eDiets Diabetes
Determine Your Risk for Diabetes!
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
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By Christine Miller
eDiets Diabetes Expert
Do you know if you're at risk for diabetes? Well, make sure you're not one of the millions of Americans who have the disease and don't realize it. The effects of untreated diabetes are pretty scary. In fact, they can even be life-threatening.
Recent statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that 24 million Americans have diabetes, and 24 percent of those people are undiagnosed, meaning they don't know they have it. Marked by high blood glucose levels, diabetes can double and even quadruple your risk for heart disease -- the No. 1 killer of both men and women -- making it all the more important to figure out your risk.
A new online screening tool makes it easier to do just that. The Diabetes Risk Calculator (DRC) is a short online quiz that can determine your chances of getting type 2 diabetes and prediabetes, a precursor to diabetes that has similar health complications.
Although diabetes risk calculators have been around for years, the DRC is more comprehensive than other quizzes, and its results are validated, which means its accuracy has been proven by research. The questions cover a range of topics, including age, ethnicity, height, weight, family history of diabetes and activity level, all of which are related to diabetes risk. Here are a few samples:
1. Does your mother, father, sister(s) or brother(s) have diabetes?
2. Have you ever been told by a doctor or other health professional that you had hypertension, also called high blood pressure?
3. Compared with most men or women your age, would you say that you are more active, less active or about the same?
Once you finish the quiz, the DRC puts you into one of 14 possible categories and determines your risk based on these groupings. You can then see whether you're in the low-risk green zone, the yellow zone (a high risk for prediabetes) or the red zone (a high risk for type 2 diabetes).
While the calculator can be a helpful tool in determining your diabetes risk, it shouldn't replace your doctor. If you have questions about your results, consult your physician, who can provide you with more in-depth information about diabetes prevention and schedule further testing.
Click here to try out the Diabetes Risk Calculator.
If you are at risk for diabetes, talk to your doctor about eDiets' Living with Diabetes Meal Plan, which supports the current recommendations of the American Diabetes Association.
Like this post? Check out these, too:
Living and Loving with Diabetes
10 Power Foods for Diabetes
Diabetes and Alcohol: Booze to Lose?
eDiets Diabetes Expert
Do you know if you're at risk for diabetes? Well, make sure you're not one of the millions of Americans who have the disease and don't realize it. The effects of untreated diabetes are pretty scary. In fact, they can even be life-threatening.
Recent statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that 24 million Americans have diabetes, and 24 percent of those people are undiagnosed, meaning they don't know they have it. Marked by high blood glucose levels, diabetes can double and even quadruple your risk for heart disease -- the No. 1 killer of both men and women -- making it all the more important to figure out your risk.
A new online screening tool makes it easier to do just that. The Diabetes Risk Calculator (DRC) is a short online quiz that can determine your chances of getting type 2 diabetes and prediabetes, a precursor to diabetes that has similar health complications.
Although diabetes risk calculators have been around for years, the DRC is more comprehensive than other quizzes, and its results are validated, which means its accuracy has been proven by research. The questions cover a range of topics, including age, ethnicity, height, weight, family history of diabetes and activity level, all of which are related to diabetes risk. Here are a few samples:
1. Does your mother, father, sister(s) or brother(s) have diabetes?
2. Have you ever been told by a doctor or other health professional that you had hypertension, also called high blood pressure?
3. Compared with most men or women your age, would you say that you are more active, less active or about the same?
Once you finish the quiz, the DRC puts you into one of 14 possible categories and determines your risk based on these groupings. You can then see whether you're in the low-risk green zone, the yellow zone (a high risk for prediabetes) or the red zone (a high risk for type 2 diabetes).
While the calculator can be a helpful tool in determining your diabetes risk, it shouldn't replace your doctor. If you have questions about your results, consult your physician, who can provide you with more in-depth information about diabetes prevention and schedule further testing.
Click here to try out the Diabetes Risk Calculator.
If you are at risk for diabetes, talk to your doctor about eDiets' Living with Diabetes Meal Plan, which supports the current recommendations of the American Diabetes Association.
Like this post? Check out these, too:
Living and Loving with Diabetes
10 Power Foods for Diabetes
Diabetes and Alcohol: Booze to Lose?
Labels: diabetes, diabetes calculator, diabetes care, diabetes prevention, diabetes risk, diet and diabetes
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