Today is World Diabetes Day.
11.5 million Canadians live with diabetes or pre-diabetes, with about 120,000 in Nova Scotia. This coming from Virtual Diabetes Education Program Specialist for Diabetes Canada, Brooks Roche.
He has two calls to action for the day.
“I would say do your part to change the conversation, to really dive into what it’s like to live with diabetes, to ask folks that you know what they need for support,” says Roche. “And on the other hand, I would call you to call for change in the system.”
He says Nova Scotia does not provide universal adequate access to insulin pumps, blood glucose test stripes or continuous glucose monitors and encourages people to bring these issues to the attention of their MLA.
Roche says while we don’t know how to prevent of type one diabetes, there is a lot we can do to prevent type two.
He says we need to remember there are some risk factors out of our control.
“The risk factors that are in a person’s control are very behavioral and they involve key long-term lifestyle changes,” says Roche. “This does have to do with eating nutritious food, eating healthily, moving more often and losing more weight if a person is overweight.”
He says type one diabetes is not preventable and sees the body destroy it’s ability make insulin while type two diabetes sees the pancreas not produce or use insulin effectively.
Roche says there are also environmental factors to developing diabetes, such as living rurally and needing to drive more, and encourages people to think about those factors.
He also outlined supports from Diabetes Canada for people living with the disease, including specialized recipes and a diabetes education line which can be reached at 1-800-BANTING and is staffed by certified diabetes educators.
This year also marks the 100 anniversary of the discovery of insulin, the lifesaving diabetes treatment.
