Joanne DeNovio, a registered nurse and certified diabetes educator with Ellis Medicine's Center for Diabetes, shares insight on living with diabetes and how working with a support system can make a big difference.
There are two types of diabetes - type one and type two. In both types, the difficulty is using food for energy.
"People who are diagnosed with diabetes don't take it serious," says Joanne DeNovio. "So as a diabetes educator, we work with patients to teach them how to take care of themselves, to learn to build confidence and the ability to live 24/7 with this disease that never goes away."
DeNovio says, "For some people, being diagnosed with diabetes seems to be the end of the world, but I find it is an opportunity to really look at your life and to start to see what you can do to use it as an opportunity to start to live healthy."
"So really to take the opportunity to get help that's out there," says DeNovio. "Teaming up with a diabetes educator or your medical doctor, making sure you follow up, getting the right tests and exams that are recommended by the American Diabetes Association, that's all important and necessary if you want to live well with diabetes."
