Fit and Well Idaho: Diabetes Awareness Month

TWIN FALLS, Idaho (KMVT/KSVT) — November is Diabetes Awareness Month, bringing awareness to what diabetes is, and ways to try to prevent it.

That is the topic of this week’s Fit and Well Idaho Report.

There are two types of diabetes, type one and type two.

Type two is the most common type.

There are a lot of risk factors associated with type two, such as genetics or your lifestyle, and can be diagnosed at any age.

Type one is an auto-immune disorder, and is almost always diagnosed at a younger age, which means the patient will be on insulin for the rest of their life.

Type two, however, can have different treatment plans, such as insulin, or a change in diet, or exercise.

Madison Thompson, a registered nurse at St. Luke’s Magic Valley says everyone’s diabetes journey will be different.

“If you get told you have type two diabetes, it does not necessarily mean it is your fault,” said Madison Thompson, a registered nurse and a diabetes educator. “Cause the stigma around that is people are like oh I ate too much, or I wasn’t exercising, I wasn’t living how I should, so it’s my fault I got it, and that’s not necessarily true, like we talked about, genetics, there’s a bunch of different factors that can play in, so I think the biggest thing is if you know somebody that has diabetes, whether it’s type one or type two, be there support.”

She says type two is more common, meaning if there were ten people in a room, nine of them would have type two and one of them would have type one.

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