DiabEasy as 123

17/10/2026

💙💜💚 WORDS MATTER IN DIABETES CARE!
The words we use can empower and inspire — helping people feel listened to, understood and confident in managing their diabetes.
Living with diabetes involves making decisions every day, often alongside work, family commitments, financial pressures and other challenges. We cannot always know what someone is dealing with unless we take the time to ask.
Rather than making assumptions, what about asking:
💙1: 💬 “What might be making this difficult for you?”

💜2: 💬 “What do you think could be getting in the way of healthier blood sugar for you?”

💚3: 💬 “What changes feel realistic and helpful for you?”

These questions open up conversations, encourage reflection and help us work with people rather than simply telling them what they should do.
This isn’t about finding fault with the language healthcare professionals use. It’s about recognising that small changes in how we communicate can make a real difference to the experience of living with diabetes.
❤️ People first. Be curious. Listen without judgement. Work together.
Let’s make every conversation an opportunity to support, educate and empower.
📌 Save and share with colleagues who are passionate about improving diabetes care!


The key reference to accompany the post is:
NHS England. Language matters: Language and diabetes.
Read the full document here: NHS England — Language matters: language and diabetes. See link: https://www.england.nhs.uk/long-read/language-matters-language-and-diabetes/

13/10/2026

Once weekly insulin treatment for Type 2 diabetes! Starting to think it’s getting ever more complicated! It’s so hard to keep up with all the advances!
See link:

A new once-weekly insulin treatment for adults with type 2 diabetes has been authorised by the MHRA

12/10/2026

Risk of Ketone testing strip shortages. See link:

There is a risk of disruption to blood ketone testing because of quality control failures and supply interruption affecting some test strips

12/10/2026

I’m sharing this again for new followers as it’s such a good analogy to use to encourage people living with diabetes to attend their annual review.
This is my explanation.

🚗 Your annual diabetes review is like an MOT for your body.

When your car goes for its annual MOT, it’s not a test of how good a driver you are.

It’s there to make sure everything is working safely, identify any problems early and help keep you on the road.

Your annual diabetes review has exactly the same purpose.

It’s not about passing or failing. It’s not about being judged.

It’s about checking that everything is working as well as it can and making small adjustments to help keep you healthy for years to come.

During your review, your healthcare team will check things like:
❤️ Blood pressure
🩸 HbA1c
🫘 Kidney health
👁️ Eye screening
🦶 Foot checks
💊 Medications
🫀 Cholesterol and cardiovascular risk

Here’s something I often say…

If you owned a Porsche, you’d never ignore the service schedule or wait for a warning light before taking it to the garage. You’d look after it because it’s valuable.

But your body is worth far more than any Porsche.

You can replace a car.
You only get one body.

So when your diabetes review invitation arrives, don’t think of it as an exam.

Think of it as your annual MOT—a chance to keep everything running as smoothly as possible and reduce the risk of problems further down the road.

💙 – because prevention is always better than repair.

Please feel free to share or comment!

08/10/2026

💙 KNOW YOUR BP MEDICINES
There are several different groups of medicines we use to manage hypertension — and knowing what they do and where they fit in the treatment pathway can make prescribing and medicines reviews much easier.

So here’s a quick DiabEasyAs123 refresher 👇

💊 ACE inhibitors
Think ramipril, lisinopril and perindopril.

💊 ARBs
Think losartan, candesartan and irbesartan.

💊 Calcium-channel blockers
Think amlodipine.

💊 Thiazide-like diuretics
Think indapamide.

💊 Beta-blockers
Think bisoprolol.

But perhaps the most important message on the infographic is:

🚨 ACE OR ARB — NOT BOTH!

If an ACE inhibitor isn’t tolerated — for example because of a persistent cough — an ARB can be offered instead.

They should NOT be prescribed together for hypertension. NICE NG136 is very clear on this.

For adults with type 2 diabetes and hypertension, NICE sets out a stepwise approach:

👉 Step 1: ACE OR ARB
👉 Step 2: Add a CCB OR thiazide-like diuretic
👉 Step 3: ACE/ARB + CCB + thiazide-like diuretic

And what about Step 4?

That’s where we move into resistant hypertension — and things get a little more complicated. NICE recommends confirming resistant hypertension and considering a fourth antihypertensive, such as low-dose spironolactone in appropriate people, or an alpha- or beta-blocker depending on potassium levels. Specialist advice may also be needed.

👉 I’ve deliberately not included all the Step 4 detail here — there’s plenty more on this in my courses! 😉

Because BP treatment isn’t simply about following a ladder.

The choice of treatment needs to take the person in front of you into account: their diabetes, CKD, CVD, heart failure, age, ethnicity, other medicines, frailty, potential adverse effects and, importantly, their preferences.

And of course, lifestyle (healthy living) support remains part of BP management — not something we simply mention once and tick off. ❤️

📚 Based on NICE NG136: Hypertension in adults: diagnosis and management — updated February 2026.

I hope this is a useful little BP medicines refresher!

What other BP prescribing pearls would you add? 👇

07/10/2026

🩺 BLOOD PRESSURE TARGETS — SO, WHAT ARE WE ACTUALLY AIMING FOR?
Blood pressure targets can sometimes feel like a bit of a minefield — particularly when we start talking about age, diabetes, CKD, home monitoring and standing BP!
So here’s a simple reminder of the NICE targets 👇

❤️ For adults with hypertension UNDER 80 years:

🎯 Clinic BP:

06/10/2026

Sharing as its important.

NATIONAL PATIENT SAFETY ALERT now issued!! 🚨 ‼️ 🚨

https://www.nursinginpractice.com/clinical/diabetes-and-endocrinology/information-for-nurse-prescribers-on-levemir-discontinuation-issued/?fbclid=IwdGRjcAUxtcNleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBwZG9mBWZkaWQWUPxWnpc-bOoxRTgzWe3teszhCioWTnNydGMGYXBwX2lkCjY2Mjg1NjgzNzkAAR4XOjK8_LSTJ0QCZ1M4gGeGNsw_SGGggHyre3FutHRF8I9HpguWVDigRrznqA_aem_RYqCMfIoSjaMSlRuoPelKA

05/10/2026

I’m really hoping that Day One of the Introduction to Diabetes online session today is not too overwhelming? There’s so much to learn and it’s very complex. Doing my best to make it

01/10/2026

TYPE 2 DIABETES: FROM RISK IDENTIFICATION TO DIAGNOSIS

One of the questions I get asked quite often is:
“So… who should we actually test for Type 2 diabetes, which test should we use, and what do we do with the result?”

And I completely understand why this can feel a little confusing!

There are several different stages to the process — and it’s easy to jump straight to the blood test and forget about the risk assessment that comes first.

So I’ve put together this simple pathway to bring it all together. 👇

🔵 1. IDENTIFY PEOPLE AT HIGHER RISK

Start by thinking about the person’s overall risk.

That might include age, family history, central adiposity, hypertension, dyslipidaemia, previous gestational diabetes, PCOS, cardiovascular disease and certain ethnic backgrounds.

And remember…

👉 Adults aged 25 and over of South Asian or Chinese family background with a BMI >23 kg/m² may warrant blood testing even if a formal diabetes risk score hasn’t been used.

There are several validated diabetes risk assessment tools available — including QDiabetes, the Leicester Diabetes Risk Score and FINDRISC.

🟣 2. OFFER THE APPROPRIATE BLOOD TEST

For someone identified as being at higher risk, the next step is a blood test.

This can be:

HbA1c OR fasting plasma glucose (FPG)

The choice depends on local practice and the individual’s circumstances.

And importantly, when we’re talking about diagnosis, we’re talking about an appropriate venous sample — not a finger-prick glucose meter reading.

🟢 3. KNOW WHAT THE NUMBERS MEAN

This is the bit I really want people to remember.

HbA1c:
🟢

30/09/2026

💜11 YEARS OF DIABEASYAS123! 💚💙
Today marks 11 years since I started this little page called DiabEasyAs123.
And honestly… when I started it back in 2015, I had absolutely no idea where it would lead!

Fast forward 11 years and there are now an incredible 6,450 of you following along — and that number is still growing! 😳💙💜💚

But do you know what made me stop and think about the value of this page today?

One of my colleagues from work tried to contact me because she wanted to “pick my brains” about something.

Unfortunately, I was having a day off and didn’t get back to her in time.

But she messaged me later to say she’d found what she needed from a post on my DiabEasyAs123 page.

And honestly… that really got me. ❤️

Because I hadn’t realised just how useful some of the things I share might be to the people who follow the page.

I know I spend a LOT of time reading, learning, checking guidelines, creating courses, thinking about how to explain things and then turning all of that into posts and infographics.

But when you’re doing it week after week, you don’t always stop to think about where that information goes once you’ve pressed “publish”.

Someone might see a post today…

Someone might save it for later…

Someone might share it with a colleague…

Someone might use it when talking to someone living with diabetes…

Or, as happened today, someone might need an answer when I’m not available — and find it waiting for them on the page.

And that for me is pretty amazing!🥰

So although 6,450 followers is an incredible number, I’m actually celebrating something much bigger than a number.

I’m celebrating 11 years of sharing diabetes education, making complicated things a little easier to understand, and hopefully helping people feel a little more confident along the way.

A huge THANK YOU to every single person who has followed, liked, commented, shared, asked questions, challenged me, learnt something from a post or simply enjoyed being part of the DiabEasyAs123 journey.

You have made this little page into something I never imagined it would become.

And after 11 years…

I’m still learning.
I’m still sharing.
And I’m definitely not finished yet!
Here’s to the next chapter! 🥂🎉
💙💜💚
DiabEasyAs123
Diabetes education that gives you the “Keys to a Healthy Heart!” 🗝️❤️