Diabetes: What Your Workers Need to Know

Tell employees that people with diabetes are more likely to have:

• Heart attacks and strokes

• High blood pressure
• Blindness
• Kidney disease
• Amputations
• Nervous system disorders

Adults who are overweight or obese (especially those over age 45) are at greatest risk. Other risk factors include:

• Being physically inactive

• Having a parent, brother, or sister with diabetes
• Giving birth to a baby weighing more than 9 pounds
• Having high blood pressure—140/90 or above—or being treated for high blood pressure
• Having HDL, or “good,” cholesterol below 35 mg/dL, or a triglyceride level above 250 mg/dL
• Having impaired fasting glucose (IFG) or impaired glucose tolerance (IGT) on previous testing
• Having a history of cardiovascular disease

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Give workers the good news that they can prevent Type 2 diabetes by following these tips:

• Get more physical activity.

• Physical activity lowers blood sugar and boosts your sensitivity to insulin.
• Get at least 30 minutes of exercise, 5 days a week.
• Brisk walking is an easy, low-cost way to get that physical activity.
• Eat foods that are high in fiber and low in saturated fats, trans fats, cholesterol, salt (sodium), and added sugars.
• Add more fiber to your diet; eat plenty of fruits and vegetables—especially raw.
• Choose whole-grain cereals and bread.
• Eat brown rice rather than white.
• Practice moderation in consuming alcohol.
• Lose extra weight.
• In one study, overweight adults who lost a modest amount of weight—5 percent to 10 percent of initial body weight—and exercised regularly reduced the risk of developing diabetes by 58 percent over 3 years. That would be only 10 to 20 pounds for someone weighing 200.

 

Diabetes doesn’t always have obvious signs, but inform your workers of these possible symptoms:

• Frequent urination
• Excessive thirst
• Extreme hunger
• Unusual weight loss
• Increased fatigue
• Irritability
• Blurry vision

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Encourage employees to get tested. Diabetes is treatable through diet, exercise, and medication—as long as workers know they have it.

• A simple blood test can determine if you have diabetes.
• Everybody should be tested by the time they reach middle age.
• If you haven’t been tested, get tested this month.

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Why It Matters

• More than 2 million Americans have diabetes, and more than one-quarter of those cases are undiagnosed.
• 7 percent of the American population has diabetes.
• More than 10 percent of men over age 20 and 9 percent of women over age 20 have diabetes.
• 90 percent to 95 percent of people who get diabetes are overweight, are physically inactive, or have a family history of diabetes.
• African Americans are almost twice as likely to have diabetes as whites, and Hispanics, and Native Americans are also at higher risk.