One in five people in NL have diabetes, and according to Diabetes Canada, many people are still undiagnosed

Type 1 diabetes represents only about 5 to 10 percent of total cases, about 9,000 of 100,000 people in NL living with the disease.

Diabetes is a disease where your body can’t produce insulin, or properly use the insulin it does produce. Living with the disease is not easy but there are ways  to better manage it or even prevent it. On Bayfm’s the Plain Truth, the guest was Laura O’Driscoll, Senior Policy Manager with Diabetes Canada. She says while there are many misconceptions, there are three types of diabetes. Type one is where the body doesn’t produce insulin, type two is where the body doesn’t produce enough and there is also gestational, diabetes during pregnancy. 

O’Driscoll says Type 1 diabetes represents only about 5 to 10 percent of total cases, about 9,000 of 100,000 people in NL living with the disease. She says there are many people living with it, without knowing they have it, and about one in five people in NL have diabetes. 

O’Driscoll says they’re seeing many people getting diagnosed with Type 2 after ending up in emergency with severe complications like a wound that doesn’t heal, losing feeling in fingers or toes, vision loss or even blindness. She says it’s a symptom of lack of access to primary health care, including insulin pumps and  glucose monitoring. 

O’Driscoll says the NL Drug Prescription Program is income tested, meaning many in NL don’t meet the criteria, even though they have no private insurance.