Women and Diabetes: Our Right to a Healthy Future

Women and Diabetes: Our Right to a Healthy Future

November 14 is World Diabetes Day! Around 30.3 million people in the US have been diagnosed with diabetes, and this number continues to increase. This year’s theme is Women and Diabetes: Our Right to a Healthy Future. Since the creation of World Diabetes Day in 1991, it has gained a global audience of over 1 billion people in more than 160 countries. Today, it is considered the world’s largest diabetes awareness campaign.

What is Diabetes?

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, diabetes is a disease where blood glucose, or blood sugar, levels are higher than normal. Blood glucose is obtained from the food you eat and is your main source of energy. A hormone called insulin helps glucose to be used by the body. When your body does not make enough insulin to consume the blood glucose too much glucose remains in the blood system. This leads to the development of diabetes because there is not enough insulin present to dispose of the blood glucose.

Women and Diabetes

Did you know that diabetes is a leading cause of death among women? Diabetes is an unfortunate medical complication for anyone, but in women it can take a large toll because the disease has the potential to affect both mothers and unborn children. In fact, 2 out of 5 women with diabetes are of reproductive age. This increases the chances that the newborn children will be affected by diabetes.

Deborah Wexler, MD, MSc, has also found that the increased risk of death is due to the fact that heart disease is deadlier in women with diabetes. This is also due to the fact that men and women experience heart attacks differently, where women experience mild symptoms like shortness of breath, nausea, and back or jaw pain, which lowers chance of recovery.

The World Diabetes Day Campaign strives to highlight the importance of affordable and equitable access for women with diabetes. This includes access to essential diabetes medicines and technologies, self-management education and information they require to achieve optimal diabetes outcomes. Socioeconomic conditions typically create barriers in accessing diabetes preventative measures like early diagnosis and treatment and care. This year’s World Diabetes Day aims to bring these issues to light and allow women to become aware of the resources that are available to them.

For more information about World Diabetes Day, visit their website.

How can we decrease our risk for diabetes?

According to the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK), the best way to decrease one’s risk for diabetes is to:

  • Lose weight: Losing 5 to 7 percent of your starting weight can help prevent diabetes. Marion J. Franz, MD, RDN, CDE, has found that weight loss leads to an improvement of blood glucose levels.
  • Move more: The NIDDK recommends that people get at least 30 minutes of physical activity 5 days a week. Finding time and motivation can be difficult, but setting attainable goals can yield beneficial results.
  • Eat healthy foods: Reducing portions and reducing the consumption of foods high in fat will help decrease one’s risk of developing diabetes. This will aid in losing weight, and also fuel your body for basic bodily functions, like the formation of insulin.

Making these lifestyle changes can be difficult and overwhelming. If you currently have diabetes or are at risk for diabetes, is imperative to begin making healthy choices immediately.

For more information and resources, please visit the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases website.

Tobacco and Diabetes Risk

Smoking is another risk factor that increase someone’s risk for diabetes.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, smokers are 30-40% more likely to develop diabetes than nonsmokers.

Suwannee River AHEC is aware of the severity of the health detriments that arise with tobacco use. We offer many free tobacco cessation groups, which  provide strategies and resources to quit tobacco while educating the community about the health risks that come with smoking.

SRAHEC also routinely offers live facilitator trainings for Tobacco Treatment Specialists, which train participants to treat patients who are tobacco dependent. SRAHEC’s programming is welcome to all interested individuals.

Diabetes is, unfortunately, a continuously growing disease. You can help celebrate World Diabetes Day and raise awareness of diabetes and its prevention. This can be done simply by becoming more informed of what diabetes is, but it is important to know what factors increase your chance of diabetes and what you can do to prevent diabetes.

Thank you to Madison Pacheco for contributing this blog post. Madison Pacheco, 20, is a Filipino-American from Pensacola, FL. She is a third-year Health Education and Behavior major and Spanish minor at the University of Florida. She also volunteers with Youth Combine and is a member of Eta Sigma Gamma, the University of Florida’s Health Education professional organization. She is currently on a pre-medical track with aspirations to become a radiologist.

Sources

Center for Disease Control and Prevention (2017) Smoking and Diabetes. Diabetes. Retrieved from https://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/campaign/tips/diseases/diabetes.html

Franz, Marion J.. (2007) The Dilemma of Weight Loss in Diabetes. Diabetes Spectrum, 133-136. https://doi.org/10.2337/diaspect.20.3.133

National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases. (2007) Preventing Type 2 Diabetes. Diabetes Overview. Retrieved from https://www.niddk.nih.gov/health-information/diabetes/overview/preventing-type-2-diabetes

World Diabetes Day. (2017) Women in Diabetes: Our Right to a Healthy Future. Retrieved from http://www.worlddiabetesday.org/

By |2017-12-13T19:42:59-05:00November 14th, 2017|Categories: Education, Tobacco Cessation|Comments Off on Women and Diabetes: Our Right to a Healthy Future
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