By: Kelsey Hong and Sarah Hendricks, Viterbo student nurses
Diabetes is one of the leading causes of disability and death in the United States. It can cause blindness, nerve damage, kidney disease, and other health problems if it’s not controlled. One out of every 11 people have diabetes. November is National Diabetes Awareness Month and Health Services will be offering free blood sugar screenings Wednesday, Nov. 9 from 9:30–11 a.m. in the School of Nursing Building Lobby.
Some important facts:
- What exactly is diabetes?
- Diabetes is a disease in which blood glucose levels are above normal. Most of the food we eat is turned into glucose, or sugar, for our bodies to use for energy. This is very important since our brains run on glucose. (We need sugar to think.)
- The pancreas, an organ that lies near the stomach, makes a hormone called insulin to help glucose get into the cells of our bodies so that our body can use the sugar.
- When someone has diabetes, their body either doesn't make enough insulin or cannot use its own insulin as well as it should which causes sugar to build up in their blood.
- Why is high sugar in the blood so detrimental to one’s health?
- High levels of sugar in the blood can lead to health complications including: heart disease, blindness, kidney failure, lower-extremity amputations.
- Diabetes is the seventh leading cause of death in the United States.
- What puts someone at risk for diabetes?
- Smoking: Smokers are 30–40 percent more likely to develop type 2 diabetes than nonsmokers.
- Gestational Diabetes
- Being overweight
- A Family history of type 2 diabetes
- High-risk race/ethnicity
- African American
- American Indian or Alaska Native
- Asian American
- Hispanic or Latino
- Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander
- High blood pressure
- High cholesterol
- The National Diabetes Education Program (NDEP) works to reduce diabetes and prediabetes by facilitating appropriate approaches to prevent or delay the onset of type 2 diabetes.
- What is prediabetes?
- Prediabetes means your blood sugar levels are higher than normal but not high enough to be diagnosed as diabetes.
- If someone with prediabetes does not change his/her lifestyle, this person will develop type 2 diabetes within 5 years.
- People with prediabetes are more likely to get heart disease or have a stroke
- Tips on how to prevent diabetes:
- Be physically active every day
- Remain at a healthy weight
- Choose healthy foods every day- breakfast, lunch, and dinner and one or two healthy snacks.
- Reduce portion sizes
- Eat smaller, more frequent meals
- Want some healthy diabetic-friendly recipe options? Check out this site: http://allrecipes.com/recipes/739/healthy-recipes/diabetic/
- Healthy snacks
- A cup of veggies served with salsa
- Fruit
- Three cups of low-fat microwave popcorn
- Healthy snacks
Questions? Contact Sue Danielson in Health Services at 796-3806 or scdanielson@viterbo.edu
Information obtained from: http://www.cdc.gov/diabetes/home/