from Diabetes Health:

World Diabetes Day Is This Saturday, November 14, 2009

Kristin Lund
Nov 12, 2009

World Diabetes Day is a global awareness campaign that's celebrated every year on November 14. The goal is to encourage action to further the prevention, treatment, and care of diabetes, as well as to support the United Nations Resolution on Diabetes. Landmarks and monuments across the world are lit in blue to create a united voice for diabetes awareness, and diabetes events are held around the globe. As of Monday evening, November 9, the World Diabetes Day website reports that 366 registered diabetes events are scheduled for November 14^th, in countries ranging from Saudi Arabia to Argentina to Morocco. In addition, 623 monuments are being lit in blue around the globe. More are sure to be added to the list as the day draws closer and closer.

The U.N. Resolution on Diabetes focuses world attention on the need to stop the diabetes epidemic through urgent action. Governments need to promote low-cost strategies that alter diet, increase physical activity, and modify lifestyles in order to reverse the diabetes tide. According to the California Diabetes Program (DIRC) website, "For governments, [World Diabetes Day] is a call to implement effective strategies and policies for the prevention and management of diabetes to safeguard the health of their citizens with and at risk for diabetes."

Advocacy

The DIRC and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have suggestions on how communities can help stop the epidemic, including increasing access to affordable healthy food and beverages. We need to advocate to:

1. Make healthy food and beverages more available and affordable and restrict availability of less healthy foods and beverages in public places such as schools, government buildings, libraries, and parks
2. Increase the number of grocery stores in low-income neighborhoods
3. Improve mechanisms for purchasing foods directly from local farms
4. Offer incentives to retailers to offer healthy food and beverage options
5. Limit advertising of less healthy foods and beverages
6. Encourage smaller portion sizes by food vendors
7. Discourage consumptions of sugar-sweetened beverages

Educate someone you know about the risks of diabetes

If you are unable to attend a World Diabetes Day event or to witness a monument or building being lit in blue, you can honor the day by educating someone else about the risks of diabetes. They are, according to the DIRC:

• Family history of diabetes
• Increasing age
• Obesity and a sedentary lifestyle
• Ethnicity
• History of diabetes during pregnancy or giving birth to a large baby
• Having high blood pressure or high cholesterol

Everyone can reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes by:

• Exercising
• Eating right
• Losing weight if needed
• Seeing your healthcare provider
• Getting your eyes checked