Are you a man over 60 who doesn’t exercise and has a family history of diabetes?
Your chances of being pre-diabetic are relatively high.
The good news is it’s now simple — and quick — to know if you’re at risk of developing the condition that causes the disease.
Watch this one minute clip featuring a man named Dr. Chizholmes. He rhymes off a bunch of questions and will ask you to raise a finger when you can respond to each question with a ‘yes.’ If you raise five fingers or more, you probably have pre-diabetes.
The new video was released by the Ad Council, and is a collaboration between the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the American Medical Association and the American Diabetes Association.
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The key takeaway is that Canadians need to pay attention to their health and the diabetes risk factors they can — and cannot — control. After all, Canada’s diabetes rate is worse than the U.S. Just over nine per cent of Canadians — more than three million people — have diabetes, according to a report released last fall by the Canadian Institute for Health Information.
Approximately 5.7 million Canadians have pre-diabetes, which means they don’t have diabetes yet and can reverse the trend if they take several steps.
“There is great research and quite a few clinical trials that show intensive lifestyle changes can prevent the progression from pre-diabetes to type 2 diabetes,” Dr. Ronald Goldenberg, an endocrinologist at LMC Diabetes and Endocrinology, told Global News.
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Some countries are taking measures to curb what the World Health Organization has dubbed “globesity.” Mexico has instituted a tax on sugar sweetened drinks and a study out of the U.K. looked at the health benefits of reducing sugar in beverages over time. (Excess weight and sugar intake are leading causes of diabetes.)
Too much sugar is also associated with heart disease, obesity, cancer and tooth cavities, according to the Heart and Stroke Foundation.
For more information on pre-diabetes and knowing the risk factors, visit doihaveprediabetes.org.
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