or are having difficulty concentrating, this can sometimes be a sign that your sugar levels are too high or too low.

Safe blood sugar levels

As you will likely be aware, it is important that your blood sugar levels are in a safe range.

If your blood sugar levels are below 4 mmol/l, it is important that you take carbohydrate to treat

hypoglycemia

If your blood glucose levels are above 15 mmol/l, you may be at risk of

high ketone levels

and therefore it is important to regularly monitor your blood sugar levels.

If your levels rise or remain high, you may need to take

insulin

If your blood glucose levels are frequently above 10 mmol/l through the day, you may need to discuss your medication regimen with your health team.

Does your insulin regimen fit in with your daily routine?

One major factor that can make life at school either easier or more difficult is the insulin regimen you have.

Each regimen has different advantages and disadvantages:

Diabetes and PE (physical education)

Having your sugar levels in the right range is particularly important during PE as exercise affects our blood sugar levels. Usually a lesson of PE will cause your sugar levels to go down so

carbohydrates

will often be needed beforehand.

However, some activities, such as short bursts of sprinting with inactive periods in between may cause your body to actually raise blood sugar levels. If you feel symptoms of high or low sugar levels, it’s important that you’re able to test your blood sugar levels at an appropriate time.

• Read more about
  
  sport and blood sugar levels
  

Help your blood sugar levels keep up with your grades with our tips on blood glucose control at university.

It’s worth noting that our brains work better when our blood sugar levels are kept at the

recommended blood sugar levels

, so investing time into your diabetes through university could really pay dividends by the end of your degree.

Don’t be afraid of your blood sugar levels

National diabetes audits have consistently shown that teenage years are the worst years for our diabetes control.

This can mean that by the time we get to university, we would rather avoid seeing what our meters are telling us.

If this doesn’t apply to you, that’s great. If it does, then don’t despair, getting the basics right can help you on the way to getting better numbers.

Few of us go through our university years with perfect numbers so face those numbers and see what you can do to make step by step improvements.

Find time to record and or review your blood sugar levels

Set aside some time, say once each week or every 2 or 3 days, to go through you recent results.

Remember the point above not to be afraid of seeing too many highs or lows, facing these numbers is the first, and important, step to helping to improve these.

To help make sense of the numbers, add extra notes about whether you exercised, if you had a late night what you ate or drank on a particular day.

You can read more about recording blood glucose results and looking for patterns and download a

free blood glucose diary

Get into a routine

Establishing a daily routine can be particularly

helpful for those of us on injections

If you’re going to bed and waking up at very different times from one day to another, it can make it more difficult to control diabetes.

Having a daily routine also makes making sense of your blood sugar numbers easier as it means there are less variables at play.

What affects blood sugar levels?

That’s easy, it’s carbs, exercise and insulin. Yes, these all can change our blood glucose levels but a number of other factors can affect us too.

Our liver

provides quite a steady drip feed on glucose into blood, which is the very reason we need to take background insulin to stop our blood sugar levels rising as a result.

Stress and illness also push our blood glucose levels up and not everyone knows that short sprints can also result in quite sharp upwards jumps in our blood sugar levels too.

Another less commonly recognised fact is that

protein

, as well as carbohydrates, can raise blood glucose levels. The blood sugar raising effect of protein is less pronounced but is more noticeable if you have meals with relatively little carbohydrate. So if you were wondering why a no carb fried breakfast sent your sugar levels up, now you know.

• Read more about some of the
  
  lesser known factors that can influence blood glucose levels
  

Alcohol

Alcohol has quite a pronounced effect on our blood glucose levels. Firstly, a number of alcoholic drinks contain carbohydrate, such as beer, lager and any drinks made with fruit juice. So if you have these drinks, you can expect your blood glucose levels to, without insulin, initially rise.

• Read more about the
  
  carbohydrate content of different alcoholic drinks
  

Above we said that our liver provides a steady feed of glucose into our blood but alcohol blocks the liver’s ability to do this. As a result, after drinking alcohol, our blood glucose levels will begin to drop as the effect of our background insulin becomes more powerful than our liver’s ability to raise our blood sugar levels.

What this means is that we need to be careful after drinking alcohol, particularly when sleeping after an evening of drinking. Many

people on insulin

will take some carbohydrate before bed following drinking alcohol, but those on a pump have the alternative option of reducing their overnight insulin.

People with type 1 diabetes have needed to be hospitalised suffering a severe hypo after drinking so take care to ensure your sugar levels don’t go too low when sleeping. Remember that

physical activity

increases our sensitivity to insulin for up to 48 hours as well so take this into account if you’ve been exercising earlier in the day or been active on the dance floor.

• Read further about the
  
  effects of alcohol on diabetes
  

Written by

Benedict Jephcote

Many of us are concerned about how we look. Diabetes can at times cause us to be more aware of our body image, particularly if we get bruises as a result of

injecting

or either gain or lose a significant amount of weight.

Lumps or bruises on the skin

The occasional bruise is part of

type 1 diabetes

and is likely you have hit a vein when injecting. If you get a lump along with the bruise, this should settle down within a day or two and then the bruise should fade.

Getting stiff or lumpy skin from injections (without bruising) is usually a sign that you are injecting in the same place too often. This can be prevented by

rotating your injection sites

If your skin becomes lumpy or takes on an abnormal appearance, speak to your diabetes team who will be able to advise you.

Underweight with type 1 diabetes

Following a diagnosis of type 1 diabetes, it is common to be underweight. Usually once you’re put onto insulin you should find you settle back into your normal weight within a few weeks.

If your blood sugar levels are consistently high, you may find it more difficult to put on weight. It is important not to allow your blood sugar levels to run high for long periods as this can lead to a very real chance of

diabetic complications

occurring.

Insulin and weight gain

Being overweight is not a risk factor for type 1 diabetes, but that doesn’t mean being immune from putting on weight either.

Gaining weight with type 1 diabetes is not uncommon but this can be managed.

The following part of this article looks at some strategies that can be employed to help reduce weight gain.

If weight gain is a concer, or causing problems, speak to your diabetes health team or a dietitian to help formulate a plan to help you to manage your weight.

Slowly released carbohydrate

Having either high or low blood sugar levels can lead to feelings of hunger. Having

foods with a low glycaemic index (low GI)

helps to prevent the sharp peaks in blood sugar levels and can reduce feelings of hunger between meals.

Vegetables typically have a low GI and, as you’d expect, are a good option for weight management. On the other side of the spectrum, refined carbohydrates such as pastry and dough based foods hit blood sugar levels quickly and can leave us feeling hungry soon after eating them.

• Read more about the
  
  glycaemic index
  

Over eating in response to hypos

When we have low blood sugar, it can be very difficult to resist the urge to over eat. The reason we get so hungry is because the body is sending us a strong signal to eat to get our

blood sugar levels

up. The best way to treat a hypo and end the hunger without facing a big calorie intake is to quickly treat the hypo with quick acting carbohydrate such as glucose tablets or sweets.

• Read more about
  
  hypos and controlling hunger
  

Exercise and carbohydrate

If you exercise to lose weight, it can be very annoying having type 1 diabetes because it can mean that you take in as many calories, in the form of

carbohydrate

to keep your sugar levels up, as you can hope to lose by doing the exercise. There are a couple of methods you can use to reduce the amount of carbohydrate you need to take before

exercising

• Read more on
  
  exercise, insulin and weight management
  

If you want to be diabetes ninja, an insulin pump is the way to go. It is possible to get a very good control on

injections

but you may find you need to do more than 4 injections a day to get there.

With an

insulin pump

, you can take insulin as and when you need without the issue of having to prick yourself for your troubles.

Reasons why people love their insulin pumps

A lot of people who receive insulin pumps quickly love their insulin pumps for some of the following reasons:

• No more injections each day
• Flexibility over when you eat
• Flexibility over how many carbs you eat
• Taking insulin is no longer a big deal
• You can easily adjust your basal (background) insulin
• You can achieve great control

No more daily injections

Whichever way you look at it, injections are a pain. On injections, most of the time you want to eat, you know you’re going to need to jab yourself. Sometimes that’s ok but just about everyone who’s been on injections has thought “if I only I could have one day without the sight of a needle!”.

With a pump, that becomes a reality. Sure, you need to change the cannula every 3 days or so but you can pick a convenient time to do this.

Eat when it suits you

Injections regimens work best when you are able to keep to a routine but sometimes we want to be able to change our routine from day to day.

Sometimes we want a lie in, say at weekends, and don’t want to have to get up at 7:30 in the morning to put that morning shot in. Insulin pumps are much, much better at adapting to this.

Flexibility over the carbs you eat

How many of us have been in a situation where we’ve gone out to a

restaurant

and been faced with a whole load of guess work. How many

carbs

is going to be in the meal? Should I inject before the starter or wait ’til the main course comes. Will it be worth injecting for both courses?

On an insulin pump, this isn’t a big issue. You can take

insulin

as you go through the meal, making any corrections depending on your appetite.

Taking insulin is no big deal

As the above example shows, life on an insulin pump means there’s no issue of whether it’s worth taking a shot. If you think you need a bit more insulin you can give yourself an extra dose without much hassle at all. This can easily be done whilst travelling, in class or at a restaurant.

The one note of caution to bear in mind is that if you put in an extra dose of insulin close to a previous dose of insulin, to bear in mind that the first dose will be active. If the strength of the two doses together is underestimated, it could lead to a

hypo

Easily adjust basal insulin

A great feature of insulin pumps is the chance to pre-programme different rates of background insulin. This can be particularly helpful whilst sleeping.

With injections of

basal insulin

, once you’ve put in your dose, you’re stuck with that dose for the rest of the day.

With insulin pumps you can adjust your insulin requirements there and then, so if you’ve had a very active day, you can switch to a lower rate of insulin to avoid going hypo.

Achieve great control

When you add these advantages together, it’s not too surprising that insulin pumps usually lead to much better control of blood sugar levels.

To help you get the most out of your pump, you will need to invest time into understanding how each of its features work and you will need to build a strong understanding of

carbohydrate counting

• Read more about
  
  getting started with an insulin pump
  

A diagnosis of diabetes can be a big shock. Type 2 diabetes is becoming more common in children and teens but is still relatively rare.

We look at the steps you can take to manage your diabetes and lead a healthy life.

Am I at risk of type 2 diabetes?

Whilst

type 2 diabetes
before adulthood is relatively rare, if you are obese, you will have an increased risk of type 2 diabetes.

If you have any members of your close family with type 2 diabetes or are of South Asian heritage, this also raises the risk of developing type 2 diabetes.

How do I know whether I have type 2 diabetes?

Type 2 diabetes is characterised by

high blood sugar levels
and the symptoms of high sugar levels include increased thirst and hunger, frequent lethargy, needing to wee more often than usual and areas of dark skin on the neck or armpits.

Will I have type 2 diabetes for the rest of my life?

Sadly type 2 diabetes doesn’t have a cure so people if you develop type 2 diabetes you will need to manage it for the rest of your life. With this said, it is possible not to have to be on

medication
for life.

If you can achieve a healthy weight, it may be possible to come off medication and manage your diabetes through healthy eating and exercise.

How do I get my blood glucose levels under control?

Making healthy food choices and taking part in an hour’s physical activity each day should help to lower your blood sugar levels.

These steps will also help in other ways such as being beneficial for the health of your heart.

You may also be given medication to help bring your sugar levels under control.

A common form of medication is a tablet called

metformin
which works by limiting your liver from raising your blood sugar levels.

If your blood glucose levels are high, you may be prescribed insulin to inject which is a more powerful medication for lowering blood sugar levels.

• Read more on
  
  starting insulin

Monitoring blood sugar levels

Your diabetes team will carry out checks at least once each year to see how high your blood sugar levels are. If you are put onto insulin, you may need to test your blood sugar levels at home.

Testing blood sugar levels
is not the most pleasant activity but does it get better and easier with time.

Eating a healthy diet

Eating healthily is one of the best ways to get blood sugar levels under control and can also help you to lose weight.

• Eat regular home prepared meals
• Eat 5 portions or more of vegetables and fruit
• Replace unhealthy snacks with natural snacks
• Avoid fried foods and sugary foods
• Pick foods with a low GI

Many processed foods, including packaged sandwiches have higher calorie contents than home prepared versions. It’s best to avoid snacks such as crisps, muffins and chocolate. These foods may satisfy your hunger initially but can often make you hungry again soon after.

Having natural snacks such as fruit or carrot sticks are much healthier and may prevent your hunger returning before the next meal.

As you’d expect, fried and sugary foods are amongst the worst foods for our health and our weight and should be avoided where possible. Low GI foods are those which take a longer time to get fully digested.

For example whole grain bread has a lower GI than white bread as the body takes longer to digest it.

This means that lower GI foods don’t push our blood sugar levels up as severely as high GI foods.

• Read more on
  
  low GI foods

Losing weight

Losing weight has been shown to help improve blood sugar levels and could help you to avoid or come off diabetic medication.

Losing weight
can be made easier with help from your family. Taking part in outdoor activities, having home cooked meals and eating away from distractions, such as the TV, provide a better chance of achieving weight loss.

Your doctor may also be able to help by putting you onto an exercise or

slimming course

Secondary school, also known as high school, fills some of us with a sense of anxiety especially when it involves changing classes and making new friends.

The most important aspect is to make sure your school knows about your diabetes and knows how to help you manage your diabetes.

• See also:
  
  Managing blood sugar levels at school

Support at school

It’s important the school is made aware that you have diabetes so that you get all the support you need.

An Individual Healthcare Plan can be drawn up between you, your parents, the school and your diabetes nurse to agree on what support you’ll receive in school.

The plan will ensure that your teachers know enough about your diabetes such as that you may need to check your blood sugar levels by

doing a blood test
or taking carbohydrate if you need to treat or prevent a hypo.

Getting diagnosed whilst in secondary school

Being diagnosed with diabetes will always come as a shock (it’s a rare person who isn’t shocked to some extent). It may take some time to adjust to your new treatment regime and your friends may need help in understanding what diabetes is too.

Moving up to secondary school with diabetes

If you have had diabetes before secondary school, you may feel some

anxiety
about settling into a new school and a new class.

Being diagnosed with diabetes will always come as a shock (it’s a rare person who isn’t shocked to some extent).

It may take some time to adjust to your new treatment regime and your friends may need help in understanding what diabetes is too.

Telling people about your diabetes

It’s natural to be a bit worried about whether people will treat you any different knowing you have diabetes but it’s rare for friendships to be negatively affected by diabetes and sometimes a condition like diabetes can make friendships stronger.

Some people can be insensitive. Sometimes it can be through ignorance and other times it may be that they’re lacking in social skills (in other words, being mean). These days there is a lot of information to hand to help explain what diabetes is and what it’s not.

In summary, don’t be afraid to let people know about your diabetes, just be well prepared in case people have questions, as it’s more than likely they will be interested.

• Read more on
  
  telling people about your diabetes

Can I eat in lessons or exams

If you diabetes and are at risk of

hypoglycaemia, it is important that you have sweets,

glucose tablets
and other sources of carbohydrate available in lessons and exams.

Diabetes won’t sadly give you a right to eat whenever you want but it does that mean that if your blood sugar levels are low you should be excused to be able to take glucose.

You should agree with your school how this will be managed.

Diabetes and detention

Unless agreed otherwise, it is likely that any detention will need to be attended. In some cases, a detention may prove to be problematic for your diabetes control, such and if it prevents you from having your normal lunch or a scheduled injection.

For this reason, it is best to agree detention arrangements before one happens. Even if your own behaviour is exceptional, it has been known for a whole class to be detained at once.

Diabetes and school trips

Having diabetes should not be a barrier for attendance in school trips or other extra-curricular activities.

Your school should ensure that staff on the trip know about your diabetes and how to support you. If you have any questions or worries about the trip, ask the staff at the earliest opportunity as this will save having to be anxious for too long.

Make sure you know where your testing kit,

medication
and hypo treatments are throughout the trip and that you can access them easily if you need to.

University can be a daunting prospect for somen, whereas others can’t wait to go.

A bit of preparation can go a long way and letting people know about diabetes can also help to prevent any situations around your diabetes from becoming awkward.

We give tips on what you’ll need to consider for either your first or a new year at university.

Packing for university

Before packing for university, it’s worthwhile requesting some extra supplies from your doctor in case there are any hitches with registering at a new practice at your university.

Take plenty of spares of all your supplies with you to university, but take into account you may need to share fridge space with others.

You may wish to take your own cooling fridge with you to university. A cool wallet may also be useful in preparation for summer months.

• 
  Buy cooling wallets
  from the Diabetes Shop

Let people know about your diabetes

Tell your hall warden (if in halls of residence) about your diabetes. It’s a good idea to arrange some time when you can explain some of the ins and outs of your diabetes.

It’s advisable to tell your flatmates (or close neighbours if in halls) about your diabetes. If your insulin will be in a communal fridge, it’s best to let people know that the insulin needs to be away from the back of the fridge, for example, to prevent it freezing.

Tell your lecturers at the start of a course.

Should you go hypo and need to test and eat, it should be no issue if your lecturers are aware of your diabetes.

Your lecturers will often thank you for the courtesy of letting them know.

• 
  Telling people you have diabetes

Going out

A common factor in the appeal of university is the opportunities to go out to new locations and drinking is a popular attraction for many.

When going out, it’s best if someone you’re out with knows about your diabetes so if anything should happen, you’ll be in better hands.

There are some misconceptions of diabetes such as people thinking a hypo should be treated with insulin(!), so make sure those around you know

how to react in an emergency situation

• Read more on
  
  diabetes and nights out

Registering at a new practice

When you go to university, it’s most likely you’ll need to register at a new practice. If you’ll be situated back at home between terms or semesters, it will be best to register as a temporary resident as this will enable you to pick up prescriptions whilst at university and when back at home.

If you’ll be staying near to your university between terms/semesters, it will likely be best to register as a permanent resident.

To register at a new practice, you’ll need to know your NHS number and your current practice’s name and address. It is common to be invited to an initial consultation so your health can be assessed by your new practice.

Make time for your diabetes

With studying and socialising both important factors at uni, you may find that your diabetes gets left behind at times. This is not just bad for your health but can also affect other areas such as your motivation, your sleeping pattern and your ability to think clearly.

It’s a good idea to commit time each week to reviewing your blood sugar numbers to see if any improvements are needed.

A little time for your diabetes can go a long way in terms of helping you feel energetic and ready to face new challenges.

Exams

Check in good time before exams your university’s policy on whether and how you will be able to bring in your blood glucose testing kit, food and/or medication to the exam. Test before and after each exam.

If you have a low blood glucose level it could affect your exam performance, so try to avoid this happening.

If you are permitted to test your blood glucose during the exam, take a test if you feel your concentration is beginning to wane or you are finding it more difficult than normal to read or write.

Avoiding weight gain

In the US there’s a term ‘the freshman fifteen’ which refers to the number of pounds believed to be put on by students going through their freshman year. Research has found that, on average, the reality is not that extreme but it is observed that the average student steadily puts on weight during and following their degree.

Increased exposure to alcohol and fast food combined with periods of stress and abnormal sleeping patterns are some of the factors that may lead to weight gain.

Increases in weight may not be helped by the need to eat on a tight budget, which can lead to buying food which is dense in calories but sparse in vitamins and minerals. For help with the grocery shopping, see our guide to

healthy eating on a budget

Some care needs to be taken if nights out involve alcohol, particularly if you’ve yet to experience the effect alcohol has on your blood sugar levels – which can vary between different people.

High and low blood glucose levels are more likely to occur during nights out so be prepared to test at convenient times.

Test regularly

If you’re

drinking alcohol, you might not get your usual hypo symptoms. To avoid getting caught out, test your blood sugars regularly, particularly if it’s an active night.

Testing can be a pain, in more than one way, but the better your levels are, the better the night will be. Make sure your hands are washed and dried before testing to ensure an accurate result is obtained.

Is your blood glucose monitor up to a night out? Take a look at our

blood glucose meter guide

Take carbohydrate before you sleep

Usually, our liver constantly provides a steady amount of glucose into our blood through the day, and this is one reason why we need

basal (background) insulin

However, alcohol limits the liver’s ability to release glucose and so quite it’s common for people to experience

hypos
after a night of drinking if they have not had a snack before going to bed.

The overnight blood glucose lowering effect of alcohol can vary from person to person so it’s best to play things safe.

Don’t go crazy on the alcohol and don’t risk your blood sugars going too low.

Take your background insulin on time

It’s important not to miss taking your background insulin.

If your basal insulin injection is missed, your body will lack insulin and so blood sugar levels will rise and your body will start to release ketones into the blood which can lead to the development of

ketoacidosis

Carry identification

It’s a good idea to take some medical ID with you on a night out. The last thing you’d want is to go hypo and people mistake you for being drunk rather than helping.

Paramedics are trained to look for medical jewellery or a medical card, so if you go unconscious for any reason, they’ll be able to treat appropriately.

• 
  Buy diabetes identification

Needles and sharps in clubs

We are aware that some clubs have in the past prevented people with diabetes taking needles or sharps in.

Whilst this is relatively rare, it’s worth being prepared for the possibility that it could happen.

If you are attending a gig, the security may be strict and they may not allow you to bring your needles into the gig. It can be a good idea to call the venue beforehand to ask about their policy.

• If you are out at festival, see our guide on
  
  diabetes at festivals

Diabetes in teenage years tends to be more difficult than at other points in our life.

We look at different aspects of teenage life from school through to university and nights out and give you some practical tips to keep blood sugar levels under good control.

Guides in this section

Whether you’re in secondary school or off to university, you’ll find tips on managing your blood sugar and how to deal with nights out.

Teenagers & Diabetes:

Diabetes at Secondary School

Sugar Levels at School

Blood Sugar Levels at University

Nights Out and Diabetes

Teenagers and Diabetes Control

Type 2 Diabetes in Teenagers

Insulin and Body Issues

Blood Glucose Testing

Teenagers and Insulin Pumps

Blood glucose control

If you’re struggling to get your diabetes under good control, don’t lose heart.

It is very common for teenagers to struggle with diabetes control, with only about 1 in 7 teenagers hitting their

HbA1c target

Have a read of our guide to

teenagers and diabetes control
which provides tips on you can start to get your HbA1c down and can also reduce some of those hypos from happening.

Diabetes at secondary school and university

You’ll need to make sure your

school and teachers are aware of your diabetes

Whilst it shouldn’t get in the way of school activities, at times you may need to test your blood sugars and treat any low or high levels as appropriate so make sure your teachers know what you need to do to manage your diabetes.

At university, a little preparation can go a long way.

Make sure all your lecturers and people you live with know about your diabetes and make sure well prepared for getting your prescriptions at

university

If you can ensure your sugar levels are under good control, it’ll help out your studying and social life.

Nights out

For those of you who are

going out at night, be prepared by reading up on the effects of alcohol on blood sugar and how to make sure diabetes doesn’t get in the way of enjoying the night.