Today I’m thinking about awareness of diabetes, itself. Did you know there are 29.1 million people in the United States with diabetes? That’s one out of every ten adults. And about 8 million of them don’t even know they have it! Another 86 million people have pre-diabetes, which means they have a very high risk of developing type 2 diabetes. In the meantime, pre-diabetes still puts people at risk for things like heart disease.
Diabetes Awareness Month (November) is a good time to get checked for diabetes if you haven’t already. Get a fasting blood glucose checked yearly if you are older than 45, have a family history of diabetes, if you have high blood pressure or high cholesterol, had gestational diabetes or gave birth to a large baby (over 9 pounds), carry extra weight (especially if you carry it around your middle), or if you are Asian American, Hispanic/Latino American, African American, or Native American/Native Alaskan. These are all risk factors for type 2 diabetes.
Awareness includes finding out if you have or are at risk for diabetes. Knowing your diabetes risk can help you make changes to lower your risk. And if you have diabetes and don’t know it, finding out can help you take steps to prevent problems down the road. Awareness, like knowledge, is power!