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What is Diabetes?
Diabetes is a disease in which the body does not produce or properly use insulin. It affects people of all ages. Risk factors for diabetes are both hereditary and lifestyle-related.
Test Your Knowledge of Diabetes. Take the Diabetes Quiz
Risk Factors:
- Overweight
- Smoking
- Family history
- Inactivity
- Ethnicity (African-American, Native American, Hispanic, Asian, Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander)
- Diabetes in pregnancy
- High blood pressure, elevated cholesterol or heart disease
Click here to determine your risk for Diabetes
Symptoms of DiabetesTypes:
- Fatigue
- Frequent urination
- Increased thirst
- Blurred vision
- Unexplained weight loss
- Frequent infections
- Poor wound healing
- Dry, itchy skin
- Numbness and tingling in hands, legs or feet
Types of Diabetes:
What is prediabetes?
In prediabetes, blood glucose levels are higher than normal but not high enough to be defined as diabetes. However, many people with prediabetes develop type 2 diabetes within 10 years, states the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases. Prediabetes also increases the risk of heart disease and stroke. With modest weight loss and moderate physical activity, people with prediabetes can delay or prevent type 2 diabetes.
How can Southeast Missouri Hospital's Diabetes Center Help?
Diabetes affects all aspects of an individual's life - from what is eaten to choices about leisure activities. Southeast Missouri Hospital offers special diabetes services on both an inpatient and outpatient basis. At Southeast's Diabetes Center, people with diabetes learn from health care professionals that with proper diet, monitoring, exercise and, when necessary, medication, diabetes can be managed successfully.
Team members at the Diabetes Center include registered dieticians and registered nurses who are certified diabetes educators. Registered pharmacists, social workers, and fitness and wellness specialists are available to collaborate as part of the Diabetes Education Team.
Services offered through the Diabetes Center are accessed through physician referral.
Southeast Missouri Hospital’s Diabetes Center has received national recognition from the American Diabetes Association.
The ADA awarded the Diabetes Center with a three-year Education Recognition Certificate. Programs that achieve Recognition status have a staff of knowledgeable health professionals who provide comprehensive information about diabetes management to their clients.
The recognition process gives healthcare professionals a national standard by which to measure the quality of services they provide.
Certified Diabetes Educator Janet Stewart, a registered nurse, says the national recognition demonstrates that the Diabetes Center at 15 Doctors’ Park “meets national standards.”
The center is conveniently located in the same building as Endocrinology Associates of Southeast Missouri Hospital, featuring Endocrinologists Wu Wen, MD, PhD. The location provides for seamless care of patients with diabetes. Dr. Wen says the Diabetes Center plays a key role in helping people live with diabetes. The center helps educate people how to manage their disease and is an “integral part” of the overall treatment of patients with diabetes, he explains.
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