Summit County will be hosting a virtual event next week all about diabetes. With the COVID-19 pandemic ongoing, people who have diabetes or are considered pre-diabetic are at a higher risk of serious complications if they do contract the coronavirus.
With everything going on in the world at the moment, piling on worrying about diabetes might sound overwhelming for some people.
That’s exactly what Summit County Health Educator SaRene Brooks wants to avoid with the upcoming virtual open house event about diabetes prevention and management.
The event is scheduled for noon on Tuesday, December 8th. She says November was diabetes awareness month and the county wanted to put on an event that would benefit both people with and without the disease.
“It’s just a good opportunity to learn more about diabetes, learn what you can do to either manage diabetes or to help someone else who may have diabetes that you know,” says Brooks. “Just a good opportunity to get involved with the programs we offer at the health department.”
Brooks says diabetes is only becoming a bigger problem nationwide, including here in Utah. Over 10% of the population is diagnosed with either type 1 or type 2 diabetes and 35% are diagnosed with pre-diabetes. A pre-diabetes diagnosis indicates a high risk for eventually developing type 2 diabetes.
95% of diabetics have the type 2 version of the disease, which is when your body has a resistance to the natural insulin it produces and make regulating blood sugar levels hard. Type 2 diabetes can be caused by genetics, age, lifestyle choices like poor diet and exercise habits, or a combination of those factors.
Type 1 diabetes, on the other hand, is an autoimmune disease where people’s bodies can’t produce insulin themselves. Type 1 diabetes is typically diagnosed in children and teenagers, but can develop in adulthood too. The exact cause of type 1 diabetes is not known.
On top of the health risks already associated with the disease, Brooks says people who are diabetic or pre-diabetic are at a significantly higher risk for serious complications if they do end up catching COVID-19.
“With COVID, it brings on a whole other dynamic,” Brooks says.” People who have diabetes are at higher risk for more complications if they were to get COVID, and so that also brings on a whole other thing of learning more about managing your diabetes and the importance of staying safe and staying healthy and trying to avoid getting the coronavirus.”
Brooks says the stereotypes and stigmas around diabetes are, in large part, a misconception of what the disease actually is. She says the virtual open house is a good way to help friends and family who have loved ones with the disease become better advocates.
“Yes, there is a stigma that surrounds type 2 diabetes, even sometimes type 1 just because people don’t understand, they think ‘oh, that kid must have eaten way too much candy and now they have diabetes,’ which isn’t true at all,” she says. “With type 2, you know, lifestyle can really help with managing it, but it doesn’t necessarily mean that’s why they have it and that’s where that stigma comes in. We’d never want to jump to the conclusion that somebody brought it on themselves because it isn’t necessarily the case.”
The Summit County diabetes open house is at noon on Tuesday, December 8th. You can RSVP via the Summit County Health Facebook page or emailing Brooks at sbrooks@summitcounty.org.
