Qualitas Health practices are heavily advocating National Diabetes Week and urging patients with concerns or over the age of 40 to come in to get assessed by their GP about their risk for diabetes. Your GP can check your physical and mental wellbeing.

Diagnosis of diabetes can save lives. Too many people are being diagnosed with diabetes too late, because they simply aren’t recognising the early signs. Many people live with Type 2 diabetes for up to seven years before diagnosis. In fact, there are over 500,000 Australians living with silent undiagnosed form of the disease, which can have serious health ramifications such as blindness, kidney damage, amputation, heart attack and stroke.

Learning the 4T’s for diabetes could just save your life, or the life of a loved one. The 4T’s are: Toilet, are you going a lot? Tired – unexplained or excessive fatigue? Thirsty – do you have a thirst that can’t be quenched? Thinner – have you experienced sudden or unexplained weight loss?

Yet this year’s campaign by Diabetes Australia focuses on the stigma attached to diabetes and how four in five people living with diabetes have experienced this. This is a concerningly high number affecting many Australians which may impact those suffering with the disease on their ability to manage the disease or their feelings, that they cant speak freely about their experiences. If you would like to share with others, join the Heads Together forum on Tuesday 13 July from 7pm – 8.30pm. It will be Australia’s biggest online discussion about mental health and diabetes stigma. Register to attend on the Facebook event page https://bit.ly/3hXcDdm

NDW2021 #generalpracticeaustralia #diabetes