Marci Wright, certified diabetes educator at UT Health Tyler, said people who ages 35 and older should be screened for diabetes.
TYLER, Texas — Diabetes Alert Day is a one-day, “wake-up call” organized by the American Diabetes Association and held every fourth Tuesday of March to encourage people to assess their risk of developing type 2 diabetes.
Marci Wright, certified diabetes educator at UT Health Tyler, said the best way to identify the risk of diabetes is to have a primary care provider, where patients can receive a yearly physical. The initial risk test can be found on ADA website here.
Wright said people who ages 35 and older should be screened for diabetes. The test can also show if someone is pre-diabetic.
“Pre-diabetes is basically as it sounds. It’s where your blood sugar is not high enough exactly to be considered diabetes, but it’s high enough where it’s not considered normal,” Wright said. “Basically, it’s what you’d consider to be insulin resistance. It’s where your body’s just not regulating the blood sugar the way that it once did. It is a whole series of things that are happening.”
Those who are pre-diabetic are often overweight or have a lot of other health conditions that create risk factors. People who are pre-diabetic should have their health screened yearly, Wright said.
Experts suggest people with pre-diabetes should start with 7 to 10% weight loss, get around 30 minutes of physical activity five days a week and make healthier changes to their eating habits, Wright said.
“It can be something as simple as cooking some more healthy meals at home, less dining out, switching from drinks with sugar in them to sugar free drinks. Baking more of your meats versus frying, adding in more vegetables, things like that,” she said.
Eleven percent of the U.S. population has diabetes and that number increases as people get older with 25% of those 65 and older having diabetes.
Wright noted the differences between type 1 and type 2 diabetes, saying that type 1 is more of an autoimmune disorder in which people lack the ability to produce insulin in their bodies. Type 2 diabetes develops over time when a person has gained weight or their body doesn’t respond to insulin the way it once did.