DuBOIS — Are you or someone you know living with diabetes? According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, approximately one in 10 Americans has diabetes. While this chronic disease most often develops in people age 45 or older, more children, teens and young adults are also developing it.

According to experts in endocrinology at Penn Highlands Healthcare, some of today’s children and young adults are less active than previous generations leading to increasing rates of childhood obesity, which is a major risk factor for type 2 diabetes.

What is diabetes?

Our bodies use a hormone called insulin to help sugar from the foods we eat enter cells to produce energy. Diabetes is a metabolic disorder that results when the body does not produce enough insulin or does not effectively use the insulin produced to turn the sugar into energy. The sugar is then stored in the blood.

What are the symptoms?

Type 2 diabetes symptoms often develop over several years and can be present without being noticed. Sometimes, there are not any clear symptoms at all. Common symptoms of type 2 diabetes include:

• Frequent urination
• Thirst
• Hunger
• Extreme fatigue
• Blurry vision
• Slow healing cuts/bruises
• Weight loss
• Tingling, pain or numbness in the hands/feet

What are the risk factors?

People at risk for type 2 diabetes include:

• Those with prediabetes
• Being overweight
• Age 45 and older
• Having an immediate family member — parent or sibling — with type 2 diabetes
• Those who are not physically active at least three times a week
• Having had gestational diabetes during pregnancy or given birth to a baby who weighed nine pounds or more
• Having non-alcoholic fatty liver disease

Can diabetes be prevented?

Experts maintain that lifestyle changes have been proven to help prevent or delay type 2 diabetes. A healthy diet and regular physical activity are key to managing blood sugar.

For people with prediabetes, early intervention can often reverse it. Prediabetes is when the blood sugar levels are higher than normal but not high enough to be diagnosed with type 2 diabetes.

Managing diabetes can help avoid or delay health complications. If left untreated, diabetes can cause serious health problems, including heart disease, vision loss and kidney disease.

What are the treatments?

While lifestyle changes such as healthy eating, weight loss, exercise, stress management and smoking cessation help manage type 2 diabetes, some people require insulin injections to regulate their blood sugar levels. Regularly monitoring blood sugar levels using a glucose meter and finger-stick testing is crucial to understanding how medications and lifestyle changes are impacting blood sugar. In addition, medical checkups with a healthcare provider such as Family Medicine physician, endocrinologist or a diabetes educator can provide guidance and specialized care for managing diabetes and its potential complications.

To learn more, visit phhealthcare.org/diabetes.