NIH Radio
National Diabetes Awareness Month Audio Report
Brief Description:
November is National Diabetes Awareness Month. This year, the National Diabetes Education Program (NDEP) is focusing on family health history as an important risk factor for developing type 2 diabetes.
Transcript:
Balintfy: During National Diabetes Awareness Month, the National Diabetes Education Program, or N-D-E-P, an initiative of the NIH and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, is raising awareness about the importance of preventing or delaying type 2 diabetes.
Rodgers: NDEP is focusing on family health history and gestational diabetes as important risk factors for developing diabetes.
Balintfy: Dr. Griffin Rodgers is the Director of the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases and a leader of the National Diabetes Education Program.
Rodgers: Many people with type 2 diabetes have one or more family members with the disease. NDEP is encouraging families to talk about their family's history of diabetes. Knowing your family health history is important because it provides people and their health care team with information about their risk for type 2 diabetes.
Balintfy: Risk for type 2 diabetes is also higher for women who have been diagnosed with diabetes during pregnancy, called gestational diabetes. Dr. Rodgers says those women also need to understand their risk.
Rodgers: Unfortunately, too many women think that once the baby is born, they are no longer at risk for developing diabetes. That's not the case.
Balintfy: Dr. Rodgers adds that for women who have had gestational diabetes their children are also at risk for future obesity and type 2 diabetes.
Rodgers: Therefore it's important to tell the child’s doctor about your history of gestational diabetes and take steps now to work with the entire family to maintain a healthy lifestyle that includes being more physically active and maintaining a healthy weight.
Balintfy: To find out if you are at risk for diabetes, and things you can do to prevent or delay type 2 diabetes, contact the National Diabetes Education Program. Visit the website www.YourDiabetesInfo.org, or call 1-888-693-NDEP; that's 1-888-693-6337. This is Joe Balintfy, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland.
About This Audio Report
Date: 11/02/2010
Reporter: Joe Balintfy
Sound Bite: Dr. Griffin Rodgers
Topic: diabetes, type 2 diabetes, diabetes awareness, National Diabetes Awareness Month, diabetes prevention, diabetes risk, gestational diabetes, family health history
Additional Info: National Diabetes Education Program Website
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