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You Might Be a Type 2 Diabetic If…

Linda von Wartburg

Mar 27, 2007

Are you among the six million Americans who have type 2 diabetes and don’t realize it? Take heed: March 27 is the 19th Annual Diabetes Alert Day, sponsored by the American Diabetes Association as a wake-up call to people who are completely in the dark about the fact that they are living with diabetes.

How do you figure out if you’re one of the six million? Take this simple quiz, add up your numbers, and you’ll know if you should get tested.

Do you always feel tired? Add 2 points
Do you drink more than ten glasses a day? Add 4 points
Do you urinate often, especially during the night? Add 4 points
Are you always hungry, even after eating? Add 2 points
Have you lost weight for unexplained reasons? Add 2 points
Is your vision blurry? Add 2 points
Do your feet feel numb or tingly? Add 3 points
Do you have wounds that won’t heal? Add 2 points
Do you have vaginal itching and urinary tract infections? Add 3 points
Do you experience difficulty with erection? Add 2 points
Does a family member have type 2 diabetes? Add 2 points
Is your waist measurement more than half your height? Add 2 points
Do you smoke? Add 4 points

If your total is more than seven, do the right thing and see your doctor. Type 2 diabetes is a disease that rewards the careful and is tough on the heedless. You’ve got every chance in the world to be healthy if you give diabetes the care it demands.

See our article “Diabetes Alert Day is March 27, 2007”.

If the above quiz isn’t to your taste, why not try out what the Germans have to offer. The German Institute of Human Nutrition Potsdam-Rehbrücke came up with an interactive test to evaluate your risk of developing type 2 diabetes, and they’ve kindly posted it online so you can take it yourself (http://drs.dife.de/test/init/en). A study of 9,729 men and 15,438 women aged 35 to 65 years was used to derive the test, which asks about age, waist circumference, red meat and whole grain consumption, coffee and alcohol drinking, and smoking. Then it calculates your risk, based upon your answers, of developing type 2 within the next five years. There’s a nice bar graph of your current risk, as well as suggestions for lowering your risk by making lifestyle changes.

According to the researchers, who published their findings in Diabetes Care, their risk score test is an accurate tool for identifying people at high risk for or with undiagnosed type 2 diabetes. It performs as well or better than previously published risk scores that rely on such invasive measurements as insulin resistance and impaired insulin secretion.

The risk score test is available online at http://drs.dife.de/test/init/en, so you can take the test yourself and see how you rate. (You’ll need to provide your height and waist measurements in centimeters, so be prepared with those figures about your figure. To convert from inches to centimeters, multiply by 2.54.)

Categories: Diabetes, Diabetes, Eye Care (Retinopathy), Insulin, Type 2 Issues

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Mar 27, 2007

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