November is Diabetes Awareness Month.

Currently, 11 million Canadians are living with diabetes or pre-diabetes.

Bruce Krentz, Health Promotion Coordinator with the Northern Health Region, explains what diabetes is and the importance of insulin.

“So its diabetes month all through the month of November and diabetes is a disease where your body either can’t produce insulin or can’t properly use the insulin that it produces. Insulin is a hormone that is produced by your pancreas and it helps you to process sugars so it helps you to regulate the amount of glucose or sugar in your blood. It has to be carefully monitored by your body generally but sometimes through other means. Too much sugar can do damage to your organs, blood vessels, nerves and all sorts of things. Eleven million Canadians are living with diabetes or pre-diabetes and there’s probably a good chance that it affects you or someone you know.”  

Diabetes can damage our organs, blood vessels, nerves, eyesight and more.

Krentz advises that if you are concerned about your potential for the disease or are already dealing with it, you can contact the regional diabetes program here in Thompson at 677-5-triple 3.

You can also go to northernhealthregion.com.