Knowing your diabetes ABCs

From the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, I’m Ira Dreyfuss with HHS HealthBeat.

There are ABCs in diabetes, and it’s good to know them. The director of the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, Dr. Griffin Rodgers, has some reasons:

“Adults with diabetes are nearly 2 times more likely to die from heart disease or stroke than a person without diabetes.”

The diabetes ABCs are tips for managing the disease. The A is for the A1C blood test that measures your blood sugar level over three months. The B is for blood pressure. The C is for cholesterol. And the S is for stopping smoking.

You can learn your ABCs from your health care provider, along with targets for what the numbers should be, and together you can work out a plan to reach your goals.

Learn more at healthfinder.gov.

HHS HealthBeat is a production of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. I’m Ira Dreyfuss.