Diabetes is a serious disease that can lead to heart disease, stroke, blindness, kidney failure, pregnancy complications, and lower limb amputations, as well as death related to flu and pneumonia.

There are two main types:  Type 1 most often appears during childhood or adolescence; and Type 2 which affects 90–95 percent of people with diabetes and most often appears after age 40. Type 2 diabetes is linked to obesity and physical inactivity.

Approximately 88,000 Idaho adults have diabetes.

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The good news is that healthy lifestyle choices can greatly improve the quality of life for all those facing diabetes and pre-diabetes, the pre-cursor to the full-blown disease.

 

Deb Filler, a project manager in the Department of Health and Welfare’s Information Technology Division, is an example of how making the kind of healthy lifestyle changes recommended by the Idaho Diabetes and Prevention Control Program can really make a difference. After a lifetime of unhealthy eating and little physical activity, Filler found herself diagnosed with type-2 diabetes at age 45. Four years later, after adding daily exercise to her routine and changing her eating habits with the help of a diabetes educator, Filler is 92 pounds lighter and diabetes free. Read more.

 

Click here to listen to Deb tell her story.

 

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