Diabetes Alert Day

ZANESVILLE, Ohio – The American Diabetes Association annually recognizes the fourth Tuesday of March as Diabetes Alert Day.

Genesis Healthcare Diabetes Nurse/Educator Olivia Barclay talked about the disease and explained why it should be better understood.

“We do have a higher prevalence of diabetes in Appalachia,” Barclay said. “Education is really key. There’s a lot of people that are walking around with diabetes and high blood sugar and they don’t know. They might have the symptoms of being really thirsty or really hungry and tired but they just chalk those symptoms up to other situations, not understanding or realizing that that’s symptoms of elevated blood sugar.”

The most common symptoms of Hyperglycemia or high blood sugar are: increased thirst, tiredness, going to the restroom a lot, blurry vision and dry skin. Barclay said family doctors or primary care physicians can refer you to a diabetes education class for more details about the condition. 

“So the biggest risk factor for diabetes is a family history,” Barclay said. “So if you have a family history of diabetes or you are experiencing the symptoms of high blood sugar, we would encourage you to take the little test that you can find online. It’s just a questionnaire. It’s a few questions about you, your symptoms that you might be having. And based on that score, if you feel that you score pretty high, you could go one step further, speak to your primary care physician and ask them to draw an A-1-C test. That’s a blood test.”

Barclay encourages everyone to take the Diabetes Risk Test to discover their risk assessment and to ask their family doctor upon their next visit to get a quick A-1-C test that measures their blood glucose average during the prior 3 months.