Call H & H Optical and Hearing Centre to RSVP for this event (403) 823-2020

Thursday May 8th, 2025 at 1pm – The Pioneer Trail Senior Centre

What causes prediabetes?

Our body uses blood sugar (glucose) for energy. The hormone insulin helps move the glucose into our cells to be used for energy. In prediabetes, insulin does not work as well as it used to.

For people with prediabetes, it is important to know that blood sugar levels are affected by what and when you eat. Tips for eating to manage blood sugars include:

1. Limit juices and drinks with added sugar: Choose whole fruit or flavor water with lemon or lime.

2. Eat 3 meals a day, with about 4 to 6 hours between meals. This can manage blood sugar and feelings of hunger.

3. Build your plate according to Diabetes Canada: Cover ½ your plate with vegetables. Cover ¼ of your plate with whole grain products or starchy vegetables. Put protein foods on the remaining ¼. Visit diabetes.ca/nutrition to find the healthy eating section with additional tips.

4. Choose foods with fibre: Aim for 30 grams or more per day.

Fibre slows down digestion and helps maintain stable blood sugar levels.

5. Choose unsaturated fats: Prediabetes increases the risk of developing heart disease. Replacing saturated fat in the diet with unsaturated fat can help decrease this risk.

Getting active to prevent prediabetes

Physical activity helps your body use insulin to lower blood sugar levels. Start slowly and build up to 30 minutes each day, 5 to 7 days a week. Brisk walking, swimming, cycling, or resistance training. Even a brief 10-minute walk after a meal has been shown to improve blood sugar levels

Excess body weight is a factor that may contribute to having prediabetes and the development of T2D. A reduction as little as 5% of initial weight can greatly reduce the risk of developing T2D.

Set achievable goals and take small, gradual steps to ensure that your approach is sustainable.

How to Act on Your Good Intentions

A deceased person can donate organs such as lungs, heart, kidneys and liver – and/ or tissues such as eyes, skin, bone and tendons. If you’re interested in leaving these gifts, please register your decision online at GiveLifeAlberta.ca or in person at a motor vehicle registry office. Donor cards don’t exist anymore; if you have signed the back of your Alberta Health card in the past, you are asked to join Alberta’s registry in one of the ways above.

Albertans are also encouraged to share their wishes with their loved ones. Generally, if someone is eligible to donate at the time of their death, the Give Life Alberta donation team will check the registry and inform their family about their donation decision. It will then be up to their family to decide if they’d like to proceed with donation or not. Many previous donor families have found that decision was easier if they knew what their loved one wanted.

Sharing Your Donation Decision

Donation discussions don’t need to be grim. The national award-winning Give Life Alberta public awareness campaign All the Ways portrays creative ways one could tell their family they’d like to be a donor; for example in the form of a cake, a card or even a t-shirt. Families could also spark the conversation by watching public awareness videos and real-life donor and transplant recipient stories on GiveLifeAlberta.ca

Constant Need for Organs and Tissues

While Alberta marked another record year in 2024 – with 317 deceased organ and tissue donors — there are more than 500 people waiting for life-saving transplants in our province. Last year, 33 people on the wait list died.

For contact information and to learn more about organ and tissue donation, visit https://www.albertahealthservices.ca/gf/Page18846.aspx

AHS wellness Article