Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

By Amy Williams

Clark County Health Department

Diabetes has become a public health crisis that is quickly approaching epidemic proportions globally. November is American Diabetes Month, making Nov. 14 World Diabetes Day. Nov. 14 is Frederick Banting’s birthday (Nov. 14, 1891 – Feb. 21, 1941), a Canadian physician who co-invented, along with John James Rickard Macleod, insulin used to treat diabetes. As such, it is essential to understand the seriousness of the disease while also realizing that healthy living with diabetes is an achievable goal for each individual diagnosed. It is also important to recognize that adopting healthy lifestyle changes can deter type 2 diabetes altogether or delay it by 58%.

Did you know that diabetes can lead to heart attack and stroke, blindness, or kidney failure?

Too much glucose, a type of sugar, in your blood can cause diabetes problems over time. High blood glucose can cause heart and blood vessel disease, which can lead to heart attacks and strokes. Damage to the eyes, another side effect, can lead to loss of sight or blindness. In addition, nerve damage and poor blood flow can cause foot problems, sometimes leading to amputation.

Again, you can prevent or delay diabetes problems by keeping your blood glucose, blood pressure, and cholesterol under control.

Have you been diagnosed with pre-diabetes? If so, here are few things to think about.

A few alarming statistics:

• Every 23 seconds, someone in the U.S. is diagnosed with diabetes.

• 86 million Americans are at risk for diabetes.

• Diabetes causes more deaths than AIDS and Breast Cancer combined!

• As stated above, it is crucial to recognize that many times, type 2 diabetes can be prevented or delayed by just losing 5-7 percent of total body weight. A two-hundred-pound person would need to lose just 10-14 pounds. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Diabetes Prevention Recognition Program (DPRP) is a key component of the National Diabetes Prevention Program.

This proven program can help people with pre-diabetes or at risk for type 2 diabetes make achievable and realistic lifestyle changes to cut their risk of developing type 2 diabetes by 58 percent.

Call or email the Clark County Health Department at (859) 744-4482, ext. 1028, to enroll for our Diabetes Basics Class on Dec. 5 from 10 a.m.-11 a.m. Location TBA.

The Clark County Health Department provides programs for the entire family, including Smoking Cessation, WIC, HANDS, family planning, well child care/immunizations, and home health care.  For more information on all of our services, please call (859) 744-4482 or visit our website at www.clarkhealthdept.org.  You can also “like” us on Facebook.