Kendall County Times

Illinois state Rep. Stephanie Kifowit urges residents to learn more about diabetes in order to protect themselves and their families from the deadly disease.

“Diabetes is the 7th leading cause of death in Illinois, but early detection and preventative measures can help save lives,” Kifowit recently posted to Twitter. Learn more about how to detect if you or your family is at risk.”

According to the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH), in 2019, diabetes was the seventh-leading cause of death (for people of all ages), after heart disease, cancer, stroke, accidents, chronic respiratory diseases, and Alzheimer’s. For people between the ages of 1 and 24 in Illinois, the four leading causes of death (in order) are accidents, homicide, suicide, and cancer.

With conditions like “prediabetes” also on the rise, Healthline.com is also preaching about the virtues of early detection.

“Prediabetes is a condition in which the body’s sugar levels are high, but not high enough to be diabetes,” the website says. “Around 70% of people with prediabetes eventually develop Type 2 diabetes, which can lead to blindness, kidney failure, heart disease, and other complications. To try to prevent prediabetes from developing into diabetes, individuals can cut sugar from their diet, exercise regularly, drink water, lose weight, stop smoking, eat fiber, get more vitamin D, and eat fewer processed foods.”